With Fires Burning, the Grammys Made a Choice: On With the Show

On Thursday, three days before the Grammys, will come another major fund-raising event: FireAid, a benefit concert at the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum, two arenas in Inglewood, Calif., with a packed lineup including Eilish, Joni Mitchell, Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Olivia Rodrigo, Stevie Wonder, Lil Baby, Alanis Morissette and many more. It was put together by Irving Azoff, a longtime talent manager and power broker in music, along with Live Nation and AEG Presents, the two largest concert promoters.

Mason and Azoff both insisted they were not competing for talent and were in communication about their events, though FireAid is unaffiliated with the Grammys.

“This is not a competition,” Azoff said. “Our city is a disaster. All hands on deck. Every dollar raised is needed as soon as possible.”

This year’s Grammy ceremony has the potential to make major news. The biggest question mark is Beyoncé, whose four losses in album of the year, the show’s ultimate prize — to Harry Styles, Adele, Beck and Swift — has driven pointed commentary about the Grammys’ fraught history with race, and about the perceived conservatism of the academy’s voting members. Now the academy has trumpeted its efforts to revitalize voting with a young, diverse membership. Could that finally tip the scales in Beyoncé’s favor?

Other story lines include Eilish, a former teenage wild card who has become a Grammy (and Oscar) darling. She and Finneas, her brother and collaborator, could take their third trophy — more than any songwriter in Grammy history — in song of the year for “Birds of a Feather.” Swift could break a seven-time losing streak in that category with “Fortnight.” (“Birds” and “Fortnight” are also up for record of the year.) Or both could yield to Roan, Carpenter or Charli XCX, who ruled the charts last year with sassy, clever and sometimes subversive pop.

For the Grammys, success in Sunday’s show may be a matter of finding the tricky balance between the thrill of those pop competitions and the solemnity of the occasion.