The 2017 Grammy Awards nominations were released on Tuesday, and while Rihanna received eight nominations, none of them were for Album of the Year or for Song of the Year for her ANTI album, and fans are upset over the perceived snub.
Rihanna fans have taken to social media to call out the snub, even suggesting the awards showed favoritism towards Beyoncé, who has nine nominations. One post in particular was “liked” by Rihanna, adding more fuel to the fire.
The post read: “Congrats and all to @badgalriri and all for her 8 Grammy nods but tbh f*** them because they snubbed her for Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Like how my n***a!? I thin they didn’t want her tied or passing someone else *cough cough*.” The post included an image of a lemon before going on, “Cause if they wouldn’t have played her she would have been in the lead with most Grammy nods. F*** u Grammys, ANTI did amazing things this year and y’all played her. I think y’all shook!”
Rihanna fans have since began flooding Beyoncé’s Instagram page with anchor emojis representing the Rihanna Navy, which is the term the “Work” singer uses for her fans. In addition to competing against Rihanna in three categories, Beyoncé is nominated in two of the biggest categories, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, where Rihanna was not.
Despite the online war, Rihanna wanted to make one thing clear: she has nothing against Beyoncé.
“I never actually read your caption, thought the pic was funny and moved right along! Til I seen it pop up over and over! I’m petty af, yes. But this is just unnecessary! I wish ya’ll would drop this topic and see things from the bigger picture! We don’t need to be putting black women against each other! We deserve to be celebrated, and the Grammy Academy agrees!” she later wrote on Instagram.