Nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards received major backlash by the media as ‘deserving’ artists were supposedly snubbed. 

The Grammys are a prestigious award ceremony for those in the music industry. The awards recognize the best artists, compositions, and recordings released within the eligible year, September 1, 2019 to August 30, 2020.

On November 24, the Recording Academy, an academy of music professionals who run the Grammys, released the nominations for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards taking place on January 31, 2021.

This year taking the lead in nominations was Beyonce, with nine nominations. She was followed by artists Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, and Roddy Rich, racking up six nominations each.

The real news weren’t those who were nominated though, rather the artists who were prominently snubbed. First on this list, and the most outspoken about the freeze out, was the singer Halsey.

Ashley Frangipane, known by stage name Halsey, has been a part of the music business for eight years, as she began her music career by posting videos to her YouTube channel in 2012. After signing with record label Astralwerks, the singer released her first album, “Badlands” in 2015, becoming a large name in the pop industry.

Halsey released her second album, “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom,”  in mid 2017. Although her album wasn’t nominated for a Grammy, two songs she featured on, one being on Justin’s Bieber’s album “Purpose,” the other being her most renowned song, “Closer” with the Chainsmokers, were nominated in 2018.

Halsey’s hopes were high to finally receive some recognition from The Recording Academy this year, but again, was sadly disappointed. 

The artist released her third studio album, “Manic,” in January 2020, playing  a large role in the quarantine earlier in the year. The album is notorious for its hit single, “Without Me,” having first been released in 2018. 

With the singer being a well known icon in the industry, fans were shocked to see she had not been nominated for a single Grammy, and so was Halsey. On Saturday, November 28, Frangipane took her frustrations to social media, slamming the Grammys on her Instagram story. 

“The Grammys are an elusive process,” Halsey says. “It can often be about behind the scene private performances, knowing the right people, campaigning through the grapevine, with the right handshakes and ‘bribes.’”

The artist’s words spread like wildfire throughout the media, as she attacked the distinguished awards for being somewhat deceitful. Although, it seems as though she put most viewers’ thoughts into words, as people saw more issues with the nominations, or therefore lack of. 

Another artist that seemed to be left out of multiple categories that he was more than deserving to be nominated for is world renowned singer, songwriter, and actor, Harry Styles. This wasn’t the first time he had been snubbed by the Grammys.

Styles first embarked on his music career in 2010 when he auditioned on the British music competition show, “The X Factor.” This resulted in the artist, along with four other competitors of the show, forming One Direction, one of the best selling boy bands of all time.

The pop band lasted from 2010-2016, having released five chart topping albums before taking a permanent hiatus. Out of the other members of the band, Styles has received the most recognition for his solo work.

The artist’s self-titled debut album was released in 2017 with the leading single, “Sign of the Times.” Fans were in shock to find out that Styles didn’t receive a single Grammy nomination for the well admired album.

It was a bigger shock to see the lack of nominations Styles received for his most recent album, “Fine Line.”

The 12 track list album was released in early December of 2019, being a major hit throughout quarantine. “Fine Line” got much recognition over the past year, especially for lead singles “Watermelon Sugar” and “Adore You.”

This past year, Styles has received many awards, including being named Best International Artist at the ARIA’s, received the Chart Achievement award at the Billboard Music Awards, and was named Varieties Hitmaker of the year, all due to the renowned success of his second album.

With the release of the 2021 Grammy nominations, it was announced that the artist was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album with “Fine Line,” Best Pop Solo Performance for “Watermelon Sugar,” and Best Music Video for “Adore You,” where he created an entire fictional island featuring a fish for the song.

Although it was very exciting to see the artist had been nominated for the prestigious awards in the first place, it was disappointing to see that Styles’ work hadn’t been nominated for categories like Best Album, Record, or Song of the Year, which he was thought to have been a shoe in for.

Unlike Halsey, Styles didn’t take his views on the nominations to social media, but was asked about the lack of in a recent interview with “Variety”. 

“It’s never why I do anything,” Styles shrugged when asked about the awards. “It’s always nice to know that people like what you’re doing, but ultimately — and especially working in a subjective field — I don’t put too much weight on that stuff.” 

Although Halsey and Harry Styles fans are both in dismay, the biggest upheaval regarding the snubbed artists was the lack of nominations for The Weeknd. 

Abel Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, is a famous R&B artist, having made multiple hits over the years. 

The Weeknd first entered the music industry in 2012 with his debut album, “Kiss Land”. The artist began to gain some recognition and went on to collaborate with many well known artists.

It wasn’t until his second album, “Beauty Behind the Madness” released in 2015, when the artist finally received some much deserved recognition. The album featured two of the artist’s most popular songs, “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face.”

He went on to win Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2016 Grammys.

The Weeknd’s third studio album, “Starboy” was released in 2016 being a big hit across the world with the album’s title track going platinum. The album won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2018 Grammys.

Although the artist has gotten his share of recognition from the Academy in the past, it was seen as an outrage as the artists fourth studio album to not even receive a single nomination. 

“After Hours” was released on March 20, 2020, becoming the anthem album for a summer at home, as it ruled younger generations. The album’s most prominent single, “Blinding Lights,” has received much deserved praise, having hit over one billion streams in a year.

Fans and fellow artists of the industry alike were shocked to see the lack of recognition for “After Hours” in the 2021 Grammy list.

In Halsey’s infamous hardcore Instagram bash against the Academy she went on to say how, “[The Weeknd] deserves better.”

“The other day I said [The Weeknd] was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way,” Drake, a popular rapper and fellow friend of The Weeknd said, coming to his support on social media.

The singer himself had a few things to say regarding the lack of nominations as well.

“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans, and the industry transparency,” the artist wrote to Twitter.

Although there are many wins to look forward to at the 2021 awards ceremony, the definite snubs are not ones to be overlooked as they are deserving of major recognition. 

But who knows, if the Academy continues to overlook such prominent icons in the industry, the prestigious awards may no longer be seen as prestigious. 

“[We should] just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake stated.