UPDATE:
Harvey Mason Jr., Chair & Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy, provided the following statement to Access Hollywood:
“After thoughtful conversations with health experts, our host and artists scheduled to appear, we are rescheduling the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards® to be broadcast Sunday, March 14, 2021. The deteriorating COVID situation in Los Angeles, with hospital services being overwhelmed, ICUs having reached capacity, and new guidance from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show was the right thing to do. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of those in our music community and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly on producing the show.
We want to thank all of the talented artists, the staff, our vendors and especially this year’s nominees for their understanding, patience and willingness to work with us as we navigate these unprecedented times.”
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The Grammys are the latest award show to make a change amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual music honors, which were scheduled for January 31, have been indefinitely postponed, multiple sources tell Rolling Stone. The sources also added that a new date has not yet been confirmed, but that organizers are considering March.
The 2021 Grammy nominations were announced on November 24. Beyonce leads the pack with nine nominations this year, while Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Roddy Rich each scored six. Trevor Noah was announced as host.
The nominations weren’t without their share of drama, though. The Weeknd slammed the awards after being shut out of every category, writing, ““The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”
Drake spoke out about the snub, writing on Instagram, “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after. It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways.”
The “God’s Plan” rapper went on to assert that he believed The Weeknd would be recognized in top categories by the Recording Academy, writing, “The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way. This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come.”
It’s unclear at this point if the Grammys postponement will affect the performance lineup. Access Hollywood has reached out to the Recording Academy for comment.
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