The 61st Annual Grammy Awards aired this year on February 10th, 2019, and one of the hottest topics of discussion was on Ariana Grande’s absence from the ceremony. Grande was nominated for two awards this year: Best Pop Solo Performance for God is a Woman and Best Pop Vocal Album for Sweetener. On top of this, she also won the Best Pop Vocal Category- her first Grammy ever, and was even slated to perform this year.

Grande’s presence at the award show, as well as her performance, were cancelled due to a public fight between her and the show’s producers about the stipulations regarding what she could and could not perform. Grammy’s producer Ken Ehrlich claimed that the reason for cancelling the performance centered around Grande being unable to put something together in the little amount of time that was left before the show. She then took to Twitter saying, “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. 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. 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.” She later added, “hope that helps everyone understand my decision. i am still grateful for the acknowledgement this year.”

However, even though she did not physically show up to the awards ceremony, that does not mean she was not watching. She tweeted out about her own win: “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 f*** ……. this is wild and beautiful. thank you so much.” She also thanked a whole host of people, including Pharrell Williams, the Recording Academy, and the voters.

Grande’s live tweeting session of the Grammy’s did not stop there, though. She also put out some (now deleted) tweets in regards to the Best Rap Album category. In the deleted tweets, she had commented “f***” and “trash.” regarding the late Mac Miller’s loss of the award to Cardi B. Cardi then posted a video on her Instagram claiming not only that she had heard of Miller’s parents saying if he didn’t win, that they wanted it to be her, but also that she was sharing her award with Miller.

Even with all of this, Grande still wasn’t finished. She also moved to Instagram, posting pictures of herself in a gorgeous blue gown. It was apparently the dress that she was meant to wear to the ceremony, custom made by Zac Posen. One picture was captioned “when @zacposen makes u a custom gown it doesn’t matter if you’re singing or not.”

Ariana Grande has been on fire lately, what with putting out two albums in six months, winning her first ever Grammy with the first of them, and completely taking over iTunes with the second. It is a shame that there had to be such a controversy surrounding this year’s Grammy’s, because her performance most likely would have been one for the books. The marketing team for the ceremony had her name and face plastered all over the materials they used to promote the event. Grande herself even commented on the fact that she saw a bus with her face on it while she was in the middle of tweeting her grievances with the issue. Hopefully issues like this can be put in the past, and the next time Grande is invited to the ceremony she’ll be willing to attend and possibly even make up for lost time with a performance.