The Grammys to Air Same-Sex Weddings During Same Love Number
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The biggest show-stopper of the night will be a much more solemn event: an on-air wedding of 34 couples — gay, straight, old, young, of many races and many colors. 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.
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.
When deciding where to have the couples stand, Mr. Ehrlich thought that having them onstage “could be viewed as more exploitive,” so they were placed in aisles in front of the stage, where they would be close to the audience.