Celebrities donned black apparel to the 2018 Golden Globes to show their support for Time’s Up, the initiative to end sexual harassment in the workplace, and now musicians will be showing their support for the movement at music’s biggest night — the 2018 Grammy Award — by wearing white roses, The Huffington Post reports.
A group called Voices in Entertainment formed earlier this week, according to HuffPost, and is composed of 15 women and led by Meg Harkins, senior vice president of marketing at Roc Nation, and Karen Rait, head of rhythmic promotion at Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records. The group was behind the push for wearing white roses to the Grammys.
“We all agreed it was really necessary,” Harkins said when discussing how she and Rait were inspired by the Golden Globes and wanted to get the Grammys involved. “We’ve all felt the political and cultural change in the last couple of months.”
“I would want to see men and women wearing white roses and I would like men and women to be able to have meaningful Grammy award speeches when those speeches happen,” Harkins added, Time Magazine reports.
The group reached out via letter this week to get get celebrities on board to wear white roses to the event, HuffPost reports.
“We choose the white rose because historically it stands for hope, peace, sympathy and resistance,” the Voices of Entertainment letter reads.
“Please join us in support of equal representation in the workplace, for leadership that reflects the diversity of our society, workplaces free of sexual harassment and a heightened awareness of accountability that our sisters started on January 1st and continued through the Golden Globes and onward.”
Some celebrities that have signed on so far to wear white roses to the Grammys are Kelly Clarkson, Cyndi Lauper, Dua Lipa and Rita Ora, HuffPost reports. Halsey, who gave a powerful and moving speech at the 2018 Women’s March, has also signed on to wear a white rose.
According to Time, the sexual harassment allegations haven’t been as prominent in the music industry like it has in Hollywood. However, a few big cases to note for sexual harassment in the music industry are Kesha’s legal battle against her producer Dr. Luke for sexual and physical abuse, and Taylor Swift’s symbolic $1 win in her case against former radio host David Mueller who groped Swift in 2013 at a meet-and-greet in Denver. Founder of music label Def Jam Recordings, Russell Simmons, was accused of sexual misconduct, Time reports
“We have not had the tsunami that politics and Hollywood has had, but we are still women,” Harkins said.
“Music artists have a lot of impact,” Rait said in an interview with Billboard, HuffPost reports. “So it’s only fitting that music’s biggest night show the support for equality and safety in the workplace and that people need to be cognizant of their fellow employees.”