2021 GRAMMY Awards postponed due to COVID-19 surge

The 2021 GRAMMY Awards will no longer take place on January 31 due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the awards’ host city, Los Angeles.

Instead, the event is now scheduled for Sunday, March 14.

A number of Australian artists including Tame Impala and Flume are nominated as part of this year’s proceedings.

The event organisers thanked artists, staff, vendors and nominees for their patience and understanding as the industry navigates “these unprecedented times”.

“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,” a joint statement from Harvey Mason Jr. (chair and interim president/CEO of the Recoding Academy), Jack Sussman (executive vice president, specials, music, live events and alternative programming at CBS0, and Ben Winston (GRAMMY Awards executive producer at Fulwell 73 Productions), said.

Reports show that California, the state which houses Los Angeles, is currently reporting over 40,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, and it’s being reported that LA County paramedics have been told not to transport patients who appear to have little chance of survival to hospitals.