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The 67th Grammy Awards will be held on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The ceremony will celebrate some of the year’s biggest artists, including Beyoncé (the top nominee, with 11 nods), Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift, and reportedly pay tribute to the firefighters who worked to contain the wildfires that ravaged Southern California this month.
Ben Sisario, who reports on the music industry for The New York Times, will be in the arena on Sunday to cover the show. In an interview on Thursday, he explained what he’ll be watching, and what may look different this year. This conversation has been edited and condensed.
You reported on the academy’s decision to hold the Grammys despite the wildfires. Can you walk me through your reporting, and any predictions on how the show may look this year?
The fires broke out on Jan. 7. Very quickly, there was chatter in the music industry about what they were going to do with the Grammys.
In the immediate crisis, there were a lot of voices, privately, calling on the Grammys to postpone. People were worried about safety, but also if holding the Grammys would be a bad look for the music business.
The contrary opinion, which was the opinion of the Grammys organization, was that they hoped the show was far enough out, and that there was potential for the Grammys to be a rallying event, a symbol of resilience for Los Angeles.