Celebs Are Calling Out & Boycotting The Grammys For Its Alleged Corrupt ‘Secret Committees’

grammys boycott the weeknd

The 63rs annual Grammy Awards have kicked off, and though it looks like we’re in for a slew of big moments in the ceremony, the calls to boycott the awards from within the music industry have become louder again.

Other artists have joined The Weeknd in calling out the Recording Academy’s lack of transparency around nominations and whether it’s all music politics and favouritism, including Zayn Malik and Nicki Minaj.

The Weeknd – who made Billboard Hot 100 history with ‘Blinding Lights‘ spending an entire year in the chart’s top 10 – sent a statement to The New York Times about why he’s boycotting future awards. His huge track was snubbed by the awards, receiving zero nominations, which brought attention to the nominations process and how much people don’t know about it, or who is on the committee.

“Because of the secret committees,” The Weeknd said in the statement.

“I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.”

Other celebs have spent days and hours leading up to the Grammy Awards pointing out the issues in the nominations process and how the Academy needs to be more transparent to quash “favouritism, racism, and networking politics”.

Nicki Minaj, Teyana Taylor, and Wiz Khalifa spoke out late last year when the nominations dropped, pointing out how crook the nomination process is. The discussion around the Grammys is signalling the serious need for the process to be less opaque in the future to avoid perpetuating racism, sexism, and the shared belief that artists need to scratch backs to get a look in, instead of it being based on creative talent and producing strong work.

The Weeknd is not the only one who’s openly questioned and criticised the awards, this conversation has been bubbling for years. Let us not forget the time Drake called out the nominations process AT the awards when he won Best Rap Song back in 2019, and got his mic cut off mid-speech.

https://youtu.be/WKK-obgEqX4

It’ll be interesting to see if things change after this year’s awards, and whether these ~secret committees~ reveal themselves.

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