Grammys 2022: Louis C.K, Dr Luke & Marilyn Manson Among Nominees

The list of nominees for the 2022 Grammy Awards has been released, and included the unexpected news that Louis C.K, Dr. Luke and Marilyn Manson are up for awards. The decision has been a surprise to music fans, particularly as this year has seen well-publicised efforts to shake up the nominating and decision process following boycotts and outrage from artists such as The Weekend last year.

The decision

Harvey Mason. Jr, the CEO and President of the Recording Academy has been outspoken in his defence of this situation, explaining to TheWrap that people’s ‘personal history’ is not taken into consideration when material is submitted for nomination. He stated that just because the men in question have admitted and are currently facing allegations of sexual misconduct, the group does not restrict people who submit their work. However, Mason did add that just because someone may be nominated, it does not automatically mean they will be invited to the Grammys award ceremony. He elaborated:

“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. If it is, they can submit for consideration.

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.”

Louis C.K and Marilyn Manson – why is this controversial?

Louis C.K admitted sexual misconduct back in 2017 after multiple women came forward against his behaviour. He released a statement apologising and explaining in a response:

I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.

These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.

I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.

I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.

There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.

I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.

The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of “Better Things,” “Baskets,” “The Cops,” “One Mississippi,” and I Love You, Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.

I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.

I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.

While the comedian has spent some time away from the public eye, C.K. released an album titled Sincerely Louis CK, which has been nominated for Best Comedy Album this year.

The controversy surrounding Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) has been in the public consciousness since earlier in 2021, when multiple women accused the musician of sexual assault and abuse. Since then, he has effectively been “cancelled”, being dropped by his record label, and shunned by platforms in general while the claims are investigated in the multiple lawsuits that are currently happening.

Manson has however continued to work with Kanye West, on the album DONDA, which is up for Album of the Year and obtaining a Best Rap Song nomination for the track Jail, on which he was a contributor. Kanye included Manson to make an appearance in his livestream ‘Sunday Service’ event recently, much to the shock of fans and music lovers who reacted negatively.

History repeats at the Grammys

Unfortunately, this year’s nominations are nothing new for the Grammys in recent memory. It is well-known that Chris Brown viciously beat Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammys, with the world seeing the photographic evidence, and Brown was subsequently found guilty of assault. However, in the years that followed, he was back as though nothing had happened, most notably at the 2012 ceremony, where he won Best R&B Album, and performed twice – casting a sprinkling of doubt over the present-day statement about the ceremony invites.

Interestingly enough, LouderSound noted that CEO Harvey Mason Jr. had previously written and produced songs for Chris Brown. In the years since, when not performing at the Grammys, Brown has been found guilty of assaulting a fan in 2013, of assault and battery with a deadly weapon in 2016, he was accused of rape in 2019, and recently investigated for beating a woman at a residence in LA in June 2021.

Even as recently as last year, the Record of the Year nomination went to music producer Dr. Luke (real name Luke Gottwald) for his work under the pseudonym Tyson Trax with singer Doja Cat. In 2014, singer Kesha began to proceed through an awfully distressing series of legal battles with the producer, accusing him of sexual assault and abuse, requesting that she could simply have their working agreement dissolved legally – all she was asking for was not to be forced to work with him any longer. There have been legal developments with this case up to the present-day, with it still not being fundamentally resolved. Luke Gottwald has been nominated for three awards this year for the 2022 ceremony.

View the full list of 2022 nominees here.

Also by Michelle Sciarrotta: