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The Weeknd calls Grammy Awards corrupt after getting left out of nominations

The much-anticipated nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards were officially announced on Tuesday, and though fans are happy that the latest work of stars such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Megan Thee Stallion was recognized, many are quite unimpressed with the fact that some artists who released some phenomenal albums this year are missing from the list.

Notably, Toronto singer-songwriter Abel Makkonen Tesfaye a.k.a. The Weeknd, whose much-lauded fourth studio album After Hours came out in March.

Fans are now vowing to boycott the annual awards show and calling it rigged, among other things, taking to social media to express their outrage and wondering how the musician didn't get one nomination despite hit singles like Blinding Lights and Heartless, and popular videos for the songs Snow Child — with its nods to T.O. — and Too Late.

Heartless, for starters, was the highest debuting single when it came out in early December 2019 and was the 30-year-old's fourth number one single in the U.S.

Blinding Lights, meanwhile, broke the record for the most weeks at Number One on Billboard's Radio Songs Chart and for the most weeks in its Hot 100 top five —19 and 28 weeks, respectively —also spending seven weeks on its Canadian Hot 100 list and getting stuck in all of our heads forever.

The entire album, which was well-received by the public and critics alike with its innovative, unique sounds that separated the R&Ber from his peers, served as a departure from his previous Grammy-winning work and drew further comparisons between him and the great Michael Jackson.

The fact that Abel was tapped to play the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show is a further homage to his popularity and success this year — and yet another reason why people are scratching their heads after seeing his marked absence from the Recording Academy's noms.

The Weeknd himself responded to the snub, saying to his tens of millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram on Tuesday evening that "The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency..."

Other surprises from this year's list include the lack of recognition for posthumous albums from Mac Miller and Juice WRLD, for burgeoning R&B singer Summer Walker and country star Gabby Barrett, and popstars Selena Gomez and Halsey, the latter having released not only an album but a poetry book this year.

The 63rd annual Grammys will be hosted by comedian Trevor Noah on Jan. 31, and will be broadcast live from the Staples Center in L.A. No say yet on how much the pandemic will impact the production, but the Academy has apparently prepared numerous different options for the show depending on where L.A. is as far as the COVID situation by that time.




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