Nirvana, The Supremes, Nile Rodgers & More to Receive 2023 Lifetime Achievement Awards from Recording Academy

By any standard, The Supremes are one of the top female groups in music history. Founded by Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, The Supremes achieved 12 No. 1 hits on the Hot 100. They also had three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 – The Supremes A’ Go-Go, Diana Ross and the Supremes Greatest Hits and TCB (a collab with The Temptations).

Amazingly, they received just two Grammy nominations. “Baby Love” was nominated for best rhythm & blues recording of 1964. “Stop! In the Name of Love” was up for best contemporary (R&R – as in rock and roll) performance by a group the following year. Three of their hits – “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – have since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Ross, 78, is still going strong, but Ballard died in 1976 at age 32, and Wilson died in 2021 at 76.

Formed in 1987 by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, Nirvana emerged from the Pacific Northwest with the 1989 release of its debut album Bleach. Two years later Nirvana’s sophomore album Nevermind sparked a seismic shift in global youth culture. The band had four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 – Nevermind, In Utero, MTV Unplugged in New York and From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah.

Cobain’s death at age 27 in 1994 was a generation-defining event. The band won its only Grammy after his death, when MTV Unplugged in New York won best alternative music performance at the 1995 ceremony.

Grohl, 53, has amassed 18 Grammys, one of the highest totals by any rock act. Novoselic, 57, has won two. The trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017. Nevermind was inducted the following year.

The Wilson sisters – Ann, 72 and Nancy, 68 – are being recognized for their work with Heart. This marks the first time a pair who weren’t known as an ongoing duo has received a lifetime achievement award. Four formal duos have been honored – The Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, The Louvin Brothers, and Sam & Dave.

Heart received four Grammy nominations, divided evenly between pop and rock performance categories, but they have yet to win. Heart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. Heart landed seven top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, including the No. 1 Heart, and had nine top 10 hits on the Hot 100, including the No. 1 hits “These Dreams” and “Alone.”

Rodgers, 70, has been on an extended victory lap in the past decade. He received three Grammys at the 2014 ceremony, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016 and received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s award for musical excellence in 2017. Rodgers won all three Grammys for his work with Daft Punk – record of the year and best pop duo/group performance for “Get Lucky” and album of the year for Random Access Memories.

With Chic, Rodgers landed two No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 – “Le Freak,” the top-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records, and “Good Times,” which helped spark the advent of hip-hop. “Le Freak” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015. Rodgers’ work in the CHIC Organization includes “We Are Family” with Sister Sledge and “I’m Coming Out” with Diana Ross. He has also scored on his own with his productions for such artists as David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”), Madonna (“Like a Virgin”) and Duran Duran (“The Reflex”).

Slick Rick, 57, has been hailed as one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop history and one of hip-hop’s greatest storytellers. Oddly, he has yet to receive a Grammy nomination. Slick Rick’s catalog, which includes the anthems “La-Di-Da-Di” and “The Show,” boasts more than 850 samples, ranging from Snoop Dogg’s “Lodi Dodi” to Beyoncé and J. Cole’s “Party.” Slick Rick was the third artist signed to Def Jam Recordings and is regarded as the most successful British-American rapper.

McFerrin, 72, is a 10-time Grammy winner. He won four awards at the 1989 ceremony, including record and song of the year for his feel-good smash “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. McFerrin has inspired a new generation of a cappella singers and the beatbox movement. From his solo, a cappella performances to his collaborations with Chick Corea and Yo-Yo Ma, and his work conducting top-tier orchestras, McFerrin has redefined the role of the human voice.

Often called the “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Gertrude Pridgett Rainey) was known for her deep voice and mesmerizing stage presence. A songwriter as well as a performer, her music reflected her experiences as an independent, openly bisexual African-American woman. Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount Records in 1923, making her one of the first recorded blues musicians.

Her 1924 recording of “See See Rider Blues” (for which she was accompanied by a young Louis Armstrong) was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2004. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame that same year. Rainey died in 1939 at age 53. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence in 1990. Viola Davis received an Oscar nomination for portraying her in the 2020 film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Stax Records founder Jim Stewart, who died on Dec. 5, 2022 at age 92, produced some of the greatest rhythm and blues records of the 1960s. He was instrumental in launching the careers of Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, Booker T. & the M.G.s, the Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, among others. Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He received the non-performers award, now called the Ahmet Ertegun Award. In 2012, he was among the first class of inductees in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

Jazz pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis, who died in 2020 at age 85, was regarded by many as the premier modern jazz pianist in New Orleans. He began formal music studies at the Xavier University Junior School of Music at age 11 and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in music education from Dillard University in 1955. In 1986, Marsalis accepted the position of commonwealth professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., where he served as coordinator of jazz studies before returning to New Orleans to become the University of New Orleans’ first occupant of the chair of jazz studies.

In 2011, the Marsalis family – Ellis Marsalis and his sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo, and Jason received the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Wynton is a nine-time Grammy winner. Branford has won three Grammys.

Diltz, 84, is the second person primarily known as a photographer to receive a trustees award, following the late Jim Marshall, who was honored in 2014. Diltz photographed more than 250 album covers and thousands of publicity shots in the 1960s and 1970s, including The Doors’ iconic Morrison Hotel cover. Other artists with whom he’s closely identified include Eagles, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, America, Steppenwolf, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, The Monkees, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and David Cassidy. Diltz was the official photographer at the iconic Woodstock festival in August 1969.

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is the only professional society devoted exclusively to advancing audio technology. Founded in 1948 with the key goals of collecting, collating and disseminating knowledge of audio science and its application, AES facilitates communication and collaboration that unites audio engineers, creative artists, scientists, and students, with hundreds of local sections worldwide. AES’s members continue to set precedents and standards wherever sound and technology meet, from recording and entertainment to scientific research in emerging fields such as Spatial and Game Audio, Networking and Streaming, and Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Hildebrand graduated with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1976, specializing in stochastic processes and estimation theory. After studying music composition at Rice’s Shepard School of Music, Hildebrand developed an interest in audio data processing and founded Antares Audio Technology in 1990. At Antares, Hildebrand created the groundbreaking Auto-Tune software program, which was first released in 1997. In 2011, Hildebrand was inducted into the TEC Foundation’s Technology Hall of Fame for the invention of Auto-Tune.