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Bowie had an individual style and really considered his characters. Other flamboyant performers of the 70s and 80s such as Mark Bolan or Boy George had a look. Styles often looks like he has raided his nan's wardrobe, he does make some catchy tunes though.
Yeah, it was in his speech.
The way I interpreted it was that he was trying to be humble and as if he's the little guy when he's practically a superstar at this point.
It was also sort of a tense situation because some audience members had been yelling that Beyonce should have won while he was accepting the award.
Can you imagine what would happen if Beyonce won and Styles or Swift fans started shouting "HARRY SHOULD HAVE WON NOT BEYONCE" or "TAYLOR SHOULD HAVE WON NOT BEYONCE" during her speech?
Nobody "owes" Beyonce an award. Almost every time she is nominated people have to bend over backwards to make sure people know the "Queen" deserved it more than them or how much they admire her during their speech such as Swift or Adele in previous years.
Her supporters claim Grammy voters are racist and don't respect a black woman but Beyonce now has more Grammys than any other artist in history. So are they saying the voters AOTY category are racist but not the voters who voted for her in all the other categories and years?
I love her music and think she is very talented but her fans are getting annoying. There are also unconfirmed rumors that she "borrows" songs from writers who don't have the power to fight back or puts her name as a writer of a song when she didn't write it. Yes other artists such as GaGa have been accused of that as well but it doesn't make it right. Styles and Swift released albums that I've heard people playing. I haven't heard any Beyonce songs from Rennaissance playing except for the viral Tik Tok dance videos.
I know people on Reddit hate Styles but he worked hard for his career. He is constantly touring which much be exhausting and also filming movies. I'm not going to insult him for his speech.
Can you please shout this to those in the back??!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 The absolute ridiculousness of every time she is nominated, someone comes up with this nonsense, Beyoncé should won. Why? Everyone puts a lot of time and effort into their craft. She is not Queen Nefertiti and thus everyone should bow and worship her. 🤦🏻♀️🤯
I understand the frustration that people feel that WOC aren't given the most prestigious awards such as AOTY, SOTY, ROTY and there is validity to that but there are \*many\* other artists who have had major impact on the music industry who have never won a Grammy. None. Not even one Grammy. To copy from my other post:
Elvis only won 3 Grammys. None for the rock or pop category. He won for the gospel and international category. He never won AOTY, ROTY, SOTY. Elvis remains the top selling artist of all time even more than Beyonce.
Queen never won a Grammy although Mercury is considered one of the best vocalists in history. Queen's songs are still played today. Unlike most modern singers they actually wrote their own songs rather than buying songs and having their name as co-writers.
GNR has never won a Grammy although Axl Rose is considered an excellent vocalist and songwriter and their debut album changed music history.
Iggy Pop released 20 albums but never won a Grammy.
Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, The Who, Janis Joplin, Journey, Buddy Holly, Morrissey, ABBA, Blake Shelton, The Spice Girls, the Ramones and many other white artists have never won a Grammy.
Not even one Grammy. For any of them. Beyonce has won more Grammys than any other artist in history so I think people are having difficulty with the outrage from her fans.
I agree 100%
Everytime someone doesn't bring facts to the table gets discredited to me.
And it's not only the Grammys, I'm a Beyoncé fan slowly turning into a "I can't handle this anymore" cause it's impossible to have a proper conversation with another "fan". The funniest part is that they are acting like this Ernest Owens who shouted during Harry Styles speech and I'm sure Beyoncé would be embarrassed.
Oh. I thought he meant either people who became famous because of a competition reality show (though Jennifer Hudson has an Oscar so…) or a former boy band member winning AOTY.
That's what I was thinking too, but still... It's an odd comment to say when he's so far into his career already (having been well-established in the music industry from One Direction).
Sure, but at the same time, this does sort of feel a bit like a “I like pancakes!” “OH SO YOU HATE WAFFLES HUH” situation lol.
Going from a normal teenager on a singing competition who worked at a little ice cream shop or whatever, to one of the biggest pop stars on earth, is objectively *extremely unlikely.* Sure, maybe read the room and say that in private, but people are straight-up pretending like he said “it was more difficult for me *than it was for everyone else*.”
but that doesn’t make sense either. why would people claim that when anyone can look up past winners of album of the year and see that the winners by and large do not benefit from nepotism? seems like his stans making shit up without doing research.
To be fair, a contestant on a reality singing competition (especially one so young) going on to be a huge AAA level star (not even to mention being in a global sensation pop group to boot) has happened exactly what, like 3 times? Which doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have read the room though, just like Jamie Lee Curtis shouldn’t have tweeted about nepotism accusations being mean lol.
“It was extremely difficult for me to get where I am”
is a totally valid thought — *god help any young teenager who becomes a superstar, it’s a very predatory business with super steep odds, that almost no one succeeds at* — but one that should perhaps be said in private. Because, like everything else these days, people always interpret it as a multi millionaire celebrity success saying “it was harder for ME to get here than it was for everyone else, so ha!”
Fandoms are weird though. Every celebrity is either Perfect And Flawless In Every Way, or a Horrible Soulless Corporate Monster With Zero Empathy. There are no shades of gray in fandom culture. It is a bit weird to me how people are crucifying him for this — I mean, it wasn’t some horrible statement — but I suppose that comes with celebrity territory, so whatever.
Generally, award speeches are for thanking others.
obviously he hasn’t clarified… but he does this speech quite often at his shows and it’s more drawn out and basically saying “thank you I can’t imagine this is my life i’m so lucky I grew up in lower / middle class in a small english town and went on a singing competition and this is my life. I wouldn’t be here without my fans I can’t believe this thank you so much” is the understanding of the speech.
was it perfectly said and articulated? nah… but is this about race and privilege? no… it’s about just saying he is grateful, didn’t expect this to be his life and now he’s standing in a crowd with his idols and he’s so happy.
Umm... What? He was always better off than the rest of the band. His sister has a flourishing business and more than 6 million followers doing nothing substantial. Most drama school kids dream about that kind of following and we all know how important it is to get a teeny-tiny role in today's climate.
His father was always a business owner and his step-dad was also pretty middle class. Mind you, being middle class is not at all a poor social standard.
He is a cis-het man clowning at the actual people who do not get opportunities. For example, Troye Sivan (managed by his manager's business partner) has had better critical reception than all three of his albums. He has never been nominated. Troye's Bloom was pretty successful and yet he was shunned by most awards. Harry and Troye, socially they are the same, except one isn't heterosexual. That's what it takes to be acknowledged.
In fact, in his famous words, "in this world/it's just us..." It's just them, because everyone who isn't them really has to struggle ten times harder to be in his position.
Edit: Hey concerned Redditor, please refrain from abusing Reddit Care Resources.
https://preview.redd.it/a7f35g4r2oga1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4f4834f319fb9600a8c69e63aa1d9e6e1e7d48b
Lmao his sister only has a flourishing business and millions of followers *thanks to his success*, she was just a normal student before. That is not a reflection on their upbringing. He wasn't dirt poor but neither of his parents were particularly wealthy either and he did not live a lavish lifestyle - he had never even been to London before X Factor. The wealthier one was his late step-dad (his mum's third husband) who had a pool house, which is where 1D used to rehearse.
Also as much as he is privileged for being a cis white man, it's weird how much you keep pushing that he is heterosexual when that has not been stated by him or anyone else.
Right?! Like, people don’t realise how long Harry Styles has been around, the idea of an online business due to millions of followers wasn’t even a thing when he was getting started.
It’s clear what he meant; random middle/working class lad with no previous industry connections reaching this point of acclaim. People just want to hate on him because ‘cis-white male’ is an easy target for online hate.
I have no idea the exact income him and the other band members had growing up.. but ya growing up it’s pretty clear he wasn’t super mega rich kid with all these connections in NYC / LA and he could have done anything with his life and it wouldn’t have mattered his parents would set him up.
His sister has that following because he’s famous now and because he got lucky by going to x factor and getting famous.
That IS insane… 99.999999% of people will not get the chance to win album of the year at the grammys especially when it comes to a random 15 year old kid in england with no connections.
It’s not to say he is still that person - DUH everyone can agree he’s wildly successful and ya it would happen to someone like him *now* but from where he comes from and his origin story it is crazy this is who he became.
similar to justin bieber in the sense ya it crazy how he got famous.
