Celebrities Who Boycotted Criticized the Grammys Over the Years
Despite the prestigious nature of the Grammy Awards, some musicians have not held back when it comes to calling out and even boycotting the award show.
Over the years, like Jay-Z, Ariana Grande, Will Smith and more have chosen to boycott the show while many others have spoken out about what they don’t approve of about the show. From how the songs are categorized, to how corrupt the voting system is and how unbelievable some snubs really are, it’s clear the Grammys are fraught with issues.
In 2024, Jay-Z returned to the Grammys after previously skipping the show on numerous occasions (and even calling it out in his 2018 song Apesh-t.) While accepting Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, he pointed out the show’s history of overlooking Black artists, including wife Beyonce who has never won Album of the Year despite having the most Grammys of all time.
“The truth is, we grew up wanting to be on the Grammys, and it was our goal. We just want them to get it right. That’s what we want,” the rapper explained.
Similarly, ahead of the 2021 Grammy Awards, The Weeknd, wasn’t shy about showing his frustration after not being nominated for a single category despite his chart-topping album After Hours releasing that year. “I use a sucker punch as an analogy,” he told Billboard later in the year. “Because it just kind of hit me out of nowhere. I definitely felt… I 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.”
To check out some more stars who weren’t afraid to criticize and even boycott the Grammy Awards over the years, scroll below!
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Jay-Z
Jay-Z might be the proud owner of 24 Grammy Awards but that hasn’t stopped him from calling out the award show’s habit of not rewarding Black artists.
At the 2024 Grammys, while accepting Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, Jay-Z reflected on his own difficult history with the award show, remembering when he boycotted in 1998 after DMX wasn’t nominated despite having two number one albums that year.
He also called out the show for never awarding Beyoncé with Album of the Year despite her having the most Grammys of all time. “So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” he said. “Think about that. The most Grammys; never won Album of the Year. It doesn’t work.”
“Some of you are going to go home and feel like you’ve been robbed, some of you may get robbed, some of you don’t belong in the category,” he continued in his call out. “Outside of that, we got to keep showing up. Just in life, we got to keep showing up…until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
As Jay-Z noted, Jeff Townes and Will Smith, known as a group as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, were some of the earliest stars to boycott the Grammys.
In 1989, they won in the then brand new Best Rap Performance category, for their song “Parents Just Understand,” but didn’t attend the show after learning the rap categories would not be broadcast.
“We don’t have the problem with the Grammy as an award or the Grammys as an institution, we just had a problem with the 1989 design of the awards show,” Smith told Entertainment Tonight. We chose to boycott. We feel that it’s a slap in the face.”
“They said there wasn’t enough time to televise all of the categories,” Townes added. “They televised 16 categories, and from record sales, from the Billboard charts, from the overall public’s view, there’s no way you can tell me that out of 16 categories, that rap isn’t in the top 16.”
The following year, and every year since, the Grammys televised the rap category.
Charli XCX
Charli XCX is set for a redemption with eight Grammy nominations in 2025 for her album Brat but in 2023, she didn’t shy away from her true feelings after not receiving a nomination for the award show.
“Me not being nominated for a Grammy for Crash is like Mia Goth not being nominated for an Oscar for Pearl and only further proves that people don’t wanna see hot evil girls thrive,” the singer said on social media at the time.
Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny criticized the Grammys after closed captions were not provided for his 2023 performance of his Spanish-language songs “El Apagón” and “Después de la Playa.”
His lyrics were labeled “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” and “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH].” He told Vanity Fair that it was “so fucked up.”
“It’s ugly to say that I saw it as normal. Then it was like, wow, wait a minute, what the hell? Why don’t they have someone? Knowing that I was going to be there. … I sing for those who want to listen to me and those who understand me,” he explained.
Ariana Grande
The drama between Ariana Grande and the Grammy Awards began in 2019 when rumors started swirling that Grande had canceled her performance because she didn’t have enough time to rehearse, per Us Weekly.
