New York Advocate Makes Grammy Overture

After getting the cold shoulder from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in recent years, the Grammy Awards got a surprise welcome from a would-be mayor to hold the music awards show in New York next year--after Giuliani is out of office.

Public Advocate Mark Green sent a letter this week to C. Michael Greene, president and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, asking Greene to bring the awards ceremony back to New York for the first time in three years.

“New Yorkers would love to see the Grammy Awards show return here in 2002,” Green wrote. “As you no doubt remember from previous Grammy shows in New York City, we know how to roll out the red carpet for special events and do it with great gusto.”

He added: “We will have a new mayor in 2002. Whoever the new mayor is will undoubtedly be a gracious and welcoming host.”

In 1998, Giuliani and Greene had a spat in which the mayor accused the Grammy Awards boss of cursing at one of his female aides. The mayor subsequently said the $40 million that the popular awards show brings to the city was not important enough to try to patch things up with Grammy officials.

In his letter to Greene, the city’s public advocate alluded to Giuliani’s statements, writing: “And past statements to the contrary, the $40 million that the Grammys bring to their host city ain’t chopped liver.”

When asked about the letter on Tuesday, Giuliani said, “I can’t imagine that the next mayor is going to be someone that encourages people who abuse women.”