Alessia Cara has something to say about her GRAMMYs win. On Jan. 28, the singer took home the award for best new artist , beating big-name musicians like Khalid, rapper Lil Uzi Vert, Julia Michaels and SZA. She quickly came under fire, with many people claiming she didn’t deserve her award – but she’s not going down without a fight.

On Jan. 29, a day after the awards show took place in Madison Square Garden, the Toronto native posted a black-and-white photo of herself to Instagram with a lengthy caption addressing the controversy. Alessia started her message off with a poignant remark, “I didn’t log onto grammy.com and submit myself. that’s not how it works. I didn’t ask to be submitted either because there are other artists that deserve the acknowledgment. but I was nominated and won and I am not going to be upset about something I’ve wanted since I was a kid, not to mention have worked really hard for.”

The 21-year-old singer also touched on her own struggles with self-confidence: “I’ve been thinking I suck since I was old enough to know what sucking meant. And that’s why this means a lot to me. despite my 183625 insecurities, I’ve been shown that what I’ve created is worth something and that people actually give a shit. all of the years feeling like I wasn’t good at anything or that I was naive for dreaming about something improbable have paid off in a way that I have yet to process.”

Alessia has been proving herself in the music industry for many years, having released her first and only studio album Know-It-All back in 2015 at the tender age of 18. Since then, she’s been nominated at the Juno Awards, BET Awards, Canadian Radio Music Awards and more, winning a total of 13 times in the past three years. While all the artists in her category are talented, Alessia was a worthy contender who is likely to also receive nominations at this year’s iHeartRadio Music Awards.