Add Drake to the list of people who don't sound happy that The Weeknd was shut out of this year's Grammy nominations.

The rapper took to social media to complain about it.

"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," Drake wrote on his Instagram stories. "It's like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can't change their ways."

Despite the commercial and critical success of The Weeknd's "After Hours" album, and many industry observers considered his single, "Blinding Lights," a frontrunner for song of the year, he did not receive Grammy nods.

Drake wrote that he, too, had thought that The Weeknd "was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way."

"This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come," Drake said.

After the nominations were announced on Tuesday, The Weeknd took to Twitter.

"The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency," he wrote.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy's chair and interim president/CEO, said in a statement to CNN "We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated."

"I was surprised and can empathize with what he's feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone's admiration," the statement continued.

"We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl and we would have loved to have him also perform on the GRAMMY stage the weekend before. Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists."

For years The Recording Academy has been the target of criticism that it is out of step with the preferences of consumers and has failed to recognize women and artists of color equally.

Nicki Minaj appeared to echo that latter point when she tweeted after the nominations "Never forget the Grammys didn't give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation. They gave it to the white man Bon Iver."

Singer Teyana Taylor tweeted that there were no female nominees in the best R&B album category.

Justin Bieber, who racked up nominations in both the pop and country categories, complained that he should be vying for R&B awards.

"To the Grammys I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry," he wrote in a statement posted on his verified Instagram account. "I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said, 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."

Source: CNN Entertainment 

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​Iconic singer and actress Cher is in Pakistan to celebrate the departure of Kaavan, dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant,” who will soon leave a Pakistani zoo for better conditions after years of lobbying by animal rights groups and activists.

Because of security concerns, Cher’s schedule was not made public. However, she met Friday with Prime Minister Imran Khan and was expected to visit Kaavan later in the trip, according to the prime minister’s office. Khan’s office released a video of the singer sitting with the prime minister outside on the expansive grounds of Khan’s residence.

Kaavan is set to leave for a sanctuary in Cambodia on Sunday, said Martin Bauer, spokesman for Four Paws International, a global animal welfare group that’s led the charge to save Kaavan since 2016..

The animal has languished in the zoo for 35 years and lost his partner in 2012. She died after an infection turned gangrenous and her body lay beside Kaavan for several days before being removed, said Dr. Amir Khalil, veterinarian with Four Paws. Khalil said Kaavan was heartbroken after his partner died.

Khalil has treated the elephant’s many wounds and ailments over the past three months. Kaavan has been diagnosed by veterinarians as both overweight and malnourished, and also suffers behavioral issues due to his isolation.
Cher took up Kaavan’s cause and has been a loud voice advocating for his resettlement. Four Paws, which often carries out animal rescue missions, will accompany Kaavan to the sanctuary.

In a tweet following her meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Cher said she thanked Khan “for making it possible for me to take Kaavan to Cambodia.” She tweeted she was making a documentary on Kaavan and said, “think documentary will be heartwarming.”

Even after he’s in Cambodia, Kaavan will require years of physical and even psychological assistance, Bauer said.
Because of the abysmal living conditions blamed on systemic negligence, Pakistan’s high court in May ordered the closure of Marghazar Zoo in the capital of Islamabad, where Kaavan has lived for much of his life.

A medical examination in September showed Kaavan’s nails were cracked and overgrown — the result of years of living in an improper enclosure with flooring that damaged his feet.

The elephant has also developed behaviors including shaking his head back and forth for hours, which the medical team of wildlife veterinarians and experts blamed on his utter boredom.

For the past three months, a Four Paws team including veterinarian Khalil and the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board have been readying Kaavan to leave.

Khalil first met Kaavan in 2016 and returned to the zoo in August, where he was saddened by the animal’s condition. Khalil has spent the last three months trying to get him ready for his trip to Cambodia.

Kaavan was put on a diet of fruit and vegetables and has lost half a ton (450 kilograms), he said. Previously, Kaavan was eating 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of pure sugar cane every day, with an occasional fruit and vegetable.

The veterinarian said this was the first time in 30 years that he developed a strong emotional bond with a rescue animal. Now, the “world’s loneliest elephant” comes lumbering over when he hears Khalil’s voice.′

“I was always moving, so never allowed myself to develop an emotional attachment,” but with Kaavan he couldn’t resist, Khalil said. He said he has pampered and protected him for the past three months, cajoling him into losing weight as well as being less fidgety and more relaxed so he can make the trip to Cambodia.

Khalil said there are many elephants at the sanctuary, but in particular three female elephants are awaiting Kaavan’s arrival. Khalil joked that Kaavan might just find a girlfriend there.

Bauer lauded the powerful impact celebrity voices can have for animal rights.

