Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Mariah Carey, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, Joy Division/New Order, and Oasis, are among the 14 nominees for induction into the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Additional nominees include Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Maná, the White Stripes, Phish, Soundgarden, and OutKast.
“These remarkable nominees have each created their own musical style and attitude, impacting generations of music lovers and contributing to the ever-evolving sounds and continued growth of rock and roll,” said John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, in a statement.
Each year, the Rock Hall inducts artists or bands, who become eligible for nomination 25 years after releasing their first commercial recording. Carey and Lauper have been nominated before, while Checker, 83, has waited the longest for a nomination and induction, despite being eligible since 1984.
In 1960, Checker released his debut album and first No. 1 hit, “The Twist,” a cover of a B-side originally released by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters in 1958. Though Checker has never been recognized for his contribution by the Rock Hall, Ballard, who died in 2003, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
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“The Twist” was honored by the Rock Hall in 2018 when it was added to a list of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Singles. Nearly two decades earlier, Checker took out a full-page advertisement in Billboard magazine in 2001 to say he deserved an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“I want my flowers while I’m alive,” he wrote. “I can’t smell them when I’m dead. I will not have the music business ignore my position in the industry.”
For the 2025 inductees, voting will be conducted by ballot and distributed to an international panel of more than 1,200 artists, music industry professionals, historians, and music industry professionals, according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The selection criteria include an artist’s “impact on music culture, influence on other musicians that have followed, as well as the scope and longevity of their career and body of work.”
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductees will be revealed in late April, along with inductees entering as Musical Influence, Musical Excellence, and the Ahmet Ertegun Non-Performer Award.
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Each year, the Musical Influence Award is given to artists whose music and performance style have directly influenced, inspired, and evolved rock & roll and music impacting youth culture, while the Musical Excellence Award is given to artists, musicians, songwriters, and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music, according to the Rock Hall.
The Ahmet Ertegun Award is a non-performing honor given to industry professionals who have had a major influence on the creative development and growth of rock and roll and music that has impacted youth culture.
Last year, the Rock Hall inductees included Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Mary J Blige, A Tribe Called Quest, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, and Dionne Warwick.
This year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place in Los Angeles in the fall with dates and ticket information revealed at a later date.
Photo: Cyndi Lauper by Annie Leibovitz / Courtesy of Sony Music Archives / Shore Fire Media
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