The Grammy Awards just released their 2025 nominations- and artists have expressed their excitement for this recognition everywhere on social platforms.
But while the GRAMMYs are looked at as one of the most prestigious awards in music, the ceremony is often met with a lot of controversy. This controversy comes from artists speaking out against the award show and calling out its credibility and systematic bias.
So today, I have composed a list of five artists who have called out the Grammy Awards in the past for various reasons.
1. Nicki Minaj
How does one of the most iconic female artists of our time have zero Grammys? I asked myself this for a long time before I decided to investigate. Apparently, there is a deep history about why Minaj believes she is blackballed from the Grammy Awards.
It all stems back to 2012 when Minaj was set to perform at the Grammys but was later told that the performance would be pulled out of respect for the passing of Whitney Houston, which happened the night before. But Minaj was not taking no for an answer and decided to perform anyways. She then performed her song “Roman Holiday,” which was met with a lot of controversy because many felt like she was mocking the Catholic Church. Through this performance, Minaj believed she ruined her relationship with Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich, who she thinks is the reason for her being blackballed at the Grammys.
That same night, Minaj would not win in any of the categories she was nominated for, which included Best New Artist, Album of the Year (which she was featured on for Loud), Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Album. This was shocking to many because, at the time, Minaj was the one of the biggest female hip-hop artists- especially with her album Pink Friday debuting at #1 on Billboard 200. Despite this, Minaj has still continued to be nominated for various awards, but has not won any or made regular attendance at the award show….
2. The Weeknd
The artist first called out the Grammys back in 2020 when his album After Hours did not receive any nominations despite being #1 on the Billboard charts for four consecutive weeks. At the time, The Weeknd also had a hit song (“Blinding Lights”), which was crowned the #1 song of all time on the Billboard Greatest Songs of All Time Hot 100 Chart.
The Weekend took to social media to share his disappointment with the Grammys, saying, “the Grammy’s remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency….”
Following this, The Weeknd decided to essentially boycott the Grammys, no longer allowing his music to be submitted for nominations. But honestly, who could blame him? If I had the #1 hit song of all time, I would be expecting a Grammy nomination too.
3. Drake
This artist has called out the Grammy Awards in more instances than just one, but the first time that comes to mind is when Drake decided to call out the Grammys showing solidarity with The Weeknd when he wasn’t nominated for any awards at the 2021 awards show (see above). Drake took to Instagram to call out this unfairness, saying, “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after.”
But Drake’s problems with the Grammys don’t stop there. He has also shared his frustration with the award show by calling them out for only type casting him into the rap category. Even though Drake’s hit single “Hotline Bling” won a Grammy for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, Drake believes the song was more pop since he did more singing than rapping.
4. Kanye West
I am definitely not surprised that this artist had something to say because, honestly, when does he not? Despite Kanye West having 24 Grammy Awards (being one of the most awarded in Grammy history), he has still spoken out about his dislike of the award show. In 2017, West decided to skip the Grammys to show support for Frank Ocean, who was not nominated for any awards for his albums Blonde and Endless that year. At one of his shows, West called out the award show saying, “As artists, we gotta come together to fight the bullsh*t they been throwing us with. All we need is a fair shot.”
West took it a step further when he posted a video of himself urinating on a Grammy award back in 2020 following a series of heated Twitter rants. Then in 2022, West was barred from performing at the Grammys despite having five nominations. This decision was made due to West’s “concerning online behavior” when he posted another series of rants calling Trevor Noah a racial slur. With Noah set to host the Grammys that year, people wanted to avoid confrontation between the two.
5. Ariana Grande
One thing that Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj have in common is that they both called out Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich for his control when it came to the Grammys. The pop artist called out Ehrlich back in 2019 when she decided to withdraw her performance from the award show that year. Ehrlich claimed that Grande didn’t perform due to her not being able to put together a performance in time, but Grande quickly shut that down, saying, “It was when my creativity & self-expression was stifled by you, that I decided not to attend.”
I believe Grande felt her creativity was stifled because Grammy producers wouldn’t even let her have full control over which songs she could perform, refusing to let her perform her hit single “7 Rings.”
It seems that the list could go on and on with artists who believe that the Grammys are unjust, which makes me wonder how this award show can still be looked at as credible when so many artists have called it out for biases.