Featured Image Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty
Topics: Grammys, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, US News, Politics, Donald Trump, Music, News, Immigration
Saskia Calliste
Topics: Grammys, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, US News, Politics, Donald Trump, Music, News, Immigration
The 68th Grammys award show took place last night (February 1) at the Crypto.com Arena and celebrities used their platform to speak out against President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Since Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second time in January 2025, he made it well known that he planned to crackdown on immigration, saying in his inaugural address: “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy.
“I will end the practice of catch and release.
“And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
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Since then, ICE have stormed Los Angeles and Minneapolis, causing widespread protests in the states of California and Minnesota and resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of people.
The ICE death toll is at minimum 32 people, including Keith Porter, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were all shot by ICE or Border Patrol agents.
It's no wonder why celebrities and people alike are using whatever platform they have to speak out against the shocking, ongoing events - and that didn't stop at the Grammys.
During her speech for her Best R&B Performance Grammy win, Kehlani wore an ‘ICE OUT’ pin and made her feelings on the situation known.
“Everybody is so powerful in this room and in this room later, together we’re stronger in numbers to speak against the injustice going on in the world right now. So instead of letting it be just a couple of you here and there, I hope everyone’s inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what is going on and imma leave this and say ‘f*ck ICE.’”
Shaboozey won the award for Best Country Duo for his song ‘Amen’ with Jelly Roll. In his speech, he took time to highlight the importance of immigrants, sharing how his mom is one and how immigrants give the US ‘color’.
“Immigrants built this country, literally. So, this is for them, for all children of immigrants… Thank you for bringing your culture, your music, your stories, and your traditions here. You give America color.”
Jon Baptiste won the award Best Americana Album for BIG MONEY. Baptiste didn’t attend, but his co-producer accepted the award on his behalf providing a speech from Baptiste that ended with this: “Americana comes in many different shades and this is a country of immigrants – I’d like to remind you all of that.”
Olivia Dean won the Grammy for Best New Artist, and although she’s not from US, she still used her time as a first-time Grammy winner to support immigrants.
“I’m up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant. I wouldn’t be here - I’m a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. So yeah, we’re nothing without each other.”
The host may not have been accepting any Grammys but he made his feelings clear about ICE by making digs whenever he could. From calling out Nicki Minaj to asking Bad Bunny whether or not he could come and live with him in Puerto Rico to saying the reason Trump wants to buy Greenland is because he can't go to Epstein's island anymore, no one is left wondering where Noah stands on all this.
Bad Bunny, who is doing this year’s Superbowl Halftime Show, won the award for Best Música Urbana Album. His speech gave a message of hope, as he said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ‘ICE OUT’. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we’re Americans.
“Also I wanna say to the people; I know it’s tough not to hate on these - and I was thinking sometimes we get contaminos, I don't know how to say that in English. The hate gets more powerful, with more hate, the only thing more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need be different, if we fight we have to do it with love; if we don’t hate them, we love our people we love our family and that’s the way to do it, don’t forget that.”
Billie Eilish and Finneas won the Grammy for Song of the Year with WILDFLOWER, and in a surprise of no fan of the pair, Billie had something to say: "No one is illegal on stolen land. And yeah, it’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now. I feel really hopeful in this room and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting and our voices really do matter and the people matter and erm, F*ck ICE.”
SZA joined Kendrick Lamar and team up on stage to accept the Grammy for Record of the Year. Although there was a massive blunder involving Cher, SZA still brought it back and issued this message: "Please don’t’ fall into despair. I know that right now is a scary time I know the algorithm is telling us that it’s so scary and all is lost – there’s been world wars, there’s been plagues. We have gone on, we can go on, we need each other we need to trust each other, trust our selves trust our hearts. We’re not governed by the government we’re governed by god."
