Philadelphia could be in for another banner year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the city’s biggest pop star, Pink, among the 17 nominees in the running to be inducted later this year.
Along with the Doylestown-born “Get the Party Started” singer, the list of potential inductees includes another artist with Philly ties in Lauryn Hill. Plus, Phil Collins, Wu-Tang Clan, Oasis, Mariah Carey, Jeff Buckley, Billy Idol, the Black Crowes, INXS, Shakira, Iron Maiden, Luther Vandross, Sade, Melissa Etheridge, Joy Division / New Order, Iron Maiden, and New Edition.
Pink — who was born Alecia Moore and has graduated to stadium-sized stardom, with recent tour dates at Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park — is newly eligible for the Rock Hall this year, having released her debut album, Can’t Take Me Home, in 2000.
Ten of the artists on the list have been nominated for the first time. Pink is the only one who made the initial cut in her first year of eligibility.
Last year was a breakthrough year for Philly at the RRHOF. “The Twist” hitmaker Chubby Checker was finally inducted — although he didn’t attend the ceremony due to a scheduling conflict. Late songwriter-producer Thom Bell got in as a Musical Excellence honoree. Cyndi Lauper, who has deep Philly ties, also got in.
Artists hoping to be named when inductees are announced in April include Hill, the Fugees singer whose acclaimed one-and-only-studio album as a solo artist, 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, came out via Conshohocken’s Ruffhouse Records label.
Other nominees Philly music fans have a rooting interest in are Luther Vandross, the luxuriously voiced New York R&B singer who founded a Patti LaBelle fan club in high school and was a key contributor to David Bowie’s 1975 album Young Americans, which was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios. And Staten Island’s hip-hop Wu-Tang Clan have always claimed Philly as their second biggest market, and chose to end the farewell tour in South Philly last summer.
This year’s list is sure to irritate rock and roll purists eager to point out that the majority of acts nominated don’t primarily make rock and roll music. Instead, the list includes Shakira’s Latin pop, New Edition’s 1990s R&B, Carey’s R&B and hip-hop pop, and Sade’s silky smooth jazz-inflected R&B.
But that ship has long since sailed. With most rock and roll originators enshrined years ago, the modern RRHOF would more properly be called the Pop Music Hall of Fame.
The Cleveland institution needs to get bodies into its I.M. Pei-designed museum building. For years now, it’s been trying to do so by opening its doors to all forms of pop music and aiming to bring in still active artists who command at least a partially youngish fan base.
In that sense Pink (who stylizes her stage name as P!nk) is a perfect fit. She may have a quarter century of experience, but her persona is anything but old school and staid. Her trademark trick is to fly through the air in an aerial harness high above the crowds at her shows. If it’s vitality the Rock Hall is after, Pink could be its artist of choice.
Does that mean she’s going to get in? Not necessarily. Billboard has her odds at 8 to 1, tied with New Edition as the least likely of long shots.
There’s plenty of competition. Hill, for one. The Fugees is not in as a group, so Hill would be the first member to represent the hip-hop crew, which was a commercial and critically dominant force in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hill is also freshly prominent this year, after impressing as the leader of the Roberta Flack-D’Angelo tribute at the Grammys this month.
She is nominated despite having only one solo album to her name, albeit an acknowledged classic that Apple Music rated the best of all time in 2024.
The other artist on the list who put out only one album is Jeff Buckley, the songwriter with a sensuous voice who drowned in the Mississippi River at 30 in 1997. His 1994 Grace includes the definitive take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and his story has renewed interest, thanks to Amy Berg’s 2025 doc, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.
Phil Collins is a lock. The British drummer and singer — who took a Concord to Philadelphia in 1985 so he could play at Live Aid on two continents — is already in with his band Genesis. But he has also had a massively successful solo career. His health struggles, which require 24-hour care, have been widely publicized.
I’d also rate Wu-Tang Clan as a safe bet. The Rock Hall has tended to enshrine one big-name hip-hop act every year recently, with OutKast as last year’s example. And Wu-Tang, after all, is for the children and has a perfect combo of prestige and popularity.
Every year, the Rock Hall snubs many unfashionable musical greats by not including them among the nominees. The incomparable Chicano band Los Lobos is my favorite example of a group that has been unjustly ignored.
That doesn’t mean they’ll never get in, though: Last year, long-suffering fans of the late Warren Zevon were rewarded when he was honored as a Musical Influence.
Other favorites among this year’s nominees include Iron Maiden, the English band whose inclusion would address the Rock Hall’s woeful record in acknowledging the history of heavy metal.
Colombian singer Shakira — whose 2006 “Hips Don’t Lie” is the first song by a South American artist to top the Billboard pop charts — also has an excellent shot, with the Rock Hall being mindful of paying attention to more Latin pop in the age of Bad Bunny.
And Oasis — whose reunited Gallagher brothers mounted an enormously successful world tour in 2025 — would certainly be a popular choice, with the induction ceremony a rare chance to bring the famously squabbling siblings together to celebrate one of the few things they can agree on: their greatness.
Last year, only six of the nominated performers got in. Previous nominees like Carey might also have an edge on Pink, who is likely to get in eventually, if not this year.
This year’s induction ceremony will be held in the fall, though where and exactly when has not yet been announced. Inductees are chosen by over 1,200 artists, historians, and music business professionals, according to a statement.
Fans can vote for their favorite seven choices at RockHall.com, but those votes have little impact. The RRHOF condenses the total of all fan voting to just one ballot to add to over 1,200 others.
