Grammy’s executive producer Ben Winston has insisted that Cher’s chaotic Record of the Year mishap was not their mistake after she blamed the teleprompter.
During Sunday’s ceremony, the singing icon, 79, caused havoc when she mistakenly announced the late R&B artist Luther Vandross as the category’s winner instead of Kendrick Lamar and SZA, who won for their song “Luther.”
“I promise you, we had briefed her, and I promise you, what she had to do was in the prompter,” Winston said on Rolling Stone’s Music Now podcast.
Still, if Winston could turn back time, he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I’d want that to happen again,” he said. “[Cher’s] happy with it. She had a great time. You want a bit of anarchy.”
Earlier in the evening, the “Believe” star was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Never give up on your dream, no matter what happens,” she told the crowd. “Live it, be it, and if it’s not happening now, it will happen soon.”
She later returned to the stage to present one of the night’s biggest prizes. However, there was confusion as she told the glittering crowd, “I guess I’m supposed to walk off now,” before slowly leaving the stage.
Host Trevor Noah had to call after her and request that she stay to read out the Record of the Year nominees, as a backstage crew member could also be seen explaining the situation to the singer.
“I could do it, but it’s not the same; I don’t have the track record,” Noah joked.
Walking back out, Cher seemed slightly irked as she thought she was supposed to be reading from the teleprompter instead of the envelope in her hands.
“And the Grammy goes to, oh, they told me it was going to be on the prompter, oh, and the Grammy goes to…”
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Cher temporarily paused, looking confused, before announcing: “Luther Vandross.”
Cameras cut to SZA and Lamar laughing as they realized Cher’s mistake and stood up to collect their award, while Cher corrected herself: “No, Kendrick Lamar!”
Their winning song “Luther” does, in fact, sample Vandross, who died in 2005, from his 1982 collaboration with Cheryl Lynn on “If This World Were Mine.” It is unclear if Cher was simply confused upon reading “Luther” on the winner’s card, or if there was a note crediting Vandross for the sample.
Accepting the award, a smiling Lamar said: “This is what music is about. Luther Vandross.
“This is special for me, I gotta take my time, because it’s one of my favorite artists of all time, and they granted us the privilege to do our version of it.”
