Latto Fills In for Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes on TLC’s ‘Waterfalls’ at 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards
TLC‘s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins took the stage at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday night (April 1) to perform some of their biggest hits — and they recruited a current hip-hop star to fill in for their late bandmate Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.
As Peso Pluma and GloRilla revealed in their introduction of TLC, they’re the best-selling American girl group of all time. And they played two of their biggest hits for the Dolby Theater crowd, starting with their 1999 four-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “No Scrubs” and wrapping with the 1995 seven-week Hot 100 topper “Waterfalls.”
When “Waterfalls” got to Left Eye’s famous rap verse, T-Boz and Chilli welcomed Latto to the stage to take the reins. The 25-year-old rapper, born in December 1998, wasn’t even alive when “Waterfalls” was released on the blockbuster 1995 album CrazySexyCool.
Since 2002, when Lopes was killed in a car crash in Honduras, the remaining members of TLC decided to move forward as a duo, never replacing the rapper.
In addition to their performance on Monday night’s show, TLC also accepted iHeartRadio Landmark Awards for their impressive run of radio airplay hits over their 30-year career.
Other performers at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards included Justin Timberlake, Jelly Roll & Lainey Wilson, Green Day, host Ludacris, Tate McRae and a musical tribute to Cher. Taylor Swift won artist of the year on Monday’s show along with two other prizes, and she sent a video message to her fans for voting her to victory.
Katie Atkinson
Billboard