It’s official. The 2022 Grammy Awards has been postponed.
In a joint statement made Wednesday, the Recording Academy and broadcast partner CBS said they would be postponing this year’s show (set to take place on January 31 at the Crypto.com Arena) to a later date due to increasing Covid-19 cases around the country brought on by the Omicron variant.
“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 Jan. 31 simply contains too many risks.”
The Omicron Covid-19 variant has become the dominant strain in a matter of weeks, setting case number records over the holidays not seen since the early months of the pandemic. According to the New York Daily News, more than one million people tested positive around the US on Monday (2/3), a new one-day record.
Rumors of a postponement were swirling earlier this week with an unnamed “source with direct knowledge” telling Billboard that such a situation was “looking likely.” The Recording Academy tried to deflect, but ultimately the source was correct.
This is the second year in a row that the Grammy Awards have been postponed. The 2021 event was pushed back two months to March 14 and needed to shift venues from the Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) to the Los Angeles Convention Center in order to properly socially distance guests.
There is no word yet on when the 2022 Grammy Awards will be rescheduled. Comedian Trevor Noah was set to host the show for the second year in a row. Rock and metal bands up for awards this year include Deftones, Foo Fighters, Gojira, Dream Theater, Mastodon, AC/DC, Rob Zombie, Chris Cornell and Wolfgang Van Halen.
