RHYTHM & NEWS （March 1, 1980）
RHYTHM & NEWS
THE KISS THAT SAVED ROCK ‘N’ ROLL?
Never before has the Shrine Auditorium been that silent, perhaps not even when empty but for the after-hours cleaning team.
But you could have heard a pin drop when Femme Fatale’s leading lady Pia Lindberg and Cassie Everard, Evergreene’s former frontwoman, finished their duet at the Grammys on Thursday evening.
Not because their performance wasn’t spectacular – it truly was – but because they did something none of us could have predicted, and indeed it sent the whole room, the whole world into a frenzy.
Pia Lindberg and Cassie Everard ended their award-winning song with a kiss. And not just any kiss, a kiss that is, by all subsequent accounts, a kiss of love. While all of us were assuming they detested each other over the last year, Cassie and Pia were falling in love.
To say that this is unprecedented is an understatement. It feels like a man walking on the moon moment. Unbelievable. Inconceivable. Shocking. But it happened. And the world didn’t end.
In fact, if anything, we at Rhythm & News believe it may go on to make the world a better place.
We are in a new decade. We are but twenty years away from a new millennium.
Did we learn nothing from Stonewall? Are the growing number of Pride events in our cities just for fun?
Are we just supposed to ignore the estimated 75,000 people who marched in Washington for lesbian and gay rights last October?
One thing is for certain: we cannot ignore Pia Lindberg and Cassie Everard, whose kiss was plastered over newspapers the following day.
Reception has ranged from scathing and hateful to sympathetic and hopeful.
Regardless, it seems the happy couple is resolute in facing what comes next together as a couple.
In post-ceremony interviews, where they held hands and shared more kisses, Pia and Cassie both talked about their relationship influencing their new albums, which Pia will release with Femme Fatale, while Cassie unofficially announced she would be releasing a solo album later this year.
Regardless of your opinion on the most famous kiss in music history, there’s no denying just how eagerly these songs are anticipated.
Indeed, maybe this scandal, and this love, is exactly what rock’n’roll needed?
Speaking of the future, Cassie and Pia released a joint statement the day after the Grammys, where they also took home the award for Best Single, and we feel this section is worth republishing to close out this article, and to take with us into the future.
“We understand this may be hard for people to believe – or maybe accept – but we are in love. We didn’t expect it any more than you did, but we now know this is how love works.
It doesn’t care what sex you are or what sex the other person is.
And by kissing on stage last night, we chose for it not to be influenced by what others may think about it.
We are not hurting anybody by being in love.
If anything, we are helping others. Because we are not alone.
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people exist. We are everywhere.
And all we want to do is love who we love, and celebrate that love.
We therefore give you an invitation: join us.
“Celebrate love with us, in our music. Choose love, or choose hate. It’s that simple and that easy.
“Our song, ‘What I Want’, was always about that, and that is what we will continue to be about as we move forward with our music and our relationship. What we also want is for the world to move forward with us, but that part is up to you.”
THE END