The Grammy award show was to go
live in 24 hours when the news of Whitney Houston's sudden
death in a hotel bathtub changed everything as producers
scrambled to put together a fitting tribute to the singer.
Now a new documentary
A Death In The Family: The Show
Must Go On, goes behind the scenes of the 54th
Grammys to show how the music award went through so many
changes at the last moment.
Host LL Cool J decided to open the ceremony with a
prayer. Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson pitched in for an
unannounced performance of Houston's Grammy-winning classic
I
Will Always Love You. Also, Paul McCartney's all-star lineup
was added at the last minute so was the decision to end the
show with the closing medley from the Beatles' historic album
Abbey Road.
"I knew we were in for a rough day and night after this
all had happened," recalls Grammy telecast executive producer
Ken Ehrlich. He said that they went for a rewrite of the
script from the page one to honour Houston, making the gala a
sombre affair.
The short documentary features interviews with
Grammy-winning artists Dave Grohl, Jennifer Hudson, Bruce
Springsteen, and Joe Walsh and includes never-before-seen
rehearsal footage.
"I was on my way to the pre-Grammy party and Ken called.
He said I was on for Whitney and my first reaction was 'I
would do anything to honour her memory.' But I did not know I
could get through it," Hudson says about her emotionally
charged performance in the documentary.
Read: Whitney Houston's mother is writing a tell-all book about the superstar