OK, so you’re going to see a lot of Luther Vandross, Kendrick Lamar, Cher, and the Grammys in your feed today.
The setting? The 68th Annual Grammy Awards are Sunday night. Category? Record of the Year. An announcement? Here is what happened.
On stage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, Cher was about to present Lamar with his fifth Grammy of the night – an evening in which the rapper made history. Determined to learn the winner of Record of the Year, the Pop goddess opened the important envelope – however, she thought the winner would also be on the teleprompter for the event. After a while, he read the winner: Lamar and SZA’s ballad, “luther.”
But Cher actually said “Luther Vandross,” naming the music legend who passed away in 2005, which caused social media to explode.
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However, “luther” has Vandross at its core, and sampled the 1982 hit with Cheryl Lynn “If This World Were Mine,” a cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1967 duet with Tammi Terrell.
The song, from Lamar’s recent Grammy Award-winning album 2024, GNXit was written by Lamar and SZA with Ink and Sam Dew, and produced by Sounwave, Kamasi Washington, Jack Antonoff, Scott Bridgeway, M-Tech, and roselilah. “luther” took home two Grammys on Sunday, including Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance.
The complete list of winners for the main event of the 2026 Grammy Awards
During his acceptance speech on Sunday, producer Sounwave paid tribute to Vandross, saying, “First of all, let’s give a shout out to the late Luther Vandross. It was very, very important to keep the integrity of this record.”
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Next up was Lamar, who also paid tribute to Vandross, saying, “This is what music is all about.” (The singer took a moment to say the singer’s full name aloud with a smile, which seemed to take Cher’s breath away.)
“This is special for me, I have to take my time,” he said. “Because it’s one of my favorite artists of all time, and they gave us the right to do our version. When we got that permission, I promise you, we almost all cried because we know how much young Miss Cheryl Lynn poured into that record. And to be able to put our words on top of it, proves that we deserved it.”
“When we got that permission, I promise you, we started crying.”
Lamar then thanked 68-year-old Lynn – “If you’re here, listening, watching, we appreciate it,” – and pointed out that the only condition for using the “luther” sample was not cursing.
Now, here’s the part I want you to take away from the all-time trending: SZA’s speech. The artist thanked Lamar for “lifting me up,” before giving the audience one hell of a preview of what’s going on.
“What I want to say is that please don’t lose hope,” said SZA. “I know right now is a scary time. I know the algorithms are telling us it’s scary and all is lost. There were world wars, there were diseases, and we went on. We can go on. We need each other.”
Later on the red carpet, SZA was asked by Entertainment Tonight about Cher’s “Luther Vandross” moment and she understood, saying, “We share the frequency of the song, like, that’s his frequency that made us to win and let me memorable, so she’s not wrong. And she’s from that time, she probably really knew Luther Vandross.
“Yes, his brain and his strength connect that strength and power that we share,” he added. “We’re falling back on what Luther has given us, so thank you. I wish I could talk to him. Thank you, Luther.”
You can watch Lamar, SZA and Sounwave’s acceptance speech above and check out the full list of winners at the 2026 Grammys.
