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 had been destroyed, and no less than 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 artistic industries are based mostly, 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 happened on the Intuit Dome and Kia Discussion board in Inglewood, Calif. 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 residence 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 many years saving up for her Altadena residence, solely to have it burn down.

Aurora Barboza Flores and Quinta Brunson communicate onstage throughout the FireAid profit live performance on Jan. 30, 2025.

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

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

In an announcement shared with NPR, a spokesperson for the LA Clippers, which collaborated on the manufacturing of the profit live performance and offset working prices, stated that mixed ticket gross sales, merchandise gross sales, sponsorships and donations are anticipated to exceed $100 million for wildfire aid. The estimate contains 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 continues to be accepting donations on-line, so the entire sum of money raised is predicted to continue to grow. The funds, administered via 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 neighborhood, have been working to determine 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, corresponding to 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 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 will have been too huge a blow to the native financial system to cancel or postpone the present. As an alternative, the 2025 Grammys closely centered on honoring the town of Los Angeles via performances, video packages, commercials and speeches from many Angelenos who obtained main awards, together with Kendrick Lamar. The Recording Academy confirmed to NPR that they raised almost $9 million on Grammys Sunday alone, which shall be administered to the Academy’s charity, MusiCares, the humanitarian group Direct Reduction, the California Neighborhood Basis and the Pasadena Neighborhood Basis. A complete of $24 million was raised via different Grammys weekend occasions, the remainder of which is able to go towards “MusiCares’ ongoing initiatives to assist music professionals in want.”

A legacy of celeb live shows — and issues

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 because of pure disasters and a months-long conflict that resulted within the creation of Bangladesh in what was previously generally known as East Pakistan.

“There are six million displaced Bengalis, most of them affected by malnutrition, cholera and likewise different ailments which might be the results of residing beneath essentially the most dehumanizing situations,” former All Issues Thought of host Mike Waters reported in July of 1971.

George Harrison (left) performs with Jesse Ed Davis at 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 celeb profit present of its sort. 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 fair proportion 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 advised 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 just about $10 million raised via the live performance, its subsequent dwell album of the identical title 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 as we speak via the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which helps packages in Bangladesh and has additionally supplied help in Angola, Romania, India, Haiti and Brazil.

On a extra philosophical stage, The Live performance for Bangladesh additionally sparked a bigger motion of Western artists shining a highlight on humanitarian crises all over the world. Harrison and Shankar’s live performance served as a mannequin for 1985’s Dwell Help, 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 Help, an annual profit live performance for American farmers.