Pink hits back at Grammys president for saying women need to 'step up'

'Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’ — women have been stepping since the beginning of time,' says Pink

Pink performed at the awards and lost out in the pop solo performance category to Ed Sheeran (Getty Images for NARAS)

Pink has condemned Grammys boss Neil Portnow after he argued women need to “step up” in the music industry.

The Recording Academy president was pressed about criticism men ruled the 60th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. Just one female - Alessia Cara for best new artist - won a gong during the televised ceremony.

Responding to the gender imbalance in the results, Portnow told Variety: “I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls - who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on the executive level - to step up”.

Pink, who performed at the awards and lost out in the pop solo performance category to Ed Sheeran, released a handwritten statement addressing Portnow’s controversial explanation of why there were few female winners this year.

“Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’ - women have been stepping since the beginning of time,” she said. “Stepping up, and also stepping aside. Women OWNED music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT.”

“And every year before this. When we celebrate and honour the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair.”

Ahead of Sunday’s show, presenter Janelle Monaé shared a statistic from a University of Southern California study on Twitter demonstrating the high proportion of male nominees at the Grammys.

“A total of 90.7 per cent of nominees between 2013 and 2018 were male, meaning just 9.3 per cent were women. #TimesUp #Grammys," it read.

Nine-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow also hit out at Portnow’s response, saying: “I wish the Grammys would return to female/male categories.”

“Who will young girls be inspired by to pick up a guitar and rock, when most every category is filled with men? I’m not sure it is about women needing to ‘step up’, (as said by the male in charge).”

Out of the 86 Grammy Awards handed out on Sunday, just 17 of them were given to women or female-fronted bands. Lorde was the only female nominated artist for best album and was also the only act in the category who was not asked if she wanted to perform solo on the night.

The hashtag “Grammys so male” has gained traction on social media as people have condemned the major awards ceremony for its lack of gender diversity.