Music

The return of the Jazz Foundation of America’s annual benefit at Herb Alpert’s Vibrato club saw lifetime achievement awards being presented to four musical legends whose careers date to the ’60s or before, Randy Newman, Smokey Robinson, jazz fusion figure Bennie Maupin and producer Lou Adler. Homage was paid at the intimate nightspot in Bel

Every great singer has her own signature, and Dionne Warwick’s, in her defining period in the ’60s and ’70s, was the gorgeous wavery ethereal slowness of her vibrato. It allowed her to hit a note, sustain it with that beautiful wide tremolo, and invest it with a yearning that was pure enough to pierce you.

We Are Moving the Needle, the nonprofit launched by Grammy-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar — which celebrates its first birthday today —  has partnered with Jaxsta, the Australia-based database of music credits, to include gender identifiers in its search function. The goal: to showcase engineers, producers, mixers, and songwriters who are women or non-binary. The

Treatment toward women in the music industry has shown some improvement but has a long way to go, according to the inaugural “Women in the Mix” study from the Recording Academy, Arizona State University and Berklee College of Music Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. According to the announcement, the report is designed to examine and better

Kelly Clarkson paid tribute to country legend Dolly Parton at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards with a scorching performance of “I Will Always Love You.” Hosted by Parton and taking place at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the ACM Awards are streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in a two-hour format with

Morgan Wallen took home album of the year at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards for “Dangerous: The Double Album,” marking his first major country music award since his 2021 N-word scandal. In his speech, Wallen said, “When I started this album, I was a kid. By the time I put it out, I

The Academy of Country Music Awards are underway in Las Vegas, for the show’s first streaming-only webcast, via Amazon Prime Video, its first at the cavernous Allegiant Stadium, and its first compacted into a two-hour, commercial-free format. Dolly Parton is hosting, with Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett in co-host roles. As the end of the

Recent months have seen several top pop artists make big management changes. While not uncommon in the music industry, it’s rarer to see such shifts align with the acts reaching career highs. What gives? “Artists have a short memory,” says one music biz insider. “They convince themselves that the grass is greener.” Artist: Miley Cyrus

“Encanto” is spending its eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, but the real enchantment this week may be in the form of three debuting albums that arrived to add some fresh air to the staleness of the chart in recent weeks. Although nothing was remotely in danger of dethroning the Disney

Kobalt today reported that its gross collections grew by 15% to $548 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. The company also reported its first-ever year of profitability with $48.5 million EBITDA. The company also said it expects to approach $625 million in gross collections and near $65 million in EBITDA profit for

Dolly Parton is hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards tonight for the first time since 2000. In the interim, she has hosted the primary rival show, the Country Music Association Awards, twice as well. But clearly the demand for Dolly outstrips the supply she’s been willing to deliver, and she’s never allowed herself to

As the Prince estate slowly digs itself out of the legal and procedural morass that ensued after the legendary musician died in 2016 without leaving a will, a standoff between the estate and Morris Day, Prince’s near-lifelong friend and collaborator and frontman of the first Prince-spawned artist, broke into the open last week. At issue

Tom March has been named president of Geffen Records in the U.S., the company announced today (March 7). March, who as co-president of Polydor Records made the label one of the top imprints in the U.K., will begin his tenure at Geffen in July. Geffen Records was relaunched by Interscope Geffen A&M chairman & CEO

It’s almost become a model in recent years: If a song’s a hit, the copyright-infringement lawsuits follow, and Dua Lipa was clobbered with two of them in four days last week. Her global hit “Levitating,” which has spent 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, has drawn two lawsuits from songwriters claiming the song infringes

British rapper Dizzee Rascal has been found guilty of assaulting his former partner. According to U.K. press reports, the musician, whose real name is Dylan Kwabena Mills, was found guilty of assault by beating at Wimbledon Magistrates Court on Monday. As he left court, he also reportedly broke a Press Association (PA) photographer’s camera. The

