Art Is Political. But What Do We Really Want From Artists In Times Of Crisis?

We know where Nina Simone stood on political and social issues because she told us, vehemently, loudly, and often. She told us in her music with songs like “Mississippi Goddamn” and her cover of “Strange Fruit,” two songs about lynching and the brutalization of Black folks during the civil rights era. She told us explicitly through quotes like the one that’s been making its rounds on social media lately: “An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times,” Simone said in an interview from the ‘60s. “How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.”

The quote has been used so much it’s been flattened into a meme. But it’s true that there are few artists in 2026 who are as committed to reflecting the times. Sixty years after Simone, then one of  the most notable singers in the world, used her voice to denounce systemic racism, critique capitalism, and unequivocally support the Black Panthers and the Black Power movement, it’s hard to imagine a famous singer of her stature being as specific, bold, and unflinching in their activism and political outspokenness — within their music and outside of it. Silence is the standard. Sure, there are a few exceptions and after the Grammys, when multiple artists did speak out against ICE (the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, the energy seems to have shifted slightly. Bad Bunny, Kehlani, Olivia Dean, Shaboozey, SZA, and Billie Eilish all used their platforms at the Grammys to talk about how ICE is dehumanizing immigrants and terrorizing American communities. 

To varying degrees of eloquence and effectiveness, these artists attempted to meet the moment at the Grammys, which came just a week after anti-ICE demonstrations erupted across the U.S. to protest the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE agents. Their statements were met with overwhelming support online and applause from the audience, like everyone was waiting for celebrities to finally stop treating awards shows like it’s business as usual and capitalize on the attention that comes with the stages they are afforded. For better and for worse, people want public figures to show us their values, to tell us where they stand, and if they have to engage in the pomp and circumstance of red carpets and awards shows while the world burns, the least they can do is acknowledge the flames.  

On the red carpet for the Golden Globes last month, I asked Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne about the “ICE OUT” pin she was wearing. She mentioned Renee Good by name. That interview garnered over six million views. And when I spoke to actress Jameela Jamil on another red carpet about how she gets called “brave” when she speaks up about social issues while other celebs stay silent, she responded, “Am I brave or are they cowards?” 

Call it cowardice or bravery or anything in between, but what celebrities choose to say — or don’t — about the state of the world is always a hot topic. So, what do we really want to hear from artists in times of crisis? It may be too simple to say that every single celebrity should be performing their activism on social media or during awards speeches. A social post is the bare minimum. And many of these artists do not have the range to engage in a productive political debate. There are many different ways to support causes you care about, and if you have money, funding movements, giving to organizers on the ground, or to victims’ families can be more powerful than simply posting an Instagram story. I don’t think it’s a useful pastime to litigate what each celeb has or hasn’t said on their personal social media accounts. But two things can be true. And we live in a time when celebrities wield more power and access than ever, with legions of stans ready to act on command. We know that when famous artists do speak up, it works. 

Taylor Swift increased voter registration by 23 per cent (the number of 18-year-olds registered more than doubled) in 2023 with a non-partisan plea for her followers to vote. Swift is an example of someone who, despite making a documentary that was heavily about her decision to start speaking out against Donald Trump, has chosen to remain neutral in a time that demands partiality. Telling fans to vote without making it clear that their basic rights and freedoms are on the line is like inviting people to dinner without telling them the menu is a choice between hot dogs and razor blades. One option ain’t great; the other will kill you. But most artists try to toe the line. On one hand, Beyoncé will deliver an album that can be interpreted as a searing critique of America while highlighting oft-forgotten Black history and on the other, she’ll be spotted partying with members of an administration hell bent on erasing that very history. In 2026, there are only a handful of celebrities who seem to be truly channeling the spirit of Simone. The rest opt into conversations about social justice when it’s comfortable, convenient, and popular. 

The Grammys were proof of this. From the vague (Shaboozey) to the sincere (Olivia Dean and SZA) to the specific (Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, and Kehlani), the show ended up being an unintentional showcase of the typical range of celebrity responses to social injustice. To be clear, I think it’s important and necessary that each of these artists chose to use their speeches to stand up for immigrants and stand against ICE. But if you are going to speak up, as Craig Jenkins put it for Vulture, we’re going to need more “naming and shaming.” Jenkins wrote, “The ingredients for a broadcast that could brashly outline the regime connections in the building were in play, but any elephant in the room that was tacitly acknowledged was also rarely explicitly named and shamed.”

