Justin Bieber has called the Grammys “strange and weird” for nominating him in pop categories instead of R&B.
Yesterday (24 November), the Canadian singer received four nominations from the music awards body, including Best Pop Vocal Album for Changes, and Best Pop Solo Performance for his single “Yummy”.
On Instagram, Bieber expressed his thanks to the Grammys, but confessed that he found the category placement “weird”.
While thanking the Grammys for “appreciating his artistry”, Bieber wrote: “I set out to make an R&B album. Changes was and is an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album, which is very strange to me.”
Bieber continued, writing that he deliberately wanted to make an album that “embodied” the R&B sound.
“For this not to be put into that category feels weird,” he wrote. “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!”
“Please don’t mistake this as me being ungrateful, these are just my thoughts take em or leave em,” Bieber added. “Thank you to the people who fought for me to even have any noms.”
Bieber’s Changes is competing alongside Taylor Swift’s Folklore, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, Harry Styles’s Fine Line and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica in the Best Pop Vocal Album category.
The 2021 Grammys, which will be held on 31 January, has already made history by exclusively nominating women in the show’s Best Rock Performance category for the first time.
The Weeknd, who was snubbed for Record of the Year, claimed that the ceremony was “corrupt”.
