The Biggest Music Names Ignored By Grammys Nominations
Did they forget about The Weeknd?
The Grammy Awards nominations have just been announced and while the winds of change are blowing on the one hand (rock category is dominated by female artists), they spark some controversies too. The question is whether the omission of a few big names from the music industry in 2020 nominations is motivated by a personal choice of the Recording Academy or a more general issue of representation.
The Weeknd, with his successful hit ‘Blinding Lights’ from the album ‘After Hours’, is the most evident absentee from the nominees' list. Two of his three past victories were included in the category Best Urban Contemporary Album, which has been renamed to Best Progressive R&B Album after Black Lives Matter protests. Abel criticized this decision as not fair due to the wide gap between R&B and black music. He also did not hesitate to call out the Academy after the announcement of nominations on his Instagram.
A similar thing has been done by The Killers whose post, contrary to The Weeknd, obviously parodies Trump’s style. The omission of the band nominated five times in the past could be justified by the date of launch of their new album. ‘Imploding the Mirage’ came out on August 21, while the time scope for the releases eligible for Grammys 2020 ended ten days later.
Even if The Weeknd doesn’t necessarily share their sense of humor, he might be right to point out the Academy’s problem with genre recognition. Apparently, none of the Hip-hop albums, including Lil Baby’s ‘My Turn’ and Lil Uzi Vert’s ‘Eternal Atake’ meet the standards of Album of the Year.
Critically acclaimed ‘Magdalene’ by FKA Twigs is also completely ignored by the Academy but it’s worth adding that she’d been nominated only once before, for Best Music Video. Another critically acclaimed album, ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways,’ by an icon of music Bob Dylan, got completely blanked too. He also has a history of being ignored by the Grammys and did not receive a single nomination in 2012 for ‘Tempest’ either.
Among many others, there are also no nominations for Grimes (never nominated before), Childish Gambino (five-times winner) and Caribou (nominated once).
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