LOS ANGELES _ The 2018 Grammy Awards will take place in New York _ a move that will coincide with the 60th anniversary of the event, Recording Academy officials unveiled Tuesday.
The ceremony will be held Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden, which last hosted the Grammys in 2003, on its 45th anniversary.
"Playing host to the music industry's marquee awards show is a unique creative, artistic and economic boon to the rich cultural fabric of our city," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. "We welcome the Grammy Awards back to New York City with open arms and we look forward to continuing to partner with a music industry that supports access and empowerment in the arts."
In the same statement, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow added, "As a native New Yorker and lifelong supporter of the city's vibrant arts scene, I couldn't be more excited to return in 2018 and celebrate 60 years of honoring the best of the best in recorded sound in the world-class venue that is Madison Square Garden.
"We serve the music community year-round," Portnow noted, "and a large part of that community is alive and thriving in New York City and on the East Coast."
In conjunction with the shift to New York from its longtime home at Staples Center, director Spike Lee has been tapped to create a promotional video titled "N.Y. Stories," spotlighting various New York celebrities sharing anecdotes about different New York neighborhoods.
"I'm honored to be a part of this homage to the city I love, that is welcoming the 60th anniversary of the Grammys into its big warm arms," Lee said, also in a statement.
The first Grammy Awards ceremony took place on May 4, 1959, recognizing recordings released during 1958, and was a bicoastal event held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City.
Academy officials are not envisioning this as a permanent move to New York, and in the past have indicated plans to shift the ceremony from time to time to different host cities.
