Grammys Remove Secret Voting Committees Following The Weeknd Backlash

Grammys Remove Secret Voting Committees Following The Weeknd Backlash! The Recording Academy came under fire last year after revealing the 2021 Grammy nominations. The Weeknd, who with After Hours  undoubtedly had one of the biggest albums of the past few years as well as one of the biggest songs of the year with “Blinding Lights,” did not get a single nomination at the ceremony. 

This move by the Recording Academy pushed the singer to the point of boycotting the ceremony. The “Save Your Tears” singer announced through a statement in March, “Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.” 

On Friday (April 30), the Recording Academy announced that going forward; the secret voting committees have been eliminated from their practices. According to the Recording Academy’s interim CEO Harvey Mason jr., the move was in part because of The Weeknd’s protest against the Academy, but affirms further that the process had been in the works for a couple of months. 

 “The discussions about possibly removing nominations review started long ago and the real work of putting together a subcommittee to get this right started about eight or nine months ago, so, this isn’t a direct “reaction” to that situation,” Mason said in a statement. 

He added, “That said, any time an artist, especially one of that stature, calls our process into question or thinks something is unfair… the Academy is of course going to be affected by that, and want to work to make things better. I think the sentiment around the Academy has been evolving over the last 12 months, I think momentum has been picking up from the end of last year’s show, and we’ve been changing so much.” 

The next Grammy ceremony is set to take place on January 31, 2022.