\n\tThe Recording Academy\u2019s Special Merit Awards are always a warm, low-key affair \u2013 in contrast to the much bigger spectacle that follows the next day \u2013 the annual Grammy Awards telecast. This year\u2019s edition, held at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday (Jan. 31), was no exception, though it was diminished a bit by the fact that three living recipients of lifetime achievement awards weren\u2019t in the room. Cher and Carlos Santana sent thanks on video. Paul Simon supplied comments which Warner Music executive Michael Ostin read.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ceremony honored Santana, Chaka Khan, Cher, Fela Kuti, Simon and Whitney Houston, this year\u2019s lifetime achievement recipients; Bernie Taupin, Eddie Palmieri and Sylvia Rhone, this year\u2019s Trustees Award recipients; John Chowning, the Technical Grammy Award honoree; Jennifer Jimenez\u00a0of South Miami Senior High School in Miami, Florida, this year\u2019s recipient of the\u00a0Music Educator Award; and RAYE, BloodPop (Michael Tucker) and Mike Sabath, the writers of RAYE\u2019s \u201cIce Cream Man,\u201d winner of this year\u2019s Harry Belafonte Best Song for Social Change Award.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccepting the latter award, Mike Sabath provided one of the afternoon\u2019s most dramatic moments. He read off a list of nine people, including Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti, who have been killed by ICE this year while protesting. \u201cNine too many people. Abolish ICE. Please,\u201d he said, to cheers.<\/p>\n
\n\tPalmieri, a Latin music legend, was honored less than six months after he died at age 88. Two other artists were honored posthumously \u2013 Afrobeats pioneer Kuti, who died in 1997, and Houston, who died in 2012.<\/p>\n
\n\tSimon was honored as a solo artist. Simon & Garfunkel received a lifetime achievement award as a duo in 2003. Simon joins the short list of people who have been honored both solo and in groups or duos. Others include Diana Ross (The Supremes) and Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison (The Beatles).<\/p>\n
\n\tHouston received the honor seven years after her cousin Dionne Warwick was honored.<\/p>\n
\n\tTaupin was this year\u2019s only Special Merit Award recipient who is also a 2026 Grammy nominee. He is up for best song written for visual media for \u201cNever Too Late\u201d from Elton John: Never Too Late. Incredibly, Taupin has yet to win a competitive Grammy.<\/p>\n
\n\tLifetime Achievement Awards are presented to performers who have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording. Trustees Awards are presented to individuals who have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording. Technical Grammy Awards are presented to individuals, companies, organizations or institutions who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.<\/p>\n
\n\tHere are eight highlights from this year\u2019s Special Merit Awards ceremony.<\/p>\n
\tClive Davis Toasts the 3 Honorees He Had Worked Closely With<\/p>\n
\n\tThe event departed from its usual format by opening with a video from industry legend Clive Davis, in which he shared specific memories of this year\u2019s three honorees whom he had worked closely with \u2013 Paul Simon, Whitney Houston and Carlos Santana.<\/p>\n
\n\tDavis told the story of his pushing for the power ballad \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water,\u201d rather than the ultra-catchy and more obviously commercial \u201cCecilia,\u201d to be the lead single from what turned out to be Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s final studio album.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI vividly remember I was blown away by \u2018Bridge Over Troubled Water,\u2019 and I knew that they were expecting me to say, \u2018Cecilia.\u2019 It was uptempo and had a terrific chorus. But I looked up at them and I said, \u2018I would go \u2018Bridge Over Troubled Water,\u2019 because if you have a hit with that record, as I think you will, you go right up to The Beatles. You go right up to that status of being the American Beatles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Houston, he recalled the singer\u2019s audition, at age 18, when she sang \u201cThe Greatest Love of All,\u201d apparently not knowing that Davis had played a key role in a 1977 recording of the song by George Benson for the Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest. \u00a0\u201cAnd she found total meaning in that song that I never knew was there. She breathed fire into the words. She created a masterpiece. There was no question this artist would be an all-timer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Santana, he recalled reuniting with the rock legend in the late 1990s, after not having been in touch for 25 years, and sensing Santana\u2019s hunger to again be relevant. \u00a0\u201cWe arranged to meet in L.A. at the Beverly Hills Hotel. And he says, \u2018Clive, my kids have not heard me on the radio ever \u2013 my teenage children.\u2019 \u2018I said, \u2018I just got this song, and it\u2019s called \u2018Smooth.\u2019 I said, \u2018This could be a big, big, big hit.\u2019 And I played it for him, and he said, \u2018You know, I take your word. You know what hits are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\tArtists Pay Tribute to Executives<\/p>\n
