Warner Music Group and Sony Music have confirmed that they are canceling their Grammy Week events due to the wildfires still raging in Los Angeles, a rep for the company confirms to Variety. The moves come a day after Universal made a similar announcement.
Sources say Warner’s decision was made over the weekend, when WMG committed $1 million to the relief effort, via the WMG / Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund. A rep for Sony Music confirms that the decision was made Tuesday morning to cancel all events during Grammy Week and redirect the company’s efforts and funds to focus on local relief efforts.
Universal Music announced on Monday that its annual showcase (which was canceled last year as well, due to layoffs at the company) and Grammy afterparty were called off this year, just hours after the Recording Academy posted a statement saying that the Grammy ceremony will go on as scheduled on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
On Monday, both the Resonator Awards, which recognizes female producers and engineers, and Milk and Honey Management both announced that their Grammy Week events are postponed.
The Recording Academy issued a statement on Monday saying that the show will go forward as planned, although the spate of postponements and cancellations will pose challenges.
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles,” Recording Academy and MusiCares CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and Tammy Hurt, chair of the board of trustees, said in the statement. “This city is our home, and we mourn the loss of life and destruction that have come to it in recent days.
“In close coordination with local authorities to ensure public safety and responsible use of area resources, the 67th Grammy Awards telecast on CBS on Feb. 2 will proceed as planned,” they continued.
“This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours.”
Sources tell Variety that California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have supported the Academy’s decision, which has been made in consulation with the city’s fire marshall.
Adding to the Academy’s challenges is the fact that postponing an event on the scale of the Grammys is no simple matter. Not only does the show take months of preparation and rehearsal, it requires a nearly two-week lockout in a major arena that is home to three major sports teams, the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, and NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, both of which are in season, and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, which launches its next season in May. The Grammys must be held in a major venue of that size because ticket sales provide an enormous percentage of its annual revenue, along with the network TV broadcast — which will be CBS until 2027, when Disney takes over.
Moving the Grammys to another city, as it did in 2022 during the Omicron variant phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, is just as challenging, because those arenas usually have sports franchises as well. The 2022 Grammys were held at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, however, it seems unlikely that this year’s show would be held in a different city because of the negative message such a move would send about Los Angeles in the wake of the fires.
Variety will have more on the situation as it develops.
