During the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, Eric Church, Maren Morris, and the Brothers Osborne sang Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” as a tribute to concertgoers killed at music venues during 2017.
The performance honored those killed with a bomb in Manchester on May 22, 2017, and those fatally wounded with gunfire in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017.
On January 18, 2018, Breitbart News reported that this tribute was coming. The Wrap quoted Recording Academy president Neil Portnow saying:
Live music events have always provided a safe space for fans to gather in a shared celebration of music. Sadly, that wasn’t always the case this past year. We believe it’s incredibly important to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in these senseless tragedies, and to remind musicians and music lovers alike that live music will continue to be a powerful force that unites us all.
During the January 28, 2018, Grammy broadcast, Church, Morris, and the Brothers Osborne sang as the names of the those killed appeared in warm light behind them. Some of the names appeared by themselves, while others appeared with a guitar, an outdoor scene, a heart, or another symbol to reference those things central in the life of the deceased.
No political overtones were involved.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.