The 58th Annual Grammys ceremony was held on Monday, with the majority of the awards handed out during a sparsely attended affair that was livestreamed before the big, celeb-filled bash. Most of the night’s top honors went to either Taylor Swift or Kendrick Lamar (though Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson did end up with the Record Of The Year for Uptown Funk). The rapper and the pop star also provided much-needed shots in the arm to to the LL Cool J-hosted proceedings: Lamar, who swept the rap categories, gave a bold and rousing performance of his To Pimp A Butterfly tracks “Alright” and “The Blacker The Berry,” with some amended lyrics.
Swift opened the awards show (in her first public performance of the year) with a rendition of “Out Of The Woods” off her 1989 album, but it was one of her unaccompanied moments that caused the most furor. While accepting the award for Album Of The Year, Swift noted that she was the first woman ever to claim the prize twice, having nabbed her first win in 2010 with Fearless.
“As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame, but, if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world. Thank you for this moment.”
The platinum-selling artist’s speech appeared to obliquely address some comments made in song and—what else?—tweet by Kanye West in the last week. The rapper’s The Life Of Pablo album features a track called “Famous,” which features this line that references Swift and, presumably, their encounter at the 2009 VMAs: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.” West has since claimed that Swift had not only approved the lyrics, but had even come up with them.
3rd thing I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 12, 2016
5th thing I’m not even gone take credit for the idea… it’s actually something Taylor came up with …
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 12, 2016
But in a previous response to West’s tweets and song, a rep for Swift denied those claims, and stated that the singer had actually “cautioned” the rapper against releasing a song with such a “strong misogynistic message.” And with her measured words at the Grammys, Swift has made it clear that she’s not going to give credit where it isn’t due.