Gloria Estefan, Post Malone – Billboard

After a ripping version of ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down,” Joe Walsh did the honors of inducting Jeff Lynne into the SHOF. “Last week I overheard my wife on the phone saying that Jeff Lynne was being indicted in New York. So here we are, the People vs. Jeff Lynne,” he said with a smile. Walsh, whose most recent album, Analog Man, was produced by Lynne, also took a moment to dismiss the artificial intelligence chatter. “We’re all being told the future is AI and soon hits will be shot from a digital brain at the speed of sound, and all of us will become obsolete.” Pausing, the Eagles/James Gang legend stuck out his tongue and made a raspberries sound worthy of a Merrie Melodies cartoon. “You can’t program the gift of a songwriter or the soul of an artist.”

After a gorgeous rendition of “Girl Crush” from her co-writers Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey and a teary take on “White Horse” from her daughter Caitlin, Liz Rose took the stage and thanked all those who helped her begin her songwriting career as a 37-year-old working mom. “I’m speechless – literally, I did not write a speech,” Rose jokes. “And I refuse to use AI.” Of her risk-taking, unlikely path, she also recalled the days when she began penning tunes with a 14-year-old by the name of Taylor Swift. “Everyone laughed at me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ But I said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s the easiest thing I do all week. It’s my third write of the day and we write a song in an hour and a half.’ Why wouldn’t I do that?”

Before EGOT winner Tim Rice was feted with the Johnny Mercer Award, the SHOF’s highest honor, some of his musical theater friends stopped by for truly next-level performances. Heather Headley – who won a Tony performing in Broadway Aida, which he did the lyrics for – left the room breathless with a version of Rice’s first song to become a hit, “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar. After that, Headley was joined by Michael Maliakel (former lead in Broadway’s Aladdin) for a duet on “A Whole New World” with Alan Menken on piano. That’s quite the flex. Even in the company of legends, there are few people who could nab an EGOT winner like Menken as a musical accompanist.

Glen Ballard – who has co-written smashes with Alanis Morissette and Wilson Phillips as well as hits for Michael Jackson and Josh Groban – received a loving induction from Siedah Garrett. Before she hailed her “Man in the Mirror” co-writer as “my all-time favorite collaborator,” she duetted on the classic with Miles Frost, the lead in Broadway’s MJ: The Musical. After that, Ballard took to the ivories and sang a quirky, charming medley of his various hits, which came with a warning: “You’re gonna find out why we need artists when I go over here and play songs.”

You could feel the camaraderie when Teddy Riley – a child prodigy who set out to make music and inadvertently created a new genre, new jack swing – was inducted into the SHOF by his longtime friends Keith Sweat and Doug E. Fresh. Fresh, the “Human Beat Box,” recalled how they would skip school to play music at Riley’s mom’s house in Harlem. “Most of us write out of our experiences, and sometimes we get messages,” Fresh said of creative inspiration striking. “Teddy was one of those guys who got messages – he was a special guy from around the neighborhood who had that gift.” Riley, who began playing guitar, piano and drums at age five, says music was how “I freed myself to all the things going on in Harlem; that was my escape.” While the excessively humble Riley opined that the audience probably didn’t know his songs, he had the whole room dancing and singing along as Riley, Sweat and Fresh ran down a catalog of new jack swing and hip-hop classics he was involved in, including Fresh’s “The Show,” Sweat’s “I Want Her,” Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” and Wreckx-n-Effect’s “Rump Shaker.”

Post Malone might’ve been trying to out-humble Riley while accepting the Hal David Starlight Award, which the SHOF gives to young songwriters (previous recipients include Drake, Taylor Swift, Halsey and Lil Nas X).

“There’s so much inspiration and love for music in this room, it’s overwhelming. Everyone in here loves music. It’s their life, heart and soul and it’s the same for me. It’s so epic to come up here and be honored for this award tonight,” Malone said. “Excuse my French, it’s so f—ing awesome to be able to sing these songs and have people relate to them, help them through hard times and celebrate through good times. I’m so grateful and I’m terrible at public speaking but I love you guys. Thanks mommy and daddy and Jody [Gerson] and my fiancé and my beautiful baby, she just turned one year old.”

After that, Posty took off his suit jacket, donned a backward-facing cap and delivered a stripped-down version of “Feeling Whitney” from his debut, Stoney. “I’m sorry I played the song no one knows,” he quipped.

Valerie Simpson (of songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson) inducted Gloria Estefan into the SHOF, noting that she was the first Latino woman to enter the organization’s ranks. Estefan – who already has a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kennedy Center Honors and three Grammys – made it clear that SHOF induction was “a big one for me.” And to that end, she made it a family affair. She shared how her mother sang a Cuban bolero to her as an infant (“[it was] the only way my mother could get a diaper on me”) and that she runs new songs by her sister, Becky, for the “cry test”: “Unless you shed tears,” she said to Becky, “They have not completed their mission.”

The Latin pop GOAT performed a medley of her touching ballads and boisterous dance numbers, from “Words Get in the Way” and “Don’t Wanna Lose You” to “Let’s Get Loud” (which she co-wrote and gave to Jennifer Lopez) and “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You.” For the lattermost, she was joined by husband of 48 years and Miami Sound Machine bandmate, Emilio Estefan, as well as her grandson, Sasha Estefan-Coppola, who duetted with her on the freestyle classic and ended the night on an energetic high note.