LOS ANGELES – In a heartfelt celebration of musical legends, Chaka Khan, Cher, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Fela Kuti, and Whitney Houston were honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy at the Grammys Special Merit Awards, held Saturday night.
Upon receiving the accolade, Chaka Khan shared an emotional reflection on her journey. “Music has been my prayer, my healing, my joy, my truth,” she expressed. “Through it, I saved my life.”
Khan was the sole Lifetime Achievement Award recipient present at the intimate gathering at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Ebell Theatre, which took place on the eve of the Grammy Awards’ main event.
The ceremony included a short documentary showcasing Khan’s illustrious career, highlighting her chart-topping hits both as a member of the funk band Rufus and as a solo artist. Notable songs featured included the 1974 Stevie Wonder-written “Tell Me Something Good,” 1983’s “Ain’t Nobody,” 1978’s “I’m Every Woman,” and the 1984 Prince-penned “I Feel For You.”
Dressed in a dazzling sea green gown, Khan graciously acknowledged her collaborators throughout her career, humorously noting that not all were of sound mind.
“Over 50 years, I am blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers, and creatives,” she remarked, pausing with a smile before adding, “and cuckoos.”
Family accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the Nigerian Afrobeat legend Kuti, who died in 1997, and the singing superstar Houston, who died in 2012.
“Her voice — that voice! — remains eternal,” Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law, close friend and longtime manager, said. “Her legacy will live forever.”
Three of his children accepted the award for Kuti, introduced as a “producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the father of Afrobeat.” He’s the first African musician to get the award.
“Thank you for bringing our father here,” Femi Kuti said. “It’s so important for us, it’s so important for Africa, it’s so important for world peace and the struggle.”
The audience gave a collective moan of disappointment when academy President Harvey Mason Jr. said Cher wasn’t there.
She spoke in a very short video.
“The only thing I ever wanted to be was a singer. When I was 4 years old I used to run around the house naked, singing into a hair brush,” she said. “Things haven’t changed all that much.”
Santana also spoke on video, after his son, Salvador, accepted his trophy.
“The world is so infected with fear that we need the music and message of Santana to bring hope, courage and joy to heal the world,” Carlos Santana said.
Elton John’s longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin paid tribute to Simon, calling him “the greatest American songwriter alive.”
Taupin was there as one of the recipients of the Grammys Trustees Award, which honors career contributions outside of performing.
Despite co-writing the vast majority of John’s hits, Taupin has somehow never won a competitive Grammy, though he’s nominated for one Sunday.
“I’ve been waiting 57 years for one of these,” he said, looking at his honorary trophy.
Taupin read a list of the songwriting principles he’s always followed. They included “avoid cliches,” “never write songs in cubicles” and “don’t say you’re going to die if she leaves you — because you’re not.”
Eddie Palmieri, a pianist, composer and bandleader who was a great innovator in Latin jazz and rumba, also got a Trustees Award.
Palmieri, who died last year at 88, became the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, in 1975.
Another trustees honoree was Sylvia Rhone, the first Black woman to head a major record label.
John Chowning, whose work as a Stanford professor in the 1960s was essential to the synthesizer sounds that dominated the 1980s, won the Technical Grammy Award.
Jennifer Jimenez, a band director from South Miami Senior High School, won the Grammys Music Educator Award, and “Ice Cream Man” by Raye got the Harry Belafonte Song for Social Change Award.
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