“I can pull together a performance overnight and you know that, Ken [Ehrlich],” she tweeted at the show’s then-executive producer. “It was when my creativity & self-expression was stifled by you, that I decided not to attend.”
Grande ended up skipping the show but didn’t hold back on X when ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, who died five months earlier, lost out on a posthumous award despite his parents being invited to the show.
“Trash,” Grande tweeted, per Variety, “literal bulls—.”
“THEY INVITED HIS PARENTS OUT. NO,” she added and, “this. this is what i meant. karen was gonna have a green suit made,” referring to Miller’s mom Karen Meyers.
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple spoke out after producer Dr. Luke was nominated for a Grammy in 2020 shortly after settling a defamation lawsuit with Kesha over her sexual abuse allegations against him.
“I’m bringing up the Grammys and that’s really something that I shouldn’t be doing, but really, Dr. Luke is nominated [under pseudonym Tyson Trax]?” Apple said to The Guardian. “They had [Kesha] up there singing ‘Praying’ [which is about her alleged abuse] and now they’re gonna go: ‘Oh but it’s Tyson Trax!'”
The Weeknd
Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, began his gripe with the Grammys when the nominations for the 2021 awards were announced and his name was nowhere to be seen. As a reminder, The Weeknd was one of the year’s biggest artists with his album After Hours and his history-making single “Blinding Lights,” per Billboard.
Following the total shutout from the Awards, the “Can’t Feel My Face” singer spoke out. “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” he wrote on X.
The Weeknd then went on to reveal that he was initially invited to perform at the show before getting uninvited. “Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited?” he asked on X. “In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!”
Drake
Following the backlash of The Weeknd’s lack of nominations, fellow musician Drake also spoke out. “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,” he wrote on Instagram, per Billboard.
“It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways,” Drake added.
“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,” he added of the fellow singer. “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.”
Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa also came to The Weeknd’s defense at the time, echoing how corrupt the system is. “Yea that’s a surprise but its politics,” the rapper wrote on X. “If you don’t show up to their parties they don’t throw your name around.”
Machine Gun Kelly
Much like The Weeknd, when Colson Baker, also known as Machine Gun Kelly, was shutout of the 2022 Grammy Awards, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. “wtf is wrong with the grammys,” he tweeted at the time.
As a reminder, he had released his chart-topping album Tickets to My Downfall earlier in the year.
Nicki Minaj
Years after it happened, Nicki Minaj took to X to express her longtime frustration with being snubbed at the 2012 Grammy Awards. “Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation,” Minaj wrote on X in 2020. “They gave it to the white man Bon Iver.”
Pink
Pink aired her thoughts after only one woman won an award at the 2018 Grammys, prompting the Recording Academy president Neil Portnow to tell Variety that women need “to step up.”
“Women in music don’t need to ‘Step Up.’ Women have been stepping since the beginning of time. Stepping up, and also stepping aside,” Pink shared on X.
“Women OWNED music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT. And every year before this. When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair.”
Zayn Malik
In 2021, Zayn Malik did not hold back a few days before the Grammys after getting frustrated with how unfair the voting process was. “F— the Grammys and everyone associated,” Malik wrote on X. “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionery.”
“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 then explained in another tweet.
“[The Recording Academy] are moving in inches and we need to move in miles,” he continued. “I’m keeping the pressure on & fighting for transparency & inclusion. We need to make sure we are honoring and celebrating ‘creative excellence’ of ALL.”
Halsey
Following the 2021 Grammy nominations, Halsey echoed Malik’s feelings in a statement on Instagram. “The Grammys are an elusive process,” the “Closer” singer wrote, per Billboard. “It can often be about behind-the-scenes private performances, knowing the right people, campaigning through the grapevine, with the right handshake and ‘bribes’ that can be just ambiguous enough to pass as ‘not bribes.'”
