Sure, he won Album of the Year over Beyoncé, but that wasn’t all that earned Harry Styles pushback. The megastar won big at the 2023 Grammys over the weekend, and it was a victory that came with controversy. Beyoncé, too, was nominated for the category, but unfortunately for the BeyHive, Renaissance didn’t take home the title. Still, Bey made history after accepting her 32nd Grammy win, making her the most awarded artist in the ceremony’s history.
Win or lose, dozens of stars celebrated the awards. They were photographed on the red carpet and even visited one another during the ceremony. Styles looked utterly shocked at winning Album of the Year, and he expressed how he didn’t expect to take home the gold. “I think on nights like tonight, it’s important for us to remember there is no such thing as ‘best’ in music,” he said.
Harry Styles’ ‘Album of the Year’ win at the #GRAMMYs has received plenty of backlash over the past 24 hours, particularly for his acceptance speech where he said, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.”pic.twitter.com/5N97bwCTv4
“I don’t think any of us sit in the studio making decisions on what is going to get us one of these,” Styles further shared. “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is so, so nice. Thank you very much.” The gracious acceptance speech seemed harmless enough, but people took to social media quickly to voice their frustrations.
It became a war between Styles’s fans and his critics. Attackers pointed out that the singer is a rich, white male, while his supporters called them out for not recognizing class structure in the U.K. It’s a battle that has even spawned op-eds from music journalists, but Styles has not commented on the controversy. It was also reported that he didn’t expect to win over Beyoncé and thought the Renaissance hitmaker was a shoo-in to win. However, anonymous Grammy voters told Variety that they purposefully didn’t vote for Bey because she wins so often.
Despite the chaotic conversation, the Grammys stunned the world with its Hip Hop 50th Anniversary tribute. Questlovehelped co-curate the performance that hosted dozens of our favorite Rap artists, including our pioneers that delivered classics. Check out a few reactions to Harry Styles below.
Harry styles said “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” and I gotta be honest I can’t think of a type of people this happens for more
“This doesn’t happen to people like me often,” possibly an even more severe case of foot in mouth than anything Harry Styles said on the DON’T WORRY DARLING press tour
I want someone to interview Harry Styles and ask him what he meant by “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” because something isn’t clicking.
harry styles saying “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” as a white, british man who has a history of dating only the most categorically stunning women in hollywood and whose biggest act of rebellion is wearing sequins and nail polish is extremely rich
Now that the Grammys are out of the way, the biggest music event fans are looking forward to is the Super Bowl. Yes, there will be some football — maybe even some good football — but more importantly, Rihanna is performing at the Halftime Show after nearly seven years out of the limelight.
Naturally, this offers plentiful opportunities for discussion, but not everyone is equally suited to talk about the event. For instance, Stephen A Smith, the outspoken ESPN pundit, who asked about Rihanna’s upcoming performance and immediately when into sports talk mode to preemptively compare Rihanna’s performance to Beyoncé’s previous Super Bowl performances.
In what was perhaps a bit dedicated to ribbing his former ESPN colleague, HBO host Bomani Jones pretty pointedly sidestepped a similar faux pas on his own new show Game Theory. While his cue cards teed him up to answer the question of whether Rihanna could really outdo Beyoncé, Jones seemingly goes off on an unrelated tangent, bringing in Adam Silver and LeBron James, the BeyHive and the Navy, and Jalen Hurts, he jokingly plays both sides before lampshading the whole speech. “If this were a presidential debate,” he explained, “I’d have done what they do when they don’t wanna answer the question: I just started talking about some other sh*t.” Watch the hilarious bit below.
We may know who took home last night’s coveted trophies at the Grammys, but the public doesn’t often get firsthand insight into the voters. The group of industry professionals who voted for this year’s Grammys was grilled by Variety, and their comments about their choices set off the internet. Several of the anonymous voters openly admitted they steered clear of voting for artists like Beyoncé or Adele because, well, they’ve won so much already.
The conversations with the voters surrounded the Top 4 categories of the night: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. A person described as “a Grammy-winning producer-engineer who has been a voter for almost 20 years” explained their choices. They claimed they voted for Lizzo for Record of the Year because of her impact. They also seemed tired of Bey always being on top.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 5: 65th GRAMMY AWARDS Beyonce accepts the award for best dance/electronic music album at the 65th Grammy Awards, held at the Crytpo.com Arena on February 5, 2023. — (Photo by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“I felt very strongly that Lizzo has changed this culture a lot,” they told Variety. “‘About Damn Time’ was a great track that everyone responded to. I also look at who’s been there and go, ‘OK, Adele, Beyoncé — they always win; it’s the same people over and over again.’ So I went for Lizzo.” This person further admitted that they are “out of touch with where the Academy is right now.”