Take Shaboozey for example. “Immigrants built this country, literally. So this is for them,” the singer said as he accepted the Grammy for Best Country Group/Duo Performance. “For all children of immigrants, this is also for those who came to this country in search of better opportunities, to be part of a nation that promised freedom for all and equal opportunity to everyone willing to work for it." It’s a nice sentiment, but Shaboozey didn’t say “ICE” once in his speech and his “immigrants built this country” line not only erases the labor of enslaved Black Americans, it also plays into the harmful idea that immigrants deserve to be treated fairly solely because of their labor instead of the fact that they are human beings. Shaboozey has since apologized and clarified his statements. I’m sure that the risk of receiving backlash for clumsy comments is why many stars refuse to say anything at all, but the stakes are too high to be scared of some silly social media fallout. Plus, the potential repercussions — like losing followers or brand deals — are trivial concerns compared to the violence people are facing at the hands of ICE, and in the wake of the Trump administration’s tyranny.

Someone who seems to understand this is Bad Bunny, and his career hasn’t suffered. Bad Bunny is also one of the few artists topping the charts in 2026 who actually incorporates his beliefs into his music. Bad Bunny speaks to the colonial violence America has enacted globally, and refuses to conform to the white supremacist ideals it continues to perpetuate. In a recent piece for NPR called “Where Are All The Protest Songs?, Ann Powers writes, “Bad Bunny stands out in 2026 not only for his historic success as the first artist win album of the year for a Spanish-language album, but because DtMF does explicitly enact resistance in songs like "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," calling out American imperialism, gentrification and the displacement of his fellow Puerto Ricans.”

In fact, Bad Bunny’s success hasn’t been hindered by his outspokenness, I think it’s added to it. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio is unapologetically himself, a proud Puerto Rican, and someone who believes in the power of art to be political and personal. “Before I say thanks to God,” Bad Bunny said in his acceptance speech for Best Música Urbana Album, “I’m gonna say ICE out… We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.” And when he won Album of the Year, Bad Bunny accepted in Spanish and dedicated his award to Puerto Rico. At the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny displayed a sign that read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” and during “El Apagón,” a song which mentions the power grid issues Puerto Rico has struggled with since Hurricane Maria (due in large part to the inaction of the U.S. government), the set featured Bad Bunny and dancers hanging from utility poles. Bad Bunny also listed countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America in his Super Bowl set, speaking to our diasporic connection and bookended his performance with holding up a football with the words, “Together, We Are America” scrawled on it, pushing the message that borders are imaginary and cultures are global. It’s this clear-eyed consistency that should be the standard and the blueprint for artists who wish to put their actions and words behind their values.

Of course, if the ask is for celebrities to show us their values, some of them will also show us their asses. Despite being dubbed “MAGA Barbie,” Sydney Sweeney has yet to specifically denounce the actions of the party she’s associated with (Sweeney is reportedly a registered Republican). In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, Sweeney said, “I’ve never been here to talk about politics. I’ve always been here to make art, so this is just not a conversation I want to be at the forefront of. And I think because of that, people want to take it even further and use me as their own pawn. But it’s somebody else assigning something to me, and I can’t control that.” Later in the Q&A, Sweeny vaguely defines her beliefs as being rooted in love by saying, “I’m not a hateful person” and doubles down on the idea that art is not political. 

“I’m not a political person. I’m in the arts. I’m not here to speak on politics. That’s not an area I’ve ever even imagined getting into. It’s not why I became who I am,” Sweeney told Cosmo. “I became an actor because I like to tell stories, but I don’t believe in hate in any form.” These statements are genuinely so stupid, I almost don’t want to give them the dignity of a rebuttal. The last time I wrote about Sweeney, I swore it was the last time. But this notion that entertainment and politics should be segregated, that one has no bearing on the other and vice versa, isn’t just a false belief held by Sweeney to justify her inability to emphatically condemn an image of herself she helped create. Since the Grammys, the sentiment has been echoed by Kevin O’Leary and Ricky Gervais, two old white men no one should be paying attention to and yet, here we are. 

O’Leary posted that Eilish should “STFU [shut the f-ck up]” after she said “No one is illegal on stolen land” in her speech accepting the Grammy for Song of the Year. “I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter, and fuck ICE,” Eilish continued. Based on their recent statements, Sweeney, O’Leary, and Gervais seem to agree that the artists who spoke up at the Grammys should just “shut up and sing.” But art is political and it always has been. Every piece of art – a song, a movie, a TV show, an album — is created within the social context of its time. Sweeney ran an unsuccessful Oscar campaign for playing an abused lesbian boxer in Christy. Victims of domestic violence and members of the LGBTQ community are two vulnerable groups whose legal protections have been under attack since Trump was elected again. 