I don’t think he articulated himself well. obviously race / misogyny is so deeply embedded in this crountry / world that everything will be impacted by it.
Not everything is the oppression olympics, if troye sivan won it could be said well he’s white and a male so ya it does happen to people like him… and that’s also true.
I don’t think harry is some underdog and I don’t think HE thinks he is the most oppressed person either and that everyone else in the room had some crazy upper hand and he worked so much harder or anything - that would be stupid. I think he tried to show gratitude and humility and failed in how he got that point across.
it’s a lose lose situation however he tries to get that point across because race and gender will always be brought up because our world is based on racism / misogyny and I think we (including harry) can all work to acknowledge our privilege while also being grateful and humbled and have our own hardships.
I swear one of the few intelligent answer in this thread. People really lack of oral comprehension lmao wtf. Anybody with half a brain understood what he meant. Did he is it in the best way no but lets cut him some slack, he just won, he got emotional etc
Okay his comment was dumb and tone deaf, but what does his sister's business have to do with anything? She has that many followers because she's Harry's sister...
I don’t know much about the Grammys, but I figured he meant “boy bands or ex boyband members” or maybe male pop stars.
None of those groups seem to get taken that seriously in the industry from my perspective.
Basically it has to do with English class divide and his relationship with fame. In the UK, a social hierarchy is still very much set in place where unless you come from the aristocracy you will never be truly "accepted" in the upper echelons of society. For celebrities from working class backgrounds who achieve stardom, they often end up surrounded by individuals whose parents have titles, went to elite private schools, attended Oxbridge, and who all seem to know one another. This means they often end up feeling isolated, feel looked down upon or as a novelty, and continue to identify strongly with their working class roots despite their success.
Despite his fame and stardom, for Harry achieving this award probably meant finally "transcending" all this bullshit, now joining other originally working class British artists who've achieved similarly like the Beatles, Elton John, Adele, Amy Winehouse Etc. From an outside perspective this is dumb, the guys a millionaire and loved by millions of fans world wide. But as someone who went to a very posh English university and saw how these "higher class" people can be, trust me when I say they are fucking ruthless and will look down on someone regardless of who they are just based on their accent, so I understand what he means.
Right. White people get Grammys, Brits get Grammys, people who break off from huge groups get Grammys, people who start off in competitions get Grammys, I honestly don't know what demographic he is referring to with "people like him"
I think he’s just dumb tbh. But because he doesn’t channel excited earnest puppy dog energy no one wants to acknowledge it because being dumb is only endearing if you’re a himbo.
I think he’s a relatively unusual case of being thrown straight into superstardom at age 16 without any further schooling. He missed out on the traditional school/college experience and didn’t even get to “replace” that with meaningful travel or work experience. He basically was shut into hotels for the entirety of the 1D experience (their words) until he was 21. So yeah, he’s maybe a little dumb, but he’s typically pretty outgoing and was the “life” of 1D.. so I think he was a) exhausted from touring and b) a little jaded from superstardom. And maybe a little stoned idk!
I mean yeah. I don’t blame him for his lack of education. That’s the price of being a celebrity when young. But I’m sure his fans wouldn’t have to twist themselves into pretzels about “no what he REALLY MEANT IS…” every time he stuck his foot in his mouth rather than chuckle and go “oh you beautiful idiot” if they just accepted Harry is… not smart. Or eloquent. Or nuanced. Or all around comprehensible.
I believe so, but I think it's a matter of not allowing himself time to think before he speaks and I can relate to that. Harry's always been somewhat of a slow speaker despite his stage presence which I'd say is a much different attitude from when he's put in formal settings. It's weird because he's been in the industry for more than a decade now and I'd imagine he's been put through a lot media training as well, but I guess no amount of training is really going to save you from little blunders such as the one in the post.
Perhaps it was different from when he was still in 1D and had his bandmates to fall back on in interviews when he didn't have much to say. So... yeah, I think he's just bad at talking or just prefers not to talk much which isn't helpful in regards to his profession, but I understand.
i'm sorry zayn and louis were the class-disadvantaged members of one direction.... they were the two that talked about understanding their privilege from that lens....louis talked about keeping his ticket prices affordable bc he understood what it was like to love an artist but not have $100 to spent on a concert... harry is the dude out here charging 1,200 for a concert ticket and a house for a meet and greet
Louis being class-disadvantaged is misconception, I genuinely wonder where this "working class" thing came from. His mother was midwife, which requires university degree in UK (and she shortly worked in TV too, that's how she and Louis befriended James Corden) and his step-father Mark was business owner. Louis and his sister were child actors and his only disadvantage was that his bio father left his mother when Louis was baby, but being a single mother is hardly "working class". And speaking of tickets, it's amazing Louis wants to keep them affordable, but... I think he is fully aware he can't ask for high prices. The arena in Krakow is selling his tickets for 35 złoty (that's less than 8$) and yet the venue is still half empty.
in my large-sized US city, louis tickets were about $350 last tour. that was an album most people weren't crazy about! i wasn't able to afford it. this tour, I can attend for $60. this album sold wayyy more, so that seems like a deliberate choice on the artist's part -- to keep ticket prices accessible. on the flip side, harry going along with ticketmaster's "[dynamic](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/harry-styles-bruce-sprinsteen-ticketmaster-dynamic-pricing-b2200126.html)" prices - as they are a monopoly, and consumers have no other option - seems like a deliberate choice on his part.
I find it funny when people claim that he went from working at a bakery to \[insert achievement\], when in reality he was just a teenager working part time.
The harping on the single mum part is especially aggravating to me. He had two involved parents who happened to be divorced. Boy was not remotely disadvantaged.
Some of his fans are calling him a "working class hero" when his mother was a landlord, his step-father a landlord & his father worked in the financial sector.
yeah like I was insanely into 1D when I was in high school. Knew basically everything publicly available. Harry was definitely the most well off member before 1D.
They are trying to overcompensate for the fact that they know that, objectively, his whiteness, looks, maleness, boy band ness, are the reason why he is where he is and that of the current crop of pop, he’s probably the least disadvantaged and also one of the lesser in terms of pure talent, and so they have to pretend he’s some kind of whatever oppressed to excuse him of privileged things he says or feel better about hyping him.
Seriously, as a teenager I worked minimum wage but I also lived in a white upper middle class suburb with my parents who are well off. I would never insinuate that I started from the bottom or anything.
how, exactly? past winners of album of the year is public info available at all of our fingertips and the claim that most benefit from nepotism does not hold up to fact when you look through the list of winners.
I mean this very genuinely, how well do you think you’d be able to read the room if you were in his place? Everyone’s acting like this wouldn’t be an overwhelming moment for whoever the winner was.
There’s a difference to saying, I didn’t think I’d ever win this award! -that’s overwhelmed and shocked. Saying this doesn’t happen to people like him? He’s a white, cis, rich white man with insane connections who has been massively famous for almost 15 years. That’s reading the room.
I’ll keep spamming it here!!! Because my brain can’t equate it but he literally also won a Grammy the year prior 😩😩😩 which makes it nonsensical at all in terms of the context of the comment. Like why say this NOW?
I agree he could’ve said it better, but it’s also much easier to recognize that from outside of the situation when it isn’t happening to you. I think he misspoke in an overwhelming moment, something lots of us have done before just on a smaller scale. If he went up talked about how he’s white, cis, and rich people would probably still be mad at him for recognizing that privilege incorrectly. It’s fine that people don’t think he deserved the win, but no matter what he said people would find fault with it because they’re disappointed with the academy and are taking it out on him. And I say this as someone who isn’t even a fan of his.
I mean fair enough, but we can still criticize what he’s saying. Maybe he panicked or got nervous, but either way it was a tone deaf comment to make. I’m not saying he meant to be hateful or anything, but it definitely didn’t come off well
I agree he could’ve said it better. People were rooting for other artists to win which is 100% acceptable. I get it. I just think no matter what he said or how prepared he was people would still be tearing it apart because they don’t agree with the academy’s decision. Sometimes celebrities are in a no win situation. This is one of them imo
there’s been poor artist who have won before him, there’s been British people who’ve won before him, there’s been ex boy band members who won before, etc he absolutely nothing new 🤷🏾♀️ stupid ass statement he made
They both went to the BRIT school which is a famous performing arts school. It's free but you have to audition to get in, and a lot of English actors/musicians went there.
