Alicia Keys, an American singer and songwriter, received the honor of the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
Accepting the win from Queen Latifah, she began, “I'll give it up for the Queen, ultimate trailblazer. This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices we've seen on this stage.”
Gushing over her peers, she called them “hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view” which “changes the game.”
“DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] is not a threat, it's a gift,” Keys declared.
The singer’s speech seemed to be referring to Donald Trump’s recent comments about how diversity initiatives could be the reasons behind the recent tragic plane and helicopter crashes in Washington.
“And the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all,” she continued.
“It's so beautiful,” added Keys, insisting that people should “keep showing up with compassion, with empathy, what I call soul care.”
Referring to the iconic novelist, she declared, “Keep opening the doors. The dreams that the world is ought to be, a dream that the world as is ought to be, as the great Toni Morrison said.”