On Thursday, three days earlier than the Grammys, will come one other main fund-raising occasion: FireAid, a profit live performance on the Intuit Dome and the Kia Discussion board, two arenas in Inglewood, Calif., with a packed lineup together with Eilish, Joni Mitchell, Girl Gaga, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Olivia Rodrigo, Stevie Marvel, Lil Child, Alanis Morissette and lots of extra. It was put collectively by Irving Azoff, a longtime expertise supervisor and energy dealer in music, together with Reside Nation and AEG Presents, the 2 largest live performance promoters.
Mason and Azoff each insisted they weren’t competing for expertise and have been in communication about their occasions, although FireAid is unaffiliated with the Grammys.
“This isn’t a contest,” Azoff mentioned. “Our metropolis is a catastrophe. All fingers on deck. Each greenback raised is required as quickly as attainable.”
This 12 months’s Grammy ceremony has the potential to make main information. The largest query mark is Beyoncé, whose 4 losses in album of the 12 months, the present’s final prize — to Harry Types, Adele, Beck and Swift — has pushed pointed commentary in regards to the Grammys’ fraught historical past with race, and in regards to the perceived conservatism of the academy’s voting members. Now the academy has trumpeted its efforts to revitalize voting with a younger, various membership. Might that lastly tip the scales in Beyoncé’s favor?
Different story traces embrace Eilish, a former teenage wild card who has change into a Grammy (and Oscar) darling. She and Finneas, her brother and collaborator, might take their third trophy — greater than any songwriter in Grammy historical past — in track of the 12 months for “Birds of a Feather.” Swift might break a seven-time dropping streak in that class with “Fortnight.” (“Birds” and “Fortnight” are additionally up for document of the 12 months.) Or each might yield to Roan, Carpenter or Charli XCX, who dominated the charts final 12 months with sassy, intelligent and generally subversive pop.
For the Grammys, success in Sunday’s present could also be a matter of discovering the tough stability between the fun of these pop competitions and the solemnity of the event.
