The Weeknd has accused the Grammys of corruption after huge nomination Snub

The Grammys have recently revealed their 2020 nominations list leaving some celebs feeling rather scorned. The Weeknd, in particular, has taken to social media to call out the awards ceremony after they failed to invite or acknowledge him despite having an indisputably great year.

This week the Grammy’s announced their nomination list for 2020 and as many had noticed, The Weeknd, also known as Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was left off the nomination list.

But as far as he and many other celebrities were concerned, the Weeknd deserved to at least have his name in the hat after a banner or shall we say banger year.

The Weeknd’s new album After Hours has accumulated huge success after hit single Blinding Lights peaked at the number one spot in 34 countries and also became the artist’s fifth song to reach the Billboard’s Hot 100 and Canda’s Hot 100 for four and seven weeks respectively.

However, after sweeping up this year with three MTV Video Music Awards in the US and Japan as well as a UK Music Video Award, the Canadian artist was left snubbed by the Grammys. The Weeknd took to social media to air his frustrations stating:

The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…

Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!

The singer currently has 3 albums in the Itunes top 10 R&B chart and other musicians - notably Elton John - have backed up Tesfaye online. Elton John spoke out in an Instagram post stating:

In my humble opinion......Blinding Lights. Song of the Year 🙌. Record of the Year 🙌 @theweeknd#GrammySnub

According to reports, many suspect that the Weeknd was snubbed after he was asked to perform at both the Superbowl and the Grammys. The awards ceremony tried to book him exclusively for the show but he opted for the Superbowl instead.

Grammys boss chief Harvey Mason, Jr. has issued a lengthy statement about the issue in an attempt to defend the decisions made by Grammy gatekeepers:

We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathise with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration.

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 recognise and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community. 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 recognised by the voting body for their excellence and we congratulate them all.

After After Hours became the best selling record of the year, the Weeknd was widely expected to be nominated for the album of the year and song of the year categories.

Drake has also recently responded to the situation stating that people should no longer let themselves be shocked with the ceremony and instead to move on and make something more impactful that can be passed down for generations:

I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards. 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.

Justin Bieber also had a bone to chew with the Grammys after they miscategorized his ‘changes’ album as pop instead of R&B.

However, the Black Music Collective, a Grammy advisory group which includes artists such as Quincy Jones, John Legend and Yolanda Adams have praised this year’s lineup for it’s diversity. The collective released in a statement:

It's a historic year as 10 black women are nominated in the top four categories and more than 20 black nominees are represented in the general fields. Also, for the first time, all six nominees for Best Rap Album are black independent artists. This is progress.

They had also acknowledged that there were undoubtedly some disappointments in the nominations but stated ‘We're listening. Our work is not done, and it will take some time, but the mission to be more inclusive continues.