The 'Old Town Road' hitmaker is among the new members of the Recording Academy as the organization vows to fight lack of diversity ahead of the 93rd Oscar Awards.
- July 10, 2020
AceShowbiz - Lil Nas X and Victoria Monet lead a diverse class of more than 2,300 music professionals invited to join America's Recording Academy.
The 21-year-old rapper, who has won two of the Academy's Grammy Awards, expressed his delight at joining the organisation as a new member in a statement posted on Grammy.com.
He said, "I'm so honoured to join the Recording Academy's membership class of 2020. I'm so excited to officially be a part of the family with so many legends in the industry, and to be a new voice to represent other music creators like me out there."
Other musicians listed in the class - which is 48 per cent female, 21 per cent African-American, and eight per cent Hispanic - include Victoria Monet, Kiana Lede, Gunna, and Le'Andria Johnson.
In a roundtable with some of the new honourees, existing member John Legend shared, "We can literally be the change that we want to see in the academy. We still need to (be) more diverse... Rather than throw up our hands and say 'it's going to be a stodgy, old white guy organization,' we're the people that are going to change it."
The class of 2020 is nearly twice as large as 2019's, with Recording Academy chiefs determined to transform its membership and boost the profile of previously underrepresented groups.
