Ray Charles Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Freddie Mercury, Elvis and Ray Charles are few of the cultural superstars who were once the focus of biopic films, and they certainly will not be the last. Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese is once again drumming up chatter surrounding himself and Academy Award winner and film frontman Leonardo DiCaprio.The "Shutter Island" actor is rumored to play Frank Sinatra, one of the most highly regarded American singers of all time, in an upcoming biopic by Scorsese.

Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to score a Number One country album with ‘Cowboy Carter’ in the US charts.The music icon’s new country-inspired album has topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums, making history in the process as the first Black woman ever to do so, as revealed yesterday (April 7).The new record also debuted at Number One, her eighth album to top the Billboard 200 charts.Billboard revealed that, at 407,000 units, ‘Cowboy Carter’ claimed the biggest week of 2024 so far and the largest since Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ reached 1.653 million units on the November 11, 2023 list back in October.‘Cowboy Carter’ also scored other achievements including Beyoncé’s biggest week by units since ‘Lemonade’ debuted at Number One with 653,000 units in 2016.The achievement follows a similar feat back in February when Beyoncé became the first Black woman to reach Number One on the US country chart with her new single ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’.She also became the second solo female act – with no accompanying featured artists – to debut at Number One, with Swift achieving this in 2021 with her re-recorded versions of ‘Love Story’ and ‘All Too Well’.Additionally, Beyoncé was announced as the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since these run-downs began in 1958.

Thania Garcia Just one week after Beyoncé became the first Black woman to lead Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with her twangy “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the single now reigns over the publication’s all-genre-inclusive Hot 100 songs list. “Texas Hold ‘Em,” along with the single “16 Carriages,” was released during the Super Bowl and later debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 2.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Beyoncé is part of a great tradition of artists from the pop, R&B and rock worlds stepping into the realm of country music, whether it’s for one record or, in occasional instances, a whole career shift. Of course, none of her predecessors made immediate international headlines by releasing a country single, the way Bey did with “Texas Hold ‘Em” (and its companion song, “16 Carriages”).

Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to reach Number One on the US country chart with her new single ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’.The singer released the song earlier this month when announcing her eighth studio album ‘Renaissance Act II’, which is due to arrive on March 29. She also shared the track ’16 Carriages’ from the upcoming record.Now, ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ has topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart – making Bey the first Black female artist to achieve this feat.She is also the second solo female act – with no accompanying featured artists – to debut at Number One, with Taylor Swift achieving this in 2021 with her re-recorded versions of ‘Love Story’ and ‘All Too Well’.Additionally, Beyoncé is the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since these run-downs began in 1958.

Beyoncé continues to break barriers.

Thania Garcia Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Vultures” is the No. 1 album in the United States this week despite the 16-song set getting major pushback from streaming platforms for West’s antisemitic behavior. The album was temporarily removed from streaming services just a few days after its release on Feb.

according to Billboard.The deal would also be the biggest ever for the work of a single musician, the BBC reported.Jackson, who died in 2009, remains immensely popular on music streaming services like Spotify, where he averages 40 million monthly listeners.Just two of his countless hits, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” have each been played more than one billion times on Spotify alone, according to the BBC.The deal comes just as an upcoming biopic about Jackson’s life and career starring his nephew is set to hit the big screen next year.The deal also reportedly includes tracks by other artists that had been acquired by Jackson’s Mijac publishing group — including hit songs by Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, the BBC reported.The Jackson deal is as big or bigger than the $1.2 billion deal sought by Queen, which includes royalties for streams and other uses like the Freddy Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” and theatrical productions, according to Billboard.Sony’s deal with Jackson’s estate does not include royalties from the Broadway play and other theatrical productions featuring his music, the outlet reported.Sony paid $100 million in 1991 to buy the first half of what became Sony/ATV— ATV being the catalog that Jackson purchased in 1985 that included the Beatles catalog, according to Billboard.

Jay-Z has got the nerves bad.In fact, the 45-year-old pop superstar — who was recruited by Jay-Z and his Roc Nation company to headline the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show on Sunday — defended the 54-year-old rapper for his tense takedown of the Grammys on music’s biggest night last Sunday.“I think I like a nervous Jay-Z more than anything. That’s what it told me,” Usher told The Post about the hip-hop mogul’s speech when he was accepting the Dr.

