Summer Walker Addresses Anxiety Over Soul Train Awards Acceptance Speech
Singer Summer Walker won the Best New Artist Award at the 2019 Soul Train Awards on Sunday, November 17.
The “Playing Games” vocalist, who just released her debut album, Over It, accepted one of the show’s most coveted awards with a simple yet heartfelt speech before quickly exiting the stage.
“Hi, thank you so much, I didn’t expect this. Thank you LVRN and thank you London On Da Track, I really appreciate it.”
Check out her speech for yourself:
One day after the live debut, Walker took to Instagram addressing the brevity of her speech and how she courageously battled through her social anxiety the evening of the show. Her post, which has garnered over 430,000 likes, was a selfie with Wale and Ari Lennox.
“I wasn’t even gonna go today cause I was to scared, I was literally asking @lvrngram to just get me a wrist band so I could sit in the back alone in my reg deg clothes. When I got there I dodged the red carpet and tried to get escorted through the back, finally getting to my seat I had to keep sneaking to pat my underarms from sweating, for no reason other than people were looking at me, I kept my arms folded and tried not to be seen,” she said.
She continued to describe how she felt when she was deemed the winner and how much she enjoyed the award show.
“By the time my name was called I couldn’t get a speech out like everyone one else from being so nervous & was shaking BUT I pushed through my #socialanxiety today and I’m really glad I did… cause the soul train experience is something any true music lover will never forget🖤”
The 23-year-old has courageously spoken out about her battle with social anxiety earlier this year in response to the criticisms she received from concerned fans at her meet-and-greets.
The Atlanta native recently canceled two dozen of her U.S. tour dates in order to manage her social anxiety while on the road.
