For those of you who watched the Grammy’s on January 28, you saw quite a few performances from SZA, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, etc. Among the many performances at the Grammy’s, Logic’s performance of his song “1-800-273-8255” was definitely my favorite. To be honest, I didn’t even tune into the Grammy’s, but I did hear about and watch the performances the next day. I’ve seen Logic’s performance of this particular song a couple times and it always gets to me. The message behind the song itself is amazing and the way he performs it is even better.
I feel like everyone heard about “1-800-273-8255” after the MTV VMA’s, but if you don’t know about it then I’ll break it down. This song is basically about overcoming depression because the first chorus repeats, “I don’t want to be alive,” then the ending chorus changes to, “I finally want to be alive.” It encourages people with depression to keep moving forward and also encourages people to seek help if they need it by putting the Suicide Prevention Lifeline number as the title of the song. Logic’s release and performances of “1-800-273-8255” has increased calls to the suicide hotline by about 50%… if that’s not truly remarkable to you then I’m not sure what could be.
Moving onto the performance that makes me tear up almost every time I watch it. Each time he’s performed, he’s had a stage full of people behind him wearing t-shirts saying, “You are not alone,” or shirts with the Suicide Prevention Lifeline number on them. Everyone wearing one of these t-shirts has had suicide affect their life in some way, which I thought was truly inspiring of Logic to include in his performance. I remember watching his VMA performance and seeing this crowd of survivors crying and smiling; it absolutely warmed my heart… and made me ugly cry (I basically did the same thing watching the Grammy’s performance, but it’s fine, I’m fine).
Another reason why Logic’s performance was so important was because of the speech he gave after. Here’s the full speech:
“Black is beautiful. Hate is ugly. Women are as precious as they are stronger than any man I have ever met. And unto them I say: Stand tall and crush all predators under the weight of your heart that is full of the love they will never take away from you. Be not scared to use your voice, and especially in instances like these when you have the opportunity. Stand and fight for those who are not weak, but have yet to discover the strength that the evil of this world has done its best to conceal. To all the beautiful countries filled with culture, diversity and thousands of years of history, you are not shitholes! And lastly, on behalf of those who fight for equality in a world that is not equal, not just and not ready for the change we are here to bring. I say unto you, bring us your tired, your poor and any immigrant who seeks refuge. For together, we can build not just a better country, but a world that is destined to be united.”
The fact that Logic does this so publicly and passionately is why I respect him so much. It is so nice and refreshing to have an artist in this society that actually uses the platform they are given to talk about serious issues that aren’t talked about as much as they should be. Instead of just tweeting a hashtag, Logic actually used his performance time to bring up and discuss the issues at hand that actually matter. Why is he not more appreciated?!
If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this quote from Logic’s speech, “Stand tall and crush all predators under the weight of your heart that is full of the love they will never take away from you.” People will try and bring you down every day and constantly try to make you feel less than what you are worth. But, instead of letting others dim your light, blind them with it.