Throughout the Grammys’ Determination to Pass Forward Amid L.A. Wildfires

The 2025 Grammys have been shaping as much as be a full of life birthday party of a colourful yr in song: the yr of Chappell, Charli and Sabrina; of Taylor, Beyonce and Billie; of “Brat,” “Tipsy” and “No longer Like Us.”

However on Wednesday, January 8, the whole lot modified as wildfires raged around the Grammys’ house town of Los Angeles. For the 3rd time in 5 years — following the COVID-altered displays of 2021 and 2022 — the Grammys needed to pivot and grow to be what’s normally an extravagant, glamorous birthday party into one thing extra critical and, every now and then, somber. “I’ll admit I used to be taking a look ahead to an easy display,” says Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. “However on that Wednesday morning, all of it simply flipped upside-down.”

Even supposing many of us known as for the Feb. 2 display to be postponed — and just about each Grammy Week birthday party used to be temporarily canceled — for Mason and Ben Winston, the display’s government manufacturer, there used to be no query about transferring ahead. Roughly 6,500 L.A.-area other folks paintings on main awards displays just like the Grammys, which has an estimated affect at the native economic system of round $200 million.

“At the one hand, there’s the nice we will be able to do with our platform,” Mason says. “But when we have been to cancel or delay the display, how would that impact the 1000’s of people that paintings on it or round it?”

Winston provides, “After COVID, post-COVID, two [Hollywood industry] moves and the whole lot else, attempt to inform the ones stagehands, costumers, make-up artists, drivers, caterers, PAs and all the ones running individuals who make a residing from the Grammys that we’re now not doing the display.”

So, in what has change into a well-recognized situation, the Recording Academy, broadcast spouse CBS and Winston’s group set to work. “On that Wednesday, I began the telephone calls,” Mason remembers. “I used to be assembly or zooming with state management, native management, hearth division officers, heads of tourism, managers of a large number of the lodges — and to an individual, all of them stated the similar factor: ‘You must do the display — for town, for the folk, for the picture of our town being open for trade. You have to do it.’ And likewise, in fact, the song group wanted it, for the cash the MusiCares match will carry.”

MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s charitable wing — which paid out greater than $25 million in COVID reduction to the song group all over the pandemic — right away leaped into motion as smartly. It now not solely revised its annual Individual of the 12 months get advantages live performance (this yr honoring the Thankful Lifeless) to be for hearth reduction, however it all started elevating cash right away: On the time of newsletter, it had raised $3.2 million and allotted $2.2 million.

Whilst many of us to begin with have been excited about Grammy attendees taking resort rooms from locals who’d misplaced their properties, as of closing week, native lodges have been at simply 30% occupancy, in keeping with town’s head of tourism for the Advertising and marketing District and the CEO of the Conference and Guests Bureau. This used to be most likely because of the fire-induced drop in tourism and lodges now not being a viable long-term possibility for native citizens.

On Jan. 13, the Academy formally introduced that the display used to be transferring ahead. Mason says, “The one explanation why we’d have canceled or postponed is that if it used to be bodily and logistically unattainable to carry the display — if the fireplace division stated it’s now not protected, or the police division stated we’d be overtaxing their infrastructure, or the native govt stated to not.”

But he’s simply as transparent about what the display will now not be: It’s neither a fundraiser nor a get advantages, however “a display that raises budget,” he emphasizes. “It is going to now not be a telethon, and also you’re now not going to look a [chyron with a] working general around the backside of the display screen; it’s now not that form of an match. It’s a possibility for us to make use of our platform — and, fortunately, our companions at CBS are useful with this — to lift cash and consciousness, however it’s going to nonetheless have efficiency and awards.

“It’s going to be other, however I wouldn’t say dramatically other,” he continues. “We’ll have a special tone. There’ll be dialogue and segments across the hearth and fundraising parts. We’ll nonetheless have performances, we’ll nonetheless have awards and honor song. However you’ll know that one thing’s took place, and also you’ll know that we’re the usage of song to do excellent.”

Balancing gravitas with birthday party is a well-recognized problem for those groups and returning host Trevor Noah, and the COVID-era Grammys presented a number of components that experience remained, such because the celebrity-filled tables on the entrance of the world, which began with the intimate, invite-only, in part socially distanced 2021 display; there can also be relatively lengthy, commercial-less segments of the rite. But Winston notes that this yr’s pivot has now not led to a full-scale overhaul.

“It isn’t a completely new display,” he says. “We haven’t canceled any performances, despite the fact that there’s a few new ones, and a few artists modified their songs. However I believe it’s our task to set the tone, now not the artists’. It’s nonetheless the Grammys, we’re nonetheless having unbelievable performances and awarding the individuals who have created the song that’s moved us during the last yr, and I believe there may be a large number of worth in bringing some pleasure and levity and song to the sector at the moment. However we’re very conscious about the devastation that’s took place in in L.A. and what’s happening within the wider global, and we can replicate that.”

On the other hand, the Academy did make a decision to “condense” its standard dozen-plus Grammy Week occasions and as a substitute center of attention on 4, all of which added a fire-recovery component: MusiCares, the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala, the Particular Benefit Awards, and the display itself. A small choice of non-Academy Grammy Week occasions, corresponding to the 2 all-star FireAid live shows happening on the Discussion board and Intuit Area on Thursday and a few others, will incorporate fire-relief components.

“No match used to be extra essential or much less essential than others,” Mason says, “however we’re conscious that probably the most identical persons are going to a large number of those occasions, and moderately than have 8 or 9 fundraising occasions, it could make extra sense to center of attention our efforts at the ones the place a large number of other folks can come in combination to do essentially the most excellent.”

Winston emphasizes that he understands why many of the week’s standard events, brunches, and dinners have been canceled. “I believe a birthday party is other,” he says. “Having hors d’oeuvres and fizz when there’s other folks down the street dealing with devastation may well be tone deaf. However I believe the Grammy display itself could be very other, and will make a distinction.”

Certainly, Mason concludes, “After I see other folks and pals who’ve misplaced their studio, misplaced their space, misplaced their tools, misplaced their skill to make a residing, finally the strife and fight that has took place to other folks on this group over the past 5 years, I say we need to do the whole lot we will be able to to be useful. That comes to elevating cash, elevating consciousness and confidently permitting MusiCares to have the monetary assets that it’s going to take to make stronger the hundreds of thousands of people who are going to want assist — now not simply this week or subsequent week, however for the following couple of years.”

However as fires proceed to rage throughout L.A. County, a stark truth stays: The placement may just change into dire once more at any second. “Any time I talk, I at all times use that as a caveat,” Mason says. “If issues worsen, all bets are off.”

See MusiCares.org for methods you’ll be able to assist the song group with wildfire reduction.