Cher makes meaningful ‘Luther’ mix-up at Grammy’s: Here’s how
Cher’s mix-up while announcing ‘Luther’ as the Record of the Year is surprisingly relevant
Cher brought some unexpected chaos to the 2026 Grammys while presenting an award, but her mix-up was not a complete miss.
The Moonstruck star was tasked with presenting the Record of the Year but faced some confusion while announcing the winners.
In the beginning, the 79-year-old appeared to be contemplating before she blurtied out “And the Grammy goes to… Oh! They told me it was going to be on a prompter,” realising soon after that she had to read the card she had in her hand.
“Oh, the Grammy goes to Luther Vandross. Oh Kendrick, no Kendrick Lamar!” which made the Grammy’s audience erupt into laughter.
The artist Cher named had passed away in 2005, but she had accidentally explained the inspiration and sample included in the Not Like Us rapper and SZA’s chart-topping song.
As the hit makers took the stage to accept the award, Kendrick stated, “This is what music is about. Luther Vandross, this, this is special for me. I gotta take my time. It's one of my favorite artists of all time, and they granted us the privilege to do our version of this.”
“When we got that clearance, I promise you, we definitely all dropped a tear, because we know how much him and Cheryl Lynn poured into that record,” he added, referring to the go-ahead for using the 1982 duet If This World Were Mine in the 2024 track.
Notably, SZA also referenced the misspeaking in an interview after the fact, saying that they share the frequency of the song, and it allowed them to win and be memorable, so Cher was not wrong in saying his name.
Who was Luther Vandross?
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. was an R&B singer and record producer from New York. He is best known for hits like Dance with My Father and If This World Were Mine.
Luther is widely recognised as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021.