In speech after speech, this year\u2019s Grammy-winning artists returned to one message\u2014ICE is a menace that must be stopped.<\/p>\n
After dramatic, violent escalations in federal raids on immigrant communities and their supporters in Minneapolis and across the country, Americans have been shocked into despair and action. Many artists up for top Grammys have been vocal about their opposition to these raids, but at Sunday\u2019s Grammys, the topic was front and center for many winners in their speeches. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to dedicate this to all the people who had to leave their home, their country, to follow their dreams,\u201d Bad Bunny said in his mostly-Spanish acceptance speech for the Grammys top prize, Album of the Year.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the night, he joked with host Trevor Noah about Puerto Rico not being a great place for Noah should flee to, the island still being an American territory and all. But Bad Bunny made his point clearly even before taking home his biggest prize yet. \u201cIce out,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we fight, we have to do it with love.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a Super Bowl halftime show coming next week, he\u2019ll take the stage as the most important musician on earth right now, an urgent message brought to the heart of the most aggressively American live event.<\/p>\n
As musicians around the country and the globe use their platforms to organize and speak out against the ICE raids, many acts wore pins on the red carpet Sunday\u2014from Joni Mitchell and Carole King to Olivia Rodrigo, Brandi Carlile and Justin and Hailey Bieber.<\/p>\n
Yet it was striking just how many artists used the acceptance speeches to decry the agency\u2019s actions under President Trump.<\/p>\n
Billie Eilish, an upset winner with brother Finneas for song for \u201cWildflower,\u201d was even more direct. \u201cNo one is illegal on stolen land,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what to say and what to do, but we need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting. Our voices really do matter.\u201d Then came a long, bleeped moment on the CBS broadcast\u2014presumably something urgently profane directed at a similar target.<\/p>\n
That sentiment spanned genres and cultures. New artist winner, the U.K. R&B singer Olivia Dean, acknowledged the gifts of being \u201cthe granddaughter of an immigrant. I\u2019m a product of bravery and I think these people deserve to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cImmigrants built this country, literally,\u201d said country star Shaboozey, a descendant of Nigerian immigrant parents, winning for country duo\/group performance. \u201cThis is also for those who came to this country in search of better opportunity to be part of a nation that promised freedom for all and equal opportunity to everyone willing to work for it. Thank you for bringing your culture your music, your stories and your traditions here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kehlani, a winner for R&B song and performance, said that \u201cTogether, we\u2019re stronger in numbers to speak out against all the injustice going on in the world right now. I hope everyone is inspired to come together as a community of artists ad speak out against what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201d F\u2014 Ice,\u201d Kehlani added, walking off the stage. <\/p>\n
Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. also used his speech to underscore the \u201cuncertainty and real trauma,\u201d of the environment in America now. \u201cIt can be easy to feel overwhelmed, even helpless in challenging times. But music never stands still,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re exhausted, music restores us. When were grieving, music sits with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside the night\u2019s words of warning and rage, singer SZA offered what amounted to reassurance in her speech after winning record for \u201cLuther,\u201d her Hot 100-dominating collaboration with Kendrick Lamar.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t fall into despair,\u201d she said. \u201cI know algorithms tell us it\u2019s so scary and all is lost. But we can go on, we need each other. We\u2019re not governed by the government, we\u2019re governed by God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In speech after speech, this year\u2019s Grammy-winning artists returned to one message\u2014ICE is a menace that must be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":560472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[11030,1582,276,9958,392,198317,93597,244822,5410,244819,2961,224,5337,244818,244817,244821,975,19514,7087,244820],"class_list":{"0":"post-560471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-culture","13":"tag-federal-raid","14":"tag-grammys","15":"tag-group-performance","16":"tag-ice","17":"tag-important-musician","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-many-artist","22":"tag-many-winner","23":"tag-mostly-spanish-acceptance-speech","24":"tag-music","25":"tag-song","26":"tag-speech","27":"tag-top-grammys"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115999921597338794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}