An artist filed a lawsuit against the former chairman of the organization that oversees the Grammy Awards on Wednesday, claiming that he drugged and raped her in 2018.

According to the state lawsuit filed in Manhattan, Neil Portnow, who resigned as president of the Recording Academy in 2019 due to his derogatory remarks about women, is accused of sexual violence. The New York Times broke the story first. It also charges the Academy with being careless.

The Recording Academy pledged in a statement to AFP to “vigorously defend the Academy in this lawsuit.”

“We continue to believe the claims to be without merit,” it said.

The suit does not name the woman in order to maintain her privacy.

A representative for Portnow did not immediately reply to AFP, but in the Times story, he flatly denied the allegations.

The lawsuit resurrects the criticism directed at Portnow and the Academy, which caused the influential executive to resign in 2019 after 17 years, due to his contentious remarks that women ought to “step up” to receive greater acknowledgment for their contributions in a field dominated by white men.

The Times reports that the new court filings state that the female artist first met Portnow at a 2018 Grammy-related event in New York, which was the host city.

She alleges he invited her to his hotel room and offered her wine, which she drank before beginning “to feel woozy.” Portnow did not drink, the suit says.

The woman said she wanted to leave but Portnow said there were no taxis.

She then lost consciousness shortly after the former executive told her: “I have been thinking about you for a very long time.”

The woman woke up throughout the night, alleging that Portnow had raped her, and she was still disoriented the following morning, according to the lawsuit.

According to the report, she was worried about his influence in the business, but when she told Academy officials about it months later, she received no response.

According to the lawsuit, the woman reported Portnow to the police, but at the time, the authorities decided not to press charges.

The allegation was initially made public in 2020 after Deborah Dugan, Portnow's successor as the Recording Academy's head, filed a highly publicized discrimination case against the organization.

In a 44-page document, she stated that she had been suspended from one of the biggest music organizations because she had reported sexual harassment, alleged voting irregularities, and other misbehavior.

Dugan included the accusation of rape in her report, which Portnow refuted at the time.

Portnow’s 2018 comments that women should “step up” — delivered as the #MeToo movement was exploding — was the cherry on top of a mountain of criticism alleging the Academy overwhelmingly favored white male artists.