By Cady Lang
While the MTV Video Music Awards were chock full of show-stopping moments like Drake and Rihanna’s kiss and Beyoncé’s performance of the entire Lemonade album, one of the highlights of the night was a more pared-down (but just as powerful) offering from Alicia Keys.
The “In Common” singer took the stage, bare-faced and beautiful, to deliver a moving tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 53rd anniversary of his “I Have a Dream” speech, in the form of a poem. The singer’s poem, which includes the lines, “Maybe we could love somebody/Maybe we could care a little more” later turned into an a capella song.
See her full performance below.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com