The Weeknd was completely left out of Grammy nominations again this year, a surprising omission after he publicly made amends with the Grammys in February with a surprise appearance and performance at the 2025 ceremony, years after starting a boycott over its “corrupt” nomination practices.
Key facts
The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, was eligible to be nominated with his hit album Hurry Up Tomorrow and singles like “Timeless” and “São Paulo,” but came up empty-handed after Friday’s nominations were announced.
Various publications, such as Billboard, Rolling Stone y Varietythey considered it a top contender for an Album of the Year nomination, and Rolling Stone reported that his label Republic Records published advertisements for For Your Consideration promoting his work to Grammy voters.
The omission was even more surprising after The Weeknd’s public reconciliation with the Grammys earlier this year, when he surprised by appearing at the 2025 ceremony, ending his years-long boycott.
In May, The Weeknd declared to New York Times that he had reconciled with the Grammys: “I have no problem, it was a long time ago, and they made a lot of changes, I mean, we went under the hood,” he said, acknowledging that the Recording Academy made changes to its voting process after its boycott.
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Why did The Weeknd boycott the Grammys?
Fans were shocked in 2020 when The Weeknd, a four-time Grammy winner, was completely shut out of the nominations with his album After Hours and his hit “Blinding Lights,” both of which were critical and commercial successes. In a since-deleted tweet after the nominations, he said: “The Grammys are still corrupt. They owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” In another message, he mentioned that he had been planning a performance at the Grammys for “weeks,” but no longer felt welcome after receiving no nominations. In response, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he empathized with the singer, but noted that “every year there are fewer nominations than there are deserving artists.”
The Weeknd told New York Times in March 2021 that he would no longer submit his music for Grammy consideration, citing the Recording Academy’s use of anonymous committees that have the final say on nominations after the academy’s entire membership votes. The following month, the Grammys eliminated secret selection committees for most of its categories, including Album, Record and Song of the Year. In 2025, when The Weeknd returned to the Grammy stage, Mason announced that the Recording Academy had implemented additional changes, such as including 3,000 new female members, increasing the proportion of members of color to nearly 40%, and making the Grammy electorate younger.
Who received the most Grammy nominations this year?
Kendrick Lamar led this year’s Grammy nominations with nine, including nods for his album GNX in the Album of the Year category and his song “Luther” in the Song and Record of the Year categories. Lady Gaga earned seven nominations, competing with Lamar in the top categories for her album Mayhem and the song “Abracadabra”. Bad Bunny, who will headline the Super Bowl halftime show, earned six nominations, as did pop star Sabrina Carpenter.
This article was originally published on Forbes US
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