SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 21, 2025--
MusiCares ® has named five-time GRAMMY ® winner and 2024 Recording Academy ® Global Impact Award honoree Mariah Carey as the 2026 MusiCares Person of the Year. Carey, one of the most celebrated voices in music, will be honored for her extraordinary career as well as her long-standing commitment to supporting communities and people in need. The 35th annual Person of the Year benefit gala will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, two nights before the 2026 GRAMMY Awards ® at Crypto.com Arena.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251021795454/en/
“Mariah Carey’s influence extends far beyond her remarkable artistry,” said Theresa Wolters, Executive Director of MusiCares. “She has used her platform consistently to provide tangible support to communities, whether through disaster relief, youth empowerment, or programs that help those facing barriers to opportunity. Her work exemplifies the values at the heart of MusiCares: creating systems of care that lift people up and ensure music professionals and communities can thrive. Honoring her as Person of the Year celebrates both her incredible musical legacy and her dedication to making a meaningful difference in the lives of others.”
Over a career of more than three decades, Carey has captivated audiences worldwide with her signature voice, record-breaking achievements and creative innovation. Her courage, vision and authenticity have made her a trailblazer for women across generations, inspiring countless artists who see her as proof of what’s possible when talent and perseverance meet purpose. Beyond her music, Carey has remained deeply committed to helping others, providing relief for communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the COVID-19 pandemic. She founded Camp Mariah in partnership with the Fresh Air Fund to support underserved youth and has championed initiatives advancing health, education and social welfare, reflecting a lifelong commitment to giving back.
“We are honored to recognize Mariah Carey as this year’s MusiCares Person of the Year, a true creative force and once-in-a-generation talent,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy and MusiCares. “Her artistry and her voice have helped shape the sound of our times. We look forward to celebrating her remarkable career on this very special night.”
The MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony is one of the most anticipated events of GRAMMY Week. The evening features a cocktail reception, dinner and a tribute concert with performances by renowned artists celebrating Carey’s musical achievements and philanthropic contributions.
Since 1991, the Person of the Year gala has raised funds to support MusiCares’ programs, including health and wellness services, addiction recovery, preventive care, disaster relief, and emergency support for music professionals. Carey joins a distinguished list of MusiCares honorees including the Grateful Dead, Jon Bon Jovi, Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, and Joni Mitchell, representing a legacy of immense talent spanning generations.
The event will again be produced by live event broadcast outfit Lewis & Clark, made up of Joe Lewis and R.A. Clark.
The event would not be possible without support from our sponsors AEG and the Wasserman Foundation.
Tables and tickets are available for purchase at http://personoftheyear.musicares.org/. For more information about the event or sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.musicares.org or email personoftheyear@musicares.org.
Images of Carey can be found here.
ABOUT MUSICARES
MusiCares helps the humans behind music because music gives so much to the world. Offering preventive, emergency and recovery programs, MusiCares is a safety net supporting the health and welfare of the music community. Founded by the Recording Academy ® in 1989 as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) charity, MusiCares safeguards the well-being of all music people through direct financial grant programs, networks of support resources, and tailored crisis relief efforts. For more information please visit: www.musicares.org.
ABOUT MARIAH CAREY
Mariah Carey is the best-selling female artist of all time with more than 200 million albums sold to date and 19 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles (18 self-penned), more than any solo artist in history. Her memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. A two-time Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominee and an inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Carey is a multi-hyphenate singer, songwriter, and producer who has been recognized with five Grammy Awards (and 34 nominations), ten American Music Awards (and 39 nominations), three Guinness World Record titles, Billboard’s “Artist of the Decade” Award, Billboard’s “Icon Award,” the World Music Award for “World’s Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium,” the Ivor Novello Award for “PRS for Music Special International Award,” and BMI’s “Icon Award” for her outstanding achievements in songwriting, to name a few. As the globally recognized “Queen Of Christmas,” Carey’s beloved 1994 yuletide hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has become one of the longest-charting singles in any genre, spending 65 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100. In 2015, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2023, Carey became one of the first 13 recipients of the BRIT Billion Award for surpassing one billion streams in the United Kingdom.
Most recently, Mariah dropped her highly anticipated 16th studio album Here For It All, her first in 7 years, which debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. The album was met with instant praise, maintaining her 35-year streak of landing her new projects in the Billboard 200’s top 10. Here For It All took the No. 1 spot on Billboard for Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales, Top R&B Albums and Independent Albums, who called the album “eclectic, free-wheeling” and “Carey’s ultimate love letter to herself.” Pitchfork described the album as “a no-makeup sound for a persona devoted to glamour,” with each track “bringing a tear-stained realness to her vulnerable lyrics.” The Fader stated “On Here For It All, Mariah Carey exposes her soft side,” describing the album as “an R&B fusion record with a strong gospel backbone that sees a rare, vulnerable Mimi taking stock of how far she’s come.”
