Saturday, May 23, 2026

Grammys Score a Coup with Return of The Weeknd, But Song and Performance Didn’t Land With Audience

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The Grammys scored a coup last night. Clearly Harvey Mason, Jr and the Recording Academy making peace with The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye was a big deal. Mason couldn’t have been prouder to announce the best selling artist’s surprise return to the fold after years of feuding.

But the performance was a miss, a big strike out. The Weeknd released a new album on Friday called “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” But he didn’t sing the single from the album. He performed instead something called “Cry for Me,” and we did just that. It was a mess, an unintelligible chaotic visual mess and a song with no melody or chorus.

The result is that “Cry for Me” got no sales buzz, and sits at number 46 on iTunes. Meanwhile, all the other Grammy performers from last night are stuffed into the top of the charts.

Here’s the single he didn’t perform called “Open Hearts,” also very busy and too long:

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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