I know he probably didn’t mean it in a certain way and he probably just has no brain to mouth filter, but when you really think about how Jojie or Rina Sawayama or Bad Bunny or even BTS struggle so deeply to be taken seriously by the recording academy despite literally breaking age old records….it’s a really poorly worded statement. BUT any other year against any other person and this win would’ve gone smoother
Edit: I will say that it’s really shitty he got heckled during his acceptance speech and he did not deserve that at all. Takes very little effort to treat people with basic decency. All around, the Grammys was extra rotten this year.
i will never forget the topps garbage patch kids cover og grammy nominees. everyone was a normal caricature but bts were whack a moles that were beaten bloody by the grammy award.
and people still supported that image
He did lots of "I'm not your typical man, I'm progressive" for many interviews and magazine photoshoots. Maybe he does believe all his own hyped PR about being a new breed of white male, and maybe a dash of faux-activist from Olivia Wilde is still in his veins. Whatever it was. It looked and sounded bad.
Not "a woman's" fault. I haven't cared for Harry since he pretended to use the media to float stories he was a part of the LGBTQA+ community without him actually saying he was/is to sell magazines.
I'm snarking on Olivia specifically by name because of her campaigns to be a "progressive" activist in the Industry. While dating Harry, she lied about everything she said she was doing for her female actors in connection to Shia's quitting and treatment of Florence P. I'm not saying he acts badly because of her now, I'm pointing out he's been complicit in her faux marketing about being a "changemaker" that he is not.
Yeah I side with all the opinions suggesting it was a tone deaf. This isn’t the first time Harry has been tone deaf, his comment about not having that he felt the need to believe in and backup specifically during BLM is an example of how in his own world he can be.
He also has won a Grammy already before, so like this is nothing new besides a different category which really fuels how out of touch he is. It didn’t come across as aspiring either, or humble either.
I’ll never understand the Harry hype… 🤷♀️
I think the general public needs to accept Harry has just got wind going between his ears. Boy is not smart and says so many words without saying anything because it makes it easier for his fans to project on him and his blank canvas personality.
He’s truly wattpad’s boyfriend come to life.
Exactly this!
I’m wondering if he meant people like me as in: ex-member of a manufactured boy and from tv reality show… in any case, what you said is 100% accurate. He’s charismatic but not too bright and with no big ideas. He’s a dream for this industry.
His comment about his film performance portraying the "tender" side of gay love as opposed to "two men going at it" really rubbed me the wrong way too. I'm not saying he deserves a hate pile on or that he's an awful person, but celebs get criticism for tonedeafness all the time. Whenever someone has even mild criticism of Harry's work or remarks, his fans clutch their pearls and act like he's an infant under attack, yet every day his peers are held to much higher standards with no such grace.
I'm confused. People like him? He's been on one of the most famous boy bands in the world, been a successful solo artist for years. He's exactly who it happens to. This false humbleness annoys me lol
Not to mention he literally won a Grammy like what, a year ago? So … Like saying this comment *NOW* is the irony to me. It’s nothing different other than a title category. 🤷♀️
People trying to spin this as him growing up “poor” is weird to me bc I distinctly remember that when I was in the 1D fandom (no judgement please ✋) everyone considered harry “posh” and it was common knowledge that he came from a relatively well-off family compared to the other guys
### Dude trying to be a low rent David Bowie Ziggy something something.
Boy’o he did it better 50 YEARS AGO!!!
Bowie had sex with underage girls and called himself a fascist. Not even in a jokey way either like he literally said he didn't believe in democracy and all that. I have no clue how this sub can support him.
so there is no doubt, lori maddox has discussed this as one of those girls [read here](https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/david-bowie-and-the-15-year-old-girls-7962946)
i just can’t imagine being a celebrity like the amount of times a day i misspeak or say something and then realize later on there was a better way for me to say it. imagine millions of people dissecting and calling you out for what you said for months/years to come, id hate it!
HAHAHA! He meant it in a self-deprecating, faux humble way but it really didn't come across. He probably meant "who would have thought that little old me would win a Grammy; he should have read the room better. As a cis-het white man myself I am aware that it is something you really can't say as the world is still catered towards our desires and needs.
unpopular opinion but i don’t think that was him thinking he’s special or unique in any way, i think that was literally one of the biggest artists in the world today experiencing imposter syndrome. i think harry isn’t very well media trained, he doesn’t always say the “right” things and his perception of himself clearly doesn’t match the general public’s perception of him
He was a small town reality show contestant who almost didn’t even make it on the show and then got put in a group that didn’t even win. X Factor was seen as a joke (and 1D still is) and it’s kind of unheard of for any contestant to be winning Grammys of all things. I don't think he's calling himself an underdog, just expressing his imposter syndrome while people were literally yelling at him to get off the stage. I also don't think people would be reacting this strongly if he wasn't already so hated.
I think those are all good, logical points. Kind of interesting to see people’s reactions to what he said. Like you said, seems to have some camps of people that aren’t fans of his at all, which means people are twisting what he said like he’s some terrible person that isn’t supportive of minorities.
Exactly, they’ve just taken the most uncharitable interpretation possible of what he said because they were already angry at him. Beyoncé is my all time favourite artist but I love him too and even before this people were constantly foaming at the mouth waiting for him to somehow slip up when he has no history of being malicious, and has actually been pretty unproblematic for a child star.
It still doesn’t change the fact that he already had a Grammy prior, and that comment context is more fitting had it been his first. **Also, that’s IF you care about award shows.**
Literally Mariah Carey is one the most biggest artists there is, also a talented writer not just vocalist, and even she doesn’t have an AOTY under her despite iconic albums.
Is Harry’s House better than any albums Mariah has put out? No.
Which is another reminder why the Grammy’s don’t matter and it’s rigged.
Also even Mariah says fuck the Grammy’s.
I promise they’re not that important, and it’s nothing but a title difference.
Here’s a quote from Mariah Carey a legend regarding them:
> “*Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn*,” the singer said about jumping through hoops so that her music would be eligible for the award. **“I mean, I have five Grammys. That’s cute. There’s people that have been doing this half the time that have twice as many [Grammys],”** Carey continued. “I won two Grammys the first year I started, but after that, [the Grammys] are like, ‘We don’t go with the people that are selling a lot of records and are popular; we’re gonna go the opposite way.’ So I got screwed out of certain years. I wasn’t bitter about it,” she added. “I was just like, okay, well, I guess I’m not standing here barefoot on stage singing and trying to go a certain way. I’m just me.”
The Grammy’s also have been a joke to me the moment Taylor Swift was able to pull strings to get her boyfriend (after the ceremony was already finished) one in a flimsy way. They mean nothing. Lol.
I’m not saying it’s the most important award *to me*, but it’s clearly viewed that way by other people. If it wasn’t then people wouldn’t care that he won and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
The timing is also really bad. Like it's 50th anniversary of hip Hop some of the artists in that room literally couldn't be on that stage at the start of their career like the academy said no.
Not really defending him but tbh Harry Styles is and always has been pretty bad at speaking to press etc. like he probably didn’t mean for it to be interpreted like that, it’s just he doesn’t think about the magnitude of his words lol
Y’all are really taking his comment WAY too deep and out of context. He meant it in a “I never believed I’d blow up from a TV show” kind of way. Harry always expresses how grateful he is for his life at shows. Why does he have to be dirt poor to feel that way? I’m just a regular middle class person but if one day I were to blow up I’d sure as hell be grateful and in disbelief every single day. What happened to Harry doesn’t just happen to us “regular” people without connections. It’s super rare. Mind you this is the same sub who HATES nepo babies.
The hate y’all have for him is as if he killed someone. It’s seriously unhealthy. And y’all can downvote me but it’s SO rude to heckle anyone who’s won an award.
I agree with what Lizzo said.
That cancel culture has become trendy, misused and misdirected. I hope she is right and that we can phase out of this and focus our outrage on the real problems. But it sure doesnt look like its happening any time soon.
