Alessia Cara received “death threats” over her Grammy Award win

When asked how soon after the award show she began receiving negative comments, she said: “Pretty much right away, because I'm dumb and look at things online when I'm not supposed to. I just wanted to see what the fans were saying about the performance (with Logic and Khalid), and I started seeing all of these death threats and was like, ‘Wait, what's going on?’ Then the next morning, it was everywhere. There were news articles covering it and my dad was sending me videos like, ‘Why are they talking about this on TV?’

“It was really jarring, because it was such a positive thing in my mind for so long. Especially as a kid, there's like an innocence to it - that dream - and it almost gets tainted by opinions of people, which is really unfortunate. And I didn't think that working hard and wanting something that's out of your control would be that bothersome to people. It was just really disappointing for me.”

The ‘Stay’ hitmaker can’t believe she was criticised for winning the award in a year where so few women were nominated, and says she has done her best to rise about the hate.

She added: “People were so enraged that not enough women were represented that night, but then when I was the only one, instead of supporting me and being the feminists they said they were, they were just saying ‘You're not the right woman’ or ‘You're not the woman we wanted, that doesn't count.’

“As a young woman, people will always tell you that you're not deserving of the things that you've achieved, but I work just as hard as anybody. I wanted people to know that anything negative you're saying about me, I've felt about myself already and I'm not going to let that get to me anymore. I'm going to be happy about this.”

After the event, SZA defended Alessia in an interview with GQ magazine, and whilst the ‘Growing Pains’ signer hasn’t spoken to her directly, she’s thankful for her kind words.

Speaking to USA Today, she said: “I haven't spoken to SZA about it directly. It was really nice and really classy of her to say that, because she didn't need to defend me in any way. She's an incredible artist and extremely deserving. I would've been completely ecstatic if she had been up there, and I think she will be."