New Delhi: Music legend Lata Mangeshkar was missing from the "In Memoriam" segment at the Grammy awards this year after being left out from the Oscars tribute as well.
The Grammys, music's biggest night, took place in Las Vegas exactly a week after the Oscars were presented. At the Oscars too, Mangeshkar and Bollywood icon Dilip Kumar were left out of the "In Memoriam" segment.
The 2022 Grammys' In Memoriam, led by Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr, Ben Platt, and Rachel Zegler, paid tribute to the songs by the late Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim.
Taylor Hawkins and Tom Parker were also remembered but Mangeshkar who perhaps has a bigger repertoire of songs than any of these musicians had in their lifetime did not get any mention.
Needless to say, Indian fans were offended at the exclusion and expressed their displeasure on social media.
Some called The Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards, clueless for failing to mention Lata, while others said the action was contrary to their claims about diversity and inclusion.
One wrote, "I was actually expecting #LataMangeshkar to be mentioned in the #Oscars In Memoriam. But well…"
One other tweeted, "#Oscars2022 #LataMangeshkar of #Bollywood fame – Nightingale of India – not even mentioned among the movie folks who passed away in the last year."
One Twitter user claimed that Lata gave vocals to more songs than "shown in all Oscars combined". They added, " Yet, the #Oscars2022 #Inmemoriam did not see it fit to honor her even with a mention. Sometimes, I think, colonialism still lives on…"
A Twitter user called the late singer a "bigger star" than everyone else on the Grammy stage. They wrote, "First the Oscars, now no mention of #LataMangeshkar in the In Memoriam of the #GRAMMYs either. How clueless are these executives? Lataji was a bigger star than everyone on that Grammy stage tonight."
One said they are going to skip Grammys for life after it skipped paying tribute to Lata, while another wrote, "totally disgraceful to forget #LataMangeshkar so is In the Guinness book of records for singling the most songs ever, 50,0000.#sad #RIP."
While Lata Mangeshkar died on February 6 this year, Kumar died on July 7 last year.