Canadian singer Alessia Cara says hearing her name mentioned when the Grammy Award nominations are announced on Dec. 5 “would mean everything.”
The 20-year-old from the Toronto region told Billboard she might even get dressed up to attend the music industry’s biggest night.
“I feel like that’s one night where I would just go all-out for fun,” Cara said. “So if you do see me in, like, a full-out gown that’s just because I decided to do that. I would never wear anything because someone told me to.”
Cara added that she might even wear makeup.
“If I’m going to go all out for that night, I might as well go all the way out,” she said.
Cara’s decision to appear with no makeup on the MTV Video Music Awards preshow was criticized by some.
“A lot of articles, especially those written by women, said, essentially, ‘We understand what you’re trying to do, but if you just could have elevated it a bit,’” the singer recalled.
Cara said she was trying to make a statement to support the message of her single “Scars To Your Beautiful,” which encourages positive body image.
“They’re saying they acknowledge that statement, yet wish I would change,” Cara said. “You put so much work into being a good performer, and then all people can talk about is what shoes you’re wearing.”
Cara appears on the cover of the Oct. 15 edition of Billboard with Chance The Rapper and Maren Morris. The three are touted as “breakthrough stars” in “The Class of 2017.”
Asked what she would change in society using the power of celebrity, Cara said she would “shut off all the noise and allow people to be creative without all the judgments and standards that we think we have to follow.
“The bar is set so high for women, and it doesn’t really exist for men.”
The singer, who is scheduled to perform at the iHeartRadio Canada Jingle Ball in Toronto on Nov. 25, told Billboard she has already experienced what it means to have influence on people.
“It ranges from someone telling me that one of my songs helped them reconsider taking their own life, to the girl who told me that I had given her the courage to come out to her family,” said Cara.
“She said that I was actually the first person that she came out to, and that she was going to go tell her family next.”