It has been a good week for BTS. On Wednesday (May 1), the South Korean group won two awards at the Billboard Music Awards (for top duo or group and best social artist). On Saturday (May 4), the septet kicked off its global “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself” stadium tour at the Rose Bowl Stadium in
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The leadoff single from Joy Williams’ new album is a song called “The Trouble With Wanting,” and that’s a subject her fans know all about. For the last five or six years, most of them have wanted to get, if not the hell freezing over of a Civil Wars reunion, then a Williams solo album
Before her role on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Georgia-bred Kandi Burruss made her name in one of the biggest R&B acts of the 1990s, Xscape, whose hits “Just Kickin’ It,” “Understanding” and “Who Can I Run To” helped put the Southern state on the hip-pop map. At the same time, Burruss was also moonlighting
Mother’s Day is still over a week away, but a festive celebration for the holiday came early in Los Angeles Thursday evening, as H.E.R., La La Anthony, Anthony Anderson and more came together to celebrate their moms and moms everywhere during VH1’s annual “Dear Mama: A Love Letter to Mom” tribute. Ahead of the live taping
It’s been a whale of a week in the world of Woodstock 50. While the festival — slated for the weekend of Aug. 16-18 in Watkins Glen, New York with Jay-Z, Dead & Company and Miley Cyrus on the bill, among many others — has been dogged by reports of disorganization and financial troubles since
Stephen I. Diener, a longtime music and entertainment executive who served as president of ABC Records in the 1970s and led in its sale to MCA Corporation in 1979, died at this home in Coral Gables, Florida on April 30. He was 80. Diener’s career included positions with a range of entertainment companies, starting with
May 3, 2019 6:28AM PT Madonna today released “I Rise,” the second of five songs leading to her the June 14 release of next album, “Madame X.” While the singer said the song is about “giving a voice to all marginalized people who feel they don’t have the opportunity to speak their mind,” it opens
HBO has accused the Michael Jackson estate of trying to use an expired, 26-year-old contract to try to stifle allegations that the singer committed child sexual abuse. The Jackson estate filed a $100 million suit against HBO in February, shortly before the network aired “Leaving Neverland.” The four-hour documentary chronicles the lives of James Safechuck
May 2, 2019 9:36PM PT [embedded content] Shawn Mendes has released a new single titled “If I Can’t Have You” alongside an accompanying music video. Mendes wrote the track with Scott Harris, Teddy Geiger, and Nate Mercreau. He’ll perform the single on “Saturday Night Live” May 4, marking his second appearance on “SNL.” On Apple
Is this the rise of the Grateful Undead? Following a six-year wait, Vampire Weekend rewarded fans with new music in January in the form of lead single “Harmony Hall.” When it arrived with a bit of crunch to pair with the band’s signature baroque sound, some social media pundits were quick to suggest that Ezra Koenig’s
In first-quarter 2019 earnings released today, Live Nation Entertainment’s revenue was up 17% to $1.7 billion, with an operating loss of $24 million and what the company says it is highest first-quarter adjusted operating income yet, at $115 million. Concerts and sponsorship segments drove this growth, according to the announcement, with both delivering record first
Ten months ago, music industry executive Sylvia Rhone, a three-decade veteran of the major label system, and then the president of Epic Records, stood in front of a hotel ballroom full of entertainment top creators, influencers and visionaries to make a plea. With the likes of Jemele Hill, Migos manager and Quality Control co-founder Coach
May 2, 2019 10:48AM PT Taylor Swift’s fantastical music video for “ME!” is the fastest video to reach 100 million views on Vevo, achieving the feat in just 79 hours. The video also broke the record for most views in 24 hours. [embedded content] The video was released Friday and as of this writing has
Jazzman Wynton Marsalis faced one of the most unusual challenges of his career when he agreed to score “Bolden,” the biopic of early jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden: No recordings survive, so Marsalis had to create Bolden’s music from scratch. That’s precisely what intrigued him, Marsalis tells Variety: “Just being from New Orleans, being a trumpet player,”
Universal Music Group announced today that it has signed an exclusive global recording agreement with Nigerian singer/songwriter Tiwa Savage, one of Africa’s biggest stars. Under the agreement, her future music will be released internationally through UMG’s operations in more than 60 countries worldwide. Projects will be executively produced by Efe Ogbeni of Regime Music Societe
