For two full hours, it was as if 2017 never happened. The first half of the 60th Grammy Awards was filled with the usual fare of booty-shaking performances, sleepy ballads and sleepier acceptance speeches.
And then singer Kesha stepped onstage to remind everyone that the last year had been anything but business as usual.
For the record:
12:50 p.m. Jan. 29, 2018An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that this year’s Grammys competition was the first in which two rappers were nominated for album of the year. For the 2004 Grammys, OutKast and Missy Elliott were contenders in the album of the year field. For the 2014 Grammys, Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis received album of the year nods.
The pop singer turned social warrior was nearly destroyed, professionally and personally, when she leveled sexual assault accusations against her powerful producer in 2014. The case dragged on in court through 2017. But when she performed her redemptive hit “Praying” during Sunday’s live telecast from New York’s Madison Square Garden, it sent a clear message to an audience who had been waiting for an acknowledgment of the #MeToo moment beyond white roses worn on the red carpet, and to an industry that’s hardly begun to deal with its own demons.
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Kesha performs at the 60th Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.
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Kesha, center, performs with, from left, Bebe Rexha, Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Andra Day and chorus members at the 2018 Grammys.
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Kesha, left, performs “Praying” as Camila Cabello, center, and Andra Day stand by.
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From left: Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels, Andra Day, Kesha and Bebe Rexha backstage at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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Kesha, center, flanked by her collaborators onstage at the 2018 Grammys.
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Kesha is hugged by Bebe Rexha, Cindy Lauper, Camila Cabello and Andra Day.
(Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images) FULL COVERAGE: 2018 Grammy Awards »
While film, television and news media are being overhauled by women coming forward to speak against the men who used their power to sexually harass and assault them, the recording industry hasn’t had the same sort of reckoning.
The Grammys were potentially where that reckoning would begin. In the days leading up the awards, Voices in Entertainment, music’s answer to film’s Time’s Up movement, requested that everyone wear white roses on the red carpet and stage in support. The same day, USC released a report that found just 9.3% of Grammy nominees were women between 2013 and 2018.
It was a shocking revelation given that music has heavily banked on female artists including Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce and Rihanna to pull the industry out of a recession.
But Sunday night, the Recording Academy’s big leap into the future appeared to be a long-overdue recognition of hip-hop as a cultural force — just two decades after the rest of the planet. This year, two rappers were nominated for album of the year (though neither Kendrick Lamar nor Jay-Z won), and rappers dominated many top categories outside the usual urban music areas they’ve been stuck in since the institution first recognized the genre in 1989. (They didn’t sweep in those either.)
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Bruno Mars, center, accepts album of the year for “24K Magic” with his production team onstage.
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Khalid, from left, Logic and Alessia Cara perform “1-800-273-8255” as the suicide hotline prevention number appears on screen.
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Alessia Cara performs her part in “1-800-273-8255” during an in memoriam tribute.
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Logic performs his suicide-awareness anthem “1-800-273-8255.”
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Chris Stapleton and Emmylou Harris perform “Wildflowers” during an in memoriam tribute to Tom Petty.
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Alicia Keys presents the award for record of the year to Bruno Mars for “24K Magic.”
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Sza performs “Broken Clocks.”
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Patti LuPone performs “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” during a tribute to Leonard Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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Ben Platt, right, performs “Somewhere” during a tribute to Leonard Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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Sir Elton John, left, and Miley Cyrus perform his “Tiny Dancer.”
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U2 appears via satellite as they perform “Get Out of Your Own Way” on the Hudson River.
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Kesha (unseen) is hugged by Bebe Rexha, Cindy Lauper, Camila Cabello and Andra Day after performing her song “Praying.”
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Kesha performs “Praying.”
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Chris Stapleton, left, accepts the award for best country album for “From A Room: Volume 1” from presenters Donnie Wahlberg and Hailee Steinfeld, who donned cowboy hats before calling his name.
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Janelle Monáe told the audience that “time’s up for pay inequality, discrimination or harassment of any kind and the abuse of power.”
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Maren Morris, left, and Eric Church perform.
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The Brothers Osborne perform as names of victims of tragedies appear onscreen.
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Rihanna performs “Wild Thoughts.”
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Shaggy, left, and Sting perform “Englishman in New York.”
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Comedian Dave Chappelle, left, accepts the comedy album Grammy for “The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas” from Trevor Noah, right.
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Cardi B, left, and Bruno Mars, right, perform “Finesse.”
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Cardi B performs “Finesse” with Bruno Mars.
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Bruno Mars performs “Finesse.”
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Pink performs “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.”
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Joe Saylor, left, Jon Batiste and Gary Clark Jr. perform a tribute to Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.
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Alessia Cara accepts best new artist Grammy Award.
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Karen Fairchild, left, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman and Philip Sweet of Little Big Town perform “Better Man.”
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Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar accept best rap/sung performance for “Loyalty.”
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Sam Smith performs “Pray.”
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Host James Corden opens the 60th Grammy Awards.
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Lady Gaga plays piano as she performs onstage.
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Mark Ronson and Lady Gaga perform at the 60th Grammy Awards.
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Comedian Dave Chappelle speaks onstage in between Kendrick Lamar’s performance.
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Kendrick Lamar, center, performs at the 60th Grammy Awards.
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Kendrick Lamar opens the 60th Grammy Awards.
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Paul Shaffer, left, presents the award for traditional pop vocal album to recording artist Tony Bennett, center, and audio engineer Dae Bennett for “Tony Bennett Celebrates 90,” at the pre-telecast show Sunday.
