Despite releasing highly anticipated albums this year, Lorde and The Weeknd have been completely shut out of the Grammy nominations, leaving fans frustrated and vocal online.
Lorde released her fourth studio album, Virgin, while The Weeknd unveiled his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. Both albums performed exceptionally well on streaming platforms, and their live shows were consistently sold out. Yet, when the nominations for the upcoming Grammys were announced, neither artist received a single nod. Meanwhile, artists such as Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter saw their respective albums nominated for the prestigious ‘Album of the Year’.
Fans of Lorde quickly took to social media to voice their outrage. Many suggested that the Recording Academy might be exacting revenge following Lorde’s public criticism of the Grammys in 2018. At that time, her album Melodrama was up for Album of the Year. Unlike her male counterparts, however, she was not offered a solo performance slot at the ceremony.
Instead, she was invited to participate in a tribute to Tom Petty, which she found unsatisfactory. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), she posted a now-deleted message inviting doubters to come see her perform live. Her mother also criticised the Recording Academy, highlighting a New York Times report noting that only 9 per cent of nominees in the previous six Grammy Awards were women. She pointed out that Lorde was the only woman nominated for Album of the Year in 2018 yet was not scheduled to perform.
Other artists believed to have been snubbed include Benson Boone, whose second album American Heart was overlooked, and Gracie Abrams, whose hit song That’s So True was one of the year’s most popular tracks.
For fans of Taylor Swift wondering about her absence, her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, was released on 3 October 2025—after the eligibility window for this year’s awards, which ran from 31 August 2024 to 30 August 2025, had closed.