Apparently The Weeknd doesn’t make music for you. He makes it for himself and when he didn’t get an ego boost of self-gratification from The Grammy Awards this week he cracked the shits.
The Weeknd didn’t receive any Grammy nominations for his fourth album ‘After Hours’. Not one, zero, zilch. And that set him off like a corrupt politician calling an election rigged when he loses.
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…,” he tweeted.
So should he have been nominated? Not necessarily. The Grammy Awards is not a popularity contest. Having a number one record doesn’t not entitle you to a nomination.
The Weeknd’s ‘After Hours’ and the three singles it contained ‘Heartless’, ‘Blinding Lights’ and ‘In Your Eyes’ were all released in the qualifying period between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020.
300 music industry expects initially filter the submissions, 13000 members then vote on the shortlist which is then published as the nominations.
The Weeknd has been Grammy friendly in the past. He has been nominated 10 times and won three. ‘After Hours’ was a number one album, so given his track record of nominations and wins it is surprising that ‘After Hours’ did not qualify for one nomination in 2020.
However, should that be an automatic process? No. Again, the Grammy Awards are not a popularity contest.
The Weeknd claims he is being punished for negotiating hard for an appearance at the show. The simple fact is with a panel of that size that the panel was just not sold on his new music.
Does that make them out of step with general public views? Yes. Does that make then wrong? No.
