Billie Eilish and Rosalia Face Backlash After VMA’s

By: L. Scala 

 
This year the VMA’s were filled with all the major artist’s and their production. This year’s VMAs also had some controversies. Firstly, what some may say is a controversial music video from Lil Nas X, Call Me By Your Name won the category of video of the year, marking a major victory over big productions such as WAP, Kiss Me More and Save Your Tears. Justin Bieber also pulled ahead of Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion and Doja cat, winning Artist of the year. Finally, the hit song of this year, Driver’s license won as song of the year over WAP, Dynamite and others. All is well, but the real scandal of this year were the controversies surrounding Billie Eilish in a collaboration with ROSALÍA winning the Best Latin Category. 
 
Billie Eilish and ROSALÍA are facing backlash for winning Best Latin with the song “Lo Vas A Olivdar”. They won over several prominent Latino singers like Shakira, representing her song “Girl like me”, Maluma’s “Hawái”, J Balvin’s “Un dia” and more. ROSALÍA, which is Spanish (very different from being Latino) and Billie Eilish, who was born in Los Angeles and has no Latino ancestors won in the category which technically both should not be qualified in. ROSALÍA has seen some backlash before for appropriating Latin American culture and Afro Caribbean culture, but she still has not said anything public about it. 
 
Some people expressed anger on the internet, saying that the win felt like an insult. Some even made memes on the internet, trying to express how they felt that the VMA’s were ridiculous. However, some have raised points that the VMA’s winners are chosen by popular vote, and that the people themselves put 2 white women in the wining stand of the Latin qualification. This isn’t the first time the VMA’s have seen anger. Nicki Minaj called out the awards in 2015 for not nominating the insanely popular music video of “Anaconda” for Best choreography. Back in 2020, Billie also made a statement for her win in another music awards, the Grammy’s. She partially agreed that she could have had an advantage over other for being white, but she told people “Don’t undermine all the hard work it took for me to get here.”  ​