The last installment of the Grammys Awards has had Trump’s return to the United States government as a backdrop and artists, except for exceptions such as Joy Villa, took advantage of their speeches and interviews to denounce their discriminatory policies. As Marina Leyre said in his work FUCKED FEMINIST FANS, After the study of more than four decades of the industry and the musical press, we are facing a repolation of artists and popular music that was not seen since the 90s.
“I don’t know if it’s for my Instagram echo chamber but I think that in this ceremony beyond commenting on the outfits The speech has had a lot of weight ” Amaia Carreira After seeing the Grammys ceremony and reactions in social networks and press.
This researcher on female stereotypes in pop music and the fan phenomenon reported for this medium an intuition shared by many experts and users of networks such as Antonio Rodríguez Molinacommunicator specialized in music and culture queer: “There is much to change but the gala left me with the feeling that this year the artists have been awarded because they have made the best music, but also, hopefully, their voices begin to be heard really.”
A political ceremony
The Grammys night became a defense of the LGBTIAQ+community, especially trans and non -binary people who are being persecuted, in statements and policies, by the new government. Artists such as Lady Gaga or Chappell Roan not only made visible and demanded rights to the group but worried about recognizing their contribution to music: “I would not be here without trans women,” said Roan.
The artist, who after passing through the Grammys has been crowned as the diva of the moment, took advantage of her speech to demand improvements in the rights of workers in the music industry from a transverse claim that went beyond the Royalties to demand health coverage. Thus, Trump arrives at the government with a diva sitting on the pop throne openly queer, Inclusive, prolastine and with a speech thatparaphrasing the debate of Judith Butler and Nancy Fraserspeaks of representation but also of redistribution.
Rodríguez also highlights the speech of Alicia Keys that, in a context of machismo and government misogyny, as the communicator analyzes for this medium, “recognizes the work of artists such as Linda Perry, Missy Elliot, Solange, Grimes or herself as producers”, And he adds: “A good pull of ears to this bubble of men rewarding men for the simple fact of dominating [el software] Pro Tools, when artists like her and so many others are multinstrualists and composers. ”
Another great moment of the last Gala starred by Doechii who, when collecting the award for Best Rap album, did an exercise in Black Herstory Remembering that since this category was included in 1995 only two women, Cardi B and Lauryn Hill, had been awarded. The artist dedicated her prize to black women and girls: “Do not let anyone project in you any stereotype” and added “neither too black nor too dramatic nor too bright.” Thus denounced the most frequent discriminations and stereotypes on black women, being aware of the impact that their voice had especially for a part of the audience that could be reflected in its success and words especially in the current scenario of exacerbated racism and xenophobia that it has brought The president with his return to the White House.
Although Trump has supported the genocidal and colonial project of Israel since its early hours, as it has been confirmed this week, support for the Palestinian people has not sneaked into this edition of the Grammys as it did last year with the performance of Annie Lennox in tribute to the missing Sinéad O’Connor who ended with the words “artists for the high on fire. Paz for the world ”that were cut by the organization. The initiative Artists for peace It was also present at the 2024 pins gala that some artists such as Boygenius were hung.
“To my migrant brothers and sisters“
The Colombian singer Shakira dedicated her award to her “migrant brothers and sisters”: “You are dear, you are worth it and I will always fight with you” and Alicia Keys, took advantage of her speech to celebrate “the diversity of voices”, in reference to people migrants, criticizing that the government has dismantled the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The feeling of insecurity of the migrant community has worsened after the approval of a law, with support from the Democratic Party, for the mandatory detention of migrants with a history of minor crimes, a measure that has been denounced by different activists for the risks of being instrumentalized for the persecution of migrants and Latinos.
In this climate, the proposals of Latin artists, as noted Sofia Contiknown as skinny, cultural and musical analyst in networks, they will have even more relevance “simply” for their ability to recognize and represent these communities “because we are facing a time when existence is denied, in which there are literally People saying that they consider Mexican migrants as subhumans “and affirmed” the more minorities are pressed, the more response there is going to that violence through creativity. ”
From the stage to networks
The Grammys ceremony came after a few weeks of intense manifestations of pop divas in their social networks showing their rejection of the statements and policies of the new president and his government.
