NEW YORK — Mary J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & The Gang and Ozzy Osbourne have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a class that also includes rockers Dave Matthews Band and singer-guitarist Peter Frampton.
The late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield will get the Musical Excellence Award. Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton earned the Musical Influence Award, while Pioneering music executive Suzanne de Passe won the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is an ever-evolving amalgam of sounds that impacts culture and moves generations,” John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement. “This diverse group of inductees each broke down musical barriers and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”
There had been a celebrity push to get Foreigner — with the hits “Urgent” and "Hot Blooded" — into the hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl, and Paul McCartney all publicly backing the move. Ronson's stepfather is Mick Jones, Foreigner's founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist.
Osbourne, who led many parents in the 1980s to clutch their pearls with his devil imagery and sludgy music, goes in as a solo artist, having already been inducted into the hall with metal masters Black Sabbath.
Four of the eight nominees — Cher, Foreigner, Frampton and Kool & the Gang — were on the ballot for the first time.
Cher — the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades — and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy Awards, will help boost the number of women in the hall, which critics say is too low.
Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction.
Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Fans voted online or in person at the museum, with the top five artists picked by the public making up a “fans’ ballot” that was tallied with the other professional ballots.
Those music acts nominated this year but didn't make the cut included Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, the late Sinéad O’Connor, soul-pop singer Sade, Britpoppers Oasis, hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim and alt-rockers Jane’s Addiction.
The induction ceremony will be held on Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.