The Grammys have just announced their slate of Special Merit Awards for 2020. The Recording Academy will honour Iggy Pop, Roberta Flack, Chicago, Isaac Hayes, John Prine, Public Enemy and Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lifetime Achievement Awards, celebrating “performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.” Notably, neither Pop nor Public Enemy has ever won a Grammy before.

Flack is the only solo artist to have won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won at the 1974 Grammys.

Roberta Flack | “Killing Me Softly With His Song”

“Our industry is one that prides itself on influence and paying it forward, and each year the Recording Academy has the privilege of honoring a select group of visionaries whose creative contributions have rippled throughout our culture,” said Deborah Dugan, President/CEO of the Recording Academy (via Variety).  “Our Special Merit Awards recipients have molded their musical passion into pieces of history that will continue to influence and inspire generations of music creators and music lovers to come.”

Dugan also added that the chosen artists, who will receive Special Merit Awards, “have moulded their musical passion into pieces of history that will continue to influence and inspire generations of music creators and music lovers to come.”

A special award presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the honorees will be held on April 18, 2020, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. 

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