Unlike the aborted Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the Grammy Awards looks like it will go ahead after a direct agreement was reached with the striking writers union.
In a statement, Grammy head Neil Portnow says that he has had a positive meeting with the WGA President Patric Verrone and that the music industry and the writers are all working for the same result.His statement explains that "On January 8, 2008, I met with WGA President Patric Verrone to outline these and other facts. During that meeting, I explained that the music industry had for more than a decade been fighting to obtain fair and just compensation for the original digital content of its members and thus, of course, supported the WGA in its efforts to obtain like results for its own members. I outlined in great detail the scope, reach, and vital importance of Grammy Week and the 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast not only to The Recording Academy, but to the worldwide music industry and creative community as a whole. I explained how those in the music and creative industry depend upon the annual proceeds from the Grammy Awards telecast to fund a whole variety of worthwhile programs such as our MusiCares® Foundation, which literally saves lives and offers millions of dollars of aid to music people in need, our Grammy Foundation®'s programs to advance the importance and role of music and the arts in our schools and in society, and our efforts in Washington, D.C. to advocate for the rights and needs of our music community. In short, no awards show touches more lives of those in need than the Grammys".
"The Academy is similarly pleased and gratified that AFTRA and AFM, the two unions that have long been the only ones with jurisdiction and representation of the musical talent on the show, stand alongside us in our efforts to present the 50th Annual Grammy Awards at a level that millions of music fans around the world expect and deserve."
"We also want to underscore that the Grammy Awards telecast is now, and will always be, a union show. More than 700 proud union members work for months to create the music industry's gold standard of awards shows. That includes approximately 250 AFM members, 150 AFTRA members, and 2 WGA members.
"In closing, let me reiterate our desire to bring this matter to a positive resolution working with the WGA. And to slightly alter a famous saying in our world, 'The Show will go on.' We will take whatever action is necessary to ensure that a program so vital to our industry, artists, charitable beneficiaries, and the great city of Los Angeles is held as planned. Accordingly, all preparations by The Academy for our milestone 50th Annual Grammy Awards remain in full-swing."
The Grammy Awards will be held on February 10 in Los Angeles.
