Premieres Friday, October 5 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings)
Streams Saturday, October 6 on pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) honor this year’s selection of Lifetime Achievement Awards in the third annual Great Performances special. This year’s all-star concert honors Neil Diamond, Tina Turner, Queen, The Meters, Hal Blaine, Emmylou Harris, and Louis Jordan. Additional Special Merit Awards honorees celebrated include Bill Graham, Seymour Stein, and John Williams, who are this year’s Trustees Award honorees, and Tony Agnello and Richard Factor, who are the Technical GRAMMY Award recipients. Also being honored is Melissa Salguero, this year’s recipient of the Music Educator Award.
Led by four-time GRAMMY-winning Gospel great Yolanda Adams as master of ceremonies with GRAMMY®-nominated industry icon Greg Phillinganes as musical director, the tribute concert features performances by past GRAMMY nominee Micky Dolenz alongside Diamond; eight-time GRAMMY winner Herb Alpert honoring legendary session drummer Hal Blaine; GRAMMY winner Sammy Hagar paying tribute to Graham and Queen; past GRAMMY nominee Ledisi saluting Jordan; and three-time GRAMMY winner Trisha Yearwood performing with Harris. Presenters for the evening include LA Philharmonic Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and GRAMMY winning Henry Rollins. Additional performers include R&B, Soul, Gospel and Jazz singer Sheléa, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Quartet, virtuoso violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, film score composer David Newman and The American Youth Symphony.
Song List (honorees in bold type; performers in parentheses):
Neil Diamond
“Holly Holy” (performed by Yolanda Adams)
“I’m a Believer” (performed by Micky Dolenz and Neil Diamond)
“Sweet Caroline” (performed by Neil Diamond)
Emmylou Harris
“Boulder to Birmingham” (performed by Emmylou Harris)
“Love and Happiness” (performed by Emmylou Harris and Trisha Yearwood)
Hal Blaine
“A Taste of Honey” (performed by Herb Alpert)
Louis Jordan
Medley: “Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie / Let The Good Times Roll” (performed by Ledisi)
Tina Turner
Medley: “What’s Love Got to Do with It / Proud Mary / The Best” (performed by Sheléa)
John Williams
“Theme from Schindler’s List” (performed by Anne Akiko Meyers, David Newman and The American Youth Symphony)
“Air and Simple Gifts” (performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic Quartet)
The Meters
“Cissy Strut/Fire on the Bayou” (performed by The Meters)
Bill Graham and Queen
“Right Now” and “We Will Rock You” (performed by Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony)
The Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award recognizes such contributions in areas other than performance. Both awards are determined by a vote of the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of the Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing® Advisory Council and Chapter Committees and ratified by the National Board of Trustees, and presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
Throughout its more than 40-year history on public television, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America’s most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.
A production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, Great Performances: GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends 2018® is written by David Wild and directed for television by David Horn, with Mitch Owgang as producer, and Horn and Neil Portnow as executive producers. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.
This Great Performances presentation is funded by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The Joseph & Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Irene Diamond Fund, Rosalind P. Walter, The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, The Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Abra Prentice Foundation, and PBS.
