Music

Janelle Monáe doesn’t “live [her] life in a binary way.” Therefore, she doesn’t look at her body of work as being a musician first and an actor second, or vice versa. Instead, she just wants to “tell stories that need to be told,” she said at the Television Critics Assn. press tour panel for her

January 14, 2020 12:11PM PT As the show prepares to close its sixth and final season in February, Starz has announced Clifford “Method Man” Smith will be joining the “Power” prequel, “Power Book 2: Ghost,” starring opposite Mary J. Blige. The network also released a first look image of the rapper’s character in the upcoming

Demi Lovato will perform on the Grammy Awards, the singer announced on Instagram this morning, continuing a new tactic that sees artists announcing their spots on the big show themselves, with confirmation from the Academy coming later. The practice started last week when Billie Eilish tweeted in the wee hours of Wednesday that she would

Kalie Shorr had the year’s most acclaimed album from a freshman country artist, with the critically heralded “Open Book.” Now, after several years of being featured as an upstart on CMT or CMA package tours — and more than a few appearances on the Opry — she’s about to head out on her first real

January 14, 2020 6:33AM PT As Variety exclusively revealed early this month, film composing titan Hans Zimmer has signed on to score the next James Bond installment, the film’s official Twitter account confirmed early Tuesday — but fans are more abuzz over a pair of teases that seem to suggest Billie Eilish will be performing

Every year when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces the candidates for its next induction class, cheers and shudders threaten to drown out the sound of music. The Class of 2019 was the strongest one in ages (Stevie Nicks! Roxy Music! Radiohead! Janet Jackson! Def Leppard! The Cure!) — and it still didn’t

January 13, 2020 2:00PM PT Camila Cabello’s sophomore album “Romance” has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, her label , Epic Records, announced today, after selling over 600,000 in album-equivalent units in approximately a month. With singles like “Easy” and “Señorita,” her duet with boyfriend Shawn Mendes (which has earned the

Universal Music Group Nashville knows a thing or two about timing: The country label group waited just a few hours after the Chrissy Metz-sung “I’m Standing With You” was nominated for an Oscar to announce that they’d signed the “This Is Us” star to a record deal. Metz’s full-length country debut album is planned for

All through the weekend, tributes and memorials poured in for Rush drummer Neil Peart, who died last week of cancer at 67. The band’s progressive and distinctive yet ever-changing sound made a lasting impact on music fans during their 40-plus-year career, and it also affected pop culture, by tapping the minds of creative types who

Last week Mac Miller’s parents announced the release of a posthumous album by the late rapper entitled “Circles,” which they say was recorded as a companion to his last album “Swimming.” The estate has announced listening events for the album at locations in Australia and his hometown of Pittsburgh. The first is scheduled for Thursday

Pearl Jam hadn’t been back to the recording studio since the band’s 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction — not since 2013’s “Lightning Bolt,” in fact — but that drought is coming to an end. The group announced Monday that a new album, “Gigaton,” will arrive March 27. The band hasn’t been quite

“Joker” composer Hildur Guðnadóttir became only the fifth woman in Oscar history to be nominated in the original score categories during Thursday’s nominations announcement. The Icelandic cellist has been on a winning streak, taking home Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Society of Composers & Lyricist awards in recent days. Her music for the comic-book villain,

Elton John could take home his second Oscar and longtime writing partner Bernie Taupin his first, as their song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman” was among the best song nominees at Monday’s Oscar nomination announcements. The two have already taken home the Golden Globe for their closing song in the John biopic, their

Though Robert Downey Jr. stars as the eponymous Dr. Dolittle in the fantasy-adventure remake “Dolittle”, which he also executive produced, the actor was quick to heap praise on his wife and producer Susan Downey, for her contributions to the project. “She is the greatest creative producer in the history of cinema,” Downey Jr. told Variety

January 11, 2020 12:11PM PT After pulling out of her 2019 slot just days before the show, Ariana Grande will perform at the 2020 Grammy Awards, the singer announced today on her social media accounts. While there has been no official confirmation yet from the Grammys, sources tell Variety that several performers will be making

