FireAid raises estimated $100 million for LA wildfire aid : NPR

When wildfires broke out throughout Los Angeles final month, greater than 16,000 houses and buildings have been destroyed, and a minimum of 29 individuals 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 inventive industries are primarily based, it did not take lengthy for actors, musicians and different leisure trade leaders — together with many who have been personally impacted by the wildfires — to soar 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 instructor in her hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, launched Glendale Excessive College instructor Aurora Barboza Flores, who shared how she’d spent a long time saving up for her Altadena house, solely to have it burn down.

Aurora Barboza Flores and Quinta Brunson communicate onstage in the course of the FireAid profit live performance for California fireplace aid in Inglewood, California.

Amy Sussman/Getty Pictures for FIREAID/Getty Pictures North America

cover caption

toggle caption

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 aid. The estimate consists of non-public 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 in the course of the broadcast.

FireAid remains to be accepting donations on-line, so the full sum of money raised is anticipated to continue to grow. The funds, administered via the Annenberg Basis, will assist with speedy 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 influence,” reads the assertion. “Led by the Annenberg Basis, the committee has been listening day by day to affected communities, assessing native useful resource gaps to make sure help reaches these most in want, and researching the dealing with of different fireplace disasters, akin to these in Maui and Northern California. The primary part of grants [is] anticipated to be awarded by mid-February.”

The Grammys, which have been held in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, took an identical 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 mild of the wildfires, it might have been too large a blow to the native financial system to cancel or postpone the present. As a substitute, the 2025 Grammys closely targeted on honoring the town of Los Angeles via performances, video packages, commercials and speeches from many Angelenos who acquired main awards, together with Kendrick Lamar. Although the Academy has not shared a remaining tally of how a lot cash was raised in the course of the broadcast, host Trevor Noah talked about that greater than $7 million had been pledged in donations in the course of the ceremony.

A legacy of celeb live shows – and problems

The Los Angeles wildfire aid efforts observe within the footsteps of an extended legacy of celeb charity live shows. 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 on account of pure disasters and a months-long battle that resulted within the creation of Bangladesh in what was previously referred to as East Pakistan.

“There are six million displaced Bengalis, most of them affected by malnutrition, cholera and in addition different ailments which are the results of dwelling underneath essentially the most dehumanizing circumstances,” former All Issues Thought of 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

cover caption

toggle caption

Jim Wells/AP/AP

With Harrison’s Beatles star energy behind him, the Live performance for Bangladesh represented the primary celeb 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 — however it additionally bumped into its justifiable share of challenges.

“The large drawback with Bangladesh was that they hadn’t picked the charity earlier than the occasion. Due to this fact, all of the charitable breaks you’ll have, all of the tax breaks you’ll 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 Occasions reported that just about $10 million raised via the live performance, its subsequent stay album of the identical title and a documentary have 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 as we speak via the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which helps applications in Bangladesh and has additionally offered help 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 world wide. Harrison and Shankar’s live performance served as a mannequin for 1985’s Stay Assist, which featured performances by Queen, Paul McCartney and Madonna and raised greater than $100 million for famine aid in Ethiopia. A remark made by Bob Dylan throughout that occasion sparked the creation of Farm Assist, an annual profit live performance for American farmers.