Mute the Music, Raise the Voice
- Natasha Parker
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Last night, the Recording Academy celebrated the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, honoring music’s top artists across all genres. The ceremony recognized some of our favorite performers and creatives who have poured energy, love, and powerful messages into their bodies of work. In the words of Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., “When words fail, music speaks. When we’re exhausted, music restores us. When we’re grieving, music sits with us. And when we’re ready to hope again, music lifts us.”
But my question is was that enough? Was letting music express our anguish, sadness, fear, protest, and pain loud enough? Or was there a duty to mute the music for a moment and let our amendment right to freedom of speech take the front stage?
“Hey, my fellow celebrities, y’all gonna speak up?” — Billie Eilish.
Those words echoed in my head all night as I wondered whether the people with the biggest platforms would use their influence to address the issues tearing our country apart.
Would the most respected artists of this generation take the traditional musical call-and-response and transform it into a moment of political truth? A message that pushes boundaries, makes people uncomfortable, but most importantly demands change.
Now, I didn’t expect all the pressure to lay on the artists themselves. I fully expected members of the press to stand boldly and firm in their amendment right, as a nod to Don Lemon and Georgia Fort. This was a music celebration, right? But come on how can we fully immerse ourselves in celebration when our rights are being amended, revised, and rewritten in real time? Where were the hard questions? When celebs mentioned their support, why were there no follow ups, but instead redirection and pivots to make light of the important message they were trying to convey?
The Grammys are where we see trends... who’s best dressed, worst dressed, who will make a statement in subtle ways or even bold ways with their clothes. Like Johnny Stevens, who wore a jacket with “Impeach” in 2017, Beyoncé’s 2018 Black Panther inspired look, and Katy Perry’s 2017 performance supporting Planned Parenthood.
Now, there were plenty of celebrities who made statements and alluded to their support with pins that read “ICE Out,” but there were some missed opportunities. Heidi Klum, who was once an immigrant, wore a plastic dress that looked like a naked body, and Chappell Roan, who is a part of the LGBTQ community, showed up wearing a dress that exposed her breast. Both ladies turned heads, but as people who are part of communities being targeted in this climate, you would assume they would choose fashion choices that supported more of a political stance. right?
All was not lost, as we did have celebrities who stood on business and made it clearly known where they stood. Kehlani and Shaboozey used their special moments as first-time Grammy winners to address the obvious. Kehlani took a more direct approach and said, “Fuck ICE,” while Shaboozey gave a more family-relatable account as a child of immigrants, saying, “Immigrants built this country, literally… thank you for bringing your culture, your music, your stories, and your traditions here you give America color.” The biggest and most powerful statement came from album of the year recipient Bad Bunny when he said "Before I say thanks to God I'm going to say Ice Out...We are not Savages, we're not animals we're not aliens, we are humans and americans."
Host Trevor Noah was amazingly the definition of “Who gonna check me, boo?,” because he took on the great responsibility of using his reach and stretching, bending, and breaking it over the heads of people who need a wake-up call. He took jabs at Nicki, Trump, and even addressed Epstein Island.
But my question is if the celebrities are going to post and repost flyers about protesting, skipping work and school, and boycotting the economy monthly, can we at least see that y’all stand with the real people who have so much to lose? Can we see that, yes, you may be blackballed for stating your views, but sometimes that risk is worth greater change? Can we see that you really believe what you post? Because as all of our mothers have probably said at one point or another, actions speak louder than words.
Special thanks to Kevin Mazur, Matt Winkelmeyer, Leon Bennett, Johnny Nunez, Monica Schipper, and Leon Bennett/Getty Images for TheGetty Images for The Recording Academy.
So let’s at least get the Super Bowl right... there’s still time for improvement.
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