When the Juno Awards nominations were announced Tuesday, Drake and his hugely successful album Scorpion were no where to be seen.
While some fans took to social media to criticize the Junos for overlooking the homegrown rap superstar, there is one very good reason why Drake is not a nominee: He didn’t want to be.
For the second year in a row, Drake chose not to submit his album for consideration. (In 2017, he opted not to submit his More Life mixtape.)
The result? Rap Recording of the Year nominees at the 2019 Juno Awards are 88Glam, Belly, KILLY, NAV and Tory Lanez – and Lanez is the only rapper up for Artist of the Year.
Drake performed at the Junos in St. John’s in 2010 (where he won a pair of Junos) and hosted the show in Toronto in 2011 but he’s only won seven Junos from 33 nominations, according to the official list of top Juno winners.
The global superstar has never won a Juno for artist, single or album of the year.
At the 2017 Junos in Ottawa, Drake’s Views lost Album of the Year to Leonard Cohen’s You Want it Darker and lost Rap Recording of the Year to Jazz Cartier’s Hotel Paranoia; and “One Dance” lost Single of the Year to “Spirits” by The Strumbellas.