SZA's manager Terence "Punch" Henderson said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the singer skipped last week's MTV Video Music Awards as she was hurt by MTV's decision not to nominate her in the Artist of the Year category.
Anderson said it was "disrespectful" not to nominate SZA for the award despite the musician having one of the strongest years of her career to date.
"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," Anderson told The Hollywood Reporter. "It just really didn't make any sense to me. It's disrespectful."
Henderson said he did not get a proper reply from MTV about the lack of nomination for SZA in the Artist of the Year category during a call.
"They couldn't give a clear answer as to why she wasn't [nominated]," he said. "It was just, 'Well, she's nominated for all these other [awards].'"
"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. You can't discredit what 'SOS' has done and is currently doing," he added.
SZA's manager revealed they pulled her VMAs performance after the snub, saying, "I figured, why go perform and do this if she's not going to be respected to the highest level?"
"So, it was my call to actually pull out of the performance," he explained. "I felt it was disrespectful and I was very stern on that and influencing that. If there's any issues or backlash and all of that, I'm taking all of that."
(Photo: Jacob Webster)
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