Garbage’s Shirley Manson Rips Kanye West In Open Letter
Sunday night (Feb. 8) at the 57th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Kanye West hopped on stage to protest Beck's Morning Phase winning Album Of The Year over Beyoncé's self-titled LP. At least, that was the implication--despite complaining in earnest later in the evening, West stopped short and played it off as a joke. But Shirley Manson, singer for the band Garbage, wasn't laughing. Shortly after the incident, she took to Facebook, where she posted a brief but scathing open letter to Kanye:
Manson's comments are, in part, responding to the ones West made following the show, wherein he said that Beck "needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé." He added, "At this point, we're tired of it because what happens is, you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental music. You are disrespectful to inspiration." (For his part, Beck mostly agreed.)
West's move to the stage was, of course, reminiscent of the incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in which he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. Swift's "You Belong With Me" had taken the trophy over Beyoncé's "Single Ladies"; Kanye said repeatedly from the stage that the latter was "one of the best videos of all time." He left the country shortly after, making his first major foray into the fashion world in France, before returning to the States to write and record 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
While Beyoncé came up short in the night's biggest category, Beyoncé still took home three statues--two for "Drunk In Love" (Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance) the award for Best Surround Sound Album.
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