Preview: CBS Putting a Gay-Marriage Protest In Middle of Grammy Performance of Leftist 'Same Love' Song

January 26th, 2014 1:58 PM

The New York Times reports CBS will air a "solemn" political stunt during the Grammy Awards on Sunday night during a rap song trashing "right wing conservatives" in the lyrics:

"An on-air wedding of 34 couples — gay, straight, old, young, of many races and many colors," they write. "The ceremony will be part of the hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s performance of their Grammy-nominated song “Same Love,” which became a marriage-equality anthem last year just as that issue was drawing intense national attention."

They can say this is not a stunt, but that's exactly what it is, a piece of musical agitprop to mock the traditional values of conservative American Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others. Entertainers never want to have a debate, just a series of arrogant "statements" with no opportunity for a conversation as they flush the Bible on national TV.

Mr. Lewis, the group’s producer, said that the weddings “will be in our minds the ultimate statement of equality, that all the couples are entitled to the same exact thing.”

The segment follows what the Grammy organizers said was the show’s long history of addressing timely social issues through music, like Elton John’s duet in 2001 with Eminem, who was then widely criticized as homophobic.

“We’re serious about this,” said Ken Ehrlich, the longtime producer of the Grammys.

Yet as part of a televised awards show that works hard for its ratings, showbiz will also play a part in this sacrament. Queen Latifah will officiate at the nuptials, and Madonna will join the number with Macklemore, Mr. Lewis and the song’s featured vocalist, Mary Lambert.

Grammy organizers said they knew that controversy might be inevitable, given those who oppose gay marriage or who might see the segment as trivializing a serious matter.

“I expect that people with all kinds of opinions might voice them, and that’s healthy,” Neil Portnow, the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammys, said when asked about the potential response.

But he and Mr. Ehrlich argued strongly that the wedding segment is no stunt. “We don’t need to stoop to the level of trying to find gimmicks and sensationalistic approaches to what we do,” Mr. Portnow said...

Mr. Ehrlich, who learned of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s onstage proposals from his daughter, who is gay, said that the segment reflected his own personal beliefs. “But,” he was quick to add, “I would not want to make a broad statement that it represents the views of the academy or the CBS television network.”

CBS isn't making a judgment, it's just planning it carefully for national viewing. In case you haven't heard this hit song "Same Love," here's the political gist in the lyrics:

The right wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don't know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
I don't know