Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny may have been the biggest winners from a technical sense coming out of the 68th Grammy Awards, but few stirred as much conversation as Cher.
The legendary musician, 79, was present at the ceremony on February 1 to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the industry, which host Trevor Noah handed to her on stage.
After a brief acceptance speech, she turned around to walk off before being called back by the comedian to give away the prize for Record of the Year, and after fumbling through gaffes involving the teleprompter, she accidentally read out "Luther Vandross" as the winner, instead of Kendrick and SZA for their song "Luther."
The hilarious moment quickly went viral, with many brushing away any concerns by simply pointing to Cher's icon status, and Trevor himself joking right after: "I love live television."
While not everything went according to plan, behind-the-scenes, it was all played off in good fun, as revealed by Grammys executive producer Ben Winston in a new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, which arrived the day after the ceremony.
He explained that as the "Believe" singer began walking off stage following her Lifetime Achievement speech, he immediately told Trevor in his earpiece to "get up and bring her back," which he followed through by grabbing a microphone and asking her to return and present Record of the Year.
Of course, that doesn't explain the singer calling Luther Vandross, who died in 2005, as the winner for the category, and that was definitely not part of the plan. "I promise you, we had briefed her, and I promise you, what she had to do was in the prompter," Ben confirmed against Cher saying nothing showed up on the prompter on stage.
However, a good time was still most definitely had. "If I could go back in time, I'd want that to happen again," he quipped, subtly referencing her hit "If I Could Turn Back Time." He added: "She's happy with it. She had a great time. You want a bit of anarchy."
The producer also debunked other viral moments from the ceremony, from artists' performances to their memorable speeches. Several winners, including Billie Eilish, Olivia Dean, and most notably Bad Bunny, used their moment to deliver strong political statements, also referencing the recent "ICE OUT" movement.
"These are beautiful, creative people who feel things," Ben added, confirming that at no point were any of the artists discouraged from including politics in their speeches. "Their job is to feel things and make you feel something."
"It would be odd if they went up on stage and said, 'I wanna thank the sound engineer, I wanna thank my publicist…' Of course they're gonna have something to say. That's why they're artists," he concluded.
One thing that might be discouraged going forward, however, is the Best New Artist medley, in which all eight nominees performed back-to-back before Chappell Roan came out to announce the winner – Olivia Dean. "I think we've got away with it technically – I'm not convinced we can do it again," he said.
"We are an inch away from it not working. Maybe it's not worth taking the risk," Ben added, noting they're considering breaking it up into two segments next year onwards.