In their roles, Taylor Hanson and Dani Deahl will help guide the Recording Academy’s advocacy efforts, shape the organization’s legislative priorities, and champion creators’ rights at both the state and federal levels.
The Recording Academy has announced the new appointment of Taylor Hanson and the reappointment of Dani Deahl as Co-Chairs of its National Advocacy Committee, a group of performers, songwriters, producers, and engineers dedicated to championing creators’ rights at both the state and federal levels. The National Advocacy Committee plays a vital role in shaping the organization’s legislative priorities in close collaboration with the Recording Academy’s Advocacy & Public Policy team in Washinton, D.C.
Serving her second consecutive term as Co-Chair, Dani Deahl is a DJ, producer, former Recording Academy Chicago Chapter President, and current Academy National Trustee. A strong advocate for creators’ rights, Deahl testified before the Illinois House and Senate in 2024 in support of HB 4875, a bill modernizing the state’s right of publicity law to protect creators from AI misuse. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law last year. Deahl has also participated in the Record Academy’s annual GRAMMYs on the Hill initiative and took part in the inaugural GRAMMYs on the Hill Future Forum in 2024, where she joined GRAMMY-nominated artist Kokayi and the Academy’s Chief Advocacy & Public Policy Officer Todd Dupler on a panel to discuss the positive potential of AI in music and creativity. Deahl has also served as the head of communications & creator insights at BandLab since 2022.
Multi-GRAMMY-nominated singer, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur Taylor Hanson has spent more than three decades in the music industry, selling more than 16 million albums as part of the pop/rock trio HANSON. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hanson has long supported music education and advocacy through initiatives like the Recording Academy’s GRAMMYs on the Hill and Music Advocacy Day as well as Save The Music. Hanson has also worked to expand the Academy’s state advocacy work in Oklahoma and founded Food On The Move, a nonprofit dedicated to combating hunger and food deserts in Oklahoma, which launched the Food Home Project in 2022 to expand access to fresh food in North Tulsa. He and his brothers were inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2019, and in 2025, Hanson will receive the state’s highest honor as an inductee into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. This marks Hanson’s first term as Co-Chair of the Academy’s National Advocacy Committee.
Additional new National Advocacy Committee members include GRAMMY winner Sean Patrick Flahaven, nine-time GRAMMY nominee Matt Maher, GRAMMY nominee Maggie Rose, and three-time GRAMMY nominee Divinity Roxx, who join Recording Academy Chair of the Board of Trustees Dr. Chelsey Green. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. and the Academy’s Chief Advocacy & Public Policy Officer Todd Dupler serve as ex-officio members.
As National Advocacy Committee Co-Chairs, Deahl and Hanson will help guide the Recording Academy’s advocacy efforts across key policy priority areas, including:
- The NO FAKES Act: This legislation aims to protect artists from unauthorized digital replicas created through artificial intelligence (AI).
- Protecting copyrighted works from being used in the unauthorized training of AI models.
- The American Music Tourism Act: This bill directs the Department of Commerce to create a national strategy to expand music tourism across the U.S.
- Live event ticketing reform to provide transparency in ticket pricing and ban the sale of speculative tickets.
- The American Music Fairness Act: This bill seeks to establish a performance right for recordings broadcast by terrestrial radio.