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A Queen gave an Oscar tribute fit for a king.
That’s what happened at the 97th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night when Queen Latifah gave a salute to movie music icon Quincy Jones, who died at 91 from pancreatic cancer last November.
But there were even more queens involved before Latifah perfromed a rousing rendition of “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz,” which Jones brought from the stage to the screen in 1978.
Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey — who both got big breakthroughs in 1985’s “The Color Purple” thanks to Jones — were reunited to honor their mentor.
“Quincy was love lived out loud in human form,” said Winfrey. “And he poured that love into others and into his work.”
“So tonight we honor the true American legend whose music and movies continue to inspire us all,” added Goldberg.
Latifah and Jones go back to when the rapper-singer and Oscar-nominated actress appeared on his 1995 album “Q’s Jook Joint.” And Latifah played the Wiz herself in “The Wiz Live!” on NBC in 2015.
As well as being a legendary producer of everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lesley Gore to Michael Jackson and Donna Summer, Jones was a giant in the film world, scoring such classic movies as “The Pawnbroker” (1965), “In the Heat of the Night”(1967), “In Cold Blood” (1967), “The Italian Job” (1969) and “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” (1969).
He also brought the music of “The Wiz” from stage to screen in 1978 and scored 1985’s “The Color Purple,” for which he also served as a producer.
Jones was the first African-American to be nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar — for “The Eyes of Love” from 1967’s “Banning” — and he was nominated for an Academy Award six other times.
Then in 1971, Jones became the first African-American to be the music director and conductor of the Oscars.
And in 1995, he was celebrated with the academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Michael Bearden, first-time music director of the Academy Awards, credited Jones for paving the way for him.
“Quincy is really the blueprint of what I’ve been able to do my entire career, and I’ve been really lucky to have … worked with him over the years,” he said during a Zoom press conference last week.
Just two weeks after his death, Jones received an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in Hollywood. His daughter, actress Rashida Jones, delivered a speech that her dad had been working on while accepting the award in his honor.
“As a teenager growing up in Seattle, I would sit for hours in the theater and dream about composing for films,” she read.
The speech then reflected on Jones’ groundbreaking journey in film: “When I was a young film composer, you didn’t even see faces of color working in the studio commissaries. I am so, so proud of the fact that my name and contributions can be included in that evolution.”
Jones also received a special tribute at last month’s Grammys as a winner of 28. Will Smith, Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock, Janelle Monáe, Jacob Collier and Lainey Wilson were among those to salute the late star on music’s biggest night.