Oprah Winfrey's powerful, passionate speech after accepting the Cecile B. DeMille Award at the 75th Golden Globe Awards has been one of early 2018's dominant pop culture storylines. It received widespread support from other celebrities and sparked rumors of a potential presidential run, which dovetailed into opportunistic meme merch.
It's also, apparently, music?
Oprah's speech was included in the January 12 edition of Spotify's New Music Friday playlist, which is one of the service's premiere playlists and compiles noteworthy tracks that have just been released. This version includes songs by Camila Cabello, Jorja Smith, and Lil Skies along with audio of Oprah's acceptance. The speech is the 66th and final song in the playlist.
In the speech, she delved into issues of race and sexual assault, touching on her experience as a young girl watching Sidney Poitier become the second African-American to win an Academy Award in 1964. She also discusses the rape of Recy Taylor, the #MeToo movement, and the brave women sharing their stories of abuse and assault in Hollywood.
In the past, Spotify has tried to react to major moments in mainstream culture. In August 2017 they announced the intention to remove "hate bands" from the service. However, they have also being criticized for making playlists that respond to global tragedies. The streaming service explained to Trackrecord some of the rationale behind these decisions:
"People lean on music for hope, encouragement, to grieve, to find community," they said. "We see Spotify as a platform for discovery, and we are always trying to facilitate ways for our audience to discover music, culture, and each other. Some ways we’ve done this include bringing artists from different backgrounds together and facilitating the creation of new music (I’m with the banned), supporting communities through weekly playlisting (Feminist Friday), and curating playlists for communities in need (Por Puerto Rico)."
They've also branched into other forms of audio content. In February 2017 they announced the decision to branch into podcasts, and produced a trio of original shows.
