Canadian pop artist Alessia Cara made Grammy history on Sunday night as the first Canadian-born musician to win the best new artist award, but not everyone was happy about this choice. Cara beat out fellow nominees SZA, Julia Michaels, Khalid and Lil Uzi Vert for the prize, and some people (both music fans and critics) took to social media to express their disapproval over the Grammy voters' decision.
While Cara quickly addressed the "popularity contest" aspect of awards shows in her onstage speech, and how every artist "deserves the same shot," the Brampton, Ont., native took to Instagram today to expand her thoughts. Cara says her lengthy post aims to "address the apparent backlash regarding winning something I had no control over."
"I am not going to be upset about something I've wanted since I was a kid, not to mention ... worked really hard for," she says. "I meant everything I said about everyone deserving the same shot. There is a big issue in the industry that perpetuates the idea that an artist's talent and hard work should take a back seat to popularity and numbers and I'm aware that my music wasn't released yesterday."
Read Cara's full post here.
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How Alessia Cara and The Weeknd made history at this year's Grammys