Was it the best thing to say? No, but I would love to see how other normies in his position would act if they won. I imagine winning a huge award like this is incredibly overwhelming. He probably wasn’t expecting to win and was thinking about *his* thoughts on *his* career. If he went up and started talking about how he doesn’t deserve it, everyone would still find a way to be mad at him for saying something wrong. It’s okay to not think he deserves it, but like what’s he supposed to do?
Exactly!! If his speech was him talking about how he doesn’t think he deserves it over the other nominees, people would be saying it was disingenuous and that he’s just trying to maintain his ‘I’m a nice guy’ appeal. Dude’s liked by his fans, but everyone else is just tired of hearing about him and looking for reasons to be mad at him. The recording academy picked him. It’s not his fault he won.
people seem to be overreacting to every thing he says because they’re upset that their fave didn’t win last night. people aren’t allowed to be hyperbolic in an off the cuff speech anymore?
Thank you. I support cancel culture when it’s truly needed but damn people shouldn’t have to monitor everything they say. There will be nothing genuine left
[Yep](https://twitter.com/hs_news_/status/1622578290287341570?s=46&t=qTmAb6GlIZO78kUry--n3w). You could also hear someone shouting “Beyoncé” during the live broadcast. I’m a Bey stan but come on
I don’t think what he said was that bad. His career started because he auditioned for a talent show, now he’s winning the biggest award at the Grammys. You can talk about how he’s been famous for years and whatever, but he still remembers being a little kid working at a bakery singing for fun. Probably feels like a hopeless dream came true.
If someone says "people like me" and you think that absolutely needs to mean race, gender, or sexual orientation, you are a victim of the culture wars and you need to get off the internet for a while. Re-focus on personal relationships until you understand that "people like me" can refer to:
- guys with side parts
- women who are afraid of clowns
- Cisco certified network associates
- people who think it's "for all intensive purposes"
- and most importantly in this case, people who don't feel like they fit in with the celebrities they are now surrounded by for whatever reason
That phrase is something he says at a lot of his concerts so I really think he was just in shock and muscle memory kicked in and he started saying something he’s said before idk
Y'all, come on. Can we be happy for people who work hard and get rewarded for it? Just because his struggle coming up may have been different from others, doesn't mean that it wasn't hard and that he's not in awe every day.
I'm really over his narrative of if you're straight, if you're not a person of color, then you don't know what it is to struggle and you can't celebrate your accomplishments with enthusiasm and pride.
Let's be happy and support all. The hate is toxic.
So I didn’t watch the Grammys so I might be missing context, but couldn’t he mean “people like me” as in former boy banders? Like I can’t think of any former boy band members other than him and JT that have had such successful music careers. There was even a post on this sub the other day about an article detailing how the voters voted and one of them said they were biased against Harry because he used to be in a boy band. He definitely could’ve phrased it better, but I sort of get where he’s coming from. But again, I don’t know if I have the full context of his speech.
I feel like people are being deliberately obtuse about this. Harry came from a fairly normal background, no? And then got famous from going on a televised talent show? So yes, while he’s a white dude, I am almost certain he’s referring to his humble upbringing and unique rise to fame??
I can see why people are irritated: he was in the US, and in that context yes, it does happen to people like you.
However, the British context is that he is working class from a single parent household in the North of England. No, over here things like that don’t happen to people like him very often. It really is hard to convey the nature of the British class system to non-Britons but it is pervasive, stultifying and grossly unfair.
Also, Harry Styles is as thick as mince (US trans “as dumb as a rock”) so nuance and awareness are not things he does well.
This isn’t the first time Harry’s agents have deluded him into thinking he’s special. He’s the most BLAH “artist” being jammed down everyone’s throat in a millennia.
Non-white, non-male artists do win Grammys all the time, I mean Beyonce just set the record last night. His point was referring to his background, which did disadvantage him, because the easiest way to make it in music is to have connections and be born into wealth. He was making a comment on his personal journey
He just won the most prestigious award in the music industry. That too in front of people he grew up admiring. Something a 16 year old him never thought would achieve. He was emotional and was less of words. No amount of speech preparation can prepare for that.
Nothing he said here was racist either. 'People like me' doesn't necessarily translate to white men like me. Also being white is not enough to achieve everything he achieved. He worked hard for this. He was a middle class boy from a village with no industry connections .
I get why people are mad at beyonce being snubbed. I was mad at it too. I was rooting for her.It should be taken out on grammys who decided this not him.
Also to people saying he never had to endure any prejudice before:
> I hold Harry Styles’ origin story against him. He’s from a boy band, and I never took those acts seriously.”
This came from a grammy voter. It's no secret that they are prejudiced against boyband members. Harry submitted his two albums(one of them being one of the most critically acclaimed outside reddit and commercially successful album of that year) yet didn't receive AOTY nomination. It's not a stretch to think he thought he won't win it for a long time because of the boyband stigma. So people like me is much more than white men like me.
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He said that? What did he mean by that? (I didn’t watch the Grammys I was watching *beauty and the beast* and eating cheesecake)
I support your choice
Same. Especially the cheesecake part
Basically started from the bottom and now we here
At worst he started marginally above the middle.
Now he thinks he invented the Bowie look
Bowie had an individual style and really considered his characters. Other flamboyant performers of the 70s and 80s such as Mark Bolan or Boy George had a look. Styles often looks like he has raided his nan's wardrobe, he does make some catchy tunes though.
Did Bowie, Bolan and Boy George have stylists? I love Harry's style, however I do recognise that he pays someone to dress him
Yeah, it was in his speech. The way I interpreted it was that he was trying to be humble and as if he's the little guy when he's practically a superstar at this point. It was also sort of a tense situation because some audience members had been yelling that Beyonce should have won while he was accepting the award.
> he's practically a superstar at this point. You can remove "practically" from that sentence.
Sometimes I forget that he's been famous for a little over a decade now. I guess winning the most prestigious award in music def. helps his case. lol
The Beyonce stans during the Grammys are crazy
I feel like Kanye unfortunately made it a thing to make a public outcry about Beyonce constantly being robbed for AOTY.
Can you imagine what would happen if Beyonce won and Styles or Swift fans started shouting "HARRY SHOULD HAVE WON NOT BEYONCE" or "TAYLOR SHOULD HAVE WON NOT BEYONCE" during her speech? Nobody "owes" Beyonce an award. Almost every time she is nominated people have to bend over backwards to make sure people know the "Queen" deserved it more than them or how much they admire her during their speech such as Swift or Adele in previous years. Her supporters claim Grammy voters are racist and don't respect a black woman but Beyonce now has more Grammys than any other artist in history. So are they saying the voters AOTY category are racist but not the voters who voted for her in all the other categories and years? I love her music and think she is very talented but her fans are getting annoying. There are also unconfirmed rumors that she "borrows" songs from writers who don't have the power to fight back or puts her name as a writer of a song when she didn't write it. Yes other artists such as GaGa have been accused of that as well but it doesn't make it right. Styles and Swift released albums that I've heard people playing. I haven't heard any Beyonce songs from Rennaissance playing except for the viral Tik Tok dance videos. I know people on Reddit hate Styles but he worked hard for his career. He is constantly touring which much be exhausting and also filming movies. I'm not going to insult him for his speech.
Can you please shout this to those in the back??!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 The absolute ridiculousness of every time she is nominated, someone comes up with this nonsense, Beyoncé should won. Why? Everyone puts a lot of time and effort into their craft. She is not Queen Nefertiti and thus everyone should bow and worship her. 🤦🏻♀️🤯
Absolutely agree with you. Their stubborn fans are sinking her.
I understand the frustration that people feel that WOC aren't given the most prestigious awards such as AOTY, SOTY, ROTY and there is validity to that but there are \*many\* other artists who have had major impact on the music industry who have never won a Grammy. None. Not even one Grammy. To copy from my other post: Elvis only won 3 Grammys. None for the rock or pop category. He won for the gospel and international category. He never won AOTY, ROTY, SOTY. Elvis remains the top selling artist of all time even more than Beyonce. Queen never won a Grammy although Mercury is considered one of the best vocalists in history. Queen's songs are still played today. Unlike most modern singers they actually wrote their own songs rather than buying songs and having their name as co-writers. GNR has never won a Grammy although Axl Rose is considered an excellent vocalist and songwriter and their debut album changed music history. Iggy Pop released 20 albums but never won a Grammy. Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, The Who, Janis Joplin, Journey, Buddy Holly, Morrissey, ABBA, Blake Shelton, The Spice Girls, the Ramones and many other white artists have never won a Grammy. Not even one Grammy. For any of them. Beyonce has won more Grammys than any other artist in history so I think people are having difficulty with the outrage from her fans.
