After being snubbed for his album After Hours, The Weeknd is taking a stand and boycotting the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards moving forward in the future.
The artist announced a statement exclusively to the New York Times just days before the award show saying, “Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.”
After Hours was one of the biggest albums released back in 2020 with iconic and memorable singles, “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears.” The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 at its initial release, so it was a surprise to everyone when it didn’t get a single nomination for the Grammy Awards this year.
The Weeknd joins a line of artists that have chosen to withdraw from submitting their music to the award show, which includes Drake, Frank Ocean, Cardi B, and Macklemore.
These artists decided to withdraw from submitting to these shows after criticizing and calling out the award show for being “faulty” and “not great tv” (Ocean’s words). The New York Times also mentions that the industry has also been called out for a bias against women and Black artists. Critics have also voiced that the opaque voting system is unfair and out of touch.
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1331394452447870977?s=20
When the nominations were initially announced back in November, The Weeknd took to Twitter to express his disappointment and demand transparency from the Recording Academy regarding the nominations.
The Recording Academy’s chief Harvey Mason, jr. responded to the singer’s statement saying, “We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated,” he says. “I was surprised and can empathize with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration.”
So why snub him and not give him a single nomination? Mason continued by saying, “Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists. But as the only peer-voted music award, we will continue to recognize and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community.”
We were just as shocked as everyone when we found out he was snubbed for After Hours! We hope that this will help the recording academy realize there are changes that need to be made.
What do you think about The Weeknd’s statement? Let us know by leaving a reaction down below or tweet us @celebsecrets.
