25 November 2019
Newsdesk
The 25-year-old singer - who was snubbed from the shortlist of the prestigious honours when they were announced last week - accepted the honour for Favorite Song - Pop/Rock for 'Without Me' and used her speech to recall how she used to felt awards "validated" a performer but has now grown to realise that isn't the case.
Speaking on stage at Los Angeles' Microsoft Theatre, she said: "OK, wow. I grew up watching shows like this and I would sit at home wide-eyed and watch artists in these beautiful gowns and handsome suits, like, stroll up the stairs to the stage and they would hold up these awards and they were usually gold-plated and shiny and weighted, these, like, metaphors, these trophies that were supposed to be some kind of validation for the soul-crushing and heartache-inducing work that they put into writing a song and bringing it to life.
"And to be honest with you, I really believed that fairy tale.
"I believed these awards. When I was a kid, I used to believe that this award was the ultimate validating and that I'd come up here and laugh and cry and my fans at home would rejoice because we accomplished this thing together.
"But the truth is I am older now and I'm also an artist and apparently I'm doing OK. But most of these awards really aren't what they seem at all."
And Halsey - who beat Jonas Brothers, Lil Nas x ft Billy Ray Cyrus, Panic! At the Disco and Post Malone & Swae Lee to take the award - admitted the award meant more to her because it was fan voted.
She added: "But that's OK because I'm up here right now and I am so thankful to the AMAs because they are the world's largest fan-voted awards show.
"[The fans are] the people who give a s**t about music."
