The rare horror contender, “Candyman” features an electro-acoustic score by New York composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe that contributes to the eerie and ultimately terrifying atmosphere of Nia DaCosta’s update of the 1992 classic. “Candyman” was co-written and produced by Jordan Peele and wound up among the year’s top 20 grossing films. Lowe spent more
Music
The Academy’s music branch was particularly broad-minded for this year’s Oscar shortlist, choosing 15 scores that run the gamut from conventional to experimental, echoing ancient times as well as anticipating the music of the future. Academy voters were especially encouraging of women (one score) and people of color (four), statistics that are heartening and may
Clay Aiken, the singer and actor who came to fame on “American Idol,” announced Monday that he running for Congress as a Democrat in North Carolina. “Can you believe it’s been almost 20 years since I first got to share my voice with you?” tweeted Aiken, referring to his breakout status as the runner-up to
Pussycat Dolls members Jessica Sutta and Carmit Bachar say that lead singer Nicole Scherzinger canceled the group’s reunion tour without telling them, according to a social media post from the pair, who claim the first they learned of the cancellation was in the singer’s Instagram Story. “We want to say how incredibly disappointed we are
Netflix has dropped a new teaser trailer for its forthcoming three-part Kanye West documentary titled “Jeen-yuhs,” which it promises allows fans to “step inside the journey of Kanye West.” Directed by Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah (a.k.a. Coodie and Chike), “Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy: is “an intimate and revealing portrait of Kanye West’s experience, showcasing both his
James Mtume, the R&B and jazz percussionist, recording artist and producer best known for the 1983 smash “Juicy Fruit” and his work with Miles Davis and other top jazz musicians, has died at the age of 76. The news was confirmed by his son to Pitchfork, among other sources; no cause was cited. Mtume’s affiliation
Michael Lang, the co-creator and organizer of 1969’s Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and its follow-ups Woodstock ’94 and the ill-fated Woodstock ’99, died Saturday at the age of 77 at Sloan Kettering in New York City. The cause of death was a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to family spokesperson Michael Pagnotta. He
Pete Davidson surprised fans by hopping on stage with Jack Harlow at The Novo in Los Angeles on Friday night. Together, the pair performed Harlow’s song “SUVs (Black on Black).” Davidson began by dancing next to Harlow, chiming in for a few lines, before Harlow turned to him, saying, “You got this one right here,
Nearly a half-hour of unseen 8mm footage of the Rolling Stones, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and other artists performing at Altamont has been recovered by the Library of Congress and published on its website, thanks to an unlikely find among 200,000 reels of film that were acquired 20 years ago.
High-profile music producer Dave Cobb is currently up for several Grammys for his working with two longtime clients who have a couple of the biggest and best voices in the business: Brandi Carlile and Chris Stapleton. For a recent film project, he was tasked with replicating the vintage ’70s/’80s song catalog of another belter, albeit
A concertgoer has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles venue the Forum for alleged injuries sustained during a crowd surge at Harry Styles’ “Fine Line” album release concert in December 2019. According to documents obtained by Variety, the plaintiff is suing the Forum, its then-owner Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., Madison Square Garden Sports Corp.,
Tyler, the Creator uttered an emphatic “Fuck no” when asked recently by Hot 97 radio host Peter Rosenberg if the hip-hop collective he came up in, Odd Future, would have succeeded in 2021. Beginning with 2008’s “The Odd Future Tape,” the group’s catalog was littered with violent, sexist, misogynistic and homophobic lyrics, which would never
When ZZ Top sold its catalog to the KKR-BMG partnership in December, observers noted that the companies, which announced that they were joining forces to acquire music catalogs last March, hadn’t actually seemed to acquire much. However, it turns out they have: A source close to the situation confirms to Variety that John Legend sold
Jack White hasn’t talked much publicly about his forthcoming pair of new albums — “Fear of the Dawn,” out April 8, and “Entering Heaven Alive,” due July 22 — but he took to Los Angeles radio station Alt 98.7 to exclusively premiere a new live-in-the-studio music video on the station’s website, as well as to
