Earlier this month, the 63rd annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the nominations have caused an uproar of accusations for racism within the music industry.
Many deserving artists of colour were not nominated, the most noticeable being Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, a Canadian born Ethiopian, also known as The Weeknd, with his hit single ‘Blinding Lights’ not earning a single nomination.
This shocked many fans and left many, including Tesfaye angry.
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency,” Tesfaye said in a post on Twitter.
‘Blinding lights’ was extremely popular this past year, spending 54 weeks in the top 100 on the billboard charts, and racking up over two billion streams on Spotify and even blew up on the social media platform Tiktok, with 1.3 million videos being created using this sound, which is why fans were shocked the song didn’t get any nominations.
“Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys,” Tesfaye says.
“F*ck the Grammys and everyone associated. Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary,” Zayn Malik, who is also an artist of colour, said on the issue.
With these snubs showing a clear divide in the industry, it’s more important now than ever for fans to stream music, buy albums and concert tickets in order to show their support for artists of colour.
By Jazmin Tran
Upside Adelaide 