Beyonce leads Grammys pack at gala backdropped by fires

by Maggy DONALDSON

Music's biggest stars including Beyonce and Taylor Swift will vie for top awards at Sunday's Grammys gala, a glitzy ceremony proceeding despite devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

The shell-shocked entertainment capital is still reeling after the deadly blazes razed entire neighborhoods, leaving the music and film industries -- vital to the city's economy -- grappling with how to navigate the coming awards season.

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Many annual Grammy week functions were scrapped, including prominent parties organized by top labels and companies like Spotify.

But Harvey Mason Jr, the head of the Recording Academy behind the Grammys, said the gala would go on as planned at Crypto.com Arena "in close coordination with local authorities" -- and with an eye towards raising money for wildfire relief.

The fires have lent prominence to the Recording Academy's philanthropic arm MusiCares, which says it has already distributed several millions of dollars in emergency aid.

On Friday, MusiCares will host its annual pre-Grammy gala -- this year honoring psychedelic jam band rockers The Grateful Dead -- bringing together top industry figures where relief efforts and honoring firefighters is set to take precedence.

The night before, major event promoters Live Nation and AEG Presents will hold FireAid benefit concerts featuring A-listers like Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews and John Mayer.

The Recording Academy is "thrilled that so many artists in our community are banding together at this time to show support for their fellow music makers and others impacted by the recent wildfires," said Mason.

- Beyonce paradox -

Beyonce and her groundbreaking "Cowboy Carter" album that vaunted Black cowboy culture lead this year's Grammy hopefuls, with 11 chances at a prize.

The megastar is already the most nominated and most decorated Grammy winner, but also the most conspicuously snubbed: she's never won the gala's most prestigious Album and Record of the Year trophies.

"Cowboy Carter" is her fifth studio album vying for the top prize (she also was shortlisted as a featured artist on Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster"), with Swift -- who has won it a record four times -- among her rivals.

Though her sprawling double album "The Tortured Poets Department" left critics wanting, Swift -- who just wrapped her record-setting Eras Tour -- enters the night with six chances at Grammys gold.

Eilish, another perennial contender, has seven nominations, while a buzzy group of artists including pop sensations Charli XCX (eight nods), Sabrina Carpenter (six) and Chappell Roan (six) are all in the running for major prizes.

Hip-hop laureate Kendrick Lamar -- whose dig-heavy rap battle with Drake spawned "Now Like Us," one of the year's most viral songs -- scored seven nods, and the shapeshifter Post Malone, who recently worked with both Beyonce and Swift, scored eight. Both are featured in the top categories.

The paradox of Beyonce never winning the big prizes has revived frequent criticism that the Recording Academy sidelines the work of Black artists.

"Cowboy Carter" is a rowdy, wide-ranging homage to her southern heritage that took to task the country industry, which has long promoted a rigid view of the genre that is overwhelmingly white and male.

Beyonce's at-times tense relationship with the Grammys "has really illustrated the fault lines in how organizations think about style and think about genre, especially around race and gender lines," said musicologist Lauron Kehrer.

"I think that it would behoove the Grammys to show a little more engagement outside of a white pop sphere" in the top categories, the academic told AFP.

The Recording Academy has made moves to expand and diversify its voter pool in recent years, developments Kehrer said hopefully means "we have more perspectives weighing in."

- Performance-heavy night -

The closely watched Best New Artist contest features favorites Carpenter and Roan, who both skyrocketed into the mainstream over the past year.

Also in contention is Shaboozey, whose hit "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" topped the US hot songs chart for weeks and is up for the top Grammy honoring songwriting.

Shaboozey is also vying for the melodic rap award with Beyonce -- whom he will also compete against in the country categories, in a sign that the Academy might be reading the room when it comes to songs and artists that defy categorization.

A tiny fraction of the 94 Grammys are handed out in the marquee televised portion of the gala, with most of the space carved out for performance.

Artists including Eilish, Roan, Charli XCX and Carpenter are due to take the stage, along with several more Best New Artist contenders like Doechii, Raye, Teddy Swims and Benson Boone.

Legends Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and John Legend will also appear during the gala, which will pay tribute to legendary late producer Quincy Jones.