And while art has been used by governments to weaponize, propagandize, and manipulate populations, it has also been suppressed and censored to shut down resistance. Art can be a joyful act of defiance and a powerful instrument of protest. When Sweeney calls herself a storyteller without acknowledging how stories can push narratives, preserve history, propel representation forward or stereotype entire demographics, she’s either being wilfully ignorant or just illiterate (literacy is another example about how art is political). And when artists use art to lure in victims or cover up their crimes (R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood elite in the Epstein files, I could go on), it’s impossible to say that the two are separate. 

At the Grammys, country singer Jelly Roll came under fire for proclaiming that “people shouldn’t care to hear my opinion” because he’s “a dumb redneck.” This is also a common refrain from celebrities (and influencers). They claim not to be informed enough to speak on current events. If they are going to be given microphones, you’d think they’d put some thought and care into what they are going to say into it. There is a responsibility that comes with fame and feigning cluelessness isn’t a good excuse, it’s a copout. Jelly Roll can speak about Jesus and preach about his religion, but he refuses to interrogate the teachings in the very Bible he totes around in order to stand up for the basic human rights of his neighbors. Jelly Roll’s comments probably didn’t come as a surprise. He’s a white country star and the genre tends to lean heavily conservative. The music industry is a business, and when the majority of your fan base is Republican, artists aren’t staying silent out of ignorance, they are choosing money over morals. 

Money is the only explanation for Nicki Minaj’s recent behavior — even though her fanbase is overwhelmingly queer and Black. In the past, the Trinidad-born, New York-raised rapper hailed herself as a proud immigrant standing in opposition to Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Now, she’s full MAGA. “I am probably the president’s number one fan, and that’s not going to change,” Minaj said last week at the U.S. Treasury Department’s Trump Accounts Summit. “And the hate, or what people have to say, does not affect me at all.”

Along with holding hands with Trump (shudder), Minaj “thanked the president for getting her a Trump Gold Card, a kind of visa for wealthy foreigners to help them secure expedited U.S. residency,” according to Slate. “The visa normally requires a $1 million contribution, plus fees; Minaj… nabbed the Trump Gold Card for free.” There’s conflicting reports as to whether Minaj’s visa is legit, but it’s clear that cozying up to Trump is for her own personal gain. As digital creator and educator Raven Schwam-Curtis says in a video posted to her @ravenreveals account, Minaj “has chosen to side with a president that uses the optics of Black women as ‘proof’ that his regime is doing good things for our communities while actively harming us,” she says. “Representation doesn’t equal liberation or solidarity. If anything it shows how easily representation can be weaponized by the right when your class position pulls you out of solidarity with regular Black folk.” Through her art, Minaj gained wealth, status, and standom that she has now leveraged to push her far-right agenda. And according to Newsweek, legions of Minaj’s fans, dubbed “Barbz” are following her pivot to the Republican Party. 

It’s already problematic that we live in a time where celeb worship is at an all-time high. We shouldn’t be looking to these people to tell us what to believe, but they are influential, whether we want them to be or not. If Minaj and Bad Bunny stand at two opposite ends of the celebs speaking up politically spectrum, they each represent the dos and don’ts of celebrity political activism. One is emphasizing how culture and community can combat oppressive regimes (Benito) and the other is proof that conformity and greed can make you complicit in upholding them (Minaj).

The Grammys, and the Super Bowl halftime show, served as hopeful examples of celebrities meeting the moment, even though they both still exist within institutions that sustain the status quo. My wish is for these artists — and anyone with a platform — to continue to speak up, not just when two white people are murdered and the country deems it socially acceptable to say something. And not just when it’s comfortable. Like Bad Bunny and Kehlani (who has been a Pro-Palestinian advocate in her music as well as on social media), my hope for all public figures to use every avenue of their influence to try to shake the table and push back against powerful people who aim to snuff out dissension and stifle diversity.

“We’re too powerful of a group to all be in a room at the same time and not make some kind of a statement in our country,” Kehlani told the Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the Grammys. “I hope everybody’s inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what’s going on, and I’mma leave this and say “‘Fuck ICE,’” she echoed during her speech. 

I started this piece by quoting Nina Simone and as cliche as it may be, I’m going to end it the same way. Because Simone was decades before her time. And every artist (including actresses like Kerry Washington, Sophia Bush, and Hannah Einbinder) who dedicate their platforms to advocacy for those whose voices need to be heard, are doing so because of the path Simone, and others like her, paved. I think their legacy should be more than just memes. So, I’ll leave you with Nina Simone’s full quote: