Mary J. Blige, Cher and Ozzy Osbourne headline Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2024
CBC
Mary J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang and Ozzy Osbourne have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a class that also includes folk-rockers Dave Matthews Band and singer-guitarist Peter Frampton.
Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton earned the Musical Influence Award, while the late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield will get the Musical Excellence Award. Pioneering music executive Suzanne de Passe won the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
"Rock `n' roll is an ever-evolving amalgam of sounds that impacts culture and moves generations," John Sykes, chair of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement. "This diverse group of inductees each broke down musical barriers and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps."
The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. It will stream live on Disney+ with an airing on ABC at a later date and be available on Hulu the next day.
Those music acts that were nominated this year but didn't make the cut included Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, the late Sinead O'Connor, soul-pop singer Sade, Britpoppers Oasis, hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim and alt-rockers Jane's Addiction.
There had been a starry push to get Foreigner — with the hits Urgent and Hot Blooded — into the hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney all publicly backing the move. Ronson's stepfather is Mick Jones, Foreigner's founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist.
Osbourne, who led many parents in the 1980s to clutch their pearls with his devil imagery and sludgy music, goes in as a solo artist, having already been inducted into the hall with metal masters Black Sabbath.
Four of the eight nominees — Cher, Foreigner, Frampton and Kool & The Gang — were on the ballot for the first time.
Cher — the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades — and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy Awards, will help boost the number of women in the hall, which critics say is too low.
Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they're eligible for induction.
Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Fans voted online or in person at the museum, with the top five artists picked by the public making up a "fans' ballot" that was tallied with the other professional ballots.
Last year, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, Kate Bush and the late George Michael were some of the artists who got into the hall.
