Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire! Jerry Lee Lewis will perform at the 50th Grammy Awards this Sunday.
The announcement was made by Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow after Lewis’ performance Wednesday night at “Sounds of Change,” the Grammy Foundation’s 10th annual Music Preservation Project.
The event, held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, showcased interviews from the Grammy Foundation’s Living Histories interview program and newsreel footage from the past 50 years. The music from three eras comprised the evening’s program: the advent of rock n’ roll, the civil rights crusade and the Vietnam-era protest movement.
Those who appeared at the event besides Lewis included Natasha Bedingfield, who performed “Imagine”; John Fogerty with “Fortune Son; DJ Hapa, director of the Scratch DJ Academy – L.A.; Chrisette Michele, who belted a stunning “We Shall Overcome” while backed by the Christ Memorial Church Choir; Ryan Shaw taking on Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Going To Come” and Musiq Soulchild covering Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”
“I believe all of us who have our life pitched turned to music hear the world a little differently,” says Kristen Madsen, senior vice president, Grammy Foundation and MusiCares. “We can hear the crescendo in anxiety and the calm in resolution.”
The Grammy Foundation works with The Recording Academy to highlight the importance of music and arts education, as well as preserving the history and archives of the industry. The Music Preservation Project is an annual event to publicize these efforts.
