'The Supremes' get Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

WASHINGTON: 'The Supremes' are at the top of the Recording Academy's selection for 2023's Lifetime Achievement Awards, which will be presented Saturday in Los Angeles, the afternoon before the 65th annual Grammy Awards.

According to Variety, a US-based media house, along with Nirvana, Nile Rodgers, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick, Bobby McFerrin, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, Supremes co-founders Diana Ross, the late Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard will receive Grammy lifetime achievement awards, making Ross the first woman to do so twice (she earned a solo honour in 2012).

"Performing with two talented women, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballad is a memory that will be in my heart forever," Diana Ross said through her publicist, as per Variety.

"It was a beautiful symphony. Motown was such an incredible family. I'm forever grateful for the blessed opportunity." Wilson, who as a Supreme was one of Motown's most popular acts, with 12 No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot 100, is currently undergoing a much-deserved resurgence as a solo artist.

To accompany her disco-inspired 1979 first album, "Mary Wilson," which was re-issued in an 'Expanded Edition' in 2021 (months after her death on February 8, 2021), Wilson's new dance song, 'Soul Defender,' will be released on March 3, 2023, three days before her 79th birthday.

"The Lifetime Achievement Award is an acknowledgment that all three women contributed, from the very beginning of their career," said Turkessa Ferrer-Babich, Wilson's daughter, who, along with Lisa Sabrina Chapman, Ballard's youngest daughter, will accept the award on behalf of their mothers.

"My mom knew that she was going to get this award, someday. Unfortunately, she'll get it when she is no longer physically with us. I know, though, that she is overwhelmed with excitement that she and her sisters are getting this award. They deserved it. They worked hard and contributed so much to the music industry and the world."