November 25, 2020

The Weeknd Alleges Grammy Corruption After Nomination Snub

By Lillian Searles

Since the nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards were announced on Tuesday afternoon, the conversation among fans, pop critics, and industry insiders has circled around one notable absence: the Weeknd. 

 

His “Blinding Lights” single is arguably one of the most popular songs of the past year, being the longest-running top 10 hit in US chart history and becoming a huge hit with help from a popular TikTok dance trend, with 882 million streams. His “After Hours” album is the biggest-selling album of the year so far in the US and has been at or near the top of many sales and critics charts, being of 2020’s biggest commercial success stories, with 1.8 billion streams to date. 

 

He led nearly all of the expert-predictions lists for the past several months and yet, his total number of Grammy nominations for the year that he dominated is zero. 

 

The singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, recently won major prizes at the MTV VMAs and the American Music Awards, and will perform at the Super Bowl half-time show next February.

 

The Grammy’s said they “empathised” with his disappointment but that some “deserving” acts missed out every year.

 

“The Grammy’s remain corrupt,” the After Hours singer declared on Twitter hours after the nominations were announced. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”

 

The Weeknd was not alone in his issue with how the Grammys picks nominees. Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj threw shade at the awards show on social media for their own reasons on Tuesday.

 

Bieber, 26, who was nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album, voiced his issues with his album, Changes, being classified as a pop album and not a R&B record.

 

“Please don’t mistake this as me being ungrateful, these are just my thoughts take em or leave em. Thank you to the people who fought for me to even have any noms,” Bieber prefaced his Instagram message regarding his gripe with the academy.

 

Minaj, for her part, brought up a past Grammys issue after Bon Iver earned a nod for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for his collaboration with Taylor Swift on “Exile.”

 

“Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation,” the “Tusa” rapper, 37, tweeted. “They gave it to the white man Bon Iver. #PinkFriday.”

 

Beyonce released just one new song and a “visual companion” film to last year’s “Lion King,” hopped on a remix with Megan Thee Stallion and walked away with the most nominations for the year with nine — as many as she earned in 2017, the year her last full album, “Lemonade,” was eligible.

 

The committees have shown no disinclination to nominate The Weeknd in the past, as he’s received ten nods over three different years and won three trophies. However, despite his 2020 success in the music industry, his total number of Grammy nominations for this year was zero.

Share