Things got spicy at the 2025 Grammys. Not only did one pro-Trump pop star show up in a MAGA-inspired hat and articulate why deportations are a good thing, but woke pop star Alicia Keys went on a short, angry tirade about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies of the sort that Trump has been demolishing.
Her anger appears to have been sparked by the Trump Administration’s war on DEI in the opening days following his inauguration. Speaking about what had already been accomplished when in Davos, Switzerland, for a post-inauguration speech, Trump said, “My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense — and these are policies that were absolute nonsense — throughout the government and the private sector.”
That followed the issuing of an executive order that ended federal DEI for contracting in which he declared DEI to be illegal and corrosive, saying, “illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity.”
He further argued that such programs aren’t just illegal, but are bad in that they also destroy traditional American values. As he put it, DEI programs “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
Alicia Keys, for her part, declared in an on-stage speech during the Grammys, during which she was accepting the “Dr. Dre Global Impact Award,” “This is not the time to shut down a diversity of voices. We’ve seen on this stage, talented, hardworking people from different backgrounds with different points of view, and it changes the game.”
Continuing, she ignored the arguments that thinking about race when determining employment, admissions, awards, and so on destroys the impact of those achievements for everyone and is anti-American in nature, instead saying that DEI is a “gift” because it leads to “more voices.” She said, “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift. And the more voices, the more powerful the sound.”
Keys then went on to attack Trump as a “destructive force” that is trying to “burn down” people like her and the woke singers listening to her, saying, “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. It’s so beautiful.”
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She then associated DEI policies with “empathy” and “compassion,” ignoring that they and their supporters lack compassion for the many non-“diverse” people screened out by them. She said, “So let’s keep showing up with compassion, with empathy, what I call soul care. Keep opening the doors, the dreams of the world as it ought to be.” Watch her here:
The “Media Lies” X account slammed Keys, posting a clip of her speech and writing, “Alicia Keys decided to politicize her Grammy acceptance speech by stating that “DEI is not a threat.” When someone is hired based on the color of their skin or their gender rather than merit, it can threaten the safety of others. This can be said for jobs like pilots, firefighters, and law enforcement officers.”