Whitney Houston's untimely passing yesterday, just hours before she was scheduled to perform at Clive Davis's pre-Grammys party, has put enormous pressure on tonight's music awards show to pay tribute to the artist who who six of the biggest awards in the music industry. She'll surely be lumped in with other recently departed greats like Etta James and Clarence Clemons during an In Memoriam segment, but Houston's recent death and her enormous stardom merits something a bit bigger-- and now we have some sense of what that's going to be.
In an interview with CBS affiliates, via The Los Angeles Times, Grammys executive producer Ken Erlich revealed that Jennifer Hudson will perform a tribute to Houston during the awards show, which air tonight on CBS starting at 8 pm. Here's Erlich's full statement about the tribute:
"It's too fresh in everyone's memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn't recognize Whitney's remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years,"
When Hudson won the Grammy for Best R&B Album in 2009, Houston presented it-- only after taking the stage in a gorgeous blue dress and receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, of course. You can imagine how much it would mean for an up-and-comer like Hudson to receive an award from an living legend like Houston, and though Hudson obviously didn't know Houston at the peak of her career, her tribute is likely to be heartfelt and, given the power of Hudson's own voice, exceptionally well-sung. I'd expect plenty more mentions of Houston's passing during the awards tonight, but this is certainly one to look forward to.
You can watch Houston presenting Hudson with her Grammy in the video below.
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