We’ve already established that the Grammys tend to f-ck up the whole giving awards to the right people thing. I don’t need to get into that again. And with the case of SZA and Best New Artist, as much as I do think she deserves it, I’m not mad that Alessia Cara won. We’ve been bigging up Alessia Cara for years on this site.  It might be our Canada bias (Brampton stand up!!) but we’ve been on Team Alessia since Day 1. I’ve worked with her a few times and she is a very sweet, humble and nice kid. She is extremely talented. She was also one of the few women to actually win last night. So I’m not going to take this moment away from Alessia Cara. 

I will say that SZA deserved more. She was the Grammy’s most nominated woman but she didn’t go home with a single Grammy. Other artists have lost Grammys (the Best New Artist Grammy notoriously doesn’t go to the most deserving artist – Kanye lost this award to MAROON 5) but I don’t want to flippantly assert that SZA will be fine. She’s a black woman in the music industry who makes kinda weird, quiet, soulful music. She is BRILLIANT and CTRL was one of the best albums of 2017 but these are the same people who can’t even recognize Beyonce’s brilliance. SZA is not yet a household name. Ryan Seacrest gave the most Old Dad interview ever on the red carpet when he pulled out a newspaper clipping featuring an article of SZA and was like, “look I saw you in the paper and I was like wow!” I’m paraphrasing. It was embarrassing. SZA has yet to be on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show, one of the most popular in the country, which is why he doesn’t seem to know who she is. So, yeah, I’m not going to bank on the fact that SZA going home without a Grammy is totally fine, or that she’ll be completely fine. I just hope this will end up just being an unfortunate asterisk in SZA’s long and prosperous career. 

Less important but SZA was my best dressed on the red carpet last night. 

She looks like a flawless neo-soul goddess angel fairy godmother of R&B. 

OK, I’m really trying to let Alessia Cara have this but SZA’s performance of Broken Clocks was hands down the best of the performances by her fellow Best New Artist nominees and one of the best of the night. The whole set, her vibe, her voice and her look… all of it was IT. How many artists can face the most pressure-filled performance of their career with so much ease and grace? How many could absolutely SLAY like this? Taylor Swift couldn’t.