P!nk responds to Grammy pres’s suggestion for women to ‘step up’
Recording Academy president Neil Portnow ruffled a few feathers earlier this week, when he told Variety magazine that women need to 'step up' in order to gain recognition in the music industry.
The industry big wig suggested that women do not receive their due recognition due to a lack of effort, rather than a systematic preference and acceptance of creative male artists.
'I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls—who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on the executive level—to step up,' he said.
— P!nk (@Pink) January 29, 2018
This statement was met with raised eyebrows and major criticism.
Recording artist P!nk, who has been in the industry for over twenty years, penned a note to the Recording Academy president detailing her thoughts on the matter.
'Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’—women have been stepping since the beginning of time,' she wrote.
'Stepping up, and also stepping aside. Women OWNED music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT. And every year before this.'
'When we celebrate and honour the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair,' she finished.
Mic drop would have been a suitable addition to the end of that note, we think.
