The Inspiring Music of the Grammy® Awards: Here's a 30Seconds Contributor's Live Experience! by Morgan Hawthorne

My husband and I won tickets to the Grammy® Awards (still pinching myself!). Seeing the show live made every performance even more powerful. Lady Gaga's performance of "Joanne" mixed with "Million Reasons" was beautiful, with the imagery of her laying on the angel wings at the end. When Pink sang "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" in a stripped down, beautifully natural version of herself I BAWLED. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" brought some fun dancing and singing to an otherwise fairly serious night.

More tears were brought on by Logic with Alessia Cara and Khalid performing "1-800-273-8255." This suicide awareness and prevention song was especially moving when a group of suicide survivors and family members of suicide victims joined the stage in "You are not alone" shirts. Everyone around us was dabbing tears and there was SILENCE in the stadium as people took in the lyrics.

My favorite performance by far, however, was Kesha singing "Praying." I was not emotionally prepared for the experience. Kesha has always been one of my favorite performers, but this cut me right to the bone. She was joined on stage by Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Andra Day, Bebe Rexha and Julia Michaels. You could have heard a pin drop in the audience as everyone allowed the song's meaning to wash over them. Kesha cried, screamed and pleaded with the audience to not keep silent at the hands of abuse. This song, which further supports the #metoo movement, brought me to sobbing tears and an ugly cry. Every woman around me was bawling and trying to clean her makeup after the performance. I have suffered at the hands of sexual harassment more times than I can count, so this really hit home for me.

How powerful music can be. And what a privilege to be able to hear such powerful performances live at the Grammys!