“It’s not always about the music or quality or culture,” Halsey continued. “While I am THRILLED for my talented friends who were recognized this year, I am hoping for more transparency or reform. But I’m sure this post will blacklist me anyway.”
Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne tweeted his disappointment when he failed to land any nominations for the 2021 Grammys.
“As an artist, when I see da Grammys coming up & I’m not involved nor invited; I wonder. Is it me , my musik, or just another technicality?” he said. “I look around w respect & wonder competitively am I not worthy?! Then I look around & see 5 Grammys looking bak at me & I go to the studio.”
He took things a little further when he skipped the 2021 show and tweeted, “F-k the Grammys.”
Frank Ocean
Despite winning Grammys in 2013, Frank Ocean opted not to submit his album Blonde for consideration at the 2017 Grammys.
“That institution certainly has nostalgic importance. It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down,” he told The New York Times.
Eminem
Rap legend Eminem’s biggest issue seems to be less about the nominations and more about the show itself.
In a 2018 interview with Sway Calloway, the rapper said it was degrading to attend the event only to not take home a win. “They’re always pitching this hint that you might win album of the year, which used to be a big deal. I don’t think it’s a big deal now,” he said.
He then remembered attending the 2003 ceremony only to lose in the categories he was nominated for. “After that point in time, I was like, ‘Don’t ever ask me to f—ing come here again,” he said. “Please do not ask me. My answer is no for a 100 million years. Never again will I f—ing go to the Grammys.”
Quavo
In 2022, Quavo aired his thoughts on the controversial award show to TMZ. His rap group, Migos, were largely snubbed by the show throughout their run, most notably failing to land a Best New Artist nomination after the successful breakout.
“We need to make our own awards. Awards that appreciate the real shit that’s going on in the streets, that appreciate the culture. That appreciate when guys are the best new artist,” he said.
Tyler, the Creator
Tyler, the Creator got surprisingly candid at the 2020 Grammys after winning the award for Best Rap Album.
“It sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending or that’s anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category,” he said in a press room interview after winning Best Rap Album. “And I don’t like that urban word. It’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word to me…. Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment.”
He went on to say he’s grateful for the recognition, but couldn’t help but also have mixed feelings about it all.
Ellie Goulding
Also in 2020, Ellie Goulding spoke her mind in an op-ed on Medium about the Grammys in a call for greater transparency with voting.
“In most artistic fields, awards seem to come off the back of great critical acclaim, but in today’s music industry such ‘acclaim’ can have varied sources,” she wrote. “People are being awarded — in the form of both nominations and category wins — for reasons that are hard to decipher. If both the most globally popular artists and most critically revered artists are not being recognized, how do we, as artists, go on?”
Justin Bieber
Much like Tyler, The Creator, Justin Bieber also once objected to the Grammys’ categories and labeling.
“To the Grammys, I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry,” Bieber began his statement, referencing his nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album for Changes in 2021, per Billboard. “I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said I set out to make an R&B album. Changes was and is an R&B album.”
“For this not to be put into that category feels weird considering from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style all the way down to the hip hop drums that were chosen it is undeniably, unmistakably an R&B Album!” the “Lonely” singer explained.
“To be clear I absolutely love Pop music it just wasn’t what I set out to make this time around. My gratitude for feeling respected for my work remains and I am honored to be nominated either way.”
Teyana Taylor
In 2020, Teyana Taylor called out another major problem with the Grammy Awards: sexism. Following the nominations announced, Taylor took to X to show her frustration upon seeing only male musicians in the Best R&B Album category.
“Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is d— in this category,” she wrote. Nominated for the award were Ant Clemons, Giveon, John Legend, Luke James and Gregory Porter.
50 Cent
In 2021, after Pop Smoke’s posthumous album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon album failed to secure a Grammy nomination, EP for the album Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, spoke his mind. “They out of touch this sh– ain’t it, get the f— outta here,” he said on social media.
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