Grammys to stage mass wedding during 2014 awards ceremony

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/26/grammys-mass-wedding-macklemore-lewis

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Dozens of couples will marry on air during Sunday night's live broadcast of the music industry's annual Grammy Awards, as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis perform their nominated song, Same Love, which has become an anthem in the campaign for legal gay marriage, the New York Times reported. 

Queen Latifah will officiate at the nuptials, with pop diva Madonna performing the song with the hip-hop duo and featured vocalist Mary Lambert, the Times said. 

Lewis said that the weddings, including 34 couples of various ages and races, some gay, some straight, "will be in our minds the ultimate statement of equality, that all the couples are entitled to the same exact thing," the report said. "We're serious about this," the Times quoted Ken Ehrlich, the long-time producer of the Grammys, as saying. 

Ehrlich, noting that the segment reflected his own personal beliefs – he has a gay daughter – said: "I would not want to make a broad statement that it represents the views of the academy or the CBS television network." CBS will broadcast the awards live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Addressing the potential for controversy, Neil Portnow, the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said: "I expect that people with all kinds of opinions might voice them, and that's healthy." 

The idea for the segment originated last autumn, when Ehrlich and the duo met to discuss a Grammys performance. Since the singers' concerts have occasionally featured onstage marriage proposals, Ehrlich suggested a wedding. A casting company sought couples who were initially told only that the ceremony would take place on live television. The report said they learned of the Grammys' involvement only in recent weeks, and had to sign confidentiality agreements. 

For Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, whose Same Love is up for song of the year, the event took on a personal note with the participation of Lewis' sister Laura, who will marry her boyfriend during the ceremony. 

"A night that is already tremendous for me, for the music," the Times quoted Lewis as saying, "but to have my sister get married and my family there watching it, that makes it a whole other level of amazing." The group is nominated for a total of seven Grammys.