The 2026 Grammy saw major wins for artists like Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga,

and also served up an impressive number of live performances.

But beyond the spectacle and the awarding of Grammy statuettes, the night also highlighted the bridge between headlines about immigration policy and ICE

and how music often defines our most challenging cultural moments.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Tuesday, February 3, 26.

Joining me now to discuss the biggest night in music is USA Today National Music Reporter, Melissa Ruggieri. It's good to have you here, Melissa. Thank you so much.

Before we talk about his acceptance speech, let's talk about Bad Bunny's historic night at the

Grammy. Is this year really belonged to Bad Bunny, historic night at the Grammy. This year really belonged

to Bad Bunny, right? It really did. I mean, you know, there was hope for Lady Gaga to maybe

win one of the first of her three top awards, which she's never won before in record album or

Song of the Year. But I think everybody knew going into it that this was going to be a cultural

year and that Bad Bunny, who absolutely deserved to win, was going to become the first artist in Grammy history to have an all-spanish album win album of the year.

And the funny part is the last time that that might have happened was for his last album or was that his two albums ago.

So, you know, it was going to be Bad Bunny one way or the

other, I think. It wasn't surprising that he addressed immigration rights from the stage.

Bad Bunny made a passionate cultural statement that is, of course, part of a larger cultural moment.

Tell me about his acceptance speech, Melissa.

Well, the first speech when he got up there, he was very passionate about talking about

ICE and the community and, you know, telling people, look, these aren't aliens, these aren't

savages, we are human beings. And I thought that he stuck a really unifying tone when he said,

you know, the only thing that comes out of hate is more hate and that he's about love. And I think the people who, you know, have raised the controversy about the Super Bowl halftime performance show that we'll see him in this coming Sunday. I think you're going to see some more of that on Sunday, too. I think that his whole thing right now is unity. And, you know, when you listen to his music, his music is fun. His music is stuff that, you know, you want to dance to, even though he does have a lot of important messages in it, too.

...