Host Trevor Noah launched the video, which aired forward of a particular musical efficiency of "Free" by John Legend.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a pre-taped speech throughout the 2022 Grammys on Sunday night time amid his nation’s battle with Russia.
The video launched John Legend’s efficiency of “Free” as a part of a particular tribute to Ukraine, which has confronted an ongoing humanitarian disaster since Russia’s invasion in early March. Host Trevor Noah launched the particular efficiency.
Even within the darkest occasions, music has the ability to carry spirits and offer you hope for a brighter tomorrow,” Noah stated. “There’s no person who might use a bit hope proper now greater than the folks of Ukraine.”
In Zelensky’s video, he described the present circumstances of battle, together with the continuing bombings and the “silence” that’s resulted, earlier than encouraging attendees and viewers to “fill the silence together with your music!”
“The battle. What's extra reverse to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed folks. Our kids draw swooping rockets, not capturing stars. Over 400 kids have been injured and 153 kids died. And we’ll by no means appear them drawing. Our mother and father are blissful to get up within the morning. In bomb shelters, however alive. Our family members don’t know if we will probably be collectively once more. The battle doesn’t allow us to select who survives and who stays in everlasting silence,” he stated. “Our musicians put on physique armor as an alternative of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those that can’t hear them. However the music will break by means of anyway.”
He continued, “We defend our freedom. To stay. To like. To sound. On our land, we're combating Russia which brings horrible silence with its bombs. The lifeless silence. Fill the silence together with your music! Fill it at the moment to inform our story. Inform the reality about this battle in your social networks, on TV. Assist us in any manner you'll be able to. Any — however not silence. After which peace will come. To all our cities the battle is destroying. Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Volnovakha, Mariupol and others. They're legends already. However I've a dream of them dwelling. And free. Free such as you on the Grammy stage.”
Legend’s efficiency featured a refrain and a backdrop of photographs from the disaster in Ukraine, in addition to a phase from Lyuba Yakimchuk, a poet, playwright and screenwriter who grew up within the contested Donbas area of Ukraine.
In a tackle The Lord’s Prayer, Yakimchuk described “mother and father whose home is within the line of fireplace and who received’t abandon it like a tomb,” and stated of our every day bread, “give to the hungry.” “And forgive us our destroyed cities despite the fact that we don't forgive for them our enemies,” she continued. “Shoot and shield my husband, my mother and father, my youngster and my motherland.”
Forward of the Sunday night time ceremony on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment in Las Vegas, the Recording Academy introduced it had teamed with World Citizen and the Stand Up For Ukraine marketing campaign for a particular phase throughout the stay telecast. Aimed toward elevating consciousness of the continuing displacement of Ukrainians resulting from Russia’s navy assaults, in addition to refugees in different areas together with Yemen, South Sudan and Afghanistan, the phase supplied viewers methods to take motion in addition to contribute to the worldwide and ongoing “Stand Up For Ukraine” marketing campaign.
“We're heartbroken by the state of affairs in Ukraine, but nonetheless moved by the resilient spirit on show there each day,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated in an announcement on Friday. “We hope the phase evokes our worldwide viewers to get entangled to assist these essential humanitarian efforts.”
Zelensky’s look on the 2022 Grammys comes after the Oscars, the place co-host Amy Schumer stated that she had tried to have the Ukrainian chief seem just about.