Yesterday, the nominees for the 2021 GRAMMYs were revealed and the biggest surprise was The Weeknd receiving no nominations. He took to Twitter to blast the awards show by saying “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
TMZ then reported how the GRAMMYS gave The Weeknd an ultimatum about performing there and then the Super Bowl a week later. Negotiations were in place about performing at both events but then, those talks fell through. The back and forth by both sides ended up taking things in the wrong direction. There may have been concern by the GRAMMYs about The Weeknd having “duplicate performances” as well. The Super Bowl and GRAMMYs both air on CBS a week apart.
Now, President/Chief Executive Officer of The Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., has spoken to Billboard and denies intentionally snubbing The Weeknd. He also shut down the Super Bowl speculation.
“No. First of all, the Super Bowl performance is [one week] after our show, so at no time would we be upset if he were to perform on the Super Bowl,” Mason said. “Our show producer, Ben Winston, and CBS had some preliminary conversations. We would have loved to have him on our stage. I think he was working toward that happening.”
Mason Jr also explained how The Weeknd calling the GRAMMYs corrupt “saddened” him. He also said he understands how the Toronto star feels about this situation and was actually surprised himself to find out about the snubs.
“I try to empathize with where that came from, but it was difficult to hear,” Mason Jr added. “I can understand he’s disappointed [at being shut out]. Everybody at the academy understands that he’s disappointed. I was personally surprised that he was not nominated.”
