The 64th Grammy Awards were held in Las Vegas last night. The annual award ceremony was joined by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. In an emotional statement, he once again called on the world community to support Ukraine
“The war. What is more opposite to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed people. Our children draw swooping rockets, not shooting stars. Over 400 children have been injured and 153 children died. And we’ll never see them drawing. Our parents are happy to wake up in the morning in bomb shelters – but alive. 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 armors 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. Tell the truth about this war on your social networks, on TV. Support us, in any way you can. Any – but not silence. And then peace will come. To all our cities the war is destroying. Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Volnovakha, Mariupol and others. They are legends already. But I have a dream of them living, and free – free like you on the Grammy stage,”
“It’s very painful to see the great powers waging war with expensive weapons,” said American legend John Legend after the performance. “I wrote FREE after seeing footage of Russia’s morally unjust, brutal and senseless invasion of Ukraine.”
