Ms. Lauryn Hill made her return to the Grammys stage count. On Sunday (Feb. 1), in her first performance at the ceremony since 1999, she led the In Memoriam segment with a medley honoring two artists she loved: D’Angelo and Roberta Flack.
Dressed in a black ball gown and wide sunglasses at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Hill opened with part of “Nothing Even Matters,” her 1998 duet with D’Angelo from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, per Pitchfork. A nonstop run of guests followed. Leon Thomas joined her for “Devil’s Pie,” Lucky Daye took “Brown Sugar,” Raphael Saadiq and Anthony Hamilton sang “Lady,” Bilal handled “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” and Jon Batiste dropped in a brief bit of “Africa.”
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The second half turned to Flack. Hill moved into “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” with a full band, then sang “Compared to What” with Leon Bridges and Alexia Jayy, “Closer I Get to You” with Lalah Hathaway and October London, and “Where Is the Love” with John Legend and Chaka Khan. She tacked on “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” then looked out at the crowd and asked where Wyclef Jean was.
He rose from the audience on cue, guitar strapped across his chest, and walked up to join her for Flack’s original “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” The pair then switched to their own Fugees rendition from The Score, and the arena stood. The segment also included separate tributes to Ozzy Osbourne, including a Post Malone performance, Complex noted.
The moment came with weight. D’Angelo died of cancer in October 2025 at 51, and Flack died in February 2025 at 88. Hill paid tribute to him at the time. “I regret not having more time with you,” she wrote in an Instagram statement, per Complex. The week before the show, The FADER reported, D’Angelo’s son said he had not been invited to the tribute; the Recording Academy said it had been unable to contact him.
For Hill, it was a fitting return. Last March she had already sung “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” with Stevie Wonder and Jean at Flack’s memorial service. One more link ran through the night: Best New Artist winner Olivia Dean has Lauryn as her middle name, inspired by Hill, Billboard noted. Hill’s year would continue with BET’s first Living Legend Icon Award in June.
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
