Harry Styles Criticized For Grammys Win After Connection to Awards Show Producer Revealed
Harry Styles was nominated in several categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards, and he took home two gramophone trophies for his album Harry’s House. But the singer is receiving criticism after the Recording Academy revealed that the daughter of a Grammys producer appears on Styles’ hit song “As It Was.” Here’s what the Grammys tweeted and how fans responded.
Harry Styles’ 2023 Grammy win is sparking controversy after it was revealed that the Grammy’s executive producer’s daughter appears on Harry’s House
Singer Harry Styles cleaned up at the 2023 Grammy Awards. He received nominations in six categories: Album of the Year (Harry’s House), Best Pop Vocal Album (Harry’s House), Record of the Year (“As It Was”), Song of the Year (“As It Was”), Best Pop Solo Performance (“As It Was”), and Best Music Video (“As It Was”).
The former One Direction member took home the golden gramophone for Album of the Year, beating Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Adele’s 30, ABBA’s Voyage, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, Lizzo’s Special, and Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous. Styles also won the trophy for Best Pop Vocal album.
The win sparked controversy after the Recording Academy revealed that a Grammy Awards executive producer’s daughter appears on Styles’ album Harry’s House. On the night of the awards show, the Recording Academy tweeted, “Fun fact: The voice at the beginning of ‘As It Was’ is the daughter of our very own #GRAMMYs producer, @BenWinston!”
Harry Styles previously revealed that the voice on a hit song from ‘Harry’s House’ belongs to a Grammy Awards producer’s daughter
The singer has been candid about his friendship with Grammys producer Ben Winston. In an April 2022 interview with British radio station Heart, Harry Styles revealed that the voice on his song “As It Was” belongs to Winston’s daughter. The Harry’s House track opens with a child saying, “Come on, Harry. We want to say goodnight to you.”
“It’s my goddaughter at the start of the song,” said Styles. He explained that his goddaughter often calls before bed to say goodnight to him. After he missed her call one evening, she left the voicemail that was used in “As It Was.” “She wanted to let me know that she was quite angry with me about it,” said the singer. “I dug it up in the studio one day and added it to the start of the song, and it just kind of stuck. I loved it.”
Winston spoke of keeping artists “happy” just days before the 2023 Grammy Awards aired. “I’d argue that this is probably the hardest show on television to produce – 19 musical performers, three and a half hours of live presentations and A-list artists everywhere you turn,” the producer told HITS. “You’ve got to deal with making sure everybody’s happy and looked after. I think it’s shaping up to be a pretty incredible show.”
Fans are criticizing the singer and the awards show after the connection was revealed
Harry Styles fans are slamming the singer and the Recording Academy after Styles’ connection to Grammy Awards producer Ben Winston was revealed. They are replying to the Recording Academy’s tweet about Winston’s daughter appearing on “As It Was.”
One fan responded on Twitter, “so thats how he got the grammy -” while another tweeted, “he shouldn’t have been nomed for this reason alone.”
Others called out the awards show’s “bias,” saying the program was “rigged.” “Oh so the whole thing was rigged, thanks for clearing that up,” one fan said on Twitter, while another tweeted, “Definitely no bias in that call.”
Zayn Malik, Styles’ former One Direction bandmate, tweeted in 2021 about favoritism at the Grammy Awards. “F*** the grammys and everyone associated,” he wrote. “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary [sic].”
