Just moments later, Bad Bunny received a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd inside the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles when he began his acceptance speech for best música urbana album with a call to remove U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from U.S. cities.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE OUT,” he said. “We’re not savages, we’re not animals. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
The Puerto Rican artist, who also won the night’s biggest award, album of the year, went onto call on people to fight hate with love.
“The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love,” he said. “So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them — we love our family. Don’t forget it. That’s how we do it, with love.”
During his album of the year acceptance speech in Spanish, Bad Bunny dedicated the award “to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.”
The Grammy winner is scheduled to be the halftime performer at next week’s Super Bowl, a performance that has already been met with controversy because of his heritage.
Bad Bunny sings almost exclusively in Spanish and is expected to perform in Spanish during the Super Bowl halftime event.
When his selection was announced, some conservative critics cited his Spanish language music and performances and his outspoken support of immigrants in the U.S. amid ICE crackdowns as reasons he should not have been picked for the halftime show.
Since then, the controversy around immigration has only heightened, most recently following the deaths of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good last month at the hands of federal agents amid anti-ICE protests.
Several stars including Hailey and Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, and Carole King wore “ICE Out” pins to the Grammys on Sunday.
When Eilish accepted her song of the year award during Sunday’s ceremony, she too used her acceptance speech to speak out on immigration.
“No one is illegal on stolen land,” Eilish said in her speech, some of which was censored, seemingly due to profanity.
“It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now,” the “Wildflower” singer continued. “And I just 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.”
Later in the show, Harvey Mason, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys, spoke about the power of music in times of crisis, saying, “When words fail, music speaks.”
SZA, while accepting the Grammy for record of the year alongside Kendrick Lamar, told people to have hope.
“Please don’t fall into despair. I know that right now is a scary time. I know the algorithms tell us that it’s so scary, and all is lost,” she said. “But there’s been world wars, there’s been plagues, and we have gone on. We can go on.”
The singer added, “We need each other. We need to trust each other and trust ourselves. Trust your heart. We’re not governed by the government. We’re governed by God.”
