As Los Angeles begins to recover from devastating wildfires that have destroyed parts of the city, many of music’s biggest stars, including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, are making plans to attend or perform at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 2 at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A.
Just weeks ago, after fires ignited in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Malibu, moving forward with the awards show was a question mark Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. had to consider as he was packing up his car and driving with his wife from their L.A. home to escape a burning city.
While safety was his first consideration, what came next was more complicated.
“I had so much concern for our music community,” Mason told Yahoo Entertainment. “I was just thinking, ‘God, this is going to really hurt our people.’”
Many high-profile entertainment industry executives and stars, along with ordinary citizens, had lost belongings and even homes in the fires. Thousands of structures have since been destroyed across the city and county, and thousands more people have been displaced. The death toll now stands at 29.
“At that kind of a time, you realize that the Grammys aren’t the most important thing in the world. Doing a show or giving away awards is probably not a priority when people are really struggling or losing all their possessions, or even some people losing their lives,” Mason said.
In fact, there have been calls from various celebrities and even music companies to cancel or postpone upcoming awards shows, including the Grammys and the Oscars.
“I believe the Grammys should postpone their award show event,” Lucas Keller, CEO of music management company Milk & Honey, who canceled his own pre-Grammys event, said in a statement to Out.
“I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and the firefighters,” Hacks actress Jean Smart wrote in a Jan. 9 Instagram post.
“What we quickly discovered was the idea of having the show was going to be important on a lot of levels,” Mason explained.
Evacuating Los Angeles by car, Mason started making calls — to the executive director of MusiCares, the fundraising arm of the Recording Academy that Mason also runs, as well as to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’s office, local officials, hotel managers and tourism executives, who explained that hotels in the city were only at 30% capacity and could handle the influx of Grammy attendees.
Relief for the community was a top priority. MusiCares, which distributed more than $25 million in relief funds during COVID-19, has already raised and distributed millions of dollars for victims of the fires. After the economic hit from the pandemic, followed by dual writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, Mason believed the city would benefit from not only keeping workers tied to the event employed but also to keep spirits high after such major losses.
“We quickly found out that having our show was going to be valuable to the city of L.A., not just from the economic impact, but also the spirit and the resilience that our city needs to show, and the unity that I think we can provide through music and through gathering together to honor music,” Mason said.
The Grammys are the first awards show to air since the fires broke out. There will be changes made to the telecast, including opportunities to donate as well as recognition for first responders and people affected by the fires.
Celebrations that normally kick off a week before the Grammy Awards have been consolidated into a few days, beginning Friday, with fundraising opportunities at each. Many parties, events and their respective red carpets have been canceled, as Mason said that he and his team have been focusing on being “extra sensitive and very thoughtful.”
“We decided to only isolate and focus on the events that could have the most impact,” Mason said. “And when I say impact, I mean the opportunity to bring people together to raise money and awareness for people who need help in the fires and the devastation.”
As for the awards, “you’ll sense on the Grammy telecast that this is just not another show,” he explained. “This is not a normal Grammy show.”
Mason credited executive producer Ben Winston and the creative team for bringing “heart” and “emotional sensitivity” to the upcoming telecast.
“We haven’t canceled any performances, although there’s a couple of new ones, and a couple of artists changed their songs. But I think it’s our job to set the tone, not the artists’,” Winston told Variety.
Artists, performers and presenters, including host Trevor Noah, stuck by Mason and the Grammys, making no demands about what would need to change for them to be a part of the show.
“No one came to me to express that,” he said. “What I ended up getting was a lot of performers and artists reaching out to me saying, ‘Hey, how can I be helpful? What can I do? I know what you guys are doing. I see what you’re trying to do by raising money and shifting the show a little bit. How can I be helpful?’”
While Mason said that there will be opportunities for people to donate during the telecast, he also stressed that the show will not be a telethon.
“The entire show is not going to all be about dial in and give, give, give, give,” he said. “It’s not that kind of energy. It’s still going to be a Grammy show. We’re still going to have performances. We’re still going to give awards. But throughout the evening, there will be opportunities for people who can to help contribute and help support.”
As the first awards show to move forward after the fires and resulting cleanup efforts, the next big awards celebration — the Oscars on March 2 — could be looking to Mason and his team for guidance.
“I have spoken to Bill Kramer,” Mason said, referring to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO, who runs the Oscars. “I’m sure they’ll do a wonderful job of being really respectful and do some of the things that I know we’re trying to do as well, which is raise money and attention.”
He added, “We just generally have kept in touch and talking about, ‘Man, what a tricky, tricky situation to try and produce a show in.’”
As the debate over how — or whether — awards shows should proceed continues, Mason said he hopes that the Grammy Awards can bring “some sense of escape” during difficult times.
“We can never hope to replace or totally reverse what’s happened or make someone’s life better in an instant completely,” he said. “But over the course of our show, I do hope that we can bring some light into a situation that’s been very difficult, very challenging. I also hope the takeaway is that music can be powerful. It can be a unifier.”
