Bruce Springsteen and Shania Twain will bring superstar power to the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year gala fundraising concert at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event is an annual prelude to the Grammy Awards, which take place Feb. 4 at the adjacent Crypto.com Arena.
To be held Feb. 2, this year’s MusiCares will also feature performances of Bon Jovi songs by Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Brandy Clark, Jelly Roll, Goo Goo Dolls, Marcus King, The War And Treaty and Damiano David of the Italian band Måneskin. As an added enticement, the evening will feature a performance by Jon Bon Jovi and the band that bears his name.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan will be the host for the black-tie event. Gayle King and Kylie Minogue have been confirmed as presenters at the 33rd annual edition of MusiCares, whose previous honorees include Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan. Tickets are available through the MusiCares website; see below for more details.
“I’m looking forward to seeing these talented musicians take the stage for the MusiCares gala. I’m honored they are able to be with us for such a wonderful night,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement released Friday morning by the Recording Academy, under whose auspices MusiCares and the Grammy Awards are held.
MusiCares was created to provide emergency financial and medical assistance to musicians in need. Its COVID-19 relief effort alone raised $37.5 million between March 2020 and July 2022 that provided assistance to 47,228 music industry professionals whose lives and careers were in peril.
The charitable wing of the nonprofit Recording Academy, MusiCares honors music legends for their work offstage to help worthy causes.
Jon Bon Jovi has quietly done such work with his four-year-old JBJ Soul Kitchen Food Bank and 18-year-old Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a nonprofit that operates community restaurants in three New Jersey cities. His foundation has also helped fund more than 700 units of affordable housing in 11 states and the District of Columbia, as he discussed in his 2020 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
MusiCares works year-round to help musicians across the nation, including veteran San Diego rocker Timothy Joseph of the band Minaturized.
“I lost my house and was having a really rough time, financially, and MusiCares helped me for a year to pay my utility bills and car payments so that I was able to stabilize,” Joseph told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a 2023 interview.
“It was a tough time for me. I felt embarrassed to reach out for help and MusiCares didn’t make me feel embarrassed at all. They were very generous and kind, and it’s good to know they are there. I’ve recommended them to a few musicians I know.”
Joseph was so grateful that he organized and led a pair of San Diego concerts in 2018 and 2020 as benefits for MusiCares. Both were tributes to the late Tom Petty, who was the 2017 MusiCares Person of the Year honoree.
The Feb. 2 MusiCares concert will take place 41 years after the release of Bon Jovi’s debut album. Several media outlets have reported that former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora will attend next week’s MusiCares event. It is unclear if he will perform with the band, which he left in 2013. Sambora is part of the upcoming Hulu docuseries, “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story,” which premieres on April 26.
Tickets are available for next week’s MusiCares Person of the Year gala through the event’s website at musicares.org.