Ukraine’s president has urged Grammy musicians to “tell our story” as he made a suprise appearance via videolink at the Las Vegas awards ceremony.
Volodymyr Zelensky, making a special appearance to introduce John Legend, told the star-studded audience: “War. What’s more opposite to music?
“The silence of ruined cities and killed people.
“Our loved ones don’t know if we will be together again. The war doesn’t let us choose who survives and who stays in eternal silence.
“Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded. In hospitals. Even to those who can’t hear them but the music will break through anyway.
“We defend our freedom to live, to love, to sound.
“On our land we are fighting Russia, which brings horrible silence with its bombs. The dead silence.
“Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today. To tell our story.”
Legend, dressed in the blue of Ukraine’s flag, then performed his song ‘Free’, in a tribute to Ukraine.
Siuzanna Iglidan from Odessa joined him on stage, along with singer Mika Newton, from western Ukraine.
Iglidan, dressed in the yellow of her country, played the bandura, a Ukrainian folk instrument which is considered the national musical instrument.
Lyuba Yakimchuk, a poet from Donbas who fled just days ago, also read a poem.
It came as Grammys host Trevor Noah couldn’t resist making a fleeting reference to last week’s Oscars controversy involving Will Smith and Chris Rock.
“It is going to be such a beautiful evening. Don’t even think of it as an award show, this is a concert where we’re giving out awards,” he said.
“We’re going to be listening to some music, we’re going dancing, we’re going to be singing, we’re going to be keeping people’s names out of our mouths.”
Sik Sonic, consisting of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, were big winners on the night collecting the Grammy for record of the year.
Paak said: “We are really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point. But in the industry we call that a clean sweep. To all the other nominees, you all know we love you all. Drinks are on Silk Sonic tonight. We are getting drunk. I know a lot of you fans will be upset. So we will get out of here before the internet gets to talking.”
Jon Batiste, who was nominated in 11 categories – the most of any act, claimed the gong for album of the year for his album We Are.
Olivia Rodrigo, 19, took home the Grammys for best new artist and best pop vocal album for her debut Sour, and thanked her mother for supporting her dreams “no matter how crazy (they were)”.
