A diva-off commenced when the shortlist for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was announced earlier this year, with Mariah Carey and Cher among the nominees who vied for the honor with their respective shimmery careers. Cher got in with her first nomination; the Queen of Christmas did not. And now, several months later and the 2024 ceremony behind us, Carey has realized that the organization put her in a bit of an absurd predicament. When asked by the Los Angeles Times about being passed over by the Rock Hall for now, she responded, “My thoughts are: I didn’t get in.” That’s fair and a lot of artists feel that way. But Carey took a look at the names that preceded her and realized someone on her payroll received the honor first. “Everybody was calling me going, ‘I think you’re getting in!’ and so I was excited about it,” she continued. “But then it didn’t happen. My lawyer got into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame before me.”
That entertainment lawyer is Allen Grubman, who was inducted back in 2022 with a backdoor award dedicated to industry professionals. (One of his clients, John Mellencamp, showed up to induct him. Grubman also co-founded the Rock Hall.) The filibuster of a segment was among Vulture’s lows of the evening, with the ceremony allotting him more time to speak than entire segments of other artists combined, such as Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten. Prior to being ostracized from the organization, fellow Rock Hall co-founder Jann Wenner protested Grubman’s induction, stating at the time that the decision was “about money and bending to the ego of a music-business power broker.” Because who in their right mind thinks a lunchtime negotiation over a five-octave vocal range is better rock and roll?
