Evanescence won the coveted Best New Artist Grammy in 2004, and the band’s lead singer Amy Lee says 50 Cent still hasn’t forgiven her for it.
“50 Cent hates my guts,” said Lee in an interview with The Daily Beast. “It’s just one of those things… I mean, truthfully, we thought he was going to win too. It was such a wild night. People are like, ‘What was it like to win a Grammy?’ and I’m like, ‘Stressful!’ I mean, it’s wonderful now, to have them, but it was surreal… I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t even think anybody in this room knows who we are.’”
Evanescence had a big 2003 thanks to their debut studio album Fallen and its hit single, “Bring Me to Life.” Fallen peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which was released just one month before Fallen, had a bigger impact commercially, though, peaking at No. 1 and producing several hit singles including “In Da Club.”
When Evanescence were announced as the winner of the Best New Artist at the 2004 Grammys, 50 Cent actually walked up onstage with the band. “Oh what did I do?” said Lee at the time. “Thanks, 50.”
Asked about the moment, Lee said she was just in shock and didn’t know what to do. “He didn’t do anything, he didn’t grab the mic, it wasn’t that bad. He just sort of like, made an appearance. It was like Zoolander when he thought he won,” Lee said. “He never said anything to me, but he likes to talk about me and how he was robbed. I don’t want to start a beef with him. … Everything around me was chaos and I was like, I’m going to stand here and see if this is real later, if I wake up or not.”
As recently as 2020, 50 Cent has shown how he still holds resentment for the band over the loss.
“You got the largest debut hip hop album [but] you don’t got no Best New Artist trophy,” he said during his Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony. “The Best New Artist, they gave that shit to Evanescence. Can you find fucking Evanescence? I ain’t seen Evanescence since that night. Since that night they gave them the trophy.”
.@50Cent jokingly slams the #Grammys for awarding best new artist to Evanescence the same year his debut album was nominated in the category: “Can you filElY4AgucM
