BMC WELCOMES NEW CHAIRS, EXPANDS LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

The Recording Academy's Black Music Collective has made Ethiopia Habtemariam, Yvette Noel-Schure, Yolanda Adams and Valeisha Butterfield Jones honorary chairs and expanded its leadership council.

The four join returning honorary chairs Jeff Harleston, Jimmy Jam, Quincy Jones and John Legend. They will work with the academy's diversity, equity & inclusion team and BMC leads Ryan Butler and Ricky Lyon to elevate the mission of the collective. Rico Love, the Recording Academy's board of trustees vice chair, will serve as the BMC's new chair.

The new members of the leadership council are Prince Charles Alexander, Jimmie Allen, Denzel Baptiste, David Biral, Jennifer Goicoechea, Mickey Guyton, Claudine Joseph, Ledisi, Herb Trawick, Ebonie Ward and Yola.

"The Black Music Collective has remained steadfast in its mission to advance Black music since its founding in 2020. We are thrilled to have inaugural members of the BMC returning and honored to have an esteemed community of new industry leaders joining us to accelerate progress," said academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. "Black music is an integral part of all music, and we are committed to the long-term work required to drive real and measurable change."

"There have been moments where I knew I had to be the one young girls saw pick up a guitar or advocate for the right to be creatively free, to stand for myself,” said Yola. “They needed to see a dark-skinned, plus-size woman do that, so this moment feels like a deepening of my mission for representation. For this and so many other reasons, I'm profoundly honored to join the Black Music Collective Leadership Council."

The Black Music Collective is dedicated to the inclusion, recognition and advancement of Black music and its creators and Black professionals in the Recording Academy and the music industry at large.