Music

Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen topped the RIAA’s 2021 gold and platinum awards, the organization announced on Wednesday, with both artists’ latest albums attaining double-platinum status and Rodrigo’s blockbuster “Drivers License” single being certified four-times platinum. A total of 16 albums and 98 singles released this year achieved gold or platinum status; highlights appear below.

The Recording Academy has announced that Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer will receive the 2022 Grammy Salute to Industry Icons award “for his leadership, impact and dedication to advancing innovation in the music industry.” Stringer will be honored at Clive Davis’ and the Recording Academy’s Pre-Grammy Gala, which is scheduled to return to the

Midem, for decades the primary international conference for the music industry, will not be returning in 2022 and the brand will be taken over by the city of Cannes, owner RX France announced on Wednesday. “Due to the lasting pandemic and following a review of its activity, RX France [formerly Reed Midem] has decided to

Drake has ghosted Kanye West’s epic “Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert.” Not the show itself, which went off seemingly without a hitch at the Los Angeles Coliseum Thursday night, but the Amazon Prime Video streaming version of the concert. The Canadian rapper, who was billed in equally large type with Ye, is now mysteriously almost

Twenty years into her career as R&B’s most sophisticated and anthemic singer, songwriter and pianist Alicia Keys can still shock and awe. Her biggest surprise, however, after the space-soul-inflected “Alicia” album of 2020, is what she has done on her newly released double album, “Keys.” Running through a morning of promotional appearances in New York,

Motown Records has named Courtney Lowery as executive vice president of media strategy and lifestyle. In this new role, Lowery will oversee media strategy and execution for the label and its roster of artists, and also play an integral role in a wide range of the label’s cultural and lifestyle initiatives. Lowery is based in

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. If you couldn’t get your hands on tickets to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” tour, you can at least don

“Parallel Mothers” is Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias’ 13th film for director Pedro Almodóvar and, says Iglesias, “the best experience working for him” to date. The Madrid-based composer is a three-time Oscar nominee, but none of those films (“The Constant Gardener,” “The Kite Runner,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) were by Almodóvar, his filmmaking partner since 1995.

An “intoxicated” Tory Lanez allegedly shouted, “Dance, bitch!” before shooting at Megan Thee Stallion during a roadside dispute after a July 2020 party at Kylie Jenner’s house, hitting her in the foot, according to a police officer’s testimony at Lanez’s preliminary hearing Tuesday in his felony assault case in Los Angeles, according to Rolling Stone.

Dean Martin is playing at their house, apparently. LCD Soundsystem has announced an imminent streaming special, “The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special,” that will open with a ’90s-style-sitcom spoof, featuring actors portraying members of the band and their team, followed by a concert special, presumably featuring the real group. Produced by Amazon Music, it airs both

Goldenvoice, the AEG-owned company that founded and promotes the Coachella Valley Music and Artist Festival, filed a complaint Tuesday in a California U.S. District Court claiming that a new festival called Coachella Day One 22 and connected to its chief rival, Live Nation, infringes on the original festival’s trademark. In the complaint, Goldenvoice accuses Live

A 56-year-old acetate recording of a previously unreleased and relatively unknown song featuring David Bowie is expected to draw thousands of pounds at an auction in England on Thursday. The song, titled “I Want Your Love” and recorded in 1965 by a teenaged Bowie and his early group the Lower Third, was written by John

Daniel Pemberton’s score for Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos” is unlike anything he’s written to date — a surprising choice for this think-outside-the-box composer, but one that would fit comfortably in the 1950s milieu of the film itself. “I felt it needed a kind of classic score that echoed the golden age of Hollywood,” Pemberton

The Rolling Stones had what was almost certainly the most high-profile tour of the year. On Pollstar’s just-released ranking of 2021’s top tours, though, the Stones come in only at No. 8. There’s a good reason for that, of course — the list is ranked by tickets sold, not grosses. Harry Styles was No. 1,

Filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s interest in documenting Billie Eilish dates back to 2018, when he contacted director of photography Jenna Rosher about a rising star he saw interviewed in Vanity Fair. “I watched those and was completely fascinated and blown away by her from the get-go,” Rosher says of the magazine’s series, which checks in on

