Jem Aswad Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Weeknd doesn’t do anything by half, and for his “One Night Only” concert Saturday night at MorumBIS Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he rose to the moment with cameos from Anitta and Playboi Carti, a giant stage backlit with an enormous video screen that must have been 100 feet tall, dozens of (of course) blinding lights, a YouTube global livestream of the show, and the premieres of several new songs that are presumably from his forthcoming album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” The evening’s show was basically an evolution of the “After Hours Til Dawn” concert he brought to North America in 2022 and, in an updated form, to Europe last year: a huge, almost airport runway-like illuminated walkway extending from one end of the stadium floor to another, but with a a giant, temple-like two-story building in the middle, and an illuminated, cross-shaped stage at the opposite end of the walkway from the video screen. The battery of shrouded female dancers remained from the earlier phases of the tour, as did the stadium-filling light show and its state of the art lightshow, which flashed projected mostly white and red lights from multiple elevated areas of the stadium as well as the stage and runway.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It was technically a surprise performance, but nearly everyone who jammed into “Poppi World,” the soda brand’s pop-up shop in New York’s SoHo district on Friday night, knew what was coming: a performance from superstar New York rapper and “Power” star 50 Cent. The store, which is open through Sunday, was filled with a young (and expensively dressed) crowd as well as loads of celebrities: Emily Ratajkowski, Jasmine Tookes, Jake Shane, Camille Kostek, Devon Windsor, Brooks Nadar, Georgia Fowler, Leah Kateb, Emily Didonato, Kevin Love, Suni Lee, Patrick Ta, Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, Rebecca Minkoff, Maria Georgas, Kelsey Anderson, Serena Page, Kordell Beckham, Remi Bader, Monet McMichael, Michael Rainey, and others, according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music No sooner had Linkin Park announced Dead Sara singer Emily Armstrong as the reformed band’s new vocalist than a torrent of criticism emerged over her previous ties to the Church of Scientology and her past support of convicted rapist and actor Danny Masterson. Late Friday, she responded: “Hi, I’m Emily,” she wrote in an Instagram story post. “I’m new to so many of you, and I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fred Gibson was already a successful pop songwriter when his galvanizing trilogy of “Actual Life” albums began emerging in surprisingly rapid succession as the pandemic lifted. Released over just 18 months, the albums were a sort of living musical diary, filled with sophisticated dance/house/electronic-leaning sounds but also a sense of emotion and songcraft rare for the genre, which usually tends to be production-based more than song-based.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Just days after Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” hit No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, Island Records has promoted Jackie Winkler — who signed Carpenter to the label — senior vice president/ head of A&R, the company announced on Thursday. Based in Los Angeles, Winkler will report directly to Imran Majid and Justin Eshak, Co-CEOs of Island Records.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The estate of Ric Ocasek, cofounder and songwriter of the Cars, and Primary Wave Music have announced a new partnership that will see the company acquiring the late artist’s publishing catalog, including all of his songs from his stint with the Cars as well as his solo material — in addition to sharing name, image and likeness rights with the estate. The estate will have access to the company’s marketing team and publishing infrastructure, working closely on new marketing, branding, digital, and synch opportunities, as well as film & television projects. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Weeknd has announced that his forthcoming album, the last in his trilogy that began with the blockbuster “After Hours” and continued with “Dawn FM,” will be titled “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” The announcement is accompanied by a dramatic and seemingly self-questioning series of statements, filled with self-referential lines from his songs, accompanied by equally dramatic symphonic music. “Today has felt like an endless spin,” it reads. “I keep distorting the truth, immune to the dizziness, numb to the nausea.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In the latest move in an ongoing dispute, singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, who sold a catalog of his music to Hipgnosis Songs Fund in 2020, and Nevada-based Stiletto Entertainment have filed a lawsuit seeking $1.5 million in unpaid bonus funds in U.S. District Court in California.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Lady Gaga announced that she will be dropping the first single from her forthcoming seventh studio album in October. Gaga who arrived in Venice over the weekend ahead of the premiere of “Joker :Folie et Deux” teased the news in a new Instagram post.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Fresh from his rousing appearance at the Democratic National Convention, Stevie Wonder has dropped a song that couldn’t be more topical: “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.” The song follows the themes of his speech at the DNC, where he exhorted the crowd to get involved and seize the crucial moment that the country and the world find themselves in right now. “I know the importance of action,” Wonder, 74, said to the crowd.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Two years ago, on an idyllic summer night in Oslo, Norway, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were holding a revival. Ostensibly, it was the long-running group’s headlining set at the Oya Festival, but any Cave experience these days is much more than that.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The U.S recorded-music industry posted record revenue of $8.7 billion based on solid streaming and vinyl numbers, according to the RIAA’s mid-year report, but growth was just 4% — half of the 8% growth of 2023 — amid thousands of layoffs at labels, a leveling-off of the streaming boom and talk of a “transformational moment” in the months and years to come. Notable points include streaming comprising approximately 84% of total revenues for the fifth straight year, with $5.7 billion in paid subscriptions accounting for nearly two-thirds of total mid-year revenue and averaging 99 million plans, compared to 96.5 million in 2023.; however, subscription growth was down significantly from previous years, up just 2.5 million when compared year over year with 2023 (6.5 million), 2022 and 2021 (around 8 million each).

