Pink is known for putting on a show that no one can forget. No one can ever accuse the stellar singer-songwriter of not pouring everything she's got out on stage. Some of Pink’s most dynamic and memorable moments are saved for stages at awards shows. Besides singing heart-wrenching ballads and her high-energy anthems that bolster feminine power, she performs stunts rolled in scarves that are nothing short of spellbinding. She scaled a building with her “sky dancers” during her American Music Awards spectacle last November.
Pink remained earthbound when she took the stage at last Sunday's 60th Grammy awards, but the message on her heart came across loud and clear in “Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken,” heralding the human spirit and female fortitude in lyrics like “There's not enough tape to shut my mouth,” and assuring that the universal “she” comprising her audience would never succumb to being tied down.
Pink kept her comments limited to mostly friends and admirers on the red carpet for the ceremony, but she had a few choice words to share in response to Neil Portnow, Recording Academy President after he admonished that women need to “step up” to earn greater presence and recognition. Let's just say that Mr. Portnow needed to read that note with heat safety gloves handy because emotional sparks were flying off of Pink’s handwritten page.
Fire from the heart
With no fanfare, and in simple white shirt and jeans, Pink performed her powerful song with a silent interpreter just off the side of the stage. The yearning exchanges and elegance between them spoke between the lyrics to lend palpable voice beyond the singing.
When Neil Portnow stepped out to make some remarks to Variety, he described that “women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls” to become “musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level, need to step up because I think they would be welcome.”
Lisa Loeb, Reba McEntire, and Aimee Mann, not to mention more women across genres who have all performed, written, and produced music, were honored in proceedings before the telecast.
The finger-shaking turn of “step up” really didn't sit well with the multi-platinum Pink, and she put her words to paper and posted them on Twitter.
“Women have been stepping up since the beginning of time,” the artist mom fired back. In all capital letters of a different color, she asserted that women “OWNED” music this year, and elaborated how much “women step up every year,” underlining, “against all odds.” Her point was that “when we celebrate the accomplishments of women,” the next generation of “women and girls and boys and men” learn what it “means to be equal,” and what it “looks like to be fair.”
— P!nk (@Pink) January 29, 2018
No one is perfect
Pink knows more deeply than most that no one can be perfect, not even during an awards show.
There's always a chance for redemption as long as there is life and more inspiring songs. Next year, Neil Portnow has some making up to do with Lorde, too, who got left out of the performance lineup, while some big names like U2 and Sting couldn't be on camera enough. The Grammy nominee was reportedly offered to perform as part of another artist’s offering but declined. In some ways, it still takes a lot for a woman to earn her own stage, even with Grammy acclaim.
Pink wrote “Perfect” for her daughter, Willow, and didn't let hurt feelings steal the mood of Grammy night. Daughter danced along with mom from her lap and soaked in some powerful messages. She also has a lasting remembrance of her mom speaking her mind.
