The Grammy Awards are being postponed, a program representative confirms for Variety. More details are expected soon. Sources say the program may be moved to March, although no date has been confirmed at the time of publication of this article.
Sources count Variety that a combination of health and travel concerns – not least with the increase in coronavirus cases in the program’s planned location in Los Angeles – led the Recording Academy and its network partner CBS to decide to postpone the program, which is scheduled to be presented by “Trevor Noah of The Daily Show, since the date originally planned for January 31st. The change is not entirely unexpected, as Variety heard several confused reports in the past few days about the performances scheduled for the show.
For months, the Grammys have faced the numerous complications involved in hosting a major award show that normally has an audience of more than 18,000 people – self-proclaimed as “The Greatest Music Night” – during a pandemic. While acting Grammy chief Harvey Mason, jr. said Variety in September that the initial general plan was to hold the event at his former Staples Center home in Los Angeles, with a limited audience or no audience, in late November he said the show would be held “in downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding area, ”Opening up the possibility that the presentations could be staged in various locations in that area. In a brief interview with Billboard published last month, new Grammy executive producer Ben Winston said he was “looking to do something quite exciting with independent venues” at or near the 2021 show.
“I am so impressed with independent music venues around the world, and I am aware of how hard this side of the industry has been hit. I am looking to do something very exciting with the independent sites – support them and put them in the spotlight in what has been a really difficult year for them ”. Locals will receive help as part of the Save Our Stages Act, which was turned into a law along with the stimulus project last month.
Mason said Variety at the end of November that the Grammys were looking for ideas on other shows, but “it will be a different show than the other awards shows that have taken place at this time,” he said. “We will determine as we get closer to what we are going to do with our audience, but we have some really cool and special things that are coming up for our show.”
The BET Awards, held in early summer, were essentially a series of high-production video clips with a presenter in front of a green screen; several weeks later, MTV’s VMAs, mostly pre-recorded, were performed in a variety of locations in and around New York; while the Country Music Association Awards was held in a small venue with a limited audience – leading to widespread criticism after the 86-year-old singer Charley Pride, who was present at the event, died of coronavirus complications just a month later, although he had tested negative for the virus before, during and after the show. Last summer, Oscar announced that their 2021 show would be moved from its usual February to April date.
The show, which has been plagued by controversy in three of the past four years – ranging from a lack of gender and racial diversity to the sudden expulsion of Mason’s predecessor, Deborah Dugan, just days before the 2020 show – awoke another when the nominations were made. announced in late November: In an unprecedented affront, Weeknd, one of the most commercially and critically successful artists of the year, received no nominations. Beyoncé leads the contenders with nine – an unexpectedly high profile, given that the superstar didn’t even release a new album during the eligibility period – followed by six each for Taylor Swift, Roddy Ricch and Dua Lipa.
Brittany Howard, of the famous Alabama Shakes, was right behind this group with five nominations for their solo debut. Winning four each, Grammy queen Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Phoebe Bridgers, Justin Bieber, jazz pianist John Beasley and classic producer David Frost were returning.