When the entertainer of the year prize is handed out at tonight’s Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, the odds strongly favor a WME Nashville client picking up the climactic trophy. That’s because the agency has four of the five nominees, between Eric Church, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton. Historically, the

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. To music lovers, 2022 is a much-welcome reintroduction to live music after some of the most anticipated tours and festivals of the past two years were postponed due to the pandemic. Now, artists are

After having to reschedule due to COVID, Lady Gaga has announced new dates for her eagerly-anticipated Chromatica Ball summer tour. The singer announced the 15 stops via Twitter on Monday morning, which start July 17 and will continue through September 10. LADY GAGATHE CHROMATICA BALLSUMMER STADIUM TOURhttps://t.co/6KQAlVnUkX pic.twitter.com/JMp86Mymp2 — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) March 7, 2022

Republic Records has appointed David Wolter executive vice president of A&R,label  co-president Wendy Goldstein announced today (March 7). He is based in Republic Records’ New York headquarters. Throughout his career,  Wolter has signed or worked closely with artists ranging from Gorillaz to Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers. At Republic, he will oversee upcoming releases for Benee, Greta Van Fleet, Jimmy Fallon and others, in addition to signing

Broadway and recording star Idina Menzel showed her support Sunday for a Ukrainian girl who was shown singing a song from Disney’s “Frozen” from inside a makeshift bunker. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has now lasted ten days. It has destroyed schools, hospitals and residential buildings causing millions of civilians in Ukraine to

Hipgnosis Song Management has acquired the song catalog of Leonard Cohen, poet, novelist, performer and one of the most influential songwriters of the past 50 years. The Canadian-born artist, who died in 2016 at the age of 82, is an inductee of both the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall Of

John Mayer announced Friday that he’s leaving Columbia Records, the label that has been his home since his debut album came out in 2001. The surprising declaration comes during a lull in a national tour behind what has apparently turned out to be his last Columbia album, “Sob Rock.” Mayer revealed the news in an

Outsider music and outsider art have been bedfellows in just about every sense since the two art forms have existed, and that collaboration is celebrated and explored in the Outsider Art Fair, taking place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York this weekend. Howard Finster The exhibit — which is celebrating its 30th year and

Hit songwriter Ross Golan, who has crafted smashes for Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, One Direction and Demi Lovato, has started a petition on Change.org asking the music community to stop licensing songs in Russia for as long as the nation wages war on Ukraine. The petition, posted Thursday afternoon here, was put up for the

Anyone paying even casual attention to the music industry must have noticed the skyrocketing value of song catalogs, which have exploded at such a rate that we’re seeing an average of two or three nine-figure deals per month, with Sting, Neil Diamond and David Bowie’s estate making multi-hundred-million-dollar sales in just the past two months.

Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish are set to headline England’s Glastonbury Festival, taking place June 22-26 at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset. McCartney and Lamar join previously announced headliners Eilish and Ross. McCartney will headline the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night, while Lamar will close out the festival on Sunday. Diana Ross will

To say the past five years have turned Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell’s world upside down would be something of an understatement. The group said farewell to longtime band members Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds and split with Interscope Records after just one album (2016’s “Why Are You OK”), as well as its longtime

Ed Sheeran is fighting a copyright lawsuit over his hit single “Shape of You.” The case, which is being heard in London’s High Court, is the culmination of a 4-year legal battle between Sheeran and songwriters Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue. Chokri, a grime artist, is better known under his pseudonym Sami Switch. O’Donoghue is

Cary Baker has had a distinct niche in music publicity for a good portion of the 42 years he’s worked in the field. To skip past the list of the genres and subgenres he championed, starting with his helping establish R.E.M. as a superstar act, and past a recent boutique roster of high-quality clients that

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Tyler, the Creator knows footwear. And with over 15 shoe collaborations under his belt (on top of six chart-topping albums), some might say the multi-hyphenate artist traverses the fashion industry as natively as the