At the entrance to the Grammy Awards venue in Los Angeles on January 26, 2020. -

Jordan Strauss / AP / SIPA

The coronavirus once again forces changes in the agendas.

The American Association of Music Professionals (Recording Academy) has just decided to postpone the Grammy Awards.

The recording industry awards were originally scheduled for January 31 in Los Angeles.

To publicize its decision, the Recording Academy did not issue a statement or public statement but updated the schedule on its official website, setting the new date for March 21.

A ceremony without an audience

After being less hard hit than many other American states, California has seen the pandemic accelerate in its territory since early November.

It is currently registering several tens of thousands of new cases of coronavirus every day.

For the day of Monday the contaminations were 31,170.

The positivity rate rose to 13.6% over 7 rolling days and the most populous state in the United States recorded, on December 31, a record 585 deaths.

In view of these figures, the organizers therefore had to review their copy.

But that's far from a surprise.

They had in fact already planned a ceremony in pandemic format, without an audience, with only the presenters and artists invited to perform during the retransmission, on the national channel CBS, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Beyoncé still queen

Regardless of the date and format of the ceremony, we already know the favorite.

Nine times, singer Beyoncé topped the nominations announced at the end of November, bringing her total to 79. "Queen Bey" is nominated for her duet with rapper Meghan Thee Stallion, titled

Savage

, as well as her surprise track, inspired by the movement born after the death of George Floyd.

She is ahead of Taylor Swift, rapper Roddy Ricch and British singer Dua Lipa, each credited with six nominations.

The list of nominations was also struck by his absences, in the first place that of the Canadian singer The Weeknd, but also of the Korean group BTS or the late rapper Pop Smoke, excluded from all major categories.

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