Music

December 6, 2019 12:47PM PT [embedded content] The Weeknd channeled major Michael Jackson and Prince vibes for his first ever performance of recent single “Heartless” on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Dressed in a red retro suit and dancing in the backstage hallways of the Ed Sullivan Theater, the three-time Grammy-Award winner had some

When Jon Bon Jovi was asked to appear in New York City at the Christmas Tree Lighting in Rockefeller Center on Wednesday night, he shared the moment with the men and women of the military by performance of his song, “Unbroken,” from the documentary “To Be of Service.” While acknowledging that appearing at a tree

The most-played song on alternative radio this year is “Trampoline” by Shaed, an indie-pop band from the D.C. area that’s signed to Photo Finish Records and distributed by Caroline. With 121,000 spins, “Trampoline” passed “High Hopes” and “Bad Guy” in the format, receiving a big boost along the way from Apple (its overall radio spins

This might be a lousy way of expressing it, but, the last few weeks have been a great time for moody, Nirvana-inspired, emo-punk, SoundCloud rappers… or their fans, anyway, since not all the artists are around anymore to enjoy the spoils. For better or worse, Tekashi 6ix9ine might have handed his prosecutors a get-out-of-jail-early card

Women behind the boards at recording studios is hardly a new phenomenon. Susan Rogers famously engineered some of Prince’s most beloved albums in the 1980s; Linda Perry first made a name for herself as a producer at the turn of the millennium; there wasn’t a console Imogen Heap didn’t command; and, last year, Emily Lazar

Among the many numbers that R. Kelly is finding do matter: the growing number of charges pending against him. One more significant one has been added: a charge that the singer bribed a public employee to obtain a fake ID for his then-15-year-old bride, Aaliyah, in 1994. Her marriage to Kelly, who was 27 at

Julia Michaels could brag about being the voice behind several No.1 hits like Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and, most recently, Selena Gomez’s “Lose You To Love Me.” But she won’t — the singer and hit songwriter is too humble. Michaels — who will receive the Citi Voice of Impact Award at Variety’s Hitmakers event on Saturday

The Department of Justice is taking sides in another hot-button antitrust battle, this time siding with Irving Azoff’s upstart music licensing firm against a group representing 10,000 radio stations. The DOJ Antitrust Division filed a brief on Thursday arguing that the Radio Music License Committee may have engaged in illegal price-fixing when it refused to

Taylor Swift may have set a “Farm”-to-market land speed record with the release of “Christmas Tree Farm” Thursday night, just four days after the tune was written, and with much less time than that since it was lushly orchestrated for maximum holiday glee. The biggest revelation of the accompanying video — at least for anyone

Darlene Love’s iconic Christmas song, “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” was performed Wednesday night on NBC’s “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” tree lighting special — but the woman who made it famous was iced out and she is furious about it. Love, 78, explained her frustrations on Facebook, calling out Brad Lachman Productions for excluding her

One of R. Kelly’s longtime girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage, has come forward publicly to refute claims that she’s turned on the R&B singer after an Instagram account claiming to be her suggested as much. In a video obtained by TMZ, Savage, first reading pre-written statements on her cell phone, strongly denies the assertion that she had

December 5, 2019 6:02PM PT Alanis Morissette’s 1995 alt-rock album turns up on Broadway in a story that seems to spring organically from the music. Nearly 25 years after “Jagged Little Pill” hit the shelves of record stores, Alanis Morissette’s innovative 1995 album has arrived on Broadway under the muscular direction of Diane Paulus, who

Not only did the death wish expressed 55 years ago in “My Generation” not come true, but the Who have now become the first major rock act of their generation to come up with a whole album that’s actually about getting old. And this from an outfit that pretty much entirely skipped its own middle age,

December 5, 2019 2:23PM PT In a week with lots of other Billie Eilish things going on — including Variety’s two cover stories, her acoustic performance at Apple’s headquarters and, not least, reports of a multi-million-dollar documentary deal with Apple — a new video from the 17-year-old singer has also arrived. The clip — for

CMJ Music Marathon, the New York-based music festival and conference ran from 1978 until 2016, is apparently relaunching next year. Details are scant, but a tweet from the company’s official account said that the festival is under “new management” — which means that its most-recent CEO, Adam Klein, who was ordered by a judge to

