Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are choosing to sit out this year’s Grammy Awards. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday (Oct. 13), Mars confirmed that the duo will not submit the acclaimed debut by their Silk Sonic duo, An Evening With Silk Sonic, for Grammy consideration.
“Andy and I, and everyone that worked on this project, won the moment the world responded to first single ‘Leave the Door Open.’ Everything else was just icing on the cake,” Mars said of the retro soul track that won four Grammy awards in April: song of the year, record of the year, best R&B song and best R&B performance. The album was released in November 2021, which would have made it eligible for nominations at the 2023 ceremony.
“Thank you to everyone that supported this project and championed for it. 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,” the “Uptown Funk” singer continued. “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.”
Silk Sonic released “Leave the Door Open,” their debut single in March 2021 and released their first album “An Eventing with Silk Sonic” in November 2021.
In a statement to Billboard, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, “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.”
Given the Grammy love Silk Sonic’s debut single received — as well as Mars’ impressive to-date haul of 15 Grammy wins on 31 nominations, as well as four wins for .Paak — the Silk Sonic album was expected to vie with such fellow potential album of the year contenders as Harry Styles, Adele, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift at the ceremony slated to take place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 5, 2023.
