Zayn Malik has some choice words for the Recording Academy. The singer took to Twitter on Tuesday to call out the GRAMMY Awards and accused them of being rigged.
"F**k the grammys and everyone associated," Malik tweeted. "Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations."
"Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary," he added.
Some fans were confused by the timing of his tweet, considering his most recent album, Nobody Is Listening, was released in January and therefore wasn't eligible for consideration.
Additionally, the nominations for this year's show -- which drew considerable heat for some of the more shocking snubs -- were announced back in November.
However, Malik later clarified that his remarks were not in reference to his own album, but were directed toward what he sees as the show's lack of diversity and lack of transparency when it comes to nominations.
"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 networking politics to influence the voting process," Malik tweeted.
He did not, however, respond to fans' questions about whether or not his initial remarks were meant to shade his former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles, who is nominated for three GRAMMY Awards at this year's show and is set to perform.
Meanwhile, Malik is far from the only musician who has been critical of the GRAMMYs.
After the nominations were initially announced, fans were shocked that The Weeknd didn't garner a single nomination, despite having a record-breaking single in "Blinding Lights."
The Weeknd tweeted at the time that the GRAMMYs "remain corrupt," and later told Billboard that the three awards he already has "mean nothing to me now."
The singer explained that the snubs came as a painful surprise.
"I use a sucker punch as an analogy, because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere," he tells Billboard. "I definitely felt... things. I don’t know if it was sadness or anger. I think it was just confusion."
"I just wanted answers. Like, 'What happened?' We did everything right, I think," he continues. "I’m not a cocky person. I’m not arrogant. People told me I was going to get nominated. The world told me, like, 'This is it; this is your year.' We were all very confused."
ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Harvey Mason, Jr., Chair and Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy, in January about The Weeknd's comments and outrage, and he opened up about the unpredictable nature of the nomination system.
"The voting process is one that includes almost 12,000 people and these are professional music people. They vote on the music that they feel best represented excellence for that year," he shared. "It's really hard to predict from year to year what's going to happen. And you never know who they're going to vote for, so it can surprise you sometimes."
"I've been in this job for about seven, eight months, so it's definitely a priority for me to continue to evolve how we choose our nominees and our winners," he added. "Our voting membership is continuing to grow and the momentum around that feels very positive. The Weeknd's an incredible artist with great music and we have had issues like that in the past. I'm sure there will be people in the future that will be unhappy but we'll always try to represent excellence, we'll always try and get these things right."
The 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place on Sunday, March 14, 2021 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS, as well as streaming live on Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access).
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