Harry Styles’ acceptance speech after winning the Grammy Award for album of the year caused a stir on social media on Sunday night.
“I think on nights like this it’s important that we remember that there is no such thing as ‘best’ in music. I don’t think any of us sit in the studio making decisions about what one of these will give us,” Styles said, referring to the award in his hands, which he won for the “Harry’s House” album.
But it was the last sentence of his speech that irritated social media users, who took different interpretations of what he meant: “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is very, very nice. Thank you very much,” Styles said, before handing the microphone over to his co-writers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson.
Twitter users had some opinions on Styles’ win over Beyoncé’s “Rebirth” album, as the loss made this the fourth time he hasn’t picked up the album of the year award. Styles went up against Beyoncé and eight other artists, including Bad Bunny, Lizzo, Adele and Kendrick Lamar.
Some wondered what Styles meant by “people like me,” with him being a white male artist nominated in the same category as women and artists of color.
Meanwhile, others were hoping a black artist would win the coveted award during Black History Month.
Others continue to support their favorite artists, including Adele, Lizzo and Beyoncé, with some Beyoncé fans joking about an uprising against the Recording Academy.
Styles’ fans came to his defense and had their own interpretation of the end of his speech, with some commentators acknowledging his beginnings on the reality TV competition The X Factor.
Many reminded Twitter users to be kind and understanding, no matter who won album of the year.
Despite the album of the year surprise, Beyoncé fans also recognized a huge milestone for the singer when she won four awards this year, breaking the record for the most wins by any artist in Grammy history, with a total of 32 awards so far.
