How Grammy Award Winners Are Chosen

The 2022 edition of the Grammys is about to arrive on Sunday, April 3 and with it the euphoria of music lovers to know if their favorite artists, albums or songs have started will take the most important gramophone in the world. Despite the fact that the result seems to be the most important thing, the doubt about how the winners are chosen and who vote for them is no longer just a curiosity but part of the democratic process for the credibility of the Academy.

Knowing the outcome requires a whole multi-step process that helps voters first propose, select and ultimately vote. The people who fulfill all these requirements are no strangers to the music industry, since composers, singers, sound and mixing engineers, producers, among others, participate in it, being something much more equitable for the recognized and clearer to the public who for years has followed the most important award within of the category, despite the great scandals that have persecuted them during their existence.

Members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences are divided into 3 different categories, which are by memberships: “Voting Member”, “Member Professional” and “Grammy Member U”. Voters are responsible for choosing who are the nominees and the consequent winner in each of its 86 categories. It is essential that you be part of the industry since the person who is part of the Grammys must have at least 12 singles distributed commercially and with verifiable credits. These credits, according to the data on your digital portal, must be valid for five years from when you applied.

To choose their nominees and then select the winners in this 2022 installment, which will be announced in a couple of hours, voting members must have active status in the Academy. The works are then sent to members who vote in specific genres, i.e.: alternative, pop, rap, rock, regional Mexican and more, just to mention a few of the most popular ones.

A second group of members are responsible for evaluating the composition, arrangement, engineering and production works of the year. The third group is responsible for evaluating the works classified by the Academy as: immersive audio, packaging, remixed recording, historical, album notes and at the end they are announced to the expected nominees that they are the result of these first processes that lead to the first round of “winners”.

This is followed by a second and final round of voting in which the winner of each of the categories is chosen:

“After nominations have been determined and announced, voting members of the Academy vote in up to ten categories in up to three camps in the gender fields plus the four categories of the General Camp to determine the winners. To ensure the quality of voting, members are instructed to vote only in their fields of expertise,” can be read on the Grammys website.

After the second round of voting, these results are computed by the independent firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Although it may sound logical, the winner is the one who gets the most votes in that second round without counting or accumulating those from the first round.

It is possible that there will be ties and in this case, those who scored the highest are considered the winners of that category. So there is no longer a third round of voting, as happens in another type of ceremony aimed at recognizing artistic talent in its different branches.

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