When Bad Bunny said “ICE out” while accepting a Grammy award at Sunday night’s ceremony in Los Angeles, he drew perhaps the loudest and most sustained applause line of the evening. The Puerto Rican superstar then made a personal appeal on behalf of his community. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans,” he said. “Hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family, and that’s the way to do it: With love.”
It was one of several instances of the stars gathered in Los Angeles Sunday night speaking of the fraught politics of the moment in personal terms. “I’m a product of bravery,” said Olivia Dean as she accepted the award for Best New Artist. Born and bred in north London by a Jamaican-Guyanese mother and an English father, Dean offered a pointed rejoinder to the anti-immigrant fervor that has gripped American politics under President Donald Trump. “I want to say I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant,” she said. “I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. We are nothing without each other.”
On the red carpet before the show, Kpop Demon Hunters star Audrey Nuna spoke too about being a descendant of immigrants. “I’m wearing Thom Browne couture tonight,” she said in an interview with E! “It’s a very meaningful look for me because I’m obviously a proud daughter of immigrants, and our story of survival is around clothing manufacturing, and Thom Browne was the first brand that my grandfather fulfilled orders for.”
A number of stars, including Justin and Hailey Bieber, Billie Eilish and Kehlani, wore ICE OUT pins in protest of the federal agency that has become the face of Trump’s draconian immigration crackdown. (For Hailey, there’s also a personal element to her ICE protest: her father, Stephen Baldwin, is an avowed supporter of Trump.) The protests come in the wake of the ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti that sparked nationwide outrage and criticism of Trump from both sides of the aisle in Washington. Justin Vernon, whose band Bon Iver was nominated for best alternative music album, wore a whistle on his lapel in honor of the civilian legal observers who have monitored ICE agents operating in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
“I think there’s a reason that music exists and it’s to heal and to bring people together,” Vernon said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But the real work are those observers on the ground in Minneapolis. We just want to shout them out.”
Noah remained characteristically lighthearted in his job as host of the evening. Still, he made a few remarks that referenced the politics of the moment. “Nicki Minaj is not here,” Noah said in his opening monologue. “She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues.” Noah then switched to a Trump impression: “Actually Nikki, I have the biggest ass! Everybody’s saying it, Nicki. I know they say it’s you, but it’s me. Wap, wap, wap. Look at it. Look at it baby.”
The milquetoast jab, despite being devoid of anything that could qualify as a joke, sent the room into fits of cheers and laughter—a sign of how much Minaj’s stock has plunged in the music industry since she embraced Trump and his movement (she actually spent the weekend at the wedding of Trump political adviser Alex Bruesewitz). Critics have accused Minaj of embracing Trump for personal reasons: Minaj, who has said she immigrated to the United States illegally when she was a child, flaunted one of Trump’s “gold card” citizenship visas—which cost $1 million, though she claimed she was given one free of charge—after making a joint appearance with him this week.
As the stars of the music industry protested the government Sunday night, Trump himself had different message on the performing arts. He announced on Truth Social that the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, which has faced turbulence under his leadership—from plunging ticket sales to major performers withdrawing—will be shutting down in July for two years. Trump claimed the shuttering was a consequence of renovations.
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