It’s been a day since the Grammy nominations have been announced. However, it looks like musician The Weeknd -- real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye -- still has a lot to say about the lack of nominations he’s received from the Recording Academy.
The New York Post reports that Tesfaye has followed up on the initial tweet he had sent out with regards to being snubbed at the Grammys. After calling the Recording Academy corrupt, he has followed up with another tweet declaring that he is as good as uninvited from the show.
Tesfaye alluded to the rumored negotiations that went on between him and Grammy organizers with regards to him performing on the awards show. According to a report, Tesfaye and Grammy organizers had trouble agreeing on the terms of Tesfaye’s performance.
Grammy organizers had allegedly wanted Tesfaye to perform exclusively for them and forego the Super Bowl performance that would be happening a week before the Grammys. Organizers of the Grammys were, allegedly, displeased with the tense negotiations, resulting in Tesfaye not getting any nominations.
In an interview, interim Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason, Jr. said there was no concerted effort to shut Tesfaye out from any nominations and that it did not undermine the legitimacy of the Grammy nominations process.
According to Mason, the committees who decide on the nominations for Best Album, Best Song, Best Record, and Best New Artist only wanted to find excellence and listened to every song and album that managed to make it past the first round of voting.
Fans of Tesfaye are understandably upset about the situation, with responses to his latest tweet numbering in the thousands and retweets now close to 40,000. Some of the responses encouraged Tesfaye to “drag” the Recording Academy, while others agreed that he had a right to be upset.
But it’s not just fans that are upset about the snub. As Billboard reports, even Tesfaye’s industry peers are calling out the Recording Academy for what they think is a monumental snub.
Fellow musician Kid Cudi tweeted that Tesfaye was “robbed,” while Tinashe utilized trash can emojis to express her displeasure over Tesfaye’s lack of nominations. Music producer Boi-1da, on the other hand, declared that Tesfaye was “criminally robbed.”
Prominent personalities in other fields also expressed their disbelief at the snub. Esports personality Jordan Daley echoed the calls of Tesfaye being “robbed.”
While Tesfaye may be the most glaring snub made by the Recording Academy, fans of other artists have also expressed displeasure at some of the choices made with regards to nominations.
For instance, fans of Harry Styles believe that the former One Direction member should have also been nominated for the Song of the Year and Album of the Year categories. Twitter users also decried the lack of Album of the Year nomination for BTS and their album, Map of the Soul: 7.