As devastation continues to move through Los Angeles, the broadcast may pivot to a fundraiser, sources reveal.
With music‘s biggest night just weeks away, the question on many minds is whether the 67th Annual Grammy Awards will be delayed due to the devastating wildfires ravaging Los Angeles.
The Grammys are currently scheduled to take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, at Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A. And while it’s typically a glamorous event to celebrate the past year’s biggest artists and top hits, the city has bigger priorities at the moment.
Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that discussions are underway to either postpone the CBS show (and all its ancillary events) or pivot the broadcast to a fundraiser. One senior television executive says it’s highly likely the Grammys will postpone, namely because the fire, sparked by a wind event earlier in the week — and the overall disaster status of the city — is still active.
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Another music industry source says what transpires in the coming days will be key to determining if the show will, indeed, go on. Recording Academy head Harvey Mason Jr. is said to be contemplating multiple scenarios.
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THR has reached out to the Recording Academy and CBS for comment.
Plans are also ongoing for a benefit concert in the days leading up to the scheduled Feb. 2 date that would involve MusiCares, the Grammys’ own foundation aimed at aiding music professionals in need. Live Nation, the Azoff family and AEG Presents announced a Jan. 30 event to be held at the Intuit Dome. Participating artists and broadcast partners are still being determined.
Complexities that come with a natural disaster of this size extend beyond the logistical. The Grammys requires hundreds of hotel rooms for attendees, artists and their teams, to say nothing of musicians whose instruments may have perished. Even locally, so many in the music business have been impacted, from label staffers to publicists for top talent like Billie Eilish and The Weeknd.
The Recording Academy has postponed the Grammys twice in recent years. The 2021 show was moved from January to March due to COVID-19. The 2022 Grammys faced a similar fate, moving from January to April due to a spike of the virus’ Omicron variant. The Recording Academy moved the 2022 ceremony to Las Vegas, a first for the Grammys.
Crypto.com Arena, home to the NBA’s Lakers and NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, has also already postponed several scheduled games this week “to focus on what matters most,” the Lakers shared in a previous statement.
Since Tuesday, when the initial wildfire broke out in Pacific Palisades before spreading to parts of Malibu and Santa Monica overnight, first responders across Los Angeles have been working tirelessly to contain active wildfires erupting across the county, including the Eaton, Hurst and Kenneth fires. The death toll has also risen to 11 people, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.
The Palisades Fire alone is being reported as the most destructive in Los Angeles history, claiming more than 5,300 structures, including homes, apartment buildings and businesses across more than 20,000 acres. And the Eaton Fire in Altadena and Pasadena has claimed thousands more.
Thousands of L.A. residents have lost their homes in the destruction from the flames, with many taking to social media to document the devastation and the impact the fires had on their communities. Among them are also numerous celebrities, including Mandy Moore, Anna Faris, Milo Ventimiglia, Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges, Bozoma Saint John, Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal and Diane Warren, whose houses were destroyed by the blazes.
As of Saturday evening, the Kenneth Fire was 90 percent contained; the Palisades Fire near the coastline was 11 percent contained; and the Eaton Fire was 15 percent contained. The Hurst Fire, south of Santa Clarita, was 76 percent contained.
