Music

Journalists covering the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards were warned in advance that the quality of virtual interviews with artists was entirely dependent on the wi-fi in their location. For the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti, who wouldn’t reveal their exact whereabouts — except to say that they were in an “undisclosed” pandemic-proof

Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong’s leading TV group, is set to boost its variety and music programs following a recent management reshuffle. It aims to bring back veteran entertainers who have experience and profile on the mainland Chinese market in order that the station can expand its foothold in the Greater Bay Area. The new appointments

Stars arrived at music’s biggest night in style, sporting jewel tones, patterned suits, feathers and florals. Since the Grammys are foregoing their usual large crowd due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tonight’s stars, presenters and performers will serve as the show’s audience. First-time Grammy producer Ben Winston tells Variety that there will be five in-the-round stages,

Kanye West won his first gospel Grammy, and his first honor from the Recording Academy in eight years, for his “Jesus Is King” album. It is his 22nd career Grammy. At least for a moment, it made him the most awarded hip-hop performer in Grammy history. He and Jay-Z went into the 2021 Grammys with

Since the Big Four Grammy categories expanded from five nominees to eight in 2019, the list of finalists has gotten more far-reaching and far more unpredictable. As when the Oscars expanded their categories several years ago, the objective is to give shine to artists and recordings less-known by the masses — and sure enough, this

This year’s Grammy Awards are finally here. Originally set for Jan. 31, tonight’s Trevor Noah-hosted ceremony will be broadcast on CBS, from the Los Angeles Convention Center, beginning at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. The untelevised pre-telecast begins at 12 p.m. PT. The show’s lineup boasts an impressive 22 performers, including Harry Styles, Taylor Swift,

Even in a pandemic year like no other, the K-pop group BTS — and their fandom like no other — has managed to make record-breaking strides, pushing the boundaries of what a band singing primarily in a non-English language can accomplish in the U.S. music industry, while lifting the spirits of millions of fans with

Virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought the sound of hope to a COVID-19 vaccination clinic Saturday at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass. The musician, 65, was there to get his second jab along with his wife, Jill Hornor. After he arrived carrying his cello, a nurse asked if he would be able to play for

Michele Farinola is no stranger to producing music documentaries: Her credits include “Foo Fighters: Back And Forth,” “George Harrison: Living In The Material World,” and most recently, “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice,” which is up for best music film at the Grammy Awards Sunday night. Farinola says she’s drawn to telling stories of

V6, a male idol supergroup associated with the once all-powerful Johnny & Associates agency, has announced its break-up, effective Nov. 1. The group revealed the decision on their website on Friday. The stated reason is the desire of member Morita Go to concentrate on his acting career. Following the group’s dissolution, the five members remaining

The Recording Academy didn’t have to worry whether or not the tony crowd that usually shows up for MusiCares’ annual dinners would tune in for the virtual version put on as a ticketed event Friday night. There may well have been at least some of the usual black-tie crowd in the online audience for MusiCares’

UPDATED: MusiCares is the Recording Academy’s charitable wing, and its annual concert during Grammy Week is its main source of fundraising virtually every year. The organization distributes money to music people — musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, executives and more — in need, and in the past year they’ve distributed more than $22 million in COVID

If the Grammys had a dress code this year, it might be: Wear your cardigan to the disco. It’s sweater weather, but also the season of the Studio 54 minidress, as Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa look likeliest to make headlines for picking up top honors Sunday night after the close of the Grammys. The

It’s no secret that for the past several years, the most adventurous and innovative music in the rock and alternative spaces has largely been made by female artists — something that is reflected in the Grammy nominees for those categories this year, particularly the all-female Best Rock Performance category, which comprises Fiona Apple, Big Thief,

“Think about Michael Jackson’s stake in music publishing,” says Nick Jarjour, global head of song management for Hipgnosis. “How much would his half of Sony/ATV have been worth if we were using today’s valuations?” The answer to his hypothetical question, without adjusting for inflation, is that the $95 million Jackson got for selling 50% of

