As the Grammy Awards prepares (and hopes) to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a history-making ceremony, there are growing fears that the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike may well crash the party and ruin the cake.

February 10 has long been meant to be an unforgettable day with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences celebrating 50 years of glorious existence of the Grammy Awards in the presence of myriad celebrities – but the party could turn out to be quite empty and the cake may be forgotten in a corner of the room.

The Golden Globes is the scary precedent on everyone’s lips – the traditionally star-packed glamorous show was turned into a modest news conference that failed to bring the impressive number of viewers from previous years in front of their TVs.

The Grammy show’s producers approached the Writers Guild of America Tuesday, requesting an interim waiver that would allow writers and other unionized Hollywood personnel to take part in the show and a decision is pending. As of now, it has not been decided that the Feb. 10 musical event will be picketed.

However, “CBS is a struck company, the show has writers and the writers are on strike,” WGA East’s Sherry Goldman has said. The Grammy Awards ceremony is scheduled to air live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

There are worries that musicians who are also members of the Screen Actors Guild, which supports the striking writers, will not show up. Absences from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah, Tim McGraw, Jon Bon Jovi, Barbra Streisand and Jack White, nominees who all have movie or TV credits, would mean some low star wattage.

Others who are known to support unions and will probably not cross the picket lines are, as USA Today notes, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, John Mellencamp, the Beastie Boys and others.

And while there isn’t much scripted talking going on during this specific awards ceremony, cutting down the number of performances, which actually makes the bulk of the event, would be tragic.

Grammy organizers have said that the show will go on even if striking writers picket the ceremony. Two major unions have expressed their support for the musical event of the year: the American Federation of Musicians and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said Tuesday that they support Grammy organizers and their petition for a waiver from the WGA.

“AFM and AFTRA strongly urge all of our members to support the important work of the Recording Academy by participating in the Grammy events,” a joint statement issued Tuesday read.

Neil Portnow, president and chief executive of the academy, said that only two of the 700 union workers employed for the show are WGA members.

The WGA has said granting a waiver to the Grammys would be “unlikely” but there is still time and reason to hope that this year’s cake will be tasty for all.