Crowd at Grammys Showers Michelle Obama with Wild Applause During Cameo
Early into the 2019 Grammy Awards, former First Lady Michelle Obama made a brief cameo, and received a rapturous roar from the Los Angeles crowd.
Obama appeared alongside other prominent women.
“Who runs the world?” Alicia Keys asked, and then Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Jennifer Lopez sauntered onto stage. All five spoke about how music serves as a uniting force.
"Music helps us share ourselves," Obama said. "It allows us to hear one another."
Here’s an excerpt of Obama’s comments:
LOPEZ: “Back in the Bronx, music gave me a reason to dance, from hip-hop to free style, pop, soul, and salsa. And it kept me moving from the block to the big stages and even bigger screens. It reminds me where I come from, but it also reminds me of all the places that I can go. Music has always been the one place we can all feel truly free.”
[Applause]
SMITH: “We express our pain, power and progress through music, whether we’re creating it or just appreciating it. But here’s what I know, every voice we hear deserves to be honored and respected.”
OBAMA: “Amen.”
[Applause]
OBAMA: “Amen. From the Motown records, I wore out on the south side—“
[Cheers and Applause]
OBAMA: “All right, all right, we got a show to do—“
[Cheers and Applause]
OBAMA: “From the Motown records I wore out on the south side to the Who Run the World songs that fueled me through this last decade, music has always helped me tell my story. And I know that’s true for everybody here. Whether we like country or rap or rock, music helps us share ourselves, our dignity and sorrows, our hopes and joys. It allows us to hear one another, to invite each other in. Music shows us that all of it matters, every story within every voice, every note within every song. Is that right, ladies?”
SMITH: “Yes, it is.”
KEYS: “Michelle, what is better than this, there is nothing better than this, tonight we celebrate the greatness in each other, all of us, through music!”
[Cheers and applause]
