Billie Eilish and k.d. lang are among those participating in a pre-taped panel discussion celebrating Peggy Lee that will premiere on the Grammy Museum’s website (www.grammymuseum.org) on May 26, which is the centennial of her birth in Jamestown, N.D.
Eric Burton of Black Pumas will also participate in the panel discussion, along with Dr. Tish Oney, author of Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, and Holly Foster Wells, Lee’s granddaughter and president of Peggy Lee Associates, LLC. Scott Goldman, moderator of the Grammy Museum’s public programs, will moderate the session.
In addition to the panel discussion, the Grammy Museum will host a virtual exhibit that will display Lee memorabilia from the 1930s through the early 2000s. The Grammy Museum has been releasing virtual archival exhibits since its closure in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this marks the time an exhibit has opened digitally and is later slated to open in the physical Grammy Museum at L.A. Live (in spring 2021).
Lee was the first female artist nominated for a Grammy Award for record of the year. She was nominated for her sultry version of “Fever,” a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, at the first Grammy Awards, for 1958. She won her only Grammy in competition for her 1969 comeback hit “Is That All There Is?,” which won for best contemporary vocal performance, female. (It was also nominated for record of the year.) Lee received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 1995, which was the year she gave her final concert performances. “Fever” and “Is That All There Is?” have both been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
lang and Eilish are also major Grammy winners. Eilish won five Grammys on Jan. 26. lang has won four Grammys over the course of her career. Black Pumas were nominated for best new artist this past year, but lost to Eilish.
Lee died in 2002 at age 81.