It is the first major music awards show to make such a commitment.
The organizer of the music industry’s Grammy Awards shared a contract addendum Tuesday that lays out steps it will take to increase the diversity of the on-stage and backstage talent involved in its 64th annual ceremony in January, making it the latest major entertainment awards show to pledge change after years of criticism for failing to include and celebrate enough artists of color. The concept of an inclusion rider was first introduced by Stacy Smith, founder of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, in a 2014 op-ed. It gained wider attention when actress Frances McDormand highlighted the term in her 2018 Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech, but only a handful of productions have adopted one as of yet.
