NEW YORK, Sept 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Country legend Dolly Parton will be
honored at a charity concert ahead of next year’s Grammy Awards, the
Recording Academy, which administers the prize, announced Tuesday.
Parton will be the 2019 focus of Musicares, a charitable wing of the
Recording Academy that raises money to help musicians in need through the
annual star-studded gala.
Parton is among the most prominent women in country music and one of the
Nashville-based industry’s most prolific songwriters. She became such a
cultural icon that she is the center of the Dollywood theme park in
Tennessee.
Announcing the choice of Parton, the first country artist to be recognized
at Musicares, the Recording Academy pointed to her longstanding charitable
activities which include working on literacy and assisting Tennessee
residents after disasters.
“Dolly Parton has always been and continues to be a courageous trailblazer
and indomitable inspiration for creators and artists,” Recording Academy
president Neil Portnow said in a statement.
Announcing the schedule for next year’s Grammy Week in Los Angeles,
Portnow said that Parton would be honored on February 8 with the Grammys two
days later.
The awards, the most prestigious handed out by the music industry, shifted
this year to New York to mark the Grammys’ 60th edition.
The last Musicares honored Fleetwood Mac, bringing together the
notoriously fractious band for a concert with performances by Lorde, Miley
Cyrus and Haim attended by former president Bill Clinton.
Musicares said it distributed more than $6.4 million dollars among some
8,500 members of the music industry in the last fiscal year.