Pink Slams Grammy President's 'Women Need to Step Up' Remark: We 'Owned Music This Year'

Pink had a powerful response to Grammy President Neil Portnow’s comment about how female artists “need to step up.”

Amid the trending #GrammysSoMale movement on social media, the singer, who was nominated for best solo pop performance at last night’s Grammy Awards, released a handwritten-statement addressing Portnow’s explanation on why there were few female winners this year.

“Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’ – women have been stepping since the beginning of time. Stepping up, and also stepping aside. Women OWNED music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT. And every year before this,” Pink, 38, wrote in a message that was tweeted on Monday.

“When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair,” the mother of two said.

A rep for Portnow did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Be sure to check out PEOPLE’s full Grammys coverage to get the latest news on music’s big night.

Pink, who also performed during the show, was among those in the female-filled category of best solo pop performance who lost the award to Ed Sheeran, the only male nominee.

With the odds in favor of a woman walking away with the trophy during an awards season that’s been empowering and embracing women’s work, viewers and audience members were disappointed to see Sheeran win.

After Sunday’s broadcast, Portnow spoke with reporters backstage about the male-dominated winner’s list.

“It has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level,” he said, adding, “[They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome.”

Men, including frontrunners Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar, took home more gramophones during the CBS telecast with Alessia Cara (best new artist) and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman (best country duo/group performance) among the very few women to have their acceptance speeches get airtime on the 60th annual show.

On Monday, Cara, 21, addressed the backlash about her big win and acceptance speech, during which she emphasized the importance of recognizing music’s vast array of artists.

“To address the apparent backlash regarding winning something I had no control over: 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,” Cara said on Instagram Monday.

“I’m trying very hard to use the platform I’ve been given to talk about these things and bring light to issues that aren’t fair, all while trying to make the most of the weird, amazing success I’ve been lucky enough to have,” the singer continued. “I will not let everything I’ve worked for be diminished by people taking offense to my accomplishments and feeling the need to tell me how much I suck.”

The 60th annual Grammy Awards, hosted by James Corden, were broadcast live on CBS from Madison Square Garden in New York City.