Music

The Recording Academy has announced several new awards and rule changes for the Grammy Awards, including Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical), along with Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, and a Special Merit Award for Best Song for Social Change. Other amendments include changes to the Grammys entry and voting processes

For reviewers, it’s become a cliché when writing about a soft-pedaled, fan-service pop-star documentary to refer to it as an infomercial. The cliché isn’t always wrong. On occasion, I’ve used the I-word. But one reason that I stopped using is it seemed too easy — and also, I couldn’t help but notice that I was

Kid Cudi is inviting some friends along for an “Entergalactic” journey. As part of Netflix’s Geeked Week event, the first look of the hip-hop star’s new animated series has been released, revealing the plot and full cast for the upcoming show. Cudi, credited as Scott Mescudi, stars in the series as Jabari, a young, passionate

Christina Aguilera is going all out for her upcoming performance at L.A. Pride. The vocal powerhouse is set to take the stage on June 11 at L.A. State Historic Park. Sources tell me that she’s recruited Mya for a mini reunion of their 2011 hit “Lady Marmalade” remake from the soundtrack of the Baz Luhrmann-directed

From traditional West African highlife music to modern-day Afrobeat R&B, Adekunle Gold has become one of the top exports during the genre’s globalization. Initially garnering attention for his 2014 One Direction “Story of My Life” cover (later retitled “Sade”), Gold used that momentum to launch his career and release four studio albums. His 2022 Catch

While he hasn’t been active in the music world for a couple of decades, Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, is indisputably one of the greatest record executives in history. The list of artists that the company spawned under his watch is astonishing and arguably without peer for a company of its size: U2, Bob

My life has always revolved around music. My mother is a dancer who played Seals & Crofts and Stevie Wonder records loudly in our apartment as far back as I can remember. My uncle, the jazz saxophonist Alan Braufman, bought me a drum set when I was two-and-a-half years old. I’ve never known my father,

In the wake ofFoo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death in March, the band and Hawkins’ family have announced tribute concerts taking place in September in London and Los Angeles. The concerts will be held September 3 at London’s Wembley Stadium and September 27 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. Hawkins’ wife Alison also issued

K-pop superstars BTS has confirmed that its latest album “Proof” will stretch across three CDs and consist of 48 tracks. It will drop on Friday. The album and the composition of the disks are intended to represent the past, present and future of the nine-year-old band, agency Big Hit Music said Wednesday (Korean time). Within

“6 Festivals,” a music drama film that marks the first Australian feature movie to be commissioned by Paramount+, is to get a local theatrical release. The picture is the story of three teenage best friends (played by Rasmus King, Yasmin Honeychurch and Rory Potter) who try to attend six music festivals in as many months.

J-Hope of BTS has been added as a headliner for this year’s Lollapalooza festival, taking place in Chicago’s Grant Park on July 28-31. J-Hope will close out the festival on Sunday, July 31, making history as the first South Korean artist to headline the main stage at a major U.S. music festival. Lollapalooza also announced

Lil Nas X is sending out a message about his BET Awards snub in a sneak peek of a new song titled “Late to Da Party” — and accompanied the preview snippet with social media messages calling out “the bigger problem of homophobia in the Black community.” In the one-minute teaser video for the song,

Lizzo, a three-time Grammy winner, is entering a new awards season campaign — but this time, she’s a TV star. In March, reality competition series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” debuted on Amazon Prime Video. The project, now a contender in the Emmys reality race, was the first to come out of the

The official lineup for this year’s iHeartRadio Music Festival has arrived, with the two-day event booking such major music stars as Megan Thee Stallion, Halsey, Avril Lavigne, Nicki Minaj, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen for top slots at the Sept. 23-24 event, to be held at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. Joining those artists on the

“Inventing Anna” actress Julia Garner has been offered the role of Madonna in a forthcoming biopic about the pop icon, sources familiar with the project told Variety. Garner has emerged the favorite from over a dozen candidates, one insider added, and has for months been speculated as a frontrunner for the part — a performance

UPDATED: Migos have pulled out of this weekend’s Governors Ball festival in New York for reasons that festival organizers said are “out of our control.” The Atlanta trio have been replaced on the lineup by Lil Wayne. The move amplified rumors that Migos are splitting up due to bad feelings between Quavo and Offset. While

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Kendrick Lamar is one of many artists to release a highly anticipated album over the last month, just in time for summer touring. The same day that Lamar released his fifth full-length album “Mr.