“We Are the World,” the historic 1985 charity single — where even Bob Dylan was intimidated by the star-studded session.Surrounded by everyone from Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Paul Simon to Tina Turner, Willie Nelson and Billy Joel, the Bard was clearly out of sorts — and out of his element.But it took one particular legend to help another one find his solo mojo.“The secret agent to help him get comfortable was Stevie Wonder,” says David Breskin — one of two journalists invited by producer Quincy Jones to cover the momentous occasion — in the documentary. “Stevie is an insanely great mimic,” continues Breskin, explaining how the R&B master used his special talents to help the folk god: “Stevie sang it ventriloquially in Dylan’s voice.”It’s a dead-on impression that impresses even Dylan, who — in the only time the room is cleared to give one artist his space — finally nails his part.Such is the spirit of unity that — against all odds and egos — pulled together the recording of “We Are the World” on Jan.

“I didn’t really know much about the making of the song,” admits The Greatest Night in Pop director Bao Nguyen of 1985’s star-studded Ethiopian famine relief hit “We Are the World.” “You just make these assumptions about how things are made because it just happens. But when you think now of 46 great artists getting together to make that, it would be really impossible for that to happen now.”

Todd Gilchrist editor At 90, Quincy Jones has accomplished enough for a dozen lifetimes. As a songwriter, composer, performer and producer, he’s collaborated with (and created) some of the biggest acts of all time, from Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.

We got a chance to catch up with Chicago P.D.‘s LaRoyce Hawkins!

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in “Wham!,” the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days. The year is 1983. Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, coming off their first album, “Fantastic” (which had a few hits, though none of them were great), have established Wham! as an effective lightweight pop machine, with its two young stars prancing around the stage in sexy sportswear. The time has come to record “Careless Whisper,” a song they’ve had in their back pocket for several years (we hear the super-early demo version of it that they recorded in 1981 in Ridgeley’s living room on a TEAC 4-track Portastudio). Michael has become enough of a powerhouse to hook up with Jerry Wexler, the legendary producer of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. He heads down to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to record the track, with Wexler producing. What more could a 20-year-old budding pop star want?

Brent Lang Executive Editor Connecticut is set to declare Sunday, April 23, 2023 as “Little Richard Day” in honor of the late performer’s “incomparable contributions to the history of music in America.” And no, the rock n’ roll icon doesn’t hail from the Nutmeg state. He was born in Georgia and lived in California, Tennessee and other ports of call until his death in 2020. Rather, Gov. Ned Lamont is issuing the proclamation in recognition of the release this month of “Little Richard: I Am Everything” and Connecticut’s many ties to the production. The film, which Magnolia bought out of the Sundance Film Festival, will premiere at the Bedford Playhouse, which is hosted by the Greenwich International Film Festival on April 23. It was produced by Greenwich International Film Festival board member Robert Friedman and produced and directed by Lisa Cortés, a Connecticut native and an alumna of Yale University.

Justin Bieber sold his catalog to Hipgnosis for $200 million, the largest deal for any artist in his generation. McLaughlan most certainly received less than the $500 million Bruce Springsteen pocketed in his catalog sale to Sony, but the deal nevertheless reflects the continued appetite for music rights.The flood of sales reflects wholesale changes in the music industry that make it more difficult for performers to earn from releasing recordings amid the shift to streaming.

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.

Lily Moayeri After more than 65 years, Los Angeles’ legendary United Recording Studios, where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, as well as the Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, Jay-Z, Green Day, and more recently, Paramore and Kendrick Lamar have recorded, is retooling its operations — to the detriment of its storied history as “the Abbey Road of the West,” not to mention its employees. Starting April 3, the studio will require “longer minimum booking lengths for recording sessions,” according to Mix Magazine — although this minimum has yet to be determined. Furthermore, artists will need to bring in their own engineers to run United Recordings’ rare vintage equipment, some of which dates to the studio’s beginnings in the late ‘50s. This renowned gear requires expertise that isn’t readily available to the current-day audio engineering school graduates who don’t have the benefit of the studio’s longtime professionals.

Norah Jones has announced that she will be heading on a tour of the UK and Ireland this autumn.The singer-songwriter previously announced a summer tour in Europe, which is due to start this July in Paris and includes dates in Italy, Spain, Portugal and more.The UK and Ireland leg of the tour kicks off at Sage Gateshead on November 4, before heading to Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bath, Belfast and Dublin. Jones will also headline London’s Palladium on November 11.Tickets for the tour will be on sale this Friday, March 24 at 10am.

