Friday, December 19, 2025

Cher, Whitney Houston, Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Bernie Taupin, Chaka Khan All Set for Grammy Special Merit Lifetime Achievement Awards

Share

Clive Davis will have to be in two places at the same time on Saturday, January 31st.

The Recording Academy has announced its Special Merit Award winners and they include three of Clive’s biggest artists, Whitney Houston, Paul Simon, and Carlos Santana.

Others on the list of superstars include Bernie Taupin, Cher, Fela Kuti, and Eddie Palmieri.

On the non performing side are legendary record exec Sylvia Rhone for Trustees Award and John Chowning is the Technical Grammy Award honoree.

What a list. And for Clive to see his stars awarded he’ll have to be at the Wilshire Ebell Theater and then race back to his own pre-Grammy dinner at the Beverly Hilton. Maybe the police can set up a special lane for him on either side of Wilshire Boulevard.

All of these performers are knockouts, which means the subsequent Special Merit TV show, the last for CBS, will be a blockbuster.

I’m especially psyched for Bernie Taupin, who tends to get overlooked as the lyricist of Elton John’s hundreds of hits. So we can imagine Sir Elton will be on hand for these proceedings.

Meantime, Cher hosts “Saturday Night Live” tomorrow, un-retired Paul Simon is heading to Europe for a new tour, Santana has his Las Vegas residency, Chaka Khan is on tour with Patti Labelle, Gladys Knight, and Stephanie Mills. The beat goes on!

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Read more

In Other News