The Grammys have announced their Lifetime Achievement and Special Merit Awards.
The awards are handed out on February 3rd in a special ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theater, right before Clive Davis’s bash at the Beverly Hilton.
Laurie Anderson, the Clark Sisters, Gladys Knight, N.W.A, Donna Summer, and Tammy Wynette are the 2024 Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award honorees; Peter Asher, DJ Kool Herc and Joel Katz are the Trustees Award recipients; Tom Kobayashi and Tom Scott are the Technical GRAMMY Award honorees; and “Refugee,” written by K’naan, Steve McEwan, and Gerald Eaton (a.k.a. Jarvis Church), is being honored with the Best Song For Social Change Award.
All the ladies are totally deserving and have waited a long time. NWA was a cutting edge hip hop group of great influence to future generations. Members included Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube. I’m also very happy to see the names of Asher and Katz in the line up. Peter Asher was part of the 60s singing duo Peter and Gordon. But Peter was also the head of the Beatles’ Apple Records, found James Taylor and Badfinger, then managed and produced James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt with all their hit records of the 70s.
Joel Katz has been the lawyer for the Grammys for decades, and also represented half of the artists in the industry out of his Atlanta office. He is beloved by everyone he’s worked with and deserves the accolades for dealing with a lot of big personalities over the years.
Grammy weekend is shaping up pretty nicely, with Jon Bon Jovi receiving the Musicares Person of the Year Award on February 2nd, and then, of course the Big Show on Sunday, February 4th on CBS.
