Biography | Will Smith — The Radio City Stage That Joined His Film and Solo Music Careers

On 25 February 1998, Will Smith walked onto the stage of Radio City Music Hall for the opening of the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. The ceremony arrived at a hinge point in a career that had already crossed from records to television and major films. Smith opened the broadcast with a medley of “Men in Black” and “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” placing his new solo music directly before the Grammy audience. The first song carried the title of the 1997 film in which he starred, so the performance joined his screen identity and recording work in the same public moment. Later in the ceremony, “Men in Black” won Best Rap Solo Performance. The Recording Academy’s account identifies this as Smith’s first appearance on a Grammy stage, even though his earlier work with DJ Jazzy Jeff had already been recognized by the awards. That distinction matters because the Radio City appearance was more than another trophy presentation. It showed that Smith’s move into film had not ended his recording career and that a song built around a blockbuster role could stand on its own in a music category. Contemporary coverage also placed him among the performers scheduled for the New York ceremony, while later histories of the broadcast remember the evening as one of the most eventful Grammy shows of its era. For Smith, the durable part of the night was simpler: he began the telecast as a performer and left with a solo Grammy linked to the movie that had expanded his global audience. The map pin marks the Radio City Music Hall building at 1260 Sixth Avenue, not an invented position on its interior stage. The auditorium photograph was made by William Warby during a 2017 backstage tour and is a later view of the verified venue rather than an image of the 1998 ceremony; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.