The Recording Academy announced last week that the 2025 Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement honorees include some Black Hollywood powerhouses.
These recipients include Prince, the Clash, Frankie Beverly, Roxanne Shanté; Frankie Valli, Dr. Bobby Jones, and Taj Mahal.
While the Technical Grammy will go to the late Dr. Leo Beranek. The Recording Academy also named Erroll Garner, Glyn Johns, and Tania León as the Trustees Award winners.
Prince, The Clash, and Frankie Valli are among the artists who were selected to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Recording Academy in 2025.
The awards, where several will be presented posthumously because R&B singer Beverly died almost four months ago; Prince and Dr. Beranek both died in 2016; Joe Strummer of The Clash died in 2002; and Garner, the composer of the pop standard “Misty,” died in 1977.
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Several of this year’s recipients have also already received major honors. Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards in 2010, and was honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in July (he had been voted in while he was alive, but scheduling the presentation proved difficult).
The main 2025 ceremony will air live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on February 2, 2025, but the Special Merit Awards Ceremony is said to take place the day before the main gala, on February 1, 2025, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
Last year’s Lifetime Achievement honorees were N.W.A., Laurie Anderson, Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, Tammy Wynette, and the Clark Sisters.
A Summary of the Iconic Careers of Some of the Recipients
Prince (2025 Lifetime Achievement Award)
Prince was a mentor, a philanthropist, and a founding member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition. He died in 2016 at age 57.
With the release of 39 albums and thousands of unreleased songs throughout his 40-year career, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Prince sold more than 150 million records worldwide.
His iconic career spans funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, blues, jazz, and hip-hop; his work received near-unanimous critical praise.
Prince won seven Grammys and an Oscar (best original song for Purple Rain), and three of his albums, 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign o’ the Times, have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
He was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2024.
Frankie Beverly (2025 Lifetime Achievement Award)
This Philadelphia native died on September 10, 2024, at age 77. He was never nominated for a Grammy, with Maze, or on his own, but this award makes up for it.
Beverly began his musical journey performing in church. As a teenager, he formed The Butlers, which evolved into Frankie Beverly’s Raw Soul.
The band’s rise to prominence began in the mid-1970s, after capturing the attention of Marvin Gaye, who invited the group to tour with him as his opening act.
While on tour with Gaye, the group changed their name to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.
The group went on to have a string of indelible hits, including “Before I Let Go” and “Happy Feelin’s,” and a series of albums, including Joy and Pain, Live In New Orleans, and We Are One.
Roxanne Shante (2025 Lifetime Achievement Award)
Like Beverly, Roxanne Shante was never nominated for a Grammy. But this award differently makes up for it.
Roxanne is a trailblazer in hip-hop and one of the first nationally recognized female rappers.
Now 55, Roxanne released her debut single, “Roxanne’s Revenge,” a response record to UTFO’s “Roxanne, Roxanne,” just at the age of 14.
She also helped launch the careers of such hip-hop icons as Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and Nas.
Shante is currently the host of the “Have A Nice Day” radio show on LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells Radio on SiriusXM, which reaches millions of listeners daily.
As a result of her unique voice, Roxanne has worked as a voice-over in video games and animated films. In 2023, Shante received the NAACP Legacy Award.
Dr. Bobby Jones (2025 Lifetime Achievement Award)
Dr. Bobby Jones received a Grammy for best soul gospel performance by a Duo or group in 1984 for “I’m So Glad I’m Standing Here Today,” a collaboration with country star Barbara Mandrell.
This gospel vocalist and TV and radio host, now 85 years old, launched his entertainment career in 1976 on WSM-TV with the debut of Nashville Gospel.
Building on its success, he became the host and executive producer of Bobby Jones Gospel, which premiered on Black Entertainment Television in 1980 and became the longest-running original series in cable television history.
Jones was appointed Ambassador of the Commonwealth of Dominica in 2006. As a musician, he has toured with the musical group New Life and the Nashville Super Choir.
Erroll Garner (2025 Trustees Award)
This renowned artist is dubbed as a genre-defying artist. He was a celebrated pianist, composer, and pioneer for artists’ rights.
Garner received three Grammy nominations but never won but has two recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame for “Concert by the Sea” and “Misty.”
It is also notable to say that Johnny Mathis’ sublime cover version of “Misty” is also in the Hall.
Erroll Garner’s iconic career resulted in the publishing of more than 200 compositions, including the iconic ballad “Misty,” which continues to captivate listeners 70 years after its recording.
His Trio’s Concert by the Sea was the first jazz album to achieve $1 million worth of sales, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and received the ASCAP Pied Piper Award.
Erroll Garner, however, died in 1977 at age 55.
Tania León (2025 Trustees Award)
Tania León is a Cuban-born musician and an acclaimed composer, conductor, and educator.
She became the first Latin American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2021 and also received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2022.
Tania León studied her craft under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa and has even guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic and Johannesburg Philharmonic.
She has also lectured globally and received honorary doctorate degrees from 10 institutions.
León founded Composers Now in 2010, and she is now the artistic director.
She has been commissioned by orchestras worldwide, held Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for its 2023-24 season, and currently serves as composer-in-residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2013, Tania León received her first and only Grammy nomination for best contemporary classical composition for “Inura for Voices, Strings & Percussion.”
Taj Mahal (2025 Lifetime Achievement Award)
Taj Mahal began his solo career in 1968. His iconic career spans over six decades.
Mahal is a four-time Grammy winner. Now at the age of 82, his legendary career helped popularize and reshape the scope of the blues and personify the concept of “World Music,” years before the phrase existed.
His career explored and incorporated numerous musical styles and has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Etta James, Angélique Kidjo, and Ziggy Marley.
He opened for Otis Redding and The Temptations and mingled with such giants as Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.
Taj Mahal is also known for his group, the Rising Sons, which was one of the first interracial bands.
Taj Mahal was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020 and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
He has also received the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
