The January 26 awards show features a mass wedding with rap duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performing their same-sex marriage anthem 'Same Love'.
- Jan 27, 2014
AceShowbiz - Love was in the air at the recently concluded Grammy Awards as 34 couples got married during the ceremony. The mass wedding took place toward the end of the event on January 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where some of the biggest music stars gathered for the annual celebration.
Queen Latifah took the stage to officiate the weddings after Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed "Same Love", which has become an anthem for same sex marriage advocates, joined by Mary Lambert. "This song is a love song, not for some of us, but for all of us," she said when introducing the rap duo's song.
"It is my distinct honor to now ask our participants to exchange rings," Latifah said from the stage. "Do you each declare that you take each other as spouses?" she asked. As the couples, some gay and some straight, said their "I do", she said, "I now pronounce you a married couple."
Madonna, clad in an all-white outfit, then showed up to sing a slowed-down version of her 1986 single "Open Your Heart". The audience, including country music star Keith Urban, gave a long ovation at the end of the performance and ceremony.
After the Grammys, Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, said he was proud of the ceremony, calling it "elegant, powerful and meaningful as we wanted it to be." He added, "So many of our ideas come from the creative community, from our artists. These folks wrote an incredible song. They have ideas about society and tolerance and fairness and that's their message."
"We don't take a political position on anything," he said. "The statement that was made tonight was about people that want to be together."
