Quincy Jones was honored with a moving musical tribute during the 2025 Oscars Sunday night.
Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg, co-stars in Jones’ 1985 film “The Color Purple,” led the tribute the legendary music producer, who died at the age of 91 in November 2024.
Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey speak onstage during the 97th Annual Oscars March 2, 2025 in Hollywood.
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The tribute continued with a performance by Queen Latifah, who performed “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz” in front of the Oscars audience.
Queen Latifah performs onstage during the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre, on March 2, 2025, in Hollywood, Calif.
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Prior to the ceremony, executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor previewed the tribute to Jones in a press conference as a “beautiful moment that we hope will uplift the room, that will celebrate the spirit of Quincy and all of his greatness.”
Jones was nominated for seven Oscars during his career, including three for “The Color Purple.” For that project he earned nods in the categories of best original score, best original song for “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” and best picture.
Music producer Quincy Jones poses for a portrait to promote his documentary “Quincy” during the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 7, 2018, in Toronto.
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Jones was honored at the 67th Academy Awards with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which was presented to him by Oprah Winfrey. In his speech accepting the Oscar, Jones said, “It’s nice to feel important. I think maybe a bit more important to be nice, though.”
Jones received an honorary Oscar at the 2024 Governors Awards just two weeks after his death. His children accepted the trophy on his behalf.
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“He has so many friends in this room — probably in every room, if I’m being honest,” daughter Rashida Jones said onstage before reading the speech her father had prepared to read himself.
“His music has literally defined an entire century of culture-spanning genres — jazz, disco, film, pop, R&B, hip-hop,” the “Parks and Recreation” actress went on to say, now in her own words. “But the real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love. That was his gift to us.”
