Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, Oasis, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Sade, Wu-Tang Clan, Joy Division and New Order will join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year at its annual induction ceremony, the organization announced Monday night. The news was revealed on “American Idol” by Lionel Richie, a judge on the television talent show who was inducted into the hall in 2022.
The inductee class of 2026, which will be welcomed on Nov. 14 at a ceremony at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, represents a wide range of styles and genres, including hip-hop, R&B, Britpop, heavy metal and post-punk. However, the group only features two women: Nigerian-British soul singer Sade and Gillian Gilbert of New Order; That result is likely to draw criticism after years in which organizers have sought to diversify the hall's ranks along racial and gender lines.
Three of the new inductees, chosen by a group of more than 1,200 musicians, executives, historians and journalists, join the hall after being nominated for the first time: Vandross, the R&B star whose voice was featured prominently on Kendrick Lamar's Grammy-winning “Luther”; Wu-Tang Clan, the boisterous rap group that recently embarked on what it called a farewell tour; and Collins, who enters as a solo artist after being inducted as a member of Genesis in 2010. (An act becomes eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording.) The remaining members had been nominated previously.
Nominated artists for the class of 2026 who didn't make the cut include Mariah Carey, Shakira, Lauryn Hill, Melissa Etheridge, INXS, New Edition, Pink, the Black Crowes and the late Jeff Buckley.
Several other musicians will be honored at the November ceremony. Celia Cruz, Fela Kuti, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Gram Parsons will receive the hall's Early Influence Award, while the Musical Excellence Award will go to Linda Creed, Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin. Television impresario Ed Sullivan will be honored with the Ahmet Ertegun Award, a citation for non-performers named after the late co-founder of Atlantic Records who founded Rock Hall with Rolling Stone magazine's Jann Wenner in the mid-1980s. These are posthumous honors for several recipients, including Vandross, Cruz, Kuti, Parsons, Creed, Mardin, Miller and Sullivan.
The 2026 ceremony in Los Angeles will be filmed and broadcast in December on ABC and Disney+. Organizers said the 2027 event will be held at the hall's headquarters in Cleveland.