Category Hitmaker Artist Song Songwriter Amy Allen Halsey “Without Me” Producer-Songwriter Benny Blanco Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid “Señorita” “Eastside” Producer-Songwriter Tommy Brown Ariana Grande “7 Rings” “Thank U, Next” Producer-Songwriter Cashmere Cat Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid “Señorita” “Eastside” Producer Cirkut Ava Max “Sweet

When Swae Lee stepped into a Los Angeles studio last year, little did he know the song he laid down vocals for, “Sunflower,” would end up being one of 2019’s major hits. “I wanted to go out with a bang that night, and I got it out of me,” he says of the fateful evening

Taylor. Drake. Post. Ariana. The only things these artists have in common, apart from being chart juggernauts who only require only one name, is the label they’re on: Republic Records, which for the third consecutive year is Variety’s Hitmakers Label of the Year. The company has no less than 10 entries in Hitmakers’ Top 25

Despite his band’s name, Ryan Tedder is a man of many, many republics. He’s the songwriter of the year in Variety‘s Hitmakers issue largely for his work as a producer-writer in ensuring, with “Sucker,” that the Jonas Brothers had the smoothest possible runway for their comeback to make a safe landing. But eclipsing even that

Have you ever wondered how many varieties of secret sauce can be packed into one delicious three-minutes-and-20-seconds burger of a song? Ten months after the Jonas Brothers’ comeback smash, “Sucker,” came out and finally took the trio to the top, it’s still tickling our ears… and, frankly, slightly puzzling our brains, as we try to

Quincy, Mass.-bred songwriter-producer Louis Bell has credits on four of 2019’s most consumed hits: Post Malone’s “Wow” and “Sunflower,” Halsey’s “Without Me” and Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker.” “If these songs were colors on a spectrum, they would be totally different colors, but somehow they work,” says Bell. His secret? Not paying attention to trends, or anything

December 5, 2019 10:20AM PT It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2019 and the horse it rode in on — or the horse that dominated the conversation for the better part of the year, at least: Lil Nas X’s. If, 12 months ago, anyone had told us the coming year would be defined by

For a long time, the divas in Jason Owen’s life — be it the ones he watched on early MTV as a kid in rural Arkansas, his former roommate, Tori Spelling (the two shared a Los Angeles address at the peak of her fame), or longtime client Shania Twain (the two parted ways amicably in

Taylor Swift announced in a video on “Good Morning America” today that she is releasing a new Christmas song tonight, with a video to follow in the morning. “Hey, I know this pretty wild, but I’ve just written a Christmas song. I feel like it’s weird to just, like, wait a year to put it

Oscar Winner Ryuichi Sakamoto Signs With Kobalt for Publishing – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds December 5, 2019 6:57AM PT Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar and Golden Globe-winning composer renowned for scores ranging from 1983’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” to 2015’s “The Revenant,” has signed on with Kobalt for a

Jennifer Lopez is a singer, dancer, actor and producer — and now she’s looking to add director to her resume. The “Hustlers” star tells me she’s thinking of making her feature film directorial debut with “The Godmother,” a biopic about the late Miami cocaine queen Griselda Blanco. Lopez is already producing and set to star

Todd Decker is a music historian who chairs the music department at Washington University in St. Louis. A few years ago, a local attorney called the department looking for help on a case. The lawyer represented Flame, a little-known Christian rapper who claimed that Katy Perry had ripped off his song in her 2014 smash

As previously reported, Def Leppard will undertake a stadium tour this summer with Motley Crue and Poison, and special guest Joan Jett & the Blackhearts have been added to the bill as well. Full dates for the tour, which is produced by Live Nation, appear below. Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock and Roll

A Cook County, Ill., judge today set a Sept. 14 trial date for R. Kelly, who is charged in four sexual abuse cases in the area, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. Prosectors did not immediately reveal which of the four indictments they plan to pursue first. Kelly, who remains in federal

CBS Corp. and Viacom are united once again. The merger of the two halves of the Redstone family media empire into ViacomCBS was completed Wednesday, just four months after the boards of CBS and Viacom reached an agreement on an all stock-swap transaction. The combined company’s shares will begin trading Thursday on the NASDAQ index