GRAMMYAWARDS
44 BILLBOARD • DECEMBER 7, 2019
During the past decade, singer-songwriter Asiahn has performed and written with ASIAHN^
I went into the Los Angeles Recording Academy chap-Dr. Dre and others. She’s at work on a new artists like Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lopez, album slated for a spring release.
ter earlier this year to meet some of the staff and get educated on the whole process. We happened to be having these great conversations about diversity and how they’re wanting younger, up-and-coming artists to be a part of the academy. They said, “We checked you out, and you’re actually eligible to become a member.
We would love for you to become a voting member.” I was like, “Really? OK, this is rad!”GHENEAALEX^
voter but no stranger to the world of the awards: Alex has already attended the ceremony several Mix engineer/producer Ghenea is a first-time non-classical, winner in 2018 and 2019), and His father is veteran pop engineer Serban Ghenea (a best engineered recording,
name in pop music, remixing hits by Nick Jonas featuring Mac Miller) and mixing blackbear’s times. (“I got to meet Taylor Swift,” he says. still-rising 2019 smash “Hot Girl Bummer.”“She’s very nice.”) Alex has made his own (“Levels”) and Ariana Grande (“Into You,”
I think winning a Grammy Award is one of the highest honors in music. It’s the people that actually work on the music that are voting, versus just people on the outside. So it’s basically your peers who are selecting what they think is the best each year. I just wanted to be able to participate in the process.
Grammys honor people is through the actual quality The most important thing for me is that the way the of the work, in terms of creativity and the way boundaries are pushed. I would just
hope that people would try to continue to honor the best work and not turn it into a popularity contest. I want to
good, that are pushing boundaries either sonically or in the way they’re written, melodically or structurally.Because I am a mix engineer and producer, I think of I kind of grew up around music my whole life. vote on things that I actually believe are
the actual technical aspects and how the song was written, more than just whether it was a really good song or a lot of people liked it.to the Grammys as an up-and-coming musician or producer, to get to feed off the energy of all the acts. I’d definitely say it has been cool to actually go
It’s very inspiring as a younger person to be able to go to an event like that, go back home and continue to work on records with added inspiration. —AS TOLD TO ANDREW UNTERBERGERso far away, like it was this sacred community. But we, as artists, have way more access to it than we think we do. I love how they were doing so much The academy used to seem
more outreach this past year, to educate everyone on how the system works and how we can actually be a part of this whole thing. They did a really great job recruiting with diversity in mind,
and letting the members who are eligible know, like, “This is how the academy works —like to join? Here, let me sit down and give you this rundown.”The Grammys can become would you
somewhat of a popularity contest.
I think there were some very deserving projects this year that I actually listened to and was a fan of, but there were also some I found just by looking at the shortlist and listening to their
a younger perspective. Plus, I was on some of those lists as well, and I was like, “Oh, hey now, might as well vote for myself!” (music before I voted. I’m hoping to give a more unbiased opinion about music. I just want to give Asiahn was eligible for best
R&B album, song and performance nominations.ing with people about The Recording Academy and helping put other queer artists of color in front of people’s faces. At least we have someone standing in the room now saying, “Hey, this project is dope, In becoming a voting member, I have been speak-)
and we need to look into this.” We still have a lot of walls we have to break down within the industry, but we’re getting somewhere. We just got to have our advocates in there. Not only for each other, but just for great music in general. It’s still about the music at the end of the day. No one should have a bias against
an artist because they’re LGBTQ. I’m there to make of these things I’ve gone through as an LGBTQ artist have not happened in vain.”sure identity doesn’t get in the way of giving artists a fair chance at success. I want to make sure that all —AS TOLD TO STEPHEN DAW GHENEA: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. ASIAHN:^ CHILD.“ No one should have a bias against an artist
because they’re LGBTQ.”
“ I want to vote on things that I actually
believe are good.”