“Support real music and real artists because everyone deserves the same shot,” the singer shared.
Have you ever fantasized about what you would say to the audience if you picked up a major award? Picture it: you hit the Grammys stage, and all of your fans are out there, as excited as you are about your huge moment. Well, it’s a scene that singers like Alessia Cara have thought about forever. For her, the dream just became a reality last night – and she was still caught by surprise!
Alessia took home the Best New Artist award at the 2018 Grammy Awards, and she was blown away by the honor. During her acceptance speech, she shared a touching story about how long she’s been keeping this dream in her heart.
“I’ve been pretend-winning Grammys since I was a kid, like in my shower, so you’d think I’d have this speech thing down but I absolutely don’t,” she said, thanking her family and fans, who she called “the reason I don’t have to win Grammys in my shower anymore.”
But while she had the spotlight, Alessia also wanted to call out all of the other amazing artists who may not have had such obvious recognition for their work.
“I just want to say that there are some incredible artists out there that are making incredible music that deserve to be acknowledged — that don’t always get acknowledged because of popularity contests or numbers games,” she said. “That’s kind of unfortunate. I just wanted to encourage everyone to support real music and real artists because everyone deserves the same shot.”
These words certainly mean a lot at an event like the Grammys, where many of our faves *didn’t* end up going home with an award like Alessia did. And she made sure to stress it applies outside of music as well. This is a great reminder that success isn’t always about popularity, or the shiny trophy.
Unfortunately, after picking up her award, Alessia faced a ton of backlash from music-lovers who felt she didn’t deserve the victory. In an Instagram statement, she echoed the same theme as her award speech.
“To address the apparent backlash regarding winning something I had no control over: I didn’t log onto grammy.com and submit myself. 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 kid, not to mention have worked really hard for,” she wrote. “I meant everything I said about everyone deserving the same shot. 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. but I’m trying very hard to use the platform I’ve been given talk about these things and bring light to issues that aren’t fair, all while trying to make the most of the weird, amazing success I’ve been lucky enough to have.”
“I will not let everything I’ve worked for be diminished by people taking offense to my accomplishments and feeling the need to tell me how much I suck. here’s something fun! I’ve been thinking I suck since I was old enough to know what sucking meant,” Alessia added. “I’ve beat u to it. And that’s why this means a lot to me. despite my 183625 insecurities, I’ve been shown that what I’ve created is worth something and that people actually give a –. all of the years feeling like I wasn’t good at anything or that I was naive for dreaming about something improbable have paid off in a way that I have yet to process. I know it sounds cheesy and dumb but it’s the honest truth. thanks to everyone who’s shown me kindness and support along the way. I’ll stop talking now.”
We hope that Alessia isn’t just seeing the negativity on Instagram, since there are also many people who believe she deserved the award. There are always going to be people who wanted the other person to win, but this
is a huge accomplishment, one that Alessia totally deserves.
To see Alessia take home her first-ever Grammy Award, make sure to check out the recap video below.
