Grammys 2022: The Weeknd Wins Grammy Despite Boycott Of Award Show

The Weeknd won a Grammy award Sunday night despite publicly boycotting the awards show last year.

The "Blinding Lights" singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, took home this year's Grammy for best melodic rap performance, shared with Lil Baby and Kanye "Ye" West, for their vocals on West's song "Hurricane," off his album "Donda," Entertainment Tonight reported.

The trio beat out fellow nominees J. Cole, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X and Tyler, the Creator. The award was announced during a pre-show telecast, and the prize did not air during the televised portion of the night.

This comes more than a year after The Weeknd criticized the Recording Academy and accused it of corruption after his album "After Hours" and his chart-topping single "Blinding Lights" were left off the list of the 2021 Grammy nominees.

"The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency," The Weeknd wrote on Twitter in November 2020.

Two months later, the artist discussed the Grammys snub in his Billboard cover story, describing it as an "attack." He also said that the three Grammys he's earned before Sunday night — in 2017 for "Starboy" and in 2015 for "Earned It" and "Beauty Behind the Madness" — "mean nothing to me."

"Look, I personally don't care anymore," The Weeknd said. "I have three Grammys, which mean nothing to me now, obviously. It's not like, 'Oh, I want the Grammy!' It's just that this happened, and I'm down to get in front of the fire, as long as it never happens again."

"I suck at giving speeches anyways," he added. "Forget awards shows."

In March 2021, The Weeknd announced that he would boycott the Grammys moving forward.

"Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys," he told The New York Times at the time.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded to The Weeknd's statement saying that "we're all disappointed when anyone is upset," but stated that "we are constantly evolving," People reported.

"And this year, as in past years, we are going to take a hard look at how to improve our awards process, including the nomination review committees," Mason added.

The Weeknd's collaborator, West, was also absent from Sunday night's ceremony at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas but still walked away with two awards. In addition to his shared win with The Weeknd and Lil Baby, the rapper also took best rap song for "Jail."

Despite being nominated for five awards, the Yeezy founder was previously pulled from the award show's list of performers due to his "concerning online behavior."

The Grammys announced the decision after West used a racial slur to mock Trevor Noah, who hosted the show, and after weeks of social media tirades against Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson.

However, his absence from this year's Grammys may not have been entirely due to him being barred from performing at the ceremony. Unnamed sources told Page Six last week that West agreed to stop harassing his estranged wife and cyberbullying Davidson and was now "getting help."

"For the sake of the kids, Kanye has told Kim he's not making any public appearances or inflammatory social media statements, and he will go away somewhere to get better," a source close to the Kardashians claimed.