New York -- Country music star Kelsea Ballerini had no intentions of starting a new job as an author in 2020. She did plan to tour her new album, “Kelsea” — then the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of the world.
12.11.2021 - 19:05 / variety.com
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPeter Jackson’s reinterpretation of the film footage that became the Beatles’ swan-song film “Let It Be” has had a long road, even since it was first revealed a couple of years ago — first it was an Apple feature film for 2020, then it became a six-hour docuseries on Disney+ airing this coming Thanksgiving, and that’s on top of the 50-plus years that the footage has been sitting on shelves.
(He speaks about it briefly in this preview clip released from “60 Minutes”
.New York -- Country music star Kelsea Ballerini had no intentions of starting a new job as an author in 2020. She did plan to tour her new album, “Kelsea” — then the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of the world.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt seems barely a day passes without some noises coming from the Foo Fighters camp, and the noise is big today: The newly minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have announced 17 more concert dates, adding to shows on the West Coast and South America late this year and next, which will take place at amphitheaters, stadiums and festivals across North America during May, July and August of 2022.The dates include one at New York’s Citi Field stadium and two at the Banc of
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBritain’s Wet Leg, one of the most buzzed-about indie groups to emerge in years via their singles “Chaise Longue” and “Wet Dream,” have dropped two new songs and unveiled the release date for their forthcoming debut album and a big pile of tour dates in the U.S.
It turns out Janet Jackson REALLY doesn’t want any part of that new New York Times documentary covering the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show wardrobe malfunction.
NEW YORK -- For 50 years, the fixed narrative had the Beatles' “Let it Be” recording session as a miserable experience with a band where members were sick of each other, sick of their work and in the process of breaking up.The nearly 8-hour, Peter Jackson-produced documentary culled from film and recording outtakes of those sessions instead reveal a self-aware band with a rare connection and work ethic that still knew how to have fun — yet was also in the process of breaking up.The “Get Back”
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records has promoted Wendy Goldstein and Jim Roppo to the roles of co-presidents, the label’s co-founders, Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman, announced Wednesday.Goldstein, one of the top A&R people in the music industry, has served as president of West Coast Creative since 2019 and is based in the Los Angeles office.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIssa Rae has unveiled the soundtrack for the next soundtrack to her Peabody-award-winning HBO series “Insecure,” which features new songs from Saweetie — “Get It Girl,” which dropped earlier this month — Nnena, Thundercat, B.K. Habermehl, TeaMarrr and Amindi, among many others.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHBO has released a new trailer for the forthcoming documentary, “DMX: Don’t Try to Understand,” focusing on a year in the life of the late rapper.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNed Monahan, Spotify’s head of global hits and overseer of several of the platforms top playlists, is leaving the company, a rep confirmed to Variety.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFive years after the release of the second chapter of his “BlackSummers’Night” trilogy, three-time Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Maxwell has finally revealed plans to release the final installment, “blacksummers’NIGHT,” in the spring — and he’s leading with a new song, “Off,” and the announcement of a long tour, kicking off in TK, that will see fellow R&B vets Anthony Hamilton and Joe opening.The new single is another classic slice of Maxwell-flavored R&B, a
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.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs expected, veteran agent Scott Clayton, who left his role as co-head of music at WME late last month, has joined UTA as co-head of its global music division and as a partner, the company announced Monday.Clayton and current UTA Global Music Co-Heads Sam Kirby Yoh and David Zedeck will together “create a powerhouse leadership trio spanning UTA’s New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville music hubs and further solidify the agency’s reach across all music genres,”
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAdele debuted three new songs from her upcoming album “30” during her CBS television special on Sunday night: “I Drink Wine,” “Hold On” and “Love Is a Game.”Adele has been teasing “Hold On” in a trailer for the special as well as an Amazon Christmas advertisement.The special, titled “Adele: One Night Only,” also included a new sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, billed as her “first televised wide-ranging conversation about her new album, the stories behind the
The Beatles: Get Back.Following the first trailer last month, Disney has released new footage from the documentary series. It shows the band in the studio doing an early run-through of the track ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the uninitiated, Idles are a monumentally powerful British hard rock band whose music is loaded with punk and hardcore influences, although it’s not accurate to label them as either.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJack White has announced the upcoming release of two new albums next year —his first new full-length collections in over four years.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFour-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter-producer Missy Elliott was honored Monday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Ciara and Lizzo (pictured below, filming Elliott’s acceptance speech on their phones) were among those to introduce Elliott at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ceremony — fittingly, Elliott’s star was placed outside the new location of the giant Amoeba Music record store on Hollywood Boulevard, which will also be a location for stars for
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDru Bass has joined William Morris Endeavor as a music crossover agent in hip hop and R&B, it was announced today by Kirk Sommer and Lucy Dickins, co-heads, worldwide music, WME. Bass joins the agency from UTA, where he represented such artists as Young Thug, Tierra Whack, Issa Rae’s music company RAEDIO, Emmy-nominated composer Amanda Jones, Harvey Mason Jr., Princess Nokia, Burna Boy, Lil Wayne, Michelle Williams, and Lauryn Hill.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHouston mayor Sylvester Turner has promised a “thorough review and investigation” of the tragedy at the Travis Scott-headlined festival in the city, where eight people died and more than 300 were injured as crowds surged and stampeded during Scott’s set.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAhead of his “Astroworld” festival taking place in his Houston hometown this weekend, Travis Scott has dropped two new songs, “Escape Plan.”The songs are likely from his forthcoming album “Utopia,” which he and producer Mike Dean have teased on social media over the past few weeks.Although “Escape Plan” drew most of the initial attention upon the midnight drop — within the first 13 minutes, the audio of “Escape Plan” had 18,000 listens on YouTube and “Mafia” had