On February 1, the 68th Grammy Awards—the highest honor in the U.S. music industry—were held. Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish’s “WILDFLOWER,” while Album of the Year was awarded to Bad Bunny for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Eilish became the first artist ever to win Song of the Year three times. Also, the ceremony drew particular attention as Bad Bunny became the first artist to win one of the major Grammy categories with an entirely Spanish-language album.

During the customary acceptance speeches, Eilish sparked a wave of criticism of the increasingly aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration, declaring, “Nobody is illegal on stolen land.” That alone would have been enough to upset Mr. Trump, but the ceremony’s host, South African comedian Trevor Noah went further, joking, “That is a Grammy that every artist wants — almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” while implying ties between the president and the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in custody after being charged with sex crimes. In response, Mr. Trump wrote on social media, “The Grammy Awards are the WORST, virtually unwatchable!” and “I will sue Noah.” This bitter exchange perfectly epitomized the deep divisions in America today.

Meanwhile, the award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording was won by Meditations, an album in which His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, delivers his thoughts and spiritual reflections in English. This may come as a surprise to some, but he had already released Compassion in 2020, a work that fused music with Buddhist chanting. Incidentally, the album also includes Anoushka Shankar on sitar. She is the half-sister of Norah Jones and the daughter of Ravi Shankar, who was closely associated with the Beatles. As an aside, Ravi Shankar himself won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 15th ceremony for the live album from the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, which he co-organized with George Harrison.

Now let me return to the main topic. In the wake of Mr. Trump’s remarks, it was the Chinese authorities, predictably, that lashed out at the Grammys. Reacting to the award for Meditations, China’s Foreign Ministry immediately issued a statement condemning the decision as “using art awards as a tool for anti-China political manipulation,” and denounced the 14th Dalai Lama as “not merely a religious figure but a political activist under the guise of religion.” It is not too much to say that the Grammys now find themselves facing the world’s two superpowers. Yet this alone testifies to the power of music. Looking beyond political, religious, ideological, and geopolitical preconceptions, we may simply embrace the Dalai Lama’s belief that peace, compassion, care for our environment, and an understanding of the oneness of humanity are essential to the well-being of all human beings.

This Week’s Focus, February 1 - 5, 2026
Takashi Mizukoshi, the President