Azriel Clary was 17 years old when she left her parents, Alice and Angelo Clary, to live with R. Kelly. She and Kelly’s other live-in girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage, often spoke publicly in the singer’s defense, even as accusations of sexual abuse against him multiplied in the wake of the Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and

Hipgnosis Songs announced Thursday that it has acquired a music catalog from producer Emile Haynie. According to the announcement, Hipgnosis has purchased 100% of Haynie’s worldwide copyrights to 122 songs including Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness,” Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven” and “Runaway” by Kanye West featuring Pusha T, among others. Haynie has built

Christian music star TobyMac has channeled his anguish over his adult son’s sudden death in October into a new song and music video, “21 Years,” that is full of gospel overtones but doesn’t sugar-coat the anguish and questioning the singer continues to feel over the tragedy. “The last couple of months have been the hardest

Whether you were a lover of the Rush drummer’s restlessly inventive and polyrhythmic percussive tricks or a fanatic for his science fiction-inspired lyrics, news of Neil Peart’s death at 67 from brain cancer shocked and saddened all. Peart was legendarily a musician’s musician, and his passing immediately turned rockers of all stripes tearful at the

Oprah Winfrey is backing away from an untitled documentary from acclaimed filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, two weeks before the film was set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Winfrey joined the project as an executive producer and set the doc to release as part of her overall deal with Apple TV Plus.

At the conclusion of Selena Gomez’s new album, “Rare,” Spotify autoplayed a song from her previous full-length, 2015’s “Revival,” that sounded almost sophomoric by comparison. It’s hard to think of a more dramatic example of how far Gomez has come musically in nearly five years: “Rare” is one of the best pop albums to be

Neil Peart, the legendary drummer of Rush, has died, according to an announcement from the band. He was 67. The cause of death, according to a spokesperson, was brain cancer. Peart passed on Tuesday, January 7th, in Santa Monica. Widely considered one of the most innovative drummers in rock history, Peart was famous for his state-of-the-art

Selena Gomez explained the difference between her new album, “Rare,” and 2015’s “Revival” in an intimate conversation with radio personality JoJo Wright and fans at the iHeartRadio Theater LA on Thursday, ahead of “Rare’s” release. “I feel like it is, not better, but it’s a piece of work that I think is better,” Gomez said.

Israeli singers  Liraz Russo (known by his stage name “Static”) and Ben El Tavor, who make up the pop act Static & Ben El, are still pinching themselves. Getting Grammy-winner and multi-hyphenate Pitbull to share top billing on “Further Up (Na, Na, Na, Na, Na),” their newly-released track and video was, in no uncertain terms,

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the fifth episode of “Project Runway” Season 18. After Tyler Neasloney’s exit on last week’s episode of “Project Runway,” viewers wondered who would be the next to talk back to the judges. For those who come for the fashion but stay for the drama, thankfully

The 2020 NAACP Image Award nominations were announced on Thursday morning and, while it was no surprise to see Beyoncé nominated for eight awards, it’s the recognition for her daughter Blue Ivy that has people talking. The mother-daughter duo was nominated for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration for the song “Brown Skin Girl” from “The

Linkin Park founding member Brad Delson and his longtime wife Elisa Doren are apparently looking for a change of scenery, having re-hoisted their longtime main L.A. residence onto the market with a $7.995 million thud. As it turns out, the couple have actually been attempting to sell the property since May of last year, when

Post Malone and Lil Nas X were among the chart-toppers in Buzz Angle’s year-end report for 2019 — with the top album and song of the year, respectively — while on-demand streams broke the 1 trillion mark for the first time in history. However, as it had to sometime, streaming’s growth is slowing down. On-demand

BMI is announcing its annual programs at the Sundance Film Festival, with a substantially packed composer/director panel set for the afternoon of Sunday, January 26 and a “Snowball” headlined by singer Lisa Loeb two nights later. The Sunday “Music & Film: The Creative Process” roundtable will include nine filmmaker/scorer pairs with movies at the festival,

Nominees for the 2020 Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS) Awards were announced today. The annual event is scheduled for Feb. 6 at the Wiltern Theater and coincides with the tenth anniversary of the GMS. Films up for awards include  “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” “Frozen II,” “Aladdin,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Hustlers” and