When Billie Eilish declared, during her acceptance speech for song of the year with “Wildflower” at last night’s Grammy awards, that “I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter,” she was speaking in the approved register. “Fuck ICE,” she added but it was more of the same.
In contrast to the Golden Globes, where the neutral tenor of the event was made up of tame jokes about the age of Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriends, the Grammys have turned into an opportunity for musicians to express political outrage.
The awards themselves went as expected last night. Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny were the big winners of the night along with Eilish. Awards were given to the incongruous likes of Steven Spielberg and the Dalai Lama. Olivia Dean staked out her position as the next Adele by winning Best New Artist. Yet everyone from host Trevor Noah downward agreed that this year would be open season for taking shots at the Trump administration.
During the opening monologue, Noah declared, “Back in 1999, the president had a sex scandal, people thought computers were about to destroy the world, and Diddy was arrested. Boy, how times have changed.” The joke that finally drew an angry response from Trump on Truth Social came when Noah remarked, “Song of the Year – that is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland, which makes sense because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.”
A testy President replied, “Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!! I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.” With typical pugnacity, Trump concluded “Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.”
The show was a fascinating event less for what it had to say about music in America – though K-Pop had a good showing, as did country music – and more because of the sheer anger expressed by many of the acts. Chappell Roan wore an absurd garment, held up by nipple rings, clearly meant to draw attention. In previous years, a look like this would have done so, and it is telling that Roan’s dress was discussed less than the speeches.
Trump will want his revenge. He announced on Sunday evening that the Kennedy Center in DC – or as we must now call it, the Trump-Kennedy Center – will be closed for renovation for two years starting on the Fourth of July. Artists of the same ideological persuasion as those boycotting the center were incensed by the closure. The announcement’s timing was (probably) pure coincidence. The President promises us that once it reopens it will be “a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment.” Regardless, its closure will remove the center from operations and criticism for most of his remaining term in office. After many artists refused to play there – Philip Glass recently cancelled the premiere of his Lincoln symphony – the move appears strategic.
President Trump has always thrived on conflict. I doubt that he was too bothered by the stream of pop stars criticizing him last night. Nicki Minaj aside, there have been few major figures willing to ally themselves with his administration. If Eilish had said something more favorable to Trump, she would have been ridiculed by her fan base. The spirit of punk rock did not manifest last night. These days the Grammys are a place for something else.
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