The Weeknd is demanding 'transparency' from the Grammys after receiving 0 nominations
- The 2021 Grammy Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday.
- The Weeknd, who was previously considered a shoo-in for an album of the year nod, received zero nominations.
- Fans were shocked by the snub, and The Weeknd called the Grammys "corrupt" on Twitter.
- "The Grammys remain corrupt," he wrote. "You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency."
- According to Variety, The Weeknd's team and the Recording Academy "were at odds" over him performing at the ceremony in January, as well as the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
The Weeknd has accused the Grammys of corruption after he was snubbed by the award show.
The 2021 nominations were announced on Tuesday and The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, received a scandalous total of zero nods.
The enigmatic singer was previously thought to be a shoo-in for album of the year and record of the year, following the March release of his acclaimed fourth album "After Hours" and the record-breaking streak of his hit single "Blinding Lights."
Fans were shocked by the snub, and The Weeknd took to Twitter to make his frustration clear.
"The Grammys remain corrupt," he wrote. "You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency..."
Artists and their labels submit music for Grammys consideration, which is then sorted by genre committees made up of 300 experts.
More than 13,000 members of the music industry are then tasked with voting for the most deserving submissions, which then become the nominations. The process is very secretive and member identities are not publicly revealed, in order to prevent bribery and payola.
The Weeknd himself has been nominated for 10 Grammys and won three. In 2016, he was even nominated in two of the Big Four categories: record of the year for "Can't Feel My Face" and album of the year for "Beauty Behind The Madness."
This arguably makes his lack of nominations this year even more curious, since his music has clearly been considered to be Grammy-caliber in the past.
In a potentially related development, Variety recently reported that The Weeknd's team and the Recording Academy "were at odds" over him performing at the ceremony in January, as well as the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
The two performances would have been just one week apart.
"While the negotiations grew prolonged and contentious, eventually it was agreed that he would play both events — only for the situation to become moot once the nominations were announced and he was shockingly shut out," Variety reported.
"While members of The Weeknd's team were said to suspect that the nomination shutout was some form of retribution over the tense negotiations," the report continued, "a more likely scenario is that the nominating committees legitimately, by the Grammys' standards, decided that he did not deserve to be nominated in their categories."
However, when asked for comment, Recording Academy chair and interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. denied that the scheduling around the Super Bowl halftime show played a factor in the nomination process.
"We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathize with what he's feeling," Mason told Insider on Tuesday. "His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone's admiration."
He continued: "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."
"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," he said.
"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. All GRAMMY nominees are recognized by the voting body for their excellence, and we congratulate them all," Mason concluded.
Representatives for The Weeknd did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.