Moment Cher accidentally announces name of dead artist for Record of the Year instead of winner
Topics: Cher, Grammys, Kendrick Lamar, News, Celebrity
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty
Topics: Cher, Grammys, Kendrick Lamar, News, Celebrity
Cher was left a little red-faced after messing up the announcement of this year's Record of the Year winner.
The music legend was tasked with announcing the winner of one of tonight's most sought-after awards, and it's safe to say it could have gone a lot smoother.
Firstly, when accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award, she forgot that wasn't the only reason she was on stage - the other to announce Record of the Year - and she walked off before doing so.
Then, the 'Believe' hitmaker was staring at a teleprompter to tell her who had won to then realizing the name was in the envelope she was holding. After that, when she did open the envelope, she called out the wrong name.
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"Oh! They told me it was going to be on the prompter," Cher exclaimed as the audience started giggling.
Then she proceeded to announce the winner of this year's Record of the Year as Luther Vandross... who died 20 years ago.
The camera then went to show the actual winner, that being Kendrick Lamar and SZA, as Cher corrected herself.
The mix-up was a result of the name of the winning song being 'luther'. SZA also featured on the track that actually samples Vandross' song, 'If This World Were Mine'.
When they went up to stage to accept the award, Cher started profusely apologizing to everyone.
While Cher will be rather embarrassed about the incident, lots of people online have hailed her as 'iconic'.
See it here:
"An honest mistake, but still iconic," somebody said.
Echoing similar sentiments, another person penned: "Cher fumbled that announcement so bad lmao. Said Luther Vandross instead of the song luther. Icon energy but that was rough, someone get her the right card next time."
"The pause, the name mix‑up, the absolute chaos — only Cher could accidentally turn a Record of the Year announcement into camp television history," a third wrote on social media.
I guess that's another one to add to our list of most awkward moments in Grammys history...
Here are a few others to have happened over the years:
Now, this is more embarrassing for the academy than it is for J.Lo, but in the year 2000, the 'On the Floor' singer rocked up to the Grammys in a green, deep plunge Versace dress.
What's awkward about that? Well, the dress was so spectacular that people didn't care about the ceremony and its winners, but instead Googled The Back-Up Plan actress so much that she became the reason Google Images was created. We should be thanking her, really.
Now, we're not talking meat dresses, but we are talking eggs. Yes, that's right. How could we forget the 'Bad Romance' singer's bizarre entrance to the 2011 Grammys - arriving in an egg being carried across the red carpet.
But it didn't end there as Gaga remained in the egg until her albeit notable performance of 'Born This Way'. To this day, people are still scratching their heads on why it was necessary - but we'll probably never know.
Today, Nicki Minaj might have rubbed her fans the wrong way, but back in 2012, she was that girl. So, a performance at the biggest music event of the year was expected.
What wasn't expected was her performance of 'Roman Holiday', where she, dressed as a nun, performed an exorcism-inspired scene, leaving people visibly shocked and disturbed. What might have been seen as an artistic choice for some was certainly seen as awkward and uncomfortable by others.
It wouldn't be a Grammys award ceremony if Taylor Swift wasn't nominated for something, but back in 2014, when everyone was betting on Red winning Album of the Year, the presenter decided to have a little fun with her.
When reading out who won, they said: "RRRRRRR-Random Access Memories." As you can imagine, Swift's face went from 'OMG' to 'WTH' pretty quickly.
Swifties, relax - this one's not about the 'Cruel Summer' hitmaker but is about an artist named Beck.
Beck might not have as many Grammys or Grammy nominations as Swift, but the two do have one thing in common - an interruption from Kanye on the world stage as he tells them they shouldn't have won over Beyoncé.
Although it seemed like his interruption of Beck was a skit, people didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and things only got more awkward when Ye later told Beck he should respect 'real artistry' and give the award to Beyoncé.