The Grammy Awards 2021 got embroiled in controversy after The Weeknd called the process corrupt following a snub in the nominations list announced on Tuesday. Following Weeknd's snark remark, the social media too joined in the rant against the selection process for the nominees.
The 63rd annual ceremony will honor music released within the eligibility period, from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. The show will be broadcast live on January 31, 2021 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Comedian Trevor Noah will host the ceremony.
Will The Weeknd Perform During the Award Show?
Unhappy over being overlooked in the nominations, the Canadian rapper tweeted, "The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency."
Speaking to Rolling Stones, a source wary of the unpleasant situation revealed that there were a lot of discussions with Weeknd about a possible performance at the January ceremony.
"There was an ultimatum given resulting in a struggle over him also playing the Super Bowl that went on for some time and was eventually agreed upon that he would perform at both events... [The Recording Academy] had all these convos with the Weeknd team in the past month, and today on November 24th, the Weeknd had not one nomination and is now completely ignored by the Grammys," the source told Rolling Stones.
In a statement to the outlet, Mason said that they understand that the Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. "I was surprised and can empathize 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," the statement read.
Twitter Divided Over The Weeknd's Remark
Soon after the tweet went viral, the internet was divided over the Canadian rapper's remark against the nomination process while a lot of artists and social media users backed The Weeknd, there were few who though otherwise. Kid Cudi tweeted, "Abel was robbed man this shits weak."
"The Grammy's are fucking corrupt. Let the people decide," wrote a user as other opined, "Artists doesn't get nominated for a grammy, "the grammys are corrupt artist gets nomiated "thank you for this award thank God wow im so happy."
"The Weekend gets nominated for a Grammy every year and the one year he don't the Grammys are corrupt... FOH," wrote another user.
