Rocker Pink is firing back against a controversial comment made by the president of the Recording Academy in response to the low amount of women who took home a Grammy Award Sunday night and resulted in a hashtag, #GrammysSoMale, taking over social media.
In an interview with Variety , Academy president Neil Portnow spoke out about the online viewer response , which came as a result of only one woman; particularly, Alessia Cara, walking away with a win during the Sunday night telecast.
According to Portnow, female performers simply weren’t trying hard enough to match the level of their male counterparts.
“It has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level. [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome,” he said.
In response, Pink shared a handwritten letter on Twitter that was directed at Portnow’s comment, according to USA Today .
“Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’ — women have been stepping since the beginning of time. Stepping up, and also stepping aside,” she expressed. “Women owned music this year. They’ve been killing it. And every year before this.”
Pink herself was nominated for one award, Best Pop Solo Performance, but lost the honor to Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”
The singer went on to say, “When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women step up every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it means to be fair.”
— P!nk (@Pink) January 29, 2018
Ever the outspoken performer, Pink also touched on her brand of feminism during her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award acceptance speech at last year’s 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, when she recalled a moment where her daughter referred to herself as “the ugliest girl she knew.”
“I said to her, ‘Do you see me growing my hair?’ She said, ‘No, mama.’ I said, ‘Do you see me changing my body?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?’ ‘Yes, Mama.’ ‘OK! So, baby girl. We don’t change. We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so they can see more kinds of beauty.’”
During the Grammys telecast, Pink performed a powerful ballad, “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.” That performance can be seen below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVJgbI6gYY
