The Weeknd's boycott of Grammys ends in surprise performance

Toronto megastar The Weeknd shocked the crowd at the 2025 Grammy Awards, ending his years-long boycott of the music industry awards show with a surprise performance alongside Playboi Carti.

The Weeknd took the stage on Sunday night’s 67th Annual Grammy Awards with performances of "Cry for Me" and "Timeless" featuring Playboi Carti, who will be touring alongside the Toronto-born artist.

The Weeknd had been boycotting the annual music awards show since 2021, when he publicly rebuked the Recording Academy and vowed not to participate in the Grammys after his 2020 album After Hours was snubbed.

So, naturally, it came as a bit of a shock to the star-studded crowd at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles when Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. came out to acknowledge and apologize for The Weeknd’s concerns about representation in the music industry, and personally introduced the platinum-certified artist.

Mason explained that the Academy has "changed" since the famous snub, noting that "We’ve launched initiatives like the Black Music Collective, Women in the Mix, Academy Proud, and others."

"We have completely re-made our membership, adding more than 3,000 women voting members. The Grammy electorate is now younger, nearly 40 per cent people of colour, and 66 per cent of our members are new since we started our transformation."

The Weeknd dazzled the celebrity-packed crowd with a dramatic performance featuring impressive lighting and choreography featuring dozens of dancers.

The Weeknd makes his return to the 2025 #Grammys stage pic.twitter.com/6T2JrrA4uV

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 3, 2025

The artist was also nominated in the "Best Melodic Rap Performance" category for his appearance on Future’s "We Still Don't Trust You" alongside Metro Boomin, though the award went to "3:AM" – Rapsody featuring Erykah Badu.