Quincy Jones & More Salute to Academy Award Governors: 8 Best Moments

Jennifer Hudson led a 12-piece gospel choir in a rousing version of “Maybe God Is Tryin' to Tell You Something,” a song from the 1985 film The Color Purplefor which Jones received three of his seven career Academy Award nominations. It went without saying that Hudson's career and EGOT status would have been unthinkable without Jones' pioneering efforts before she was even born.

(Hudson performed the Leslie Gore-produced hit “You Don't Own Me” at a 90th birthday concert for Jones at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2023.)

After Jamie Foxx was cast as Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Radiushe called Jones, who had been friends with Charles since they were teenagers, to see if he could provide some guidance. Jones invited him to his house and dug through boxes to find a tape of a vintage Charles performance – which Fox found useful when he was able to track down a cassette player. Foxx won an Academy Award for his performance.

Rashida Jones said “Our father passed away two weeks ago today. Four of his seven [Jones’ children] she's here and our beautiful family in the audience and she has so many friends in this room – actually probably in every room if I'm honest because wherever she went she made connections with everyone. He had this natural gift with people. He knew how to stay present, to be curious, and to stay loved.”

Jones also urged people in the audience to explore Jones' music, not just the familiar scores and triumphs of Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra movies.

“There's a whole universe waiting in his seven decades of music and as you listen, you hear how he infuses love into every second of music he's made. This was his real legacy. He loved life. He often said “Live each day as if it were your last and one day you will be right”.

Rashida Jones said her father “really, really, really meant to be here with us tonight.” He added that “for the last month we have been working on a speech. And here is where he is in his own words.”

The highlight of Quincy Jones' remarks was this look back at how much the film industry has changed. “We have come a long way in our industry. When I was a young film composer, you didn't even see people of color working in the studio system. I am so, so proud that my name and contributions can be included in this development today. I am very grateful to have composed more than 35 scores.”

Even before the program began, there was evidence of Jones' lasting influence. Over the speakers we heard such pop hits as Janet Jackson's “When I Think of You” and Whitney Houston's “How Will I Know.” Jones didn't produce any of these records – Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis produced Jackson's smash. Narada Michael Walden produced the Houston's – but they would be the first to admit how much they were influenced by Q's sound and style on these hits.

It took an Englishman, Richard Curtis, to be the first to comment on the recent US presidential election. “It's been a very strange fortnight,” he said. “To all those who are sad,” he offered a song that fits the current mood – Queen and David Bowie's 1981 hit “Under Pressure.” He suggested that he was good at suggesting a song because his films are “so often strung together with pop songs”.

Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, 43 years after their father, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, received the honor. Descendants kept the James Bond franchise alive and relevant in a very different time than when the franchise first launched in 1962. All three Bond songs that won Oscars for best original song – Adele's 'Skyfall', 'Writing's on the' Sam Smith Wall' and Billie Eilish's 'No Time to Die' – have caught Wilson and Broccoli's eye. Daniel Craig, who starred in the last five Bond films, presented the award to Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Richard Curtis and one of his top stars, Hugh Grant, who was portraying a fake relationship, had some fun with the Governor's Awards and whether or not they should count as Oscars.

Grant, who became an international star in the 1994 film Four weddings and a funeralwritten by Curtis, and had another big hit on the 2003 ensemble piece Love actuallywhich Curtis wrote and directed, said “Shall we call it an Oscar? It's kind of like an Oscar. It's an Oscar better than nothing.”

Curtis more or less agreed when he accepted his award. “It's the Oscar for people who never made a movie good enough to win an Oscar.”