Harry Styles Was Heckled By Beyoncé Fans During His Grammy Acceptance Speech And People Think That Taylor Swift Was Having “War Flashbacks” To The 2009 VMAs
Suffice to say, Taylor knows all too well how Harry would have felt.
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by Stephanie SoteriouBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted 16 minutes agoTwitterFacebookLink
I don’t know if you noticed, but the 2023 Grammys were last night and anybody who is anybody was in attendance — with most of them taking home awards.
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Viola Davis achieved EGOT status when she won the Grammy for Best Audiobook, Adele was voted Best Pop Solo Performance, and Lizzo’s hit “About Damn Time” was crowned Record of the Year.
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Taylor Swift took home the accolade for Best Music Video, and Beyoncé made Grammy history when she won her 32nd award — making her the artist with the most Grammy wins of all time.
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But, as with most high-profile events, this year’s ceremony was not without its controversies, and there was one win that was particularly divisive among viewers.
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Album of the Year is traditionally the most coveted Grammy of all, and there was some pretty stiff competition for 2023.
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Abba, Adele, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Beyoncé and Harry Styles were all in the running for the accolade, and when it went to Harry instead of Beyoncé there was a palpable mixed reaction from both viewers at home and the live audience at the ceremony.
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While his famous peers stood up to applaud his win, Harry was ruthlessly heckled by others in the crowd during his acceptance speech.
Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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.
Ernest Owens
@MrErnestOwens
Beyoncé was robbed.
This was so underwhelming.
People are leaving by the masses. #GRAMMYs
04:43 AM - 06 Feb 2023
Reply Retweet FavoriteTwitter: @MrErnestOwens
In the clip, which has since been circulated on other platforms, Harry can be heard speaking as someone shouts: “Beyonce!”
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Ernest quickly follows suit and screams: “Beyoncé should have won!” to the audible gasps of the other people sitting in his area.
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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 that was filmed from the stage.
@treatpplthetommoway
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♬ original sound - anna <3<>3<>>
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.”
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“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”
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“That’s so sad. He deserves respect, just like other artists who get on that stage.” someone else wrote.
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And while it was Harry’s moment, many couldn’t ignore the fact that Taylor Swift was one of Harry’s biggest supporters in the crowd.
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The star, who dated Harry between 2012 and 2013, remained standing throughout his speech despite others around her sitting down.
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She seemingly attempted to give Harry a friendly face amid the negative reaction as she focused her full attention on him — while her body language suggests that she did hear the heckler’s comments.
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And it didn’t take long for people to draw parallels between what was happening during Sunday’s ceremony and Taylor’s similar experience at the 2009 VMAs, where Kanye West famously stormed the stage after she beat Beyoncé to the Best Female Video award.
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
Taylor was just 19 years old at the time and very early into her career, so she was over the moon when her music video for “You Belong With Me” was announced that year’s winner.
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
But just moments into her speech, Kanye — who has legally changed his name to Ye — stormed the stage, snatched the microphone from her hand, and said: “Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
Kevin Mazur / WireImage
Beyoncé had been nominated for her “Single Ladies” music video, and looked mortified as she was shown in the audience.
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Ye was booed by the crowd before he returned the mic to Taylor and casually walked off stage. She appeared to be in total shock and stood on the podium in silence before MTV cut to a prerecorded segment.
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It’s fair to assume that hearing someone shout “Beyoncé should have won!” during Harry’s acceptance speech would have brought back bad memories for Taylor, and this was heavily referenced as the situation was discussed online.
Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for The Recording Academy
