Pharrell Williams Gives Powerful Speech About ‘Women And Gay Rights’ [Video]

Pharrell Williams has had a stellar year in music. His song “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk earned him a Grammy, and he’s stayed on the Top 40 charts because of his single “Happy,” which seems to have caught everyone in a gleeful dizzying spell.

The hit maker visited Ellen DeGeneres, and through their talk on the daytime show, Williams revealed that he doesn’t just make hits on Top 40. Pharrell has a lot more going on for him than his music. The R&B artist has strong opinions on the politics of the world and dished them out to DeGeneres.

During the conversation Pharrell challenged anyone that doesn’t respect women and their freedom.

“We’re a species that has a space station floating above the Earth for 20 years. We even have a rover on the surface of Mars. How can we be the same species that is telling people…we have legislators and legislation in places, in certain places that tells women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. How is that possible?!”

It isn’t a surprise that Pharrell would talk about how women deserve respect in the world. His new album, titled G I R L, is a tribute to women.

The conversation also turned to gay rights, which was prompted by Pharrell Williams as opposed to openly gay talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

“You’ll be surprised but when I say equality, I mean equality for everybody! Everybody! Who are you telling who they can marry and who they can’t? What is this? Like…this is 2014!”

Back in February Pharrell Williams’ reps talked about the release of G I R L and how his performances early in the year really set up a nice pocket of exposure before the new album hit.

“Coming off the Grammys, his performance at the NBA All-star Game that showed the depth and the breadth of his work, the Brit Awards (Feb. 19) and the Oscars – it’s taking advantage of the global spotlight on him.”

Columbia Records general manager and executive vice president Joel Klaiman said of the album:

“Now we’re going to work on ways toward telling the story of what the album is. How much we get to do in the next 13 days is in discussion. It’s not fully decided. Pharrell wanted a sense of urgency to the project.”

G I R L was released on March 3 and can be purchased on multiple platforms.

[Image Credit: Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com]