Bruno Mars Makes An Unexpected Decision About The Grammys

During the years when Bruno Mars released an album, he's usually deemed the belle of the ball at the Grammy Awards. The singer-songwriter won his first golden gramophone in 2011 for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance on his debut single, "Just The Way You Are," per the Grammys. Throughout his career, Mars has accumulated a whopping 31 nominations and 15 wins. At the 2018 ceremony, the music from Mars' album "24k Magic" won all six categories it was nominated for.

At the 2022 Grammy Awards, Silk Sonic — the musical duo consisting of Mars and Anderson .Paak — won four Grammys for their hit song 2021 "Leave the Door Open." Yes, just one track swept the Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song. So when Silk Sonic released the full album, "An Evening with Silk Sonic," many critics predicted that Mars and .Paak would dominate the nominations for the upcoming 2023 Grammy Awards. Well, those predictions have been completely flipped on their head after Mars' latest announcement.

Viewers will not see singers Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak's shiny bobbed wigs at the 2023 Grammys. On October 13, Mars announced in an interview with Rolling Stone that Silk Sonic's decided to not put "An Evening with Silk Sonic" in consideration for the Grammys. "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 the publication. "We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party." Mars also added that Silk Sonic was grateful for performing and winning at last year's awards ceremony. "We'd be crazy to ask for anything more," he explained.

Now the world's asking: Why? The Grammy Awards have increasingly drawn scrutiny over the years. In 2021, the Recording Academy decided to rid their committee of secret voters after years of "allegations of rigging, favoritism, and racism," per the BBC. Overall, many people have concluded that the Grammys don't matter in the grand scheme of musical enjoyment. Huge artists such as Drake, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, and more have also pulled their albums from consideration for similar reasons. 

Although Mars' statement makes it seem like Silk Sonic withdrew out of respect for other artists, the reason for the surprising announcement is still unclear.