Category Retirement
In 2009, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the retirement of the award category. President and CEO Neil Portnow stated that the Academy needed to do so in order to remain a "relevant and responsive" organization within a "dynamic music community". Polka musicians and fans were disappointed with the category elimination. Three-time award winner Walter Ostanek admitted he " sorry for the future artists" that would fail to be recognized by the Academy. Carl Finch of the group Brave Combo stated the following: "Having a polka category was the most important step to legitimacy that we could ever hope to achieve. To have that taken away, it's like it was all for nothing." Apart from ensuring that the "awards process remains representative of the current musical landscape", the Academy cited dwindling competition as one reason for the category retirement. Others speculated that Jimmy Sturr's eighteen wins led to the elimination. Due to the elimination of a polka-specific category, polka musicians are likely to submit recordings in the folk and world music categories.
In 2011, the Grammy Award organization announced a major overhaul of Grammy categories, lowering the number of awards from over 120 to just 78. Several regional American roots genres, such as Hawaiian music or Native American music, were combined in the new Best Regional Roots Music Album category, for which polka albums would also be eligible.
Read more about this topic: Grammy Award For Best Polka Album
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