Hosted by John Cena and Victoria Justice and sandwiched between such illustrious honors as Kendall Jenner winning Choice Female Hottie and Ariana Grande accepting the award for Choice Selfie Taker, the fan-decided awards paused to highlight a hashtag.
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Grimmie was shot and killed in June after gunman Kevin Loibl approached her and opened fire as she signed autographs after a concert in Orlando. The singer rocketed to stardom on YouTube and as a contestant on “The Voice“. The network confirmed her win in a news release after the ceremony ended. “The fans have a right to be upset”.
On July 18, the official Twitter account of the TCA’s, urged fans to retweet their tweet ‘in honour of her [Christina Grimmie’s] memory for #ChoiceMusicWebStar’.
However, Grimmie, who was tragically and fatally shot by an obsessed fan in June, was excluded from the tribute.
Later in the show, Justin Timberlake was awarded a surfboard to mark his contributions to music and film throughout his career.
“I’m glad the tcas didn’t do a memorial for Christina Grimmie. I don’t want her lovely face anywhere near that trash show”.
Other angry tweets poured in. “I think that’s why part of the reason today, I try to live my life working most closely with, making music with, and spending so much of my time with an incredible group of people – male, female, straight, gay, every walk of life. Or acknowledgment? Beyond disgusted”.
In the weeks leading up to the Fox awards show, Grimmie’s name and image were used to promote the event, causing fans to believe the singer, who was nominated for Choice Music Web Star, would be acknowledged during the show.
There were many, many more.
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Grimmie was posthumously crowned the victor of the Choice web star: Music award but there was no mention of her win during the televised broadcast. (And no, we don’t mean Taylor Swift shocked.) Garner accepted the award with her 12-year-old co-star, Kylie Rogers and made our hearts melt when she said, “Thank you, this is for this little lady”.