Adele remains the queen of all that she surveys in pop music this week, notching another win at the top of both the Billboard 200 album chart and the Hot 100 singles chart with “30” and “Easy on Me,” respectively, even as SZA and a horde of Christmas songs make some snowy inroads. “Easy on

It was just a matter of time before proud Kentucky native and Variety’s 2021 Hitmaker of Tomorrow Jack Harlow teamed up with Kentucky Fried Chicken, and on the eve of the rising rapper’s “No Place Like Home” concert series in his home state, the partnership has been announced: The Louisville native will “usher in a new

Republic Records has promoted Lucas Romeo to senior VP of promotion, effective immediately, EVP Gary Spangler announced on Monday. Based in New York, Romeo will oversee promotion efforts across multiple formats, guiding the promotion team and breaking artists in today’s new landscape. Romeo joined Republic in 2014 as regional promotion manager in Nashville, before returning to New York to serve as VP of Top

Eighty-four songs and 137 original scores have been deemed eligible for Academy Awards consideration this year, Variety has learned. The approximately 375 members of Oscar’s music branch began preliminary voting on Friday. Balloting ends at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Fifteen songs and 15 scores will be chosen to compete for the final five slots in each

Michelle Jubelirer has been promoted to chair and CEO of Capitol Music Group. She joined the company in 2013 as EVP and was upped to COO in 2015. She succeeds Jeff Vaughn, who leaves the company “to pursue new opportunities,” per a release, and will report to Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian

With the Rolling Loud California festival taking place just two days and a few dozen miles from the site of Kanye West’s massive concert with Drake on Thursday, it seemed likely that West might make an appearance. But although it didn’t happen on Friday night during Kid Cudi’s set — which seemed like a strong

Megan Thee Stallion reigned supreme over TikTok’s year-end music report for the second year in a row, topping their list of artists with the most usage by catalog. “Cognac Queen,” “Thot Shit” and “Cry Baby” were just a few of Stallion’s songs that kept her at No. 1 this year, sparking many a dance challenge

Vicente Fernández, an icon of traditional Mexican music, has died. He was 81 years old. While an official cause of death was not available, Fernández had been hospitalized since August after taking a fall on his Guadalajara ranch that required emergency spinal surgery. Fernández’s family later reported that the performer had been diagnosed with Guillain–Barré

When the pandemic hit, there were many aspects of the performing arts that adopted a livestream model, of course, as a necessity and a stopgap until normal life — and normal live — could resume. But what if there was something about delivering a performance on Zoom that was (to borrow an “Achtung Baby” 30th-anniversary

It should go without saying that hosting “Saturday Night Live” is one of the most daunting roles in television. Being a trained actor isn’t enough because you also have to be funny and comfortable in a high-pressure live setting; being a reality-TV or internet celebrity is even less effective training for the same reasons. And

BTS were the big winners of nine awards, Saturday at the Mnet Asia Music Awards (MAMA), the annual celebration of K-pop. Though the band were not present in person they scooped four grand prizes including “artist of the year,” “song of the year,” “album of the year” and “worldwide icon of the year.” Solo singer,

What do rock ‘n’ roll and rock journalism have in common? Out of many things, probably, one is that they were both once assumed to be ephemeral. But if the prevalence of classic-rock stations and playlists over the decades has proved that rock ‘n’ roll really is here to stay, the reporting and criticism surrounding

After a two-year absence, iHeartRadio’s Z100 Jingle Ball returned live to Madison Square Garden in New York City Friday night (Dec. 10) with a lineup that included Ed Sheeran, Lil Nas X, The Jonas Brothers, AJR, Saweetie, Bazzi, Dixie D’Amilio and Kane Brown. While the re-emergence of the yearly fiesta feting the year’s biggest hits

BTS scooped up the most trophies of the night on Saturday at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, the region’s largest music awards ceremony. The event known as MAMA, which was offered as a global live stream telecast via YouTube and a host of other platforms, also hailed artists such as Ed Sheeran and Wanna One.

Travis Scott has been effectively removed from the lineup of performances for the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Variety has learned. The development follows a report by KESQ in Palm Springs which reported that the controversial rapper was dropped from the bill following the tragedy which occurred at his own Astroworld festival in