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By: Tarun Batchu
Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, a Canadian pop-star, has solidified himself as one of the biggest artists of our generation. Throughout his diverse, decade-long discography, The Weeknd’s characteristic falsetto tone has complemented the dark subject matter - including sex, drugs, and depression - presented in his music. The 9 time Grammy Nominee and 3 time Grammy Award Winner has released some of the most popular songs of the 2010s from “The Hills” to “Call out My Name” and created some of the best-selling albums to date such as Beauty Behind the Madness and Starboy. However, despite his most recent ground-breaking contributions to R&B and Pop, the Grammys failed to recognize him as a nominee for 2020.
After the surprise EP My Dear, Melancholy, Tesfaye released an album After Hours, following the hit singles “Blinding Lights”, “Heartless”, and “After Hours”. The album consisted of 14 tracks, including the three singles and 11 other songs like “Hardest to Love,” “In Your Eyes,” and “Save Your Tears.” Critically acclaimed, “After Hours” was arguably one of the best albums of 2020. Even a year after the song’s debut, Blinding Lights continues to break awards in numerous categories, dominating the charts today with 2 Billion Streams. Other songs from this album have been on and off the billboard global charts. Currently from the album, “Save Your Tears” tops them. The below chart shows the songs with the most number of streams of 2020.
The graph shown above ranks the songs, from left to right, with the most streams in 2020. The Weeknd tops the Spotify Charts with his song “Blinding Lights”. Although one song currently has more streams than another, the graph ranks the songs of most streams during 2020.
Aside from the sales, it is well established that Tesfaye pushed the borders of R&B and Pop once again with this genre-defying project. The unique instrumentation makes heavy use of synths, emulating the sounds of the 1980s, while Tesfaye’s songwriting and vocals focus on deep, personal topics. He sings about his addiction to Las Vegas, comparing it to the toxic lifestyle he lived in LA. He stresses the fact that his status as a pop-star has changed him into a different man; someone more materialistic, lonely, and depressed. Due to the unique style and massive sales, most believed that The Weeknd was virtually guaranteed to be nominated by the Grammy Awards for multiple categories. Notwithstanding his rough history with Tesfaye, even fellow Toronto superstar Drake admitted to believing that The Weeknd was a “...lock for either the album or song of the year with countless other reasonable assumptions…”. To the shock and surprise of most music fans, however, Tesfaye was not nominated for even a single award despite the overwhelming commercial and cultural success he enjoyed throughout 2020.
Tesfaye showed his frustration in an Instagram story, saying, “The Grammy’s Remain Corrupt,” as this wasn’t the first time the Grammys snubbed an artist. In the past, there have been claims that the Grammys were biased, as some alleged that white, male artists were given preference over their black or female peers; in fact, many popular artists have been seemingly ignored in the past including Drake, Travis Scott, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar.
We can even compare the number of streams of the songs handpicked by the Grammys. Of course, the number of streams should not necessarily correlate to a record of the year, but looking at a figure like this clearly indicates that the Grammys have snubbed The Weeknd.
Over the last few months, Tesfaye has voiced his displeasure with the Grammys. Most recently, he said that he would no longer be allowing his label to submit his music to the Grammys in the future. There is a lot to take away from this. As much as they deserve accolades for their work, I believe that we must stop being bothered by the Grammys decisions. This is a historical trend, and with the increasing skepticism about the Grammys’ credibility in judging, it is really important to reassess the importance of music at a time like this. Music has become commercialized; it has turned into a contest of sales rather than quality. Nowadays, with the influence of social media and TikTok, popular music has lost its personal touch and no longer inspires listeners through the quality of its lyrics, production, and themes. Since there can not be an objectively good or bad album, artists should do what they believe in instead of being incentivized by awards from institutions and voters who don’t properly understand or relate to the music they evaluate. Hopefully, the decision from The Weeknd progresses so that he and his label, XO, can inspire the concept of interest over awards.
Edited By: Gohitha Venkluri and Varchas Bharadwaj
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