Inside the Grammys’ Decision to Go Ahead Amid L.A. Wildfires: ‘We Have to Do Everything We Can to Help’
The 2025 Grammys were shaping up to be a lively celebration of a vibrant year in music: the year of Chappell, Charli and Sabrina; of Taylor, Beyonce and Billie; of “Brat,” “Tipsy” and “Not Like Us.”
But on Wednesday, January 8, everything changed as wildfires raged across the Grammys’ home city of Los Angeles. For the third time in five years — following the COVID-altered shows of 2021 and 2022 — the Grammys had to pivot and transform what is usually an extravagant, glamorous celebration into something more serious and, at times, somber. “I’ll admit I was looking forward to a straightforward show,” says Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. “But on that Wednesday morning, it all just flipped upside-down.”
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Although many people called for the Feb. 2 show to be postponed — and nearly every Grammy Week party was quickly canceled — for Mason and Ben Winston, the show’s executive producer, there was no question about moving forward. Approximately 6,500 L.A.-area people work on major awards shows like the Grammys, which has an estimated impact on the local economy of around $200 million.
“On the one hand, there’s the good we can do with our platform,” Mason says. “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?”
Winston adds, “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.”
So, in what has become a familiar scenario, the Recording Academy, broadcast partner CBS and Winston’s team got to work. “On that Wednesday, I started the phone calls,” Mason recalls. “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.’ And also, of course, the music community needed it, for the money the MusiCares event will raise.”
MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s charitable wing — which paid out more than $25 million in COVID relief to the music community during the pandemic — immediately leaped into action as well. It not only revised its annual Person of the Year benefit concert (this year honoring the Grateful Dead) to be for fire relief, but it began raising money immediately: At the time of publication, it had raised $3.2 million and distributed $2.2 million.
While many people initially were concerned about Grammy attendees taking hotel rooms from locals who’d lost their homes, as of last week, local hotels were at just 30% occupancy, according to the city’s head of tourism for the Marketing District and the CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. This was likely due to the fire-induced drop in tourism and hotels not being a viable long-term option for local residents.
On Jan. 13, the Academy officially announced that the show was moving forward. Mason says, “The only reason we would have canceled or postponed is if it was physically and logistically impossible to hold the show — if the fire department said it’s not safe, or the police department said we would be overtaxing their infrastructure, or the local government said not to.”
Yet he is just as clear about what the show will not be: It’s neither a fundraiser nor a benefit, but “a show that raises funds,” he emphasizes. “It will not be a telethon, and you’re not going to see a [chyron with a] running total across the bottom of the screen; it’s not that type of an event. It’s a chance for us to use our platform — and, thankfully, our partners at CBS are helpful with this — to raise money and awareness, but it will still have performance and awards.
“It’s going to be different, but I wouldn’t say dramatically different,” he continues. “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.”
Balancing gravitas with celebration is a familiar challenge for these teams and returning host Trevor Noah, and the COVID-era Grammys introduced several elements that have remained, such as the celebrity-filled tables at the front of the arena, which started with the intimate, invite-only, partially socially distanced 2021 show; there will also be comparatively long, commercial-less segments of the ceremony. Yet Winston notes that this year’s pivot has not brought about a full-scale overhaul.
“It isn’t an entirely new show,” he says. “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’. It’s still the Grammys, we’re still having incredible performances and awarding the people who have created the music that’s moved us over the past year, and I think there is a lot of value in bringing some joy and levity and music to the world right now. But we’re very aware of the devastation that’s happened in in L.A. and what’s going on in the wider world, and we will reflect that.”
However, the Academy did decide to “condense” its usual dozen-plus Grammy Week events and instead focus on four, all of which added a fire-recovery element: MusiCares, the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala, the Special Merit Awards, and the show itself. A small number of non-Academy Grammy Week events, such as the two all-star FireAid concerts taking place at the Forum and Intuit Arena on Thursday and a couple of others, will incorporate fire-relief elements.
“No event was more important or less important than others,” Mason says, “but we are aware that some of the same people are going to a lot of these events, and rather than have eight or nine fundraising events, it might make more sense to focus our efforts on the ones where a lot of people can come together to do the most good.”
Winston emphasizes that he understands why most of the week’s usual parties, brunches, and dinners were canceled. “I think a party is different,” he says. “Having hors d’oeuvres and champagne when there’s people down the road facing devastation could be tone deaf. But I think the Grammy show itself is very different, and can make a difference.”
Indeed, Mason concludes, “When I see people and friends who have lost their studio, lost their house, lost their instruments, lost their ability to make a living, after all the strife and struggle that has happened to people in this community over the last five years, I say we have to do everything we can to be helpful. That involves raising money, raising awareness and hopefully allowing MusiCares to have the financial resources that it’s going to take to support the thousands and thousands of people that are going to need help — not just this week or next week, but for the next few years.”
But as fires continue to rage across L.A. County, a stark reality remains: The situation could become dire again at any moment. “Any time I speak, I always use that as a caveat,” Mason says. “If things get worse, all bets are off.”
See MusiCares.org for ways you can help the music community with wildfire relief.
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