The Weeknd has slammed the Recording Academy for snubbing him in their list of nominations released yesterday, for the 63rd Grammys Awards ceremony.
The Weeknd who has had a good year in the music scene, and charts, after the Recording Academy announced the nominees for the 63rd Grammys Awards, took his frustration to the social media, accusing them of being corrupt.
“The Grammys remain corrupt,” he wrote on social media. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” he had tweeted.
His tweet which is getting closer to a million likes on Twitter, since he posted it, was him referencing the process by which nominations are chosen, which is secret and the identities of the people on the committees that select the nominees are not publicly revealed.
According to Variety, The Weeknd’s absence from the Grammy nominations is the biggest snub in recent memory. It is one that is difficult to explain beyond the fact that, contrary to the opinions of millions of fans and hundreds of critics, the 20-odd-member nominating committees did not feel his “After Hours” album or its many singles were one of the eight Best Albums, Songs or Records of the Year, or the five best in genre categories.
Variety report also stated that a source close to the situation that the Grammys and The Weeknd’s team were at odds over him playing both the January 31 Grammy ceremony and the Super Bowl halftime show, which occurs a week later.
While the negotiations grew prolonged and contentious, eventually it was agreed that he would play both events, only for the situation to become moot once the nominations were announced and he was shockingly shut out, the report said.
While some suspected initially that the nomination shutout was some form of retribution over the tense negotiations which would be a vengeful move, considering that both sides had come to terms — a more likely scenario is that the nominating committees legitimately, by the Grammys’ standards, chose other releases over his in their categories.
Reps for The Weeknd and the Recording Academy did not immediately respond.
Trevor Noah was also announced as the host for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, that will hold on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, on CBS.