At the Golden Globes, it was black. For Sunday’s Grammy Awards, it was all about white.
Billboard first reported days before the star-studded event Jan. 28 that members of the music industry planned to don white roses in honor of the TIME’S UP movement.
Music industry is set to wear white roses at the #GRAMMYs to support #TimesUp https://t.co/iqqJ55hRXM pic.twitter.com/nYrmWSaJ8H
— billboard (@billboard) January 25, 2018
The plan was put together by Meg Harkins, a marketing executive at Roc Nation, and Karen Rait of Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records after meeting with a dozen other women in the industry Monday night. They call themselves “Voices in Entertainment.”
The group chose a white rose because “it is a practical and traditional accessory with a symbolic color.” Harkins cited Hillary Clinton as an example — she wore white at Trump’s inauguration, a color associated with women’s suffrage.
The women penned a letter to their industry contacts to spread the word and encourage participation. According to PEOPLE, parts of this letter sent out through email Wednesday read:
“As we are inspired by the #timesup campaign, we are encouraging the artists that we work with and our colleagues attending the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in New York City to wear a white rose to the ceremony on Sunday, January 28th. We choose the white rose because historically it stands for hope, peace, sympathy and resistance.
“Please join us in support of equal representation in the workplace, for leadership that reflects the diversity of our society, workplaces free of sexual harassment and a heightened awareness of accountability that our sisters started on January 1st and continued through the Golden Globes and onward.”
Within hours, hundreds had confirmed their participation, reports The Associated Press.
Thursday afternoon, Grammy-nominated rapper Rapsody posted a white rose graphic to Instagram announcing her support.
“Music artists have a lot of impact,” Rait said. “So it’s only fitting that music’s biggest night show the support for equality and safety in the workplace and that people need to be cognizant of their fellow employees.”
“We have not had the tsunami that politics and Hollywood has had, but we are still women,” Harkins, who also posted a white rose to her Instagram, told AP, stating that they “all agreed it was really necessary” because they’ve felt the “political and cultural change in the last couple of months.”
“We need to say if anyone is feeling like they’re being discriminated against and they don’t feel safe in their workplace, they have people who will support them,” she told Billboard.
Stars such as Kelly Clarkson, Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, Rapsody, Tom Morello and Halsey reportedly agreed to participate right away, and when the clock struck red carpet time, celebs got creative with their execution.
While some wore white roses clipped to their attire or held them up for pictures, others used them to accessorize. Some even embroidered the symbol of solidarity onto their clothing.
