The Grammy Awards stand by their tribute to Natalie Cole. Ken Ehrlich, the show’s producer, felt that their decision to include Natalie Cole in the segment and not do a solo tribute was “appropriate.”
Ehrlich told Billboard,
“Frankly, I think it was appropriate. . . . 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 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.”
Ehrlich also revealed that he cleared the tribute with Cole’s sister and she was initially okay with it. So, there you have it!