Judy Collins Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Leonard Cohen’s signature song, “Hallelujah,” had its journey to music immortality stopped almost at birth by a record executive. The chief of Cohen’s label, Columbia, vetoed the finished album containing the track in 1984 because he considered it unmarketable in the United States. 

Danny Kalb, who led the downtown blues scene in New York during the 1960s and 1970s as a guitarist with his band the Blues Project, died Saturday at a nursing home in Brooklyn where he lived. He was 80. His death was confirmed by his brother, Jonathan.

EXCLUSIVE: A five-part video and podcast series celebrating the life and career of Broadway composer Lucy Simon – one of the final projects the sister of Carly Simon worked on prior to her death last week – launches today on YouTube and the Broadway Podcast Network.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 1-7:May 1: Singer Judy Collins is 83. Actor Stephen Macht (“Suits,” ″General Hospital”) is 80. Singer Rita Coolidge is 77.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThere is exactly one person on earth who could be serenaded on his 90th birthday by (in order) Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Dionne Warwick, Kenny G, Art Garfunkel, Earth Wind & Fire, Bruce Springsteen and Alicia Keys — and have the whole evening capped off by a brilliant Mark Ronson-helmed “megamix” of great songs from across that birthday boy’s 60-plus-year career. The answer is so obvious we’re not even going to bother.Yes, Clive Davis’ 90th birthday party, held Wednesday night at the memorably named Cipriani South Street at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan, was truly one for the ages.

Musical stars lined up to pay homage to Joni Mitchell in Las Vegas on Friday evening, with the tireless artist and activist being named Person of the Year at the 2022 MusiCares gala.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Song Management has acquired the song catalog of Leonard Cohen, poet, novelist, performer and one of the most influential songwriters of the past 50 years. The Canadian-born artist, who died in 2016 at the age of 82, is an inductee of both the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.Hipgnosis has acquired rights in all 278 songs and derivatives written by Leonard Cohen, including “Hallelujah,” which has been covered more than 300 times.

NEW YORK -- When she was 24, folk singer Judy Collins went onstage in New York City to record her first live concert and maybe inspire social change. Last month, she returned to the same stage to do the whole thing again.Collins recreated her legendary concert hall debut at The Town Hall from March 21, 1964, recorded on the cusp of Freedom Summer.

The Hudson River sloop Clearwater, launched five decades ago by the folk icon Pete Seeger, has sailed through the storm of the pandemic with plans for a streaming music festival June 20 and a future of online environmental education and activism. One of Seeger’s greatest legacies and the flagship of one of the nation’s oldest music-rooted

Acclaimed British singer Rumer has recorded a new album full of tracks written by Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Hugh Prestwood.

Judy Collins earns her first career No. 1 on any Billboard chart, more than 55 years after she first reached a ranking.The legendary singer-songwriter's new holiday LP, Winter Stories, with Jonas Fjeld and featuring Chatham County Line, climbs 2-1 in its second week on the Bluegrass Albums chart (dated Dec.