In an embarrassing lack of judgement, Turner Broadcasting announced it’d be replacing Luther Vandross’ iconic version of “One Shining Moment” as their NCAA theme song last week. But once the all important Auntie and smooth R&B contingent weighed in, TBS realized their grave mistake.
Executives at the television station, according to ESPN, asked Ne-Yo to record his rendition of Vandross’ song, which has played alongside the final NCAA tournament montage for 30 years. Fine, Ne-Yo’s a nice guy with a wonderful talent for song writing and a solid singing voice but who replaces Luther Vandross with Ne-Yo? asked social media.
And this isn’t the first time TBS has tried to be different. In 2010, the station tried to replace Vandross’ song when Jennifer Hudson was hired to record her own version of “One Shining Moment,” but it was so poorly received TBS locked it in a vault, never to be heard again. So, six years later, the company brass thought they’d give their failure another shot… and that worked out about as well as the first time.
Ultimately, TBS announced that Vandross’ original version will continue to air during the final tournament highlights, as it has since 1987. Being different isn’t worth losing the fan base that tunes into NCAA March Madness to support their babies, right? Not to mention, Luther passed away in 2005, why take away what little we have left TBS? Why?