Drake speaks on The Weeknd Grammy snub.
Despite having the best-selling album this year with ‘After Hours,’ The Weeknd was entirely overlooked at the 63rd Grammy Awards nominations, in a blatant surprise snub. The Acadamy/GRAMMY has recently announced the nominations for their 63rd annual event in January and they are receiving a lot of flak on social media for snubbing The Weeknd, despite having the biggest song of the year (Blinding Lights) and one of the best album (After Hours) this year. Abel, who was widely expected to dominate the main categories after winning numerous prizes at both the MTV VMAs and the American Music Awards 2020, had chastised the Recording Academy for failing to recognize him in the nominations. The Weeknd called them out for being corrupt in a post, which got over a million retweets. “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” wrote The Weeknd.
The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020
He then received a lot of support from the fans and some of the artists, especially the Toronto star Drake. “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards 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,” wrote Drake in his IG story. “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 to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come.” The Weeknd and Nicki Minaj also reposted the story on their IGs.
The Grammys reacted by saying that they “empathized” with his disappointment, but that some “deserving” performances are overlooked each year.
Drake recognized in his Instagram message that The Weeknd wasn’t the only artist whose efforts had gone unnoticed, mentioning acts like Lil Baby and Pop Smoke, who each received a handful of rap nominations. He stated it was time to “understand that what was previously the highest kind of acknowledgment may no longer be important to the artists of today and tomorrow.”
The legendary Elton John also shows his support for The Weeknd and says, “In my humble opinion…… Blinding Lights, Song of the Year 🙌, Record of the Year 🙌“.
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