No Grammy for Frank Ocean

The critical and commercial response to Frank Ocean’s two albums released in August – Blonde, which debuted at #1 on the US chart and the "visual album" Endless – made them sure-fire for a Grammy nomination.

But come December 8, when the Grammy nominees list is revealed to champagne corks popping all over, there’ll be no previous multi-Grammy winner Frank Ocean.

Reason: the two albums were not filed by the deadline of September 30 to be eligible for a Grammy, an insider told Billboard.

Blonde (also known as Blond), which moved the equivalent of 276,000 album units in its first week of sale in America, was released through his own Boys Don’t Cry imprint.

Either Ocean’s business associates failed to do it in time, or the 28-year-old deliberately decided not to do it, doing a Drake when the Canadian rapper didn’t submit Hotline Bling for consideration. 

This was not the case with his previous album Channel Orange. It received five gongs for the 2013 Grammys, including Album and Record of the Year and Best Newcomer. 

It won two, for Best Urban Contemporary Album while one of its tracks, No Church In The Wild, took up Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. 

Blonde and Endless were Ocean’s first albums in four years. The Grammy Awards are held on Sunday February `12 in Los Angeles. Due to time zones, it will be screened live in Australia on Monday February 13.