At 25 years-old, Halsey is already an esteemed graduate of Using National Stages to Call Out People and Things 101, and the singer couldn’t resist doing it once again while accepting an award at the American Music Awards last night. When her bop “Without Me†clinched the Favorite Pop/Rock Song category, Halsey used her speech to not-so-subtly voice her annoyance with being ignored by the 2020 Grammys, which gave her zero nominations despite a whirlwind and commercially successful year. Snub mode, activated! “I believed these awards. When I was a kid, I used to believe that this award was the ultimate validating and that I’d come up here and laugh and cry and my fans at home would rejoice because we accomplished this thing together,†she explained. “But the truth is I am older now and I’m also an artist and apparently I’m doing okay. But most of these awards really aren’t what they seem at all.†She continued:
I grew up watching shows like this and I would sit at home wide-eyed and watch artists in these beautiful gowns and handsome suits, stroll up the stairs to the stage and they would hold up these awards and they were usually gold-plated and shiny and weighted, these metaphors, these trophies that were supposed to be some kind of validation for the soul-crushing and heartache-inducing work that they put into writing a song and bringing it to life. And to be honest with you, I really believed that fairy tale.
Later in the show, Halsey joined Taylor Swift (and Camila Cabello) onstage when the Artist of the Decade winner performed a medley of smash hits. The Grammys have also cooled on Swift in recent years, too. Her past two albums haven’t been nominated for the coveted Album of the Year honors.