The Weeknd to continue Grammys boycott despite key rule change

A key change to the Grammy Awards' voting process has been made after The Weeknd announced a boycott — but he's not declaring victory.

The singer told Variety on Monday he won't be ending his boycott of the Grammys following a recent change made by the Recording Academy to eliminate "secret" nomination committees.

"The trust has been broken for so long between the Grammy organization and artists that it would be unwise to raise a victory flag," he said.

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The Recording Academy on Friday announced that going forward, nominations for the main categories at the Grammys will be determined by "a majority, peer-to-peer vote of voting members," and anonymous committees will no longer make final decisions in these categories, Variety reported. After The Weeknd controversially received no nominations at the 2021 Grammys, he said he would boycott the show going forward and cited the nominating committees, which some blamed for his snub.

"Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys," The Weeknd said at the time.

But on Monday, while The Weeknd called the change an "important start," he said he's still "uninterested in being a part of the Grammys, especially with their own admission of corruption for all these decades." Recording Academy interim president Harvey Mason Jr. previously told Variety that conversations about this rule change "started long ago," though he added, "Any time an artist, especially one of that stature, calls our process into question or thinks something is unfair ... the Academy is of course going to be affected by that."