The neatest thing in regards to the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Awards, the place they dispense Lifetime Achievement Awards and different career-capping honors, is the nice and cozy approach the recipients attain throughout genres and generations to acknowledge one another. And so it was when the 2024 honors have been introduced on Saturday (Feb. 3) on the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.
Hip-hop innovator DJ Kool Herc, who acquired a Trustees Award, spied fellow honoree Gladys Knight within the entrance row and mentioned of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” her 1973 traditional with the Pips – “now, that’s flow.”
Ice Cube additionally praised Knight and the gospel singing group The Clark Sisters in his remarks, through which N.W.A acquired a Lifetime Achievement Award.
“We knew when we started to do music in 1985/1986 that a Grammy was not in the cards for the type of music we were doing, and we were cool with that. We can’t sing like Gladys or hold a note like The Clark Sisters. We wanted to make sense of the world around us, Long Beach, Compton, Watts.”
He famous that when N.W.A began out that they had their lane all to themselves. “We didn’t think the whole world would be doing it. We thought it was ours. What it showed was when you do your thing, the world will come to you and you don’t have to go to the world.”
N.W.A is the fifth rap group to obtain a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy prior to now eight years, following Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and Salt-N-Pepa. (In addition, Slick Rick, who rose to prominence in Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew, was honored on his personal final yr.)
In welcoming the viewers to the Special Merit Awards, Ruby Marchand, the Academy’s chief awards and business officer, mentioned “This ceremony is a highlight of Grammy Week, so heartfelt.” That’s the proper phrase for it. Especially because the Grammy Awards scaled as much as arenas in 1997 once they have been held at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the primary time, the Special Merit Awards are seen as the hotter, extra intimate present, with good emotions throughout. Perhaps that’s as a result of it’s not a contest and since these acknowledgements often come late within the honorees’ careers, when they’re in a reflective temper.
Four of the honors have been introduced posthumously – Lifetime Achievement Awards to Donna Summer, Tammy Wynette, Eazy-E of N.W.A and a Technical Grammy Award to sound engineer Tom Kobayashi. In addition, lawyer Joel Katz, who acquired a Trustees Award, “[is] addressing his health concerns,” within the phrases of fellow lawyer Jason M. Karlov, who accepted for him.
Dr. Dre, being honored as a member of N.W.A despatched a textual content message, learn by Harvey Mason, jr. CEO of the Recording Academy, through which he defined that the ceremony fell on his daughter’s birthday and he put household first, however nonetheless mentioned “I’m honored to receive this award with my N.W.A brothers.”
Two well-chosen visitor artists launched segments. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who had a No. 1 smash on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996 with “Tha Crossroads,” a tribute to Eazy-E, introduced the award to N.W.A. The members mentioned that N.W.A “changed music, culture and America forever.” And Shelby Lynne introduced the award to considered one of her idols, Wynette. Lynne additionally sang an excellent little bit of Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man,” which she appropriately known as “a country classic for the ages.”
Wynette’s award was accepted by Tamala Jones, her daughter by George Jones. The daughter credited the Showtime miniseries George & Tammy for being an element that will have helped Wynette, who died in 1998, lastly obtain this award. George Jones acquired the distinction in 2012.
Bruce Sudano, who was married to Summer for greater than 30 years, accepted Summer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, together with their daughters Mimi, Brooklyn and Amanda. He mentioned the cellphone name through which he was notified of the distinction stirred “feelings I didn’t anticipate. My body filled with pure joy, connected to a tear in my eye. It’s gratifying for us that, more than 10 years after her passing, her voice and music are still omnipresent in the zeitgeist.”
He credited Universal Music Group and Warner Chappell, amongst others, for arising with artistic methods to maintain her music alive. “I’m grateful that she continues to inspire young fans, [whether newcomers or] beautiful Beyoncé and her Summer Renaissance.”
The Summer phase ended when her daughter Mimi sang just a few ethereal traces from Summer’s 1977 dance/electronica traditional “I Feel Love.”
Summer was the primary feminine artist to win Grammy Awards in 4 totally different genres: R&B (“Last Dance”), rock (“Hot Stuff”), inspirational (“He’s a Rebel” and “Forgive Me”) and dance (“Carry On”).
