Following CAA’s $750 million acquisition of ICM Partners last July, APA has been tactically making changes to its own leadership teams. The music industry’s rapid growth in touring has led the agency to readjust focus — upping fresh agents in top positions and encouraging seasoned execs with illustrious rosters to take up roles as mentors
Music
The 54th annual NAACP Image Awards have found their host in Emmy and Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Queen Latifah. The actor, producer, musician, author and entrepreneur takes on the role of the NAACP Image Awards emcee for the first time. “It’s an honor to host the 54th NAACP Image Awards, especially in the year
Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the esteemed Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The Johnny Mercer Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and is reserved for a
Guns N’ Roses return to the road on a major 2023 world tour produced by Live Nation, headlining stadiums, festivals, and arenas throughout the summer and fall. The band launch this jaunt on June 5 in Tel Aviv, Israel at Park Hayarkon and will continue across Europe through July 22, wrapping in Athens, Greece. The band will
Veteran music publicists Luke Burland and Bobbie Gale are teaming up to form a new firm, 2b Entertainment. The two share more than 30 years experience working with artists, music companies and brands. Both previously served in senior media relations positions at Warner Bros. Records (now known as Warner Records) and as in-demand indies —
Just weeks after becoming the most-awarded artist in the history of the Grammys, Beyoncé’s reign continued at the 54th annual NAACP Image Awards, where she added three more awards to her trophy case. During Monday night’s non-televised virtual experience, Queen Bey was named this year’s outstanding female artist, while her hit record “Renaissance” won outstanding
Stars have been a theme throughout Pentatonix’s career. The a cappella group covered Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” early on, performed “Stars” from the musical “Finding Neverland,” and named their holiday television special “Christmas Under the Stars.” So it’s only fitting that the group — comprised of Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola and Matt
For the last 60 years, it’s been hard to see Joan Baez as anything other than a saintly figure, or certainly, at the least, a beatifically placid one. Early on in the new documentary “Joan Baez I Am a Noise,” over shots of its subject being swarmed by fans at the height of her early-‘60s
Composer Nicolas Godin is part of the creative team responsible for “Fire of Love,” the Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Sara Dosa about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. As one half of the electronic group Air, he’s no stranger to collaboration: between 1995 and 2016, he and partner Jean-Benoit Dunckel released six albums and two soundtracks
Months after its Dec. 9 release, SZA’s “SOS” is still riding high. This week, the 23-song set tops the Billboard 200 for the ninth week — the highest tally for a female-led album in almost seven years. The last two albums by women to achieve nine or more weeks at No. 1 in the last
Ninety minutes into a set at Madison Square Garden, EDM mainstay Skrillex jumped onto the DJ booth, arms outstretched, head tilted back and bathed in cell phone lights, the screaming crowd and rattling bass. When the massive drop hit and the house lights dropped, his rebirth was complete. The Feb. 18 show, a collaboration with
Feb. 19 marks a celebratory milestone for multi-hyphenate Victoria Justice, and not just because the former “Victorious” actor is turning 30. After a year of promising fans new music, Justice will debut her long-awaited single, “Last Man Standing,” today. “I’m stepping into my 30s in this place of feeling empowered,” Justice tells Variety of timing
Skrillex surprised fans on Saturday night by dropping “Don’t Get Too Close” (via Owsla/Atlantic), which arrived less than 24 hours after his LP “Quest for Fire.” The new set includes features from Yung Lean, Bladee, Chief Keef, Justin Bieber, PinkPantheress, Trippie Redd, Bibi Bourelly, Kid Cudi, and more. The announcement came during the producer-DJ’s massive
Kellie Pickler’s husband, songwriter Kyle Jacobs, was found dead in an apparent suicide at the singer’s home in Nashville, Tenn. on Friday. He was 49. According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, a 911 call was received at 1:21 p.m. on Friday from a home on Sneed Road. “Nashville Fire Department personnel responded and located
Just hours after Pink dropped her ninth studio album, “Trustfall,” the singer has announced a brace of fall arena dates that will launch just a week after her summer stadium tour. Produced by Live Nation, the 14-city tour kicks off on October 12, making stops at arenas across North America, including a date at Madison
