Dan MacMedan-USA TODAY NETWORK

Zayn Malik hammers Grammy nomination process for lack of inclusion

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 3/10/21

Zayn Malik, known best as simply Zayn, once left One Direction because he felt the boy band was stifling his self-expression.

Nothing is holding him back now.

Tuesday, the 28-year-old crooner called out the Grammys for favoritism in the nomination process in an explicit tweet:

Fuck the grammys and everyone associated. Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary.
— zayn (@zaynmalik) March 9, 2021

Zayn remained steadfast in his opinion later in the day, but he eased up on his language and explained where he was coming from in a separate tweet:

My tweet was not personal or about eligibility but was about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process and the space that creates and allows favoritism, racism, and netwokring politics to influence the voting process
— zayn (@zaynmalik) March 10, 2021

Despite staggering global success and countless award earnings, One Direction was never nominated by the Recording Academy before announcing their split in August 2015. Zayn has released three solo albums—Mind of Mine (2016), Icarus Falls (2018) and Nobody Is Listening (2021)—but has not been nominated for a Grammy as a solo artist. His collaboration with Taylor Swift, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," was nominated in 2017, however.

Nobody Is Listening arrived in January, five months after this year's eligibility window closed.

Zayn is not the only artist to publicly slam the Grammys, as The Weeknd was equally upset by not receiving any recognition for his record-smashing album After Hours when nominations were unveiled in November:

The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency...
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020

The show must go on, and it will. The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards will begin Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on CBS—live from the Los Angeles Convention Center. The Daily Show host and comedian Trevor Noah will host, and Beyonce leads the field with nine nominations.

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