Artist News Awards

Grammys fail to avoid controversy with 2021 nominations

By | Published on Friday 27 November 2020

The Weeknd

With this week’s Grammy nominations, as ever, came controversy, as numerous artists were seen to have been snubbed by the awards.

The Weeknd in particular has accused organisers of corruption after he received no nominations. Which, to be fair, is weird in a year when he’s been everywhere and released by far some of the year’s most successful music. Justin Bieber, meanwhile, is cross not at a lack of nominations (he got four) but at the categories in which he was placed.

“The Grammys remain corrupt”, tweeted The Weeknd on Wednesday. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency”.

In an interview with Billboard, the boss of Grammy makers the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr, said: “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”, he went on. “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”.

Bieber, meanwhile, took exception to three of his four nominations being in pop categories for music he says should be recognised as R&B.

“I set out to make an R&B album”, he said on Instagram. “‘Changes’ was and is an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album, which is very strange to me. I grew up admiring R&B music and wished to make a project that would embody that sound”.

“For this not to be put into that category feels weird”, he went on “considering from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style, all the way down to the hip hop drums that were chosen, it is undeniably, unmistakably an R&B album”.

“To be clear, I absolutely love pop music”, he added. “It just wasn’t what I set out to make this time around. My gratitude for feeling respected for my work remains and I am honoured to be nominated either way”.

Another act who received no nominations this year (although they’ve not actually had a nomination since 2006) were The Killers.

In their response on social media, they channelled Donald Trump, writing: “OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. WE WON THE GRAMMYS, GOT LOADS OF LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. DOZENS OF BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM! #RIGGEDGRAMMYS #WEWON”.



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