Social networks for their immediacy allow artists to react quickly, position themselves on a matter with greater independence and control over the message as well as directly addressing their fandom As Madonna did from her Twitter account to join the concern for the dismantling of rights of the LGTBIAQ+ community but also to encourage her thousands of fans to “not abandon the fight.”
Social networks in turn offer the opportunity to artists to overflow the speeches that traditional media can collect. In the case of the artist indie Lucy Dacus After informing that he would donate $ 10,000 for gender statement surgeries, he called the role of the State in relation to the community queer and encouraged mutual support in front of governments that “will never be the source of validation or protection,” he said.
A few months earlier, Dua Lapa joined the campaign “#Alleyesongaza” that precisely had among one of its objectives to break the media blockade from the western press to the genocide about the Palestinian people. Action for which the English artist of Kosovar originated suffered great pressure, as artists such as Susan Sarandon or Melissa Cabrera denounced.
Concerts and political claim
The concerts for both their performative opportunities and by the exhibition before the public and the media are usually used by the DIVAS to transfer both their artistic proposal and their political agenda.
An example for Carreira is Beyoncé that turned her performance in the 2014 Video Music Awards MTV in a feminist claim and that in her performance in the Super Bowl of 2016 included references to the black panthers. To be assumed that in the current context the artist, awarded the award for best album in the last Grammys, will not abandon this line since, in Rodríguez’s words, “in his last work, one of his most political works, Performs a review of the Origins of Country in the black community. ” With these proposals Beyoncé can dispute both Trump’s misogyny and racism and Not without debateswhite hegemony in feminism mainstream
Madonna, says Rodríguez, recovered His activism in the fight against HIV on his last tour reminding the victims of this pandemica positioning that should be kept in mind since the re -elected president has threatened with paralyzing an HIV International Aid Program. The communicator also remembers as an example the performance of Ethel Cain in the spring Sound of 2024 that made a representation of support to the Palestinian people.
After the withdrawal of constitutional protection to abortion in 2022, Olivia Rodrigo established information points in their concerts that included the pill of the day after, an action that had to abandon after the conservative pressures, and invited the stage to Lilly Allen to interpret with her His song F ** ck you and dedicate it to the members of the Supreme Court. Lara AlcazarChief of Campaigns of Iberoamérica and Musical Analyst, considers that in this legislature, with a president who affirms “we will proudly defend the families and the rights of the unborn”, the role of the artists who as as Rodrigo positions themselves in favor of sexual and reproductive rights.
A government that demands “male energy”
“He mainstream or mass culture has been historically feminized, that is, it has been perceived and represented as something associated with the feminine and, often, devalued compared to the forms of culture considered ‘high’ or ‘male’, ”says Carreira. For the researcher this devaluation explains that the opinions, creations and political positions of personalities mainstreamespecially when they come from CIS women or LGBTIAQ+people, they have been traditionally little considered. This also achieves another objective because, according to Carreira, “belittling the ideas, taste and art created by women, men can maintain power structures that maintain their cultural, economic and social dominance.”
“This has always happened,” says Alcázar, and gives Dolly Parton as an example that she sang on the double standard with which female sexuality was judged or Loretta Lynn who wrote songs that were “relief and action manual for women who were Tantas of drunk husbands who mistreated them “but are not remembered as politically compromised figures, as this musical expert recalls.
But the artists are not alone, there are also their fans. Under a government that makes the discourses and practices of the PERICA The fans communities contribute, as Carreira investigates, “a space of belonging and challenges individualism, central element of patriarchy and capitalism,” says Rodríguez, for whom they are being directly attack by this government, such as racialized people, migrants, migrants, Women and sex-genic dissidents that find support and referents.
Thus with a government that demands “male energy” the divas, its music, Performance and speeches can be a community refuge and recognition but also an oxygen for mutual support networks and activism both for their ability to grant visibility and by potential to raise funds and dispute the ideological frameworks of the new government. In other words, the divas can contribute, at least, to lower the volume of Trump’s media speaker.
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