Last week the “Watermelon Sugar” singer’s high from winning the Grammy for Album of the Year was knocked down a few pegs after making an off-putting comment during his acceptance speech.
“This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” Styles said after winning the most coveted award of the night for “Harry’s House.” The line quickly sparked backlash online because, well, the Grammys rewards white men with accolades pretty regularly.
So when Styles won Artist of the Year at the BRIT Awards on Saturday, he appeared to course-correct by being as humble as possible.
In his speech, Styles garnered cheers from the audience for thanking his mom and his former One Direction boy band members for their role in his journey toward obtaining yet another statue of validation.
He then topped off his speech with a little damage control (video above).
“I’m really, really grateful for this, and I’m very aware of my privilege up here tonight,” he concluded before shouting out a few female-identifying artists who were snubbed for the award, like Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, Mabel, Florence + the Machine and Becky Hill.
Styles’s shoutouts were in reference to another controversy that he had nothing to do with. In 2021, the BRIT Awards eliminated gendered categories to better include nonbinary and gender non-conforming artists. But the award ceremony faced backlash this year when all the nominees for its Artist of the Year category were men.
