Tag: Grammy

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James Earl Jones, known for his roles in Field of Dreams, The Lion King, and Star Wars, passed away recently at the age of 93.
Among his many distinctions was being one of the few to get an EGOT. Named after the awards of different fields in entertainment, EGOT is the ‘grand slam‘ of American show business.
Can you tell me what EGOT stands for?

Show Answer
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards
Respectively, these awards honor outstanding achievements in television, audio recording, film, and Broadway theatre. There have only been 21 competitive winners & 6 non-competitive winners (honorary awardee) of this writing.
Read More about the distinction.

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On February 25, 1998, world-famous opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti was all set to perform the aria Nessun dorma from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot at the 1998 Grammy Awards. That evening, after the show had already begun, he became too ill to perform as planned (which was frustratingly common with Pavarotti — he was called the “king of cancellations”). The producers of the show were desperate to find a way to fill Pavarotti’s time slot and approached X, who was also scheduled to perform one of their own wildly iconic hits that night.

X asked to listen to Pavarotti’s rehearsal once and agreed on the spot to perform in Pavarotti’s stead, with almost none of the meticulous prep that a performance this complex would’ve required – and they absolutely nailed it. Over a billion people worldwide watched the performance, and X was met with an instant standing ovation. X went on to record the aria and perform it live several more times in later years, most notably for Pope Francis in 2015.

Who is X?

Show Answer
Aretha Franklin, who was set to perform her smash-hit version of Otis Redding's Respect. To be fair, Aretha was good friends with Pavarotti and had performed the aria two nights prior at the annual MusiCares event, so she was technically prepared to do it, but this being the Grammys, she absolutely knocked it out of the park.