Grammy organizers on Wednesday postponed the prestigious music awards gala, scheduled for January 31, while the Sundance festival will be held online due to the omicron variant that is widespread in the United States.
For the Recording Academy, which hands out the Grammy Awards, “holding the gala on January 31 represents too many risks.” “Soon” will announce new dates.
For its part, the prestigious Sundance film festival – which will take place from January 20 to 30 in Park City, Utah – announced that this year’s edition will be held online.
“Despite more ambitious protocols, the omicron variant, with its unexpectedly high transmissibility, is challenging the limits of health and travel safety, among others, in the United States,” organizers said in a statement.
The new date of the 2022 Grammy gala is not yet known. Organizers said it would be announced “soon.”
The highly contagious omicron variant already accounted for 95% of new cases in the United States.
According to the latest official data, nearly 500,000 new cases are registered daily in the country, which has had an impact on the increase in hospitalizations, although not so much on the number of deaths, which remains stable, due, according to experts, to the vaccinations.
The omicron variant is also milder than previous ones, raising hopes that covid-19 could become a benign seasonal illness.
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However, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that rising levels of infection could have a negative effect.
“The health and safety of people in our music community, in-person audiences, and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remain our top priority,” the Recording Academy justifies.
Sundance organizers spoke in the same vein. “As profound a loss as it is to experience personally in Utah, we believe it is neither safe nor feasible to bring together thousands of artists, audiences, employees, volunteers and partners from around the world for the 11-day festival as overwhelmed communities struggle to provide essential services”.
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The season in suspense
Among the films selected at Sundance – the indie festival co-founded by Rorbert Redford – stands out “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,” a documentary that brings together more than twenty years of footage recorded by Clarence “Coodie” Simmons, a longtime friend of Kanye West.
For its part, the 64th edition of the Grammys was expected to consecrate artists such as Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo or the jazz and rhythm and blues (R&B) musician Jon Batiste, who has eleven nominations.
After being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic that has shaken the world, the Grammys were held on March 14 in the first face-to-face gala of the pandemic era.
The 2022 edition was expected to mark a return to the glamor that used to pervade the celebration at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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For its part, the Golden Globes will be held on January 9 without an audience or press. The organizers put health first to justify the absence of the public, although the decision also coincided with an industry boycott due to the collapse of internal ethical problems.
The delivery of the Oscars is currently scheduled for March 27.
The first musical event in California is scheduled for April 15, although a vaccination certificate or negative covid test is required to attend.
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The 2022 Grammy Gala was postponed by omicron, what is known about the new date?