Chorney had been on a first draft of the vote among the best American roots song, for her “Bored.” That version of the list, which circulated outside the Recording Academy in the days before the nominations were announced on November 23, also had only eight places in the top four categories; the day before that announcement, the Grammys’ board approved increasing that number to 10, adding artists like West and Taylor Swift. When the final nomination list came out, Chorney had been replaced by another artist, although some news outlets online still listed her name.
This week, the Grammys added Chorney again. She was removed, the academy said, because accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the awards’ longtime partner in vote collection and tabulation, had “audited” the votes she had received. and the academy decided to remove her name from the ballot.
“That audit has now been completed and Ms Chorney’s recording has been reinstated,” the academy said in a statement. “We apologize for any inconvenience this delay has caused, but ensuring the integrity of our voting process is paramount.” It offered no explanation for how the early nomination list, which included Chorney’s name, was released.
Why was the audit performed? In an interview on Wednesday, Chorney said Harvey Mason Jr., the academy’s director, told her in a phone call this week that she had been “flagged” for her past public comments about the Grammys. In 2011, her “Emotional Jukebox” was a surprise nominee for best Americana album. She was criticized at the time for “using the system” — admitting that she used the Grammys’ website to promote herself, a common and allowed tactic at the time — and said she even received death threats. She helped make a film about the experience titled “When I Sing.”
Days after this year’s nominations were announced, the Grammys came under scrutiny for giving nominations to figures like Manson and Louis CK, the comedian who admitted to sexual misconduct in 2017. In a recent interview with The Wrap, Mason said that Grammy eligibility is based only on the recordings submitted for the awards, not on an artist’s past behavior. “We won’t look back on people’s history,” he said.