Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Somewhere over the rainbow, indeed! Kenya Barris tells me that LGBTQ representation will be featured in his “Wizard of Oz” remake. “The original was an allegory and a reflection of the way the world was at the time with things like the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl,”
Music
UPDATED: Director Jon M. Chu has confirmed that Jonathan Bailey will play Fiyero in the “Wicked” movies after Variety reported that the actor was in talks to join the cast. “He’s perfect, they’re perfect. They’d be perfect together. Born to be forever….. I am too excited to pretend this hasn’t been happening,” he tweeted along
U.S. recorded-music revenue climbed 9%, streaming revenues are up 10% and vinyl sales soared a whopping 22% in the first half of 2022, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America’s mid-year report released on Wednesday. Total revenue climbed 9% to $7.7 billion at estimated retail value; total streaming revenues rose 10% to $6.5 billion,
Sept. 21, Wednesday Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are honored at the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s Pioneers of the Year Dinner. Sam Smith performs.The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts honors Shelli and Irving Azoff.The Wallis, Beverly Hills Oprah Winfrey, Reginald Hudlin and Derik Murray premiere
Matthew West won songwriter of the year honors from the ASCAP Christian Music Awards, as he did last year — but unlike 2021, he was able to make it a double-play, also picking up song of the year for his composition “My Jesus.” It represents the fifth time West has picked up songwriter of the
After a fast courtship, outgoing YouTube head of business Robert Kyncl has been named CEO of Warner Music Group and will replace Steve Cooper when he steps down next year. According to the announcement, Kyncl and Cooper will serve as co-CEOs for the month of January 2023. As of February 1, 2023, Kyncl will become sole CEO of
“I’ve never talked about this publicly before,” said Taylor Swift, teasing the audience as she accepted an award in Nashville Tuesday night, leading at least some of the attendees to be on the edge of their seats. And because it was an audience mostly of songwriters, they stayed there, even when the secret to be
Shares of Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest online music company, made a slow but steady start Wednesday in trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the lunchtime trading break, the shares had climbed to HK$18.22, up from their opening at HK$18.00. They are traded under the number 1698. The company already has a listing
Maren Morris is a CMA Award nominee for album of the year thanks to her record “Humble Quest,” but she isn’t sure she’s attending the November ceremony after she publicly clashed with Brittany and Jason Aldean over transphobic comments they posted on Instagram. Jason Aldean picked up a CMA Award nominee for musical event of
The most famous “family tradition” in country music would have to be the intergenerational legacy of the Hank Williams clan. Right now, though, there’s another scion of Nashville royalty making good as a third-generation success: singer-songwriter Mitchell Tenpenny, who made modern chart history by managed to have two different No. 1 country airplay hits within
David Alan Grier is joining the cast of ABC’s “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.” The Tony winner will play Cogsworth in the star-studded production, according to sources. Previously announced cast members include Oscar winner H.E.R. as Belle, Josh Groban as Beast and Joshua Henry as Gaston. Rita Moreno will serve as the show’s
As it did with Taylor Swift earlier this year, New York University’s Clive Davis Institute has introduced a course on Lana Del Rey for this fall. Taught by journalist and author Kathy Iandoli, the two-credit course, “Topics in Recorded Music: Lana Del Rey” runs Oct. 20-Dec. 8. According to an NYU rep, the course will examine Del
Kanye West took to Instagram on Tuesday to question a Billboard report that his “camp” has been quietly shopping his song catalog, writing via Stories: “Just like Taylor Swift… my publishing is being put up for my sale without my knowledge.” Billboard reported on Monday that members of the rapper’s team “have met selectively with
A few weeks shy of Jermaine Dupri’s 50th birthday, the super-producer is deep into conversation with Variety about his long history of hits and some of the latest notches on his belt… or about as deep as he can be, with Usher repeatedly calling him to discuss the upcoming album they’re in the last stages
Influence Media Partners has acquired Grammy-winning Future’s publishing catalog from 2004 to 2020, the company announced. The prolific rapper’s work from those years spans 612 titles, including titles with frequent collaborator Drake (“Life Is Good,” “Jumpman”), Kendrick Lamar (“King’s Dead”), Rihanna (“Selfish”), and the Weeknd (“Low Life”) and his own solo hits like “Mask Off.”
