Why Silk Sonic ‘Sexually’ Bowed out of the 2023 Grammys
Silk Sonic’s album An Evening With Silk Sonic was expected to earn multiple nominations for the upcoming 2023 Grammy Awards. The music duo, comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, swept their nominated categories at the 2022 Grammy Awards with the single “Leave the Door Open.” On Oct. 13, Mars announced that Silk Sonic will not be submitting An Evening With Silk Sonic for consideration at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Silk Sonic chose to ‘bow out’ of the 2023 Grammy Awards
The first round of voting to determine nominations for the upcoming Grammy Awards is currently underway.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Mars revealed that Silk Sonic did not submit An Evening With Silk Sonic for consideration.
“We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year,” Mars told Rolling Stone. “We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.”
Why Silk Sonic did not submit ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’
At the 2022 Grammy Awards, Silk Sonic won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song for “Leave the Door Open.”
Because of their success with “Leave the Door Open,” the lead single from An Evening With Silk Sonic, Silk Sonic decided they did not need to be considered for any awards with the album.
“Andy and I, and everyone that worked on this project, won the moment the world responded to ‘Leave The Door Open.’ Everything else was just icing on the cake,” Mars told Rolling Stone.
Mars concluded, “We thank the Grammys for allowing us to perform on their platform — not once but twice — and awarding us at last year’s ceremony. We’d be crazy to ask for anything more. Thank you to everyone that supported this project and championed it.”
Even before Mars and .Paak started Silk Sonic, Mars has been a favorite at the Grammy Awards. In 2018, the singer swept all six of his nominated categories with his 2016 album 24K Magic.
Given that Silk Sonic swept all of their nominated categories with “Leave the Door Open” and .Paak is also the recipient of multiple Grammy Awards, it seems the two artists could be removing themselves from consideration to pave the way for other artists to be nominated and prevent backlash from a potential sweep.
How the Recording Academy reacted to Silk Sonic’s decision
After Mars issued a statement to Rolling Stone, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. gave a statement of his own.
“Silk Sonic has been such a fun highlight of our last couple of shows and they deservedly had an amazing night at the 64th Grammys earlier this year. We appreciate their decision not to submit this year but look forward to celebrating an amazing year in music together,” Mason said according to NBC.
The 2023 Grammy Awards will be held on Feb. 5, 2023, at the Crypto.com Arena.
