Expose – Harry Styles’s controversial Grammy win made worse by acceptance speech
On Sunday, the stars came out in full for music’s biggest night – the Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles.
Harry Styles controversially (for many) won Album of the Year (the biggest prize of the night) beating out Adele and Beyonce (the two front runners). For Styles fans it was well deserved – he did have the biggest song of the year – As It Was – and the album was a commercial success. But for Beyonce fans – or Adele’s even – Harry’s win was a slap in the face. “‘Beyoncé pioneers, Harry Styles imitates’: Why the Grammys got album of the year so wrong again,” was the Independent’s take on the win. Another headline reads: Harry Styles’ Album of the Year win ends the Grammys on an underwhelming note
A few articles did offer up their support for Harry’s win “Grammys 2023: If someone had to pip Beyoncé, you could do worse than Harry Styles,” wrote the Guardian.
But for many – the controversy was in Harry’s speech where he claimed ‘people like him’ didn’t win awards. But as many online pointed out – ‘white cis men’ often win awards. Some suggest Harry was highlighting his ‘working class roots’ – despite his VERY middle-class upbringing. Others suggest he was noting his route from boyband to successful solo act – either way, his wording was clumsy and caused offence.
Harry Styles’ clueless speech – ‘ he’s a dim guy’
NME says his speech earned backlash.”By that, did he mean conventionally attractive, white British men… from Cheshire?” . Whilst the HuffPost called his remark ‘clueless’ reporting one journalist called Styles’s comment “the most white privilege-iest thing to ever be uttered at an awards show ever for all time.”
The Guardian defends Harry Styles’ describing his comment as daft but not evil. The article claims his comment that “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often” was “clumsy and embarrassingly tone-deaf” but doesn’t justify the vitriol being aimed at him online. The opinion piece concludes Styles is a “slightly dim guy who can’t quite believe his good fortune and who has run out of things to say at award shows.”
The ES breaks down everything wrong with his ‘car crash’ speech, suggesting he needs to think before he speaks. Whilst the Daily Mirror seems to assess whether Harry Syles grew up ‘middle class’ or was from a ‘humble’ background.
