Each year, the Recording Academy’s Grammy nominations find new ways to disappoint and frustrate. Last week’s announcement of the 2022 nominees was no exception: Among more garden-variety missteps like, say, an all-male Best Rock Album category, were the flagrant nominations of Louis C.K.’s Sincerely Louis CK for Best Comedy Album and Brian Hugh Warner (aka Marilyn Manson) for his work on Kanye West’s Donda. The Academy has—seemingly incidentally—addressed one of those wrongs, removing Warner’s name from West’s Best Rap Song nomination for his Jay-Z-featuring Donda track “Jail” (as The New York Times points out).
Warner is credited as a songwriter on Donda’s “Jail, pt. 2,” but not on “Jail”—it would appear he was erroneously included among the Best Rap Song nominees for the latter track, and the Academy have simply revised their nomination to reflect the correct collaborators. He remains nominated in the Album of the Year category for his contributions to Donda.
Warner, of course, is currently under investigation in connection with allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence—his Hollywood home was raided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department just this week in the course of the investigation. More than a dozen women, including actors Evan Rachel Wood and Esmé Bianco, have accused the musician of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Warner has denied the allegations.
When asked about C.K.’s and Warner’s nominations, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told TheWrap, “We won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration. We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria.
“What we will control is our stages, our shows, our events, our red carpets. We’ll take a look at anyone who is asking to be a part of that, asking to be in attendance, and we’ll make our decisions at that point. But we’re not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on.”
Trevor Noah will host the 64th Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Jan. 31, 2022.
