After taking home two trophies at the Grammys on Sunday, SZA got real about what it’s like to be celebrating at this moment in the United States.
The star — who won both record of the year and best melodic rap performance for “Luther,” her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar — told reporters backstage that “it’s incredibly dystopian that we’re dressed up and able to celebrate accolades and the material world and people are getting snatched up and shot in the face on the street.”
“It just feels bizarre and I find so many of us don’t really know how to feel right now, besides rage and hopelessness, and I don’t feel like that’s the calling card that I want to subscribe to,” she continued. “I really believe in great possibility. I believe that entropy can breed change. I believe that this is a time when we can dig deep as a community and really learn that OK, it’s not time to count on anyone else but us and our neighbors to protect ourselves; to rally for each other, to be that morale booster, to disseminate mutual aid, to take care of each other. And I just feel like, yay, that’s an amazing opportunity; boo that this is even happening.”
SZA also echoed a frequent message of the night in saying, “it’s always fuck ICE, but it’s just a matter of, I just don’t want everyone to fall into despair because when you lose steam and you lose morale, change becomes impossible but it’s so not. It’s so not. And I’m personally not going, I will not be going quietly into the dying of the light. So I encourage everybody to the same.”
Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish shared similar anti-ICE statements during their moments on stage, and SZA also said while receiving the record of the year honor, “Please don’t fall into despair. I know that right now is a scary time; I know the algorithm is telling us that it’s so scary and all is lost. There’s been world wars, there’s been plagues and we have gone on. We can go on, we need each other, we need to trust each other and trust ourselves, trust our heart. We’re not governed by the government, we’re governed by God.”