It’s not just amateurs who look at the ongoing imbroglio over the Woodstock 50 festival and think: What are the odds that it ends up being a go? Don’t worry — the pros in Las Vegas have set their minds to it, too. Jay Kornegay, the head of the Race & Sports Book Operations at
May 2, 2019 6:05AM PT AWAL, Kobalt’s recording company, today announced an exclusive worldwide recordings partnership with Los Angeles-based independent label In Real Life, which was founded by longtime XL Recordings A&R chief Imran Ahmed (pictured above), who signed Vampire Weekend, Jungle and others. According to the announcement, the deal will leverage AWAL and its
Jared Leto wants Americans to hold a mirror up to themselves. “We made this crazy portrait of the United States in what I think is a really important time to take a look at ourselves,” the Oscar winner says. That crazy portrait is “A Day in the Life of America,” a new documentary that Leto
High in the mountains above Beverly Hills lies a neighborhood informally known as Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO) — so-called because its homes sport the snazzy 90210 zip code and are serviced by the actual Beverly Hills post office, despite being technically located within the city of Los Angeles. Confusing moniker aside, this is one
The Billboard Music Awards took place Wednesday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with Kelly Clarkson as host. Taylor Swift made her BBMAs return with a performance of her new single “ME!”, her first performance since singing “22” back in 2013. Other performers included BTS, Paula Abdul, Jonas Brothers, Halsey, Madonna,
May 1, 2019 3:46PM PT Last summer, the rapper-singer accused mega-manager Irving Azoff of sabotaging her tour. Is Nicki Minaj joining the roster of Irving Azoff’s Full Stop Management? Sources tell Variety the singer and rapper is “in talks” with the firm, after parting ways with Gee Roberson and Cortez Bryant and Blueprint/ Maverick Management,
When Taylor Swift put out her previous album, “Reputation,” her mantra was, “There will be no explanation,” and she pretty well stuck to that, with a no-interviews policy. But for her next album, she’s already doing a fair amount of explaining — not that that extends to a title or release date or anything else
The 2019 graduating class of the Bandier Program at Syracuse University finds its namesake at an interesting point in his nearly 50-year career: After 12 years at the helm of Sony/ATV, in which he transformed the company from the world’s fourth-largest music publisher to by far the biggest — one that includes the catalogs of
To say that the already confusing situation around the Woodstock 50 festival scheduled for August entered a new realm of confusion this week would be an understatement of epic proportions. The festival — slated for the weekend of Aug. 16-18 in Watkins Glen, New York and starring Jay-Z, the Dead & Company, Miley Cyrus and
The Jonas Brothers have announced dates for their 40-city “Happiness Begins” tour this summer and fall, with special guests Bebe Rexha and Jordan McGraw. Dates appear below; the group’s comeback album, also called “Happiness Begins,” is out June 7. Produced by Live Nation, the tour is presented by American Airlines and Mastercard and kicks off August 7th in Miami, FL
Performing rights society ASCAP today announced that its total revenues for 2018 were a record $1.227 billion, an increase of 7% over 2017. Distributions crossed the $1 billion mark for the second year in a row, with $1.109 billion in royalties paid out to its songwriter, composer and publisher members — also a record. Distributions
April 30, 2019 5:21PM PT Rapper Juice WRLD has signed with WME where he joins a roster that includes Drake, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Ty Dolla $ign and Wiz Khalifa, among others. Pollstar reported the signing, which occurred in December 2018. Juice was previously represented by Andrew Lieber of MAC Agency, which told
Woodstock founder Michael Lang has written an open letter in which he reaffirms that the Woodstock 50 festival set for August is still on, despite the cancellation notice sent out Monday by investors — whom he calls “shortsighted partners” who “don’t have a right to cancel it.” “Yesterday, our financial partner, Dentsu-Aegis, made the decision
If you thought the Woodstock 2019 lineup was eclectic (or still is eclectic, depending on whom you’re listening to), wait until you get a load of the just-announced bill for the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October, which may set a new standard for destination smorgasbords. The list of headliners reads like a “pick
Rob Nassif knew he had a unique challenge when he took on management duties for quartet the Faim. Not only does the band make moody, cinematic alt-rock at a time when rock’s share of streaming activity dipped from 19% to 11% in 2018, according to BuzzAngle. Its members also hail from Perth in Western Australia,