Stop us (and then go, then stop again, and repeat for the next hour) if you’ve heard this one before: Traffic was bad in Los Angeles on February 4. So bad, it slowed down the Grammys, which were taking place downtown at Crypto.com Arena. Grammys’ producers told Rolling Stone that at least ten major stars were late to the show because of traffic during a rainstorm — including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey, SZA, Burna Boy, Kacey Musgraves, Christina Aguilera, and Lizzo. Producers even had to save Carey off the freeway so she could present the first award. “In the end, they got a golf cart and picked Mariah Carey up out of her SUV that was stuck in traffic, with four people running around the side with umbrellas, to make sure she didn’t get so wet that she couldn’t go onstage,†revealed Patrick Menton, a co-executive producer. Not quite an entrance fit for a diva, but it worked.
The traffic also meant Trevor Noah had to make some last-minute changes to his monologue because celebs were missing or just walking in, like Bey and Jay did. “He’s so quick and so sharp, and then I’d say in his ear, ‘She’s coming in, she’s on your right-hand shoulder!’†said Ben Winston, executive producer. “And you’ll see him look around and go, ‘There she is!’†So, maybe the Carter’s left after Jay-Z’s incendiary acceptance speech just so they could beat traffic.