Sadly, Ghost didn't take home any trophies at this year's American Grammys, but they did score big at Sweden's version of the music award ceremony. Last night (May 3rd), Tobias Forge and Co.'s 2022 album, Impera, won the Hard Rock/Metal Album of the Year award at the Swedish Grammis — beating out Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, the Halo Effect and Watain
Like any major award show, Forge was given the opportunity to make a speech after being handed his trophy, and during his spiel, he joked that he was worried he would be "too drunk" to speak publicly after misjudging when the metal category would be honored.
Fortunately, he had his wits about him, and he nicely relayed his gratitude for winning and thanked the team of men who were up there with him — which weren't unmasked Nameless Ghouls, by the way. They gang consisted of Impera producer Klas Åhlund and the album's co-songwriters, Salem al Fakir, Vincent Pontare, and Max Grahn.
Forge delivered his speech in his native tongue, but the user who uploaded footage to YouTube kindly translated it to English in the comments.
"For some reason I thought this would happen earlier in the evening," Forge began. "When I realized it would happen a bit later ... as you know, it takes a lot of teamwork to make a record, everything from getting the record together sonically to getting it out in physical form.
"I've worked with a lot of people and halfway through this evening, I realized, 'Fuck we haven't been mentioned yet, our category hasn't been mentioned! I'm gonna be way too drunk!' So I told Klas — Klas Åhlund, producer of our record — that if we win anything, we should get up here together because it would be difficult to remember everyone that's been part of it.
"So, some of the people who have helped us: Klas Åhlund, Salem Al Fakir, Vincent Pontare, Max Grahn ... and a whole lot of other people. Everyone from Universal, Nicholas, Christian, BMG, Live Nation has been there and helped us so much. Thank you very much everyone who has been involved!"
This marks Ghost's sixth nomination and fifth win at the Swedish Grammis, having previously taken home trophies for 2014's Infestissumam, 2015's Meliora and 2016's Popestar. Ghost have been nominated for three American Grammy awards — Best Metal Performance for "Cirice" in 2015 (which they won), Best Rock Album for Prequelle in 2019 and Best Metal Performance for "Call Me Little Sunshine" in 2023.
Watch the Swedish Grammis acceptance speech above via YouTube.
