One of the greatest mysteries of 2020 in the entertainment industry: The Weeknd’s Grammy snub. After all, the Canadian’s ‘After Hours’ album was arguably one of the best albums of 2020. However, the Big Guns behind the Grammys somehow decided that it wasn’t worth a single nomination. Following the snub came an onslaught of anger towards the award show. As for how The Weeknd himself felt, he’s since opened up to Billboard and shared how it was a “sucker punch” moment that hit him “out of nowhere.”
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The 30-year-old expressed that, at the time, he had “felt things”, but wasn’t sure what it was.
“I don’t know if it was sadness or anger. I think it was just confusion. I just wanted answers. Like, ‘What happened?’ We did everything right, I think.”
However, the notion wasn’t born out of self-entitlement.
“I’m not a cocky person. I’m not arrogant. People told me I was going to get nominated. The world told me. Like, ‘This is it; this is your year.’ We were all very confused.”
At present, Beyoncé is leading the nominees in the upcoming 63rd instalment of the grand award show, with nine nominations. With just three less are Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch and Taylor Swift (six nominations). Then, with four different chances at taking home a coveted golden gramophone, come Megan Thee Stallion, Billie Eilish, DaBaby, Phoebe Bridgers, Justin Bieber, John Beasley and David Frost. When the list was first announced, however, most of the talk was surrounding the one artist that HADN’T been nominated.
Following the announcement of the nominees in all 83 categories at the Grammys, The Weeknd took to his social media accounts to call out the award show for seemingly, being unfair. He both tweeted and posted on Instagram:
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
But for those who were questioning The Weeknd’s reaction – some have branded him a sore loser – according to TMZ, there may have been more to the story than we thought.
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According to their sources, one of the reasons that the 30-year-old Canadian singer was snubbed from this year’s nominations is because Grammy organisers were unhappy with having to negotiate a deal with The Weeknd and his team over his performance at the upcoming Super Bowl. It is said that despite coming to an agreement after being “in talks for weeks with Grammy brass” over whether he would perform at the Grammys or the Super Bowl, “the bitter back-and-forth talks pissed off Grammy honchos.”
Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020
Although, why exactly it would be a problem for The Weeknd to perform at both spectacles, remains a mystery. After all, the two events were set to be on different dates – the Grammys was originally scheduled for the 31st of January in Los Angeles (it has now been postponed) while the Super Bowl is set to take place on the 7th of February. Taking into consideration the fact that both shows are aired by CBS (an American commercial broadcast television and radio network), there could be a duplication of performances – albeit, this has never been made a (public) issue with other artists.
After the backlash, the CEO and interim president of the Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr. sent Billboard a statement (that read in part):
“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…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.”
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But the Super Bowl had special meaning for The Weeknd (born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye), who shared the news of his headlining spot saying:
“We all grow up watching the world’s biggest acts playing the Super Bowl, and one can only dream of being in that position. I’m humbled, honored and ecstatic to be the center of that infamous stage this year.”
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Now, one of the reasons why The Weeknd’s exclusion from the nominations came as a shock to fans and music pundits alike was the fact that his most recent album, ‘After Hours’ had set and smashed multiple records. On top of having the biggest streaming week for an R&B album, ‘Blinding Lights’ and ‘Heartless’ had proven to be commercially successful, with the former starting a viral dance challenge on TikTok. ‘After Hours’ has already been honoured at last year’s AMAs for being the ‘Favorite Album’ in the Soul/R&B category.
Fellow celebrities weren’t taking the news of his snub quietly either, with Nicki Minaj, Tinashe, Kid Cudi and others tweeting:
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. They gave it to the white man Bon Iver. #PinkFriday
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) November 24, 2020
How did The Weeknd not get nominated for a Grammy strictly for this song alone?!
Unreal. ROBBED. pic.twitter.com/WwtYuIyuFO
— Jordan Daley (@JDaIey) November 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/seanleon/status/1331370496613638146
I agree. Congrats to all the nominees but @theweeknd and Sal you deserved to be there as well and deserved better. Brilliant artist and brilliant album. https://t.co/bVCcIRBMb5
— Scott “Scooter” Braun (@scooterbraun) November 25, 2020
🗑 🗑 🗑 🗑
— TINASHE ³³³ (@Tinashe) November 24, 2020
Abel was robbed man this shits weak
— The Chosen One : I 💖 YOU FRESHIE 4EVER (@KidCudi) November 24, 2020
The Grammys snubbing @theweeknd is messed up
— AKON (@Akon) November 25, 2020
And an account brought up tweets from Ariana Grande from 2019 to back up the points:
Let’s talk about how Ariana DRAGGED the #GRAMMYs back in 2019. pic.twitter.com/7uWINxIxp4
— Stats of Minaj (@statsofminaj) November 25, 2020
Well. Maybe it’s time to stop judging an artists’ worth by the number of Grammys’ they have. The Weeknd himself has three Grammys, from when he took home best R&B performance for “Earned It” and best urban contemporary album for Beauty Behind the Madness in 2016 and one from 2018 for the best urban contemporary album for ‘Starboy’. As of now, these lauded golden trophies mean nothing to him.
“Look, I personally don’t care anymore. I have three Grammys, which mean nothing to me now, obviously. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I want the Grammy!’ It’s just that this happened, and I’m down to get in front of the fire, as long as it never happens again.”
He may have a point, because after all…
some of the most iconic albums of all time. you know how many grammys they all have, together? ZERO !! pic.twitter.com/RV2nIcsBxk
— dixi (@moonlightningx) November 25, 2020
*Cover image credits: Instagram / @theweeknd *Article originally publised on 26/11/2020 and has since been updated.
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