Harry Styles big win at 2023 Grammys sparks controversy, fans say ‘it was rigged’

Harry Styles earned the top honor of the night at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, beating out Adele, Beyonce, and Lizzo.

The As It Was singer’s major win left many social media users questioning how he landed the top nod of the Best Pop Vocal Album and the Album of the Year.

Several music fans have accused the Grammys of being 'rigged' after Styles's long-time connection the awards ceremony's producer Ben Winston.

According to Daily Mail, Styles has a great relationship with Grammy producer Winston. Soon after, the Watermelon Sugar singer performed As It Was, Grammy's Twitter handle tweeted, "'Fun fact: The voice at the beginning of "As It Was" is the daughter of our very own #GRAMMYs producer, @BenWinston!."

The tweet was referring to the five-year-old child of Winston, Ruby, who also had a cameo appearance at the beginning of the song, and she can be heard saying, "Come on, Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!."

Winston had also been the producer of The Kardashians for Hulu, and Carpool Karaoke for Apple TV. He was the executive producer and director of the recent Friends: The Reunion special.

Fans quickly reacted to this new update, writing, "He shouldn’t have been nomed for this reason alone."

"So thats how he got the grammy," said one while another posted, "Guess we already know whose winning AOTY."

A user called the awards show "rigged" while one tweet said, "That nepotism is bananas." Another added, "Harry styles being buddies with ben winston who runs the grammys and irving azoff who runs ticketmasters/livenation and more shows why he won."