The Grammys have announced the list of beloved artists who will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2020: Chicago, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Public Enemy and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. In addition, Trustees Awards will go to Grammys telecast producer Ken Ehrlich, composer Philip Glass and talent scout Frank Walker. The Technical Grammy Award will go to sound engineer George Augspurger.
Recording academy president and CEO Deborah Dugan said in a statement, “Our industry is one that prides itself on influence and paying it forward, and each year the Recording Academy has the privilege of honoring a select group of visionaries whose creative contributions have rippled throughout our culture. Our Special Merit Awards recipients have molded their musical passion into pieces of history that will continue to influence and inspire generations of music creators and music lovers to come.”
The rock band Chicago only won one Grammy competitively — Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “If You Leave Me Now” back in 1977, but their debut album, 1969’s “Chicago Transit Authority,” is already in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Flack, meanwhile, was a Grammy darling long before this Lifetime Achievement Award. She won four competitive awards, and she’s the only solo artist to win Record of the Year twice consecutively: for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1973) and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1974).
The late Hayes won three Grammys in his career, most famously in 1972 when he was awarded twice for his music from the movie “Shaft.”
Country/folk musician Prine is a two-time Grammy winner and a mainstay in the American roots music categories, where he was most recently nominated in 2019 for his album “The Tree of Forgiveness.”
But punk icon Iggy Pop hasn’t won a competitive Grammy in his career despite his pioneering work with The Stooges and as a solo artist.
Hip-hop legends Public Enemy didn’t win Grammys either despite six nominations over the years, but their iconic hit “Fight the Power” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Gospel and blues musician Tharpe earned her only nomination in 1970 for Best Soul Gospel Performance (“Precious Memories”), but even though she died in 1973 her career influenced artists from Little Richard to Bob Dylan.
The Lifetime Achievement Awards, along with the Trustees Awards and Technical Grammy, will be presented during a tribute ceremony and concert for the recipients on April 18, 2020, which will take place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
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