Is it just me, or have awards shows become unwatchable?
In their heyday, the Oscars and the Grammys commanded enormous audiences. But recently, they’ve become better known for leftist politics than celebrating excellence in film and music.
In 1998, 55 million viewers tuned in to the Oscars; by 2025, this number was down to 19.7 million. In 1998, 25 million Americans watched the Grammys, but by 2026, viewership declined to 14.4 million. Viewership has consistently declined despite an estimated population growth of 66 million people during that same period.
It’s true that people had fewer entertainment options in the latter days of the 20th century – the internet and social media of 1998 weren’t what they are today, and smartphones were nonexistent – but it’s also true that award shows didn’t used to spew blatant leftwing propaganda with nearly every joke or acceptance speech. If award shows returned to apolitical entertainment, and Hollywood and the music industry returned to artistic excellence, not political activism, it’s reasonable to assume that more Americans might tune in to these annual events.
But this is probably wishful thinking.
In the 2026 Grammy Awards the show’s theme was anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Many attendees wore “ICE OUT” pins, while one award winner after another gave impassioned acceptance speeches about their pro-immigrant, anti-ICE positions.
One winner especially is an excellent example of why entertainers should stick to what they’re good at and stay out of politics. Billie Eilish, a 24-year-old multimillionaire singer-song-writer, who was born in Los Angeles to thespian parents that homeschooled their daughter until the age of 15, didn’t just want “ICE OUT.” No, she wanted to stake her position that “no one is illegal on stolen land.”
The problem with Eilish’s point of view is that she doesn’t have a background in history or law, and her recent real estate transaction suggests she’s simply another liberal hypocrite. At age 17, Eilish spent $2.3 million on her first house, upgrading to a $14 million dollar Los Angeles mansion at age 23. The problem is, her California mansion is built on land claimed by the Tongva tribe.
If you’ve seen recent headlines, this might sound familiar. But what the media failed to cover is that just north of California, in British Columbia, Canada, such aboriginal claims to land are playing out in the Canadian court system. Aboriginal legal claims have been around in Canada for a long time, but the basis for recent legal rulings started when liberal Canadian politicians – led by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – enshrined aboriginal peoples in the 1982 Constitution Act as a separate group with special rights not afforded to other Canadian citizens. One such right, expanded by activist courts since then, is aboriginal title to land.
What began as a Canadian government-mandated cultural shift of proclamations about stolen land, African Canadian rights, and the inclusion of aboriginal ceremonies at public events, has turned into lawsuits filed to reclaim the so-called “stolen land” Eilish referred to in her Grammy acceptance speech.
Votes and words have meaning. If you vote for liberal politicians that change laws to favor purported marginalized groups, who form liberal governments that no longer protect the populations they were elected to serve, and who unleash government-mandated (and funded) propaganda campaigns to socially re-engineer national culture, then you get modern Canada. Make no mistake, today’s Canada risks the future of all non-aboriginal citizens and their very existence as a sovereign nation.
In August 2025, the British Columbia Supreme Court rendered the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada decision, stating that Crown and City of Richmond land titles were “defective and invalid” in the area outlined in the ruling. Instead, the aboriginal title of the Cowichan Tribes was the “senior interest” to said land. Imagine going to the mailbox one day to find a letter from the city that you no longer own your property. That’s exactly what happened last year to this ruling’s affected homeowners.
This case is far from over. Canadian legal scholars suggest that it will drag on well into the next decade before a final decision is rendered by the Canadian Supreme Court. Canadian homeowners and commercial property owners will live in limbo until then, asking simple questions about why they’re paying property taxes to a city without jurisdiction, wondering if they can sell or refinance their property, and realizing that if the Canadian Supreme Court eventually rules in favor of aboriginal title, they could lose everything.
Let Canada serve as a lesson. The government we elect must continue to fight for our way of life. If we let down our guard, someone will try to destroy everything we’ve built in our great state and country.
We’ll have to wait and see if entertainers realize they exist to entertain, not lecture us from their morally deficient platforms. We’ll also have to wait and see if Eilish donates her mansion to the Tongva tribe.
Dr. Tobias Vogt von Heselholt (shortened to “Vote”) is a retired U.S. Army officer, former professor, author, and elected member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. For more, see his author page at Amazon.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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