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Grammys Defend 'Touching and Emotional' Natalie Cole Tribute
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The Grammy telecast’s helmers believe they did Cole right with the video salute. “Frankly, I think it was appropriate,” said the show’s longtime producer, Ken Ehrlich, who thought the video clip was the most “touching and emotional” tribute he could have presented to his friend.
Cole’s sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole, have not been shy about begging to differ. "Sadly a FORGETTABLE tribute to Natalie Cole," they said in a written statement released to Entertainment Tonight Tuesday. "Words cannot express the outrage and utter disappointment at the disrespectful tribute, or lack thereof, to a legendary artist such as our sister.” Before the show, Timolin Cole also aired her grievances with the New York Post’s Page Six, saying, “Why wouldn’t you have a medley of two or three songs? There are many hits that could be sung and great artists who could perform them.”
Ehrlich tells Billboard he was taken aback by the family’s complaints, believing the show had their blessing. “For the record, there was an email exchange, and I told Timolin what we were doing, and she seemed to be very happy with it. And what I told her is that we had talked about having an artist do something for Natalie; at one point I was playing around with ‘Miss You Like Crazy,’ because I love that song. But when I looked again at the Grammy show we did where she won for ‘Unforgettable,’ and I saw the last 45 seconds of that number, where her father (Nat King Cole, on the big screen) throws her a kiss, she throws him a kiss, and then she turns to the audience and throws everybody a kiss -- that just was so touching and so emotional to me that that felt like it had to be the end of the whole 'In Memoriam' segment. I hadn’t looked at that clip in several years, but when I saw it again, I knew it was right.”
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