While accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 67th Grammys on Sunday, Alicia Keys celebrated trailblazing female producers, her fellow musicians and the power of diversity.
Keys, who won the award for musical theater album during the Grammys Premiere Ceremony held earlier in the day for “Hell’s Kitchen,” was described as “a global force” as she was presented the Impact Award by Queen Latifah.
“This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices,” said Keys during her acceptance speech. “We’ve seen on this stage talented, hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view and it changes the game.”
“DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift,” she added.
Keys’ remarks were among the direct rebukes to the current political climate made by various musicians over the course of Sunday’s telecast. Earlier in the ceremony, Lady Gaga — who won the Grammy for pop duo/group performance with Bruno Mars — declared “trans people deserve love” and “the queer community deserves to be lifted up” when accepting her award. Shakira, who won for Latin pop album, dedicated her win “to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country.”
Other political remarks included those from Chappell Roan, who has spoken out about growing up queer in the Midwest and who won the Grammy for new artist, calling on record labels “to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection.”
Keys’ celebration of diversity comes at a time when initiatives promoting DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — have been increasingly attacked and rolled back.
“The more voices, the more powerful the sound,” said Keys in her speech. “When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.
“Let’s keep showing up with compassion, with empathy, what I call soul care. Keep opening the doors, the dreams that the world is ought to be. Dream the world as it ought to be, as the great Toni Morrison said.”