The nominations for this year’s Grammys brought huge shock for The Weeknd and his fans. He didn’t get a single nod for the album After Hours!
According to EOnline, the Blinding Lights singer was baffled as he got snubbed in the 2020 Grammys nominations on Tuesday. Reacting to this, The Weeknd tweeted out his angst over the Recording Academy. And he literally called them “corrupt.”
He couldn’t believe that his most successful album so far couldn’t make it to the list this time. Expressing his anger, on early Wednesday, he wrote:
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
The Weeknd and his rift with 2020 Grammys
The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020
Well, the issue was big just to let go, and immediately the people from Recording Academy came forward to answer in their defense. Upon the questions of why After Hours missed the nominations, CEO and interim president, Harvey Mason Jr., released a statement.
“We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. 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.”
Additionally, he also denied any tensions between the Academy and the In Your Eyes star singer. A TMZ story previously said that due to the artist’s decision of performing in the Super Bowl and not Grammys, the latter left him out of the nominations.
“We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl, and we would have loved to have him also perform on the Grammy stage the weekend before.
To be clear, voting in all categories ended well before The Weeknd’s performance at the Super Bowl was announced, so in no way could it have affected the nomination process” Harvey said.
2020 Grammy nominations and controversies
Apart from the After Hours artist, Teyana Taylor also called out the Grammys for not selecting her in the Best R&B Album category. This year’s R&B list has all the male artists only. So, in a way, it made many people confused. Several music enthusiasts and even artists are unable to understand how the list is prepared.
Interestingly, where The Weeknd faced perhaps the “biggest snub” of 2020, Justin Bieber received nominations in the Pop category. But his reaction was even more complicated. Instead of showing happiness, he tried to imply that his album Changes deserved nods in R&B, not in the Pop genre.
Image courtesy of Debby Wong/Shutterstock