\n\tWarner Music executive Michael Ostin read some comments from Paul Simon: \u201cI would like to express my gratitude and respect to Roy Halee and Phil Ramone, my engineers and co-producers. I\u2019d also like to extend the same gratitude and respect to Clive Davis and Mo Ostin, the two record executives who supported my work and without whose help and friendship I wouldn\u2019t have received this recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAccepting by video, Carlos Santana thanked two industry legends: \u201cI am deeply grateful to Mr. Bill Graham, who helped us find our life on the Woodstock stage and all stages beyond, and Mr. Clive Davis, who helped us move the spiritual radio dial and hold it at the right frequency to touch people\u2019s hearts across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tExecutives Pay Tribute to Artists<\/p>\n
\n\tAccepting a Trustees Award, a clearly moved Sylvia Rhone said,\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to work across an extraordinary range of artists and traditions, Missy Elliott and Metallica, Motown and Meghan Trainor, Tracy Chapman and Travis Scott. That range taught me a simple truth. Music does not exist in silos. It grows through conversation, through translations, listening to one another and shaping what comes next \u2013 R&B, rap, Latin, jazz, gospel, blues, rock, folk, country, classical, electronic. Each carries its own grammar of feeling and form. Each shows us something essential about who we are, what we remember and what we imagine.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNone of this work happens alone. Every great recording is a shared achievement. Artists, producers, songwriters and craftspeople working in concert. \u2026 So while I accept this tonight, I do so on behalf of everyone who trusts me with their work, challenges my thinking and expanded my sense of what music can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAccepting for Paul Simon, Michael Ostin said, \u201cHe was a master songwriter and a master record maker, and I had the incredible privilege of having a ringside scene at seeing him craft some of those records. I remember vividly going to his apartment in New York. He had a little office music room. And I remember he was listening to some South African instrumental music, and he was sitting there playing his music, and he had his acoustic guitar, he\u2019s drumming, humming melodies and throwing out lyrics. And he could see Graceland being shaped sitting in that room, and it\u2019s indelibly etched into my brain. It was extraordinary, and he taught me so much. I mean, he just taught me so much about the craft, how meticulous he was in the process. He taught me everything there was about just being a brilliant artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tChaka Khan Gets a Laugh With a Candid Moment<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis journey has never been mine alone,\u201d Khan said. \u201cIt has been guided by faith and purpose and by something greater than me. Over 50 years, I\u2019ve been blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers, creators and cuckoos.\u201d That last, unexpected shoutout got a laugh, with the audience understanding that after 50+ years in the music business, Khan has no doubt come across more than a few \u201ccuckoos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCher Gets a Laugh for Being Typically Cher<\/p>\n
\n\tCher sent a video in which she reminisced, \u201cWhen I was little, all I wanted to be was a singer. When I was four years old, I used to run around my house naked, singing into a hairbrush \u2013 so not much has changed. Thank you Recording Academy. I want you to know how proud and grateful I am to receive this lifetime achievement award, and congratulations to all the other recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBernie Taupin Salutes 6 Songwriters He Especially Admires<\/p>\n
\n\t The veteran lyricist saluted six songwriters he holds in especially high regard.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere are so many songwriters that I admire, so many of them that have passed away. And I\u2019m going all the way back to people like Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, the great Merle Haggard, and then recently, my good friend Brian Wilson, one of the greats; one of the few people I might add who can be labelled a genius, along with one of the only people, I think, that can be called a poet, and that\u2019s Leonard Cohen. We\u2019re not poets, we\u2019re songwriters, but Leonard Cohen was a poet.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis brings me to the opportunity to salute someone who actually isn\u2019t here tonight, but is getting one of these awards [a lifetime achievement award]. And for me, I was going to think that he\u2019s probably one of, but I think he is the greatest American songwriter alive \u2013 exquisite melodies, extraordinary lyrics and ideas that transcend the stars. So, while I\u2019m happy to get this award tonight, I am absolutely thrilled to be the shadow of Paul Simon. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n