Drake defends The Weeknd after Grammy nomination snub

The rapper Drake came to the defense of his fellow Canadian musician Abel Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, after he was sidelined at the 2021 Grammy awards, Billboard reports.

The Weeknd's album After Hours debuted at the top of the charts in March of this year, and their song Blinding Lights topped the charts for weeks. Nevertheless, The Weeknd did not even manage to secure a nomination at the prestigious award ceremony.

The Weeknd took to Twitter to call the Grammy Awards "corrupt" and to demand transparency, which he says is owed to his fans.

Drake posted on Instagram to defend his counterpart, 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."

"The other day I said The Weeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way," Drake continued.

"This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come," Drake said.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. expressed some sympathy for The Weeknd, stating that "I can imagine that he’s disappointed."