Pop titan Whitney Houston passed way 24 hours before the Grammy telecast in February. One year later, producers of the event planned on giving her a final sendoff with a special Grammy concert held and taped at the Nokia Theatre Thursday.
Celebrities like Jennifer Hudson, Britney Spears and Usher paid tribute to the legendary singer.
Grammy executive producer Ken Ehrlich, found it fitting that the show was being taped as a downpour of rain pounded the city, told the audience the show he didn't want to focus on what happened in February.
"There's so many people on this show that worked on that show ... all of them knew and worked with Whitney," Ehrlich said. "I really don't want to say how difficult that was for us."
Other celebrities present at the event included Halle Berry, Neil Portnow, Clive Davis, Yolanda Adams and CeCe Winans.
Spears spoke of how her version of Houston's "I Have Nothing" scored her a record deal, Davis echoed his eulogy - the only time her death was explicitly referenced - and an emotional Berry made a tearful introduction to the singer who "personifies the word 'icon.''"
"She inspired a generation of little girls and women to believe in their own dream and to know that they had within themselves the greatest gift of all," Berry said as she struggled through tears. "I was one of those little girls who then became a woman who never ever, ever, stopped loving Whitney Houston."
Houston's signature tune, "I Will Always Love You," which played earlier this year as the singer's casket was carried at her service, was once again heard in her voice with a performance from the 1994 Grammy awards shown.