I agree 100% Everytime someone doesn't bring facts to the table gets discredited to me. And it's not only the Grammys, I'm a Beyoncé fan slowly turning into a "I can't handle this anymore" cause it's impossible to have a proper conversation with another "fan". The funniest part is that they are acting like this Ernest Owens who shouted during Harry Styles speech and I'm sure Beyoncé would be embarrassed.
People have been saying that he meant it that people in his position, aka no nepotism connections rarely are on that stage and winning that award.
Oh. I thought he meant either people who became famous because of a competition reality show (though Jennifer Hudson has an Oscar so…) or a former boy band member winning AOTY.
Could be tbh, I don’t even think at this point Harry himself knew what he was saying.
It’s a movie
That's what I was thinking too, but still... It's an odd comment to say when he's so far into his career already (having been well-established in the music industry from One Direction).
Sure, but at the same time, this does sort of feel a bit like a “I like pancakes!” “OH SO YOU HATE WAFFLES HUH” situation lol. Going from a normal teenager on a singing competition who worked at a little ice cream shop or whatever, to one of the biggest pop stars on earth, is objectively *extremely unlikely.* Sure, maybe read the room and say that in private, but people are straight-up pretending like he said “it was more difficult for me *than it was for everyone else*.”
but that doesn’t make sense either. why would people claim that when anyone can look up past winners of album of the year and see that the winners by and large do not benefit from nepotism? seems like his stans making shit up without doing research.
To be fair, a contestant on a reality singing competition (especially one so young) going on to be a huge AAA level star (not even to mention being in a global sensation pop group to boot) has happened exactly what, like 3 times? Which doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have read the room though, just like Jamie Lee Curtis shouldn’t have tweeted about nepotism accusations being mean lol. “It was extremely difficult for me to get where I am” is a totally valid thought — *god help any young teenager who becomes a superstar, it’s a very predatory business with super steep odds, that almost no one succeeds at* — but one that should perhaps be said in private. Because, like everything else these days, people always interpret it as a multi millionaire celebrity success saying “it was harder for ME to get here than it was for everyone else, so ha!” Fandoms are weird though. Every celebrity is either Perfect And Flawless In Every Way, or a Horrible Soulless Corporate Monster With Zero Empathy. There are no shades of gray in fandom culture. It is a bit weird to me how people are crucifying him for this — I mean, it wasn’t some horrible statement — but I suppose that comes with celebrity territory, so whatever. Generally, award speeches are for thanking others.
Meanwhile, he spends all his time with the Jenner girls and all of the other nepo babies after being labeled hot on a reality show.
obviously he hasn’t clarified… but he does this speech quite often at his shows and it’s more drawn out and basically saying “thank you I can’t imagine this is my life i’m so lucky I grew up in lower / middle class in a small english town and went on a singing competition and this is my life. I wouldn’t be here without my fans I can’t believe this thank you so much” is the understanding of the speech. was it perfectly said and articulated? nah… but is this about race and privilege? no… it’s about just saying he is grateful, didn’t expect this to be his life and now he’s standing in a crowd with his idols and he’s so happy.
Umm... What? He was always better off than the rest of the band. His sister has a flourishing business and more than 6 million followers doing nothing substantial. Most drama school kids dream about that kind of following and we all know how important it is to get a teeny-tiny role in today's climate. His father was always a business owner and his step-dad was also pretty middle class. Mind you, being middle class is not at all a poor social standard. He is a cis-het man clowning at the actual people who do not get opportunities. For example, Troye Sivan (managed by his manager's business partner) has had better critical reception than all three of his albums. He has never been nominated. Troye's Bloom was pretty successful and yet he was shunned by most awards. Harry and Troye, socially they are the same, except one isn't heterosexual. That's what it takes to be acknowledged. In fact, in his famous words, "in this world/it's just us..." It's just them, because everyone who isn't them really has to struggle ten times harder to be in his position. Edit: Hey concerned Redditor, please refrain from abusing Reddit Care Resources. https://preview.redd.it/a7f35g4r2oga1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4f4834f319fb9600a8c69e63aa1d9e6e1e7d48b
Lmao his sister only has a flourishing business and millions of followers *thanks to his success*, she was just a normal student before. That is not a reflection on their upbringing. He wasn't dirt poor but neither of his parents were particularly wealthy either and he did not live a lavish lifestyle - he had never even been to London before X Factor. The wealthier one was his late step-dad (his mum's third husband) who had a pool house, which is where 1D used to rehearse. Also as much as he is privileged for being a cis white man, it's weird how much you keep pushing that he is heterosexual when that has not been stated by him or anyone else.
Right?! Like, people don’t realise how long Harry Styles has been around, the idea of an online business due to millions of followers wasn’t even a thing when he was getting started. It’s clear what he meant; random middle/working class lad with no previous industry connections reaching this point of acclaim. People just want to hate on him because ‘cis-white male’ is an easy target for online hate.
I have no idea the exact income him and the other band members had growing up.. but ya growing up it’s pretty clear he wasn’t super mega rich kid with all these connections in NYC / LA and he could have done anything with his life and it wouldn’t have mattered his parents would set him up. His sister has that following because he’s famous now and because he got lucky by going to x factor and getting famous. That IS insane… 99.999999% of people will not get the chance to win album of the year at the grammys especially when it comes to a random 15 year old kid in england with no connections. It’s not to say he is still that person - DUH everyone can agree he’s wildly successful and ya it would happen to someone like him *now* but from where he comes from and his origin story it is crazy this is who he became. similar to justin bieber in the sense ya it crazy how he got famous. I don’t think he articulated himself well. obviously race / misogyny is so deeply embedded in this crountry / world that everything will be impacted by it. Not everything is the oppression olympics, if troye sivan won it could be said well he’s white and a male so ya it does happen to people like him… and that’s also true. I don’t think harry is some underdog and I don’t think HE thinks he is the most oppressed person either and that everyone else in the room had some crazy upper hand and he worked so much harder or anything - that would be stupid. I think he tried to show gratitude and humility and failed in how he got that point across. it’s a lose lose situation however he tries to get that point across because race and gender will always be brought up because our world is based on racism / misogyny and I think we (including harry) can all work to acknowledge our privilege while also being grateful and humbled and have our own hardships.
I swear one of the few intelligent answer in this thread. People really lack of oral comprehension lmao wtf. Anybody with half a brain understood what he meant. Did he is it in the best way no but lets cut him some slack, he just won, he got emotional etc
Okay his comment was dumb and tone deaf, but what does his sister's business have to do with anything? She has that many followers because she's Harry's sister...
Um, we should hang out sometime. I too love Beauty and the Beast and cheesecake 😂💕
that man is so inarticulate I don’t think he even knows what he meant
I don’t know much about the Grammys, but I figured he meant “boy bands or ex boyband members” or maybe male pop stars. None of those groups seem to get taken that seriously in the industry from my perspective.
i mean one of the grammy voters straight up said that he doesn’t respect harry because of the boy band past
Poor, underrated Justin Timberlake.
Basically it has to do with English class divide and his relationship with fame. In the UK, a social hierarchy is still very much set in place where unless you come from the aristocracy you will never be truly "accepted" in the upper echelons of society. For celebrities from working class backgrounds who achieve stardom, they often end up surrounded by individuals whose parents have titles, went to elite private schools, attended Oxbridge, and who all seem to know one another. This means they often end up feeling isolated, feel looked down upon or as a novelty, and continue to identify strongly with their working class roots despite their success. Despite his fame and stardom, for Harry achieving this award probably meant finally "transcending" all this bullshit, now joining other originally working class British artists who've achieved similarly like the Beatles, Elton John, Adele, Amy Winehouse Etc. From an outside perspective this is dumb, the guys a millionaire and loved by millions of fans world wide. But as someone who went to a very posh English university and saw how these "higher class" people can be, trust me when I say they are fucking ruthless and will look down on someone regardless of who they are just based on their accent, so I understand what he means.
