On Wednesday (Jan. 28), the Recording Academy announced artists who will honor music legends we lost in the last year with performances included in the In Memoriam segment:
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- Ms. Lauryn Hill will perform in honor of both D’Angelo, who died in October at age 51, and Roberta Flack, who died last February at age 88. Hill’s group, Fugees, had a Grammy-winning smash in 1996 with a remake of Flack’s 1973 classic “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” At the 1996 MTV Movie Awards, Flack and the Fugees memorably performed the song together.
- Post Malone, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, Duff McKagan and Slash will perform in a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who died in July at age 76. Post Malone had a hit in 2019 with “Take What You Want” featuring Osbourne and Travis Scott.
- Reba McEntire will be joined by Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson will pay tribute to unspecified “others” we’ve recently lost in the creative community.
The Academy hasn’t said if there will be specific salutes to Brian Wilson, Sly Stone and Bob Weir. (Flack, Osbourne, Wilson, Stone and Weir all received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy – Wilson as part of The Beach Boys; Osbourne as part of Black Sabbath; Weir as part of the Grateful Dead.)
Other shows have already had the opportunity to salute some of these artists. Andra Day sang Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” on the BET Awards on June 9. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Yungblud and Nuno Bennencourt performed a three-song tribute to Osbourne on the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7.
In recent years, the Grammys have put an extra spotlight on one or more recently deceased artists per year, sometimes as part of the In Memoriam spot and sometimes apart from it. Last year, Quincy Jones got a six-song tribute. In 2024, the In Memoriam segment included extended tributes to Tony Bennett, Sinéad O’Connor, Clarence Avant and Tina Turner.
In 2023, Loretta Lynn, Takeoff from Migos and Christine McVie from Fleetwood Mac got extra shine in the In Memoriam spot, as did Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim the year before. In 2021, Little Richard, Kenny Rogers, John Prine and Gerry Marsden of Gerry & the Pacemakers got extra attention in the In Memoriam spot. (The latter group had a hit in 1965 with Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” which was a natural for the spot.)
In 2020, Boyz II Men sang “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” in tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who had died in a helicopter crash the morning of the Grammy ceremony. The In Memoriam spot that year put extra focus on Nipsey Hussle and Dr. John.
Sabrina Carpenter was the first performer announced for this year’s show, followed by news that all eight best new artist nominees would perform for the second year in a row. This year’s best new artist nominees are Addison Rae, Alex Warren, KATSEYE, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, sombr and The Marías.
The third performer announcement focused on Clipse and Pharrell Williams, who share three nominations this year. Earlier today, Justin Bieber was added to the performer lineup.