A special-purpose acquisition corporation targeting tech, media and telecom firms led by two former senior Disney execs — Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer — raised $350 million in its upsized initial public offering. The SPAC, Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II, is led by Staggs (former Disney COO) and Mayer (previously chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and

“Life Is Beautiful” is hopeful — very hopeful — that life will be carefree for festival-goers by September, when Las Vegas will host what could be the first major post-quarantining music festival in the West. Ticket buyers returned that optimism in major numbers by selling out three-day passes for the annual festival “in record time”

Producer and songwriter Louis Bell, who has worked extensively with Post Malone, says a key aspect of his creative process is assessing his own visceral reaction. “Whether it’s using every sound I’ve wanted to use or making that sound sound special to me, and when I play it back, do I keep getting that same

In a still-young 2021, the ubiquity of Nick Jonas is stunning. Along with coaching duties on NBC’s singing competition “The Voice,” Jonas has already appeared as host and guest of “Saturday Night Live,” will release his Lionsgate film “Chaos Walking” momentarily, is prepping for the role of Frankie Valli in a streaming theater version of

ASCAP has revealed that most of its major annual awards presentations will go virtual for the second year in a row, with predictions for herd immunity status still out of the range of the spring and early summer dates when the shows would usually go down in person in Beverly Hills. The four shows affected

For Jhené Aiko, a Grammy nominee in three categories, songwriting and healing are cosmically connected. No, really: For her album of the year contender “Chilombo,” the 32-year-old singer-songwriter incorporated crystal sound bowls or “singing bowls” — a Tibetan tradition in which the round vessels, when played, vibrate at a certain frequency connected to a chakra — into

Everyone wants concerts to come back. Everyone who attended the premiere event for Nat Geo’s “Genius: Aretha” at the makeshift drive-in in the Rose Bowl parking lot Thursday had a more specific wish: that Cynthia Erivo concerts would come back. Never mind that that really hasn’t much of a thing up till now, with Erivo

“It’s just a number,” says Ray Benson, waxing modest about a couple of big ones that are arriving this year for himself and his group, “but as you know, being in the business, publicists need something to hang their hat on.” Then again, honoring significant round numbers feels appropriate for someone who invented the Wheel

When the Recording Academy announced the 2021 Grammy nominations, collective shock ensued over the all-female nominees for both best rock performance and best country album categories. Not only was it the first time it’s ever happened, but both genres are historically difficult spaces for women to succeed in.  Earlier this week, the USC Annenberg Inclusion

Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten thinks that everything, good and bad, that has happened to his band over the past few years can be traced back to a piece of advice he once received from a friend. The singer was on a train to Dublin city center, headed to his first-ever job interview, and bumped

Ahead of the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jacob Collier is commemorating his album of the year contender “Djesse Vol. 3” by auctioning off 12 non-fungible tokens (NFTs), one for each song on the record. Each NFT — a cryptographic digital asset that cannot be replicated — contains a hi-res image of the digital session for

UPDATED: When the 2021 Grammy Award nominations were announced in November, thousands of people were stunned to see that the Weeknd — one of the most commercially and critically successful artists of the past year, whose single “Blinding Lights” just became the first song ever to spend a full year in the Top 10 of

The pandemic has been problematic for many touring musicians, but for Manhattan-based Blu DeTiger, the past year has been a lesson in how to make the best of a challenging situation. “The only thing you can kinda do right now as an artist is try to connect online, and I’m lucky that I found a

“It’s that perfect combination: Great artist. Great music. Great production. Great mixing. Great mastering. Voilà!” says award-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar, whose work is often the last step in the music-making process and the one whose magic can make the difference between a song sounding good or great. For the 2021 Grammys, she has 10

Is recorded music pandemic-proof? Data collected by the Recording Industry Assn. of America measuring U.S. music revenues in 2020 demonstrates the market’s resilience. The RIAA year-end report, released Feb. 26, reveals that the industry as a whole grew 9.2% in 2020 to $12.2 billion at estimated retail value. It marks the fifth consecutive year of