Cher may have wanted to turn back time on her rather chaotic Grammys presenting experience. But the pop legend’s obvious good humor made her series of flubs one of the most enjoyably meme-worthy moments of the night.
In what amounted to a Grammys version of John Travolta’s Adele Dazeem moment at the Oscars — if much more understandable — Cher, presenting record of the year at Sunday’s show, seemed to momentarily award it to the late Luther Vandross.
Quickly, though, she realized amid applause that the actual winner was the very-much-alive Kendrick Lamar, who rose to accept the prize for “Luther,” his duet with SZA. “Luther Vandross – no, Kendrick Lamar!” Cher said, smiling broadly at her own gaffe.
It had its logic, though, because that duet samples Vandross – and one of the song’s producers, Sounwave, began his acceptance speech by saying, “Let’s give a shoutout to the late and great Luther Vandross.”
It wasn’t the only chaotic moment of Cher’s appearance. She’d arrived onstage to present record of the year, but first accepted her lifetime achievement award handed to her by host Trevor Noah — a prize she’d skipped accepting in person at a ceremony the night before. Then, after an upbeat speech focused on overcoming decades of career setbacks, she simply started walking offstage. “I guess I’m supposed to walk off now,” she said, to friendly applause.
Noah called her back, saying: “Cher, before you go could we get you to announce the nominees?” He could do it, he quipped, but she’d be better.
Cher obliged, also with a smile.
When it came time to announce the winner, she first looked around, quizzically. “Oh! They told me it was going to be on a prompter,” she explained.
Noah summed it all up with a positive spin.
“I love live television,” he said.