LOS ANGELES — Music executive Candace Newman has spent 18 years in the music industry, including with Live Nation as director of touring. Despite all her success, she will tell you it hasn’t been easy as a Black woman executive in music.
“Just being overlooked for opportunities,” Newman said. “Not being seen as competent and capable enough to travel and execute on a large scale.”
She had also never been a member of the Recording Academy, the group which oversees the Grammys. That changed last year when she joined the organization after being invited.
“Being a part of that and attached to that, there’s so much pride because of the legacy and history of the Recording Academy,” Newman explained. “It was something I was super excited to be involved in and to become a member and something I plan to continue to sustain and maintain and grow my network through.”
Of the academy’s new 2,710 invitees in 2021, nearly half were women or people of color. Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said they were intentional about inclusion.
“If a certain percent of people is making country music, we want to make sure there’s country representation,” Mason Jr. said. “If there’s a group of people making Black music, we also have to match that number. The body of the academy has to equally represent the type of people, the race, the age, the gender of people creating the music.”
Today, Newman herself is doing her part to help the next generation of minority women in music with her company called Live Out Live, where she mentors students in the industry while providing artists performance opportunities.
“I want to continue to inspire and empower them, by my work, by my leadership, by the impact I’m trying to make,” Newman said.