Grammy Awards 2022 fails to pay tribute to Lata Mangeshkar; fans slam ‘clueless’ Recording Academy: ‘What a shame’

The Grammy Awards 2022 failed to pay tribute to Indian playback singer Lata Mangeshkar at the award show on Sunday night. The singer was not mentioned in the In Memoriam segment of the award show. It comes after the 94th Academy Awards also failed to mention Lata and actor Dilip Kumar in its In Memoriam section last month. Also Read| Oscars 2022: In Memoriam segment doesn’t pay tribute to Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar, fans react

The 2022 Grammys’ In Memoriam, led by Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr, Ben Platt, and Rachel Zegler, paid tribute to the late Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, Taylor Hawkins, and Tom Parker, among several others. Musicians Lata Mangeshkar and Bappi Lahiri, who passed away earlier this year, were not mentioned in the section.

Lata Mangeshkar’s fans have been taking to social media to express their disappointment with the Grammys. Some called The Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards, clueless for failing to mention Lata, while others said the action was contrary to their claims about diversity and inclusion.

“#GRAMMYs #LataMangeshkar Grammys just remembered #all musicians who died last year. Missing #LataMangeshkar they missed big,” while another commented, “#Grammys forgetting #LataMangeshkar is a huge failure by the @RecordingAcad since there was so much talk about diversity and inclusion!!”

A third one wrote, “So the in-memoriam segment of #GRAMMYs, just like the #Oscars2022, doesn’t include legendary #LataMangeshkar and then these award ceremonies will harp on about diversity & inclusivity. LOL!”

A Twitter user called the late singer a “bigger star” than everyone else on the Grammy stage. They wrote, “First the Oscars, now no mention of #LataMangeshkar in the In Memoriam of the #GRAMMYs either. How clueless are these executives? Lataji was a bigger star than everyone on that Grammy stage tonight.”

One said they are going to skip Grammys for life after it skipped paying tribute to Lata, while another wrote, “totally disgraceful to forget #LataMangeshkar so is In the Guinness book of records for singling the most songs ever, 50,0000.#sad #RIP.” Another tweeted, “#GRAMMYs didn’t pay tribute to the greatest singer of Indian history: #LataMangeshkar or #bappilahiri.”

Lata Mangeshkar died on February 6 this year at the age of 92 weeks after she was admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 and pneumonia. Born on September 28, 1929, Lata had begun her career in 1942 at the age of 13. In a career spanning over seven decades, she recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films. She also recorded songs in over 36 regional Indian and foreign languages. She was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour in 2001, and was also the recipient of three National Film Awards among many other honours.

Singer-composed Bappi Lahiri died at the age of 69 on February 15 this year. He had developed a chest infection and was being treated for the ailment prior to his death. Bappi, who composed songs for movies such as Disco Dancer, Himmatwala, Sharaabi, Dance Dance, Satyamev Jayate, Commando, Aaj Ke Shahenshah among others, last composed the song Bhankas for the 2020 movie Baaghi 3.