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Left to right, recording artists Zachary Scott Carothers, Eric Howk, Jason Wade Sechrist, Kyle O’Quin of Portugal. The Man, winners of pop duo/group performance for “Feel It Still,” accept the award at the pre-telecast show.
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James Fauntleroy accepts the award for R&B song during the pre-telecast show.
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Dwan Hill accepts the gospel performance/song award for “Let Them Fall in Love” at the pre-telecast show.
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Chris Stapleton accepts the country solo performance award for “Either Way” at the pre-telecast show.
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Members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, winners of world music album for “Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration,” accept the award at the pre-telecast show.
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Jason Isbell accepts the American roots song award for “If We Were Vampires” at the pre-telecast show.
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Ice T performs with Body Count during the Grammy Awards pre-telecast show.
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Jazzmeia Horn performs during the 60th Grammy Awards pre-telecast show.
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Justin Hurwitz accepts the compilation soundtrack for visual media award for “La La Land.”
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Stile Antico performs at the 60th Grammy Awards pre-telecast show.
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Reba McEntire accepts the award for roots gospel album for “Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope.”
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Residente accepts the Latin rock, urban or alternative album for “Residente.”
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India Arie performs during the 60th Grammy Awards pre-telecast show in New York.
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Paul Shaffer performs at the 60th Grammy Awards pre-telecast show.
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Paul Shaffer and the W.M.D. Band perform at the 60th Grammy Awards pre-telecast show.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press) There was little to no recognition that the world outside Madison Square Garden had changed since Clinton (Bill) was in office; Sting and Shaggy did a duet apropos of nothing while album of the year nominee Lorde sat the night out in the audience. According to her, the Grammys did not offer her a performance of her own, only a part in a Tom Petty tribute, which she refused. But there was plenty of time for U2, who weren’t up for anything of note, to perform.
The awards themselves reflected the direction of the show. Kesha’s powerful single “Praying,” the performance of which was advertised nonstop ahead of Sunday’s show, lost to Ed Sheeran’s earnest ode to a girl’s body, “Shape of You.” Sheeran was the only male nominee in the category, which also included Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Pink.
And it wasn’t just the academy that seemed numb to the world outside the arena doors.
Artists had little to nothing to say about the climate that should, but apparently doesn’t, influence their craft. That was left up to Lamar, who was up for seven Grammys but won five. (He did better than Jay-Z, who was up for eight and won none.) Lamar opened with a powerful performance of “XXX.,” as the screen flashed “This is a satire by Kendrick Lamar” and then cut to comedian Dave Chappelle: “Hi, I’m Dave Chappelle, and I just wanted to remind the audience that the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America. Sorry for the interruption.”
Then it was back to Lamar’s performance, where he rapped as a woman banged away on a huge drum. The music simulated gunshots as backup dancers in hoodies fell to the ground as if shot. It was a chilling and profound opening.
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Kendrick Lamar performs at the 60th Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, in New York City.
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Kendrick Lamar performs at the 60th Grammy Awards.
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Kendrick Lamar performs with a group of camouflaged dancers at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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The Edge, left, and Bono, right, of U2, perform with Kendrick Lamar, second from left, at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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Kendrick Lamar, center, surrounded by hooded dancers.
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Kendrick Lamar performs among a group of cloaked dancers on the floor of the stage at the Grammys.
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Kendrick Lamar performs at Madison Square Garden during the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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Kendrick Lamar, left, performs alongside a drummer at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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Kendrick Lamar performs with a group of camouflaged dancers at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Recording artist Kesha (C) performs with (L-R) Bebe Rexha, Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Andra Day, and chorus members onstage during the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NARAS) ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (Kevin Winter / Getty Images for NARAS)
But the Grammys have pulled this trick before, letting Lamar make all the poignant political points, then moving on. (Please see his amazing performance of two songs from “To Pimp a Butterfly” in 2016.)
What was missing here, especially during the first two-thirds of the show, was any acknowledgment that this was the year women pushed back — and kept pushing against individuals and institutions who have either abused them or turned a blind eye to such abuse.
The ceremony, which was hosted by James Corden and featured 20 performances, didn’t even address the elephant in the room until Janelle Monae got up to introduce Kesha’s performance. “We come in peace,” she said, “but we mean business…. And to those who dare try to silence us, we offer you two words: Time’s Up. We say Time’s Up for pay inequality, discrimination or harassment of any kind, and Time’s Up for the abuse of power.”
The singer then went on to perform “Praying” alongside Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, best new artist nominee Julia Michaels, Andra Day and Bebe Rexha as well as members of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of women who perform protest songs.
Corden followed up with a brotherly statement of support and an inspired pretaped bit in which Hillary Clinton read from “Fire and Fury,” but for the most part it seemed as if the Recording Academy, made up of people who have held sway in the industry for decades (there is no transparency when it comes to knowing who the Grammy voters are), is not ready to face reality.
In presenting U2, Cabello expressed solidarity with the so-called Dreamers, introducing herself as a “proud, Cuban-Mexican immigrant, born in eastern Havana, standing in front of you on the Grammy stage in New York City.”
It was one of the more powerful and moving moments of the show. Then they cut to the band playing.
If only these moments had arrived earlier. Instead, they felt tacked on to a ceremony that spent more energy dancing around the throes of culture than simply addressing the tumult.
ALSO: The inside story behind Kesha’s emotional Grammy moment
More than 90% of recent Grammy nominees are men, USC study finds
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