Harry Styles’ comment in Grammys speech sparks backlash

Harry Styles caused an upset with his Album of the Year Grammy win, and a comment he made during his speech has attracted furious backlash.

Harry Styles has copped backlash for a comment he made during his Grammys acceptance speech.

The 29-year-old British singer caused an upset when he took home the major gong of the night on Monday, Album of the Year, for his 2022 album Harry’s House.

Beyonce was widely predicted to win the award for her critically acclaimed dance masterpiece Renaissance, with Adele’s 30 and Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days also in the running.

And despite being crowned the most decorated Grammy award winner of all time after taking home four new trophies yesterday, the US megastar has never won Album of the Year among the four times she’s been nominated in the category.

During Styles’ acceptance speech, the former One Direction member made one particular comment that hasn’t gone down well, telling the audience: “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.”

‘This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.’ Styles’ comment raised eyebrows. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

The statement raised eyebrows, with many pointing out that such honours often happen to white men.

Saying “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” when a Black woman hasn't won that award since 1999 is crazy lol

— Ashley K. (@AshleyKSmalls) February 6, 2023

“This doesn’t happen to people like me very often” says the white man who uses queer aesthetics to sell records and won album of the year over a Black woman.

— Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) February 6, 2023

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

— hey man nice tweet (@jazz_inmypants) February 6, 2023

“this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” IT LITERALLY ONLY HAPPENS TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU????

— ÙŽ (@ungodlywests) February 6, 2023

“this doesn’t happen to people like me often” who, white british men? 😭

— no (@zedonarrival) February 6, 2023

“This doesn’t happen to people like me” is the most white privilege-iest thing to ever be uttered at an awards show ever for all time

— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) February 6, 2023

The Recording Academy is no stranger to criticism when it comes to fairness with gender and diversity.

Only three black women have won Album of the Year in the Grammys’ 65-year history, and it’s been 24 years since a black woman took home the prized award – when Lauryn Hill won for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999.

Beyonce was widely tipped to take home the Album of the Year award. Picture: Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images

Long-running tensions boiled over in 2018 when the Grammys went viral after the hashtag #GrammySoMale erupted on social media.

The backlash ensued after Canadian singer Alessia Cara was the only woman to be presented a solo award on the televised ceremony, where she won Best New Artist.

To make matters worse, former Recording Academy President Neil Portnow later told Variety women needed to “step up” in order to compete against their male counterparts.

“It has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level, to step up because I think they would be welcome,” he said at the time in response to backlash.

“I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us as an industry to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists.”

He later apologised for his comments. Soon after, Mr Portnow announced he would be standing down at the end of his contract in mid-2019.