The 20-year-old admitted on the red carpet that she hadn't "processed it yet."
Alessia Cara has a big, new award! And it's been a long time coming.
The 20-year-old singer took the prize for Best New Artist at the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday. Hours earlier, on the red carpet, she opened up to ET's Nischelle Turner about what it meant to be celebrating at Madison Square Garden.
"I would daydream about winning a GRAMMY one day or even being here, so the fact that I am here is really weird," she admitted. "I haven't processed it yet. I feel like it's a really weird dream."
Cara echoed that sentiment onstage while accepting her award with an adorable story.
"I've been pretend-winning GRAMMYs since I was a kid, like, in my shower," she said. "So, you'd think I'd have the speech thing down, but I absolutely don't."
Cara went on to thank her family and her fans "for standing by me and for being so supportive and amazing. You guys are the reason I don't have to win GRAMMYs in my shower anymore."
The "Scars to Your Beautiful" singer concluded her speech with a heartfelt message on behalf of her fellow artists.
"There are some incredible artists out there that are making incredible music that deserve to be acknowledged, that don't always get acknowledged because of popularity contests or numbers games and that's kinda unfortunate," she said. "So I just wanted to encourage everyone to support real music and real artists, because everyone deserves the same shot."
Cara is set to hit the stage for a performance of the suicide prevention song "1-800-273-8255," her collaboration with Logic and Khalid. It's also nominated in the Song of the Year category.
"I feel like it would be wasting my platform if I just stayed silent about everything or didn't use my music in any way, so I'm trying my best," she said on the red carpet. "No matter where you're from, no matter who you are, we all deal with struggles. I've dealt with my own too and it's OK to sometimes feel like you're down or you're not good enough, but as long as you don't believe it and as long as you eventually realize that you are."
Cara released her debut album in 2015, but still fit within the eligibility requirements to qualify for Best New Artist, releasing a minimum of five singles or one album, but no more than 30 singles or three albums.
For a complete list of winners, click below.
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