The 65th Annual Grammy Awards was a memorable night for fans of big-time artists such as Beyoncé, who broke the record for the most nominations of all time with 88 total nominations, and more significantly, lost Album of the Year once again–this time to Harry Styles. 

Besides other controversies, like the disagreement over Bonnie Raitt winning Song of the Year, Harry Styles’s Album of the Year win has sparked major controversy on social media. People have taken to Twitter to express their mixed thoughts about the U.K. artist winning over Beyoncé and other nominees including Taylor Swift, Adele, Lizzo, and Bad Bunny. 

“Y’all choose Harry Styles over Beyoncé for AOTY (album of the year),” one person tweeted. The tweet surpassed 64,000 likes and had 3 million views. 

“Kendrick, Bad Bunny, and Beyoncé are all nominated yet you give the award to HARRY STYLES,” Another user tweeted. 

His controversial win over these big artists wasn’t the only thing people on the internet were angry about. A certain line in Styles’ acceptance speech seemed to not sit well with the audience as well. 

Styles said, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” Immediately, Twitter was flooded with tweets suggesting that Styles didn’t acknowledge his privilege as a white male winning the award, as the majority of previous winners have been cisgender white men like him. 

“Harry Styles really just said ‘this doesn’t happen to people like me very often’ like what?” was one of  many examples of the tweets that came out after his speech. 

While some people only responded using social media, others who attended the event were seen being disrespectful in person during Styles’ speech. 

A video from TikTok user mads.hs went viral on multiple social media platforms. A man Ernest Owens could be heard yelling the words, “Get off the stage,” and “Beyonce should have won” from the crowd during Styles’ acceptance speech. Owens also posted a TikTok from his own perspective interrupting the speech, though many viewers did not take his disrespect lightly. 

Though in the sea of unsupportive comments and backlash on social media, many fans and celebrities were quick to defend Styles for both his speech and his win. 

“The general public does not understand ‘things like this don’t happen to ppl like me’ like he is talking about his success and level of fame. He had no connections and is now very high up in the industry. That doesn’t happen to many people,” a Twitter user posted, defending Styles’ speech.

Celebrities such as Lizzo and Adele were rumored to appear unhappy for Styles, but a video posted from Lizzo’s point of view of his win shows that she was more than happy for him, squashing the rumors. Taylor Swift was also among the few celebrities that showed support for Styles; a video surfaced of Swift standing during his speech. 

The Grammys has a reputation for being controversial, and now with more people active on social media, artists can expect and must be prepared for backlash from upset fans of the nominees that didn’t go home with the award.