Alessia Cara Addresses The Backlash To Her Grammy Win On Instagram
Of all the dubious Grammy Awards handed out on Sunday night (January 28), Alessia Cara’s was the most perplexing. It’s not that she doesn’t deserve the recognition, rather that she won for Best New Artist — despite landing a top 10 single and top 10 album way back in 2015. There’s usually a slight lag, but this is ridiculous. Social media was already seething that SZA was overlooked in the category and the fact that the Canadian was seemingly nominated in the wrong category only added fuel to the fire.
Alessia clearly noticed the brouhaha and posted a lengthy Instagram post addressing the controversy. “To address the apparent backlash regarding winning something I had no control over: I didn’t log onto grammy.com and submit myself,” she wrote. “That’s not how it works. I didn’t ask to be submitted either because there are other artists that deserve the acknowledgment. but I was nominated and won and I am not going to be upset about something I’ve wanted since I was a kid, not to mention have worked really hard for.”
“I meant everything I said about everyone deserving the same shot,” the 21-year-old continued. “There is a big issue in the industry that perpetuates the idea that an artist’s talent and hard work should take a back seat to popularity and numbers. and I’m aware that my music wasn’t released yesterday, I’m aware that, yes, my music has become fairly popular in the last year… I will not let everything I’ve worked for be diminished by people taking offence to my accomplishments and feeling the need to tell me how much I suck.”
Alessia shouldn’t apologize for winning, but the Recording Academy needs to overhaul the eligibility requirements for this category to avoid future debacles like this one. Read her full post below.