The Grammy Awards Lift Up, Speak Up, and Rise Up

January 28th 2018 was music’s biggest night, The 60th Annual Grammy Awards. To celebrate the biggest night in music the Recording Academy brought the red carpet back to New York City. The Grammys haven’t been on the east coast since 2003, so energy was at its highest with the show returning to Madison Square Garden.

You can easily look up who won what this year (spoiler alert - Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars pretty much won everything). Personally I felt really inspired this year watching the Grammy’s, so I am here to talk about the most moving and uplifting moments of The Grammys 2018. We all know politics since the last election have gotten very heated; movements have sparked, people are speaking up, and musicians, actors, and celebrities especially are more than ever using their platforms to speak up, rise up, and lift up others.

Women wore black at the Golden Globes earlier this year representing the Times Up movement, times up for sexual assault and harassment in the entertainment industry and workplaces in every industry. At the Grammy Awards women and men wore or carried a white rose to continue standing up for women.What I appreciated more about how the Grammys represented the movement over the Globes was how each interview on the carpet brought attention to it. Each star explained the meaning behind the rose and what they were standing for. The movements also transcended the roses and fled into the performances. Music is the platform for politics and social justice, a platform that puts the power and emotion behind these movements and makes it that much stronger and powerful. Don’t let anybody tell you to separate music and standing up for a cause or somebody’s rights, this isn’t church and state, on the contrary they come hand in hand.

Pink’s beautiful stripped down version of Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken was eerily beautiful. The chorus says it all: there’s not enough rope to tie me down//there’s not enough tape to shut my mouth//the stones you throw can make me bleed//but I won’t stop until we’re free//wild hearts can’t be broken. This song specifically was so timely with all the groups that sadly still need to not only speak up, but scream out for their rights. Watch the performance below in order to feel the meaning and strength you can only feel when you hear it, music has a translation power where words usually fall short.

One speech that definitely didn’t fall short was Camila Cabello introducing U2. Camila is from Eastern Havana, Cuba, she is a former member of the band Fifth Harmony, and has made quite the debut as a solo artist with her debut album number 1 on the Bilboard charts and her single Havana also reaching the #1 spot on Bilboard’s Top 200. Camila took to the stage to address the DREAMers that are at risk of being kicked out of this country from Trump’s repeal of DACA which protected children of immigrants who came into the country illegally, but America is the only home they’ve ever had. Camila’s speech was brilliant reminder that she is a Cuban Mexican immigrant herself when her parents came here with nothing in their pockets but hope in search of the American dream and now is on the Grammy stage in New York City. “Tonight in this room full of music's dreamers we remember that this country was built by dreamers for dreamers chasing the american dream. Just like dreams kids can’t be forgotten and are worth fighting for.” Camila then introduced U2 who was performing their politically important song Get Out of Your Own way right outside of the Statue of Liberty. New York was such a great backdrop for the Grammys to stand up for the values this country was built on.

The most powerful performance of the night hands down was Kesha with her army of women in white performing her very personal song Praying. This last year Kesha went through a tiring legal battle with Sony and her producer Dr. Luke, when she couldn’t break her contract after claims of sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse from her producer. All in white joining her on stage was Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Julia Michaels, Bebe Rexha, Alessia Cara, Andra Day, and the Resistance Revival Chorus (a chorus of about 50 women formed after Trump’s presidency). A moving representation of the TImes Up and Me Too movement the performance ended with Kesha in tears and the woman on stage rallying behind her and hugging her. This was not only Kesha’s comeback song, but an anthem for all females that are standing up and saying enough is enough to harassment, abuse, and inequality.

Music is a powerful tool for protests, but it can also be a platform to lift those up who are healing and to honor and remember those who we’ve lost. Music is a way to combat the hate in the world. Sadly, shootings are becoming more and more frequent, this last year the shooting at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester and the mass shooting this past October at Las Vegas Route 91 Festival have left scars throughout the music community. Three country artists who played at that festival on that tragic weekend played tribute to the victims who went to go see a show and never came home. Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, and Eric Church performed Eric Clapton’s song Tears in Heaven as the names of the victims from the Vegas shooting were displayed in the background. Along with the tribute Maren Morris has spoken since about gun control, it’s unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to bring up these conversations, but they have to be had and not forgotten.

The final performance by Logic, Alessia Cara, and Khalid of 1-800-273-8255 was a perfect ending to this year’s theme of the Grammys. His Grammy nominated song brings attention to suicide and emphasizes suicide not being the answer, the title of the song and the real suicide prevention hotline phone number was projected all over the stage. People came out in white shirts that said ‘You Are Not Alone’, while Logic wore a sweatshirt with that written on the back and the hotline number on the front. Right before leaving the stage he left the crowd with such a powerful and moving speech. The memorable line added to the speech was when he was addressing marginal communities and immigrants from the beautiful countries with all the culture and history they have “You Are Not a Shithole” a direct message to Trump and his policies on DACA and what he is doing to the DREAMers. The whole speech addressed all the groups that need to stay strong and fight back and stressed this country is destined to be united and fight together. It isn’t enough to just read the words, so watch the video below to the end to hear the power and emotion in Logic’s words.

So that’s a wrap on this year’s Grammy Awards. And I commend the Grammys and the artists who picked a song or made a speech that said more than could be said on any other platform. The words, the lyrics, and the performances created a visual of togetherness, empowerment, and strength. To Pink, Kesha, Camila Cabello, Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne, Eric Church, Khalid, Alessia Cara, Logic and the Recording Academy: Bravo.