This year’s Grammys were, to put it nicely, a bit of a shitshow. From the general public’s dissatisfaction with some of the winners, to the underlying sexism that many have noted, this year was a little rough, leading to Grammy nominee Lorde taking to a New Zealand newspaper to outline some of her thoughts in a sly manner while giving thanks to all her fans.

Recently, it emerged that out of all the artists nominated for an Album Of The Year award at this year’s ceremony, Lorde was the only artist not offered a solo performance spot. In addition to this, it was noted that in the last six years, only 9% of the 899 of Grammy nominees have been women, leading to many people criticising the Grammys for their perceived decision to ignore women.

Responding to this sexism, and the fact that vast majority of winners at this year’s ceremony were male, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow explained to Variety that women had to “step up” in order to be heard.

“It has to begin with… women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level,” he explained.

“[They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome. I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us — us as an industry — to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists.”

Of course, this was met with huge amounts of criticism, with Portnow since clarifying his statement, claiming his words were taken out of context. Now, Lorde has taken out an ad in a New Zealand newspaper to make her feelings known about female artists while thanking her fans for their support.

“Last night I saw a lot of crazy & wonderful things,” Lorde wrote in the message published in The New Zealand Herald. “I just wanted to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for loving & embracing Melodrama the way you did. My nomination belongs to you. Thank you, also, for believing in female musicians. You set a beautiful precedent!”

Of course, this note was clearly written to those in her fanbase, rather than the recording industry, due to the fact that Sunday’s Grammy Awards featured only one female artist, Alessia Cara, taking home an award.

While there’s no doubt we can do better as a society and ensure that female musicians are celebrated as they rightly deserve, we just hope that those in charge of the music industry begin to sit up and take notice too.

Check out Lorde’s ‘Green Light’:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine