Michelle Obama has been missed! The former first lady made a surprise appearance at the 61st annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 10. After host Alicia Keys took the stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, she said she wanted to bring out some friends whose lives were also strongly impacted by music – and she has quite the friends. Obama, 55, was joined by Jennifer Lopez, Jada Pinkett Smith and Lady Gaga.
“Music is what we all love, music is what it’s all about,” Keys, 38, said in her opening. “Everybody is out here shining and I’m so proud to bring us together to honor this moment because music is what we cry to, it’s what we march to, it’s what we rock to, it’s what we make love to. It’s our shared global language.”
While Lopez, 49, shared that music “reminds me where I came from, but also reminds me of all the places I can go,” Pinkett Smith, 47, shared that although she doesn’t perform, “every voice we hear deserves to be honored and respected.”
When Obama began speaking, the crowd went so wild, she had to pause. She received a standing ovation and roaring applause.
“From the O-town records I wore out on the south side to the ‘Who Run the World’ songs that fueled me through this past decade, music has always helped me tell my story and I know that’s true for everybody here,” the Becoming author stated.
She continued: “Whether we like country, rap or rock, music helps us share ourselves. Our dignity and sorrows, our hopes and joys. It allows us to hear one another, to invite each other in. Music shows us that all of it matters, every story within every voice, every note within every song.”
