Recording Academy responds to The Weeknd's decision to boycott the Grammys

It's safe to say The Weeknd won't be watching the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards this weekend after he revealed in a statement provided Thursday to The New York Times that he "will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys" for consideration.

Recording Academy interim chief Harvey Mason Jr. addressed The Weeknd's decision with Variety's Jem Aswad: 

"Some of it was [decided by] the [secret] nominating committees and some was the voting body, because some of the awards he was eligible for did not have nominating committees, so it was a combination of both. But again, it’s unfortunate, we never like to see somebody as talented as the Weeknd get left out or feel left out. It’s not something any of us are happy about.

[...]

"The process is definitely something that we’re going to continue to look at and continue to make sure that it’s evolving as music continues to evolve. I’ll hopefully have more things to talk about in the future."

Nominations were announced in November, and The Weeknd (born Abel Tesfaye) was nowhere to be found despite owning one of the industry's most dominant albums: After Hours and its commercially record-breaking singles "Blinding Lights" and "Heartless."