Music

It’s been three years since “Captain Marvel,” with a worldwide box office take of $1.1 billion, became the biggest-grossing movie ever scored by a woman: Pinar Toprak. Toprak, who also scored this year’s Netflix adventure “Slumberland,” is one of four female composers being talked about for 2022 awards. Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir has “Tár” and

Justin Bieber is nearing a deal to sell his music rights to Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for around $200 million, sources confirm to Variety. The news, which has been rumored for weeks, was first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. The deal, which sources stress is not yet done, includes Bieber’s shares of his publishing

Superstar Taylor Swift won’t be making her upcoming directorial debut as an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Although she is still among the 15 songs still in the running for best original song, her film “All Too Well: The Short Film,” which stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, failed to advance to the next round of voting for

It could be a star-studded musical evening at the Academy Awards come March 12, as Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Rhianna and the Weeknd are all up for best-song Oscar nominations following today’s announcement of the shortlists in music. Fifteen songs and 15 scores from 2022 movies were selected by the 389 voting members of Oscar’s

The subtitle of Weezer’s new EP is “Winter,” but given the band’s enduring vitality, it feels like anything but the winter of their years — even if Weezer has been a band for three decades now, releasing 15 studio albums and over a dozen hit singles since forming in 1992. At the age of 52,

Young Thug’s brother entered a negotiated guilty plea on Dec. 20 as part of the highly publicized indictment alleging criminal activities relating to the group YSL, which prosecutors claim is not only a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but also a “violent street gang.” Quantavious Grier, who raps under the moniker Unfoonk, pleaded guilty

A Virginia rapper whose album cover features a photo of himself at the Capitol riot was sentenced to five months in prison by a federal judge on Monday, according to WUSA9 in Washington, D.C. Bugzie the Don — real name: Antionne Brodnax — used a photo of himself smoking a blunt while sitting atop an SUV, apparently during

Hollywood pop-music biopics tend to be about artists who go back a long way (Elvis, Tina Turner, the Doors). “Bohemian Rhapsody” felt rooted in a fresher, less done-to-death-by-biopics era — though when the Freddie Mercury drama came out, its title song was already 43 years old. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” which tells the exultant and

Tory Lanez’s defense team was thrown a curveball in court by a man who says he witnessed the roadside assault against Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. The man testified Dec. 20 that he had seen a “violent” brawl that first broke out between two women, followed by an angry male, alleged to be Lanez, who

Pusha T has publicly cut ties with Kanye West’s former record label G.O.O.D. Music, which he first joined in 2010, and remained with through the release of his 2022 Grammy-nominated album “It’s Almost Dry.” In 2015, Pusha became the president of G.O.O.D., but in a new interview with XXL, he confirmed his affiliation with the

BTS‘ massive free-of-charge show at Busan’s World Expo in October welcomed upwards of 50,000 in-person guests but fans who missed out will now have a chance to experience the performance on the big screen. On Tuesday, the group revealed the concert film, “BTS: Yet to Come in Cinemas,” will be hitting movie theaters worldwide starting

Over the years the Ally Coalition Talent Show, helmed by uber-producer Jack Antonoff, has featured one-off performances by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Regina Spektor , often premiering new material. After pandemic-induced a year online and another year away, the show returned as an in-person event on Monday night, with performances by Phoebe Bridgers, the

The Recording AcademyEntertainment Law Initiative, which celebrates the 25 th anniversary of its annual Grammy Week event next year, will honor veteran attorney Peter T. Paterno, Partner at King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, with the 2023 Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award, presented each year to an attorney who has demonstrated a commitment to advancing and

Charlie Monk, a music industry figure known in Nashville as “the Mayor of Music Row” for his six-decade-plus career in broadcasting, songwriting and publishing, died Monday at age 84. No cause of death was given; a statement from his family said he died peacefully at home in Nashville. Monk was ushered into the Country Radio

As the prosecution moves to complete their case in the highly-publicized criminal trial of Tory Lanez for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, they called for additional testimony on Monday from LAPD officer Sandra Cabral and senior DA investigator Jody Little. Little (whose September interview with Harris was played in full for the courts

