Billie Eilish got emotional at Tuesday night’s BRIT Awards while accepting the trophy for International Female Solo Artist.
“I’ve felt very hated recently,” she said, “and, when I was on the stage and I saw you guys all smiling at me, it genuinely made me wanna cry. And I wanna cry right now, so thank you.”
Eilish has taken heat for opining in a Vogue interview that some hip-hop artists she knows are “posturing” when they rap about guns and women.
Eilish told BBC Breakfast she recently stopped reading social media comments. “It was ruining my life,” she admitted. “The cooler the things you get to do are, the more people hate you. It’s crazy … The internet is just a bunch of trolls, you know? I should have stopped long ago.
“The problem is that I’ve wanted to stay in touch with the fans and keep talking to them, but people have ruined that for me.”
The 18-year-old, who performed her 007 theme song “No Time To Die” at the BRIT Awards, beat out Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Lana Del Rey, Lizzo for the award – her first BRIT.
Tyler the Creator was named International Male Solo Artist. He gave a shout out to former British PM Theresa May, who famously banned the rap star from the UK in 2015 over his lyrics.
Lewis Capaldi, who was nominated in four categories, took home awards for Best New Artist and Best Song. Accepting the latter, he said “Someone You Loved” was about his late grandmother.
Other winners were Stormzy (British Male), Mabel (British Female), Foals (British Group), Celeste (Rising Star) and Psychodrama by Dave (Best Album).
The best line of the night came from host Jack Whitehall, who said to Styles: “I read somewhere that psychedelic drugs had been consumed during the making of your album … I’m not going to ask which psychedelic drugs your stylist was on."
Performances included Harry Styles singing “Falling,” Lizzo doing a medley of her songs, and Rod Stewart reuniting with former Faces bandmates Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones for “Stay With Me.”