Grammys Are a Go, Despite LA Wildfires
By Movieguide® Contributor
The LA area wildfires earlier this month threatened to disrupt various awards ceremonies, but the Grammys recently confirmed that they will go ahead with their originally scheduled Feb. 2 date.
“I’ll admit I was looking forward to a straightforward show, but on that Wednesday morning, it all just flipped upside-down,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said.
He continued, “On the one hand, there’s the good we can do with our platform, but if we were to cancel or postpone the show, how would that affect the thousands of people who work on it or around it?”
The producers were faced with a tough decision as around 6,500 people work on the Grammys and the show has a financial impact of $200 million.
READ MORE: HOLLYWOOD RESUMES PRODUCTION AFTER PAUSING FOR LA FIRES
Before the fires, the industry had already endured hard financial hits from the pandemic and the strikes.
Executive producer Ben Winston explained, “After COVID, post-COVID, two [Hollywood industry] strikes and everything else, try to tell those stagehands, costumers, makeup artists, drivers, caterers, PAs and all those working people who make a living from the Grammys that we’re not doing the show.”
However, Mason and Winston didn’t move ahead without caution as they consulted city officials to see what would be the best decision.
“On that Wednesday, I started the phone calls,” Mason said. “I was meeting or zooming with state leadership, local leadership, fire department officials, heads of tourism, managers of a lot of the hotels — and to a person, they all said the same thing: ‘You have to do the show — for the city, for the people, for the image of our city being open for business. You have to do it.’”
Mason said that the ceremony will have some emphasis on the fire efforts which may make it feel a bit different.
“It’s going to be different, but I wouldn’t say dramatically different,” he explained. “We’ll have a different tone. There’ll be discussion and segments around the fire and fundraising components. We’ll still have performances; we’ll still have awards and honor music. But you’ll know that something’s happened, and you’ll know that we’re using music to do good.”
“It will still be the Grammy Awards,” Winston added, per The New York Times. “We are still looking back at an incredible year of music. We are still having performances that we would have had when we were planning the show on Jan. 1. But of course we’re reflecting now on what’s going on in Los Angeles.”
READ MORE: THIS ACTRESS IS OVER AWARD SHOWS, ASKS FOR DONATIONS ‘TO THE VICTIMS OF THE FIRES’ INSTEAD
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