As wild as it is to think that we have now been grappling with the COVID pandemic for two years, here we are, still cancelling plans and living life in various stages of caution.
The 2022 Grammy Awards is the latest event to be interrupted by the pandemic, with organisers announcing that the music award show has been postponed from its January 31st date. No new date for the ceremony has been set at this time, but it seems the Recording Academy is hopeful it can go ahead later in the year.
In a statement released Wednesday, January 5, CBS and the Recording Academy said: “After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, the Recording Academy and CBS have postponed the 64th Annual Grammy Awards show.
“The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority. Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31 simply contains too many risks. We look forward to celebrating ‘Music’s Biggest Night’ on a future date, which will be announced soon.”
It’s the second year in a row that the Grammys have been postponed due to the pandemic. The original date for that ceremony had also been January 31 but was ultimately moved to March 14 and went ahead as a mix of live and pre-recorded performances, with awards handed out in front of a smaller group of nominees and other attendees.
Several other events have also been cancelled or postponed thanks to the Omicron variant, such as the Critics Choice Awards, the Governors Awards and the AFI Awards, while festivals such as Sundance have decided to make their program online only.
The nominations for the 2022 Grammy Awards were announced at the end of 2021 with Oscar-winner Jon Batiste leading the pack with an impressive 11 nods.
Batiste, who is also the bandleader on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, released his album We Are earlier in 2021 and is now up for record of the year and album of the year, among his many other chances to win.
Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and H.E.R. tied for the second-most nominations this year with eight apiece, followed by Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo who each scored seven.
And, after being snubbed last year and then vowing to boycott the annual ceremony moving forward, The Weeknd was nominated for three awards for his work on music by Kanye West and Doja Cat.
One big change to the 2022 Grammys is the increase of nominees in the categories of record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best new artist — which now each feature 10 hopefuls instead of eight.
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