For yet another year, both Drake and The Weeknd remain adamant in their refusal to submit music for Grammy award consideration.
According to a Pitchfork report published on Friday (Oct. 14), Drake and The Weeknd's most recent solo musical offerings were noticeably absent from the voting ballots as the Recording Academy opened up its first round of the nomination process for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on Thursday (Oct. 13).
Despite both Toronto-bred mega stars having been featured on plenty of songs that are included on this year's Grammy ballot, neither Drake's Honestly, Nevermind nor The Weeknd's Dawn FM were seemingly submitted for Grammy Award consideration. The same can be said for any singles from the respective projects such as Drizzy's "Jimmy Cooks" featuring 21 Savage.
The latest omissions from Drake and The Weeknd regarding the recording industry's most prestigious award follows a history of beef both respected artists have had with the Recording Academy, the organization which annually hosts the Grammys.
In 2017, Drake similarly refused to submit his More Life album to be considered for the coveted golden gramophone trophy after not showing up at the Grammy Awards ceremony the year prior due to his opinion that the Grammys no longer reflected the preferences of a younger audience. At the 2019 ceremony, the Scorpion MC was cut off mid-acceptance speech for downplaying the Grammys' significance while accepting the award for Best Rap Song he earned for "God's Plan." In the wake of that incident, Drake took it upon himself to remove his 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy, from any and all Grammy Award nominations.
As for The Weeknd, he began his Recording Academy boycott in 2021 after not receiving a single nomination for his wildly successful 2020 album, After Hours. Regardless of the boycott, The Weeknd still earned a Grammy at last year's festivities for his guest appearance on Kanye West's "Hurricane," which earned the award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Drake and Weeknd weren't the only urban artists to refuse to submit their music for consideration. Silk Sonic, the duo made up of Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars, recently announced the same move.
“We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year,” Mars told Rolling Stone in a statement on Thursday. “We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.”
The 65th Grammy Awards are set to broadcast live from the Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 2023, on CBS.