St Vincent, Brittany Howard, Dawes and more opened the 2025 Grammys with a tribute performance of Randy Newman’s 1983 classic ‘I Love L.A.’.
The Grammys went ahead yesterday (February 2), despite the city of LA, where the awards show traditionally takes place, having five wildfires concurrently, forcing the evacuation of over 150,000 residents, the destruction of countless homes and businesses, and deaths.
Opening the show was an all-star performance of Newman’s 1983 classic track, with Brad Paisley, St Vincent, Sheryl Crow, Dawes, Brittany Howard and John Legend all on stage.
The lyrics were changed slightly to make the song less sarcastic and more heartfelt. Watch a clip from the performance below.
The band Dawes open up the 2025 #Grammys celebrating Los Angeles in light the the devastating wildfires. pic.twitter.com/t0Z8WG1cFR
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 3, 2025
Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith was one of the many musicians directly affected by the wildfires. His home was destroyed, however, he and his wife Mandy Moore managed to escape. His brother, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, lost his home in the Eaton fire.
The destructive fires first broke on January 7 and have since destroyed thousands of homes, with at least 29 people known to have been killed. Among those to lose their homes include the artists Jhené Aiko, Madlib, Diane Warren, Harry Mack, Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, and Beyonce‘s mother Tina Knowles.
Last month members of the LA music community spoke with NME about being hit hard by the fatal wildfires that continue to burn throughout the city, with a number of venues, studios and artists being affected by the devastating blaze.
Singer, rapper and producer Jared Evan, who was originally born in New York but has lived in Los Angeles for the past few years, told NME he’s been blown away by LA’s “beautiful” community spirit.
“I know people close to me who have pretty much lost everything,” he explained. “I’ve seen a lot of unity and people helping people, both in the music industry and just regular people from the city.
“Being from New York, one of my main reference points for something like this was experiencing 9/11 when I was a kid. Regardless of how dark and negative that situation was, you saw so many people from different walks of life coming together and helping one another. I’m definitely feeling that same kind of vibe right now in LA, which is a beautiful thing.”
In other Grammys-related news, Beyoncé won Album Of The Year and became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album. Chappell Roan won the Best New Artist award and made a daring acceptance speech demanding better protections for up-and-coming artists.
She said: “I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a liveable wage and health care, especially developing artists.”