Luther Vandross Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan selling their catalogs for $600 million, Genesis and Phil Collins for $300 million, Stevie Nicks for $100 million — over the past few years dozens of artists have sold the rights to their music catalogs for eight or nine figures. There are all kinds of reasons why this is happening: Artists are getting older and are basically estate planning, the pandemic proved that copyrights can be a great investment, and the booming market is bringing more and more buyers and sellers to the table. But what do you do with that catalog once you’ve bought it? The old approach was to basically to sit and wait for the songs to make money — through radio, sales, use in films or TV shows or advertising campaigns, Broadway shows and lots of other ways.

Angelique Jackson The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has set its lineup of narrative and documentary features for its 28th edition, including Jussie Smollett’s return to acting in “The Lost Holliday,” filmmaker Christine Swanson’s latest drama “Albany Road” and the acclaimed Luther Vandross doc “Never Too Much.” This year’s festival takes place June 12-16 in Miami Beach, Fla., followed by a virtual segment June 17-24 on ABFF PLAY. Winners of film festival competition will be announced on June 15, during the “Best of ABFF Awards” hosted by Emmy-nominee Dondré Whitfield.

Storied docs producer Dawn Porter has said private funding in the documentary space could help plug financial gaps that have opened up in today’s challenging market.

Addie Morfoot Contributor MipDoc keynote speaker Dawn Porter is coming to Cannes to discuss not only the challenging doc marketplace, but also how to work and prosper within it. In the last few years the doc industry has favored a handful of big-name filmmakers, like Porter, who are commissioned to make one-off films or docuseries. Over the last 12 months two of Porter’s docus were released: “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court” which was financed and distributed by Showtime and “The Lady Bird Diaries,” which was financed and distributed by Hulu/ABC News.

Madonna is making a correction to one part of her tour!

Madonna has removed an image of Luther Vandross from the AIDS tribute section of her ongoing ‘Celebration’ tour.The moment came during a recent show as part of her world tour, which includes a section paying tribute to those who have died of AIDS-related illnesses. For the segment, pictures of famous faces such as Herb Ritts, Freddie Mercury and artist Keith Haring are shown, as the singer performs her 1986 song ‘Live To Tell’.However, during her show in Sacramento on Saturday (February 24), a photograph of Luther Vandross was also included in the tribute, despite his cause of death not being related to AIDS.In response, the estate of the late singer – who was famed for tracks including ‘Never Too Much’ and ‘Endless Love’ – have reached out to the pop star and requested to have his image taken down from the tribute.“Luther Vandross passed away in 2005 due to complications from a stroke suffered two years earlier,” a spokesperson from Luther’s estate told Page Six.

Whitney Houston.Every time I hear someone on “American Idol” or “The Voice” attempt the impossible by singing one of her songs.Every time I hear “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” in a bar or club and watch generations of women and men — both gay and straight — shimmy and sing at the top of their lungs.And every Grammys since I was there in Los Angeles that weekend when she shockingly passed — at age 48 — the day before music’s biggest night on Feb. 11, 2012.But perhaps I miss Houston the most every single time that someone steps up to the mic to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl.

Luther Vandross‘ voice was the soundtrack of many Black millennial childhoods. Personally, I would wake up every Sunday to church music followed by his hit single “Never Too Much” which still stops most people in their tracks to this day. In the documentary, Luther: Never Too Much, director Dawn Porter chronicles a his journey to stardom and how he manifested the career he desired.

“This documentary is just to try and get some of the information down on film somewhere, before it’ll scatters away,” admits Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh of the documentary about the band that premieres at the Sundance Film Festival tonight. “I just like the idea that this information is being collected,” the front man adds.

Todd Gilchrist editor Although it isn’t structured any differently from dozens of other cradle-to-grave documentaries about artistic luminaries, “Luther: Never Too Much” sheds light on much more than just the life and career of R&B singer Luther Vandross. Drawn largely from interview and performance footage of Vandross over his almost 40 years in entertainment, and bolstered and contextualized by retrospective talks will collaborators and confidantes, director Dawn Porter’s film exposes some uneasy truths about the music industry and the media we may now know, but whose seeming ubiquitousness at the time he was alive may be difficult to fully comprehend.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Given the current dismal political and cultural climate as well as streaming services’ massive appetite for celebrity driven content, it comes as no surprise that the 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival is chock full of portrait documentaries. Frida Kahlo, Christopher Reeve, Luther Vandross and Tammy Faye are just a few of the boldface names that are being examined in various docus featured in the Sundance nonfiction lineup. The festival is no stranger to star-driven docus.

Todd Gilchrist editor Great Christmas songs, and great versions of great Christmas songs, are as plentiful as letters to Santa Claus. It’s the holiday for which various-artists compilations were seemingly created (and why the two-disc set “Now That’s What I Call Christmas” was certified 6x platinum just three years after its 2001 release).

