Brandi Carlile will be the recipient of the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual Visionary Award for Humanitarian Work, to be given out at the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards Gala in December, the organization has announced.
Carlile’s honor will be part of the dinner and awards show that takes place Dec. 6 at downtown L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore. About 800 working journalists and guests gather in the historic Crystal Ballroom for a night in which competitive awards are given out to reporters, critics and photographers covering the arts, along with a handful of lifetime achievement honors for major arts figures as well as journalists.
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Also set to be celebrated that night is KCRW’s Madeleine Brand, who will receive the Luminary Award for Career Achievement in Media. Brand has hosted the popular “Press Play” for the station since 2014 and has worked in the public radio sphere for more than 30 years. Other honorees will be announced in the days to come, the Press Club said.
The Visionary Award was first given out at the National A&E Journalism Awards Gala in 2012, to Jane Fonda, with Robert Redford presenting it to her. Last year, it went to Seth Rogan and Lauren Miller Rogen in honor of their charitable work. Others who have received it over the years include Quincy Jones, Tiffany Haddish, Diane Warren and Forest Whitaker.
“We are excited to have Brandi Carlile as this year’s Visionary Awardee,” said Los Angeles Press Club President Danny Bakewell, Jr. “Her work is amazing and, during these troubling times, desperately needed. Topical songs like ‘The Joke,’ ‘Human’ and ‘Church & State’ have spoken to her vision for social justice, as well as providing a showcase for one of the great voices in contemporary music. Her eagerness to reach out has led her to collaborate closely with figures like Elton John and Joni Mitchell, but that spirit isn’t just reserved for her heroes; it’s her compassion for society’s underdogs that has most touched millions of listeners.”
Earlier in October, Carlile appeared at the Grammy Museum in L.A. for a conversation with Cameron Crowe and a full-band performance to mark the one-year anniversary of her eighth studio album, “Returning to Myself.” She just released a deluxe companion version of the album with all of the original tracks reimagined in stripped-down arrangements, archly titled “Returning to Myself (Sad Gay Version).” Carlile and her longtime band members Phil and Tim Hanseroth recently wrapped up their first headlining tour in U.S. arenas, named the “Human Tour” after one of the key songs on the latest album. In November, they will briefly move back into theaters for the immediately sold-out tour dubbed “Burn the Setlist (The All-Request Tour)” before resuming the “Human Tour” in Europe in early 2027.
On the philanthropic side, Carlile has dedicated a portion of her ticket sales to fund her grassroots organization, the Looking Out Foundation, which has granted more than $10 million to community-based nonprofit organizations working to support humanitarian causes across the globe. Carlile has bolstered these efforts through the creation of her wine club, XOBC Cellars, which was created in part to send proceeds to the Looking Out Foundation, “helping them to defend the rights and joys of refugees, immigrants, the LGBTQIA2S+ community and more.” Early in the “Human Tour,” she livestreamed “Be Human: A Concert for Minneapolis” (now viewable on YouTube), which raised over $750,000 for Minnesota’s The Advocates for Human Rights to help families and individuals affected by ICE.
