Music

After more than twenty years of horrifying and damning accusations, as of today R. Kelly is officially a convicted felon, having been found guilty by a New York jury of multiple counts of racketeering and sex-trafficking, with more trials to come in other jurisdictions. Almost immediately after the verdict was read, observers began asking: Now

Jack White made sure the opening of his Third Man Records Store in London over the weekend was a memorable event, playing a special set for an invite-only audience in the store’s Blue Basement performance space before moving outside and rocking neighbors with a short set on artist Damien Hirst’s nearby balcony. White — now

Singer R. Kelly was found guilty of leading a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex in New York on Monday, with the jury declaring him guilty of all all nine counts of the racketeering and sex-trafficking charges against him, according to the New York Times. The jury, consisting of seven men and

In light of allegations that Britney Spears was under surveillance with her conservators monitoring her phone and bugging her home, the pop star’s attorney has filed a supplemental motion to remove and suspend her father, Jamie Spears, from her conservatorship. In the new court filing, the singer’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, calls for the immediate suspension

Drake held onto the No. 1 spot on the album chart for a third straight week, with premieres for Lil Nas X’s “Montero” and a new one from the K-pop group NCT 127 ultimately posing little threat in the face of still-dominant numbers for the blockbuster “Certified Lover Boy.” Drake’s album had 168,200 album-equivalent units

CAA and ICM Partners are joining forces in a landmark agency merger that reflects the larger consolidation in the entertainment landscape. The deal, if approved, would mark a shift in the Hollywood agency landscape, reducing the Big Four agencies to the Big Three, with WME and UTA as CAA’s largest competitors. The agreement unveiled on

If you believe the Internet, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder hadn’t sung live for four consecutive days since September 1992. But the unusually heavy workload didn’t hinder his performances in the least this weekend at his fifth Ohana festival on the beach in Dana Point, Calif., which found him playing three times with his new solo

After 27 months, the Tony Awards returned on Sunday night to honor Broadway’s best. The ceremony served as an emotional ode to the power of live theater, as well as an elaborately produced advertisement to get audiences back to the Great White Way. Split between streaming and live TV, viewers at home were treated to

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. The curtains are finally rising again on Broadway this month, with theaters officially reopening at full capacity. The

The Rolling Stones opened the latest leg of their ‘No Filter’ tour in St. Louis on Sunday night, and as expected, the group paid deep tribute to Charlie Watts, their drummer since January of 1963, who passed away last month at the age of 80. The show opened with a video montage of Watts across

Almost a year after the Tony Award nominations dropped, it’s finally time to announce the winners. Amid rising health concerns Broadway (and theater across the globe) went dark in March of 2020 as the world battled the pandemic. Only very recently has the curtain raised on the theater industry, with emotional returns for shows like

The Los Angeles component of Global Citizen Live’s 24-hour live broadcast around the world was a welcome, if cautious return to in-person concerts: For many of the attendees of the Greek Theatre show on September 25, 2021, it was their first since March 2020. Flashing vaccine cards prior to entry, the full-capacity crowd caught an

After skipping a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Global Citizen Live Festival made its return bigger than ever, staging events in eight cities, from New York to Los Angeles to Mumbai, on Sept. 25. The organization’s flagship concert in New York City — where GCF has taken place since its inception in 2012

Eddie Vedder wasn’t even planning on performing Friday night (Sept. 24) at his own Ohana Festival on the beach in Dana Point, Calif. — his solo set was scheduled for tomorrow, with Pearl Jam slated to close the event on Sunday. But when headliners Kings of Leon canceled at the last minute to be with

Netflix has released the first teaser for “Jeen-yuhs,” an intimate portrait of global superstar Kanye West. Directed by Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, better known as Coodie and Chike, the three-act documentary follows West over a 20-year period. “Jeen-yuhs” shows behind-the-scenes footage of West as he builds his way from singer to businessman and becomes a global