As the war in Ukraine rages on, recently marking a grim 100-day milestone, some of the country’s music stars are banding together to raise funds abroad in an effort to aid their countrymen, and women, still fighting in the east of the now war-torn nation. Ivan Dorn, one of Ukraine’s most eclectic and best-known music

The City of Brotherly Love will welcome Bad Bunny and Tyler, the Creator as co-headliners for the Made in America Festival which returns for its 10th year. As usual, the event will take place at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend, from September 3-4. With a lineup curated by festival founder,

Travis Scott will headline the Day N Vegas festival slated for the weekend of September 2-4, sources confirm to Variety. The performance will be his first U.S. festival appearance since the disastrous Astroworld festival back in November, when 10 people were killed when the crowd surged during his set. The news was first reported by

Jim Seals, who as part of the duo Seals and Crofts crafted memorably wistful 1970s hits like “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl,” died Monday at age 80. No cause of death was immediately given. Several friends and relatives confirmed the death. “I just learned that James ‘Jimmy’ Seals has passed,” announced his cousin, Brady Seals,

Boxed sets are typically compiled for the music fan that wants a lot of just one thing. But the Hollywood Bowl’s tens of thousands of repeat customers every summer tend to be musical omnivores. Sometimes it’s about the top-billed artist, and sometimes it’s about sampling genres slightly outside of one’s wheelhouse because the Bordeaux you’ve

After quietly developing talent for years, the production duo of David Biral and Denzel Baptiste — otherwise known as Take a Daytrip — have officially launched No Idle, a publishing imprint in partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group. What started off as organic collaborations between friends has become, thanks to a push from UMPG, an

Spotify has revealed its performance and panel lineup for this year’s Cannes Lions Festival, taking place Monday, June 20 to Thursday, June 23. Back for an encore is Spotify Beach, which will make its home on the Croisette daily from dusk till dawn. Performances take place each night and will feature Kendrick Lamar, DJ Pee

Prince’s musical career had many peaks, but he was most on top of the world — literally — on March 30, 1985, when he and the Revolution played a concert at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York that was broadcast all over the planet in the first global telecast of its kind. Even with

Although Harry Styles’ “As It Was” maintains its run atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the fifth week, it’s Kate Bush’s 1985 classic “Running Up That Hill” that’s the talk of the town as it has re-entered the chart at No. 8. The revival of the track on the new fourth season of Netflix’s “Stranger

Julian Casablancas, frontman and main songwriter of the Strokes, has sold a stake in his renowned Strokes catalog to Primary Wave. Primary Wave confirmed the purchase but declined to specify exactly how much of a stake in the catalog it had purchased or how much it paid in the deal. The sale gives the company

Even with the official start of summer still be a couple of weeks ago, the season’s spirit was in full swing for iHeartRadio KIIS FM’s Wango Tango on Saturday night, featuring appearances from Camila Cabello, Becky G and Shawn Mendes, who brought the heat with arena-level performances. As one of the night’s most anticipated acts,

In 2008, on a pier beside Philly’s Delaware River, the Roots started what would become an annual live gathering, the Roots Picnic. The inaugural fest was a one-day affair near the City of Brotherly Love’s downtown, with its greatest highlight being hip-hop’s mightiest live band backing legacy rap and R&B artists such as Snoop Dogg,

Before Queen and Adam Lambert hit the stage for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee concert on June 4, founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor revealed that they are planning to share a previously unreleased song featuring Freddie Mercury in September. The trio was interviewed for the event on BBC Radio 2 by Zoe Ball,