Sofar Sounds, Host of Intimate and Secret Concerts, Returns From Pandemic Bigger Than Ever

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Puerto Rican superstar singer Ozuna has signed with Scooter Braun’s SB Projects, in partnership with his longtime manager Edgar Andino, CEO of Andino Marketing Group, the companies announced on Thursday. Ozuna, one of Latin music’s most popular artists, joins a roster that includes Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, The Kid Laroi and others. Colombian singer J Balvin signed with the company in 2020 but left recently. “We’ve been following Ozuna’s career for years and we’re excited to be bringing him into the family to work with him and Edgar. Ozuna’s music is unmatched.  His ability to work across genres including reggaeton, Latin pop, and more, is phenomenal. With unique songs offering fresh perspective and beautiful sounds, We’re thrilled to amplify his artistry with this partnership,” offered Jennifer McDaniels, President of Management, SB Projects.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Madonna’s forthcoming “Celebration” tour has been postponed, according to an Instagram post from her manager Guy Oseary. The tour had been scheduled to launch in Vancouver on July 15. “On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU,” he wrote. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected. “At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour. “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has left the Ton to SURve up the fun at a special Vanderpump Rules-themed costume party amid fallout from Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss’ affair scandal.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Those who wondered if or when Migos might perform together again after the tragic death of cofounder Takeoff got their answer on Sunday night, in a total surprise performance by surviving group members Quavo and Offset. The show returned from a commercial break with a curtain raised on a darkened stage with two shoadwed figures emerging — who turned out to be Quavo and Offset, standing before an image of the Space Shuttle. As a recording of Takeoff’s verse on the song “Hotel Lobby” began (as recorded by his duo with Quavo, Unc & Phew), it became clear who they were and the crowd erupted. “BET!” the announcer shouted. “Doin’ this for Take!” The image of the Space Shuttle took off and was replaced by an image of Takeoff with his hand reaching skyward, and the pair launched into the group’s biggest hit, “Bad & Boujee.”

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Young Thug — who has been awaiting trial in an Atlanta jail for over a year — may not belong in an orange jumpsuit, but he’ll probably reinvent the attire at some fashion show when he gets out. Thugger is one of the top rappers in the game, and yet he’s been sidelined by allegations from Georgia’s Fulton County that his Young Stoner Life label is actually a criminal gang. Thug’s response: a surprise album, as he awaits jury selection, that doubles as a kind of opening statement, not for the “peers” to be selected by the court, but for his friends, fans and family rooting for him from the sidelines.  Arriving just a week after “Gift & a Curse,” the new album from labelmate and former associate Gunna — who was also indicted but pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and has been freed — “Business Is Business” is Thug’s first solo release since 2021’s “Punk,” and since his was incarcerated. Despite its “Godfather”-ish title, the album reflects the divides in the YSK camp: BSlime, Lil Gotit and Yak Gotti are the only featured crew members, Gunna is nowhere to be seen, and Wheezy has three production credits on the album but none on a “Gift & a Curse.” Consequently, it’s missing the camaraderie that has been a hallmark of Thug’s career, from “Best Friend” to the YSL collaborative album, “Slime Language 2” — although it does feature guest verses from Travis Scott, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert and more.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to sell around half of the storied Warner studio’s film and TV music-publishing assets for approximately $500 million, three sources confirm to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits. While it is unclear exactly which assets are on the table, one source says that the rights to “slightly less than half” of the catalog, with a price of around $500 million, are likely to go to a major label, with Sony said to be in the lead. The catalog is believed to include music from such films as “Purple Rain,” “Evita,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Rent” several “Batman” films and many more titles, as well as songs included in iconic films such as “As Time Goes By” from “Casablanca” — iconic titles to be sure, but again, it is unclear exactly which rights are in play. Top attorney Allen Grubman is said to be overseeing the deal for Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Unless you’ve got a “Succession”-sized story of ludicrous wealth combined with horrible behavior, it can be very challenging for a documentarian to make the life of an executive seem exciting — even one as colorful as that of Ron Delsener, one of the greatest concert promoters of all time… which is what makes “Ron Delsener Presents,” a documentary on that colorful life, all the more impressive. While the 90-odd-minute doc is a bit overlong and based largely on wealthy old music-biz veterans telling war stories from their rough-and-tumble years, director Jake Sumner uses deep research, fascinating concert and other archival footage, animation and snappy editing to create a very entertaining, if slightly smoothed-over, film that doubles as a sort of mini-history of the American concert business.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Nearly 100 people were injured by “golf-ball sized” hail before a Louis Tomlinson concert scheduled for Wednesday night at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, the West Metro Fire Department told CNN. At least seven people were transported to area hospitals with “non-life-threatening” injuries, the fire department tweeted, with as many as 90 people treated at the venue for abrasions and broken bones. “I managed to hide where they were selling drinks and I used my backpack to protect myself and another girl,” one fan told CNN, saying she experienced minor injuries. The National Weather Service office in nearby Boulder issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the areas at around 9 p.m., noting the venue would be affected.

