Drake withdraws his two Grammy Awards nominations for 2022 ceremony
Drake will not compete in the 2022 Grammy Awards, choosing to withdraw his two nominations.
USA TODAY has confirmed that the Recording Academy has complied with a request from Drake's team to remove his nominations from the Grammy's final-round ballot.
When the nominations were announced on Nov. 23, Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” was absent from the major categories and only earned nods for best rap album and best rap performance (“Way 2 Sexy”). The album broke Spotify records, crowned Drake as the eighth artist in Billboard history to earn 10 No. 1 albums and spawned the hits “Girls Want Girls” and “Knife Talk” in addition to “Way 2 Sexy.”
Drake's nominations are expected to be removed from the list of Grammy nominations, leaving four contenders in his two nominated categories.
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The snub of a high-profile, well-received album was reminiscent of The Weeknd being shut out of nominations at the 2021 ceremony for his top-selling “After Hours” album. The Weeknd has since boycotted the Grammys – despite the Recording Academy making major overhauls to its voting processes this year – though he factors into a trio of nominations this year for his work on albums from Kanye West (“Donda”) and Doja Cat (“Planet Her”).
Following The Weeknd’s complaint, Drake posted his thoughts about the alleged oversight on Instagram stories, writing, "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. It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways."
Drake has long maintained a contentious relationship with the Grammys. Upon accepting his 2019 award for best rap song for “God’s Plan” – his first appearance at the ceremony since 2013 – he launched into a speech that called the honor meaningless before his microphone was silenced.
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"We play an opinion-based sport, not a factual based sport," Drake said. "You've already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you're a hero in your hometown. If there's people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows. You don't need this right here, I promise you. You already won. But – "
That year, Drake was nominated for seven Grammys, including album of the year for “Scorpion” and record of the year for “God’s Plan.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Drake withdraws his two Grammy Award nominations for 2022 ceremony
