Cher Fans React After Music Icon Gets Confused on Grammys Stage

Cher got herself into a muddle during Sunday night’s (February 1) Grammys after she forgot she was supposed to be announcing the nominees and winner for the Record of the Year.

The music icon had just finished delivering her acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award when she started to walk off the stage. This prompted host Trevor Noah to call her back, reminding her, “Cher, before you go… can we get you to announce the nominees? I could do it, but I don’t have the track record.”

Cher returned to the microphone and quipped, “You can see I wanted to get off the stage.”

She then introduced the nominees for the coveted Record of the Year award: Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, Chappell Roan and Rosé, and Bruno Mars.

The situation only got messier from there, as Cher prepared to read out the winner of the trophy. “And the Grammy goes to… oh, they told me it was gonna be on the prompter,” she said before miming locking her mouth shut.

She then looked at the envelope and stated, “Oh, the Grammy goes to Luther Vandross!”

“Oh! The Grammy goes to Luther Vandross!” – Cher #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/G9tFB5rBHX

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 2, 2026

The award did not actually go to the late soul singer who died in 2005, but rather to the song “Luther,” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, produced by Jack Antonoff and Sounwave. The song features a sample of Vandross and Cheryl Lynn’s 1982 duet “If This World Were Mine.”

Cher recognized her error and quickly corrected herself, saying, “No, Kendrick Lamar! The Grammy goes to Kendrick Lamar.”

Lamar took the flub in good spirits, laughing as he made his way up to the stage alongside SZA and his producers. The rapper paid tribute to Vandross while accepting the award, saying, “This is special for me. I’ve got to take my time, because [Vandross]’s one of my favorite artists of all time.”

He added, “They granted us the privilege to do our version of [‘If This World Were Mine’]. When we got that clearance, I promise you, we damn near all dropped a tear, because we know how much him and Cheryl Lynn poured into that record. Being able to put our vocals of it proves that we are somewhat worthy of being just as great as them individuals.”

The “Not Like Us” hitmaker also revealed that the Lynn and the Vandross estate had one requirement before clearing the sample: “no cursing.”

“That was the only thing, right? And we said, you know what? We are going to do just that. No cursing, and we are going to make sure the song represents love,” Lamar explained.

After the segment ended, Noah quipped, “I love live television.”

Fans took to social media to react to Cher’s confusion, with one X user writing, “Cher is hilarious. How can she say the grammy goes to Luther Vandross.”

“Cher such auntie because all she saw was LUTHER and said oh Luther Vandross,” said another.

“Cher didn’t know she had to work tonight,” added another.

Another added, “Cher legit thought for like 5 seconds that Luther Vandross won a Grammy.”

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“She seemed confused and unprepared, like she was being put on the spot with the Lifetime Award and presenting Record of the Year. Surely they must have briefed her on what was going to happen, right?” said one Reddit commenter.

“Cher can do whatever she wants,” said another.

“I love her so much, she could host next year and my ass would be sitting for every minute of that six-hour show,” wrote one fan.

“She’s extremely dyslexic,” another added.

Cher has been open in the past about her reading issues, noting in her memoir that she struggled throughout grade school and eventually dropped out at 16. It wasn’t until she was 30 that she was officially diagnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia.