Events & Awards

R&B Legends to Perform at 24 Karat Club of NYC Banquet

Events & AwardsNov 20, 2018

R&B Legends to Perform at 24 Karat Club of NYC Banquet

“Love Train” and “Now That We Found Love” are a couple of this group’s greatest hits.

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A shot of the 2018 24 Club of the City of New York banquet. The jewelry event will return to the New York Hilton Midtown in 2019, with R&B group The O’Jays performing. (Photo credit: Hechler)

New York—An R&B group formed in the 1960s in Ohio will be the headlining act for the 2019 24 Karat Club banquet in New York, organizers announced Monday.

The O’Jays got their start in 1963 when Canton, Ohio, residents Walter Williams and Eddie Levert teamed up with three other men: William Powell, Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. They took their name in tribute to Cleveland radio disc jockey Eddie O’Jay.

Though various band members have come and gone over the years, Levert and Williams remain the lead singers with the group’s current third member, Eric Nolan Grant, joining in 1995.

Over the years, the O’Jays have notched 10 No. 1 hits, 10 gold albums and nine platinum albums with songs including “Backstabbers,” “Love Train,” “I Love Music,” and “Use Ta Be My Girl.”

They were the first black vocal group to perform in U.S. arenas in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The O’Jays, from left to right: Walter Williams, Eddie Levert and Eric Grant. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005, honored with BET’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and inducted into the Official R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
The 117th Grand Banquet for the 24 Karat Club of the City of New York is scheduled to take place Saturday, Jan. 12, at the New York Hilton Midtown.

This is the second year the annual gala is being held at the Hilton while the banquet’s longtime home, the Waldorf Astoria, continues to undergo renovation.

Club banquet Chair Myriam Gumuchian said that in response to members’ feedback, the club is hosting both the pre- and post-party in the Grand Ballroom Foyer, right outside the ballroom. There also will be a lounge area nearby, the “Sip ‘n Chill” bar, for guests to mingle.

Cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m. and doors to the ballroom open at 7.

Bulova Timepieces, which is owned by Citizen Watch America, is sponsoring the evening’s entertainment.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.

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