We are one with Selena Gomez's frustration that SZA wasn't at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards when she won Best R&B for "Shirt."
Turns out, the reason for her absence came from a place of feeling hurt and disrespect.
Why Was SZA Absent At 2023 VMAs?
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Terrence "Punch" Henderson, SZA's manager for years, revealed why she was absent at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards last Sep. 12, 2023, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
"Obviously, she had one of the best years, if not the best year, of any artist at this point. I don't see why she wouldn't be nominated for artist of the year," Punch told the outlet. "It just really didn't make any sense to me. It's disrespectful,"
SZA was the second most nominated artist of the night with eight nominations. This included Song of Summer, Best Editing, Best Direction, Song of the Year, and Video of the Year for "Kill Bill," Best R&B and Best Art Direction for "Shirt," and Album of the Year for her highly-awaited sophomore album "SOS."
Notably, SZA was missing from the Artist of the Year nominees. Karol G, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Shakira, Nicki Minaj, and Doja Cat, were nominated. Swift took home the moon person for Artist of the Year.
SZA Was Supposed To Perform At The VMAs
Punch admitted to the publication that he reached out to MTV about the said snub while they were in a conversation about a possible SZA performance in the show.
"They couldn't give a clear answer as to why she wasn't [nominated]. It was just, 'Well, she's nominated for all these other [awards]'," he added.
Before dropping the call, Punch claimed that MTV asked to set up another call as people involved in logistics, who do not have any knowledge of the nomination process were in the call. However, that second call did not materialize.
"When we tried to set up the second call, they didn't want to discuss artist of the year, which to me was really a slap in the face," Punch said.
Despite her huge success in the past year, Punch could not help but wonder why his client was not nominated.
"Even with the other artists that were nominated for artist of the year, some of them were even off-cycle. They didn't have an album out. I mean, no disrespect to them or anybody else; everybody's great and all of that, but still, you can't discredit what SOS has done and is currently doing," he went on to say.
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