Knight spoke emotionally about household in accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award. She famous that her mom would by no means enable her to sing “easy.” It needed to come from a deeper place. All credit score, then, to Gladys Knight’s mom for encouraging her daughter to search out the proper mix of “pain and glory” that has all the time been her trademark.
In 1974, Gladys Knight & the Pips grew to become the primary group to win Grammys in each pop and R&B classes the identical evening.
Laurie Anderson accepted her Lifetime Achievement Award with an eloquent speech. “I make a kind of music that doesn’t have a snappy name,” she mentioned. “It’s kind of awkwardly called multi-media or art music. The one I liked least maybe is ‘experimental,’ which sounds like you’re making things in a lab that might explode.”
She additionally associated three guidelines to dwell by that she and her late husband, Lou Reed, got here up with.
“1) Don’t be afraid of anyone. 2) Get a really good bullshit detector. 3) Be really tender.”
Anderson might win a aggressive Grammy on Sunday, sooner or later after accepting this honorary one. She is nominated for greatest historic album for Words & Music, May 1965 (Deluxe Edition). Anderson is considered one of two of this yr’s Special Merit Awardees who’re present Grammy nominees. Karen Clark-Sheard of The Clark Sisters is nominated for greatest gospel efficiency/music for “God Is Good.”
Peter Asher, who acquired a Trustees Award, had scanned the record of earlier recipients of that award, and mentioned he discovered it “intimidating.” Citing particularly The Beatles, Mo Ostin, Ahmet Ertegun, Sir George Martin, Lou Adler, Carole King and Clive Davis, he mentioned “the phrase ‘We are not worthy’ comes to mind when I get this award.”
In a video organising the presentation, the Grammys reached again to a clip from the 1990 telecast the place Asher received producer of the yr, non-classical for the second time. “I would like to thank the artists I worked with,” he mentioned. “They could very easily have made the records without me, but I certainly couldn’t have made them without them.”
There have been moments of humor within the proceedings. Sound engineer Tom Scott, who acquired a Technical Grammy Award in tandem along with his late companion Tom Kobayashi, needed to sheepishly admit that even he generally has technical points. “I had this [acceptance speech] on my cell phone, but it’s on a little red zone that says it has 5% power, so I had to fall back on analog,” he mentioned, as he pulled out a printed copy of his remarks to learn.
Jason M. Karlov, an lawyer at Katz’s legislation agency, Barnes + Thornburg, mentioned this in accepting Katz’s Trustees Award, that are usually given to non-performers. “I’ve heard Trustees Awards are not for performances but if you’ve ever known Joel, it’s a performance.”
Karlov additionally mentioned that Katz feels that “his most prideful work is his 41 years of service on behalf of the Academy.” As an out of doors common counsel for the Recording Academy, Katz is credited with main the negotiations for the Grammys’ 10-year, $500 million cope with CBS in 2016. (The Academy has rewarded a handful of Grammy insiders with Trustees Awards through the years, together with Christine Farnon, the Academy’s first full-time worker; Pierre Cossette, who was instrumental in turning the Grammys right into a dwell telecast; Walter C. Miller, the present’s longtime director; and Ken Ehrlich, who produced or government produced the telecast for 40 years.)
Ok’naan’s “Refugee” was the Best Song for Social Change Award Honoree.This award, now in its second yr, honors songwriter(s) of message-driven music that speaks to the social problems with our time and has demonstrated and impressed optimistic international influence.
“Refugee,” which Ok’naan co-wrote with Steve McEwan and Gerald Eaton, serves as a tribute to refugees around the globe. Ok’naan, 45, was nominated in a comparable class, greatest video with a message, on the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards for “Is Anybody Out There?,” a collaboration with Nelly Furtado.
Annie Ray of Annandale High School in Annandale, Virginia, acquired the 2024 Music Educator Award introduced by the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum. Ray serves as each the orchestra director and performing arts division chair at Annandale High School within the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) system. “Orchestra is much more than just a class – it’s a second family,” Ray mentioned.
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