The 2022 Grammys are already off to a controversial start.
Louis C.K. won a Grammy on Sunday for Best Comedy Album more than four years after he admitted to allegations of sexual misconduct.
Comedians Chelsea Handler, Lewis Black, Kevin Hart, Lavell Crawford, and Nate Bargatze were also nominated for Best Comedy Album. But C.K. won the Grammy for Sincerely Louis C.K., his 2020 special in which he addresses being accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. The award was given out before the CBS broadcast of the Grammys began.
This was the third Grammy win of C.K.'s career, but the first since the misconduct allegations were leveled against him in 2017. C.K. admitted the claims, which included that he masturbated in front of women, were true. "The hardest regret to live with is what you've done to hurt someone else," he said. The misconduct scandal led FX to end its relationship with C.K., but he later returned to stand-up and has since released two comedy specials directly through his website.
The Recording Academy faced criticism in November after not only nominating C.K, but also Marilyn Manson, the rock star who has been accused of sexual abuse by multiple women, including actress Evan Rachel Wood. Manson was nominated for a collaboration with Kanye West on the album Donda. The Recording Academy defended allowing these controversial artists to receive nominations.
"We won't restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told The Wrap. "We won't look back at people's history, we won't look at their criminal record, we won't look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria. ... We're not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on."