The Line In Harry Styles' Grammys Acceptance Speech That Raised Eyebrows — 'This Doesn't Happen To People Like Me'
Hs acceptance speech made fans wonder what he was thinking.
Instagram / YouTube Harry Styles is famous for many things beyond his music — his dedication to his work, his genderfluid fashion, and his dismantling of toxic masculine traits.
He can now add a Grammy win for Album of the Year to his list of accomplishments.
Styles, 29, won two awards at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023. He took home the award for Best Pop Vocal Album and the award for Album of the Year for his album Harry’s House.
Styles beat both Lizzo and Beyoncé for the Album of the Year Award.
For all his hard work and talent, Styles’ acceptance speech for the Album of the Year award raised some eyebrows.
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Harry Styles is wrong for believing that his Grammy win 'doesn't happen to people like him very often.'
Styles began his speech by saying he’s “been so inspired by every artist who’s in this category with me.”
“I think on nights like tonight, it's obviously so important for us to remember there’s no such thing as ‘best’ in music,” Styles said graciously.
“This is really really kind. I’m so, so grateful,” he continued.
But before he passed the mic on to his collaborators, Styles said one line in particular that had fans questioning him.
“This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” Styles claimed.
Fans across the internet pointed out that winning awards does, in fact, happen to people like Styles quite often.
TikTok user Mar Mar seemed incredulous at the comment, criticizing Styles for his statement, "because when I heard that I was like, oh, yeah, people like you don't get album of the year very often... in front of Beyoncé."
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Several users on Twitter noted that Styles is a cisgender, white man who’s won an award typically given to cisgender white men.
Now, it should be noted that Styles has often found himself at the center of conversations about queerness, sexuality, gender conformity and queer-baiting — conversations he has never weighed in on.
Fans have argued that Styles may not be heterosexual or cisgender and they might be right but, given how the world favors such things, Styles has found privilege due to his proximity to such things.
Twitter user April Le tweeted that Styles is the 35th white man and 50th white person to win the Album of the Year award in the award’s 64-year history.
Another user responded to Le that “intersectionality only exist when y’all want it to.”
Le went on to ask, “Which one of his intersections has never won a Grammy before? The male? The straight? The white? The one that's been famous since 2011? The one that was a part of one of the best-selling boy bands of all time? The one that has ALREADY WON A GRAMMY?”
Twitter user mak exclaimed that it was “wild” for Styles to claim that “‘this doesn’t happen to people like me very often’ when a Black woman hasn’t won that award since 1999.”
April Le noted that Beyonce’s loss to Styles is representative of larger racial issues.
She tweeted that “despite her celebrity and wealth, Beyoncé is still a Black artist.”
“I think it’s weird that y'all believe that her wealth and celeb protect her from being unfairly overlooked by historically white institutions, lmao, when in fact there's a clear and direct correlation,” she continued.
Supporters of Styles pointed out that his comment was most likely referring to the fact that he was raised in a small town in England by a single mother, with no inside connections to the music industry when he gained fame.
In the age of the "nepotism baby" debate, Styles is an example of how those without a well-connected parent can still make it.
Twitter user HARR’S AOTY defended Styles’ comment, noting that he says that same statement about this level of fame not happening to someone like him “to his fans in almost all of his shows when he thanks them.”
“Harry has said multiple times that he has considered himself (as an artist) disposable,” the same user continued.
Yet however Styles’ thinks of himself, he’s still representing a white, male artistic presence that’s continually lauded, while Black artists like Beyoncé are overlooked in broader awards categories like Album of the Year.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.