It was about transparency.
Just hours after he slammed the Grammys over its voting process, Zayn returned to Twitter on Tuesday night (March 9) to say that his comments were “not personal,” but rather about the “need for inclusion.” The singer, 28, teed off on the Recording Academy on Tuesday, just five days before the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, writing, “F— 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, who has yet to receive a Grammy nomination, either as part of One Direction or for his solo work, appeared to have second thoughts a short time later, returning to Twitter to explain his earlier comments. “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,” he wrote.
The eligibility period for the 2021 Grammys began on Sept. 1, 2019, and ended on Aug. 31, 2020. Zayn’s third studio effort, Nobody Is Listening, could not have received any Grammy nominations since it was released on Jan. 15, 2021. Not even its first single, “Better,” would have qualified since it came out on Sept. 25, 2020, one month after the Grammys eligibility period ended.
Billboard has reached out to the Recording Academy for comment.
Check out the original tweet and the follow-up below.
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
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
The 63rd annual Grammy Awards will air live on Sunday (Mar. 14) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS, Paramount+ and Grammy.com. Online viewers can also stream CBS with free trials on fuboTV and Sling TV.
