Brandi Carlile to Receive Los Angeles Press Club’s Visionary Award

By Elena Vasquez

The Los Angeles Press Club will present Brandi Carlile with its annual Visionary Award for Humanitarian Work on Dec. 6 at downtown L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore.

The award forms part of the dinner and awards show in the Millennium Biltmore’s historic Crystal Ballroom, where about 800 working journalists and guests will gather, according to the club. The club said competitive awards will recognize reporters, critics and photographers covering the arts. It will also present a handful of lifetime achievement honors for major arts figures and journalists.

What does Carlile’s honor recognize?

Los Angeles Press Club President Danny Bakewell, Jr. said: “We are excited to have Brandi Carlile as this year’s Visionary Awardee. Her work is amazing and, during these troubling times, desperately needed.”

Bakewell connected “The Joke,” “Human” and “Church & State” to Carlile’s vision for social justice. He described her as one of the great voices in contemporary music. He praised her close collaborations with Elton John and Joni Mitchell. Bakewell said that impulse extends beyond those musical heroes to society’s underdogs, whose cause touched millions of listeners.

The Press Club’s history lists:

• 2012: Jane Fonda received the first Visionary Award at the National A&E Journalism Awards Gala from Robert Redford.
• Last year: Seth Rogan and Lauren Miller Rogen received it for charitable work.
• Previous recipients include Quincy Jones, Tiffany Haddish, Diane Warren and Forest Whitaker.

Carlile’s award recognizes humanitarian work alongside a career built around social justice.

Who shares the December stage?

The Press Club said Madeleine Brand will receive KCRW’s Luminary Award for Career Achievement in Media at the same dinner. Brand has hosted the station’s popular “Press Play” since 2014. Her public-radio career now exceeds three decades.

The club will announce other honorees in the coming days. The ceremony pairs a major musician’s humanitarian honor with a media career award.

How does Carlile turn ticket sales into aid?

The Press Club reported that Carlile dedicates a portion of her ticket sales to the Looking Out Foundation, her grassroots organization. The foundation has made more than $10 million in cumulative grants to community-based nonprofit organizations supporting humanitarian causes across the globe.

Carlile also created the XOBC Cellars wine club in part to send proceeds to the Looking Out Foundation. The Press Club said the arrangement supports the organization, “helping them to defend the rights and joys of refugees, immigrants, the LGBTQIA2S+ community and more.”

Early in the “Human Tour,” Carlile livestreamed “Be Human: A Concert for Minneapolis,” now viewable on YouTube. One streamed benefit raised over $750,000—more than three-quarters of a million dollars—for Minnesota’s The Advocates for Human Rights. The Press Club said the money helps families and individuals affected by ICE.

Carlile’s giving links ticket revenue, wine proceeds and concert income to one foundation.

What comes next for Carlile?

Earlier in October, Carlile appeared at the Grammy Museum in L.A. for a conversation with Cameron Crowe, according to the Press Club. She performed with a full band to mark the one-year anniversary of her eighth studio album, “Returning to Myself.”

The announcement said she has just released a deluxe companion version of the album. All original tracks appear in stripped-down arrangements under the archly titled “Returning to Myself (Sad Gay Version).”

Carlile and longtime band members Phil and Tim Hanseroth recently completed their first headlining tour of U.S. arenas. The Press Club said the “Human Tour” took its name from “Human,” a key song on the latest album.

In November, the group will return briefly to theaters for the immediately sold-out “Burn the Setlist (The All-Request Tour).” The “Human Tour” resumes in Europe in early 2027, according to the Press Club.

Carlile’s next sequence combines the immediately sold-out November tour with the Dec. 6 gala and the Human Tour’s European return in early 2027.