“Female producers have always powered the industry,” Alicia Keys said upon accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award
Solange can’t stop smiling after Alicia Keys’ 2025 Grammys speech shout-out.
In Keys’ acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, she shouted out the “Losing You” singer along with Patrice Rushen, Missy Elliott, Linda Perry and Grimes when naming powerful female producers.
“I just want to give big love to my brother Dr. Dre who created a sound that began a movement, and your sound told me that if you’re a creative growing up in Compton or Hell’s Kitchen, you can touch the world,” Keys said.
“I always had to fight for a certain level of respect as a songwriter, a composer and especially a producer. It’s strange that we don’t think of women as producers like Quincy [Jones] or Dre or [husband] Swizzy, but female producers have always powered the industry.”
“Omggg this made me smile so bigggg being mentioned in this lineup,” Solange, 38, wrote on X Monday, Feb. 3, sharing a video from the awards ceremony. “Let me go make some beats lol.”
When Keys, 44, mentioned Solange, Beyoncé could be seen clapping and nodding in agreement.
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Solange had been teasing new music in the works after sharing a picture on her Instagram Stories of her and producer P’ierre Bourne working together in the studio last month.
In 2024, she told Harper’s Bazaar that she started writing music for the tuba. “And I am trying to talk myself into releasing it, but I can only imagine the eye rolls from people being like, this bitch hasn’t made an album.”
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Elsewhere in her acceptance speech, Keys spoke about the importance of creativity.
“This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices we’ve seen on this stage,” she said, adding that “hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view” has a positive impact in the industry.
“DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] is not a threat, it’s a gift,” Keys continued, appearing to aim her messaging at President Donald Trump, who has been vocal against DEI policies.
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“And the more voices, the more powerful the sound,” Keys continued in her passionate speech. “When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.”
Along with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, Keys also took home the Grammy for best musical theater album for the musical Hell’s Kitchen — the play loosely based on her life — on Feb. 2. She has won 17 Grammys throughout her career.
Source people.com
