Evanescence's breakout debut album Fallen just turned 20, and during an interview with The Daily Beast, Amy Lee reminisced about the group beating out 50 Cent for the Best New Artist category during the 2004 Grammys. The rapper infamously responded to their win by walking up onstage while Lee was giving her acceptance speech.
“50 Cent hates my guts,” the singer said matter-of-factly. “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.’”
“He didn’t do anything, he didn’t grab the mic, it wasn’t that bad. He just sort of like, made an appearance,” Lee added about his interruption. “No, 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.”
The rapper most recently brought up the incident in 2020 when he was receiving a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. “You got the largest debut hip hop album [but] you don’t got no Best New Artist trophy,” 50 Cent said at the time, referring to 2003's Get Rich or Die Tryin'. “The Best New Artist, they gave that s*** to Evanescence. Can you find f***ing Evanescence? I ain’t seen Evanescence since that night. Since that night they gave them the trophy.”
Fallen features Evanescence's biggest hit, "Bring Me To Life," and has a Diamond certification from the RIAA.