The Weeknd says his Grammy Awards no longer matter to him.
On Thursday (January 28), The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, spoke to Billboard to promote his upcoming Super Bowl Halftime performance. During the interview, the singer criticized the Recording Academy, which many believe snubbed the artist earlier this year.
“Look, I personally don’t care anymore. I have three GRAMMYs, which mean nothing to me now, obviously,” he told the outlet.
The “Blinding Lights” singer won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Urban Album for Starboy in 2018. He took home the same award in 2016 for Beauty Behind the Madness, as well as Best R&B Performance for “Earned It.”
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, I want the GRAMMY!’ It’s just that this happened, and I’m down to get in front of the fire, as long as it never happens again,” he continued. “I suck at giving speeches anyways. Forget awards shows.”
The Weeknd compared the experience of getting snubbed to a sucker punch. “Because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere. I definitely felt … I felt things,” he shared, explaining that he didn’t know if the emotion he was feeling was sadness, anger or confusion.
“I just wanted answers. Like, ‘What happened?’ We did everything right, I think,” he continued. “I’m not a cocky person. I’m not arrogant. People told me I was going to get nominated. The world told me. Like, ‘This is it; this is your year.’ We were all very confused.”
The artist also pointed out a startling statistic regarding past winners. ”If you were like, ‘Do you think the Grammys are racist?’ I think the only real answer is that in the last 61 years of the Grammys, only ten Black artists have won album of the year,” he said. “I don’t want to make this about me. That’s just a fact.”
The Recording Academy has a somewhat complicated and elusive voting process. First, artists submit their work for nomination consideration. A screening committee organizes the submissions into appropriate fields before members vote in the first round. Depending on the nomination category, the craft committee or nomination committee then takes over to determine the final nominees. Members vote one last time in the final ballots, determining the winners.