Aaron Carter Fans Livid After Grammys Leave Him out of In Memoriam Tribute

The 2023 Grammy Awards featured an “In Memoriam” segment for all the music industry greats that have passed away in the last year, but it did not include singer Aaron Carter. Fans took to social media in fury on Sunday night after the segment aired without mentioning Carter, who passed away in November. Later, his family spoke to reporters from TMZ admitting that they were surprised and disappointed as well.

The Grammys paid tribute to all the musicians and industry leaders who have died in the last year, including Loretta Lynn, Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Bobby Rydel, Naomi Judd, Olivia Newton-John and rapper Takeoff. It even mentioned the recently-deceased Lisa Marie Presley and David Crosby, but not Carter. Though he was never nominated for a Grammy, Carter was a pop music icon spanning over two decades and his passing at the age of 34 left fans heartbroken. His absence was duly noted.

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“Someone on FB pointed out that Aaron Carter was left out during the Memoriam section and???” one fan tweeted. Another wrote: “Did they skip Aaron Carter?” while a third added: “Wait they didn’t include Aaron Carter in the In Memoriam?!Whether u were a fan or not, the man spent his entire childhood funding the lifestyles of the industry motherf-ers in off-the-rack Armani suits filling most of them Grammy seats.”

Carter’s family shared their disappointment as well. Carter’s ex and the mother of his son, Melanie Martin, told TMZ that she was “baffled” by the In Memoriam segment, and she believed Carter would have been heartbroken because he also yearned for recognition from institutions like the Recording Academy. She felt that this omission was a “slap in the face” to Carter’s legacy and to his son, and she hopes the Academy will look for a way to make up for this mistake.

The Recording Academy has not commented publicly on this backlash, so right now there’s no indication that this was a mistake. This year’s Grammys did pointedly skip over some of the most controversial figures in the music industry, including Kanye West and Morgan Wallen. Carter had his fair share of controversies and legal troubles in his lifetime, though fans generally believed that Carter was on a path to redemption at the time of his death.

Carter passed away on Nov. 5, 2022 at his home in Lancaster, California. His remains were discovered in his bathtub by his housekeeper. His exact cause of death hasn’t been announced yet and the results of a toxicology report are still pending.