Postponed GRAMMYs move to Las Vegas, set for April 3

LOS ANGELES - The GRAMMY music awards will be held in Las Vegas for the first time this April after being postponed because of the surge of Omicron-variant Covid-19 cases across the United States.

The 64th annual GRAMMYs -- featuring nominees including Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo -- had been due to take place in Los Angeles on January 31.

Hosted by Trevor Noah, the show will now take place on April 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

"We are excited to take the GRAMMYs to Las Vegas for the very first time, and to put on a world-class show," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr said in a statement.

The organizers had previously said that hosting a Los Angeles ceremony on January 31 -- the original date -- "simply contains too many risks." The GRAMMYs are one of several entertainment industry events that have been delayed in the hope that sky-high Covid caseloads will drop in the coming months.

Film and television events such as the Critics Choice Awards and Producers Guild Awards have also been postponed, while this week's Sundance film festival is taking place online.

The Oscars currently are still on for March 27, one week before the rescheduled GRAMMYs.

Jon Batiste, the jazz and R&B artist and bandleader, garnered the most nominations for this year's GRAMMYs with 11.

As a knock-on effect of the move, country music's CMT Music Awards will switch from April 3 to later in the same month.

Omicron has become the main coronavirus variant in the United States A record surge in the number of cases fueled by the variant has yet to recede in California, the nation's most populous state, which has passed seven million recorded cases. - AFP