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" \u202A  \u202C Photo: Getty Images Tonight, as millions of music fans watched around the world, Macklemore &amp;amp;amp; Ryan Lewis, the uber-popular Grammy-winning hip-hop duo behind 2012 smash hits &amp;quot;Thrift Shop&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Can&amp;#039;t Hold Us,&amp;quot; took the stage at the Grammy Awards. Joined by Madonna and singer Mary Lambert, the duo performed their equal-rights championing single &amp;quot;Same Love&amp;quot; \u2014 a song in which Macklemore reveals as a child he often wondered if he was gay (he&amp;#039;s not). It&amp;#039;s a fine enough song. It made Macklemore a lot of money over the past year. But the big news on Sunday was that 33 couples\u2014gay, straight, black, white, of varying nationalities\u2014were married while Macklemore rapped. The nuptials were presided over by Queen Latifah. Related: See All the Looks of the Grammys Red Carpet It was a bold gesture\u2014one that had garnered a range of reactions from the Twittersphere. Actor Neil Patrick Harris tweeted his praise of the event: &amp;quot;My face hurts from smiling. That was one of the coolest things I&amp;#039;ve ever gotten to see. Much much love. Well done, Grammys,&amp;quot; he wrote. Ellen Degeneres tweeted,&amp;quot;#SameLove was incredible. Love to @Macklemore, @RyanLewis, @MaryLambertSing @Madonna &amp;amp;amp; @IAmQueenLatifah for a beautiful performance #GRAMMYs.&amp;quot; Many cultural critics took a more satirical approach in their comments regarding the performance: New York music critic Jody Rosen tweeted &amp;quot;Ok, that was nice but how about a Pussy Riot finale?&amp;quot;; acclaimed film critic Mark Harris tweeted: &amp;quot;Half of those couples are going to be divorced by the time this thing ends.&amp;quot;      There&amp;#039;s no denying Macklemore&amp;#039;s Grammy performance\u2014and its accompanying marriage ceremony\u2014signified something inherently progressive. (After all, it was only 12 years ago when Eminem made headlines for merely performing alongside an openly gay singer like Sir Elton John\u2014if only to demonstrate that despite peppering his tracks with homophobic slurs, Eminem was not actually anti-gay.) So it&amp;#039;s 2014 and the Grammys, CBS and the music industry at large is willing to cede prime sponsor-driven TV real estate to promote a forward-thinking social belief\u2014that marriage is a fundamental right that should be available to everyone. This is wonderful. Things do often look shinier on the surface, though, right? We must not forget then that a profit-driven music-industry PR machine chugs along beneath the glitter. To say Sunday&amp;#039;s performance was nothing more than a PR stunt is to inhabit a pessimistic world. But knowing the sheer number of brains, dollars and time that go into not only the Grammy Awards but anything presented and championed before a mass audience, warrants a bit of head scratching. \u202A  \u202C Photo: Getty Images It was only this morning the Grammy Awards revealed, via the New York Times, the news of Macklemore&amp;#039;s groundbreaking performance. To say the timing was coincidental would be shortsighted: it marked a final push for ratings and eyeballs. And, in this day and age, nothing draws in viewers quite like the promise of playing live witness to a polarizing, water-cooler-worthy event like this one. Factor in a large youth-driven market to whom the Grammy&amp;#039;s principally target, and the Macklemore marriage event becomes much larger than itself; look no further than Miley&amp;#039;s VMA jaw-dropping performance or the recent Richard Sherman debate to see how social media can prolong something even mildly provocative. Still, it should be known that the idea for Macklemore&amp;#039;s performance was reportedly derived from a slew of onstage marriage proposals that happen at Macklemore and Ryan Lewis&amp;#039; shows. And the powers that be at the Grammys knew the performance/wedding would be a controversial decision\u2014&amp;quot; I expect that people with all kinds of opinions might voice them, and that&amp;#039;s healthy,&amp;quot; National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Neil Portnow said in a statement. I must admit: It&amp;#039;s difficult being that guy\u2014the one daring to question an event that is inherently wonderful, progressive and in so many ways a lovely display of equality and progressive acceptance in a world that could use it. But in this day and age, 2014, it&amp;#039;s hard not to view Macklemore&amp;#039;s Grammy performance as a shock-and-awe social media ratings ploy, too. What do you think? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a17021/macklemores-equal-rights-grammy-performance-special-or-spectacle/>