If Cher could turn back time, it sounds like she wouldn’t change much. After the icon made a surprise appearance to accept the lifetime achievement award at the 2026 Grammys on Sunday (Feb. 1) at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, she was supposed to present the record of the year award, but apparently forgot and started to leave, telling the audience, “Thank you! I’m supposed to walk off the stage now …”
Now, Grammy Awards executive producer Ben Winston is speaking out about the moment, which also included the Grammy winner announcing the late “Luther Vandross” rather than Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” as the winner. He told Rolling Stone‘s Music Now podcast about the preparations for that presentation, and shared that the star wasn’t upset by the snafu.
As Winston recalled, as soon as Cher started walking off the stage, he relayed a message into host Trevor Noah’s earpiece, telling him to bring the “Believe” singer back. The comedian did just that as the musician took leave of the stage and music played, saying into his mic, “Before you go, Cher … could we get you to announce the nominees?”
According to the executive producer, Cher knew she was supposed to present the award for record of the year. “She did know what she was there to do! I promise you, we had briefed her, and I promise you, it was in the prompter, what she had to do!” Winston shared with Rolling Stone, noting that they had been trying to get her on the Grammys for a long time. “She did her acceptance speech, which was really beautiful, but then sort of forgot it was actually leading into record of the year.”
“I do think that is like, some of the things that you want from great music awards shows. I think if that happened at the Oscars, it’d be like, ‘[gasps] Oh my goodness! It was a disaster!’” he said. “But on our show, I loved it. If I could go back in time, I’d want that to happen again. ‘Cause she’s happy with it. She had a great time! So I just thought it was a really lovely moment. And you want a bit of anarchy, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. Everything is so rehearsed these days.”
However, Winston admitted that perhaps he had inadvertently put a hex on the show. “I do think I cursed it. We were going into [Cher’s] part, and we have never ever in the six years I’ve been doing it, been on time,” he shared. “We were one minute behind where we should be, which has never happened. … And then Cher happens!”
Billboard previously reached out to Cher for comment about her Oscars moment.
Listen to Ben Winston discuss Cher’s viral moment on the 2026 Grammys below:
