Grammy Awards : Who really chooses the winners?

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/grammy-awards-2015

     When the ‘Album of the Year’ category at The 57^th Grammy Awards was announced this past Sunday, fans, the audience, and especially Kanye West were surprised and bamboozled at who the recipient turned out to be. Beck, singer and songwriter won over Sam Smith, and the expected winner Beyoncé. In addition to everyone’s astonishment, Beck hisself was very surprised when his name was called for the award. As he walked up to receive his award, Kanye West ‘popped up on stage and moved towards Beck as if he was about to take the trophy. Instead, West turned away and quickly jumped down, but not before getting laughs from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’ (Fox News).  I’m sure we all thought that Kanye was about to pull the Taylor Swift incident all over again lol.

http://frenchculture.org/music/blog/french-nominees-2015-grammy-awards

           For music award shows, I always was under the impression that votes were calculated by album sales and votes from the fans; but for The Grammy Awards they have a totally different voting process.  Their process is a very thorough one that shows that they use music professionals, creative geniuses, performers, songwriters, and a host of other important people in order to choose Grammy Award winners. Below I will share with you the Grammy Award process.

Grammy Award FAQ

What's the difference between an entry and a nomination?
The Recording Academy receives over 20,000 entries per year.  Entries are recordings submitted for GRAMMY consideration. Entries that meet all eligibility requirements are then voted on by The Academy's Voting Members, and the results of that vote are the nominations.

What are the eligibility requirements?
For the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards, albums must be released between Oct. 1, 2013 and Sept. 30, 2014. Recordings must be commercially released in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product.  Recordings must be available for sale from any date within the eligibility period through at least the date of the current year’s voting deadline (final ballot).

How are recordings entered?
The Academy accepts entries online from its members and from registered media companies. Entrants are provided information on how to submit their recordings electronically for consideration.

Who can vote?
Recording Academy Voting Members only. Media companies do not vote.

Who qualifies as a Voting Member?
Recording Academy Voting Members are professionals with creative or technical credits on at least six commercially released tracks (or their equivalent). These may include vocalists, conductors, songwriters, composers, engineers, producers, instrumentalists, arrangers, art directors, album notes writers, narrators, and music video artists and technicians.