Another voter described as “a music business veteran in his 70s” was accused of shading Beyoncé and the response her projects have received. “With Beyoncé, the fact that every time she does something new, it’s a big event and everyone’s supposed to quake in their shoes — it’s a little too portentous.” They also criticized Harry Styles, admitting to holding his “boy band” days against him.
Additionally, a “thirtysomething female singer voting for the second time” believed Adele and Beyoncé’s award-winning reputations were a hindrance. “I didn’t vote for either Adele or Beyoncé in any of the top categories. I love Beyoncé’s album and have been a fan of Adele, but I feel that they have already won a lot of Grammys.”
The Recording Academy’s nomination and voting process has long been criticized. However, social media has brought more of these complaints to the forefront. We’re seeing more artists choosing to boycott the ceremony or not submit their music at all—a la The Weekend and Drake. Yet, we’re still seeing those artists take home the gold regardless of their submissions or attendance.
Check out a few reactions below and let us know if you think the Academy should be revamped.
The grammy voter saying that Beyonce’s impact on culture is ‘portentous’ tells us everything we need to know. pic.twitter.com/2mWSrcQPEY
Imagine being a #Grammy voter & not voting for Beyoncé because “she always wins.”
Watch it work, y’all. It’s disgusting that 2 mediocre people’s desire to speak to the manager about why Bey gets so much praise likely cost her even more awards on her mantel.#GRAMMYs#Grammys2023https://t.co/Mg9q1Gw6WG
I read some of the anonymous voters comments and one voter described her rollouts as portentous. America has this odd fascination with wanting to humble Black women. And if that’s what it takes for Beyonce to with a lil AOTY Grammy, I hope she never wins. https://t.co/HJG3JsFrFV
Saying you didn’t vote for Beyoncé because she has a lot of awards is crazy because with all them awards she has only ONE is in a major category because they PLAY IN HER FACE. I hate them Grammy voter articles so bad
This is all I needed to see, read to confirm that the Grammy voting is STEPPED in misogynoir. “Portentous?!” Beyonce isn’t trying to impress nobody especially not a pretentious voter who can’t even reveal their true identity. https://t.co/dH41s4UvgL
Such a joke. This Grammy voter admitted they didn’t even listen to all the nominated albums and shows a CLEAR bias against Beyoncé and Adele. @RecordingAcad how is that fair? So lame. https://t.co/89EIx0l2LT
That Grammy’s voter was really mad at Beyoncé for turning album release into event …isn’t it what an album is supposed to be? Especially in a music climate that favors quick viral hits instead of cohesive body of work ?
The Grammys are still a focus due to Beyoncé’s historic moment, but Melii is facing off with the BeyHive. Last night, Beyoncé became the most-awarded artist in Grammy history. Although Renaissance missed out on Album of the Year—Harry Styles took the title—the project still earned the singer several accolades. On Twitter, Melii fired off a tweet many attributed to the megastar. She didn’t name names, but people believed she was shading Bey.
Renaissance was an ode to queer artists who pioneered Electronic, House, and Dance music. Many of the songs sampled those icons, and it was hailed as an ode to the LGBTQIA+ community. “A lot of ppl careers were dead and they later used the lgbtq community to revive it and y’all ate that up,” Melii tweeted.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 5: Beyonce accepts the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album award for Renaissance onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The backlash was swift, as people accused Melii of shading the singer for producing an album highlighting the marginalized community. The Neighborhood Talk shared Melii’s tweet, and their comment section lit up, causing her to step in to react. “Nah … ok boom ya don’t gotta like me but never will I ever disrespect THE QUEEN,” Melii explained. Beyoncé supported my ‘ non existent career ‘ like ya sayin in the comments along with riri, lil Wayne n bunch of greats.”
“Any way back to this since I’m so trash n a nobody,” she continued. “I WILL NEVER DISRESPECT BEYONCÉ SHE IS SOMEONE I LOOK UP TO N I WILL FOREVER BE GRATEFUL THAT SHE USED MY SONG FOR BRAND . Ya don’t need to like me … CUZ I UNDERSTAND I SAY ALOT OF SH*T OTHERS WONT BUT PLEASE HOLD BACK ON THE FALSE NARRATIVE.”
Beyoncé took home her 32nd Grammy win last night and delivered a touching acceptance speech. “I want to thank god for protecting me,” she said. “Thank you, god. I’d like to thank my uncle Johnny, who’s not here, but he’s here in spirit. I’d like to thank my parents—my father, my mother—for loving me and pushing me.”
