Alicia Keys may have been the official host of the 2019 Grammys, but she didn’t open the show alone.
After giving shout outs to her family and friends and declaring the importance of love in music, Keys brought out one hell of a girl power group: Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Michelle Obama, and Jennifer Lopez.
They all appeared just a couple of minutes into the opening monologue to share how music had helped them, gave them hope, and made them who they are, so naturally it was a pretty damn emotional moment.
“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,” Keys said. “It is our shared global language, and when you really want to say something, you say it with a song.”
Gaga opened up about how people said she was “weird” when she was younger.
“They said I was weird,” that my look, my choices, my sound, that it wouldn’t work,” she said. “But music told me not to listen to them. Music took my ears, took my hands, my voice, and my soul and it led me to all of you and to my little monsters who i love so much.”
Lopez talked about music giving her reason to dance, “from hip hop to free style pop, soul and salsa.”
“And it kept me moving from the block to the big stages and even bigger screens,” she said. “It reminds me where I come from, but it also reminds of all the places I can go.”
Pinkett-Smith said, “We express our pain, power, and progress through music, whether we’re creating it or just appreciating it. But here’s what I know: every voice we hear deserves to be honored and respected.”
Obama, who got some serious cheers to the point where she had to tell the audience, “we have a show to do!” then talked about what music means to her.
“From the motown records I wore out on the south side to the “Who Run the World” songs that fueled me through this last decade, music has always helped me tell my story, and I know that’s true for everybody here,” she said. “Whether we like country, or rap, or rock, music helps us share ourselves, our dignity and sorrows, our hopes and joys. It helps 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. Is that right, ladies?
Keys finished things off by explaining that this is a night to celebrate “the greatness in each other,” before taking a moment to “take it all in,” as we also would if we were standing on a stage like that in a lineup like that.
After the ceremony, tune in to E!’s After Party: The 2019 Grammy Awards special at 11:30 p.m. And don’t miss E! News on Monday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. for a recap of music’s biggest night.