(Source): The Washington Informer
The 2021 Grammy Awards ceremony has been pushed back to March as the coronavirus pandemic ravages Los Angeles, the city in which the annual show was set to take place later this month.
The Recording Academy and CBS, which airs the program, said they reached the decision to move the broadcast from Jan. 31 to March 14 “after thoughtful conversations with health experts, our host and artists scheduled to appear,” The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
“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,” Recording Academy interim CEO Harvey Mason Jr., CBS executive Jack Sussman and Grammys executive producer Ben Winston said in a statement, AP reported. “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.”
As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of California’s 40 million residents, has reported more than 840,000 coronavirus cases and 11,000 virus-related deaths since the pandemic’s outset last winter.