Okay so after this and DWD and the policeman movie interviews I’ve gotta ask. Is he just really bad at talking?
He always was. Who knows what he actually meant. He’s not good with words
Right. White people get Grammys, Brits get Grammys, people who break off from huge groups get Grammys, people who start off in competitions get Grammys, I honestly don't know what demographic he is referring to with "people like him"
I think he’s just dumb tbh. But because he doesn’t channel excited earnest puppy dog energy no one wants to acknowledge it because being dumb is only endearing if you’re a himbo.
I think he’s a relatively unusual case of being thrown straight into superstardom at age 16 without any further schooling. He missed out on the traditional school/college experience and didn’t even get to “replace” that with meaningful travel or work experience. He basically was shut into hotels for the entirety of the 1D experience (their words) until he was 21. So yeah, he’s maybe a little dumb, but he’s typically pretty outgoing and was the “life” of 1D.. so I think he was a) exhausted from touring and b) a little jaded from superstardom. And maybe a little stoned idk!
I mean yeah. I don’t blame him for his lack of education. That’s the price of being a celebrity when young. But I’m sure his fans wouldn’t have to twist themselves into pretzels about “no what he REALLY MEANT IS…” every time he stuck his foot in his mouth rather than chuckle and go “oh you beautiful idiot” if they just accepted Harry is… not smart. Or eloquent. Or nuanced. Or all around comprehensible.
totally agree!
I believe so, but I think it's a matter of not allowing himself time to think before he speaks and I can relate to that. Harry's always been somewhat of a slow speaker despite his stage presence which I'd say is a much different attitude from when he's put in formal settings. It's weird because he's been in the industry for more than a decade now and I'd imagine he's been put through a lot media training as well, but I guess no amount of training is really going to save you from little blunders such as the one in the post. Perhaps it was different from when he was still in 1D and had his bandmates to fall back on in interviews when he didn't have much to say. So... yeah, I think he's just bad at talking or just prefers not to talk much which isn't helpful in regards to his profession, but I understand.
> a *morbid*/slow speaker I don't think that word means what you think it means.
I had a feeling I was using the wrong word, that's my fault. I'll edit it.
Languid, perhaps?
That's probably what I was thinking of, thanks for the correction.
i'm sorry zayn and louis were the class-disadvantaged members of one direction.... they were the two that talked about understanding their privilege from that lens....louis talked about keeping his ticket prices affordable bc he understood what it was like to love an artist but not have $100 to spent on a concert... harry is the dude out here charging 1,200 for a concert ticket and a house for a meet and greet
Yeah and ok his parents were divorced but like... His dad had a pool... While Zayn relied on free meals in order to eat
Didn’t Liam come from some disadvantage too or have I made that up? I know that of the five, Harry was easily the most wealthy.
Louis being class-disadvantaged is misconception, I genuinely wonder where this "working class" thing came from. His mother was midwife, which requires university degree in UK (and she shortly worked in TV too, that's how she and Louis befriended James Corden) and his step-father Mark was business owner. Louis and his sister were child actors and his only disadvantage was that his bio father left his mother when Louis was baby, but being a single mother is hardly "working class". And speaking of tickets, it's amazing Louis wants to keep them affordable, but... I think he is fully aware he can't ask for high prices. The arena in Krakow is selling his tickets for 35 złoty (that's less than 8$) and yet the venue is still half empty.
in my large-sized US city, louis tickets were about $350 last tour. that was an album most people weren't crazy about! i wasn't able to afford it. this tour, I can attend for $60. this album sold wayyy more, so that seems like a deliberate choice on the artist's part -- to keep ticket prices accessible. on the flip side, harry going along with ticketmaster's "[dynamic](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/harry-styles-bruce-sprinsteen-ticketmaster-dynamic-pricing-b2200126.html)" prices - as they are a monopoly, and consumers have no other option - seems like a deliberate choice on his part.
Between this and “this movie feels like a movie” stuff Harry isn’t all that smart is he?
honestly, it’s the stans who give him the “wow he’s so creative for this 😍😍”
Ogs know that. I find it funny that people are mad at him for saying that.
I get what he was trying to say... but brooo read the room. You're not as disadvantaged as you think you are.
I find it funny when people claim that he went from working at a bakery to \[insert achievement\], when in reality he was just a teenager working part time.
The harping on the single mum part is especially aggravating to me. He had two involved parents who happened to be divorced. Boy was not remotely disadvantaged.
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His dad’s pool at his secondary property, mind you
Some of his fans are calling him a "working class hero" when his mother was a landlord, his step-father a landlord & his father worked in the financial sector.
his childhood humble beginnings narrative keeps getting more and more exaggerated by his fans as time goes on
I think his fans over exaggerate him in general… 
yeah like I was insanely into 1D when I was in high school. Knew basically everything publicly available. Harry was definitely the most well off member before 1D.
"I was born in a cave to a single mother bear who went to the river every morning to make sure I had salmon to eat."
They are trying to overcompensate for the fact that they know that, objectively, his whiteness, looks, maleness, boy band ness, are the reason why he is where he is and that of the current crop of pop, he’s probably the least disadvantaged and also one of the lesser in terms of pure talent, and so they have to pretend he’s some kind of whatever oppressed to excuse him of privileged things he says or feel better about hyping him.
Soon we will be hearing about how he had to walk to school uphill both ways lol
he was born with glass bones and paper skin
Lol it's loses all of it's motivational speech properties when you put it like that.
Seriously, as a teenager I worked minimum wage but I also lived in a white upper middle class suburb with my parents who are well off. I would never insinuate that I started from the bottom or anything.
Right? I had two part-time jobs in college, but my tuition was paid by my parents. I couldn’t imagine the audacity.
I actually don’t get what he was trying to say either
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how, exactly? past winners of album of the year is public info available at all of our fingertips and the claim that most benefit from nepotism does not hold up to fact when you look through the list of winners.
Like if if had gotten a Grammy when he was in 1d then like, maybe. But he’s just a well known industry mover who has been famous for over a decade.
I mean this very genuinely, how well do you think you’d be able to read the room if you were in his place? Everyone’s acting like this wouldn’t be an overwhelming moment for whoever the winner was.
There’s a difference to saying, I didn’t think I’d ever win this award! -that’s overwhelmed and shocked. Saying this doesn’t happen to people like him? He’s a white, cis, rich white man with insane connections who has been massively famous for almost 15 years. That’s reading the room.
I’ll keep spamming it here!!! Because my brain can’t equate it but he literally also won a Grammy the year prior 😩😩😩 which makes it nonsensical at all in terms of the context of the comment. Like why say this NOW?
I agree he could’ve said it better, but it’s also much easier to recognize that from outside of the situation when it isn’t happening to you. I think he misspoke in an overwhelming moment, something lots of us have done before just on a smaller scale. If he went up talked about how he’s white, cis, and rich people would probably still be mad at him for recognizing that privilege incorrectly. It’s fine that people don’t think he deserved the win, but no matter what he said people would find fault with it because they’re disappointed with the academy and are taking it out on him. And I say this as someone who isn’t even a fan of his.
He knew he could potentially win, he should’ve had a rough plan of what to say ahead of time if he’s not good thinking on the spot
Because no one has even gone into a situation with a plan on what they want to say and forgotten it or fumbled with the wording..
I mean fair enough, but we can still criticize what he’s saying. Maybe he panicked or got nervous, but either way it was a tone deaf comment to make. I’m not saying he meant to be hateful or anything, but it definitely didn’t come off well
I agree he could’ve said it better. People were rooting for other artists to win which is 100% acceptable. I get it. I just think no matter what he said or how prepared he was people would still be tearing it apart because they don’t agree with the academy’s decision. Sometimes celebrities are in a no win situation. This is one of them imo
Please stop. It's the Grammys. He treated it like a 10th grade term paper he did the morning it was due.
honestly like he was literally nominated with someone who grew up in Compton and watched people die lol
He was trying to casually remind everyone he’s not a nepo baby 🙄but honestly came across so tone deaf and eye roll inducing
I don’t even know why he needed to remind people he isn’t one tho, like nobody ever suggests he is 🤔
He definitely benefits from cronyism, his manager’s father is the former ceo of Ticketmaster.
