Music

A call to repeal the 50-A legislation, which safeguarded police officers from being held accountable for brutality, will be signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo after it was passed by lawmakers on Tuesday. The 50-A legislation was first passed in the 1970s, but conversations about its validity resurfaced in response to the murder of Eric Garner

Get ready for a musical battle of the “One Day at a Time” divas! Gloria Estefan and Rita Moreno will be performing a parody of Estefan’s “Mi Tierra” in the upcoming animated episode, Variety has learned exclusively. “We diss each other, and we’re doing it to the tune of her beautiful, wonderful, saucy” song, Moreno

UPDATED: Paul McCartney fiercely criticized the Italian live-music industry over its refund policy for his canceled 2020 concerts in a Facebook post. McCartney was scheduled to perform in the Italian cities of Naples and Lucca this week but canceled the shows early last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. In line with the policy of

To say that interim Recording Academy president/CEO Harvey Mason jr. has had a challenging first few months on the job is an understatement of epic proportions. In January, just days after taking the role on a temporary basis after former president/CEO Deborah Dugan’s controversial ouster, he steered the Recording Academy through the most tumultuous Grammy

On top of an ongoing trade war and pandemic, a new point of tension between the U.S. and China involves the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody. The narrative put forth by Chinese state media platforms like CCTV has been one-sided and colored by antipathy

The Grammy Awards will cease using the term “urban” in its awards and language as part of the latest round of annual changes to its rules and guidelines, the Recording Academy announced Wednesday (June 10). Along with the changes, which include updates to the Best New Artist category, Latin, R&B and Rap Fields, Nominations Review

In a survey of independent concert venue owners in America, 90% said that they expect to shut down permanently in a few months if no federal funding becomes available. The poll was conducted by the National Independent Venue Association among its nearly 2,000 members, who include owners and concert promoters from all 50 states. “Current

Music executive Steven Victor is launching a philanthropic arm of his Victor Victor Worldwide (VVW) venture. With it, the Universal Music Group senior vice-president of A&R is committing $1 million to the newly formed Victor Victor Foundation (VVF). Victor, whose background includes running G.O.O.D. Music, the imprint founded by Kanye West and distributed through Def

Walt Disney Studios is developing an original movie musical based on the songs of American treasure Lionel Richie, Variety has learned exclusively. Tentatively titled “All Night Long,” the new project will use some of Richie’s greatest hits in a live-action project in early stages of development with a theatrical release in mind, sources said. Richie

After weeks and months in which new hip-hop releases have almost constantly dominated the top spots on the album chart, pop finally got a word back in edge-wise, as Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica” came in at No. 1. Although it was far from a photo finish, Jimmy Buffett also landed a surprising second place finish on

Coming to Stockholm, Sweden in 2021: the Avicii Experience, a tribute museum to the late DJ, producer, songwriter and all-around hitmaker who left a legacy of timeless songs including “Wake Me Up” and “Levels.” The artist, whose real name is Tim Bergling, died in 2018 of an apparent suicide. He was 28. Avicii Experience will

Lollapalooza and most of the Chicago’s other summer music festivals have been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns, the city announced Tuesday, according to the Chicago Tribune and multiple news outlets. Lollapalooza is the city’s largest festival and typically draws 100,000 fans to Grant Park to see around 170 acts over four days. The announcement is largely

While they helped jump-start the 1960s, great protest songs had been few and far between in the past 50-odd years, apart from the occasional bolts of lightning like N.W.A’s “F— the Police” or Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” But 2020 is different, and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery at the hands

For the 2020 Power of Women issue, Variety spoke with several women in the entertainment industry who are using their voices to benefit worthy causes. For more, click here.  Janelle Monáe, the musician and actor, has always been political, and during this dreadful year she has been further ignited. Her impassioned activism was front and

For the 2020 Power of Women issue, Variety spoke with several women in the entertainment industry who are using their voices to benefit worthy causes. For more, click here. Patti LuPone has lost countless friends and colleagues to AIDS. As a mainstay of the Broadway stage in the 1980s and ’90s during the worst of

