Music’s greatest stars together with Beyonce and Taylor Swift will vie for high awards at Sunday’s Grammys gala, a glitzy ceremony continuing regardless of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
The shell-shocked leisure capital remains to be reeling after the lethal blazes razed whole neighborhoods, leaving the music and movie industries — very important to town’s financial system — grappling with easy methods to navigate the approaching awards season.
Many annual Grammy week features had been scrapped, together with distinguished events organized by high labels and corporations like Spotify.
But Harvey Mason Jr, the top of the Recording Academy behind the Grammys, stated the gala would go on as deliberate at Crypto.com Arena “in close coordination with local authorities” — and with an eye fixed in direction of elevating cash for wildfire reduction.
The fires have lent prominence to the Recording Academy’s philanthropic arm MusiCares, which says it has already distributed a number of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in emergency assist.
On Friday, MusiCares will host its annual pre-Grammy gala — this 12 months honoring psychedelic jam band rockers The Grateful Dead — bringing collectively high trade figures the place reduction efforts and honoring firefighters is ready to take priority.
The evening earlier than, main occasion promoters Live Nation and AEG Presents will maintain FireAid profit concert events that includes A-listers like Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews and John Mayer.
The Recording Academy is “thrilled that so many artists in our community are banding together at this time to show support for their fellow music makers and others impacted by the recent wildfires,” stated Mason.
Beyonce and her groundbreaking “Cowboy Carter” album that vaunted Black cowboy tradition lead this 12 months’s Grammy hopefuls, with 11 probabilities at a prize.
The megastar is already essentially the most nominated and most adorned Grammy winner, but in addition essentially the most conspicuously snubbed: she’s by no means gained the gala’s most prestigious Album and Record of the Year trophies.
“Cowboy Carter” is her fifth studio album vying for the highest prize (she additionally was shortlisted as a featured artist on Lady Gaga’s “The Fame Monster”), with Swift — who has gained it a file 4 instances — amongst her rivals.
Though her sprawling double album “The Tortured Poets Department” left critics wanting, Swift — who simply wrapped her record-setting Eras Tour — enters the evening with six probabilities at Grammys gold.
Eilish, one other perennial contender, has seven nominations, whereas a buzzy group of artists together with pop sensations Charli XCX (eight nods), Sabrina Carpenter (six) and Chappell Roan (six) are all within the working for main prizes.
Hip-hop laureate Kendrick Lamar — whose dig-heavy rap battle with Drake spawned “Now Like Us,” one of many 12 months’s most viral songs — scored seven nods, and the shapeshifter Post Malone, who lately labored with each Beyonce and Swift, scored eight. Both are featured within the high classes.
The paradox of Beyonce by no means profitable the massive prizes has revived frequent criticism that the Recording Academy sidelines the work of Black artists.
“Cowboy Carter” is a rowdy, wide-ranging homage to her southern heritage that took to activity the nation trade, which has lengthy promoted a inflexible view of the style that’s overwhelmingly white and male.
Beyonce’s at-times tense relationship with the Grammys “has really illustrated the fault lines in how organizations think about style and think about genre, especially around race and gender lines,” stated musicologist Lauron Kehrer.
“I think that it would behoove the Grammys to show a little more engagement outside of a white pop sphere” within the high classes, the tutorial informed AFP.
The Recording Academy has made strikes to increase and diversify its voter pool in recent times, developments Kehrer stated hopefully means “we have more perspectives weighing in.”
The intently watched Best New Artist contest options favorites Carpenter and Roan, who each skyrocketed into the mainstream over the previous 12 months.
Also in rivalry is Shaboozey, whose hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” topped the U.S. sizzling songs chart for weeks and is up for the highest Grammy honoring songwriting.
Shaboozey can be vying for the melodic rap award with Beyonce — whom he will even compete in opposition to within the nation classes, in an indication that the Academy is perhaps studying the room in terms of songs and artists that defy categorization.
A tiny fraction of the 94 Grammys are handed out within the marquee televised portion of the gala, with a lot of the house carved out for efficiency.
Artists together with Eilish, Roan, Charli XCX and Carpenter are resulting from take the stage, together with a number of extra Best New Artist contenders like Doechii, Raye, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone.
Legends Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and John Legend will even seem throughout the gala, which can pay tribute to legendary late producer Quincy Jones.
© 2025 AFP