You know Miss Alessia Cara! Pop songstress with hits like, “Scars to Your Beautiful”, “Here”, and “Wild Things”, Cara has paved her way in the music industry and through her hard work, she’s earned her first Grammy for Best New Artist!
Courtesy: Billboard
Her success caused a stir among people because of the category she won in. Many had a lot to say about the fact that Alessia Cara isn’t exactly new to the scene, having hit songs dating back to 2015. Some felt that other candidates in the same category- SZA, Lil Uzi Vert, and Julia Michaels- were more deserving than her being that they were fresher to the music scene. While these other artists are extremely talented and just as deserving as Cara, Alessia won and wouldn’t let anyone bring her down. She refused to allow the opinions of others to impede her victory. The pop artist posted a picture on Instagram after she heard all the backlash, defending herself and her award. Underneath, her caption read as follows:
Courtesy: Instagram (@AlessiasMusic)
“to address the apparent backlash regarding winning something I had no control over: I didn’t log onto grammy.com and submit myself. that’s not how it works. I didn’t ask to be submitted either because there are other artists that deserve the acknowledgment.”
Cara explains that the complaints against her are misdirected, seeing as she’s not the one who gave herself the award. She goes on to say that she has no reason to feel guilty for receiving an accolade that she’d been working toward her entire life.
“but I was nominated and won and I am not going to be upset about something I’ve wanted since I was a kid, not to mention have worked really hard for. 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.”
She acknowledges that she wasn’t one of the artists to come out just this year, but her music’s gotten recognition only recently. Cara says she tries to send a good message within her lyrics and we can hear that in most of her songs. She advocates for young girls to have self-confidence and love themselves. She says that people are going out of their way to insult her when she’s done nothing wrong.
Courtesy: Billboard
“and I’m aware that my music wasn’t released yesterday, I’m aware that, yes, my music has become fairly popular in the last year. but I’m trying very hard to use the platform I’ve been given to talk about these things and bring light to issues that aren’t fair, all while trying to make the most of the weird, amazing success I’ve been lucky enough to have. I will not let everything I’ve worked for be diminished by people taking offence to my accomplishments and feeling the need to tell me how much I suck.”
Being as young as she is, Cara knows the struggles and insecurities young girls deal with, and she’s having to face blatant hate from anyone with a keyboard and two cents to chime in with.
“here’s something fun! I’ve been thinking I suck since I was old enough to know what sucking meant. I’ve beat u to it. And that’s why this means a lot to me. despite my 183625 insecurities, I’ve been shown that what I’ve created is worth something and that people actually give a s***.”
Cara has built confidence in herself and is strong enough to brush off everyone’s comments because she knows that the impact she’s making in the music world is a positive one.
“all of the years feeling like I wasn’t good at anything or that I was naive for dreaming about something improbable have paid off in a way that I have yet to process. I know it sounds cheesy and dumb but it’s the honest truth. thanks to everyone who’s shown me kindness and support along the way. I’ll stop talking now.”
Alessia Cara deserved to be able to celebrate her Grammy like every other artist that night, not be attacked for winning an award. I hope every time she reads a negative comment about her Grammy, she looks at her trophy in triumph!
Congrats, Alessia!