Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne Among Rock Hall of Fame Inductees

Mary J. Blige speaks during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Mary J. Blige speaks during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne Among Rock Hall of Fame Inductees

Mary J. Blige speaks during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Mary J. Blige speaks during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Cher, Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne were among this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, an elite group formally introduced into the music pantheon Saturday at a star-studded concert gala.

Kool & the Gang, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, and Peter Frampton round out the 2024 class of honorees, artists honored at the ceremony held in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the prestigious hall.

Big Mama Thornton, Alexis Korner and John Mayall received special honors for "musical influence," as Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield received awards for "musical excellence."

Suzanne de Passe, a trailblazer for women executives in the music business, who was big in Motown, won the night's award for non-performing industry professionals.

Dua Lipa kicked off the evening with a performance of "Believe," with Cher joining the pop star onstage to finish her 1998 smash hit, which was credited as the first song to use auto-tune technology as an instrument.

"I changed the sound of music forever," she said in her acceptance speech, less than a year after railing against the hall for not having yet added her to the ballot.

"It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," she quipped Saturday night.

Performers included Kelly Clarkson, Sammy Hagar, Slash and Demi Lovato, who all appeared for Foreigner.

A group of artists including Queen Latifah, De La Soul and Busta Rhymes also performed with the surviving members of the eclectic, pioneering hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest -- Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White.



Father of One Direction Star Payne Arrives in Argentina

Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Father of One Direction Star Payne Arrives in Argentina

Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Tributes to Liam Payne, a former One Direction band member, are seen at the Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, in London, Britain, October 18, 2024. (Reuters)

The father of One Direction pop singer Liam Payne, whose death in a fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires shocked the music world, arrived in Argentina on Friday, police sources told AFP.

Geoff Payne landed in Buenos Aires at 6:00 am, the source said.

The source did not say whether he would visit the morgue where the body of his son, the 31-year-old member of one of Britain's most successful pop groups of recent years, is being kept pending the results of toxicological tests.

Payne suffered "multiple traumas" and "internal and external hemorrhaging" after falling from the balcony of his room on the third floor of the Casa Sur hotel in central Buenos Aires on Wednesday night, an autopsy found.

The autopsy suggested he had not tried to stop his fall and was in a state of "semi or total unconsciousness" before his death.

The singer, who had spoken publicly about struggles with alcohol and coping with fame from an early age, was alone at the time and appeared to be "going through an episode of substance abuse," prosecutors said.

He was found dead after hotel staff called emergency services twice to report "a guest who is overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol, and destroying his room," according to leaked audio.

Tributes to the singer have been pouring in since Wednesday.

His former One Direction bandmates, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, said they were "completely devastated" by his death.

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC also offered their condolences, as did British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Payne was in Argentina to attend a concert by Niall Horan.

Argentine media published photos which they said showed the interior of his hotel room, with white powder on a table next to a piece of aluminum foil and a lighter, and a television with a broken screen.

Fans have left a mound of letters, flowers and pictures of the singer at a makeshift shrine to him outside the hotel in Palermo district.

"I feel like it's a part of adolescence lost," said Lena Duek, 21.