Scots DJ Calvin Harris and Radio 1's Vick Hope tied the knot over the weekend at a glamorous bash surrounded by some of their A-lister pals.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In a rare move apparently themed for Labor Day, Bad Boy Records founder Sean “Diddy” Combs has “decided to reassign his Bad Boy publishing rights back to all Bad Boy artists and writers who helped build Bad Boy into the powerhouse it is today,” a source close to the situation confirmed to Variety on Monday. The artists in question include the Notorious B.I.G.’s estate, Faith Evans, Ma$e, the Lox, 112 and “many more” unspecified creators.

The Bee Gees, The Go-Go’s, David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, Louis Armstrong, the Velvet Underground, and Tina Turner have something more in common than just musical greatness. They’ll all been the subject of recent documentaries, part of an explosion in popularity of the nonfiction genre.

DJ Cassidy — already underage at 18, but looking “like I was 8” — got his big break on one slow, rainy night at the club Lotus in NYC’s Meatpacking District.That was back when there was more beef than beats in the neighborhood’s nascent nightlife days, and, that night, there was a certain hip-hop mogul — Sean “Puffy” Combs — in the house as Cassidy was filling the largely empty space with the soulful sounds of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Luther Vandross.“And so Puffy goes to the floor and essentially dances by himself for two hours,” the now 42-year-old DJ — who will headline Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall with his “Pass the Mic Live!” concert on Friday — told The Post.“At 5 in the morning on the way out, he walks by the DJ booth … and he wrote down his name and number on a napkin and said, ‘Call me tomorrow.’ ” And when he talked on the phone to Combs the next day, Cassidy Podell got “the greatest compliment I’ve ever received.”“He goes, ‘How do you know how to play all those records like that?’ And I said, ‘Like what?’ And he goes, ‘Like you lived it.’ ”A white, Jewish kid from the Upper East Side, Cassidy was too young to have heard many of the black classics he was spinning when they were first released.But with his signature mix of old-school R&B and hip-hop, DJ Cassidy would go on to become spinner to the stars — from Puffy and Jay-Z to Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez — as well as rock the White House at not one but two presidential inaugurations for Barack Obama.Now a star in his own right, he looks every bit the part in a custom-made pink suit ahead of his “Pass the Mic Live!” show on Friday at Radio City.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Primary Wave Music has struck a partnership with multiple Grammy and Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan that sees the company acquiring a majority stake in her songwriting and recorded-music catalog. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it includes such hits as “Angel,” “I Will Remember You,” “Hold On,” and more. Following the success of her 1993 breakthrough album, “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” the singer has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, received three Grammy Awards and twelve Juno Awards and has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Lea Michele and Darren Criss duet on “Suddenly, Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors, Alanis Morissette and Cara Delevingne go “Ironic” and Cedric The Entertainer and Sheryl Lee Ralph do their best Luther Vandross in a new trailer for upcoming episodes of Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

Emmerdale's Kevin Mathurin left Lorraine viewers stunned as he revealed a secret connection to legendary singer Diana Ross while appearing on Wednesday morning's episode. The actor, who plays vicar Charles Anderson on the long-running ITV soap, revealed the surprising connection as he discussed his dancing career with host Lorraine Kelly.

Plugg pioneer Tony Shhnow has announced a new album titled Love Streaks, coming April 28. He shared the news today (March 16) along with the project’s lead single, “ILY / IH8U.” The new track is short, sweet, and as paradoxical as its title suggests — just over 90 seconds and constantly swerving between opposite emotional poles. “I can’t pick and choose,” the Atlanta emcee raps on the song’s first and only verse, which lasts less than half a minute.

Chaka Khan isn’t holding back when it comes to voicing her thoughts on that Rolling Stone “200 Greatest Singers Of All Time” list.

Thania Garcia Lyricist and composer Paul Williams will be honored by the 13th annual Guild of Music Supervisors awards with the 2023 Icon award at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on March 5. The awards show will also be posthumously honoring former Sony Pictures Entertainment senior VP and music supervisor, Pilar McCurry. Williams’ standards have been recorded by such decorated artists as Ray Charles, David Bowie, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, the Carpenters, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Luther Vandross and Willie Nelson, among others. He’s previously been recognized with six Oscars, nine Grammys, six Golden Globes, and two Emmy nominations.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Drake, arguably the biggest rapper in the world, will play a special concert at the legenday Apollo Theater in New York’s Harlem neighborhood that will be broadcast on SiriusXM, he and the network announced on Tuesday. Details on the show were slim — “Drake will perform at the world-famous Apollo Theater in New York. The exclusive SiriusXM concert marks the first time that Drake will perform at the iconic theater,” the announcement reads — but the concert will be the latest in a long series of special, intimate gigs the network has staged at the 1,500-capacity venue. Fans should head here to score tickets, but act fast.

