The Grammys somewhat controversially decided that the show must go on tonight, just weeks after wildfires burned down thousands of homes and other structures in the Los Angeles area. The Recording Academy and others scaled back their festivities this weekend, but the big show is indeed going down right now at Luka Dončić's new home base of Crypto.com Arena. The Academy's way of reading the room was to begin the show with an all-star performance of Randy Newman's 1983 classic "I Love L.A.," which has become a sort of theme song for the city thanks to the Los Angeles Dodgers and others.
The opening performance featured Dawes, whose Griffin Goldsmith lost his home (and whose Taylor Goldsmith lost his home studio) to the LA fires, with an assortment of performers including Brad Paisley, St. Vincent, Sheryl Crow, Brittany Howard, and, obviously, Grammy favorite John Legend. They tweaked the lyrics a bit to make the song less sarcastic and more earnest. Host Trevor Noah spoke a bit about Dawes before they played, too. Watch the performance and the intro 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
Trevor Noah opens the 2025 #Grammys talking about the devastations of the Los Angeles wildfires and introduces the band Dawes. pic.twitter.com/8ZdiMimEUo
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 3, 2025
