American Roots Music

“Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Ft. Mary Lambert
I chose to do this topic over the song “same love” because it shows the perspectives of fear and struggles throughout the song related to social issues. Specifically, this song is more towards the LGBTQ+ community, and the reason it all came to be such an amazing and popular song was that it had so much meaning behind it. The songwriters are also telling their life stories throughout. This song really hit it off in 2014 and won a Grammy award for Macklemore and Lewis, but Mary Lambert is the actual songwriter of this song. Lambert grew up knowing that she was gay and felt guilty about it, especially because she was involved in church. She stated that she would go to church on Sundays and cry and apologize for being a sinner. From a personal view, I believe that this helped a lot of people open their eyes and really take a look at the bigger picture of things in the sense that being part of the LGBTQ+ community is not anything that should surprise others. It is something that should be taken as calmly and should be respected as anyone who is straight because, at the end of the day, who actually cares. There are many factors that can make this a lot more complicated, and as Lambert stated, if she went to church on Sundays, then her fear and guilt may be because of her denomination. I know that in the church where I was raised, Catholic, they aren’t really accepting, and it’s not everyone who abides by that because I know that I don’t, and I firmly believe that love is love and it’s their life. This song also raised awareness of the social aspects of bullying. There is another article that states that Macklemore felt inspired because of his uncle, and he also mentions that at the beginning of the song, when she says, “When I was in the 3rd grade I thought I was gay ‘cause I could draw, my uncle was and I kept my room straight.” The thought process behind this one is revealed when Macklemore was interviewed in 2013 by New York Times and said he had just read an article about a teenager who had just killed himself because he was being bullied for his sexuality. I think it is very important and special when famous people speak up on things that can be an issue and are just pushed aside because, as someone who people like to look up to, I think that it’s easier to have people open up and feel more comfortable. He also says I just wanted to hold myself accountable, and hold hip-hop accountable and bring up an issue that was being pushed under the rug." He approached this in a way that is not very commonly used by many other artists, and it could possibly be the fact that they are also in fear and may feel guilty themselves. Another neat thing about this song and how Macklemore, Lambert, and Lewis came out was the music video. Toward the end of the music video, they display gay couples being married, and that really felt very empowering, considering that it took so long to make gay marriage legal. When also nominated for the Grammys, they all came together with Queen Latifah and had the bright idea to use this in their performance. In the article, they stated it “delivered a powerful performance of the song that saw gay and heterosexual couples get married on live television. Queen Latifah officiated the mass wedding, and near the end of the performance, Madonna arrived on stage, singing a portion of her 1986 hit "Open Your Heart" before joining Lambert in singing the final chorus and outro of "Same Love." This idea was also set up by the producer Ken Ehrlich because his daughter identified as a lesbian. The whole idea was to have many different couples in the performance because it could’ve seemed like they were only trying to raise awareness on same-sex couples only, and Ehrlick backs this up with, “I wanted to try and universalize it in one way, and show the importance of diversity and embracing all of our communities. I wanted to demonstrate that it's not unusual, but it's universal." I personally have not received any discrimination, but I do know that it is hard coming out to people, especially when you're at risk of potentially losing people who are very close to you because you may think that they won’t be accepting of you and who you truly are. I have a friend who came not to be back when we were still in high school, and she was genuinely terrified to see what I would say and cried before she even got her words out. Once she came out, I 100% supported everything and was so happy that she relied on me and felt comfortable enough to let me be the first person to know. However, things did go south when it came to telling her parents. She described it to be so scary that she actually felt like she’d rather be straight and cover herself than tell her parents because they are catholic. In the end, her dad was accepting, but her mom didn’t speak to her for the 2 following weeks, and anything after that was very awkward. I could not believe this when she told me because, as a parent, I just always thought they had to love me no matter what. There’s no possible way that you could discriminate against your own child, right? Wrong. In the end, I think that this song and concept were very helpful to many people who were feeling fear and guilt, and the way Macklemore, Lewis, and Lambert came about it was perfect because they incorporated it with a Hip-Hop/R&B/ soul type of genre and got the point across very well.










Works Cited
Louie, Pat. “Same Love, Marriage Equality, and Hip-Hop.” The Sociological Cinema, 4

December 2012, https://www.thesociologicalcinema.com/videos/same-love-marriage-equality-and-hip-hop. Accessed 16 November 2022.


“Macklemore - Same Love (Lyrics + Official Music Video).” YouTube, 6 November 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQngzapK5dM. Accessed 16 November 2022.

“Why Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Same Love" Was One Of The 2010s' Most Important LGBTQ+ Anthems — And How It's Still Impactful 10 Years On.” GRAMMY.com,


 https://www.grammy.com/news/same-love-macklemore-ryan-lewis-grammys-2014-perfo rmance-mary-lambert-impact-pride-anthem-lgtbq-rights-same-sex-marriage-anniversary. Accessed 16 November 2022.

Zollo, Paul. “Behind the Song: Mary Lambert On Writing “Same Love” With Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.” American Songwriter, 23 April 2020, https://americansongwriter.com/same-love-macklemore-ryan-lewis-mary-lambert-behind -the-song/. Accessed 16 November 2022. 

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