Abel Tesfaye, known professionally as The Weeknd, was anticipating a bunch of GRAMMY Award nominations for his top-selling album After Hours. His expectations weren't necessarily farfetched either-- this was one of his greatest pieces of art ever released. It had a clear vision behind it, as represented by over a year of performance art and identity play by the artist. However, when the big day came around, he wasn't nominated in any categories.
Initially, Tesfaye was vocally frustrated about being snubbed, calling out the GRAMMY committee on social media for the next few days after he received zero nominations. Now though, he's just about over the situation.
"Look, I personally don’t care anymore," he said during his recent cover story with Billboard's Carl Lamarre. "I have three Grammys, which mean nothing to me now, obviously. 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. I suck at giving speeches anyways. Forget awards shows."
His team, including Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, La Mar C. Taylor, and Amir “Cash” Esmailian, were also interviewed for the piece. They were a little more peeved about the snub. Taylor called it "shocking". Slaiby said it was "disrespectful". And Esmailan claims the situation was "nightmarish".
"I use a sucker punch as an analogy," said The Weeknd about not being nominated. "Because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere. I definitely felt ... I felt things. I don’t know if it was sadness or anger. I think it was just confusion. I just wanted answers. Like, ‘What happened?’ We did everything right, I think. 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."
Read the full cover story on Billboard for more on The Weeknd's GRAMMY snub.