Pharrell Williams says 'rights are important' while feted by Nile Rodgers at Grammys on the Hill

WASHINGTON D.C. – As he stood on the red carpet in a multicolored knitted sweater, blue baseball cap and shades, Pharrell Williams wanted to make a point or three.

The 2023 Creator Honoree for the annual Grammys on the Hill event didn’t think he deserved the accolade – “So many people are more worthy than I am,” he said – but since he was given the platform, he made sure to use it.

“It’s a beautiful gesture,” he said Wednesday night at the comingling of political figures and musicians, “to shine a light on work that comes from the creators. Songs change people’s lives; songs get someone through the day and give them something to sing about.”

But Williams needed to express thoughts beyond music.

“Rights are important. Rights are endangered. We need that same advocacy for women, that same advocacy for the LGBTQIA community,” he said, his voice growing more passionate. “So when we can shine an honest light on rights, it’s a victory.”

The Recording Academy – which produces the Grammy Awards – hosts Grammys on the Hill as a way to celebrate music and advocacy.

Along with Williams, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) were also recognized. The congressional honorees were touted for their bipartisan work on the Save Our Stages Act - a vital component in the live music recovery from COVID-19-related shutdowns - the resolution to designate Aug. 11, 2021 as “Hip-Hop Celebration Day” and efforts to help 272 young musicians, faculty and staff from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and reach Qatar in 2021.

Entertainment figures including Fran Drescher (president of powerful entertainment union SAG-AFTRA, which also represents many performers); recent Grammy-nominee Gayle (currently opening for Taylor Swift); country-soul singer Maggie Rose; and super-producer and Chic legend Nile Rodgers were among those who gathered at The Hamilton in D.C. to celebrate this year’s honorees.

Given the musicians in the room, along with speeches – Schumer, a second cousin of comedian Amy Schumer joked that he was “the second most famous Schumer” – came music.

Maggie Rose

About halfway through her stirring anthem, “What Are We Fighting For,” the easygoing Rose – also the host of the Grammys on the Hill Award Dinner – invited all of the members of Congress in the crowd of about 200 to join her onstage. She strummed her guitar and the house band stayed locked in a groove while she continued her encouragement. A train of politicos, including Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Cassidy, eventually trailed up there to engage in some light movement.

JP Saxe

The singer-songwriter slid behind a keyboard to perform his 2021 Grammy-nominated song with Julia Michaels, “If The World Was Ending” (or, as he joked on the red carpet, his “first Grammy-losing song”), infusing the vivid lyrics with John Legend-like soul. At the end of his performance, Saxe, who will again join John Mayer as the opener on his fall tour, looked directly at Williams in the audience and thanked him for “thinking outside the box.”

Tobe Nwigwe

A best new artist Grammy nominee this year, the laid-back rapper, singer and star of Netflix’s “Mo” entered the stage with the evening’s house band, all of them clad in pale green jumpsuits and dark glasses. With his casually cool demeanor, Nwigwe rolled through his spoken word hip-hop in a song he wrote specifically for Williams called “In the Water” – a nod to Williams’ Something in the Water Festival, which returns to his Virginia Beach hometown this weekend.

Nile Rodgers and Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Before dishing out the smooth-grooved “Get Lucky,” which he wrote with Williams about a decade ago, Rodgers shared the backstory of being in the studio with Williams and Daft Punk.

“What I didn’t tell Pharrell or ‘the robots’ as we called (Daft Punk) was at that time I was suffering from cancer,” Rodgers said. “We talk about the power of music? That song, ‘Get Lucky,’ has made me feel like one of the luckiest people in the world because I am cancer free right now.”

With that, the eternally cool producer-musician delved into his signature guitar scratching as the band dove into the song and the luminous Tank Ball, leader of Louisiana funk-soul outfit Tank & The Bangas, beamed through the lyrics, encouraging the crowd to stand up and dance one more time.

Music Notes

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Grammys on the Hill honors Pharrell, Chuck Schumer, Bill Cassidy