The 41-year-old basketball star and his 13-year-old daughter died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
The 2020 Grammys kicked off on Sunday night with a special performance by Alicia Keys and Boyz II Men in tribute to Kobe Bryant and his family.
The basketball legend and his teenage daughter Gianna Maria Onore Bryant were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in California, and the LA County Sheriff reported that there were no survivors.
At the start of the Grammys ceremony, host Alicia Keys arrived on stage at the Staples Center, where Bryant represented the LA Lakers with distinction for two decades, and began to pay tribute to Bryant:
“We’re all feeling crazy sadness right now. Because earlier today Los Angeles, America and the whole wide world lost a hero. We’re literally standing here heartbroken in the house that Kobe Bryant built.”
She then began to sing the lyrics to Boyz II Men’s ‘It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday’, before being joined by the band themselves.
Keys later said that the song was performed because “We wanted to do something that could describe a tiny bit how we all feel right now. We love you Kobe.”
Watch the performance here:
https://twitter.com/CBS/status/1221609839861780481?s=20
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