Janelle Monae Delivers Epic Time's Up Speech While Introducing Kesha at 2018 GRAMMYs
Janelle Monae just pulled an Oprah.
The 32-year-old singer delivered a moving speech advocating for the Time's Up movement and the end of inequality at the 2018 GRAMMY Awards on Sunday. Monae, who introduced Kesha's powerful performance of "Praying," used her time onstage to call attention to the discrimination in the music industry, following Oprah Winfrey's lead at the Golden Globes earlier this month.
"Tonight I am proud to stand in solidarity as not just an artist, but a young woman with my fellow sisters in this room who make up the music industry, artists, writers, assistants, publicists, CEOs, engineers and women from all sectors of the business. We are also daughters, wives, sisters and human beings. We come in peace, but we mean business," Monae began, as the audience erupted in applause.
"And to those who would dare silence us, we offer you two words: Time's Up. We say time's up for pay inequality, time's up for discrimination, time's up for harassment of any kind and time's up for the abuse of power. Because, you see, it's not just going on in Hollywood. It's not just going on in Washington. It's right here in our industry as well," she continued. "And just as we have the power to shape culture, we also have the power to undo the culture that does not serve us well."
"So let's work together, women and men, as a united music industry committed to creating more safe work environments, equal pay and access for all women," she concluded before praising Kesha for "speaking her truth" on her GRAMMY-nominated album, Rainbow -- and receiving praise of her own on Twitter.
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