Christina Grimmie’s fans took to social media on Sunday, February 12, to express their frustration after the 2017 Grammy Awards failed to acknowledge the late singer in the show’s in memoriam segment.
As John Legend and Cynthia Erivo sang a moving piano cover of the Beach Boys’ classic “God Only Knows” at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, a montage of late icons Prince, George Michael, Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Debbie Reynolds and many more played on the screen. Viewers pointed out on Twitter that the tribute omitted several big names, including Grimmie, Carrie Fisher and Pete Burns. (Some people also wondered why David Bowie and Eagles frontman Glenn Frey were missing from the video, but they were honored in the 2016 Grammys telecast.)
“It’s a shame they didn’t add Christina Grimmie in the ‘In Memoriam.’ That girl was so good to her fans & had a VOICE! #GRAMMYs,” one Twitter user wrote about the Voice contestant, who was fatally shot by a fan at the age of 22 after a concert in Orlando in June 2016.
“Hey, remember when Christina Grimmie was murdered outside of her show? Cause apparently no memorials do,” another fan tweeted, referencing the Emmy Awards, which received similar backlash for leaving Grimmie out of its in memoriam segment last year. The Emmys later attributed the omission to being “constrained by time and space.”
A third viewer added, “#GRAMMYs said they wanted to protect the music industry but didn’t include Christina Grimmie, someone who was fatally hurt in the industry??”
Though Grimmie was not included in the broadcasted memorial, she was honored in a list on the Recording Academy’s website. The site noted that “some of these individuals” were remembered on TV, while “all of these individuals … are included in the official 59th GRAMMY Awards program book.”