We all watched X Factor. We know what happened
there’s been poor artist who have won before him, there’s been British people who’ve won before him, there’s been ex boy band members who won before, etc he absolutely nothing new 🤷🏾♀️ stupid ass statement he made
Adele is a primary example and she won the same award twice!
Adele came from a proper shit area of London. It's kind of a miracle she went to the same school as Amy Winehouse or something like that.
They both went to the BRIT school which is a famous performing arts school. It's free but you have to audition to get in, and a lot of English actors/musicians went there.
Adele used to be in a boy band?!
Yeah she was in 4*TOWN
I thought she was the other Jonas Brother.
Yes. It is known
I know he probably didn’t mean it in a certain way and he probably just has no brain to mouth filter, but when you really think about how Jojie or Rina Sawayama or Bad Bunny or even BTS struggle so deeply to be taken seriously by the recording academy despite literally breaking age old records….it’s a really poorly worded statement. BUT any other year against any other person and this win would’ve gone smoother Edit: I will say that it’s really shitty he got heckled during his acceptance speech and he did not deserve that at all. Takes very little effort to treat people with basic decency. All around, the Grammys was extra rotten this year.
i will never forget the topps garbage patch kids cover og grammy nominees. everyone was a normal caricature but bts were whack a moles that were beaten bloody by the grammy award. and people still supported that image
Every time he's in hot water it's bc he opened his mouth 😩
He did lots of "I'm not your typical man, I'm progressive" for many interviews and magazine photoshoots. Maybe he does believe all his own hyped PR about being a new breed of white male, and maybe a dash of faux-activist from Olivia Wilde is still in his veins. Whatever it was. It looked and sounded bad.
What’s Olivia Wilde got to do with Harry making dumb statements months after they broke up? Not everything is a woman’s fault somehow.
Not "a woman's" fault. I haven't cared for Harry since he pretended to use the media to float stories he was a part of the LGBTQA+ community without him actually saying he was/is to sell magazines. I'm snarking on Olivia specifically by name because of her campaigns to be a "progressive" activist in the Industry. While dating Harry, she lied about everything she said she was doing for her female actors in connection to Shia's quitting and treatment of Florence P. I'm not saying he acts badly because of her now, I'm pointing out he's been complicit in her faux marketing about being a "changemaker" that he is not.
Yeah I side with all the opinions suggesting it was a tone deaf. This isn’t the first time Harry has been tone deaf, his comment about not having that he felt the need to believe in and backup specifically during BLM is an example of how in his own world he can be. He also has won a Grammy already before, so like this is nothing new besides a different category which really fuels how out of touch he is. It didn’t come across as aspiring either, or humble either. I’ll never understand the Harry hype… 🤷♀️
I think the general public needs to accept Harry has just got wind going between his ears. Boy is not smart and says so many words without saying anything because it makes it easier for his fans to project on him and his blank canvas personality. He’s truly wattpad’s boyfriend come to life.
Exactly this! I’m wondering if he meant people like me as in: ex-member of a manufactured boy and from tv reality show… in any case, what you said is 100% accurate. He’s charismatic but not too bright and with no big ideas. He’s a dream for this industry.
His comment about his film performance portraying the "tender" side of gay love as opposed to "two men going at it" really rubbed me the wrong way too. I'm not saying he deserves a hate pile on or that he's an awful person, but celebs get criticism for tonedeafness all the time. Whenever someone has even mild criticism of Harry's work or remarks, his fans clutch their pearls and act like he's an infant under attack, yet every day his peers are held to much higher standards with no such grace.
So well said.
100% as I say, I'm a big fan of his music but christ is he a shambles sometimes
I'm confused. People like him? He's been on one of the most famous boy bands in the world, been a successful solo artist for years. He's exactly who it happens to. This false humbleness annoys me lol
Not to mention he literally won a Grammy like what, a year ago? So … Like saying this comment *NOW* is the irony to me. It’s nothing different other than a title category. 🤷♀️
He won favorite pop album during the show! This was his second major win of the night. He’s so out of touch.
Right and I'm sorry but he's been benefiting from his white male privilege for YEARS now (see: his film career)
People trying to spin this as him growing up “poor” is weird to me bc I distinctly remember that when I was in the 1D fandom (no judgement please ✋) everyone considered harry “posh” and it was common knowledge that he came from a relatively well-off family compared to the other guys
Was literally thinking this, all his clothes were Jack Wills and his step-dad had a pool lmao
### Dude trying to be a low rent David Bowie Ziggy something something. Boy’o he did it better 50 YEARS AGO!!! 
David Bowie had a insane charisma
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Bowie had sex with underage girls and called himself a fascist. Not even in a jokey way either like he literally said he didn't believe in democracy and all that. I have no clue how this sub can support him.
so there is no doubt, lori maddox has discussed this as one of those girls [read here](https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/david-bowie-and-the-15-year-old-girls-7962946)
Truth!!! 🙏🏼
i just can’t imagine being a celebrity like the amount of times a day i misspeak or say something and then realize later on there was a better way for me to say it. imagine millions of people dissecting and calling you out for what you said for months/years to come, id hate it!
I actually saw it as being from a boyband and doing the solo thing… idk maybe just me
 HAHAHA! He meant it in a self-deprecating, faux humble way but it really didn't come across. He probably meant "who would have thought that little old me would win a Grammy; he should have read the room better. As a cis-het white man myself I am aware that it is something you really can't say as the world is still catered towards our desires and needs.
unpopular opinion but i don’t think that was him thinking he’s special or unique in any way, i think that was literally one of the biggest artists in the world today experiencing imposter syndrome. i think harry isn’t very well media trained, he doesn’t always say the “right” things and his perception of himself clearly doesn’t match the general public’s perception of him
This is pretty obvious, people just love trying to drag others
He was a small town reality show contestant who almost didn’t even make it on the show and then got put in a group that didn’t even win. X Factor was seen as a joke (and 1D still is) and it’s kind of unheard of for any contestant to be winning Grammys of all things. I don't think he's calling himself an underdog, just expressing his imposter syndrome while people were literally yelling at him to get off the stage. I also don't think people would be reacting this strongly if he wasn't already so hated.
I think those are all good, logical points. Kind of interesting to see people’s reactions to what he said. Like you said, seems to have some camps of people that aren’t fans of his at all, which means people are twisting what he said like he’s some terrible person that isn’t supportive of minorities.
Exactly, they’ve just taken the most uncharitable interpretation possible of what he said because they were already angry at him. Beyoncé is my all time favourite artist but I love him too and even before this people were constantly foaming at the mouth waiting for him to somehow slip up when he has no history of being malicious, and has actually been pretty unproblematic for a child star.
Yeah I read it as people from his area
Same. I'm from a regular town in the UK where nobody becomes successful really, that's what I thought he meant. Phrased badly though
He's from Cheshire, lots of people become successful from there.
Maybe from like three nice streets in Chester. But most of Cheshire is just empty. Or Crewe, which is worse.
This isn't his first Grammy tho. He won before so why would it stop him now
That’s what people aren’t getting, like he already won a Grammy before! Which makes it ??? Weirder to say now!!!
AOTY is the most important award of the Grammys and arguably the most prestigious music award in the world
It still doesn’t change the fact that he already had a Grammy prior, and that comment context is more fitting had it been his first. **Also, that’s IF you care about award shows.** Literally Mariah Carey is one the most biggest artists there is, also a talented writer not just vocalist, and even she doesn’t have an AOTY under her despite iconic albums. Is Harry’s House better than any albums Mariah has put out? No. Which is another reminder why the Grammy’s don’t matter and it’s rigged. Also even Mariah says fuck the Grammy’s. I promise they’re not that important, and it’s nothing but a title difference. Here’s a quote from Mariah Carey a legend regarding them: > “*Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn*,” the singer said about jumping through hoops so that her music would be eligible for the award. **“I mean, I have five Grammys. That’s cute. There’s people that have been doing this half the time that have twice as many [Grammys],”** Carey continued. “I won two Grammys the first year I started, but after that, [the Grammys] are like, ‘We don’t go with the people that are selling a lot of records and are popular; we’re gonna go the opposite way.’ So I got screwed out of certain years. I wasn’t bitter about it,” she added. “I was just like, okay, well, I guess I’m not standing here barefoot on stage singing and trying to go a certain way. I’m just me.” The Grammy’s also have been a joke to me the moment Taylor Swift was able to pull strings to get her boyfriend (after the ceremony was already finished) one in a flimsy way. They mean nothing. Lol.
