āThe other moment that burned Appleās loose-cannon image into the publicās brain was the rambling, impassioned speech she gave when accepting the Best New Artist trophy at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. āMaya Angelou said that we as human beings at our best can only create opportunities,ā she said, words tumbling out of her mouth faster than she could process them, āand Iām going to use this opportunity the way I want to use it.ā ā¦ Pretentious? Self-important? Maybe, but letās also remember that she was barely 20 years old at the timeāand that if Steven Tyler gave the same rap, heād probably be celebrated for upholding rockānārollās grand fuck-you traditionā¦ . Apple proudly considers this speech a positive turning point.
'I will never, ever regret what I did,ā she says emphatically, her voice rising. 'Because I remember sitting in the audience, and making the conscious decision that I didnāt know what I was gonna say, but that I was going to get my feelings out up there.
'I was there thinking, āIām in high school. Iām in a cafeteria. I have to walk by people that are going to laugh at me.ā Instead of just walking by and feeling like Iāve been intimidated like that a million times, I didnāt want that to be who I was. This cool feeling of wanting to take responsibility and make decisions for myself and not feel like I had to hide my emotionsāthat was a great thing. Now, I donāt have the feeling like Iām the kind of person who never speaks out. Now I donāt have that itch anymore.'ā -Alan Light for Spin, February 2000
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