UPDATE: February 10, 2019 at 6:12 P.M. ET — Ariana Grande's Sweetener record won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. She took to Instagram to celebrate the news, even though she's still not attending the ceremony. "I know I'm not there tonight (trust, I tried and still truly wished it had worked out TBH) and I know I said I try not to put too much weight into these things...but fuck. This is wild and beautiful. Thank you so much," she wrote before tagging several people involved in Sweetener.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
Much to the disappointment of her fans, Ariana Grande is not performing at the 2019 Grammys this weekend despite being on the original lineup. While that's a bummer—especially because she's been one of the most prolific artists over the past year—it's not exactly a bombshell story.
Well, at least, it wasn't until Thursday, February 7, when Grande took to social media to set the record straight as to why she won't be onstage on Sunday. It all started with an interview that Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich gave to the Associated Press. “As it turned out, when we finally got to the point where we thought maybe it would work, she felt it was too late for her to pull something together for sure,” he said. “And it’s too bad. She’s a great artist. And I’d love to get her in the show this year.”
In response to this, Grande tweeted a screenshot of that portion of the story with the caption, "Mhmmm here it is ! 'Too late for her to pull something together.'"
She went on to explain her side of how these negotiations went down. "I've kept my mouth shut but now you're lying about me. I can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken," she wrote. "It was when my creativity & self expression was stifled by you, that I decided not to attend. I hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more."
"I offered 3 different songs. It's about collaboration. It's about feeling supported," she continued. "It's about art and honesty. Not politics. Not doing favors or playing games. It's just a game y'all...and i'm sorry but that's not what music is to me."
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Ironically, Grande says she "passed a Grammy's bus with my face on it typing those." Despite the controversy over her performance, she's "still grateful for the acknowledgement this year."
Now that she's set the record straight, we can thankfully all turn our focus to more important Ariana Grande matters—like the release of her new album Friday.
