(Reuters) – This year’s Grammy Awards ceremony honoring top performances in music has been postponed indefinitely because of concerns about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, organizers said on Wednesday.
The show had been scheduled to take place at an arena in downtown Los Angeles and broadcast live on the CBS network on Jan. 31.
“Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31 simply contains too many risks,” CBS and the Recording Academy said in a joint statement, adding that a new date would be announced soon.
Nominations for the awards were announced in November. Pianist and bandleader Jon Batiste led a field that spanned rap to jazz music and embraced newcomers from teen pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo to veteran crooner Tony Bennett, 95, who won his first Grammy in 1963.
The 2021 Grammy awards also were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
