07 January 2021
Charlene Thabisile Mguni
The 64th Edition of the Annual Grammy Awards have been postponed following concerns over the fast spreading Covid-19 Omicron variant.
The announcement was made by the Recording Academy and CBS.
The Grammy Awards are one the biggest musical awards, recognizing the best recording, composing and artists of the eligible year.
The Grammy Award, originally called Gramophone Award, is an award presented by the US Recording Academy to recognise “Outstanding Achievement in the music industry” of the United States.
From its name, the trophy(award) depicts a gilded gramophone.
The Recording Academy is an American learned academy of musicians such as producers, recording engineers and other musical professions. It is the mother of the Grammy Awards, and through the awards, the academy seeks to reward the music industry.
However, due to concerns of the Covid-19 Omicron Variant, and how fast spreading it is, the Awards have been postponed to a later date.
In a joint statement by the Recording Academy and the live broadcaster CBS, they stated that, due to the Omicron, and for health safety measures, the awards are to be postponed.
“After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our 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 31st simply contains too many risks. We look forward to celebrating Music’s Biggest Night on a future date, which will be announced soon”
The awards were set to be aired on the 31st of January 2022 after the nominees were revealed via a live stream on November 23 2021.
World Renowned Comedian, South African born Trevor Noah was supposed to host the event.
The Grammys have over 86 categories, and about 10 nominees in each category.
Jon Bastite is the highest nominated artist with 11 nominations followed by Justin Bieber, H.E.R and Doja Cat with 8 nominations each.
Much anticipated favourites such as Adele, Beyonce, Rihhana, Nicki Minaj are not in the list of nominees due to reasons of not producing much music in the previous year.
Africa’s finest stars Burna Boy, Wizkid, Black Coffee, amongst others, have also been recognized internationally.
The new date for the awards is yet to be announced.