Stevie Wonder, Fantasia Barrino, Annie Lennox and Jon Batiste are set to honor the recently departed music icons at the 2024 Grammy Awards on Sunday (February 4) at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Most have deep personal relationships with the honorees.
Wonder will pay tribute to Tony Bennett, with whom he collaborated to perform “For Once in My Life” on Bennett's 2006 Grammy-winning album. Duet: American Classic. Their collaboration won a Grammy in 2007 for Best Vocal Collaboration. Both artists made the Billboard Hot 100 with the song, separately, in the 1960s. It is not widely known that Bennett's version entered the chart more than a year before Wonder's more famous version. Bennett's version reached No. 91 in 1967. Wonder's smash version reached No. 2 in 1968.
Fantasia will honor Tina Turner. Fantasia sang Ike & Tina Turner's 1960 classic “A Fool in Love” en route to her Season 3 win. American Idol. Oprah Winfrey will introduce Fantasia, with whom she worked on the 2023 musical version The Color Purplewhich Winfrey co-produced.
Turner appeared The Oprah Winfrey Show many times. The talk show icon hit the road with Turner for her Wildest Dreams tour in 1997 – even dancing and singing with Turner on stage. In 2004, Turner surprised Oprah by appearing at her 50th birthday celebration. Turner performed her 1989 classic 'The Best'.
Lennox will pay tribute to Sinéad O'Connor. She will be joined on stage by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman of Prince & the Revolution. O'Connor had her biggest hit in 1990 with Prince's “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which was first recorded by The Family in 1985. Lead and backing vocals on The Family's version were sung by her twin sister Wendy, Susannah Melvoin.
Batiste will welcome Clarence Avant, often called the Black Godfather. Avant mentored generations of Black executives and artists. Lenny Kravitz will also be part of this segment, introducing Batiste. Kravitz and Mariah Carey were the recipients of this year's Global Impact Award at The Recording Academy Honors presented by The Black Music Collective on Thursday (February 1) at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/in-memoriam-segment-2024-grammy-awards-performers-presenters-named-1235597025/