The Grammys are always a highlight of the music industry’s year. The annual award show features performances from prominent artists, and is meant to recognize outstanding work in music from that year.
On Tuesday, November 24th, the Grammys announced nominations for 2021. Taylor Swift was “shockingly” nominated for an impressive six awards, including album of the year for Folklore (yes, it is important to include the title since she’s released like a million albums recently) and song of the year for “Cardigan.” Beyoncé also had her fair share of nominations, leading the pack this year with nine nominations. Read the full list of nominees here.
Perhaps just as important as seeing who has been nominated is seeing who has not. The Recording Academy released a disappointing, and frankly infuriating, list of Grammy nominees. The biggest snub by far was for the Weeknd (this is a fact, not an opinion), who had zero nominations. I repeat, the Weeknd had zero nominations.
The Weeknd’s album After Hours, released in March 2020, was a great success. The album debuted among the top albums of the Billboard 200, peaking at #4, and it broke the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album. If anything, it should at least have been nominated for best R&B album.
Most surprisingly of his lack of nominations was for his single “Blinding Lights.” The song was number one for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and broke the record for most weeks in the Hot 100's top 10. How in the world did this record-breaking song not get nominated for any awards?
The Weeknd was quick to call out this injustice. Shortly after the nominations were announced, he tweeted, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
Many other artists also voiced their surprise. Charlie Puth tweeted what we were all thinking: “how the f*ck did blinding lights not get nominated lol.” Music legend Elton John even shared that “Blinding Lights” is his song and record of the year.
So why, you may ask, did the Weeknd receive no nominations? The answer is simply that the Recording Academy is corrupt. For years, top artists like Jay-Z, Rihanna, Drake, and Cardi B have made the claim that the Grammys are both racist and sexist.
Deb Dugan, ousted Recording Academy CEO, added weight to these claims when she accused the Grammys of having a biased nomination process including secret committees and board members that “push forward artists with whom they have relationships.”
In 2019, Drake, who was snubbed when his acclaimed album Scorpion only received Best Rap Song, said in his acceptance speech:“This is a business where sometimes it's up to a bunch of people who might not understand what a mixed-race kid from Canada has to say or a fly Spanish girl from New York or anybody else, or a brother from Houston right there, my brother Travis [Scott]. But my point is you've already won if you have people singing your songs word for word, if you're a hero in your hometown. Look, if there's people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don't need this right here. I promise you, you already won.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself. And guess what? His speech was cut short when the broadcast cut to a commercial.
Listen, I love Taylor Swift as much as the next person, but is “Cardigan” really more deserving than “Blinding Lights”? Sorry Swifties, it is not. The Weeknd is right, we do need more transparency in these nominations. The Recording Academy needs to do better.