“I’d like to thank my beautiful husband, my beautiful three children, who are at home watching,” she added. “I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre. God bless you. Thank you so much to the Grammys.” Her wins last night include Best R&B song for “Cuff It,” Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best Dance/Electronic Recording for “Break My Soul,” and Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa.”
Watch Beyoncé’s speech below and read more from Melii.
GOD PROTECT ME FROM THESE MISERABLE SOULS AND THEIR TONGUES. I PRAY YOU GIVE THEM THE SAME PEACE YOU GAVE ME I PRAY YOU FILL THEM W JOY AND WHOLENESS.
I SEND love to everyone who I have offended or heartstrings I tugged at, I pray God sends y’all the same peace he has blessed me with and the same resilience.pray that nothing others say moves or triggers u & that this years only positivity, honesty & love flows thru ur energypic.twitter.com/mSOY6KjXtU
Oh wait … never did ya think I referred to Beyoncé ? Are ya dumb ? U mean the lady who used my song to promote her brand . The reach was crazy … I’d never disrespect Beyoncé. Ya don’t gotta like me but to just lie n try find a reason to be mad is ridiculous.
Last night, fans were stunned when the Grammys announced the Album Of The Year winner. While many expected that the win would go to Beyoncé for her groundbreaking album Renaissance, the award was instead given to Harry Styles for Harry’s House. Twitter erupted with fury, with many calling it an outright robbery, but there’s one person who’s not sweating it — arguably the second most invested party, Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z.
In an interview with Tidal (a friendly outlet if there ever was one) ahead of the ceremony, Jay explained that he takes a different perspective on the importance of the award show, rather than getting his hopes up. “I remove myself from the process and hope they just get it right,” he said. “It got to the point where I was like, it’s just a marketing thing. You go, you got an album out and it could help the sales go up.”
Jay also explained why he thought Renaissance deserved the award, while admitting his bias. “Look what it’s done to the culture,” he observed. “Look how the energy of the world moved. They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world. Every remix is better than the other one. From anybody, we’re just finding these joints out in the street… It’s inspiring creativity. You know how The Black Album had The Grey Album [Danger Mouse’s 2004 mashup project]? And the one with Radiohead? It was called Jaydiohead [Minty Fresh Beats’ 2009 mashup]. When it just inspires creativity, that’s an album. That has to be Album Of The Year. It has to be.”
Unfortunately, it seems the Recording Academy, by and large, disagreed (for what it’s worth, most of them are way too old for “the club” by now, right?). We’ll see how it does affect Beyoncé’s (and Styles’) sales in the future or their award show strategies, but with her world tour in front of her, Beyoncé has bigger fish to fry.
Let’s not waste time, here: the Grammys let us all down by failing to acknowledge Beyoncé’s Renaissance as the Album Of The Year, in favor of the audio equivalent of plain oatmeal. I’m sure Harry Styles is a very nice British boy – distinctive lack of personality aside – but I, and indeed, many, many others fail to see what his album accomplished that Beyoncé’s did not.
Where Styles’ album was a fine example of a middle-of-the-road pop album, taking inspiration from the past 40 years or so of Top 40 radio (I’m putting it nicely – others have argued that it was pale imitation), Renaissance excavated 40 years of Black music history. Beyoncé sought to shine a spotlight on an oft-and-long-overlooked subculture of Black joy and rebellion.
And while the Grammys were certainly happy to make a fuss about her setting the record for most-awarded act ever, shutting her out from Album Of The Year – again – felt like a repudiation, a rejection, of not just Beyoncé’s efforts, but of the validity of the lived experience of the people her album highlighted. It’s a slap in the face.
To add insult to injury, these are the people and this is the scene that has most directly influenced pop music over the past 40 years. All of your faves? They got their swag from queer Black folks. If you ask just about any dance-pop star with a Billboard Hot 100 hit who they were inspired by, you’re going to get the same answers: Britney Spears, Madonna. Well, who inspired Madonna? I’ll wait.
Actually, no I won’t. It was that New York rave culture, where queer Black folks pioneered house and techno, ball culture, and the sampling techniques that permeate modern music today. Look at Sam Smith and Kim Petras winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance last night. That doesn’t happen without the queer Black community opening the door, at the roots of things, laying the foundation for the branches to flourish.
And Beyoncé, who brought that underground movement to the daylight, went out of her way to acknowledge those contributors to the culture. She put Grace Jones on the album. She nodded to the dozens of collaborators and inspirations for that album in both the liner notes and on her website. As my colleague, Alex Gonzalez, pointed out on Twitter, “Both Harry and Beyoncé noticeably took inspiration from LGBTQ+ aesthetics and culture for their respective album eras… but only one of them actually thanked the queer community.”
