Students React to The Weeknd Getting Snubbed and Grammy Nominations

After calling out the Grammy’s almost a month ago, Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, is still having listeners scratching their heads over his lack of nominations for the award show.

“I can’t really think of any reasonable explanations for why The Weekend wasn’t included,” said Jack Chiapete, a student at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Statistically, the general public really enjoyed The Weeknd this year. It seems strange that the Grammy’s didn’t reflect this.”

The Grammy’s have often been criticized for their disconnection with African American artists and R&B/Hip-Hop musicians as a whole. After not getting a single nomination for his music this past year, The Weeknd went on to call out the committee, stating that “the Grammy’s remain corrupt” on his Twitter. This caused a chain of artists to reflect Tesfaye’s claim, which include Drake, Kid Cudi and Halsey among others.

The latter of these artists, Halsey, took to her Instagram Stories to express her frustration, calling the Grammy’s “an elusive process” that isn’t about the music, but the connections you make within the industry.

“Perhaps sometimes it is, but it’s not always about the music or quality or culture,” said Halsey, who feels her album was snubbed as well. “Just wanted to get that off my chest. [The Weeknd] deserves better, and Manic did too [shrug emoji].”

This causes a bigger issue within the committee, according to Jason Lewis, a student at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. With a significant disconnect that the Grammy’s have towards the R&B/Hip-Hop genres, this puts the whole collective of artists into a bubble that is hard to branch out of in terms of the committee.

“Certain artists are ‘boxed in’ to certain categories,” said Lewis. “Black artists may be indirectly stuck making rap or R&B music because any attempt to step into other genres might be met with low engagement with audiences, due to current beliefs or stigmas in society. This could result in a current list of nominees where there are still black and female performers, but they are more or less boxed into their respective stereotyped genres.”

As for the reasoning behind why The Weeknd wasn’t listed in the nominations, it might be in relation to other nominees’ songs performing well on TikTok, according to Lewis. Other than that, though, he can’t see why The Weeknd wasn’t prevalent within the Grammy’s this year.

“Speaking as someone who doesn’t know a lot of music, I find a lot of very catchy and popular songs on TikTok like Rockstar, Say So and Savage,” said Lewis. “So I wonder if The Weeknd’s music has ever ‘blown up’ on TikTok or any related platform like some of the other nominations for best of the year.

With The Weeknd drama aside, some Wisconsin residents feel that the Grammy’s are making the right steps towards inclusivity within the award show. Multiple artists of color have received nominations, with music icon Beyoncé taking the most at nine nominations, although this isn’t her first time in this position.

“I believe this was a year that many women of color really made a splash in the music industry, particularly Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, and Nicki Minaj, all having chart topping songs this year,” said Chiapete. “However, most recognition seems to be given to the much more household artist Beyonce, which isn’t surprising.”

Another artist that dominated the nominations this year was Dua Lipa, earning six for her album Future Nostalgia. Sydney Chen, a student at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes she should win all the awards she was nominated for.

“I think Dua Lipa deserves all the nominations,” said Chen. “I liked her first album, I felt like it was a complete album, but her next album was even better. I couldn’t tell which one was a hit because all of them were that good. Nothing comes close to Future Nostalgia. If Taylor Swift wins over her, I won’t be watching anymore.”

On top of all the shocking events seen with the Grammy nominations, one of the more pleasant surprises, according to Lewis and Chiapete, was The Strokes receiving their first Grammy nomination for their album The New Abnormal. Although the rock category might not get the most attention, The Strokes getting recognition is a breath of fresh air, according to them.

“I’m glad The Strokes’ New Abnormal was nominated for Rock Album of the Year,” said Chiapete. “I’d like to see them win that, along with Anderson Paak. winning best melodic rap performance.”

Along with rock being overlooked as a category, electronic music has always seemed to be very underwhelming for fans of the genre, but Michael Ge, a student at The Washington University in Saint Louis, was excited for the albums listed here.

“I saw that Madeon’s album, Good Faith, got a nomination for Best Electronic Album,” said Ge. “As much as I love the other artists, especially Kaytranada, I really hope Madeon walks away with it.”