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

When wildfires broke out throughout Los Angeles final month, greater than 16,000 properties and buildings have been destroyed, and no less than 29 folks misplaced their lives. Native officers emphasised the unprecedented nature of the fires. And on condition that the catastrophe devastated 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 have been personally impacted by the wildfires — to bounce into motion.

On Jan. 30, the FireAid profit live performance occurred 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.

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, 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 government Irving Azoff and his spouse Shelli. Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer and his spouse additionally matched all pledges made through the broadcast.

FireAid continues to be accepting donations on-line, so the whole sum of money raised is predicted to continue to grow. The funds, administered by the Annenberg Basis, will assist with quick 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 establish key areas of want for max influence,” reads the assertion. “Led by the Annenberg Basis, the committee has been listening each 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, comparable 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 strategy. 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 could have been too large a blow to the native financial system to cancel or postpone the present. As an alternative, the 2025 Grammys closely targeted on honoring town of Los Angeles by performances, video packages, ads and speeches from many Angelenos who obtained main awards, together with Kendrick Lamar. Although the Academy has not shared a ultimate tally of how a lot cash was raised through the broadcast, host Trevor Noah talked about that greater than $7 million had been pledged in donations through the ceremony.

A legacy of superstar live shows – and issues

The Los Angeles wildfire aid efforts observe within the footsteps of a protracted legacy of superstar 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 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 can be the results of dwelling underneath probably the most dehumanizing circumstances,” former All Issues Thought-about host Mike Waters reported in July of 1971.

With Harrison’s Beatles star energy behind him, the Live performance for Bangladesh represented the primary superstar profit present of its form. 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 — but it surely additionally bumped into its justifiable share of challenges.

“The massive drawback with Bangladesh was that they hadn’t picked the charity earlier than the occasion. Subsequently, 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 Occasions reported that just about $10 million raised by the live performance, its subsequent stay album of the identical identify 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 right this moment by the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which helps packages in Bangladesh and has additionally offered 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 Stay Support, 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 Support, an annual profit live performance for American farmers.