Having already given a speech to the audience and “nailed it”,
Kelly tried to keep up her confidence when welcoming the junior
senator, however her memory failed her as soon as she took to the
stage.
“I get up there, complete panic sets in because I can’t remember
what that fake Grammy is called, I can’t remember what the book is
because it had just come out... And I can’t remember his name, but
I am pretty sure it rhymes with ‘sama,’” she recalled to talk show
host Seth Meyers. “I completely butchered it, I literally had the
mic, after I just nailed it, and I’m like... (mumbles nonsensical
words). I swear to God, I wanted to die. I wanted to fall down and
pretend I had a stroke – I would’ve faked some horrible thing.”
To make matters worse, she accidentally muttered Dances With Father
as the album title, as all she could think of was the Luther
Vandross song. Feeling awkward and wanting to apologize to Obama,
Kelly rushed backstage to find him after her mishap only to emerge
unsuccessful. She was reassured that she’d “never see him again”,
only for him to eventually become President.
But Kelly still isn’t convinced on his Grammy-winning talent,
joking: “(People were saying after my first speech) ‘Oh my God, you
did so amazing. There’s this senator and he’s a new senator... and
he’s won a Grammy,’ and I was like, ‘What, he sings? That’s
amazing!’” she recalled. “And they were like, ‘No, he won a Best
Spoken Word Album.’ I was like, that’s not real... That sounds made
up!"