And musically, she embraced the breadth and range of those contributions, from disco to neo-soul and everything in between. She displayed versatility and depth and grace and vulnerability and gratitude. She, to quote the kids (who are, again, only quoting Black drag queens), ate and left no crumbs.
Harry’s acceptance speech, oddly enough, inadvertently highlighted just how insultingly tone-deaf this pick really was. “This never happens to people like me,” he said. People like who, Harry? British people? Paul McCartney, Sting, and Adele all have several. Guys who were hand-picked and groomed by some of the biggest producers on the planet to be pop stars from their teens? Hey, have you ever heard of Justin Timberlake?
There is literally no category or tag that you could place on Harry Styles that would put him at a disadvantage in today’s society, let alone at an institution like the Recording Academy, which has had a 100-year history of dropping the ball on honoring Black artists, women, queer artists, or people of color in general at best, and outright racism at worst. Harry is, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, a straight, white, rich dude… the people modern society is set up to serve.
You can’t even blame this on the voting process; in a Variety feature about Academy voters, two anonymous members of this “prestigious” group openly admitted they didn’t vote for Beyoncé “because she always wins.” There was true spite behind this robbery, like the heist in Ocean’s Eleven. It wasn’t just about seeing Harry win – it was about seeing Beyoncé, a Black woman whose commitment to excellence in her craft oozes out of every fiber of her being, who has sacrificed so much to be the best at her craft, who shouldered the burden of representing an entire community in her work… lose.
That is truly heinous.
But, it’s also business as usual in America, where we Black folks are told we have to work twice as hard for half as much. If nothing else, last night’s Grammy result adds one more exhibit to the mountainous pile of evidence for this. It’s all just proof that the Grammys, like most everything else, ain’t really for us – and that’s a shame, because America, and its music, owe us so much.
The Grammys: They sure are long! Shout out to my fellow East Coasters who watched the 2023 Grammys until midnight yesterday and got 45 quality minutes of sleep before getting ready for work this morning.
Within all the length of last night’s show, a lot of things happened. Some awards went to their expected recipients, others went to nominees viewers probably forgot were even up for consideration. Some artists put on spectacular performances, others were certainly at least on stage performing music. Some people got their flowers, others would have settled for just a glimpse of a dried-out petal.
With the dust settling now, all of these events can be generally placed into three categories: winners, losers, and surprises. In fact, the highlights of these goings-on have been categorized thusly… by me… below.
Beyoncé took a slight L when she got stuck in traffic and consequently showed up late to the Grammys. That was profoundly overshadowed, though, by one of the biggest moments of Bey’s career: Renaissance won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. In a vacuum, that’s kind of neat, but zoom out: That Grammy was the 32nd of Beyoncé’s career, which is the new all-time Grammy record. The ever-composed Beyoncé was clearly emotional while accepting the award, which goes to show how major the win was not just in music history, but to her personally.
Surprise: Bonnie Raitt/Samara Joy
Bonnie Raitt’s reaction to winning Song of the Year is everyone’s reaction to her winning Song of the Year #Grammyspic.twitter.com/HYcMZK00hc
Beyoncé’s big win wasn’t a shock. You know what was, though? Half of the Grammys in the “big four” categories.
The Best New Artist field was strong and the winner ended up being Samara Joy, a jazz singer who’s a relative unknown when compared to competitors like Anitta, Latto, and Wet Leg.
Then came Song Of The Year.
Up for consideration were songs by Adele, Beyoncé, Bonnie Raitt, DJ Khaled, Gayle, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Steve Lacy, and Taylor Swift. Looking at that list, clearly, there’s one artist that stands out, and not favorably in terms of contemporary acclaim and pop culture relevance: Raitt. Just like that, though, “Just Like That” won.
Raitt is a legend and a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, but even she was left scratching her head: When her name was called, she gave an open-mouthed look around the room like she just won $100K on a gas station scratcher. That was a fair reaction: “Just Like That” currently has under half a million streams on Spotify. Last year, around 9.5 million people watched the Grammys. So, if those numbers remain similar for this year’s broadcast, that means about 20 times as many people watched “Just Like That” win the award than had actually heard the song before (and that’s being generous by assuming every Spotify listener has only played the song one time).
The Grammys aren’t supposed to be a popularity contest, but cultural relevance should have been a bigger consideration here.
