This story originally appeared on Entertainment Weekly
Adele dedicated her Album of the Year award at Sunday night’s Grammys to Beyoncé, who she beat out for the honor.
The 25 singer had a rollercoaster of an evening, going a perfect five-for-five in Grammy wins for both 25 and the hit single “Hello” and also stumbling during her George Michael tribute performance. But upon accepting the Grammys’ top honor at the conclusion of the ceremony, the British songstress used her speech to praise Beyoncé and her album Lemonade.
“Five years ago, when I was last here, I was pregnant and I didn’t know and I was awarded that — I found out shortly after which was the biggest blessing of my life,” Adele said. “And in my pregnancy and through becoming a mother, I lost a lot of myself and I struggled, and I do still struggle being a mum, it’s very hard. Tonight winning this feels full circle and like a bit of me has come back to myself, but I can’t possibly accept this award. And I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyoncé and this album to me, the Lemonade album, was just so monumental, Beyoncé. It was so monumental and so well thought out and so beautiful and soul-baring and we all got to see another side to you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. And all us artists here adore you. You are our light!”
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Adele added that Beyoncé made her “black friends” feel empowered and “you make them stand up for themselves and I love you, I always have and I always will.”
Adele closed out her speech by thanking her family and the Recording Academy. In the crowd, Beyoncé looked on with tears in her eyes.
On social media, many users agreed with Adele’s sentiment that Beyoncé should have taken the Album of the Year honor, including Beyoncé’s sister Solange Knowles. The singer tweeted Frank Ocean’s scathing Tumblr post with “wuddup frank.” In his piece, which Ocean posted on Saturday night, the rapper called Taylor Swift’s victory over Kendrick Lamar in the Album of the Year category at last year’s Grammys “one of the most ‘faulty’ TV moments I’ve ever seen.”
See other responses to Adele’s speech below.