When “Framing Britney Spears” was released earlier this year, the pop star’s world was much different. Before the New York Times-produced documentary launched on FX and Hulu this past February, Britney Spears had not yet testified publicly in court. Her father, Jamie Spears, appeared to have complete confidence in his role as conservator of her

When it comes to music, the podcast sector remains in a grey area of licensing, waffling between being editorial or educational products (allowing for short snippets of songs or score) and pure commercial entities. But Jared Gutstadt, founder of production company Audio Up (home to pods by Michael Cohen, Rosanna Arquette, Machine Gun Kelly, Tommy

Atlanta rapper 21 Savage, the British born-artist who was arrested by ICE in 2019 for overstaying his visa, turned himself in to authorities on Thursday night on drug and weapons possession charges stemming from his earlier arrest. He was released on bond, his attorney confirmed to Variety. Savage (real name: She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) was taken

Inspired by the 1988 comedy of the same name, “The Wonder Years” rewinds to 1968 for a coming-of-age series starring Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams and Saycon Sengbloh as Lillian Williams. Music plays a major role in show, seeing as the character of Dean’s dad is a working musician, and co-composers Jacob Yoffee and

When former “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” writer Elisabeth Kiernan Averick joined the staff of “The Simpsons” a few years ago, she knew eventually she’d be called upon to write a musical episode. That episode is Sunday’s Season 33 premiere, “Star of the Backstage,” in which Marge stages a revival of her high school musical, “Y2K: The Millennium

Among many other reasons to applaud Mickey Guyton for her long-in-the-works debut album, give her extra credit for being the millionth country artist to sing about “Daisy Dukes” — and the first to immediately follow that with a mention of “dookie braids.” Juxtaposing a white-girl cutoffs cliché with a Black-girl hair reference figures into a

Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, who, in representing the family of George Floyd, became a household name and among the most powerful voices in the Black Lives Matter movement, urged guests at the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) Music in Action Awards gala to “raise your voices in beautiful harmony and continue to give voice

Some things never change, and nearly 40 years after they first formed, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are still goofballs. The group, whose most solid lineup — cofounders Anthony Kiedis and Flea with drummer Chad Smith and guitarist John Frusciante — recently reunited, has announced a stadium tour for next year. They don’t have any

Every person who worked on Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” released 30 years ago today, says that the album basically broke itself, almost immediately taking on a life of its own in a way that could never have been planned — “Get out of the way and duck” was a phrase that record company executives said often at

Another Britney Spears documentary is releasing very soon. “Controlling Britney Spears,” a follow-up to FX and Hulu’s “Framing Britney Spears” from earlier this year, is releasing tonight, Sept. 24, at 10 p.m. ET. The New York Times and director Samantha Stark return to offer more bombshell information regarding Spears’ conservatorship that has been in place

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the Season 6 season premiere, part two, of “The Masked Singer,” which aired September 23 on Fox. For the results of night one, including the unmasking of Octopus, go here. “The Masked Singer” managed to wipe out two ‘90s icons in one episodic swoop.

From Billie Eilish to Hugh Jackman, more than 60 artists have written to showbiz leaders to demand that Congress take bold action against climate change and pass President Biden’s Build Better Back Agenda. The letter-writing campaign was initiated by Camila Cabello. The artists joined forces with NRDC Action Fund to urge executives at Access Industries,

Initial casting is being revealed for the Pasadena Playhouse’s production of the Go-Go’s-scored musical comedy “Head Over Heels,” opening in a reconfigured, immersive setting within the storied theater Nov. 9. And for a show that already won some plaudits in its 2018 Broadway run for going head over heels to be LGBTQ-friendly in its themes

YouTube Originals acquired “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers,” which will launch on the streamer later this year. The documentary offers a deep dive into a condensed period of creativity and freedom (between 1993 and 1995) for the legendary, titular rock star and looks at his creation of his “Wildflowers” album.

Mickey Guyton, a singer-songwriter not currently lacking for informal honors, will get a formal one when CMT gives her a special “Breakout Artist of the Year” award as part of its “CMT Artists of the Year” live telecast Oct. 13. The only times the network has given out the plaudit previously is when the title