2025 BILLBOARD WOMEN IN MUSIC ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE HONOREE TAMMY HURT

Billboard Women in Music, the prestigious annual event established to recognize women in the music and entertainment industry who have made significant contributions to the business and who, through their work and continued success, inspire generations of women to take on increasing responsibilities within the field, has announced, Tammy Hurt as a 2025 Executive honoree.  As Chair of the Recording Academy®’s Board of Trustees and the presiding officer of the Academy- a position she has held for four years, Hurt is the first openly out LGBTQIA+ officer in the Recording Academy’s 67-year history.  Through this position and throughout her Atlanta-based tenure, she has championed a deep level of equity and inclusion, with a focus on expanding and diversifying the Academy’s membership, making her a likely choice for this honor.

“Receiving this recognition is an incredible honor. Chairing the Board of Trustees these past four years and helping to steer the transformation of this iconic institution has been one of the greatest professional privileges of my lifetime.  I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to help drive meaningful change at the Recording Academy, from welcoming over 3,000 female voting members to advancing diversification and modernizing every aspect of the organization,” said Tammy Hurt, Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees. “The experience of building towards a new vision and seeing it come to life makes me especially grateful for the colleagues who collaborated with me, the supporters who stood by me, and the mentors who guided me. I share this honor with everyone I have had the privilege of serving alongside.“

Tammy Hurt’s contribution to the music industry cannot be understated. As a driving force behind the evolution of the GRAMMY Awards® Ballot in recent years, she championed introducing new and relevant categories such as Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. She has been a vocal advocate for women’s safety in the industry- a role she has first-hand experience with as a drummer and a producer, creating safer environments in the studio, on the stage, and on the road. Most recently, Hurt has turned her attention to the rights of music creators as AI increasingly becomes a factor in music creation, where she joined lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill alongside Academy executives and the GRAMMY® Advocacy team to support the No AI Fraud Act and The Fans First Act. 

And as if that was not enough, Tammy doesn’t just advocate for musicians and fans- she lives it as a Sonic Rebel, a genre-blurred music project that features original, high-fidelity music beds, mashups, and remixes all propelled forward at breakneck speed by her thunderous live drums.  The project began in 2021 with the release of the five-song EP, We Made This With Our Hands and continues to enthrall fans with the jet-fueled 28-minute mega mashup remix, The Mixtape. Tammy’s most recent performance took place at the 2025 GRAMMYs when she joined the house band on stage, drawing praise from Metallica’s Robert Trujillo and record producer Andrew Watt.

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