Harvey Mason Jr. on 2025 Grammy nominations: 'I think they did a great job'

The Recording Academy recently announced that 66% of its voting members have joined since 2019, when the academy adopted a peer-reviewed membership model. Harvey Mason Jr., the academy's CEO, says the change in membership can be seen in this year's nominations.

album of the Year nominees include three albums from genres not normally rotated in this top category – André 3000's New Blue Sunwhich is also nominated for Best Alternative Jazz album. Charli XCX's Bratwhich is also nominated for Best Dance/Electronic album. and Beyoncé Cowboy Carterwhich is also nominated for Best Country album.

Mason took time on the eve of the nominations reveal to speak Bulletin board regarding nominations. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

In a press release, you were quoted as saying “These nominations reflect the work of an electorate that is more representative of the music community than ever before.” Can you point to a specific nomination that illustrates this point?

I would start by looking at the General Field [which includes the Big Four categories – record, album and song of the year plus best new artist]. The range of genres in these categories – country, rap, alternative jazz – is a direct reflection of the diversity of our members.

66% of this year's voters are young [since 2019]. More than 3,000 women voters have joined. People of color are now almost 40%. That's a big difference from where we were about four or five years ago. Certainly, tastes, ears, results will change.

In July, I sent a very direct message to our constituents. I asked them to vote with a purpose. Vote with intention; vote with your ears. And I am really very pleased. Looks like they sure did.

I was a little surprised that the Beatles were nominated for Record of the Year for 'Now and Then'.

You can never be surprised when the Beatles show up. When I was a candidate many moons ago [for Dreamgirls, nominated for best pop compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual media]I thought I won that joke and then the Beatles came along and took it away [for Love, featuring music remixed for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name].

For me, the AI ​​is kind of the interesting part [of ‘Now and Then’]. It's a great example of how AI has definitely boosted some creativity as opposed to creating a fake voice. This was a nice use of AI that I felt made a lot of sense and I'm glad it was suggested.

Beyoncé was snubbed in the nominations at the CMA Awards, a very respectable show, and leads here with 11 nominations for the same album. How do you reconcile this?

I would reconcile that by saying that our voters really resonated with the music. And it wasn't just one group of voters. Because of our 10-3 rule, voters must declare [no more than] three fields you're going to vote on so you don't just wander through the entire poll. Country voters voted Beyoncé into the country. Different voters voted for her in rap – she is nominated for best melodic rap performance. They are completely different subsets of voters. Well, I think it's really impressive.

Jack Antonoff co-produced two album of the Year nominated albums (Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet and Taylor Swift Department of Tormented Poets). He is the only producer with two albums in this category, but is not nominated for producer of the year, non-classical. How do you explain that?

Yes, it's definitely different. I can't speak for the voters. Everyone votes in their own way, but it's something to see.

This is the second year in a row that you have had eight nominees in each of the four major categories. Before that, it was 10 for two years and before that it was eight for three years. Do you like eight?

I do it because I think it gives us a chance to celebrate more music than five [nominees, which was the norm before 2018]; more different genres and to hear from many different artists. I think maybe to go much higher than that, it starts to get confusing, too many for the voters to choose from and maybe the category is reduced. We're trying to find the sweet spot, the right number. We will continue to look at it.

André's album 3000 wasn't a big hit — it spent two weeks on the Billboard 200 last December — but it's up for album of the year.

Hopefully that reflects the fact that they listened to the music and aren't basing it on chart positions or fan reactions or stream numbers. It really depends on the quality of the music. You never know what will resonate from year to year. This year, those eight albums resonated with our voters and I think they did a great job.

Cowboy Carter it's the only country album for album of the year and even Beyoncé wrote it on Instagram“This isn't a Country album, it's a Beyoncé album.” We don't have a Chris Stapleton or a Kacey Musgraves or a Lainey Wilson in there. It seems to me that you are permanently a little light on the country. When you see the nominations every year, do you think, 'We need to work on this'?

I say this about a lot of things when I see the nominations – more so when I see the numbers of members voting. We are always working on it. The membership team is working very hard making subscription adjustments to reflect the music community. Yes, we are working on balancing different species and will continue to do this work. But you're not wrong.