When wildfires broke out across Los Angeles last month, more than 16,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, and at least 29 people lost their lives. Local officials emphasized the unprecedented nature of the fires. And given that the disaster devastated the city where so many creative industries are based, it didn't take long for actors, musicians and other entertainment industry leaders — including many who were personally impacted by the wildfires — to jump into action.

On Jan. 30, the FireAid benefit concert took place at the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. More than 30 artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, Rod Stewart, Dr. Dre and Joni Mitchell, took turns performing; comedians like Billy Crystal — who lost his home in the fires — and Quinta Brunson also addressed the audience. Brunson, who plays a teacher in her hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, introduced Glendale High School teacher Aurora Barboza Flores, who shared how she'd spent decades saving up for her Altadena home, only to have it burn down.

In a statement shared with NPR, a spokesperson for the LA Clippers, which collaborated on the production of the benefit concert and offset operating costs, said that combined ticket sales, merchandise sales, sponsorships and donations are expected to exceed $100 million for wildfire relief. The estimate includes private gifts from the Eagles, U2 and music executive Irving Azoff and his wife, Shelli. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife also matched all pledges made during the broadcast.

FireAid is still accepting donations online, so the total amount of money raised is expected to keep growing. The funds, administered through the Annenberg Foundation, will help with immediate recovery efforts and long-term preventative measures across southern California.

"The FireAid Grants Advisory Committee, composed of longtime LA-region philanthropic leaders with deep relationships in the non-profit community, have been working to identify key areas of need for maximum impact," reads the statement. "Led by the Annenberg Foundation, the committee has been listening daily to affected communities, assessing local resource gaps to ensure aid reaches those most in need, and researching the handling of other fire disasters, such as those in Maui and Northern California. The first phase of grants [is] expected to be awarded by mid-February."

The Grammys, which were held in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, took a similar approach. Before the ceremony, the Recording Academy announced that although many parties and events leading up to the awards ceremony had been canceled in light of the wildfires, it would have been too big a blow to the local economy to cancel or postpone the show. Instead, the 2025 Grammys heavily focused on honoring the city of Los Angeles through performances, video packages, advertisements and speeches from many Angelenos who received major awards, including Kendrick Lamar. The Recording Academy confirmed to NPR that they raised nearly $9 million on Grammys Sunday alone, which will be administered to the Academy's charity, MusiCares, the humanitarian organization Direct Relief, the California Community Foundation and the Pasadena Community Foundation. A total of $24 million was raised through other Grammys weekend events, the rest of which will go toward "MusiCares' ongoing initiatives to support music professionals in need."

A legacy of celebrity concerts — and complications

The Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts follow in the footsteps of a long legacy of celebrity charity concerts. In 1971, George Harrison and sitar guru Ravi Shankar organized The Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. At the time, the region in South Asia faced a humanitarian crisis due to natural disasters and a months-long war that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in what was formerly known as East Pakistan.

"There are six million displaced Bengalis, most of them suffering from malnutrition, cholera and also other diseases that are the result of living under the most dehumanizing conditions," former All Things Considered host Mike Waters reported in July of 1971.

With Harrison's Beatles star power behind him, The Concert for Bangladesh represented the first celebrity benefit show of its kind. The concert featured performances from over a dozen artists, including Harrison, Shankar, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. It raised around $243,000 for UNICEF — but it also ran into its fair share of challenges.

"The huge problem with Bangladesh was that they hadn't picked the charity before the event. Therefore, all the charitable breaks you would have, all the tax breaks you would have normally with a charitable event, didn't apply," music journalist Graeme Thomson told Morning Edition in 2021, on the 50th anniversary of the concert. "There was a huge amount of money that, A, went missing and, B, went to the taxman."

In 1985, the Los Angeles Times reported that nearly $10 million raised through the concert, its subsequent live album of the same name and a documentary were held up by the IRS for more than a decade. Despite bureaucratic delays, The Concert for Bangladesh continues to have an impact today through the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which supports programs in Bangladesh and has also provided aid in Angola, Romania, India, Haiti and Brazil.

On a more philosophical level, The Concert for Bangladesh also sparked a larger movement of Western artists shining a spotlight on humanitarian crises around the world. Harrison and Shankar's concert served as a model for 1985's Live Aid, which featured performances by Queen, Paul McCartney and Madonna and raised more than $100 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. A comment made by Bob Dylan during that event sparked the creation of Farm Aid, an annual benefit concert for American farmers.

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