Abba, Adele, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Beyoncé, and Harry Styles were all in contention for ‘Album of the Year.’ The coveted award went to Harry instead of Beyoncé and there was a palpable mixed reaction from both viewers at home and the live audience at the ceremony.
Taylor Swift backed Harry Styles
While his famous peers stood up to applaud his win, Harry was ruthlessly heckled by others in the crowd during his acceptance speech.
Journalist Ernest Owens later admitted on Twitter that he was one of the people to disrupt Harry’s moment, writing that “Beyoncé was robbed” as he posted a video of himself yelling at the stage.
In the clip, which has since been circulated on other platforms, Harry can be heard speaking as someone shouts: “Beyonce!”
Ernest quickly follows suit and screams: “Beyoncé should have won!” to the audible gasps of the other people sitting in his area.
And it sadly seems as though the commotion made its way down to the main stage, with the Beyoncé fans’ yells clearly audible in a separate video of Harry’s speech filmed from the stage.
Needless to say, people have been left horrified by the way that Harry was treated during his speech, with one person sharing the second video to TikTok and writing: “This makes me so sad that people just can’t respect who won and move on instead of trying to ruin people’s moment.”
“Sad for someone to try to take away this moment from him,” another user agreed. A third asked: “Can the Grammys impose a no hecklers rule? Hecklers will be banned from future events! That’s it. So much disrespect”
Beyoncé was robbed.
This was so underwhelming.
People are leaving by the masses. #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/Ih9aFMbqNi
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) February 6, 2023