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The signs began to emerge early on Sunday afternoon, as music stars filtered into the Grammy festivities<\/a> in downtown Los Angeles, many of them sporting black-and-white pins that read \u201cICE OUT.\u201d<\/p>\n That message, directed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, burst into public view about an hour into the televised broadcast, when Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar who has been derided by the White House and right-wing media, accepted the award for best m\u00fasica urb\u00e1na album.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I say thanks to God, I\u2019m going to say \u2018ICE out,\u2019\u201d Bad Bunny said, to a roaring standing ovation. \u201cWe\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n It was clear this was going to be the most politicized Grammy ceremony in years.<\/p>\n Throughout the night, artists used their time at the microphone to show solidarity with immigrants and to condemn the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown, following the recent killings of two protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Billie Eilish, accepting song of the year for a record-setting third time, said, \u201cNo one is illegal on stolen land,\u201d then castigated ICE with a blunt profanity that was censored from the TV broadcast.<\/p>\n Others were less polemical. The British singer Olivia Dean, accepting best new artist, called herself \u201ca granddaughter of an immigrant,\u201d and added: \u201cI\u2019m a product of bravery, and I believe those people deserve to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But it was comments from the show\u2019s host, the comedian Trevor Noah, that drew the ire of President Trump.<\/p>\n Noah, hosting the Grammys for the sixth and last time, needled Trump throughout the show. He said that song of the year \u201cis a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland. Which makes sense because Epstein\u2019s island is gone. He needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a late-night post on Truth Social, his social media platform, Trump threatened to sue Noah<\/a> and called the Grammys \u201cthe WORST, virtually unwatchable!\u201d The president added, \u201cGet ready Noah, I\u2019m going to have some fun with you!\u201d<\/p>\n Comments like Noah\u2019s posed a risk for the Grammys, as well as for CBS. Last year Paramount, CBS\u2019s parent company, agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit<\/a> over the editing of an interview with Kamala Harris on CBS\u2019s flagship newsmagazine, \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d Also last year, CBS canceled<\/a> \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert,\u201d which is regularly critical of Trump (the network called it \u201cpurely a financial decision\u201d).<\/p>\n Bad Bunny ended up dominating Grammy night. Although Kendrick Lamar won more awards, with five, Bad Bunny\u2019s three trophies included album of the year for \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos,\u201d which became the first all-Spanish album to win the top award in the Grammys\u2019 68-year history. On Sunday, he is set to give the first halftime performance all in Spanish at the Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n President Trump has taken aim at Bad Bunny as well. In a recent interview he called the singer \u201ca terrible choice\u201d for the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n A representative of the Recording Academy declined to comment. Representatives for CBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Grammys have occasionally had political or socially minded segments on the show. In 2018, Hillary Clinton read excerpts<\/a> from a book about Trump. In a recorded segment in 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, made a plea<\/a> for support in his country\u2019s war against Russia. In a choreographed segment in 2014, the Grammys married<\/a> 34 same-sex couples, a year before the Supreme Court required all states to recognize those unions.<\/p>\n But on Sunday, the political messaging came from artists, as Grammy producers presented a largely standard show of entertainment, with lauded performances<\/a> by Justin Bieber and Lola Young.<\/p>\n Larry Miller, the executive director of the Sony Audio Institute for Music Business and Technology at New York University, did not fault the Grammys for taking a back seat while artists expressed themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat artists speak their truth, and we may love them for it,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThey are beholden to no company and certainly not to CBS.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cArtists who spoke out last night did so on only one issue,\u201d he added, \u201cand it was core to their identities \u2014 immigration \u2014 and the administration\u2019s violent response. It wasn\u2019t the Recording Academy\u2019s job to take a position.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cICE OUT\u201d buttons were organized by a team of activists including Working Families Power, a group affiliated with the Working Families Party, as part of a campaign called Be Good-ICE Out in response to the killings of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n