Grammys ready pandemic show, as the Weeknd sits out

By Ben Sisario

When music fans tune in to the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night — with Trevor Noah as host and performances by nearly two dozen stars, including Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Dua Lipa and BTS — they will see the music world coming together in celebration and friendly competition after a grueling year.

Beyoncé, who has nine nominations, will be aiming for her first win in a major category since 2010, while Swift has five nominations connected to “Folklore,” an album made entirely in quarantine. The show will also address the pandemic’s painful effect on music, with an extended “in memoriam” segment and a spotlight on the independent venues that represent music history but have suffered devastating blows after a year of lost business.

But behind the scenes, the industry is waging a war for the soul of the Grammys, after years of accusations of bias against women and Black artists and complaints over an opaque voting system that critics say is unfair and out of touch.

Every year there are winners and losers. But this year’s biggest controversy highlights the way names get on the ballot in the first place. It involves the Weeknd, the Canadian pop star whose sleek, high-concept earworms like “Blinding Lights” have broken chart records and drawn wide critical acclaim; last month he also played the Super Bowl halftime show, perhaps pop music’s biggest big-tent moment. Yet when it came time for Grammy nominations, the Weeknd got nothing.

Why? Scrutiny has zeroed in on a little-understood part of the Grammy process: the role of anonymous expert committees, which review initial nomination choices by the thousands of music professionals who make up the voting membership of the Recording Academy, the nonprofit group behind the awards, and — for 61 of the Grammys’ 84 categories — have the final say about who makes the cut. To the Grammy leadership, the committees are a check-and-balance step to preserve the integrity of the awards. To suspicious artists, they are unaccountable star chambers that can subvert the will of the voters.

For the Weeknd, the entire process has proved unacceptable. In a statement to The New York Times, he said he would boycott the awards from now on. “Because of the secret committees,” the Weeknd said, “I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.”

He joins a growing list of Black stars, like Drake, Kanye West and Frank Ocean, whose public rebukes of the Grammys are a threat to an institution that views itself as a supportive home for the entire music community. In addition to Beyoncé and Swift, top nominees include Lipa with six nods, along with Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Post Malone, Roddy Ricch, Coldplay, Haim and Jhené Aiko.

Yet the Grammys’ poor record of recognizing people of color in the top awards — the last Black artist to take album of the year was Herbie Hancock in 2008 for a tribute to Joni Mitchell — has alienated a crucial constituency.

Harvey Mason Jr., a producer and songwriter who is the academy’s interim chief executive, said the organization was dedicated to improving itself. In late 2019, a task force led by Tina

The Weeknd poses in the Grammy Awards press room on Feb. 15, 2016, with the awards for best R&B performance and best urban contemporary album. The Weeknd had the No. 1 song of 2020, but “Blinding Lights” was not nominated for a Grammy Award.