Academy of Country Music Reveals New Diversity Task Force
The Academy of Country Music has revealed a new diversity task force that it has established to take a look at the issues women and minority groups face in country music.
Academy of Country Music CEO Pete Fisher shared the news of the new task force with Billboard. The task force will take a look at the "barriers and biases" that impact women and other underrepresented groups in the genre. According to Billboard, the task force will provide recommendations on areas where both the Academy and the broader country music business can make improvements.
The announcement comes just weeks after the 2019 ACM Awards nominees were announced, with women entirely absent from the biggest category of the night, Entertainer of the Year. Industry insiders have pointed to the lack of radio airplay for women in country music as a prime reason for that, noting that it is impacting female artists across the board.
Reba McEntire is returning to host the ACM Awards in 2019, and she even commented on it publicly after she announced the nominees on CBS This Morning on Feb. 20.
"It doesn’t make me very happy, because we’ve got some very talented women out there who are working their butts off,” she stated.
Fisher tells Billboard that he, too, wants to see more fairness in the process.
“We want our organization to represent all of the great music and talent that is in country music," he says.
The Academy of Country Music expects to announce more details about its diversity task force later in March.
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