Music

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner has promised a “thorough review and investigation” of the tragedy at the Travis Scott-headlined festival in the city, where eight people died and more than 300 were injured as crowds surged and stampeded during Scott’s set. Approximately 11 people suffered cardiac arrest at the show, Turner said, although causes of death

Tragedy struck Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival as crowd surges during his Friday night headlining set left 8 dead and over 300 injured, according to Houston officials. 50,000 fans surged during Scott’s performance at the festival outside NRG Park, the Houston Chronicle reports. At a press conference following the tragedy, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña outlined

Madonna made a surprise appearance at the star-studded amfAR Gala Los Angeles to present her longtime friend and collaborator Jeremy Scott with the Award of Courage in recognition of his work with the organization and his commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The eleventh edition of the annual event was held in an elaborately decorated

Whether Ed Sheeran would fulfill his “Saturday Night Live” booking this weekend was a matter of suspense for a lot of people — but not for Sheeran himself, who says that “I was always playing that,” no matter what anyone else expected. He discussed his brief bout with the disease on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern

In an effort to contribute to the fight against the recent Texas state law that effectively bans abortion, Sonic Youth have released two archival live albums on Bandcamp.com, both of which were recorded in the state. The first was recorded in 1995 at the Austin Music Hall during the band’s “Washing Machine” tour, which followed

In a wide-ranging two-and-a-half hour conversation that Revolt TV’s “Drink Champs” billed as its “biggest interview ever,” Kanye West defended aligning himself with Marilyn Manson and DaBaby, knocked Big Sean and John Legend for being “used” by Democrats for “sellout shit,” affirmed that Kim Kardashian West is “still my wife,” spoke out against abortion and

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova will re-team in early 2022 for their first tour together in nearly 11 years, Variety can exclusively reveal. The performances will take place next March to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the movie “Once,” which starred the duo and featured their original music. The film’s “Falling Slowly” won the

Anticipating a long-awaited yet unexpected reunion is one of life’s more conflicted experiences. Will your old friend look good or awful? Will they be stuck in the past, or a 2.0 or 3.0 version of the person you remember? Most of all, will they still be themselves? It’s both corny and perfectly fitting to frame

Taylor Swift announced Friday that she’s written and directed a short film for her upcoming release of a 10-minute version of the fan-favorite song “All Too Well,” in which she’ll star alongside Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. Little else was revealed in the 30-second clip, which features a car driving down a rural road in

Ahead of his “Astroworld” festival taking place in his Houston hometown this weekend, Travis Scott has dropped two new songs, “Escape Plan.” The songs are likely from his forthcoming album “Utopia,” which he and producer Mike Dean have teased on social media over the past few weeks. [embedded content] Although “Escape Plan” drew most of

Taylor Swift will be doing a lot of late-night promotion for next week’s “Red (Taylor’s Version)” album, and so far she’s keeping it all in the NBC family. Social media posts Thursday from Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers or their shows revealed that Swift will be appearing back-to-back with both hosts on the night of

Charli XCX has revealed a release date and title for her forthcoming album, along with an accompanying tour, both coming in spring 2022 — preceded today by the release of a collaborative single with her “demonically talented” friends Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. The album, “Crash,” is set to come out March 18

After a grueling 18 months of pandemic, Live Nation Entertainment posted a strong third quarter of 2021, with the return of festival concerts helping to drive “all our business segments to positive operating income and adjusted operating income for the first time in two years,” according to the report, with a company-wide operating income and

Queen Bey’s “Be Alive” for “King Richard” could rule the Oscar song category. Meanwhile if Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z, is also nommed for “Guns Go Bang” from “The Harder They Fall,” the battle of the Carters is on. And never count out a Bond song. Even though it came out at the start of the

Best original song Oscar contenders Beyoncé and Van Morrison are among those who received nominations in the visual media categories at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA). Composers Hans Zimmer and Nicholas Britell were included among the familiar names picking up nods in the score categories. The awards will be presented Nov. 17. The

