(Adds background)
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The Grammy Awards ceremony due to take place on Jan. 31 has been postponed to March 21 because of the coronavirus surge in Los Angeles, organizers said on Tuesday.
The Recording Academy told members in a memo that the ceremony to present the highest honors in the music industry was being delayed after talks with health experts and musicians.
“After thoughtful conversations with health experts, our network partner CBS, our host, and artists scheduled to appear, we have made the decision to postpone the 63rd Grammy Awards to March 21, 2021," the interim president of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., said in the message seen by Reuters.
"The deteriorating COVID situation in Los Angeles, where hospital services have been overwhelmed, ICUs have reached capacity, and new guidance from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show was the right thing to do," he added.
The postponement was earlier reported by Rolling Stone magazine and Variety.
Los Angeles is experiencing a spike in coronavirus deaths and hospital admissions. Gyms, hair salons and restaurants have been shut down and residents urged to stay at home as much as possible.
Beyonce leads nominations for this year's Grammys with nine nods in a November announcement that was overshadowed by a stunning snub for Canadian musician The Weeknd. Recording Academy had not announced who would be performing at the show, which is usually a three-hour mixture of live performances by top international musicians and speeches by winners.
Organizers of the annual Oscars ceremony last year moved the 2021 presentation to April from late February because of the pandemic, while this year's Golden Globes ceremony was moved to Feb. 28 from its usual early January date.
Other major awards shows, including television's Emmys and the MTV Video Music Awards, went ahead last fall with a mix of live, pre-recorded and socially distanced appearances by celebrities but without an audience.