Kelly Clarkson is hitting back after Recording Academy President and chief executive Neil Portnow claimed that women needed to “step up” amid allegations that the 2018 award show didn’t recognize enough female artists. After hearing of Portnow’s controversial remarks, Kelly – who was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance this year – lashed out on Twitter.
Clarkson slammed the Grammys president on social media on January 30 by referring to him as “confused” while pointing him the direction of her latest album, Meaning of Life , on which she claimed she more than stepped up and brought her A-game.
“A confused soul said women need 2 ‘step up’ their A-game if they wanna start winning & u know what I’m not even mad at ignorance,” the mom of two responded this week, addressing the remarks Portnow made amid the recent backlash.
“I’m just gonna kindly point [you in] the direction of my A-game album I recently dropped #MeaningOfLife #UrWelcome,” Kelly then continued in her pretty scathing tweet as she referenced her 2017 album Meaning of Life , her first release under Atlantic Records after getting out of the contract she signed with RCA after winning American Idol in 2002.
The star – who’s won three Grammys and had 14 nominations over her career – then claimed that she “Jenna Dewan’d that s**t y’all #stepup,” referring to the actress’s role in the popular 2006 movie Step Up .
The empowering tweet has since been liked more than 5,100 times in just a few hours.
Notably, Kelly was nominated at the Grammys this year in the Best Pop Solo Performance category but lost out to Ed Sheeran, something Grammy Awards watchers revealed that they were pretty livid about as he was the only male nominated in the category and didn’t even attend the show to accept his awards.
The social media site was flooded with angry comments from fans rebuking Ed’s win amid the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, with many claiming that Kesha deserved the award for her emotional hit “Praying” which tells her story of sexual abuse.
Amid Clarkson’s strong clap back, Billboard is reporting that Portnow has since apologized for his comments and claimed that the quote to “step up” had been taken out of context.
In addition to Kelly, Rolling Stone reported that a number of female artists voiced their anger over the remarks from the Grammy boss after the award show on January 28, including Pink and Sheryl Crowe.
But while Clarkson joined the ranks of her fellow females in speaking up, this certainly isn’t the first time in recent weeks that Kelly has made her opinions very clear.
Earlier this month, the singer – who will be joining Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Alicia Keys as a coach on The Voice for Season 14 – called out Donald Trump while backstage at the Golden Globe Awards.
Clarkson made her feelings about the current president very clear while speaking to E! News backstage at the big award show, as she joked that she’d rather vote for anyone on the planet over Trump.
When asked if she’d choose to vote for Oprah Winfrey if she ran for president in the year 2020, Kelly responded, “Girl, at this point, I’d vote for anyone! At this point, [do] you wanna run?”