Citing the ongoing surge in Covid cases due to the Omicron variant, the Recording Academy announced that the 2022 Grammys will be postponed. A new date for the show was not announced.
In a statement, the Recording Academy and CBS, which airs the Grammys, said, “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.”
Like other live entertainment organizers, the Recording Academy had been confident in a full-scale Grammys showcase for 2022 before the new year. But as the Omicron variant has spiked confirmed cases to numbers not seen since before the availability of vaccines, the optics of a full-scale show — particularly where attendees would be coming from around the world — have changed.
This marks the second year in a row that the pandemic has forced the Grammys to postpone. Last year, the Academy moved the show from late Jan. to Mar. 14, and the show went with a mixture of live and pre-recorded performances along with a limited crowd of Grammy nominees. It isn’t immediately clear what the plan will be for the Grammys’ new date.
L.A. County, where the Grammys would take place, averaged nearly 12,000 new confirmed Covid cases a day recently, the highest tally the county has seen since a surge after the holiday season last year. While hospitals across California were overwhelmed with hospitalizations this time last year when the Grammys pushed the show back, hospitals currently have more manageable numbers and availability to treat patients thanks to the wide availability of vaccines. Health experts, however, still worry about high hospitalizations given how transmissible Omicron is and how many people across the country still haven’t gotten the vaccine.
Jon Batiste leads the Grammy nominations this year with 11, while Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, and H.E.R. tied for second with eight nominations. Trevor Noah was set to repeat as host after also MCing the Grammys last year.
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There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
