LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Canadian R&B icon The Weeknd seemed to borrow a page from the playbook of U.S. President Donald Trump when he took to social media to accuse the Recording Academy of being “corrupt” after he failed to receive a single nomination for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards.
“The Grammys remain corrupt,” the Weeknd tweeted after the nominations were announced. “You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”
The Weeknd, who has previously won three Grammys, has been having a successful year in 2020 following the release of his fourth studio album After Hours. The album, which proved to be one of the biggest hits of the year, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and staying there for four consecutive weeks.
The Weeknd was also just announced as the headliner for next year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, a coveted gig to be sure but not always a precursor to a Grammy nomination.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy’s interim president and CEO, denied that there were any malevolent designs against the Weeknd.
“You know, there’s so many nominations and there’s only so many slots, it’s really tough to predict what the voters are going to vote for in any given year,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I try not to be too surprised.”
The Weeknd wasn’t the only Grammy snub this year. Justin Bieber said that he was “flattered” for the nominations he received but said he felt like he’d been miscategorized as pop when he intended to make an R&B album.
“I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry,” he said in a post on his social media after the nominations were announced. “With that being said, I set out to make an R&B album. Changes was and is an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album, which is very strange to me.”
Many observers were also surprised that country singer-songwriter Luke Combs didn’t pick up a nomination this year following the success of his second studio album What You See Is What You Get. Just last week, Combs won CMA Awards for Country Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year and won Male Artist of the Year and Album of the Year at the ACMs in September.