Former Apple Music U.K. executive Austin Daboh has joined Atlantic Records U.K. as executive vice president, with a brief to sign and develop domestic artists, and to break the Warner Music-owned label’s U.S. black music roster in the U.K. Daboh was most recently head of editorial at Apple Music U.K., where, alongside overseeing Apple’s playlist

McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica — which happens to house one of the most storied concert halls in the Los Angeles area as well as being a mecca for acoustic instrument sales and lessons — has gotten to enjoy a Tom Sawyer-type fate this week: attending its own funeral. The Los Angeles Times ran

In the 2014 pilot episode of the TV sitcom “Black-ish,” ad exec Andre Johnson was expecting a huge, historic promotion. After spending years toiling for the fictional Stevens & Lido and rising through the lower-management ranks, he thought he was about to upgrade to upper management as the company’s first black senior vice president. During

Bonnie Pointer, who rose to fame as a member of the Pointer Sister, has died at age 69. “It is with great sadness that I have to announce to the fans of the Pointer Sisters that my sister Bonnie died this morning,” said Anita Pointer of her sister, Patricia, aka Bonnie. “Our family is devastated.

Kacey Musgraves, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Bill Murray, Eric Church and Stephen Colbert are just a few of the many artists confirmed for “Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine,” an online celebration of the legendary singer-songwriter, who died earlier this year of coronavirus complications. The show will premiere Thursday, June 11 at 7:30pm ET/6:30pm CT/4:30pm

UPDATED: Layoffs are coming at AEG Presents, the world’s second-largest live-entertainment company, on Monday (June 8), according to a memo from CEO Jay Marciano obtained by Variety. The extent of the layoffs was unclear at the time of this article’s publication, but they are said to be a combination of layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts

On Monday morning, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Leon Bridges dropped a powerful new song called “Sweeter,” featuring Terrace Martin. According to the announcement, the song, which is written from the perspective of a black man taking his last breath and feeling his spirit leave his body, was originally intended for a future album, but  in

Pulse Music Group has promoted Ashley Calhoun to senior vice president and head of creative. Calhoun was previously vp of A&R. In her new position, she’ll be responsible for leading the Pulse A&R team and overseeing its publishing roster which includes such hitmakers as Starrah, OZ, Ty Dolla $ign, YBN Cordae, Chad Hugo, James Blake,

For more than 20 years, the Latin Alternative Music Conference has been an incubator for new sounds of all genres, and has helped power the careers of countless executives and artists from all over the world, ranging from Natalia Lafourcade and Café Tacuba to Manu Chao and the Nortec Collective. Like most conferences, LAMC has

Shortly after it was revealed that BTS and Big Hit Entertainment donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter, the BTS ARMY, as the group’s legion of followers are known, assembled and vowed to match the donation — which it did within 24 hours. The feat follows a recent effort by K-pop fans to take over

Not every young tassel-tosser dreams of celebrating graduation day at a museum. But BTS fans were happy to make an exception in this case, as the K-pop group capped YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” special by taking over the National Museum of Korea for a performance in which the hits kept on coming for 12

Lady Gaga painted a picture of racism in America as a malignant forest that needs to be uprooted in her graduation speech for YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” event. The Grammy-winning singer said she had to rewrite her speech after the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality

While BTS are billed as the closers of the nearly five-hour “Dear Class of 2020” broadcast on Sunday, earlier in the show, each member of the group gave a long and heartfelt speech to the graduates and to their fans. The group seems to have carefully considered the perspectives they would bring. RM, the only

Taylor Swift made a brief appearance on the YouTube special “Dear Class of 2020,” telling quarantined high school graduates that she can relate to their experience because she missed her ceremony, too, even if hers was a voluntary MIA experience. The pop star told the virtually assembled that this was “not the graduation you thought

Prince often played special concerts on June 7, his birthday — the most elaborate was probably a full-scale show at Detroit’s Cobo Arena in 1986 — and since his death in 2016, has observed the date with special events (like Spike Lee’s block party in Brooklyn in 2017) or releases (like last year’s “Originals” album).