“Celebrities lending their voices to good causes are always welcomed, as they help starting public discourse and raising pressure on responsible authorities,” he said

Eek, looks like The Crown is having a pretty major impact on the real lives of the British royals despite being, ya know, a work of fiction. The Daily Mail reports that Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla's @ClarenceHouse Twitter account has had to restrict comments in the wake of tons of hate from people who watched this season of The Crown. Which, in case you aren't aware, features Charles cheating on Princess Diana with Camilla—and doesn't exactly paint the latter in a flattering light.

Comments on Charles and Camilla's recent tweets have been limited, and a message now appears that says "People @ClarenceHouse follows or mentioned can reply."

Meanwhile, if you head over to the couple's Instagram you can get an idea of what they're dealing with. The comments on the below post are basically flooded with people supporting the late Princess Diana, though it looks like negative comments about Camilla herself have been kept to a minimum.

As The Crown makes abundantly clear, the way Princess Diana was treated by Prince Charles and the rest of the royal family was inexcusable. But targeting Camilla based on what's portrayed on a TV show is probably not the move!

Source: Cosmopolitan

Comedian Dave Chappelle had a strange request for his fans. Don't stream his show.

"I'm begging you. If you ever liked me," he said in a video of a stand-up routine he shared on Tuesday. "Boycott Chappelle's Show. Do not watch it unless they pay me."

Chappelle was calling out the network Comedy Central, which first aired Chappelle's Show from 2003 to 2006. He said in the video the company licensed the show to Netflix and HBO Max without paying him or informing him about the deal.

Chappelle said Comedy Central was able to do so because as a young man he had been snared in an unfair contract, which allows the network to continue profiting from his show and prevents Chappelle from using its name.

Chappelle famously walked out on the show in 2005 before finishing the third season, forgoing what could've been a $50 million deal. He had served as the series' creator, executive producer and star. Comedy Central aired the three episodes for that season already recorded.

As he recounted on Instagram, when Chappelle found out Chappelle's Show was going to be streamed on Netflix, he called the streaming service to express his misgivings.

A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the company removed the show early Tuesday morning at the comedian's request after airing it for less than a month but declined to comment further. The streaming service has a robust business relationship with the comedian, reportedly paying Chappelle up to $60 million for five stand-up specials in 2016.

"That's why I f*** with Netflix, because they pay me my money, they do what they say they're gonna do," Chappelle said in the video. "And they went above and beyond what you could expect from a businessman."

Chappelle's quarrel is not a legal one — he acknowledges he signed the contract with Comedy Central. But Chappelle said he was then 28, broke and expecting a child.

"Perfectly legal," he said. "But is that right? I didn't think so either."

Chappelle's strategy is to call on his fans to stop watching the show. It is still on HBO Max as well as CBS All Access.

Neither Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, nor HBO Max responded to requests for comment by publication time.

While Chappelle targeted Comedy Central in what he described as "publicly flogging a network," he said the mistreatment of artists is an industrywide problem.

Chappelle drew comparisons of financial mistreatment to the abuses and sexual harassment brought to light by the #MeToo movement.

"I'm not up here trying to tell you guys that I believe that Comedy Central gave me a raw deal just because I'm Black," he said. "I believe that they gave me a raw deal, because this f***ing industry is a monster."

​Source: NPR

The Grammys versus Weeknd drama is far from “over now.”

In his latest tweet lashing out at the Recording Academy, the singer is not backing down over being snubbed in Grammy nominations.

“Collaboratively planning a performance for weeks to not being invited? In my opinion zero nominations = you’re not invited!” The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, tweeted on Wednesday. The tweet has racked up more than 105,000 likes as of Wednesday afternoon.

“You deserve a nomination more than Taylor,” reads one of the most upvoted replies. “She did nothing exceptional this year.”

The angry post, in which the 30-year-old equates receiving no Grammy nominations to not being invited to the virtual event, follows his Tuesday accusation that the coveted music industry awards “remain corrupt” and “owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”

Despite his album “After Hours” having two number one hits — “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights” — The Weeknd, who is a three-time Grammy winner, was not nominated in any category this year, it was revealed after the nominations were announced Tuesday.

Recording Academy interim chief Harvey Mason Jr. told Variety that the omission wasn’t intentional, and who gets nominated “really just comes down to the voting body that decides. We have eight nomination slots to fill in, five in others, and the voters vote for their favorites. It’s really interesting, though.”
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As to whether The Weeknd wasn’t nominated because the voting body couldn’t determine if the singer’s music should be categorized as pop or R&B, Mason responded that the committee will revise the process in the future — but not in response to the controversy with The Weeknd. “We look at it every year and make tweaks and revisions to the process; we did it this year, last year, we’ll do it next year. And I don’t think this calls it into question, honestly,” he said. “The process is there so we can continue to monitor excellence.”