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Bronx-born jazz singer Samara Joy, who won the best new artist Grammy in 2023, will release her third full studio album, “Portrait,” on October 11th via Verve Records. The album, the follow up to her 2022 breakout album “Linger Awhile,” spotlights her not just as a singer but also as songwriter, arranger and band leader.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Bruce Springsteen has covered veteran New York rocker Jesse Malin’s song “She Don’t Love Me Now,” the latest single from the benefit album “Silver Patron Saints. The Songs of Jesse Malin.” The triple-vinyl album, which is out Sept. 20, on Glassnote Records, will benefit Malin’s Sweet Relief artist fund.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Donald Glover — aka Childish Gambino — makes you wait for it. He’ll be quiet for a year or two and you’ll idly wonder occasionally where’s he been, but then suddenly he’ll announce or even surprise-drop a wildly elaborate new album or a new season of “Atlanta” or a low-key film that happens to star Rihanna or, as was the case this year, two albums, a fully booked world tour and an accompanying film that we still don’t know much about, and probably won’t until he wants us to.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Theresa Chambers — a talent booker at the Mercury Lounge, Bowery Ballroom and other venues whose career reached back to Studio 54 days — died on Aug. 11, a representative for her family confirms to Variety. No cause of death was announced; she was 64.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Happy “Short n’ Sweet” day to all who celebrate! Sabrina Carpenter‘s highly anticipated sixth studio album is officially here and there’s already limited-edition physical releases that you’ll want to get your hands on before they sell out.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It would probably annoy the Hard Quartet — which features Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, Chavez/Superwolves’ Matt Sweeney, the Dirty Three’s Jim White and Bonnie Prince Billy/ Ty Segall alum Emmett Kelly — very much to be called and indie supergroup, but as the words above show, the shoe fits. The group has announced its eponymous debut album will be arriving Oct. 4 on Matador Records, and did so in supreme fashion with a video for “Rio’s Song” that almost perfectly mimics the Rolling Stones’ iconic 1981 clip for “Waiting on a Friend,” down to the same building and bar on St.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Benson Boone, Halsey, Lenny Kravitz and Blackpink’s Lisa are joining the roster of artists slated to perform at MTV’s 2024 VMAs live on Wednesday, September 11th at 8 p.m. ET/PT from New York’s UBS Arena. The quartet joins previously announced performers Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, GloRilla, Camila Cabello and Rauw Alejandro.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The T.J. Martell Foundation, a leading music industry nonprofit for cancer research, will honor Big Loud partner/CEO Seth England at its 49th Annual New York Honors Gala, taking place on September 17.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It’s hard to imagine a less likely setting for a Jelly Roll concert than Amagansett, which is basically part of the Hamptons, the seaside enclave on the eastern end of Long Island that has long been the flexy summer retreat for Manhattan’s ultra-moneyed elite. And although it was a specially invited audience of SiriusXM subscribers and superstars like Bradley Cooper, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Fallon, Shawn Levy, George Stephanopoulos, Fox 5 co-host Rosanna Scotto and at least one Real Housewife, there was a warmth to this plus-sized, heavily tattooed, deeply gracious and galvanizing artist’s performance that speaks not only to his raucous fusion of country, rock and hip-hop, but also his one-in-a-million ability to connect.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Saint Vitus Bar, the legendary Brooklyn heavy metal venue that has hosted countless up-and-coming bands as well as special club shows by Megadeth, Anthrax, Deafheaven, Killing Joke, Carcass, Against Me and, most famously, a “Nirvana reunion” that featured Joan Jett, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and St. Vincent and others playing with the band’s three surviving members, has permanently closed its longtime location in the borough’s Greenpoint neighborhood.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Maxie Solters, a publicist, writer, actor and producer well-known to the entertainment community, died unexpectedly on Thursday. No cause of death was announced; she was 37. Born in 1987 and raised in Sherman Oaks, California, Solters graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Theatre.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Ariana Grande and HeadCount — a leading nonpartisan nonprofit working to register young voters through its Good to Vote initiative — have launched a “Wicked” contest for her fans in an effort to increase voter registration among young people. The prize is: Two fans will be flown to the U.S. premiere of “Wicked,” the Grande-and-Cynthia-Erivo-starring big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, along with a full glam experience with Grande’s r.e.m.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Post Malone has made such a focused charm offensive on Nashville that it’s less a question of who is on his new, full-on country album “F-1 Trillion” than who isn’t: legends like Dolly Parton and Hank Williams Jr., vets like Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton, reigning chart champ Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs, virtuosos like Chris Stapleton and Bill Strings, relative newcomers Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson, and many others across the album’s sprawling 18 songs — just three of them aren’t duets (except for the nine solo bonus tracks that he surprise-dropped 12 hours after the album’s release). He’s leaned into the imagery of it all as well, with pickup trucks, beer and American flags in the video for the album’s chart-topping lead singlewithMorganWallen “I Had Some Help” and lyrical references about babes, booze, benders, cars, guns, cigarettes, booze, football, heartbreaks, speeding tickets, booze, cars, booze and more booze.