As you know by now, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash yesterday, and the basketball legend’s presence was certainly felt at last night’s GRAMMYs, which took place at the Staples Center, where he spent his career as a Los Angeles Laker.
After a performance from Lizzo, which she started by saying, “Tonight is for Kobe,” host Alicia Keys opened the show acknowledging the feelings of everyone in the room. She noted that everyone was feeling “crazy sadness” over Kobe's death, and that they were all “heartbroken” standing in the “house that Kobe Bryant built.”
She added, “We never imagined in a million years we'd have to start the show like this, so we wanted to do something do describe a tiny bit how we feel right now.”
She was then joined by the Boyz II Men for an emotional performance of their classic “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” which was followed by the cameras panning to Kobe's jerseys hung in the rafters.