SZA was simply as confused as everybody else when Cher name-dropped Luther Vandross throughout her and Kendrick Lamar’s File of the 12 months win on the 2026 Grammys.
Cher, 79, made waves throughout the Sunday, February 1, ceremony when she offered the File of the 12 months class. She initially introduced the winner as Luther Vandross quite than Lamar, 38, and SZA, 36, for his or her tune “Luther,” which is impressed by the late singer.
SZA later reacted to the mix-up, explaining why Cher might need made the error.
“We share the frequency of the tune, like, that’s his frequency that allowed us to win and that allowed us to be, like, memorable,” she advised Leisure Tonight in a video posted through Instagram on Sunday. “So, she’s not incorrect and she or he’s from that period, so she in all probability actually knew Luther Vandross.”
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SZA added: “In fact her mind and her vitality is connecting that vitality to the vitality that we’re sharing. We’re mooching off of what Luther already gave us. So, we’re grateful. … Thanks, Luther.”
In one other clip from the interview, SZA laughed off the awkward second, confessing, “I didn’t know what was happening.”
“A legend was talking … that’s what I understood,” she mentioned. “Cher was, , she was queening.”
Cher suffered by means of a couple of blunder whereas presenting on the Grammys on Sunday. When she first appeared on stage, she obtained a Lifetime Achievement Award after she was unable to attend the Grammys Particular Benefit Awards on Saturday, January 31, to just accept the accolade. Cher then made a heartfelt speech and subsequently tried to exit the stage, seemingly forgetting that she nonetheless wanted to current File of the 12 months.
As soon as she returned, Cher did not open the envelope to see which of the nominees gained the class.
“And the Grammy goes to … Oh! They advised me it was going to be on a prompter,” she mentioned earlier than eradicating the winner’s identify from the envelope. “Oh, the Grammy goes to Luther Vandross. Oh, Kendrick, no, Kendrick Lamar!”
Cher was seen apologizing to Lamar, SZA and their collaborators as they got here as much as settle for the award.
In actuality, whereas Vandross didn’t take dwelling the Grammy for File of the 12 months, Lamar and SZA’s tune “Luther” accommodates a pattern of his and Cheryl Lynn’s 1982 rendition of “If This World Had been Mine.”
Lamar paid tribute to Vandross—who died in July 2005 at age 54 from a coronary heart assault—throughout his Grammys acceptance speech, explaining that the second was “particular” to him as a result of the late singer is “one in all my favourite artists of all time.”
“We all know how a lot him and Cheryl Lynn poured into that document,” he added. “Luther endlessly.”