Julia MacCary editor Courtney Love has taken aim at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, penning a scathing essay that calls out the dearth of women and Black artists showcased in the Cleveland-based organization. “If so few women are being inducted into the Rock Hall, then the nominating committee is broken,” Love wrote in an op-ed for the Guardian. “If so few Black artists, so few women of colour, are being inducted, then the voting process needs to be overhauled. Music is a lifeforce that is constantly evolving – and they can’t keep up. Shame on HBO for propping up this farce.” Love did not hold back when calling out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Barely 8% of its inductees are female. The canon-making doesn’t just reek of sexist gatekeeping, but also purposeful ignorance and hostility,” wrote Love, a musician, songwriter and actor who led the 1990s band Hole and was married to the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain (who was posthumously inducted).

The Midnight Special, the once hugely popular music program that featured such now legendary performers of the 1970s and early ’80s as David Bowie, Tina Turner, Elton John and too many others to list, is now available to watch on YouTube.

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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Tahar Rahim, who earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his starring roles in “A Prophet” and “The Mauritanian,” is set to play Charles Aznavour, the iconic French-Armenian singer, songwriter and actor who sold more than 180 million records around the world. Titled “Monsieur Aznavour,” the biopic will be directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films. Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist. Filming will kick off in the summer for an estimated delivery in 2024, to mark Aznavour’s centenary.

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.

Ethan Shanfeld Willie Spence, who came in second place in “American Idol” Season 19, has died in a car crash. He was 23. Spence was driving from Tennessee to his home in Atlanta when he crashed into a semi-truck that was parked on the side of the road. A post on the “American Idol” Instagram reads, “We are devastated about the passing of our beloved ‘American Idol’ family member, Willie Spence. He was a true talent who lit up every room he entered and will be deeply missed. We send our condolences to his loved ones.” The post features a video of Spence singing Rihanna’s “Diamonds” from his “American Idol” audition. Judges Lionel Ritchie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan praised Spence’s performance, with Bryan saying, “You are a special, special human being. I did not want it to end.”

Art Laboe, a revered Los Angeles radio mainstay for more than half a century who delighted local fans and a syndicated audience by playing those “oldies but goodies,” has died. He was 97.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The list of narrators for the audiobook version of Bob Dylan’s upcoming book has come to light, and it reads like a who’s who of Oscar contenders from the past few decades, along with the author himself doing some of the reading. The lineup of voice talent reading chapters from “The Philosophy of Modern Song” aloud includes Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright and Renée Zellweger. This lineup of all-star Dylan surrogates has yet to be officially announced. It was first published by the U.K. magazine Uncut; Variety has confirmed the list.

Don’t Worry Darling has been released – check it out below.Olivia Wilde’s 1950s sci-fi thriller is released in cinemas today (September 23) and features a period-appropriate soundtrack including artists such as Ray Charles, Little Willie John, The Chords and more.A synopsis for Don’t Worry Darling reads: “In the 1950s, Alice and Jack live in the idealized community of Victory, an experimental company town that houses the men who work on a top-secret project. While the husbands toil away, the wives get to enjoy the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their seemingly perfect paradise.“However, when cracks in her idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something sinister lurking below the surface, Alice can’t help but question exactly what she’s doing in Victory.”The soundtrack, curated by music editor Bill Bernstein, also features an original song by Harry Styles – who stars as Jack Chambers – performed in the film by Styles and Florence Pugh, who plays his wife Alice.Take a look at the full list of songs here:Don’t Worry Darling also features an original score composed by John Powell, which you can listen to below.In a four-star review of Don’t Worry Darling, NME wrote: “It is, admittedly, quite hard to watch Don’t Worry Darling and not think about the accompanying gossip.“What we’re trying to say is a really quite good film has been overshadowed needlessly.

Jonathan Cohen For Pearl Jam, it was a long time coming. For 1,500 lucky fans, it was a dream come true. The Seattle Rock and Roll Hall of Famers made good Saturday night (Sept. 10) on a special show nearly two-and-a-half years in the making at the fabled Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, navigating through a serious technical-related delay five songs into the set that took more than 15 minutes to correct. The concert was broadcast live on Pearl Jam’s long-running SiriusXM channel as part of the network’s Small Stage series, and was open only to subscribers, contest winners and the usual coterie of VIPs. The 21-song performance blended classics such as “Porch,” “Even Flow” and “Better Man” with seven songs from the band’s latest album, “Gigaton,” plus a situation-appropriate dedication to Howard Stern, Robin Quivers and producer Gary Dell’Abate on “Spin the Black Circle.”

