was not listed for Album of the Year. Hadn’t Shameika made it clear that Apple has beyondApple has long been too cool to care about traditional industry standards of success. But to her surprise, she was actually pleased with her Best Rock Performance nomination, which helped make history: It was the first all of the category’s nominees were women.
. “I felt really nice for a second.” She even made a t-shirt with each of their names on it, planning to send a selfie to her most prolific fan site.knew her celebratory feeling was genuine, the more she thought about it, what seemed like progress was actually the Recording Academy’s usual hypocrisy in disguise. “I felt like this is exactly what they want me to do:,”the singer said.
But the issue is much, much bigger than Kesha. Apple hasn’t forgotten that we still don’t have the full story of then Recording Academy President Deborah Dugan was placed on administrative leave just a few days before this year’s show. “I’m waiting to hear more about what Deborah Dugan has to say because that all reeks to me,” Apple said.
Dugan’s appointment was a rare real sign of progress for the Grammys. It’s unclear how successful she would have been in changing things up, as her tenure only lasted a matter of months. But Dugan was least an improvement to her predecessor, Neil Portnow—the one who