Gordan Dillard of SALXCO, management home to Doja Cat, has been named executive vice president of A&R and artist development at Capitol Music Group. The Los Angeles-based Dillard, who plans to maintain a “strong presence” in New York, reports to CMG chair and CEO Michelle Jubelirer and is tasked with signing and developing artists across
It’s practically unheard of for artists in the rock realm to publicly announce their setlists before shows have even gone on sale, but Elvis Costello has taken things a step or two beyond that. In announcing a 10-night stand he’ll be doing in New York City in February, Costello said he would be performing at
Bad Bunny reigns over this year’s Latin Grammys, earning a total of 10 nominations, including nods for “Un Verano Sin Ti” for album of the year and for the Bomba Esteréo-featuring “Ojitos Lindos” for record of the year. Bad Bunny has yet to earn wins in any of the big four categories. However, with his
Def Jam Recordings has entered into an exclusive worldwide joint venture partnership agreement with the Lagos, Nigeria and UK-based Native Records. The announcement was made by Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun and Seni “Chubbz” Saraki and Teni “Teezee” Zaccheaus, co-presidents and co-founders of Native Networks. Native Records is the music division of Native Networks, a
“Think of this less of as a show, and more like an open rehearsal,” Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo told the packed house at the tiny, iconic club Troubadour in Los Angeles on Monday night (Sept. 19), where his much-beloved band played a semi-secret, deep-cut packed set under the name Goat Punishment — no phones allowed.
Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” has clinched another nonconsecutive week at No. 1 — it’s 11th time at the top spot out of 19 weeks since its release. Not since Drake’s “Views” logged 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 had a similar feat been reached. Both “Views” and “Un Verano’s” runs were
The Recording Academy‘s Black Music Collective (BMC) has added new members to its honorary chairs and leadership council. Together, the group is committed to the “inclusion, recognition and advancement of Black music and its creators and professionals within the Recording Academy and music industry at-large,” according to the BMC. Yolanda Adams, Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Ethiopia
Brett Morgen’s “Moonage Daydream,” a freewheeling documentary about David Bowie, doesn’t offer a chronology of the life of the late pop icon. Rather it provides a fever dream of sound and vision, with songs torn apart, reimagined and reassembled in ways that reflect its subject’s chameleonic music and art. The doc, out now in IMAX
Lil Nas X is a master of attracting attention, from his eye-popping red carpet looks to his devilish music video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” which sparked outrage from conservative media. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that a religious group showed up outside his Boston, Mass., concert Sunday night to protest the
Not long into her headlining set on the first day of the fourth annual Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Stevie Nicks had a question for the thousands stretched across the beach. “Is this the world of Bruce Springsteen?” she asked to enthusiastic cheers. “OK, we’re driving through, and there’s a street
LeAnn Rimes has been “Blue” about a few things lately, but not about a boy. On her new album, “God’s Work,” her 19th studio album, the singer deals with the darker sides of religion and the patriarchy —areas in which, for her, there’s some overlap — on top of a general pandemic-induced anxiety informing some
Post Malone received medical attention after an accidental step caused him to fall through an open trap door onstage during his show Saturday night in St. Louis, Mo. at the Enterprise Center. Malone had started to sing “Circles” and was stomping down the stage’s ramp when he evidently missed the hole that his instrument had
A tropical thunderstorm forced Lady Gaga to cut her Miami concert short just before she could sing ”Rain on Me” and her encore ”Hold My Hand.” Gaga, who has been performing to sold-out crowds on this stadium tour, was at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on the last night of the Chromatica Ball. Interrupting her show,
A large fire broke out by the Hollywood Bowl as concertgoers were leaving the venue following a “Sound of Music” singalong on Sept. 17. User videos on the social media app Citizen showed firefighters rushing to put out palm trees that had ignited into flames. LAFD also requested the California Highway Patrol shut down one
Ludacris’ longtime manager Chaka Zulu (real name: Ahmed Obafemi) was arrested on a litany of charges, including murder, on Sept. 13. According to Fulton County, Georgia jail inmate records, Obafemi — who voluntarily turned himself in — faces additional charges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and simple