The Recording Academy has appointed Tina Tchen, who served as chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, to establish an independent taskforce to address diversity in the music industry, Billboard reports.
Comprising up to 20 members, the group will focus on identifying “the various barriers and unconscious biases faced by underrepresented communities throughout the music industry and, specifically, across Recording Academy operations and policies”, the academy said in a statement.
The move follows criticism over the academy’s response to the lack of female representation at the 2018 Grammy awards. Out of 86 categories, only 17 awards were won by female artists, with just one – best new artist Alessia Cara – featured in the television broadcast. Recording Academy president Neil Portnow suggested that women artists needed to “step up” in order to achieve recognition. He later apologised for his remarks and announced the formation of a taskforce.
Portnow said of Tchen’s appointment: “The fact that she lacks business ties to the music industry ensures her objectivity as chair. In this moment, the Recording Academy can do more than reflect what currently exists; we can help lead the industry into becoming the inclusive music community we want it to be – a responsibility that the board and I take seriously. Tina Tchen is an accomplished advocate for women and impact-oriented leader versed in convening disparate stakeholders for a common purpose.”
Tchen worked as part of the Obama administration for its eight-year duration, serving as an assistant to the president, executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, and as chief of staff to the first lady. Currently a partner with the law firm Buckley Sandler LLP in Chicago, Tchen was also instrumental in establishing the Time’s Up Legal Defence Fund, which provides legal support to victims of sexual harassment, assault and abuse in the workplace. She previously worked with the Recording Academy on the White House’s In Performance televised music series.
“More than any individual person, the most important thing is that we need to look systemically at these issues and work together on systemic change,” Tchen told Billboard. “It takes everyone in a company, everyone in an institution, everyone in an industry to pull together to make these changes happen.”
