Hard stuff is easier to talk about when Alicia Keys is playing the piano.

The Grammy host seemed to touch on the Recording Academy's recent controversy as she serenaded the audience.

"It's been a hell of a week," Keys said. "Damn."

Former CEO Deborah Dugan filed a lawsuit last week against the Academy, alleging she was wrongfully fired after raising allegations of sexual harassment and irregularities with Grammy nominations.

Dugan says she was put on administrative leave three weeks after she sent an email to the Academy's managing director of human resources outlining numerous bombshell allegations against the organization and its "historically male dominated leadership," according to the EEOC complaint.

The Academy has denied Dugan's claims of it being "a boys club" and said in a statement to CNN earlier that it's "curious" that Dugan didn't raise the allegations until legal claims were made against her by another employee who alleged she "created a 'toxic and intolerable' work environment and engaged in 'abusive and bullying conduct.'"

On Sunday night Keys said "It's a new decade."

"It's time for newness," she said. "We refuse the negative energy. We refuse the old systems. Feel me on that."

"We want to be respected and safe in our diversity," she added. "We want to be shifting to realness and inclusivity."

Keys then launched into a song paying tribute to the nominees.

The Academy announced initiatives developed in partnership with its Diversity Task Force on Sunday, hours before the awards show.