ZAYN has called out The Recording Academy in a new post on social media.

In a tweet shared this evening (March 9), the former One Direction singer wrote: “Fuck the grammys and everyone associated.”

He continued: “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary.”

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

It’s not clear exactly what prompted the outburst from ZAYN as hasn’t released an album within the eligibility period for this year’s Grammys (Sept 1, 2019-August 31, 2020), unless he’s referring to ‘Flames’, his collaborative single with R3hab and Jungleboi which was released in November 2019.

Failing that, Zayn’s comments could be in response to his lack of nominations in the past. His only Grammy nod was in 2017 for ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’, the 50 Shades Darker song he performed with Taylor Swift; it was nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media.

The ‘Pillowtalk’ singer isn’t the only artist to call out the Grammys as of late. In November, The Weeknd expressed he was unhappy after he failed to receive any nominations for the forthcoming awards for his latest album, ‘After Hours’.

In a tweet, The Weeknd – aka Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – said the Grammys “remain corrupt” and that the organisation “owe me, my fans and the industry transparency”.

The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020

Justin Bieber, meanwhile, said was unhappy with the Recording Academy’s pop classification of his latest album. “I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said I set out to make an R&B album,” he wrote in a statement on Twitter.

“‘Changes’ was and is an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me.”

Recording Academy Chair and Interim President/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded to Bieber’s statement in a recent interview with Pitchfork.

“We always want to respect the artist’s wishes,” Mason Jr. said, responding to a question about artists who feel their nominations don’t necessarily match the category that their music is in. “Art’s a funny thing because it’s so subjective, and at the Academy our goal is to honour excellence.

“At some point, decisions have to be made as to how to compare different things, and it is a very tough process and one I don’t think we get right every time. We use our best efforts to get people where they wanna be and where they should be and try to evaluate them as best as we can. If he felt that was that type of a record, then, you know… I’ll just leave it at that.”

He concluded: “We try really hard to make sure people’s art is respected and evaluated in the right category.”

Teyana Taylor is also unhappy with the Grammys, citing the all-male list for R&B album, and saying “all I see is dick in this category”.

Meanwhile, Killer Mike has responded to Run The Jewels not receiving a single nod in the 2021 Grammy Awards nominations list.