BMI Postpones Latin Awards Show, Citing COVID-19 Concerns

Music rights management organization BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) has announced that it will postpone its 27th annual Latin Awards. In a press statement sent on Tuesday afternoon, the organization cited concerns over the recent outbreak of COVID-19.

“The health and safety of our employees and affiliates is our number one priority, and as a result, BMI is postponing its upcoming Latin Awards show, originally scheduled for March 31 in Los Angeles,” reads the statement. “We plan to reschedule the Latin Awards at a later date and look forward to honoring Wisin y Yandel with our President’s Award and celebrating our talented family of Latin music creators.  BMI will continue to evaluate all upcoming events on a case-by-case basis.”

No new date has been announced as of yet. BMI was scheduled to be present at SXSW as well, but that festival was canceled late last week.

BMI’s counterpart ASCAP — the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers — has also canceled its annual L.A. conference, which was set to take place April 1st.

BMI is just the latest organization to cancel an event in light of the outbreak. This week, Madonna canceled the remainder of her tour in Paris, while Kiss canceled upcoming meet-and-greets. Hours later, Pearl Jam announced they would be postponing their upcoming North American tour in support of their new album, Gigaton.