Rapper M.I.A. performed at the 51st Grammy Awards nine months pregnant. She wasn’t the first.
Consider 10 pioneering pregnant performances, from SNL’s Amy Poehler, to Bjork—who, in 1986, performed live, seven months pregnant and wearing a midriff-revealing shirt on Icelandic T.V. Outraged viewers complained, and one reportedly even had a heart attack. Pregnancy wasn’t always done loud and proud (most actors have been forced to hide the condition with the help of the old large-bag, stand-behind-a-counter method). But in 1952, Lucille Ball managed to convince CBS—and corporate sponsor Phillip Morris—to write her real-life pregnancy into the show’s plot—an impressive feat, considering she and Ricky slept in twin beds. Members of the clergy, however, oversaw the writing of the script, and the word “pregnancy” itself was banned.