4 weeks ago
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February 2, 2026 — 3:21pm
Billie Eilish became the highest profile artist to add her voice to the ICE Out protest movement at the Grammys on Monday, concluding her speech while accepting the award for song of the year (for Wildflower) with “f--- ICE … sorry.”
It was perhaps inevitable – and arguably right – that the Grammys would become a platform for commenting on the craziness of modern America. And so it was that the Trump administration’s brutal treatment of immigrants became the cause du jour of this year’s ceremony.
The first artist to broach the topic during the telecast was English singer Olivia Dean, who has Jamaican and Guyanese heritage.
Accepting the prize for best new artist, Dean took a soft swipe at the crackdown by Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents on undocumented immigrants, which has taken on a fresh sense of urgency since the killing of emergency room nurse Alex Pretti on January 24.
“I want to say I’m up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant,” said Dean. “I’m a product of bravery and those people deserve to be celebrated. We’re nothing without each other.”
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny – the most streamed artist worldwide on Spotify last year, and a winner prior to this year’s event of five Grammys and 17 Latin Grammys – was more expansive, though still relatively diplomatic.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ICE out,” said Bunny (aka Benito Martínez) while accepting the award for best urban music album (for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS). “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
Martinez, who pointed out that Puerto Rico is, in fact, a part of America, supported the protests, but urged them to remain peaceful.
“It’s tough to know not to hate on these days,” he said. “And I was thinking … the hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. If we don’t hate them, we love our people, we love our family, and that’s the way to do it. With love. Don’t forget that please.”
Eilish pushed the boat out much further, though, when she said “no one is illegal on stolen land”.
Giving voice to the sense of helplessness that many on the liberal side of politics and culture must surely feel in the US at the moment, Eilish said: “It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now. We just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting.
“Our voices really do matter, and the people matter,” she said. “F--- ICE is all I want to say. Sorry.”
The first statements against ICE had come before the telecast, when a number of artists walking the red carpet wore ICE Out lapel pins. The simple tiny badge, which surfaced at the Golden Globes last month, was sported by Eilish, Justin and Hailey Bieber, songwriter Amy Allen, Bon Iver, producer Jack Antonoff and others.
Accepting an award in the pre-telecast portion of the ceremony, Kehlani went out strongly.
“Together we’re stronger in numbers to speak against all the injustice going on in the world right now,” she told the audience. “So instead of it letting it be just a couple of you here and there, I hope everybody’s inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what’s going on.
“Imma leave this and say, ‘f--- ICE’.”
According to Variety, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) explained his choice of a whistle pin was made “to honour the observers in Minneapolis” who “blow the whistle when they see ICE come in”.
Vernon said the protests in Minneapolis had made him feel something like hope.
“A week ago, when Alex Pretti was shot and killed, I was pretty sure I didn’t have the strength to come out here to LA and be a part of all this,” he said. “Then I started seeing the people coming together in Minneapolis and organising without a central government. I saw them being dissident.”
His hope had been “dwindling”, he said. But the street protests in Minneapolis “felt like the first sign of hope in a long time”.
