Grammy Weekend Raises $24 Million for LA Wildfire Relief Efforts

Three weeks ago, as wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, there was some question over whether it would be in good taste to proceed with the Grammy weekend, even if it were safe to do so.

Yet with the go-ahead from local officials, the Recording Academy and its broadcast partner CBS quickly decided to proceed with a reduced schedule of events that would be transformed into fund-raising efforts — and the results of that decision became clear on Tuesday morning.

A rep for the Recording Academy revealed that it and its charity-focused partner, MusiCares, raised more than $24 million for wildfire relief and other charitable causes, with almost $9 million raised on Grammy Sunday alone.

That reduced schedule included the annual MusiCares fundraising tribute concert on Friday night, this year honoring the Grateful Dead; the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala on Saturday, which was transformed into a fund-raiser; and the Grammy Awards themselves, which featured multiple tributes to emergency workers and the people affected by the wildfires. 

The show opened with a performance from the Los Angeles-based rock band Dawes, who lost their homes and all of their equipment in the fires; they performed a cover of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” accompanied by Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Brad Paisley and St. Vincent; that recording was released as a benefit single on Tuesday morning.

Yet the relief money raised wasn’t the only impact the events had on the community. 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,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told Variety last week. “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 added, “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 recalled. “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.”

Those efforts have reached their fulfillment in the form of nearly $25 million in wildfire relief and the music community.