The British singer-songwriter and pop star Harry Styles received the award for album of the year at the 65th Grammy Awards for his LP “Harry’s House”, which was released last year. However, during his acceptance speech, he made a faux pas that caused quite a stir on social media.
An almost perfect thank you
“It doesn’t happen very often to people like me,” said the musician while holding the award in his hands. He then passed it on to Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon, who in turn thanked him. Everything was going great for Styles up to this point. The award was presented to him by a 74-year-old self-declared “superfan” of his music, a lady named Reina. Host Trevor Noah invited her and other superfans of the Album of the Year nominees, who were featured in a roundtable segment throughout the live show, to the stage for the final awards ceremony. After reading Styles’ name for himself, he left the proclamation to her. Styles hugged the lady on stage and she was clearly happy for him.
people like who?
Now, however, his memorable comment overshadows that moment and his otherwise appropriately reverential speech. On the Internet, especially on Twitter, many voices have been raised that are looking for the concrete meaning of the statement or do not understand it. Harry Styles is a white, privileged, handsome man who plays with his gender identity but is definitely cis. In addition, there has been a growing number of voices of late questioning his performance of forward-thinking, unconventional masculinity and accusing it of being more style than substance.
Alongside him, nominees in the category included Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Adele, all of whom, based on their identities, to which a “People Like Me” statement happens to refer, would historically have better reasons to to utter this sentence. For example, Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” would be the first Spanish-language album to have won the award. Beyoncé would have been the first Black woman to win a Grammy in this category since 1999 (Lauryn Hill – “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”). In addition, the R&B icon has been nominated four times in this category and, despite her quantitative dominance at the Grammys, only has one award in a main category (“Song of the Year” for “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It), 2010 ).
The comments on the incident range from irony to incomprehension or attempts at conciliatory acceptance to outcry.
Some tweets
a queer gender non confirming immigrant man won AOTY and youre prioritizing a cishet american woman…
— giabucci (@jaboukie) February 6, 2023
Adele leaving during Harry Styles little speech and Lizzo understanding why has me weak?. #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/xuesS2O6C3
— TV Fanatic?⚜️ (@TvKhaleesi) 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
BEGGING Harry Styles to stop saying “people like me” when he wins something. sir, I am ROOTING FOR YOU, but absolutely no one knows what you mean by that and it does not sound good!!
— Cat Cardenas (@catrcardenas) February 6, 2023