The Grammy Awards race has just opened up in a big way, now that a Grammy favorite has withdrawn his album from consideration.

Silk Sonic, the duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won Record and Song of the Year at the Grammys earlier this year for their hit “Leave the Door Open.” Their album An Evening with Silk Sonic, released in November 2021 — after the Grammy cutoff for this year’s ceremony — was expected to be a major contender when the nominations for next year’s ceremony are announced in November. But as Bruno tells Rolling Stone, he feels as though they’ve already been honored enough.

“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,” Bruno says in his statement. “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.”

“Andy and I, and everyone that worked on this project, won the moment the world responded to ‘Leave The Door Open,'” he continues. “Everything else was just icing on the cake. We thank the Grammys for allowing us to perform on their platform — not once but twice — and awarding us at last year’s ceremony. We’d be crazy to ask for anything more.”

“Thank you to everyone that supported this project and championed it,” he concludes.

Of course, Bruno already has more Grammys than he knows what to do with: As a solo artist, he’s won 11 trophies. Anderson .Paak, meanwhile, has four Grammys as a solo artist.
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