In November of 2020, when the Recording Academy released its list of nominees for the 2021 GRAMMY Awards, fans and music industry peers alike were shocked to see that The Weeknd, who achieved major commercial success with his 2020 release After Hours, did not receive any award nominations.
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The difficult to explain and suspicious snub came down to the revelation of “secret committees” of long-time industry virtuosos determining many of the nominees each year. Many artists called out the academy’s “I’ll scratch your back; you scratch mine” mentality and former President/CEO of the Recording academy, Deborah Dugan mounted a massive legal complaint about the academy.
In a statement to the New York Times on Thursday, The Weeknd shared that he would be boycotting the GRAMMYs until the institution changed some of its practices.
“Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the GRAMMYs,” explained the “Blinding Lights” singer.
Tesfaye’s manager, Wassim Slaiby told The Times “We were many weeks and dozens of calls in with the GRAMMY team around Abel’s performance right up to the day of nominations being announced.” Over email, he added, “We were scratching our heads in confusion and wanted answers.”
Slaiby also shared that he hopes other artists will join The Weeknd in the stance he is taking to boycott the awards. “The GRAMMYs should handle their legacy and clean it up to raise the bar to a level where everyone could be proud to hold up that award,” shared Slaiby. “This is Harvey’s chance to step up and have his legacy be the guy who got the GRAMMYs finally right.”
WATCH MORE: The Weeknd calls out GRAMMYs after zero nominations
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