Billie Eilish performs onstage with Billie Joe Armstrong of Inexperienced Day throughout the FireAid Profit Live performance on January 30, 2025 in Inglewood, California.
Scott Dudelson/Getty Pictures for FIREAID
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Scott Dudelson/Getty Pictures for FIREAID
When wildfires broke out throughout Los Angeles final month, greater than 16,000 properties and buildings had been destroyed, and a minimum of 29 folks misplaced their lives. Native officers emphasised the unprecedented nature of the fires. And on condition that the catastrophe devastated the town the place so many artistic industries are primarily based, it did not take lengthy for actors, musicians and different leisure trade leaders — together with many who had been personally impacted by the wildfires — to bounce into motion.
On Jan. 30, the FireAid profit live performance befell on the Intuit Dome and Kia Discussion board in Inglewood. Greater than 30 artists, together with Olivia Rodrigo, Rod Stewart, Dr. Dre and Joni Mitchell, took turns performing; comedians like Billy Crystal — who misplaced his house within the fires — and Quinta Brunson additionally addressed the viewers. Brunson, who performs a trainer in her hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, launched Glendale Excessive College trainer Aurora Barboza Flores, who shared how she’d spent many years saving up for her Altadena house, solely to have it burn down.
Aurora Barboza Flores and Quinta Brunson communicate onstage throughout the FireAid profit live performance for California fireplace reduction in Inglewood, California.
Amy Sussman/Getty Pictures for FIREAID/Getty Pictures North America
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Amy Sussman/Getty Pictures for FIREAID/Getty Pictures North America
In a press release shared with NPR, a spokesperson for the LA Clippers, which collaborated on the manufacturing of the profit live performance and offset working prices, mentioned that mixed ticket gross sales, merchandise gross sales, sponsorships and donations are anticipated to exceed $100 million for wildfire reduction. The estimate consists of personal items from the Eagles, U2 and music govt Irving Azoff and his spouse Shelli. Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer and his spouse additionally matched all pledges made throughout the broadcast.
FireAid remains to be accepting donations on-line, so the overall sum of money raised is predicted to continue to grow. The funds, administered by means of the Annenberg Basis, will assist with fast restoration efforts and long-term preventative measures throughout southern California.
“The FireAid Grants Advisory Committee, composed of longtime LA-region philanthropic leaders with deep relationships within the non-profit group, have been working to establish key areas of want for optimum impression,” reads the assertion. “Led by the Annenberg Basis, the committee has been listening every day to affected communities, assessing native useful resource gaps to make sure assist reaches these most in want, and researching the dealing with of different fireplace disasters, reminiscent of these in Maui and Northern California. The primary section of grants [is] anticipated to be awarded by mid-February.”
The Grammys, which had been held in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, took the same method. Earlier than the ceremony, the Recording Academy introduced that though many events and occasions main as much as the awards ceremony had been canceled in gentle of the wildfires, it will have been too massive a blow to the native economic system to cancel or postpone the present. As an alternative, the 2025 Grammys closely centered on honoring the town of Los Angeles by means of performances, video packages, ads and speeches from many Angelenos who acquired main awards, together with Kendrick Lamar. The Recording Academy confirmed to NPR that they raised practically $9 million on Grammys Sunday alone, which will probably be administered to the Academy’s charity MusiCares, humanitarian group Direct Reduction, the California Group Basis and the Pasadena Group Basis. A complete of $24 million was raised by means of different Grammys weekend occasions, the remainder of which is able to go in the direction of “MusiCares’ ongoing initiatives to assist music professionals in want.”
A legacy of superstar concert events – and issues
The Los Angeles wildfire reduction efforts observe within the footsteps of an extended legacy of superstar charity concert events. In 1971, George Harrison and sitar guru Ravi Shankar organized the Live performance for Bangladesh at Madison Sq. Backyard. On the time, the area in South Asia confronted a humanitarian disaster resulting from pure disasters and a months-long conflict that resulted within the creation of Bangladesh in what was previously often known as East Pakistan.
“There are six million displaced Bengalis, most of them affected by malnutrition, cholera and in addition different ailments which might be the results of residing underneath probably the most dehumanizing situations,” former All Issues Thought-about host Mike Waters reported in July of 1971.
George Harrison, left, performs with Jesse Ed Davis on the Live performance For Bangladesh at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York on Aug. 1, 1971.
Jim Wells/AP/AP
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Jim Wells/AP/AP
With Harrison’s Beatles star energy behind him, the Live performance for Bangladesh represented the primary superstar profit present of its type. The live performance featured performances from over a dozen artists, together with Harrison, Shankar, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. It raised round $243,000 for UNICEF — nevertheless it additionally bumped into its justifiable share of challenges.
“The massive downside with Bangladesh was that they hadn’t picked the charity earlier than the occasion. Subsequently, all of the charitable breaks you’d have, all of the tax breaks you’d have usually with a charitable occasion, did not apply,” music journalist Graeme Thomson instructed Morning Version in 2021, on the fiftieth anniversary of the live performance. “There was an enormous sum of money that A, went lacking and B, went to the taxman.”
In 1985, the Los Angeles Instances reported that almost $10 million raised by means of the live performance, its subsequent dwell album of the identical identify and a documentary had been held up by the IRS for greater than a decade. Regardless of bureaucratic delays, the Live performance for Bangladesh continues to have an effect right this moment by means of the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which helps applications in Bangladesh and has additionally offered assist in Angola, Romania, India, Haiti and Brazil.
On a extra philosophical degree, the Live performance for Bangladesh additionally sparked a bigger motion of Western artists shining a highlight on humanitarian crises around the globe. Harrison and Shankar’s live performance served as a mannequin for 1985’s Reside Support, which featured performances by Queen, Paul McCartney and Madonna and raised greater than $100 million for famine reduction in Ethiopia. A remark made by Bob Dylan throughout that occasion sparked the creation of Farm Support, an annual profit live performance for American farmers.