Drake and 21 Savage have reached a settlement with Vogue’s parent company Condé Nast, Variety has confirmed. The pair were sued by the media giant in November over their use of a fake Vogue magazine cover to promote their chart-topping joint album “Her Loss.” While the amount of the settlement has not been disclosed —
Motown Records has weathered major changes in the last year, not the least of which include the exit of chairwoman and CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam in March 2021, and is now is planning a restructuring that will bring it back into the fold of Capitol Music Group. With that, layoffs have been initiated, Variety has confirmed,
The good news for Taylor Swift fans: She is participating in Record Store Day again with a vinyl exclusive, for the second straight year. The bad news is that it’s in quantities of … Wait, that’s good news, too — there will be 115,000 copies available of “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” worldwide, about
Following Rihanna’s explosive Super Bowl LVII halftime show, Hoobastank’s Doug Robb admitted the band once rejected a feature from Rihanna. “Back when we were recording our third album, ‘Every Man For Himself,’ we were approached by someone at our label, Island Def Jam, about potentially featuring a ‘new artist’ on one of the songs,” Robb
More than 30 Turkish, Syrian and local musicians will perform at benefit concerts taking place in New York on Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 18-19), in an effort to help raise funds for those affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck those countries earlier this month. The death toll from the quakes is reported to be
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. From sound engineers and screenwriters to celebrity makeup artists and stylists, Variety’s series “Ask an Insider” asks top professionals within the entertainment industry to share their must-have essentials, for work…and for play. In this installment, musician,
In his lifetime, Tracy Marrow has been everything from a dancer and a DJ, to a thief and a weed dealer. Yet, from the minute Marrow became Ice-T, his renown developed and grew. Initially, being Ice-T meant becoming hip-hop’s most incendiary voice, a sinister avatar of the reality-rap style tagged by the press as “gangster”
The surviving members of New York trio Ivy are taking a look back this year at one of their most beloved albums, “Apartment Life,” which is celebrating a 25th anniversary. The group was one of two ’90s-era indie acts to feature the late Emmy- and Grammy-winning musician Adam Schlesinger, who in addition to being a
A new music venue is coming to Los Angeles courtesy of Teragram and Moroccan Lounge owner Michael Swier, in partnership with Another Planet Entertainment (APE). The Bellwether, billed as a multi-genre live music and nightlife destination, will be located at 333 S. Boylston St. and is scheduled to open this spring. Swier’s credits include co-founding
Multimedia Music has closed an eight-figure deal to acquire the music publishing and music master rights from the entire film music library of STX Entertainment, including film titles such as “Bad Moms,” “The Gentlemen,” “Den of Thieves,” “Greenland” and “The Foreigner,” and music from leading composers including Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez, Marcelo Zarvos, Hauschke, Chris
Mexican singer Ana Bárbara is set to receive the BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) Icon award at the 30th annual BMI Latin Awards taking place March 21 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. Bárbara is the first regional Mexican female songwriter BMI has honored with the Icon award, recognizing her nearly three-decade-long career in
With Son Lux – the composing trio behind “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (“This is a Life” with Mitski and David Byrne) at the 95th Academy Awards, analyzing the stunning complexities of their emotional score is key. To go with Daniels’ (the single name used
In a world of hyphenates, Pink all but dares us to come up with one to describe her place in the pop landscape, besides anything so earthbound as “singer-songwriter.” Maybe “gymnast-therapist” would do it — her appeal mixes literal feats of daring with songs of dysfunction and its hoped-for cessation. As she gets to the inevitable
When Kelsea Ballerini did interviews last year for her largely upbeat “Subject to Change” album, she was in a tough spot, being in the public spotlight for her less cheerful personal state of affairs but having to affirm (as she did to Variety at the time), “It’s been pretty difficult, to show up and want
Rihanna appeared gorgeously clad in black velvet for a new British Vogue cover story where the music and business mogul opened up about parenting alongside rapper A$AP Rocky, and of course, was asked about her plans to release her next album. Though the writer appeared cautious when asking the megastar about her long-awaited — six