In 2018, Lorde’s Melodrama won a Grammy nomination for album of the year alongside Childish Gambino, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Bruno Mars. She was the only woman nominated in that category, and, according to Variety, the only person in that category not offered a solo performance. Elle reported that the singer ended up avoiding the red carpet and wearing a piece of feminist art stitched delicately into her Valentino gown. The quote was an excerpt from artist Jenny Holzer’s Untitled (Rejoice!), from Inflammatory Essays, 1979/82 (via Vice):
“Rejoice! Our times are intolerable. Take courage, for the worst is a harbinger of the best. Only dire circumstances can precipitate the overthrow of oppressors. The old and corrupt must be laid to waste before the just can triumph. Contradiction will be heightened. The reckoning will be hastened by the staging of seed disturbances. The apocalypse will blossom. ”
In an Instagram post (via Elle), Lorde claimed the quote was her “white rose,” the symbol women wore to the Grammys red carpet to show support for #TimesUp. Sonja Yelich, Lorde’s mother, also joined in to shade the Grammys. She tweeted a New York Times clip with a circled excerpt that read, “Of the 899 people nominated in the last six Grammy Awards … 9 percent were women.” She captioned it, “This says it all.” Lorde actually was one of the nine percent. She won two Grammys in 2014 for “Royals.”