A murderer’s row of top hip-hop producers including DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Mustard, The-Dream, Mike Will Made It, No I.D, Hit-Boy, Take A Daytrip and Tainy will release EPs via Mass Appeal’s “Hip Hop 50 the Soundtrack,” as part of the company’s #HipHop50 campaign in celebration of the genre’s 50th year. The producers will drop

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Lionel Richie has signed an exclusive, global publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group, the company has announced. The deal includes songs written throughout Richie’s solo career, including smashes like “Hello,” “Lady,” “Dancing on the Ceiling,” “All Night Long,” “Say You, Say Me” and many others; he also co-wrote the charity

Without overstating the case, it’s fair to say that the past few years have shown us what happens when we don’t bother to vote. While the Grammy Awards are nowhere near as important as a national, state-wide or local election, it’s certainly one of the most important votes in the music community. And the Grammy

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched “The Masked Singer” Season 6, Episode 8, “Giving Thanks,” which aired November 3 on Fox. Honey Boo Boo, we hardly knew you. Reality TV mother and daughter stars June Edith “Mama June” Shannon and Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson joined “Masked Singer” on Wednesday

John Fagot, a legendary and popular promotion executive at Columbia, Capitol and Hollywood Records over the course of a four-decade career, has died. He was 78; no cause of death has been announced. A warm Southerner with a self-effacing humor — as befits a man with his unusual surname, which he never shied away from

Adele may be immune to many of the mortal concerns that trouble musical non-deities, but there’s one thing she has in common with the most modest indie rocker: She had to finish her forthcoming album, “30,” early if she wanted vinyl available on the same day the release hit streaming services. And these days, almost

Burgeoning pop star Tai Verdes, whose broke through in a big way at radio and streaming with the hit “A-O-K,” will discuss how he went from Verizon store employee to drawing 12 million monthly Spotify listeners in an online conversation that’s part of the annual ASCAP Experience this month. The chat, available to all with

There’s little question that the past 20 months of the pandemic have been devastating. But for all that has been lost, musicians and the industry around them have found countless innovative and inspiring ways to survive, cope, adapt and even thrive. It has been monumentally difficult, but there’s a lot to learn and take inspiration

If, like some of us, you’re not completely caught up on the ongoing dramas within HBO’s popular super-rich family drama “Succession,” have no fear because there’s no spoilers here except to say that in season three, skullduggery continues, and Nirvana’s controversial 1993 song “Rape Me” was used in a pivotal scene last weekend. Cobain’s widow,

The Isle Of Man Post Office has issued a special set of stamps to celebrate the musical career and charitable work of Bee Gees co-founder and Isle of Man native Barry Gibb. “I’m very proud of my Manx roots,” Gibb said in a statement. “I was born and bred on the ancient, mystical, magical Isle

Bruce Springsteen is in talks to sell the rights to his recorded music to Sony Music as well as his publishing catalog, three sources confirm to Variety. While the album catalog deal is nearly done, some sources say, the publishing catalog remains in play. The news was first reported by Billboard. While Springsteen has been

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. Paul McCartney, the iconic Beatles band member, epic solo artist and trumpeter player (it’s true!) has put out

This year’s nominees in Grammy’s visual media categories may look surprisingly different from those of previous years, with a greater emphasis on television scores, reflecting the impact of the pandemic and a huge spike in TV watching. Of the three categories (compilation soundtrack, score soundtrack, song), that shift will most likely be seen in the

In the history of the Grammy Awards, only one video game score, Austin Wintory’s “Journey,” has ever been nominated in the best score soundtrack for visual media category — and that was in 2012. Last year, the video game industry was worth over $90 billion and players spent $4.5 billion on immersive gaming, making it

Jonathan Majors and Simu Liu are both set to make their hosting debuts on “Saturday Night Live.” Majors will host the long-running NBC sketch series on Nov. 13. He will next be seen in the Netflix film “The Harder They Fall.” He is known for his roles in films like “The Last Black Man in