Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino Posts Open Letter Promising Greater Diversity (Read)

Michele Amabile Angermiller More than 700 members of the U.K.

Michael Gelman is remembering Regis Philbin. Gelman, a longtime producer of that makes frequent appearances on the show, pens a tributein honor of the late morning show host.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorInterPublic Group CEO Michael Roth said the company will occupy less office space because of COVID-19.“The footprint of the agency business is going to change,” he said during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday. “Period.”Already, the parent company of McCann, Weber Shandwick and dozens of other media companies has eliminated 500,000 square feet from its global total of about 11 million, Roth said.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA tearful Megan Thee Stallion took to Instagram Live on Monday afternoon to thank her fans, assail her haters and speak briefly about the July 12 incident during which she says she was shot in her feet. On that night, she and another woman were in a car with rapper Tory Lanez when he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.

A woman is in hospital with life-changing injuries after a late-night collision in Stockport.A white Vauxhall Astra was travelling south-east along London Road, in Hazel Grove, when it collided with a pedestrian close to the junction with Queen’s Road, police say.The pedestrian, a 28-year-old woman, was taken to hospital where she is receiving treatment for life-changing injuries.The driver, a man aged 20, remained at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNot surprisingly, Taylor Swift’s excellent surprise album has huffed up most of the oxygen on this mid-summer day — and Kanye West’s album will probably do the same, whenever he actually finishes it — but that’s all we’re going to say about them because this week saw an absolute avalanche of great new songs — and even two new songs by the Avalanches.It was a very difficult week to narrow the list down to five, so with a shout-out to the runners up — songs by Reese

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPandora has announced a new virtual concert series, which kicks off with country artist Kane Brown on July 28.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile Taylor Swift always has a group of collaborators on her albums, there’s usually one chief wingman, whether it was Nathan Chapman, Max Martin and Shellback, or, as on her last pair of albums, Jack Antonoff.But for her surprise-announced eighth album “Folklore,” which drops tonight, it’s apparently Aaron Dessner of the long-running Brooklyn-based band The National, who co-wrote and produced 11 of the project’s 16 tracks.Although well-known to alternative music

Naman Ramachandran Albums by Stormzy, Dua Lipa, Laura Marling and Michael Kiwanuka have been nominated for the 2020 Mercury Prize, one of the most coveted awards in the U.K.Other nominees for the £25,000 ($31,700) prize include Anna Meredith, Charli XCX, Georgia, Kano, Lanterns on the Lake, Moses Boyd, Porridge Radio and Sports Team.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDave Grohl has spoken out in defense of teachers as the Trump administration continues its “daunting and evermore politicized question of reopening our schools in the coronavirus pandemic.”In the first audio version of the Foo Fighters founder’s “Dave’s True Stories” series, Grohl — whose mother (pictured with him above) was a public school teacher — says:“Every teacher has a ‘plan.’ Don’t they deserve one too? My mother had to come up with three separate lesson

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterLive Nation Philadelphia, in partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies, has announced plans for a four-week local drive-in concert series coming to the parking lot of Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies.The Live-In / Drive-In Concert Series presented by Budweiser Zero kicks off on Sunday, August 16 with comedian Bert Kreischer, and will continue with a variety of music artists through Labor Day Weekend.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLily Cornell Silver, daughter of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and the group’s former manager Susan Silver, launches her IGTV series “Mind Wide Open” today (July 20) in honor of her late father’s 56th birthday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMegan Thee Stallion has issued another statement around the incident last weekend in which she says she “suffered gunshot wounds as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.”“Black women are so unprotected & we hold so many things in to protect the feelings of others w/o considering our own,” she wrote on Twitter.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor years many observers have said that the Recording Academy president/CEO role was too big for a single person, and the organization on Friday announced the creation of two key senior leadership positions — chief operating officer and chief industry officer — amid a larger staff reorganization.According to the announcement, key features of the reorganization are the streamlining of most of the Academy’s staff into three divisions:  the Entertainment / Consumer

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn July 9, the same day that Live Nation Entertainment was sued by a furloughed executive claiming race and gender discrimination, the company’s CEO Michael Rapino posted an open letter to employees across the world promising greater diversity in the years to come, along with a $10 million investment to “focus on developing, promoting and hiring Black and underrepresented talent.”With 2025 as a target date, the document pledges to double the overall percentage of

Chris Willman Music WriterLive Nation Entertainment has been sued by a former executive, Candace Newman, who alleges that she was retaliated against for complaining about race and gender discrimination in the workplace, then unfairly furloughed with coronavirus-related cuts being cited as the excuse.“This case epitomizes the issue at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement — systemic racism,” the lawsuit contends right at the outset.In the suit, which was filed Wednesday in L.A.

Earlier this month, Live Nation U.K. and the virtual reality company MelodyVR partnered on Wireless Connect, a virtual version of London’s long-running Wireless Festival that featured 360-degree VR performances from 70 artists out of London and L.A., drawing over 132,000 fans from more than 34 countries. Now, the companies have announced an expansion of that partnership with Live From O2 Academy Brixton, a new experience that will allow artists to connect with fans via one-off VR concerts.