Watch BTS Light up ‘Dynamite’ at Grammy MusiCares Concert

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn an optimistic move toward normalcy, the Recording Academy has announced that the 64 th annual Grammy Awards will take place at the show’s traditional home of the Staples Center on Jan. 31, 2022 — exactly a year after the originally scheduled date of the 2021 awards, which were moved to March 14 due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Southern California.As usual, the show will broadcast live on the CBS television network from 8 – 11:30 p.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorYoshiki, leader of the group X Japan, has donated $100,000 in support of mental health to MusiCares to help music creators and industry professionals affected by depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, or other mental health concerns, the organization announced Monday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBritish rock duo Royal Blood will perform a three-song virtual concert — as avatars — during the 2021 Bloxy Awards, taking place on the online gaming platform Roblox on Saturday. The awards, “Roblox’s celebration of the passion, talent, and creativity of the Roblox community of creators and players,” will take place on Saturday, March 27 at 3 p.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBob Dylan fired back at a lawsuit filed in January by the estate of cowriter Jacques Levy in the wake of the legendary songwriter’s $300 million-plus sale of his catalog to Universal Music Publishing.In a memo dated Tuesday, Dylan’s attorney wrote that the claims of Levy’s widow, who is seeking $7.25 million from the deal for songs cowritten with Dylan for the 1976 “Desire” album, are invalid because the songs were written under a work-for-hire arrangement that

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorStrokes frontman Julian Casablancas has signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Concord Music Publishing, covering his past and future solo works (including his 2013 song with Daft Punk, “Instand Crush”) and various projects including The Voidz. Casablancas won his first Grammy last weekend, for the Strokes’ album “The New Abnormal.”“We are beyond excited that Julian has joined Concord Music Publishing.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVariety’s cover star Phoebe Bridgers, Run the Jewels and Perfume Genius are among the top nominees for the American Association of Independent Music’s annual Libera Awards, which are presented by Merlin.The awards, which celebrate the independent-music community, will be held virtually for the second consecutive year and will take place on June 17.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAmid all the headlines that came out of the 2021 Grammy Awards, one that should have been bigger is what a huge night it was for independent labels and artists: For the first time, more than half of the winners were independent artists — i.e.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne of the many remarkable things about first time Grammy executive producer Ben Winston and Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason jr. is that they basically haven’t stopped working since the show ended on Sunday night.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn recent years, the Grammy Awards have taken advantage of having so many top artists in one place by taping a second show a day or two after the main Grammy ceremony, all-star tributes to artists like Prince, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe 2021 Grammy Awards were an awards show like none before them, in countless ways — and although opinions are mixed about what worked and what didn’t, the consensus seem to be pretty positive, albeit with inevitable caveats.Perhaps most of all, the way the Grammys chose to handle the “In Memoriam” segment, which on most awards shows is fraught with omissions and misspellings and subsequent outrage, received some of the most positive reactions — especially

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt’s really not much of a stretch to expect a previous year’s big Grammy winner to repeat the following year, but Billie Eilish certainly was surprised to win the Best Record category at the ceremony on Sunday night: She started off her acceptance speech by going full Adele 2017, saying that Megan Thee Stallion actually deserved to win the award Billie herself had just won.“This is really embarrassing for me,” Eilish said, taking the stage with her brother and

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCardi B and Megan Thee Stallion amped up the Grammys with a jaw-dropping performance of their NSFW anthem “WAP.” The duo performed strip club-themed version of the song, featuring a pole on a massive clear heel, and ending with the two rappers writhing together on a giant bed.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMegan The Stallion has won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. “Everybody is amazing,” she said of her fellow nominees during her tearful acceptance speech.“Secondly, I really just want to thank god because thank you for putting life into my body for me to be able to even be here today.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSince the Big Four Grammy categories expanded from five nominees to eight in 2019, the list of finalists has gotten more far-reaching and far more unpredictable.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTonight, we come together — virtually — for the Grammy Awards, “Music’s Biggest Night,” and do our best to celebrate the music of the worst year of so many people’s lives.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith the Grammy Awards coming up on Sunday, it’s remarkable that interim Recording Academy president/CEO Harvey Mason, jr. has time to talk with the press — although that could have been said at virtually any point in the past 14 months.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTaylor Swift gave a small spoken preview of her Grammy performance on Sunday in a post on CBS’s Twitter account, revealing that she’s reuniting with two of the collaborators who helped her make her nominated album “Folklore.”She revealed that in preparation for the performance, the three have quarantined together in a house for the entire week.“The one thing I can tell you about my Grammy performance that isn’t highly confidential is that my Grammy performance

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhen the 2021 Grammy Award nominations were announced in November, thousands of people were stunned to see that the Weeknd — one of the most commercially and critically successful artists of the past year, whose single “Blinding Lights” just became the first song ever to spend a full year in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 — was not nominated for any awards.The inexplicable and/or suspicious snub, the biggest in Grammy history, could only be explained as the

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Grammy Awards considered some 800 people for the “In Memoriam” segment of the 2021 show, first-time executive producer Ben Winston tells Variety.While it was not unexpected that a large number of musicians and executives would be under consideration amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide, as Winston says, “That is a brutally sad number of people who would be in contention to be featured in the show.” The ones who are not

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBTS’ “Map of the Soul: 7” album has been announced as the first-ever winner of IFPI’s newly-launched Global Album All Format Chart, following a countdown of the top ten biggest albums globally, IFPI is the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide.The chart, an addition to IFPI’s existing global awards, celebrates the best-selling albums of the year across all consumption formats, spanning physical sales, digital downloads, and streaming