Grammys executive producer Ben Winston doesn’t care if Cher has suffered a lot of mishaps while presenting the most important awards on music’s biggest night this year.
“I promise you, we knew him, and I promise you, what he had to do was on the sidelines,” Winston, 44, told Rolling Stone during the “Music Now” podcast on Monday.
“If I could go back, I would want that to happen again,” he added, referring to the famous pop song “If I Could Turn Back Time.”
Cher, 79, received a standing ovation when she took to the Grammys stage for the first time in 18 years on Sunday night to receive her Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.
But the singer of the song “Believe”, who was also tasked to announce the record of the winner, first left the stage before presenting the award – forcing Trevor Noah, who has played six games, to call him again.
“You’ve got to get up and bring her back,” Winston recalled telling the comedian, who eventually brought Cher back to the microphone.
However, the confusion did not end there because the goddess of Pop then presented for a while as the crowd waited to hear who won.
“Oh, they told me it would be on the prompter!” he exclaimed before opening the envelope to record and read “Luther Grandoss,” which many onlookers interpreted as Luther Vandross.
Vandross, an R&B legend who won eight Grammys during his career, died in 2005 at the age of 54.
Of course, the real winners for record of the year were Kendrick Lamar and SZA for their song “Luther,” featuring Cher’s remix.
Although Cher appeared to apologize to Lamar, 38, and SZA, 36, when they took the stage to accept their Grammy, Winston revealed that the singer of the song “Strong Enough” was not ashamed of everything that happened.
“He’s happy about it. He had a great time,” he said. “You want chaos.”
Lamar and SZA weren’t bothered by the confusion either, and the “Kill Bill” singer even came to Cher’s defense during an interview shortly after the night’s event concluded.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, SZA noted that her Grammy-winning song with Lamar sampled Vandross and Cheryl Lynn’s famous cover of “If This World Were Mine,” which may have explained Cher’s initial confusion.
“We share the frequency of the song. Like, it’s her frequency that allowed us to win and allowed us to be memorable,” SZA told the media. “So, he’s not wrong, and he’s from that era. He probably really knew Luther Vandross.”
“Of course, her brains and her energy connect that energy and the energy we share,” SZA added. “We are taking out what Luther has given us, so we are grateful.”
