Grammys Snub Controversy
The Grammys is one of the biggest, most culturally eventful music award shows on the planet. It’s a time where the most prominent artists in the world get together and receive recognition for their accomplishments the past year— whether it’s highlighting the most essential albums, projects, and overall artistry of the year. At least…that’s what the Grammys is supposed to be about.
On November 24th, 2020, the Grammys released their official nominations for the event scheduled to take place on January 31st, 2021, at 8 p.m. ET. Although the Grammys did other things wrong like not nominating essential albums of the year like Mac Miller’s Circles, Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die album, and Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, it did not cause as nearly as much outrage over the blatant snubbing of The Weeknd.
It’s been an unforgettable year for The Weeknd. Abel dropped his critically acclaimed album After Hours on March 20th, 2020. The album was met with praise from critics and fans all over. The album debuted #1 on the Billboard chart. In the first week alone, After Hours sold 275,000 copies. The album also received 220.7 million streams on all on-demand platforms. The album received “Album of the Year” shouts for months.
His song Blinding Lights claimed over a billion streams on Spotify alone, making it the most-streamed track in 2020. Blinding Lights also stayed on the Billboard chart for 54 weeks straight. The Weeknd also won an award at The American Music Awards for favorite Soul/R&B album and AMAs award for Favorite Album Soul/R&B. The Weeknd was a favorite to take home Album of the Year at the Grammys, but as it came to everybody’s surprise when the Grammys announced their nominations, he was snubbed from all categories.
When The Weeknd received this news, he wasn’t hesitant to state his thoughts on Grammys’s decision. In a tweet, The Weeknd states, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.” He followed up with another tweet stating, “Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!” In this tweet, he may be referring to his decision to perform at the Super Bowl over the Grammys. This decision has led to the Grammys unfairly snubbing him from all categories.
Many other artists were not afraid to voice their opinions. Kid Cudi took to Twitter to express his opinion on the matter quoting, “Abel was robbed man this sh*s weak.”
Elton John, who’s song sample was used as inspiration on The Weeknd’s “Scared To Live”, also expressed his opinion on The Weeknd’s snub. On Instagram, Elton John states, “In my humble opinion……. Blinding Lights, Song of the Year 🙌 Record of the Year 🙌 @theweeknd #GrammySnub.”
Drake expressed his thoughts on the matter in a long Instagram story saying, “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these award shows and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after: It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways. The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way. This is a great time for somebody new that we can build up over time and pass on the generations to come.”
Many other artists such as Charlie Puth, Akon, Tinashe, and more have also defended The Weeknd.
The Grammys is no stranger to controversy and riling up their fans. To this day, fans talk about the Kendrick Lamar-Macklemore Grammy incident back in 2013. When the nominations for best rap album were Kanye West’s Yeezus, Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail, Drake’s Nothing Was the Same, Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city, and Macklemore’s The Heist were all up against each other, Kendrick Lamar’s album was a favorite to win it all. Even today, in 2020, that album is recognized as one of the best albums of the 21st century. The Grammys giving the award to Mackelmore’s The Heist is still seen as a huge credibility diminisher for the Grammys. Even Macklemore himself stated multiple times Kendrick deserved that award over him. Many people stopped taking the Grammys seriously after that. Snubbing The Weeknd only helped make it worse. He may not even need a Grammy for people to recognize the historical year he had.