ABOUT LEWIS & CLARK
The live broadcast production outfit, Lewis & Clark, brings together Joe Lewis, founder of the Joe Lewis Company (JLC), and R.A. Clark, president and Emmy-nominated executive producer of Lion’s Heart Entertainment. As a team, the two have overseen thousands of hours of live television programming and thousands of live consumer and fan-facing events including 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year honoring The Grateful Dead, the Academy Awards Pre-Show, the GRAMMYs ®, The Academy of Country Music Awards and all NFL tentpoles to include the Super Bowl, NFL Draft, Pro Bowl, and NFL Kick-Off Concert.
The company offers full-service TV production, live event production and creative services. Their Los Angeles campus offers in-house scenic fabrication, design and printing facilities, and an entire logistics staff. Find out more at: lewisandclark.tv
Mariah Carey, Photo by Ethan James Green
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday.
The taking of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.
The capture marked a major Israeli advance in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.
Since then, Israel has launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, said he can guarantee the militant group's “full, comprehensive and immediate commitment to a ceasefire."
“But who will force Israel to stop its aggression?” he said in a statement on his television station, NBN.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Israeli military operations in Lebanon, which he described as “unacceptable.”
“Nothing can justify the prolongation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its increasingly deep occupation of Lebanese territory,” Barrot said Sunday on French television BFM TV.
The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted photographs on X showing Israeli troops walking outside the castle, and Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that they raised an Israeli flag over the castle. Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
“Twenty six years after the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, the Israeli flag has returned to fly on the peaks that overlook the Galilee towns,” Katz said Sunday at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in its previous occupation of southern Lebanon.
Katz said Israel intends to hold the castle as its troops work to destroy thousands more homes that he says were used by Hezbollah and other military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
The Beaufort fortress, perched high atop Lebanon’s rolling green hills and overlooking the Litani River, has been a strategic military asset for centuries.
Built as a Crusader castle around the 12th century on top of previous fortifications, it has also been used by Saladin’s Jerusalem army, Mamluks, Ottomans, the French and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Crusaders named it Beaufort, which is Old French for “beautiful fortress.”
The 1982 capture of the castle from the PLO was a major victory for the Israeli military, which was then led by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister. At the time, the Israeli army pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut.
In 2000, the castle was partially restored and opened to visitors.
During the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, UNESCO gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites in Lebanon, including Beaufort Castle, to safeguard them from damage.
The castle is a few kilometers north of the Israel border and overlooks wide parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel. In Arabic, it is called Al-Shaqif castle, an old Syriac word referring to the formidable rocky area.
Beaufort is symbolic across the region, including in Israel, where it was one of the best-known places Israel controlled during the 18-year occupation. An Israeli war film titled “Beaufort” explores moral questions about war in the last days before the military withdrew.
In recent days, Israel has expanded the scope of its operations in Lebanon, sending troops across the Litani River, which previously served as a de-facto boundary, and demanding that residents leave much of southern Lebanon.
“The occupation of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policies we are leading,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, citing the military occupation of security zones in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza along Israel’s borders. He said Israel has killed 3,000 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war. Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty numbers.
Israel has designated the area from the Litani up to the Zahrani River a combat zone. Some residents have already left the area due to intense strikes in recent days, but people remain.
Israeli troops have been advancing for days in villages close to Beaufort castle. They are now about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Nabatiyeh, a major center in southern Lebanon. They have called on people to leave that area, as well as the coastal city of Tyre, the country’s fourth-largest city, and its surroundings.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government on the Israeli push.
The expanded operation would give Israel an upper hand in the upcoming talks with Lebanon in Washington, said Beirut geopolitical analyst Joe Macaron.
“We are at a tipping point,” Macaron said, adding that it is still too early to say how Hezbollah will react to the loss of land. “The more land they (the Israeli military) can grab before the ceasefire, the more they can impose conditions on Hezbollah before their withdrawal.”
Israel has continued striking near Tyre, including near the Hiram Hospital. Lebanon's Health Ministry said 13 health workers were wounded in the strike. Elsewhere, a strike in Deir al-Zahrani, near Nabatiyeh, killed eight people and wounded 16 others, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.
Hezbollah overnight claimed two attacks targeting Israeli troops and a Merkava tank in the southwestern town of Bayada near the border. In recent days, the group has said it has clashed with Israeli troops in several towns just north of the river near Nabatiyeh and the strategic castle. It also claimed attacks deeper into Israel near the northern city of Haifa, Nahariya, as well as border areas.
Hezbollah on Saturday fired salvos of rockets into northern Israel, including Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in the area.
Hezbollah's use of hard-to-detect fiber optic drones has been deadly for the Israeli military, which is struggling to respond. There have been nearly 200 alerts for Israeli civilians across northern Israel warning of drones and missiles in the past 24 hours, according to Israel's military.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,350 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million people.
According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 25 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, including one on Saturday. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.
Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
An Israeli solider takes a position in a house in the community of Metula, northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A view of he Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A person walks past the site struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon on Saturday in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A local resident walks past the site struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon on Saturday in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
FILE -Villagers inspect the damage to Beaufort Castle, 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 24, 2000. (AP Photo/Ahmed Mantash, File)