Loser: In Memoriam segment
Getty Image
Every year, the Recording Academy honors esteemed deceased musicians with its In Memoriam portion of the show. Also every year, they find a way to piss people off. Fans were quick to notice that artists like Gangsta Boo and Aaron Carter weren’t mentioned during the broadcast, which rubbed some viewers the wrong way.
To the Recording Academy’s credit, in a post shared ahead of the show, they shared an In Memoriam list featuring more names than made it onto the broadcast, noting that “some” of them would be included in the video tribute. Carter was on that list, but not the broadcast. They also note that the people on the list all died between January 1, 2022 and December 6, 2022; Boo died on January 1, 2023.
So, the Recording Academy technically has some plausible deniability here, but maybe policies that exclude people who should obviously be named could use some reconsidering.
Winner: Wet Leg
Wet Leg – Alternative Music Album, Alternative Music Performance
Previously, leg was dry. At the Grammys, though, leg was wet: Emerging rock favorites Wet Leg was up for five awards and they took home two of them: Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Longue” and Best Alternative Music Album for Wet Leg.
Harry was one of the evening’s most-nominated artist with seven total nods. He ended the night with a strong winning percentage, too, taking home three awards, most notably picking up Album Of The Year for Harry’s House. That said…
…boy was his performance during the show dull and weird.
He started his rendition of “As It Was” with some backing dancers, all spinning slowly on a rotating platform, like the song’s music video. It was an extremely low-energy environment for a minute or so, all while the relentlessly upbeat song charged on in defiant tonal contrast. It looked as though Styles and company had the stage set up to perform an Adele ballad before switching to “As It Was” seconds before going on. Things didn’t really improve after the intro, either. Styles’ current tour has obviously gone well, as the banner he has hanging in Madison Square Garden indicates, but the watermelon sugar high appears to have worn off since his last arena show.
Winner: Viola Davis
Viola Davis has achieved EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) status. “It has been such a journey, I just EGOT!” pic.twitter.com/YYj4MMJvRg
Congratulations are in order for Viola Davis: She e-got her EGOT! She’s now one of only 18 people to ever do it and it’s thanks in part to last night’s win in the Best Audio Book, Narration, And Storytelling Recording category, for her Finding Me memoir.
Beyoncé was the evening’s leading nominee with nine total nods, but Lamar was right behind her with eight of his own. Despite getting shut out of the main categories, Lamar did well in the hip-hop categories, winning in Best Rap Performance (“The Heart Part 5”), Best Rap Song (“The Heart Part 5”), and Best Rap Album (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers). Furthermore, he did it all while dressed like Goodwill Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
In the Best R&B Song category, Beyoncé came out on top with “Cuff It.” Another Renaissance track, “Virgo’s Groove,” was up for Best R&B Performance, and while that may have felt like an obvious pick there, Muni Long actually pulled off the upset with “Hrs & Hrs.”
That’s not to say, of course, that Long’s win (her first Grammy victory) is inexcusable. “Hrs & Hrs” is an accomplished track, as it was only the second song by an independent artist to top the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, it’s certified platinum, and it achieved a No. 16 peak on the Hot 100. Beating Beyoncé for a Grammy is a tall mountain to scale, so congrats to Long!
Winner: 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Tribute Performance
The Recording Academy put a major focus on honoring hip-hop in 2023, since this year marks the half-century anniversary of the genre’s inception. They went all out with a gargantuan 10-minute performance that spanned eras, featuring stage time from Grandmaster Flash, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Future, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Missy Elliott, Method Man, Nelly, and Too Short, among others. If you’re looking for a hip-hop history lesson, the setlist is a terrific starting point.
To her name, Brandi Carlile has racked up 24 Grammy nominations in her lifetime. She’s usually firmly in the Americana and country categories, but this year, she earned her first rock nominations. She actually dominated on that front, with “Broken Horses” winning Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. While on the surface, Carlile getting rock Grammys might read as off, she performed the track during the broadcast and it was very clearly a rock song, and a pretty good one, too.
Last night, a lot of songs did, but “God Did” was not among them. The DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, and Fridayy song was nominated for Song Of The Year, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song. It won none of those awards.
Then, Khaled and company had to close the show with a performance of the song, which featured Khaled spouting his classic substance-free motivational nuggets. His loud claims of “we the best” or whatever while actual musicians were performing around him fell especially flat, since the Recording Academy just finished declaring on national television that he is in fact not the best.
Loser: Benny Blanco
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Benny Blanco wore that to the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.
(@NinaVzqz23) February 6, 2023
(@Itsprincesssyd_) 
Karma is a God (@CarineK) 
I PRAY YOU FILL THEM W JOY AND WHOLENESS.
– TikTok – theaccidentalcougar 
GRAMMYs 