New Yorker profile of Sarah Jessica Parker, 58, the new season will cover topics such as Miranda engaging in pegging, and Carrie and Charlotte discussing “jizz.”These are not topics that come naturally to Parker, as she told the outlet that she’s more prudish than her on-screen alter ego, Carrie Bradshaw. “I could never do any of that stuff in my life,” she said. “It would be immoral.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It is an interesting time to be Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a. the Weeknd. Last summer, he was criss-crossing North America on his “After Hours Til Dawn” stadium tour while simultaneously doing reshoots for his HBO series, “The Idol.” This summer, he’s watching the reactions to the deeply controversial show while criss-crossing Europe on the second leg of the tour, which will move to Latin America and Asia into next year. He’s also doing press for the Emmy campaign for his HBO concert documentary released earlier this year, “The Weeknd: Live at SoFi Stadium.” All the while, he’s been recording, as he always is. Despite, and because of, the polarized reactions to the first episodes of “The Idol,” the show has scored big ratings and even bigger conversation.

Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) is trying to move forward in her life after Aaron Sandford (James Craven) left Coronation Street but in Monday’s (June 19) episode, she established just how much her recent ordeal has impacted her mentally. Aaron departed the cobbles after confronting his actions and realising that he did in fact rape Amy, after previously stating that she wanted to have sex just as much as he did and ignoring the fact that she was unconscious and couldn’t consent. While this isn’t the closure Amy wanted, it’s the only one she’s going to get for now and tonight, she tried her best to find a positive focus, choosing to try and get back into the swing of university studying.

John McGinn reckons taking out Norway was even bigger than the sinking of Spain.

The body of a man who went into a lake on Saturday night, sparking a frantic search, has been recovered.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music We say every year that the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction ceremony is the music industry’s best-kept secret — an invite-only, insider combination of a superstar awards show and a family reunion for the tight-knit songwriting and music-publishing community that is in its 52nd year and has never been televised or livestreamed. In fact, we’ve said it so many times that longtime SHOF CEO Linda Moran quoted us in her opening remarks on Thursday night. While the show has had honorees pull out in the past — Jay-Z due to the impending birth of his and Beyonce’s twins, less happily the Kinks’ Ray Davies due to the death of his sister — this year’s event was the first time two honorees canceled, deferring their inductions to next year: the reclusive Sade, who everyone figured had about a 40% chance of showing up, postponed several months ago due to a scheduling conflict, and Snoop Dogg, who pulled out abruptly for undisclosed reasons earlier in the week. But the SHOF is such a star-studded evening that the event was a rousing success filled with great music regardless — and the silver lining was the fact that it was over in a relatively tidy three hours (it often stretches toward five).

Vanessa Williams is exactly where she wants to be at 60 years old.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Those with long memories can recall when the otherworldly Icelandic combo Sigur Ros’ music first began filtering over to these shores at the turn of this century — maybe on Napster or Limewire after Radiohead’s Thom Yorke began mentioning them in interviews, or on a burned CD from a friend who had one of their hard-to-find-even-in-metropolises imports. Hearing them for the first time was like taking a voyage to a different musical planet, guided by a vocalist named Jonsi who sang in both Icelandic and an invented language over lush, towering, majestic music that evoked National Geographic landscapes and summoned purple prose from critics even more pretentious than the line you just read. While there were certainly influences — Cocteau Twins, Eno, electronic music and film soundtracks — Sigur Ros were like absolutely no one else, and their sound (and lineup) evolved over the early ‘00s and beyond, incorporating orchestras on one album, rock-centric structures on the next, ambient on the one after, while still remaining unmistakably them.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Grammys Reduce Album, Song, Record of the Year and Best New Artist From 10 to Eight Nominees As it does every year, the Recording Academy has updated its rules and guidelines following its semiannual board of trustees meeting, and while three new categories were announced earlier this week, one major change was unveiled today among several less-impactful ones: The four top categories — album, song and record of the year and best new artist — have been reduced to eight categories from 10. An AI-related rule was also introduced, which effectively states that only human creators are eligible for awards, but, like all things AI, requires an extensive series of caveats to cover the vast possibilities that the technology makes possible in this still-developing area; the full list appears below.)

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Grammy-winning Songwriters Hall of Fame member Cynthia Weil — who co-wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” “Walking in the Rain,” “You’re My Soul and Inspiration,” “Uptown,” “He’s So Shy,” “Kicks,” “Here You Come Again,” “Through the Fire,” “Somewhere Out There” and many other hits, mostly with her husband and Brill Building colleague Barry Mann — died earlier this month at the age of 82. She was one of the top “Brill Building” songwriters that came out of the Midtown Manhattan building of the same name (although much of the work actually was done a couple of blocks uptown at 1650 Broadway) and spawned literally hundreds of hits throughout the 1960s for the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Drifters, the Monkees, the Animals, multiple Phil Spector productions and many others. Along with Mann — to whom Weil was married for some 62 years — the coterie included another young married couple, Carole King and the late Gerry Goffin.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The National Music Publishers Assn., acting on behalf of 17 major music publishers, is filing a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Twitter for its failure to license and pay for the music widely available on its platform.  The complaint seeks more than $250 million in damages for hundreds of thousands of noticed infringements of approximately 1,700 works. “Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law,” the complaint reads in part. “While numerous Twitter competitors recognize the need for proper licenses and agreements for the use of musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter does not, and instead breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators…

A polarizing hot take. Meghan McCain weighed in on Scandoval and revealed she feels “more compassion” for Raquel Leviss than Ariana Madix.