The 2025 Grammy Awards on Feb. 2 proved to be an evening filled with giving back to the Los Angeles community, and this was perhaps made no clearer than during the moments in between the actual awards ceremony.
When host Trevor Noah took audiences to commercial break, viewers at home were shown advertisements from four local L.A. businesses that were affected by the devastating wildfires that set the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods ablaze for much of January. The Recording Academy allotted them free airtime in an effort to help their businesses rebuild. Each advertisement also featured a cameo from a Grammy-nominated or -winning artist.
Sipoo Hearring and her Altadena-based martial arts studio, Two Dragons Martial Arts, was among the businesses featured during the telecast.
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Hearring, who was contacted by the Grammys, told Yahoo Entertainment she had “no clue” how the organization knew of her studio but felt “blessed” to be included. Once the commercial aired, the response within her community and beyond was immediate.
“Everybody is paying attention. Clicking onto the website, it’s wonderful. I am grateful and thankful about it. It was something you never would expect,” Hearring said. “It’s kind of like out of this disaster and horrible thing, the people rise to the occasion and become amazing. The human spirit is amazing.”
In the segment, Hearring, a skilled martial artist herself, takes down Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Puth, who interrupts her during the ad. While she was told that a surprise guest would be joining her on camera, Hearring had no idea it would be Puth until she saw him on location.
“It was a pleasure working with him. He’s a sweetheart,” she said. “He made me look good. I didn’t have a clue. I know how to do what I do, but I didn’t know how to get in front of a camera and do all of that, and he’s a natural. He made me relax. He made it easy for me.”
Two Dragons Martial Arts is one of the many businesses in Altadena that lost their physical location to the Eaton Fire, which is recognized as the second-most destructive wildfire in California history. Hearring first opened the studio in Pasadena 30 years ago with her husband, Steve. After he died, she moved to a location in Altadena. There she operated the business for 17 years until the fire struck.
Two Dragons Martial Arts studio during the Eaton Fire. (Sipoo Hearring)
“It was something I hadn’t thought about until my students made me aware that it was time to step up and speak, because I’m not one to get in front of cameras and do a lot of talking. I just do better at doing the work,” Hearring said of her decision to seize the Grammys opportunity. “When [my students] saw the studio burning down, they were crying and [were] just as sad as I was. Even my little ones. The parents that lost their homes said the kids didn’t cry as hard until they saw the studio going down.”
Added Hearring, “I just know that the building was a building, and the people, the spirits of all those people who came through the studio over the last 30 years, they’re what make up who I am.”
For the three other businesses featured during the Grammys telecast — Paliskates, a neighborhood skateboarding shop located in the Pacific Palisades; Orla Floral, a floral arrangements studio based in Altadena; and Rhythms of the Village, a West African apparel shop also in Altadena — the outpouring of support has been similar.
Avril Lavigne made a cameo in the Paliskates segment with the shop’s owner, Erica Simpson, to advocate for all the “skater boys and skater girls,” a nod to her 2002 Grammy-nominated track, “Sk8er Boi.”
Doja Cat, a Los Angeles native, appeared alongside Renata Ortega, Orla Floral’s founder, to encourage audiences to help the business bloom again. Ortega, who has since seen an influx in orders for arrangements, told Yahoo, “I would have never been able to revive this much exposure otherwise! I am beyond grateful.”
Anderson .Paak, who hails from from Oxnard, Calif., played the drums alongside Rhythms of the Village owners Emeka Chukwurah and, his father, Onochie Chukwurah, at a family gathering while wearing one of the store’s “Altadena” hoodies.
Though their physical locations are gone, local businesses, Hearring believes, are more than that. They’re about the neighborhood and the people you meet along the way.
“Most of my student body was in the neighborhood. They were neighborhood families, so they’ve lost everything along with us. We’re all in this situation, but we’re in it together, and we lift each other up,” she said. “[The fire] made me know that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
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