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” is a movie that, in recent weeks, has been besieged and consumed by offscreen dramas, none of which I’ll recount here, except to note that when a film’s lead actress seems actively reluctant to publicize the film in question, that’s a sign of some serious discord. Yet it would be hugely unfair to allow this tempest in a teapot of gossipy turmoil to influence one’s feelings about the movie. If you want to talk about problems related to “Don’t Worry Darling,” you need look no further than at what’s onscreen. The film, written by Katie Silberman, with the brilliant production design of Katie Byron, is a kind of candy-colored “Stepford Wives” in the Twilight Zone meets “The Handmaid’s Tale” for the age of torn-at-the-seams democracy. In theory, this should add up to a juicy watch. Wilde, whose first feature was the witty and vivacious 2019 girls-on-a-bender comedy “Booksmart” (this is her second film), is a gifted director who knows how to set a mood. In “Don’t Worry Darling,” she does that to the max, and for a while you get caught up in it (or, at least, I did). Between the pop ambition, the tasty dream visuals, and the presence of Harry Styles in his first lead role, “Don’t Worry Darling” should have no trouble finding an audience. But the movie takes you on a ride that gets progressively less scintillating as it goes along.

Ray Charles, Van Morrison and Bette Midler was 51 years old.“The love of my life is now in peace with the angels,” wrote Gloria on Instagram on Friday (August 26). “Right now I have very few words.

Mable John, who recorded for Motown and Stax and later worked with Ray Charles, died Aug. 25 at her home in Los Angeles. Her nephew, Kevin John, confirmed the death, but did not give a cause. She was 91.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Bob Dylan was announced earlier this year as having written separate appreciations of more than 60 different songs for his forthcoming book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song.” Now, the names of all 66 songs he wrote about have been revealed, thanks to the dissemination of a table-of-contents page for the highly anticipated book, which comes out in early November via Simon & Schuster. (Read the full list below.) Not surprisingly, classic songs written and/or recorded by Americans greats like Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Townes Van Zandt will come up for consideration. Less expectedly, Dylan will detour to analyze songs like Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman,” the Fugs’ “CIA Man” and Rosemary Clooney’s “Come On-a My House.”

Thania Garcia Creed Taylor — the producer and executive who launched the legendary jazz labels Impulse! and CTI, and is credited with introducing bossa nova to the U.S. — died on Aug. 23, as confirmed in a statement from Verve Records. He was 93. “For over 60 years, Creed Taylor expanded the horizons of jazz, from signing John Coltrane to Impulse! Records to introducing Bossa Nova music to the world via his work with Charlie Byrd, Stan Getz, and Astrud Gilberto,” the post reads. “He was a genius when it came to finding new and special music that would stay with listeners forever, and his signature was his personal stamp of approval. He will be missed greatly, and our sympathy goes out to his family.”

who died in 2014 at age 94, wrote or co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” He is also credited with popularizing “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the civil rights movement.“He was not only a champion of traditional American music, he was also celebrated as a unifying power by promoting a variety of causes, such as civil rights, workers’ rights, social justice, the peace movement and protecting the environment,” said Tom Foti, the postal service’s product solutions vice president.While Seeger, a lifelong activist, was exiled from commercial airplay in the 1950s and 1960s after an appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his Communist affiliations, his career never slowed and he continued to record and tour.He won Grammy Awards, was inducted into both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll halls of fame, and earned both the National Medal of the Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors.He remained an activist late into his life — walking through the streets of Manhattan leading an Occupy Movement protest in 2011.Seeger joins a long list of musical performers to appear on a US postage stamp, including Elvis Presley, Thelonious Monk, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra.The Seeger stamps are sold in panes of 16 resembling a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve, according to the postal service.

Wilson Chapman editorTerry Gross has received Peabody’s Institutional Award, for her work on the long-running NPR radio program “Fresh Air.” The annual Institutional Award is presented to institutions and programs for their body of work and their impact on the media landscape. The honoree is selected by the Peabody’s Board of Jurors, and presented ahead of the regular announcement of this year’s 30 Peabody Awards winners.