The Grammy Award for Best Polka Album was an award presented at the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality polka albums. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...

of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". Originally called the Grammy Award for Best Polka Recording, the award was first presented to

Frankie Yankovic Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He ...

in 1986. Previously, polka recordings had been placed in the folk category. While neither '' Billboard'' nor the Recording Industry Association of America tracked polka sales at the time the award category was introduced, polka musicians viewed its inclusion as a sign of respect and increasing popularity. In 1987, a tie vote resulted in awards being presented to Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra for the album '' I Remember Warsaw'' as well as to

Eddie Blazonczyk Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr. (July 12, 1941 – May 21, 2012) was a Grammy award-winning polka musician and founder of the band The Versatones. He was inducted into the International Polka Hall of Fame in 1970, and was a 1998 National Heritage Fell ...

's Versatones for the album '' Another Polka Celebration''. In 1992, the name of the category was changed to Best Polka Album. Beginning in 2001, award recipients included the

producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists. The Academy retired the award category in 2009 to remain "relevant and responsive" to the music community. Sturr holds the record for the most wins in this category, with a total of eighteen (including six as the leader of the group known as Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra). Sturr also holds the record for the most consecutive Grammy wins. Walter Ostanek received the award three times consecutively, and the band

Brave Combo Brave Combo is a polka/ rock/ worldbeat band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than thirty-five years. Their music, bot ...

was presented the award twice. American artists were presented with the award more than any other nationality, though it was presented to Ostanek and his band from Canada three times. Lenny Gomulka holds the record for the most nominations without a win, with twelve.

Recipients

Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

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 " eltsorry for the future artists" that would fail to be recognized by the Academy.

Carl Finch Carl Finch (born November 29, 1951, in Texarkana, Texas) is a guitarist, keyboard player, accordionist, vocalist, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the Grammy-winning polka/dance band Brave Combo in 1979 in Denton, Texas. Career highl ...

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.

References

General * Note: User must select the "Polka" category as the genre under the search feature. Specific

External links

Official site of the Grammy Awards
{{featured list 1986 establishments in the United States 2009 disestablishments in the United States Album awards Awards disestablished in 2009 Awards established in 1986 Polka Album

Recipients

Category retirement

See also

References

External links