There’s a complete lot of horrible stuff occurring within the US proper now, and most of the speeches at Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony had been reflective of that.
First off, you in all probability observed {that a} ton of the movie star company — together with the Biebers, Woman Gaga, and Kehlani — had been sporting “ICE OUT” pins on the crimson carpet.
And all through the ceremony, host Trevor Noah additionally made a number of jokes about Donald Trump, whereas stars like Olivia Dean and Unhealthy Bunny used their acceptance speeches to uplift immigrants.
“Earlier than I say, ‘Because of God,’ I am gonna say ICE out,” the Puerto Rican star mentioned whereas accepting the award for Finest Música Urbana Album for Debí Tirar Más Fotos. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We’re people, and we’re Individuals.”
Equally, throughout her Music of the Yr acceptance speech for “WILDFLOWER,” Billie Eilish — who has been very vocal about her opposition to ICE — advised the group: “As grateful as I really feel, I truthfully do not feel like I have to say something however that nobody is prohibited on stolen land.”
“It is simply actually exhausting to know what to say and what to do proper now,” she continued, standing alongside her brother and collaborator, Finneas O’Connell — each of them proudly sporting “ICE OUT” pins. “I really feel actually hopeful on this room, and I really feel like we simply have to maintain combating and talking up, and protesting, and our voices actually do matter, and the folks matter. And, fuck ICE is all I wish to say.”
There’s little doubt that political statements had been a significant theme of the evening — though this didn’t essentially go down effectively with everybody.
On-line, some have expressed fatigue with celebrities making political statements at award exhibits. Among the many critics was Ricky Gervais, who took to X on Sunday to share a memorable second from his 2020 Golden Globes monologue, by which he suggested celebs to not get political of their acceptance speeches. “You’re in no place to lecture the general public about something. You realize nothing about the actual world,” he mentioned on the time. “Most of you spent much less time in class than Greta Thunberg.”
Re-sharing this excerpt after the Grammys aired, the British comic pointedly wrote: “They’re nonetheless not listening.”
With all that criticism in thoughts, Grammys government producer Ben Winston has now weighed in on the politically charged moments from Sunday evening, firmly defending artists’ “freedom” to talk out on issues near their hearts.
“I not often play anyone off, ever. It’s simply not price it,” he mentioned whereas discussing the speeches in a post-Grammys podcast interview with Rolling Stone. “Folks have the liberty to say stuff. They’re musicians, they’re artists… These artists are creating the music, like, after all they’re gonna have one thing to say, it’s why they’re artists. They’re profitable as a result of they are saying one thing which means one thing to us as a listener.”
Clarifying that he wasn’t in any respect “stunned” by the political nature of the evening’s speeches, Ben argued that it’d virtually be “weird” if the artists didn’t touch upon what’s occurring on the planet round them. “It might be odd in the event that they went up on stage and mentioned, ‘I wanna thank the sound engineer, I wanna thank my agent, my publicist,’” he mentioned. “These are stunning, inventive individuals who really feel issues. Their job is to really feel issues and make you’re feeling one thing.”
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