At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, Lauryn Hill delivered a powerful In Memoriam tribute that quickly became one of the most talked-about moments of the night — and rightfully so.

Hill took the Grammy stage for the first time in nearly three decades to honor two towering figures in soul and R&B who passed away in 2025: D’Angelo, the neo-soul visionary, and Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning legend.

Opening with “Nothing Even Matters” — the tender duet she originally recorded with D’Angelo on her 1998 classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — Hill set the tone for a tribute rooted in love, legacy, and musical lineage.

What followed was a star-studded, genre-spanning medley that celebrated the breadth of both artists’ catalogs and influence:

• D’Angelo’s classics like “Brown Sugar”, “Lady”, and “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” were embraced by performances from Lucky Daye, Raphael Saadiq, Bilal, Leon Thomas, and Jon Batiste.
• Then came the transition into Roberta Flack’s soul standards, including “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Compared to What”, “Closer I Get to You”, and “Where Is the Love”, with Leon Bridges, Lalah Hathaway, John Legend and Chaka Khan stepping in to lend their voices.

But the emotional high point came when Wyclef Jean, Hill’s longtime collaborator and bandmate from Fugees, joined her onstage for “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” The performance evolved seamlessly into the Fugees’ own iconic version of the song, delivering a moment of electricity and nostalgia that brought the arena to its feet.

This was more than a tribute, it was a passing of the torch and a reminder of how interconnected Black music is across generations. Hill’s performance honored not just the artists who were lost, but the roots and inspirations behind so much of today’s R&B and soul.

Coming as Black History Month begins, the tribute felt fitting — a celebration of voices that shaped the sound of Black music and continue to influence artists across genres.