#The Weeknd BOYCOTTS The Grammys Over Alleged Corruption — Is He Right?!

On Thursday, the 31-year-old artist told The New York Times he will no longer attend the ceremony or submit his work for consideration going forward after his album After Hours and hit single Blinding Lights got snubbed.

But it isn’t just spite — the artist is apparently basing the move off of distrust over the way nominations happen:

“Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.”

What does he mean by “secret committees”? Well, apparently the Grammys use anonymous committees to review the nominees chosen by the Recording Academy’s membership — and have the ultimate say over who gets nominations and who doesn’t. Um… that kind of flies in the face of democracy, doesn’t it?

So… in theory an artist could get more votes than any other from Academy members on the whole, but an unaccountable committee could decide they don’t want that artist to succeed for any number of reasons — including conflicts of interest?? Huh. He may be onto something. If it seems far-fetched to any of y’all that nominations are made corruptly — remember what we just learned about Emily In Paris and its Golden Globes noms. Maybe not so hard to believe after all?

Related: Zayn Malik Tweets ‘F**k The Grammys’ After Nomination Snub — Was He Wrong?

In response to the statement, chair and interim president/CEO of the Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr. told The Times that the committee has made efforts to change and diversify its leadership.

“We’re all disappointed when anyone is upset…. But I will say that we are constantly evolving. And this year, as in past years, we are going to take a hard look at how to improve our awards process, including the nomination review committees.”

Many people were shocked that the Canadian singer’s most recent album received no major nominations, as the collection was arguably one of the biggest pieces of work to be released in 2020. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and has a very respectable score of 80 on Metacritic with the vast majority of reviews being positive and NONE negative (just two reviews were considered “mixed”).

In response to the snub, The Weeknd slammed the award show in a tweet, writing:

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

He then explained his choice at the time to pull out of performing at the ceremony, saying he considered them to have pulled the plug on him:

Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020

The I Can’t Feel My Face performer joins other musicians like Drake and Frank Ocean, who have also criticized and washed their hands of the show. Drop us your thoughts on The Weeknd’s boycott of future Grammy Award seasons in the comments (below)!

[Image via WENN]