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Don’t leave it that way: Thelma Houston has broken Grammy trophy replaced at L.A. event

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Rebecca Sapp/WireImageDisco great Thelma Houston won a Grammy Award in 1978 in the Best R&B Vocal Performance — Female category for her chart-topping hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” but her trophy was broken in a 1994 earthquake. On Thursday, Houston was presented with a brand-new statuette at a special interview and performance event at the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, Billboard reports.

“I’d been carrying the Grammy with me in three pieces for years,” the singer explained to Billboard during a phone interview before the presentation. “The horn portion of it was all smashed in. So the Grammy folks said, ‘We’d better do something about that.'”

In order to receive the new trophy, Thelma had to give back the broken one, something she said she found difficult to do.

“[T]hough it was broken, that Grammy had all my vibes,” she noted. “It had been there with me through all the changes in my life. So even though I was excited about getting a new one, it was still hard to replace it.”

Houston didn’t attend the actual ceremony at which she won her Grammy, explaining to Billboard that after being nominated three years earlier for the same honor and losing, she “wasn’t sure how I’d respond if they didn’t call my name.”

She recalled, “I was at home [in L.A.] mopping the kitchen when I got the call that I’d won.”

Houston admitted that not receiving her Grammy in person is “the biggest regret I have in my career.”

In February, the 72-year-old singer will take part in the star-studded Ultimate Disco Cruise 2019, and she also has several concerts on her tour itinerary. Visit ThelmaHouston.com to check out her full schedule.

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