Quincy Jones was honoured at the 2025 Grammy Awards during a special in memoriam segment. Stevie Wonder and Janelle Monáe headlined the tribute to Jones, who died last November at the age of 91. Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock, and Lainey Wilson also delivered performances in tribute to Jones, while Will Smith made his return to a major televised show at Crypto.com area on Sunday night.
Erivo sang “Fly Me to the Moon” — made famous by the producer’s arrangement for Frank Sinatra — accompanied by Hancock on the piano before being joined by a full band. Lainey Wilson covered “Let the Good Times Roll” while Jacob Collier took his turn at the piano, and Hancock soon returned to the stage and was joined by Wonder who played the harmonica and sang “We Are the World.” Janelle Monáe wrapped the tribute with a stunning performance of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” — moonwalk and all.
Speaking with Rolling Stone before the Grammys, executive producer Raj Kapoor said that the Jones tribute had been in the works for months: “We’ve had so many artists that have wanted to participate,” he said, hoping it would be “one of the definitive performances” of the night and capture “how much love we have for him as a music community.”
As for the special Los Angeles-themed performances throughout the night, Kapoor said the Grammys production team was determined to “shine a positive light on the city,” after making the decision to move forward with this year’s show.
“Thousands of people depend on this show in Los Angeles, including the thousands of crew that actually work on this show,” Kapoor said. “And then also the [wider] economic impact that the show has… Los Angeles has actually been quite incredible in the past few weeks. I think we have a stronger sense of community than we have had for a very long time.”
From Rolling Stone US
