The Grammys Sounded Different This Year

Last night’s Grammys ceremony felt pointedly political, in a way these awards shows typically don’t. Artists spoke out openly on the red carpet and on stage, without hedging and with none of the media-trained PR speak we’ve come to expect from these kinds of events. It was not subtle or coded. It was targeted and forceful and it was broadcast on live television.

Trump’s Response

The host, Trevor Noah, went in hard and fast on Trump, hitting him where we all know it hurts him the most: on Epstein.

After Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish, who made a statement in in her own speech, Noah said:

“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.”

The jab landed, provoking Trump’s favorite knee jerk reaction on Truth Social. He threatened a lawsuit.

“It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$,”

His skin is getting thinner. His lawyers must be exhausted.

This isn’t even the first comedian to send Trump into a fit of legal action. Trump slammed Disney over a joke that hurt his feelings, and threatened them with the full force of the Justice Department. Jimmy Kimmel almost lost his job over the episode.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

Who Spoke Up

The artists used the stage as a platform to speak out openly against ICE and the administration’s horrific immigration raids, and in support of immigrants.

Billie Eilish and Shaboozey underscored the rights of immigrants to be here. Eilish opened her speech with “No one is illegal on stolen land,” and urged people to keep fighting and protesting.

Bad Bunny reminded the audience of the humanity of immigrants with the most forceful statement of the night.

“We’re not savages; we’re not animals; we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”

What stood out wasn’t any single statement, but the collective voice across artists, genres and backgrounds.

Other artists talked about their own families’ immigrant experiences. Olivia Dean, a British artist whose mother is Jamaican-Guyanese, said, “I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.”

Shaboozey, whose parents are from Nigeria, said, “immigrants built this country – literally.”

Gloria Estefan ripped the administration’s tactics for going after families and children, ending with, “I hope that our government listens to our plea for humanity.”

And Kehlani underscored the power of the platform at the Grammys. In her acceptance speech she called for everyone “to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what’s going on.”

On the red carpet, artists wore “ICE out” pins. Bon Iver explained on camera that the red whistle on his lapel was in support of the protestors and observers in Minneapolis, who he said are doing the real work fighting the administration.

Celebrities tend to lean towards media-friendly virtue signaling in these kinds of displays without really saying anything. That wasn’t the case last night, where they offered no doubt about where they stood or what they wanted to say.

Bad Bunny Goes Big

Bad Bunny’s statement was uniquely powerful. Not just because he’s from Puerto Rico (which Trump will be surprised to learn is still part of the United States), and not just because he became the first artist to win album of the year with a Spanish-language album, but because he’s about to get an even bigger stage on which to make a statement.

He’s performing at the Super Bowl in less than a week. This is an event that’s already been relentlessly politicized, with administration officials prepared to send ICE and threatening immigration raids at the biggest sports event of the year.

Over 100 million people watch the Super Bowl. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Trump’s Losing the Plot

As much as Trump seeks to control the media, and as successful as he’s been so far, he still wasn’t able to suppress the message broadcast on live TV.

And the fact that this aired on CBS, which has been on its knees cozying up to the administration, is even more telling. CBS has done everything in its power over the last year to signal to Trump that they’re more than happy to roll over to his every demand.

Case in point: that $16 million payment to soothe his bruised ego last year, and the cancelation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” although CBS used “financial reasons” as cover for that one.

Then there’s the rightward shift of CBS news with the installation of Bari Weiss.

This is the last year the Grammys will air on CBS - they’re headed to YouTube next year - but even with all the leverage Trump’s applied to the network, they couldn’t control the messaging or insulate Dear Leader from criticism.

The Vibe has Shifted

To everyone who says artists should “stay in their lane,” I’d offer simply, “get out of the way.” Politics sits downstream of culture. And culture dictates the national mood. If high profile figures with a lot to lose (surely there was a mass panic among publicists) are willing to go out on a limb to speak up, we can safely say the vibe has shifted.

This is a major about-face. In the lead up to 2024, we saw a huge backlash against progressivism in this country. We’re stuck with these “manosphere” podcasts precisely because they led the cultural charge against the “woke left” on behalf of Trump and the Republicans.

Now, even they have changed their tune, trashing Trump on a daily basis. A year ago it would have been unthinkable that the Joe Rogans of the world would be aligned with Shaboozey. And yet here we are.

The messages at the Grammys are not only a bellwether for where the national mood is, but a permission structure for Americans to speak out themselves. I’m under no delusions about the real impact that celebrities have in politics, but I’m also not going to pretend that what we saw at the Grammy’s is happening in a vacuum.

The national mood has shifted, and Trump will be hard pressed to stop it.