The Infuriating Reason Why Lorde Is Boycotting This Year’s Grammys

Wondering why you didn’t see Lorde strutting down the Grammys red carpet? Us too. The 21-year-old artist-- and former FASHION cover girl -- is up for an Album of the Year award, a major nomination in a very major category. But unlike her fellow (all-male) Album of the Year nominees, Lorde wasn’t invited to do a solo performance at tonight’s show.

Aside from Jay-Z, who declined the invitation to perform, the other nominees — Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars and Childish Gambino — will all be taking to the Grammys stage with songs from their nominated albums. Acording to Variety, Lorde, the only female nominee, was instead asked to sing “American Girl” as part of a group tribute to Tom Petty. (An odd request, considering Lorde is from New Zealand.)

Variety reports that after a heated back and forth, the singer refused to perform when producers wouldn’t let her perform solo. According to TMZ,  this is also why we didn’t see Lorde making an appearance on the red carpet.

The Grammys has a long history with sexism. Last week Lorde’s mother, Sonja Yelich, tweeted a photo of a New York Times article clip that said “Of the 899 people to be nominated for Grammy awards in the past six years, only nine per cent were women,” with the caption, “this says it all.”

Less than 10%!? That’s a shocking statistic--and what’s perhaps even more shocking, is that this lack of female representation hasn’t really been addressed. Tonight’s red carpet is scattered with white roses, an accessory intended to show solidarity for women and the Time’s Up movement. But sexism in music is far from fixed--and Lorde’s snub is proof that the industry has a ways to go.