{"id":146312,"date":"2026-02-01T08:55:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146312\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T08:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T08:55:39","slug":"chaka-khan-cher-whitney-houston-fela-kuti-get-grammys-life-achievement-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146312\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti get Grammys Life Achievement Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Chaka Khan<\/a>, Cher<\/a>, Carlos Santana<\/a>, Paul Simon<\/a>, Fela Kuti<\/a> and Whitney Houston<\/a> received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy at the Grammys<\/a> Special Merit Awards on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cMusic has been my prayer, my healing, my joy, my truth,\u201d Khan said as she accepted the award. \u201cThrough it, I saved my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

She was the only Lifetime Achievement recipient who appeared at the ceremony at the small Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on the eve of Sunday’s main Grammys ceremony<\/a>. <\/p>\n

She was preceded by a short documentary on her career that highlighted her hits as a member of the funk band Rufus and as a solo artist, including 1974’s Stevie Wonder-written \u201cTell Me Something Good,\u201d 1983’s \u201cAin’t Nobody,\u201d 1978’s \u201cI’m Every Woman\u201d and 1984’s Prince-penned \u201cI Feel For You.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wearing a shimmering sea green gown, she thanked her many collaborators while admitting not all of them were entirely sane. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver 50 years I am blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers and creatives,\u201d she said, pausing before adding, \u201cand cuckoos.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer voice \u2014 that voice! \u2014 remains eternal,\u201d Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law, close friend and longtime manager, said. \u201cHer legacy will live forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three of his children accepted the award for Kuti, introduced as a \u201cproducer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the father of Afrobeat.\u201d He’s the first African musician to get the award. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for bringing our father here,\u201d Femi Kuti said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for us, it\u2019s so important for Africa, it\u2019s so important for world peace and the struggle.\u201d <\/p>\n

The audience gave a collective moan of disappointment when academy President Harvey Mason Jr. said Cher wasn’t there. <\/p>\n

She spoke in a very short video. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThings haven\u2019t changed all that much.\u201d <\/p>\n

Santana also spoke on video, after his son, Salvador, accepted his trophy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Carlos Santana said.<\/p>\n

Elton John’s longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin paid tribute to Simon, calling him \u201cthe greatest American songwriter alive.\u201d <\/p>\n

Taupin was there as one of the recipients of the Grammys Trustees Award, which honors career contributions outside of performing. <\/p>\n

Despite co-writing the vast majority of John\u2019s hits, Taupin has somehow never won a competitive Grammy, though he\u2019s nominated for one Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting 57 years for one of these,\u201d he said, looking at his honorary trophy. <\/p>\n

Taupin read a list of the songwriting principles he\u2019s always followed. They included \u201cavoid cliches,\u201d \u201cnever write songs in cubicles\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t say you\u2019re going to die if she leaves you \u2014 because you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Palmieri<\/a>, a pianist, composer and bandleader who was a great innovator in Latin jazz and rumba, also got a Trustees Award. <\/p>\n

Palmieri, who died last year at 88, became the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, in 1975.<\/p>\n

Another trustees honoree was Sylvia Rhone, the first Black woman to head a major record label. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Jennifer Jimenez, a band director from South Miami Senior High School, won the Grammys Music Educator Award, and \u201cIce Cream Man\u201d by Raye got the Harry Belafonte Song for Social Change Award.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Chaka Khan, Cher, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Fela Kuti and Whitney Houston received the Lifetime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61143,30824,30529,61141,61146,61145,2777,61138,56,58,57,61139,61140,6573,61142,22893,61147,61144,61148,6574,3317],"class_list":["post-146312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-bernie-taupin","tag-carlos-santana","tag-chaka-khan","tag-cher","tag-eddie-palmieri","tag-elton-john","tag-entertainment","tag-femi-kuti","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-jennifer-jimenez","tag-john-chowning","tag-marion-patricia-houston","tag-paul-simon","tag-prince","tag-raye","tag-stevie-wonder","tag-sylvia-rhone","tag-whitney-houston","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}