The Weeknd breaks silence on Grammys snub; calls Recording Academy 'corrupt'

The Weeknd's fans have recently been taking to social media to express anger at his complete absence from the list of 2021 Grammy nominations, and the artist himself has a few words to say about it.

The 2021 Grammy nominations, which were announced on Tuesday, November 24, did not have any mention of The Weeknd and his massive album, "After Hours." The musician took to his Twitter account later that day to react to the snub and dubbed the process "corrupt."

"The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency," the 30-year-old tweeted.

While the pop-star has not received any nods in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, his recent album "After Hours" and its singles "Blinding Lights" and "Heartless" have won several accolades and awards in recent months. The Canadian star won big at both the VMAs and AMAs as well.

Meanwhile, the Recording Academy's new interim chief Harvey Mason Jr insisted that the snub wasn't done on purpose. In a conversation with Variety, the producer-songwriter was asked "I have to say I've never seen an album get completely shut out of the nominations that was anywhere near as big, both commercially and critically, as The Weeknd's 'After Hours.' How does that happen?"

To this, Mason replied that it "really just comes down to the voting body that decides." When further pressed about the unprecedented situation and if there are plans to revise the nominating process, the 52-year-old said the academy looks at it every year and makes "tweaks and revisions" to the process.

"We did it this year, last year, we'll do it next year. And I don't think this (The Weeknd snub) calls it (nomination process) into question, honestly," he said.

Refuting the allegations of a snub, Mason said: "The people in that room (core voting room) care: there's no agendas in there, there's no "let's snub this person" or that person. It's about. "Let's try and find excellence."

Mason also noted that the nominations are a two-step process, as the committee can only vote among the 20 top vote-getters from the general voting field. However, he refused to divulge whether The Weeknd made it to that shortlist.