Live Nation has been given more time to provide answers to a congressional oversight committee that last month asked for written answers to questions relating to the deadly Astroworld Festival debacle, in which 10 people died during a crowd surge on Nov. 5, contending that “the tragedy at Astroworld Festival follows a long line of other tragic
Phylicia Fant, Columbia Records’ co-head of urban music for two years, has left the company, a rep confirms to Variety. While no reason was given for her departure and the department has enjoyed significant success since she and Shawn Holiday were named co-heads in December of 2018 — particularly with Lil Nas X, Polo G,
Pioneering hip-hop group De La Soul landed the kind of song placement in a blockbuster film that most artists dream of: A major spot for their 1989 song “Three Is a Magic Number” in the end credits of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which, with more than $1.4 billion thus far in ticket sales, has been
The Weeknd’s music has always been based around a combination of light and darkness, as the truth-in-advertising title of his 2015 sophomore full-length album, “The Beauty Behind the Madness,” stated — love and hate, happiness and anger, hope and despair, and any number of other complimentary/ contradictory, yin-and-yang elements. That combination reached a new and
Displaying a characteristic damn-the-torpedoes spirit in the face of the omicron surge, Bon Jovi have announced dates for an American tour beginning in April. The recent omicron surge has caused the cancelation or postponement of multiple events — most recently Dead & Co.’s “Playing in the Sand” festival in Mexico, which was canceled Thursday, a
Around the turn of the millennium, David Bowie made one of the more unexpected moves in a career filled with them: He began revisiting some of the very earliest songs from his professional career, most of which he’d released in his teens or early 20s and that most fans would only be dimly aware of,
Some thirty acts have announced the cancelation of their performances or attendance at the Sydney Festival, a major arts festival that started Thursday in Australia’s biggest city. They argue that the festival is supporting Israel as an oppressor state, and that it is ignoring the plight of Palestinians. Acts that have announced their withdrawal include
UPDATED: The group Dead and Company announced Thursday that its Playing in the Sand festival, slated to begin Friday in Cancun, has been canceled entirely. The move comes just a day after it was announced that frontman John Mayer was pulling out of the first weekend due to his testing positive for COVID-19 on the
A slew of eye-popping catalog sales, the promise of streaming’s expanding reach and proven music-to-screen pivots have made the music industry an increasingly attractive option for investment, financially and in terms of executive talent. Looking ahead to 2022, these 10 players are poised to make noise. Ethiopia HabtemariamChairman and CEO, Motown Records Habtemariam’s promotion to
The Music Business Association (Music Biz) has announced that Sony Music Publishing Chairman & CEO Jon Platt will participate in a keynote conversation during the organization’s upcoming Music Biz 2022 conference, to be held May 9 – 12, 2022 at the JW Marriott Nashville. Named head of SMP in 2018 after many successful years at
Even as the old year turned into the new, and as positive COVID tests in Los Angeles reached their highest counts since the beginning of the pandemic, Recording Academy officials were still hoping to find a way to keep the Grammys on the show’s long-scheduled Jan. 31 date — and it’s not hard to see
A record year for audio on-demand streams in the U.S. and a new milestone for vinyl sales are two of the top talking points in MRC Data’s 2021 year-end report, issued this morning by the industry’s leading tracking service, but the continued swell in catalog streams and sales — i.e. recordings older than 18 months
Dead and Company is down by one company man. John Mayer will not be performing as a frontman for the group at the Playing in the Sand festival, after testing positive for COVID-19 just before he was to head to Mexico to perform. An Instagram statement from the band, an offshoot of the Grateful Dead,
Country Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall’s death in August 2021 at 85 was by suicide, officials in his native Williamson County, Tenn, have confirmed to reporters. The cause of death was first reported Wednesday by the website Saving Country Music, which followed up on multiple comments posted on a year-end In Memoriam piece
Billie Eilish and Kanye West are slated to headline the 2022 Coachella festival, sources tell Variety, on Saturday and Sunday night, respectively. Swedish House Mafia are also on the bill, although it is unclear whether they are the festival’s third headliner — the traditional “throwback” slot for the reunion of a more veteran artist. West
All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Cher is living her best life in the new campaign for Ugg, which sees the music and fashion