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Carlos Santana issued an apology after the guitarist said that Beyoncé is “not a singer” while explaining in an interview why Adele won the Album of the Year Grammy.

“My intent was to congratulate Adele on her amazing night at the Grammys,” Santana wrote on Facebook Tuesday, soon after his published remarks about the Grammys caused backlash. “My comment about Beyonce was regretfully taken out of context. I have the utmost respect for her as an artist and a person. She deserves all the accolades that come her way. I wish Beyonce and her family all the best.”
In an interview with the Australian Associated Press prior to Santana’s tour in Australia and New Zealand, Santana said that Adele’s 25 was worthy of the Album of the Year Grammy. “I think that Adele won because she can sing sing,” the guitarist said. “With all respect to our sister Beyoncé, Beyoncé is very beautiful to look at and it’s more like modeling kind of music – music to model a dress – she’s not a singer singer, with all respect to her.”
Santana also suggested that Beyoncé relies too heavily on theatrics for her performances, which perhaps penalized her in the eyes of Grammy voters who opted for 25 over Lemonade.
“[Adele] doesn’t bring all the dancers and props, she can just stand there and she just stood there and sang the song and that’s it, and this is why she wins,” Santana said, throwing subtle shade at Beyoncé’s epic medley of “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” from Sunday’s ceremony.
The Recording Academy’s Neil Portnow also defended the Grammy’s Album of the Year pick of 25, even as Adele used her acceptance speech to proclaim Lemonade should have won.
“I don’t think there’s a race problem at all. Remember, this is a peer-voted award, it’s not a corporate entity – it’s the 14,000 members of the Academy,” Portnow said. “It’s always hard to create objectivity out of something that’s inherently subjective, which is what art and music is about. We do the best we can.”