There are awards-show mistakes that feel awkward for a second and then disappear, and then there are the ones that instantly become a piece of pop culture. Cher’s return to the Grammys stage landed firmly in the second category after she accidentally announced the name of a dead artist while presenting Record of the Year, sending the room into stunned laughter and the internet into overdrive.
The moment unfolded with that specific kind of live-TV chaos where everyone can feel the seconds stretching. Cher, who was already being celebrated as a living icon, was tasked with presenting one of the night’s biggest awards, and the category’s tension was already thick before the envelope even opened.
What made it so surreal was the name she said out loud. Instead of smoothly reading the winner, Cher blurted out “Luther Vandross,” the late R&B star who died in 2005, which briefly sounded like a supernatural Grammys twist nobody saw coming.
The reality, of course, was less paranormal and more human. The winning song was “Luther,” Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s track, and the title itself is widely understood as a nod to Vandross, which is how Cher’s brain appeared to jump straight to the man instead of the record.