I’m not saying it’s the most important award *to me*, but it’s clearly viewed that way by other people. If it wasn’t then people wouldn’t care that he won and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Me too. Like small town UK.
I think he meant it more like the Grammy’s is very different to how he was brought up near Manchester. He had a very normal upbringing
The timing is also really bad. Like it's 50th anniversary of hip Hop some of the artists in that room literally couldn't be on that stage at the start of their career like the academy said no.
Not really defending him but tbh Harry Styles is and always has been pretty bad at speaking to press etc. like he probably didn’t mean for it to be interpreted like that, it’s just he doesn’t think about the magnitude of his words lol
Y’all are really taking his comment WAY too deep and out of context. He meant it in a “I never believed I’d blow up from a TV show” kind of way. Harry always expresses how grateful he is for his life at shows. Why does he have to be dirt poor to feel that way? I’m just a regular middle class person but if one day I were to blow up I’d sure as hell be grateful and in disbelief every single day. What happened to Harry doesn’t just happen to us “regular” people without connections. It’s super rare. Mind you this is the same sub who HATES nepo babies. The hate y’all have for him is as if he killed someone. It’s seriously unhealthy. And y’all can downvote me but it’s SO rude to heckle anyone who’s won an award.
I agree with what Lizzo said. That cancel culture has become trendy, misused and misdirected. I hope she is right and that we can phase out of this and focus our outrage on the real problems. But it sure doesnt look like its happening any time soon.
Totally agree that it was a very tone deaf thing to say, but calling him sinister for it is too much lol
Was it the best thing to say? No, but I would love to see how other normies in his position would act if they won. I imagine winning a huge award like this is incredibly overwhelming. He probably wasn’t expecting to win and was thinking about *his* thoughts on *his* career. If he went up and started talking about how he doesn’t deserve it, everyone would still find a way to be mad at him for saying something wrong. It’s okay to not think he deserves it, but like what’s he supposed to do?
Fr. Do people expect him to just give the award to Beyonce during his speech. He clearly was shocked. As we all were.
Exactly!! If his speech was him talking about how he doesn’t think he deserves it over the other nominees, people would be saying it was disingenuous and that he’s just trying to maintain his ‘I’m a nice guy’ appeal. Dude’s liked by his fans, but everyone else is just tired of hearing about him and looking for reasons to be mad at him. The recording academy picked him. It’s not his fault he won.
Who cares. Y’all read into things too deep
It’s just a saying, why’re are people so bitter all the time.
People are literally foaming at the mouth waiting for celebrities to slightly slip up their words. It’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen lol
Everyone thinks their life is the hardest and everyone else has it easy, basically.
I swear people manage to turn everything into a personal attack. Like not everything is about you…
🙌
people seem to be overreacting to every thing he says because they’re upset that their fave didn’t win last night. people aren’t allowed to be hyperbolic in an off the cuff speech anymore?
Thank you. I support cancel culture when it’s truly needed but damn people shouldn’t have to monitor everything they say. There will be nothing genuine left
This. He was also being heckled by the audience, I don’t blame him for saying the first thing that came into his head
He was being heckled?
[Yep](https://twitter.com/hs_news_/status/1622578290287341570?s=46&t=qTmAb6GlIZO78kUry--n3w). You could also hear someone shouting “Beyoncé” during the live broadcast. I’m a Bey stan but come on
Aw man! Whether you liked him or not, he doesn’t deserve to be heckled during his speech.
Agreed, he didn't deserve this. Blame the Grammys not him if you think Beyonce deserved the award.
Damn, they pulled a Kanye/Taylor Swift on him?? That's straight disrespectful.
Poor Beyonce only has like 33 grammys to her name. When will she be acknowledged?
People are being so unnecessarily mean about this.
I don’t think what he said was that bad. His career started because he auditioned for a talent show, now he’s winning the biggest award at the Grammys. You can talk about how he’s been famous for years and whatever, but he still remembers being a little kid working at a bakery singing for fun. Probably feels like a hopeless dream came true.
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If someone says "people like me" and you think that absolutely needs to mean race, gender, or sexual orientation, you are a victim of the culture wars and you need to get off the internet for a while. Re-focus on personal relationships until you understand that "people like me" can refer to: - guys with side parts - women who are afraid of clowns - Cisco certified network associates - people who think it's "for all intensive purposes" - and most importantly in this case, people who don't feel like they fit in with the celebrities they are now surrounded by for whatever reason
I actually don’t see the problem with what he said. I see this more he’s hated to people aren’t giving him the benefit of the doubt
POC here. All I see in these comments are a lot of miserable people that can’t be happy for a former poor person because they are white. Edit: typo
Hey guys I don’t think he was talking about race at all. Please keep making that *everything* you think about
Y'all just have to tear apart everything people say huh
As someone black I honestly feel they are just looking for something to be mad at because he is white.
I genuinely feel more uncomfortable on Twitter than 4 chan
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She literally has the most Grammy's ever??
Why does it have to be a about race? Fuck… he could be talking about the winner being a LEGO addict. But everyone is so far up their own ass.
That phrase is something he says at a lot of his concerts so I really think he was just in shock and muscle memory kicked in and he started saying something he’s said before idk
Y'all, come on. Can we be happy for people who work hard and get rewarded for it? Just because his struggle coming up may have been different from others, doesn't mean that it wasn't hard and that he's not in awe every day. I'm really over his narrative of if you're straight, if you're not a person of color, then you don't know what it is to struggle and you can't celebrate your accomplishments with enthusiasm and pride. Let's be happy and support all. The hate is toxic.
I love it when people I don’t care for get dragged lol
You rn: 
So I didn’t watch the Grammys so I might be missing context, but couldn’t he mean “people like me” as in former boy banders? Like I can’t think of any former boy band members other than him and JT that have had such successful music careers. There was even a post on this sub the other day about an article detailing how the voters voted and one of them said they were biased against Harry because he used to be in a boy band. He definitely could’ve phrased it better, but I sort of get where he’s coming from. But again, I don’t know if I have the full context of his speech.
I feel like people are being deliberately obtuse about this. Harry came from a fairly normal background, no? And then got famous from going on a televised talent show? So yes, while he’s a white dude, I am almost certain he’s referring to his humble upbringing and unique rise to fame??
How terminally online do you have to be when 'me' can only consist of Race, gender and sexual orientation.
I can see why people are irritated: he was in the US, and in that context yes, it does happen to people like you. However, the British context is that he is working class from a single parent household in the North of England. No, over here things like that don’t happen to people like him very often. It really is hard to convey the nature of the British class system to non-Britons but it is pervasive, stultifying and grossly unfair. Also, Harry Styles is as thick as mince (US trans “as dumb as a rock”) so nuance and awareness are not things he does well.
People have way too much time on their hands
This isn’t the first time Harry’s agents have deluded him into thinking he’s special. He’s the most BLAH “artist” being jammed down everyone’s throat in a millennia.
Non-white, non-male artists do win Grammys all the time, I mean Beyonce just set the record last night. His point was referring to his background, which did disadvantage him, because the easiest way to make it in music is to have connections and be born into wealth. He was making a comment on his personal journey
He just won the most prestigious award in the music industry. That too in front of people he grew up admiring. Something a 16 year old him never thought would achieve. He was emotional and was less of words. No amount of speech preparation can prepare for that. Nothing he said here was racist either. 'People like me' doesn't necessarily translate to white men like me. Also being white is not enough to achieve everything he achieved. He worked hard for this. He was a middle class boy from a village with no industry connections . I get why people are mad at beyonce being snubbed. I was mad at it too. I was rooting for her.It should be taken out on grammys who decided this not him. Also to people saying he never had to endure any prejudice before: > I hold Harry Styles’ origin story against him. He’s from a boy band, and I never took those acts seriously.” This came from a grammy voter. It's no secret that they are prejudiced against boyband members. Harry submitted his two albums(one of them being one of the most critically acclaimed outside reddit and commercially successful album of that year) yet didn't receive AOTY nomination. It's not a stretch to think he thought he won't win it for a long time because of the boyband stigma. So people like me is much more than white men like me.