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music News of a new Snoop Dogg–Dr. Dre collaborative album called “Missionary” has been dribbling out for the past couple of years, but Dr. Dre spoke revealed new information about it Wednesday in an interview with Entertainment Tonight following the pair’s appearance at the Olympics closing ceremony — including the fact that it includes a song featuring Sting.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music After a week full of teases the wait is over: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ duet, “Die With a Smile,” dropped on Thursday night and it’s as big a song as one would expect from this mega-tag-team. While the look for the video is ‘70s country, the song itself is a soulful ballad in the mold of Mars’ Soul Sonic project of 2021 — soaring vocals, a big chorus, gently strummed guitars and a sky-scraping climax on the final chorus. He takes the first verse and Gaga the second, and from there the two play off of each others’ powerful vocals.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As rumored, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars will drop a new song titled “Die With a Smile” tonight (Thursday, Aug. 15) at midnight ET / 9 p.m. PT, Gaga announced on social media Thursday.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, announced that its Spirit of Life Gala will include a headlining performance by Elton John. Taking place on Oct.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Usher has postponed the opening night of his “Past Present Future” tour in his home base of Atlanta, he announced on social media Wednesday. He wrote that he needs to “give my body time to rest and heal,” although he did not specify the nature of his ailment and wrote on Monday, “ATL, I’m coming home. Night 1 of #PPF is 2 days away.” A rep for the singer did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for further information.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Following the release of her third studio album, “Sugar Honey Iced Tea,” Grammy-nominated rapper Latto has announced the dates for her first North American headlining run, titled, naturally enough, the “Sugar Honey Iced Tea” tour. Mariah the Scientist and Karrahbooo support on all dates.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Meta — home to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more — and Universal Music Group have announced an “expanded global, multi-year agreement that will further evolve the creative and commercial opportunities” for UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters across Meta’s network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and, for the first time, WhatsApp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the announcement says the new agreement “reflects the two companies’ shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly,” and notes that the companies will continue working together to “address, among other things, unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters.” It also notes that the new agreement “expands monetization opportunities for UMG, and its artists and songwriters,” including short form video.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Former President Donald Trump has a long history of using popular songs at his campaign rallies without authorization — by the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Linkin Park and even Celine Dion — many of which have titles or meanings that hardly seem to imply victory, like “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and, in the current case in point, “My Heart Will Go On,” Celine Dion’s theme song from the 1997 film “Titanic,” in which thousands of people die on a sinking luxury liner.Trump campaign plays the theme from the Titanic at his rally pic.twitter.com/lspVW1hA5I While Trump has used the song at rallies in the past, in Montana on Friday night he used a video of Dion singing the song as well — which brings in a raft of legal issues beyond the standard use of a song at a rally. On Saturday, Dion disavowed any endorsement of his campaign and questioned the choice of the song, which for millions evokes the tragedy of the Titanic and, in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s dying character sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music A new festival called Worlds Away, featuring Tiesto, the Chainsmokeers Lauv and others, will take place on Oct. 12 at the historic Monterey County Fairgrounds, home of the legendary Monterey Pop Festival of 1967, event producers Pendulum have announced. Other performers include R3HAB, Sam Feldt, Lost Kings, and Ayokay, with more to be announced.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Warner Music Group saw its stock rise as much as 6% on Wednesday morning after reporting strong growth in streaming and publishing despite dips in sales of merch and physical product. Net profit for the quarter was up almost 14% to $141 million from $124 million in the same period last year, while digital revenue was up 4.7% and streaming 5.5% over the same period last year, with subscription revenue rising 7%. Revenue from WMG’s music publishing division rose by 8% to $305 million from $283 million in the year-ago quarter.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Atlantic Group chairman Julie Greenwald will exit the company entirely at the end of January, sources confirm to Variety. While the executive, who has been with Atlantic for 20 years, was expected to remain at the company as chairman after incoming CEO Elliot Grainge takes his post in October, she announced her decision to leave at a staff meeting on Tuesday. The news was first reported by Hits.