Harry Styles’ Grammy Win: Should Beyoncé Have Won?

This year’s 2023 Grammy Music Awards was a tight race for the Album of the Year award. The big three albums were Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House,” Beyoncé’s album, “Renaissance” and Adele’s album, “30.” 

These three albums were neck and neck, but Styles pulled out on top. Some fans had some strong opinions about Styles winning, which sparked controversy not only with Beyoncé’s fanbase, the “Beyhive,” but with the general public regarding his acceptance speech.

What started the main spark of conflict with Styles’s win was his speech. Styles started his speech by stating, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” Twitter immediately went aflame with multiple accounts criticizing his speech. 

Fans and other Twitter accounts stated that Styles is a straight, white male and in Grammy history, white men have often won more than women and people of color. Styles was under fire for his speech, but more fuel was added to the fire: Styles being close friends with Ben Winston, a Grammy Producer.

The Grammy Twitter handle posted that the voice during the beginning of Styles’s song “As It Was,” is the daughter of Ben Winston. The child can be heard saying, “Come on, Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!” 

Once this information was revealed, Twitter users had a field day. A Twitter user said, “so that’s how he got the grammy,” and another comment said, “guess we know who’s winning AOTY.” Tweets commenting on how Styles’ win was rigged  filled the timeline.

With intense backlash from the public, fans and news articles alike were especially surprised when Beyoncé lost. Quite literally, people actually let out gasps of confusion when Styles’ name was revealed. While the “Renaissance” artist now holds the record for holding the most Grammys with 32, journalists were disappointed but not surprised at her loss.

Beyoncé has lost the AOTY award a fourth time, with her album “I Am…Sasha Fierce” losing to Taylor Swift’s album “Fearless” in 2010, Beyoncé: losing to Beck’s “Morning Phase” in 2015, then her album “Lemonade” to Adele’s “25” in 2017. People have noticed a trend that while Beyonce is on the upcoming chance of winning, at the last second, her chance is stripped away.

After reviewing these factors, the question of whether Harry Styles’ Grammy win was genuine has been inquired. Styles has not responded to the claims of his win being rigged, but the audience of this year’s show are convinced otherwise.