SZA’s “SOS” easily squeezed past the holiday and year-end bustle to top the Billboard 200 with the fifth-best debut week of 2022, also becoming the R&B singer’s first No. 1 album on the list. With genre-crossing features from guests including Travis Scott and Phoebe Bridgers, “SOS” posted 318,000 album units in the U.S. in its

Terry Hall, the lead singer of English ska band the Specials, has died at the age of 63, the band announced on social media. In the band’s statement, they indicated that Hall died following an unspecified brief illness. “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of

“That is mind-blowing to me,” admits Jessy Wilson, still “in shock” about her recent Grammy nomination for “Keep Rising,” the end-credits song she wrote for “The Woman King” with producer (and ex-Jars of Clay sideman) Jeremy Lutito, featuring Angelique Kidjo. “I knew that it had been submitted, and I made a ‘for your consideration’ graphic

Several of this year’s Academy Award-nominee possibilities for best picture have something in common: They’ve used David Bowie’s music to illustrate pertinent script points, heighten a scene’s emotionality or simply enrich a mood. “When you use a David Bowie song… his work as an artist is always so meaningful,” says Randy Spendlove, the president of

With podcasts conquering not just car dashboards, but earbuds and all points in between, it’s amazing anyone has time for actual, real life. In a post-COVID cocoon, those who crave music business schmooze turn to the next best thing via audio, offering deep dives into the record-making process, from creation to execution to distribution to

The anticipation behind SZA’s “SOS” was multi-layered. Devoted fans waited five years after the debut of the evergreen “Ctrl” for another complete body of work from the R&B singer — but that pressure only seemed to add more drawbacks and prompted laborious cycles of self-introspection heard on the 23-song set. “For me to sit out

Shirley Watts, who was married to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie from 1964 until his death last year, has died after a short illness, according to a statement from her family. She was 84. The statement reads: “It is with great sadness that Seraphina, Charlotte and Barry announce the death of their much-loved mother, grandmother and

Indie-rock icons Pavement were always a band that scoffed at rock clichés even as they became reluctant rock stars, appearing on magazine covers, headlining festivals and releasing albums through major labels during the alternative heyday of the 1990s. That stance has continued even as the group, which split in 2000, has reformed for two reunion

As the rock era has moved into old age, a phenomenon has emerged known as the “copyright dump,” where, due to a still vaguely defined European Union law, artists must release recordings before those recordings become 50 years old, or lose the rights to them. This places the artists in the awkward position of having

While the world was soaking in the news of Argentina’s thrilling win over France at the 2022 World Cup final, Lil Baby and Budweiser released the music video for the Tears For Fears-inspired FIFA single “The World Is Yours to Take.” The anthem was originally released in September as part of the official FIFA World

Billy Joel has postponed his final Madison Square Garden concert of the year, initially slated for Monday evening, due to a “viral infection.” On Saturday evening, reps for the singer shared a statement with Variety confirming the December show would be pushed to June 2 and said the “Uptown Girl” singer was “under strict doctor’s

It has been three months since protests broke out in Iran against the country’s Islamic regime. This resistance movement was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the government’s morality police. While the movement is credited as women-led, men have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their Iranian sisters in this resistance, at the

After Kelsey Harris, a key witness in the trial of Tory Lanez, claimed on the stand Thursday that she either didn’t see or couldn’t recall the circumstances of the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, prosecutors on Friday played the entirety of an 80-minute taped interview she did three months ago — in which Harris was

The best things in life are worth waiting for. That seems to be the sentiment surrounding Jorge Drexler and “Tinta y Tiempo” (“Ink and Time”), the physician-turned-musician’s 14th studio album that “almost didn’t happen,” he tells Variety. The album swept at the Latin Grammys this year, with the Uruguayan singer-songwriter taking home six trophies, in

Talking about an album inspired by “Stick Season,” the transition between fall and winter in Noah Kahan’s native Vermont, while on the 40-somethingth floor of a hotel in Midtown Manhattan is an unusual disconnect, but it’s as fitting a setting as any for a “Live From My Den” session with this folk-inspired singer-songwriter who’s also