Lorde had so much to be excited about going into the 2018 Grammy Awards. Her record Melodrama(which is spectacular, by the way) was nominated for the night’s top honour, Album of the Year. But there was a catch: She was the only female artist in the category.
That was frustrating enough, but then it was revealed that the Recording Academy decided not to give Lorde a solo performance during the show (even though all the other male Album of the Year nominees received slots). “We can’t have a performance from every nominee,” Recording Academy president Neil Portnow told press backstage at the Grammys. “We have to create [a show] that has balance…and what you saw was our best judgment on how to do that.”
This, paired with Portnow’s comments that more female artists should “step up” if they want representation, led many people to think Lorde—and other female artists, including SZA—got the short end of the stick on Sunday night.
Lorde isn’t sweating it, though. She had a blast at the Grammys, actually—if this open letter to fans is any indication. In the letter, which was published in the January 30 edition of the New Zealand Herald, Lorde said the real win, to her, is the fans’ love for Melodrama.“Oh, hi there! I’m writing this from New York City. [My brother] Angelo and I sat in Madison Square Garden last night and saw a lot of crazy and wonderful things,” Lorde wrote. “I just wanted to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for loving and embracing Melodrama the way you did. My nomination belongs to you. Thank you, also, for believing in female musicians. You set a beautiful precedent! All my love, Lorde.”
Check it out for yourself, below:
Full-page letter from @lorde in today’s @nzherald: ‘Thank you, also, for believing in female musicians’ pic.twitter.com/Z86VXCCpvl
— Shayne Currie (@ShayneCurrieNZH) January 30, 2018
No, Lorde doesn’t address the Grammys drama directly here, but her enthusiasm certainly suggests she’s shaking off her loss and performance snub. Plus, there’s a silver lining to all of this: Lorde’s going on tour soon, which will no-doubt show the Grammys what they missed out on when they didn’t book her. In fact, a tweet she published earlier this week may have implied just that. “IF YOU’RE DEBATING WHETHER OR NOT I CAN MURDER A STAGE…COME SEE IT FOR URSELF,” she wrote. Consider us there.