Yousef Srour Freddie Gibbs is “The Mack” of hip-hop — hunched over a grand piano, two ice cubes in his old fashioned, white dress shirt unbuttoned to his torso, Big Boss Rabbit chain glistening across his neck. Slightly off-tune on purpose, he croons classic soul songs, from The Jackson Five’s “One More Chance” to Stan Smith’s “Stay With Me” to TLC’s “Waterfalls,” but there’s one exception: he wrote them. “Oooh, baby give me one more chance” transforms into “Oooh, baby give me one more gram,” as Gibbs gives them the Freddie Corleone treatment. In tandem with the emergence of Blaxploitation films in the early 1970s, artists among the likes of Richard Pryor and Ron O’Neal have lent their hand as the comedic relief to tales of pimps and gangsters, dealing crack to their respective communities. Freddie wants you to ask yourself: “Is it entertainment or is it an autobiography?” Blurring the line between fact and fiction, “Soul Sold Separately” finds Freddie Gibbs on the Kane Train once again, running hijinks, opening fire and selling cocaine at the $$$ Casino.

“Hold On to the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting” — as well as hits for everyone from ’N Sync (“This I Promise You”) to Luther Vandross (“Dance with My Father”).But even he had to defer to one legendary tunesmith on his new album, “Songwriter,” out Friday. That would be Burt Bacharach — the 94-year-old composer behind classics such as “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”“I’m supposed to go to his house to write with him.

Jonathan Cohen Todd Fancey’s vocals have been heard by millions, as the multi-instrumentalist for the New Pornographers and as the balladeer behind “That One Night,” the song that’s central to what is arguably the most cringe episode of “The Office,” 2008’s “Dinner Party.” The hilarious, earnestly yearning delivery isn’t all that true to Fancey’s artistry, though his new album, “Star Dreams” (out today), nods to the year 1980, which also saw the release of Benny Mardones’ “Into the Night,” a Yacht Rock classic not dissimilar in sentiment.  The 10-track album under the banner Fancey was co-produced by Vancouver music veteran Allan Rodger and sports contributions from vocalist Micae and New Pornographers drummer Joe Seiders, who traded his sticks for the Yamaha DX-7 electric piano/synthesizer. That instrument’s preset sounds found their way into some of the ‘80s biggest songs by Whitney Houston, Kenny Loggins and Luther Vandross, a vibe enhanced on “Star Dreams” by the use of the Korg Poly synth and the Oberheim drum machine.“This album probably still sounds ‘70s-ish because I can’t really help myself,” Fancey confesses to Variety.

Da Brat is married!

Da Brat is married!The rapper married her fiancée, Jesseca «Judy» Dupart, at Horse Mansion in Georgia on Tuesday in a fairy-tale wedding, complete with a horse and carriage. One hundred guests were in attendance for the event, including Eva Marcille, Porsha Williams and Kandi Burruss.According to, both Da Brat and Dupart arrived at the ceremony in Cinderella-esque horse-drawn carriages. They then walked down the aisle together to «Here and Now» by Luther Vandross.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music has expanded its partnership with long-running British group and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Def Leppard.The deal will see the company acquire an additional stake in the band’s music publishing catalog as well as master royalty income stream.Terms of the deal were not disclosed; many of the band’s biggest hits are included in deal, such as “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph.”The band’s repertoire includes 11 studio albums, which have sold more than 110 million copies globally.The relationship between Primary Wave and Def Leppard began in 2009 with a deal to market and administer the band’s catalog of songs. Over the years the songs have been synced on a number of television shows, including “Cobra Kai,” “Hit the Floor,” “The Simpsons Guy,” “American Horror Story 1984” and more.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJackson Browne and Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna cofounder Jorma Kaukonen will headline a star-packed lineup of artists at a benefit for the non-partisan voters’ rights non-profit Headcount, to be held at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y.

Primary Wave Music has signed a new deal with the Luther Vandross estate, which sees it acquire a stake in various rights in the late musician’s music and likeness.The music company already worked with the estate, and following this deal now owns a portion of Vandross’s publishing catalogue, recording revenues, and name and likeness rights.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe estate of legendary R&B singer Luther Vandross has struck a wide-ranging partnership with Primary Wave Music that sees the company acquiring a stake in the late artist’s publishing, master recording income stream, and name and likeness rights.

The Battle Rounds are wrapping up on season 21 of “The Voice”, but they ended with a show-stopping steal!

, but they ended with a show-stopping steal!The final performance of the Battles on Tuesday featured two Team Legend powerhouses — Paris Winningham and Jonathan Mouton — teaming up for a pitch-perfect performance of Luther Vandross' «Here and Now.»The duo's rendition was stunning and perfectly in sync, earning standing ovations from John Legend and all three of his fellow coaches.«Y'all are so evenly matched,» Kelly Clarkson raved to Jonathan and Paris.

“Renaissance Man” guest embodies that spirit from her oozing self-confidence to her taste in music. Actress and singer Mj Rodriguez is only 30, but her musical roots suggest someone born in a much earlier decade.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLuther Vandross was one of the greatest singers — not just R&B singers — of the past 50 years, and Google has fittingly paid tribute to him with an original Google Doodle animation.