The 2022 Grammy Awards have been postponed until further notice due to the ongoing COVID-19 surge, the Recording Academy and CBS announced on Wednesday.
via People:
“The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority,” the statement read.
“Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on Jan. 31 simply contains too many risks. We look forward to celebrating music’s biggest night on a future date, which will be announced soon.”
This is the second year in a row that the awards show is postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, the show was postponed until March, and shortly after the announcement, Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy told Entertainment Tonight that the decision was made “based on the decline of the health circumstances around Los Angeles and the country” amid the ongoing pandemic.
“It didn’t feel like the right time to be having the show on Jan. 31,” he previously said. “COVID-19 has had a big impact on our planning process and how we’re putting the show together. As we move to our March 14 date, it’ll give us a little more flexibility to watch what happens and to have more conversations with health officials and continue to evolve the show.”
The award show did indeed take place in March, outside with precautions in place to be quarantine-friendly and partly virtual.
This year’s award show, hosted by Trevor Noah for his second consecutive year was set to take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
John Batiste is leading this year’s nominations with a whopping 11 nods — including album of the year, record of the year and best R&B album.
Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and H.E.R. each notched eight nominations, while Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo will head into Grammys night with seven apiece.
“This is an exciting day for music,” Mason Jr., 53, said in a statement upon the announcement. “These nominations beautifully reflect today’s broad and diverse musical landscape. I congratulate all of the nominees and everyone who submitted work. I’m also so proud of our voters. They voted in record numbers and brought their very best to evaluating the work of their peers, and I thank them on behalf of the entire music community.”
The news of the postponement comes as over 21,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Jan. 4 in L.A. County, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
It seems like all these awards shows seem to have forgotten that we’re still very much in the middle of a pandemic.
