World News – AU – The Weeknd wasn’t nominated for a single Grammy, and I need answers

The Grammy nominations for 2021 were officially announced on November. 25, and The Weeknd was noticeably missing from the list. Although the 30-year-old singer was named one of Time’s Most Influential People that year, and After Hours became the most streamed R&B album of all time, he received rude abuse from the Recording Academy.

The Grammys have a long history of ignoring great music and not appreciating where it is due – see Adele’s win for 2017 album for 25 against Beyonce’s lemonade – but I just need someone to explain to me what the hell happened? « Blinding Lights » was ubiquitous this year, appearing in commercials and at almost every award ceremony. The Weeknd practically led the nominations for the American Music Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards. Not to mention, he has just been announced as headlining next year’s Super Bowl and his After Hours album is currently the third biggest album of the year based on total sales. Still, he wasn’t nominated for a single Grammy – none!

At first I thought it might be because the album didn’t qualify for the eligibility period, but no, I checked and it was. The Recording Academy has never had a problem nominating him – The Weeknd is a three-time Grammy winner, thank you very much – so there are only two logical explanations for what happened. According to Variety, a recording must be submitted for review in order for it to be considered. Hence, it’s possible that his label Republic Records didn’t submit anything. However, this seems very unlikely as it also deals with Taylor Swift, who snapped six nods. Another possibility is that the Academy may have been confused as to whether The Weeknd is viewed as a pop or R&B act, so he simply left out those categories entirely, though that still doesn’t explain his absence from the album and recording of the annual categories.

Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks The Weeknd has been berated. Shortly after the nominations were announced, the hashtag #ROBBED began trending on Twitter, and fans expressed their anger over leaving The Weeknd – even Kid Cudi stepped in and wrote, « Abel was robbed, man, this is weak. « . « Not a shadow for Justin Bieber or Cats, but how come » Yummy « is nominated for best pop solo performance and » Beautiful Ghosts « is nominated for best song in visual media? I’m confused.

According to Kanye West, The Weeknd had one of the best albums of all time and the Grammys are forced to reevaluate their nomination process as it clearly isn’t working.

Grammy Awards, Beyoncé, Nomination, The Recording Academy, The Weeknd, 2021