Mary Lambert and Macklemore
Macklemore is a Seattle-based rapper who first came to my attention because he made a significant and public commitment to support the movement for marriage equality in his home state of Washington. Prior to the release of his new album on Oct. 9th, he released a song that addresses the issue, called "Same Love," and promised to dedicate all the proceeds from the sale of the single to the marriage equality cause. I bought the song and promptly listened to it on repeat loop for several days.
When Macklemore announced his fall tour, we purchased three tickets to the concert at the TLA in Philly, which was scheduled for November 14th. I didn't think at the time about the fact that this would be very close to the election in which marriage equality would be voted on in Washington and several other states.
As the concert date approached, we were disappointed to learn that the guest artist on "Same Love," another Seattle-based singer name Mary Lambert and whose music we love, wouldn't be joining Macklemore for the entire tour, and that Philadelphia was on the "cities I'll be sad to miss" list. "How will he DO that song?" we wondered, but we were excited for the concert all the same. When we got to Philly, we talked briefly with opening act Dee-1, who took a liking to Mr. D.
(Dee-1 & Mr. D in a long hair bonding moment)
Dee-1 led off with a positive and inclusive set (he even invited a member of the audience up on stage for a little mic time, which was really cool), and then Macklemore's portion of concert began. The energy of the crowd - mostly college-aged students - was fantastic, and at one point Macklemore crowd surfed, somehow managing to actually stand upright on the hands of his fans.
A few songs in, the opening chords of "Same Love" rang out, and the crowd revved up, ripples of awareness spreading through as everyone realized the freshly celebratory feel of the song in the wake of the passage of marriage equality in Washington. Then Macklemore held his hand up to make an announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, fresh from the Philadelphia airport... Mary Lambert!"
The crowd - including three people in the back who had driven all the way down from Central New Jersey - went completely insane, and the song was beautiful. Mary Lambert hadn't realized that this would be her first time singing the song in public since the vote the week before... she ended the song in tears, crying out, "I can get married!" (Mary Lambert is gay, while Macklemore is straight.) Macklemore hugged her, saying, "I love this woman!"
It was a pretty great night.
(Voters also approved measures related
to marriage equality in three other states
1 comment:
What a great Sunday morning song. Thanks--download in progress!
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