Dancehall News
According to the CEO of the Grammy, there is a slither of hope Dancehall could get its own category.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. indicated that he wouldn’t rule out Dancehall becoming a category at the Grammy Awards.
Mason made the point during a World Music Views interview after he was asked whether Reggae and Dancehall could be split into separate categories.
“It is possible, only because anything is possible. When it comes to categories, it depends on who submits,” Mason hinted. He followed up with the template stakeholders and gatekeepers could use to justify Dancehall getting its own category at the Grammy Awards.
“If the Dancehall community wanted its own category, and they felt so strongly about it and the stakeholders in that category felt like ‘we wanna have our own category’, they should submit it. Once they have the right language in the proposal, the good rationale as to why this is important, get signers on the proposal… get the right signers, get the justification, and you will have a new category.”
But Mason’s explanation contradicted a statement made by Grammy-nominated producer and music executive Cristy Barber in March of this year. When she claimed it was doubtful that Dancehall would ever get its own Grammy Awards category. And that stakeholders and gatekeepers should focus on preventing the “Best Reggae Album” field, which represents all Jamaican music, from being taken away.
Barber also hinted that history is not in Dancehall’s favor. Because the request to split two genres into separate categories has been made many times before but has never been considered.
Barber also said she did not see Dancehall as a separate Grammy category ever happening.