ALICIA KEYS paid tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant with an emotional performance alongside Boyz II Men at the 2020 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
The NBA star and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria Onore Bryant were among nine people killed when their helicopter crashed in California on the morning of Sunday, January 26.
A sporting icon who transcended basketball and enjoyed a glittering 20-year career with the LA Lakers, where he won five NBA Championships, Bryant’s tragic passing overshadowed a night originally intended to be one of celebration.
Taking to the stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles where Bryant had wowed fans for two dazzling decades, Grammys host Alicia Keys wasted little time in paying tribute to the man who made the venue such an important part of LA life.
"We're all feeling crazy sadness right now,” she said.
“Because earlier today Los Angeles, America and the whole wide world lost a hero. We're literally standing here heartbroken in the house that Kobe Bryant built."
Keys proceeded to perform the emotive Boyz II Men classic It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday, before she was joined by the band themselves.
It was a performance that captured the mood of the night and one Keys later admitted she had been determined to do despite many still feeling raw from the unfolding events.
"We wanted to do something that could describe a tiny bit how we all feel right now,” she explained later that same night.
“We love you Kobe."
The perfect tribute on a tough night for Los Angeles, America and the world of sport.
