Winnipeg woman to reprise role as awards show seat-filler ... this time at the Grammys

Amanda Buhse's lucky streak has her headed back to southern California for the second time in less than a month.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur received an email last week notifying her that she had been selected as a seat-filler for the 66th Grammy Awards show at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The biggest night in music is Sunday, and Buhse will be there, sitting not too far from the likes of SZA, Luke Combs and Olivia Rodrigo.

"I'm completely honoured and humbled and I'm so grateful and I can't wait," Buhse said.

She applied to be a seat-filler at both the Grammys and Emmy Awards through a website for the past two years, but never received a congratulatory email until last month.

Buhse was selected as a last-minute seat-filler for the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, which were held on Jan. 15 in Los Angeles, and now she's excited and elated to be off to another free awards show.

"It's surreal. I had the incredible honour of attending the Emmy Awards just a few weeks ago. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. I didn't think I would have the opportunity to attend an event like that again," Buhse said. 

Buhse told CBC News she was one of 350 seat-fillers selected for the Grammys from a pool of roughly 30,000 applicants. She was the lone Canadian selected for the Emmys, but doesn't yet know if she's the only Canadian who was chosen for the Grammys.

Unlike packing her bags the night before the Emmys, Buhse had plenty of time to prepare and pack for her latest trip to Los Angeles.

"I have my flights and hotel booked. I have a dress that I've actually worn before to an event a few years ago, but I think it's the perfect kind of outfit for the Grammys," she said. "I'm very excited and I can't wait."

Buhse said the job of a seat-filler is to fill vacant seats in the first 10 rows of live awards shows when nominees or presenters are heading on stage, getting a drink or going to the washroom, so the audience looks full. Seat-fillers wait in the wings and rush in to fill the void during the commercial breaks.

"Basically, it's kind of like a game of celebrity musical chairs. You never know who you're going to be sitting next to. Sometimes [you're in] the same seat the whole evening, sometimes you're moving around every commercial break," Buhse said.

At the Emmys, she sat in the first and second rows at different times, and had the opportunity to rub shoulders with several celebrities.  

"Jessica Chastain was to my right. I got to sit next to Ali Wong when she won the Emmy for best actress. We discussed manicures and she was so lovely. Bill Hader was beside her, [and] there was Trevor Noah behind me after he won his Emmy. I said congratulations to Ru Paul," Buhse said.

"It was completely overwhelming and felt like a fever dream."

She was the seat-filler for Christina Applegate at the Emmys, someone Buhse has looked up to her whole life.

"So being able to be her seat-filler was just an honour and she was so kind.… Whenever she would come sit back down, I would usually sit behind her," Buhse said. "It was just unreal."

One of the rules of a seat-filler is not to initiate conversation with a celebrity. If a celebrity starts the conversation, talking is permitted, she said. 

Even though she has to pay for all the travel expenses, Buhse said the grandeur and experience of being there is worth it.

And if she had to pick just one of the two awards shows to attend, it'd have to be the Grammys.

"The Emmys was incredible but I think this is more special … because it's related to music. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.

She is looking forward to seeing Billie Eilish, Joni Mitchell and U2 perform and hopes to sit next to Harry Styles or Taylor Swift.