In 2025, while giving the speech for her first-ever Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Chappell Roan used the Grammys stage to challenge music executives and demand better pay and healthcare for struggling artists. Chappell has been open about her mental health and its contribution to her career. Instead of spending time thanking everyone who made it possible to win the most-coveted music award, she chose to use her platform to demand change. Chappell’s action reflected what modern art and artists have become. Artists are no longer judged solely by the songs they make or the films they star in. Increasingly, they are also judged by what they choose to stand for, and what they remain silent about.

During the EndSARS protests in 2020, when millions trooped out en masse to demand justice and responsibility from the government, Nigerians employed any tool at their disposal to get justice. At one point, Nigerians began tagging their celebrities because they knew and realised how influential voices and platforms are. Apart from how boisterous and too-loud-to-ignore the movement was, tweets and posts from celebrities definitely aided how prominent the movement was. Many artists, including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido and others, expressed their support during the nationwide protest. This expresses that artists’ voices, expressed or not, can influence change beyond the art they make. So an artist is judged when they speak, and they are judged when they don’t.

It can be burdening for artists, whose primary responsibility is to make art, when they are strapped with the responsibility of social change or activism. Many just want to create art, earn live, and repeat that cycle. However, it is also undeniable that while that’s all they want to do, to whom much is given, much is also expected….