The Hamilton in D.C. hosts the annual Grammys on the Hill event on Tuesday night.
This year, all they wanna do is have some fun with this year’s musical honoree Sheryl Crow.
“She’s won a bunch of Grammys, but she has also been very active around fighting for the rights of music people and music creators for the last 25 years,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told WTOP.
Crow is one of the most successful singer/songwriters of our time with a string of hits: “All I Wanna Do,” “Strong Enough,” “A Change Will Do You Good,” “My Favorite Mistake,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Every Day is a Winding Road,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “Soak Up the Sun,” “Anything But Down” and “Picture.”
“Any record about having fun is gonna be my favorite, so that was a big one, we sang along to that record … driving in my car with my friends,” Mason Jr. said.
“‘If It Makes You Happy’ is definitely a favorite. I sang that one too many times to mention. Sheryl Crow has cool songs, they’ve got such a vibe to them, when you sing them, you just feel good. … You can’t help but sing along to a Sheryl Crow hit.”
In addition to honoring Crow, this year’s congressional honorees are Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas for their bipartisan music legislation.
“They’ve just been champions for us and music people over the years,” Mason Jr. said. “Most recently during COVID, they really oversaw some great legislation called Save Our Stages, which provided $16 billion in assistance to the stages and clubs and venues that were being closed and being affected by COVID.”
After Tuesday night’s ceremony, the artists will hold a day of advocacy on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“AI is going to be a big topic of conversation,” Mason Jr. said.
“In the House, we’re talking to members of Congress about something we’re calling the No AI Fraud Act. In the Senate, it’s called the No Fakes Act. It’s making sure there’s some regulation around protecting human creativity.”
Mason said “we obviously know AI is a big part of our society in the future … but we want to make sure there are guardrails. … [Also], the Fans First Act, we really have to get into how fans are able to purchase tickets to attend live concerts, there’s things that have gotten out of control.”
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JXUef0QWsALR1rPH7Yegy?si=EyN2vvZLQIKTJpEnuo7dXQ
