Claim that J.Lo announced Whitney Houston Grammy tribute is false
CLAIM: Jennifer Lopez told Time that she will perform a Whitney Houston tribute at the 2023 Grammy Awards, saying Houston’s songs “fit my vocal range very well.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A spokesperson for Lopez confirmed this conversation didn’t happen, and there is no report matching this description on Time’s website.
THE FACTS: Pop singer and actor Jennifer Lopez didn’t compare her vocal talent to Whitney Houston’s in an interview — despite what you might have read in popular social media posts this week.
Posts shared online thousands of times falsely claimed the 53-year-old Lopez “revealed with @TIME that she is doing a Whitney Houston tribute at the @Grammys next year.”
The posts claimed Lopez said in the interview, “I feel that Whitney’s songs fit my vocal range very well. I’m going to sing I Have Nothing & I Will Always Love You.”
Adding to internet speculation that the claims were true was a clip published on Twitter that purported to feature “raw audio” of Lopez rehearsing for the Grammy performance. The clip amassed more than 14,000 shares on Twitter.
However, Lauren Schwartz, a representative for Lopez, confirmed that the quotes attributed to Lopez were fake, and that she had not announced any such tribute to Houston.
“There is no truth to this rumor and that interview did not happen,” Schwartz said in an email to The Associated Press.
Schwartz said “we are looking into” the audio clip “but either way it is not related to any Grammy performance.” An internet search revealed the clip has circulated online since at least 2010, often claiming to show Lopez attempting to sing a Barbra Streisand song. The lyrics in the clip match the Streisand and Donna Summer song “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” not any Houston tracks.
A search of Time’s website found no corroborating interviews or news reports to suggest the internet rumors about Lopez’s Grammy tribute were real or confirmed.
“This was not reported by TIME,” the outlet told the AP in an emailed statement.
Grammy Awards hosts and performers for 2023 have not yet been officially announced.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.