Kelly Clarkson has joined the growing chorus of pop stars speaking out against Recording Academy CEO/President Neil Portnow in the wake of his ill-received comments at Sunday’s 2018 Grammy Awards in which he suggested that women need to “step up” if they want to achieve greater success at the annual awards.
“A confused soul said women need 2 ‘step up’ their A-game if they wanna start winning & u know what I’m not even mad at ignorance,” Clarkson tweeted late Tuesday night (Jan. 30). Clarkson’s comment followed heated tweets from rapper Iggy Azalea on Tuesday, which followed fiery posts from Katy Perry, Pink, Halsey and Charli XCX among others.
The controversy was kicked off after Portnow addressed criticism of the Grammys’ lack of female winners following the awards, stating, ”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.” Portnow said on Tuesday (Jan. 30) that his comments were “taken out of context,” adding that he “wasn’t as articulate as he should have been.”
Clarkson wasn’t done, either. She said she wanted to “kindly point u n the direction of my A-game album I recently dropped #MeaningOfLife #UrWelcome.”
A confused soul said women need 2 “step up” their A-game if they wanna start winning & u know what I’m not even mad at ignorance. I’m just gonna kindly point u n the direction of my A-game album I recently dropped #MeaningOfLife #UrWelcome I Jenna Dewan’d that shit y’all #stepup
— Kelly Clarkson (@kelly_clarkson) January 31, 2018
