Music

January 14, 2019 10:00AM PT According to the Asbury Park Press, Springsteen donned a red baseball cap and slipped in to view the film incognito. Springsteen arrived 10 minutes into the movie and took a seat in the back center section in the Pollak Theatre with director Thom Zimney and his co-manager, Barbara Carr. Zimney

January 14, 2019 8:05AM PT Shawn Holiday has been appointed Head of Urban Music at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company announced today. In this newly-created position Holiday will be based in Los Angeles and oversee the company’s urban music operations. He will report to Co-Presidents, U.S. Danny Strick and Rick Krim. He will hold this

Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and photographer Danny Clinch are among the participants in Make Change, a series of conversations and intimate performances to be held at the Salesforce Music Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival. Chassagne is of Haitian descent, by way of Canada, and she and Butler have previously

January 14, 2019 2:06AM PT NBC’s upcoming Elvis Presley tribute special, which will see Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes and others pay tribute to the rock ‘n’ roll legend, will be taken out internationally by Alfred Haber Television. The distributor has landed the rights to the one-off show, which goes out on the U.S. network on

UPDATED: It’s official: As Variety reported back in September, Maroon 5 will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in Atlanta on Feb. 3, and the group will be joined by rapper Travis Scott and former Outkast member Big Boi. Today’s announcement follows months of controversy concerning the performance. Critics ranging from celebrities like Amy Schumer

January 13, 2019 12:01PM PT UPDATED: Travis Scott today announced that in partnership with the National Football League, he will make a $500,000 donation to the non-profit organization Dream Corps, among “other initiatives that he will work with the League on.” The move is clearly designed to counter criticism over his appearance at the Super

A group of Hollywood executives and celebrities have banded together with the intent to save Beverly Hills deli and star haunt Nate ‘n Al, a stone’s throw from tourist destination Rodeo Drive. A consortium of investors including music kingpin Irving Azoff and wife Shelli, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Jeff Shell, and Rande Gerber and

Dallas Austin, Missy Elliott, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Jack Tempchin and Cat Stevens (a.k.a. Yusuf) will become the latest inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the organization’s 50 th annual Induction and Awards Dinner, taking place June 13 at its location for decades, the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York’s Times Square.

January 11, 2019 6:59PM PT Rapper Lil Uzi Vert posted an Instagram story on Friday evening saying that he has quit making music. “I wanna take the time out to say I thank each and every one of my supports, but I’m done with music,” he wrote on the post. “I deleted everything. I wanna

January 11, 2019 5:12PM PT Kevin Fret, known as the first openly gay Latin trap artist, was shot and killed in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico Thursday morning. He was 24 years old. El Nuevo Dia reported that Fret was shot multiple times while riding a motorcycle around 5:30 a.m. local time. He died at

Tel Aviv native Dennis Lloyd has just inked a contract with Arista Records, the label announced Friday. The deal comes just before Lloyd debuts much anticipated new music, following his 2017 international smash hit “Nevermind,” which went to No. 3 on the U.S. alternative charts and also made the mainstream top 40, adult top 40

January 11, 2019 12:58PM PT New York’s Highline Ballroom announced Friday that it will be closing down its current location next month due to its landlord not renewing the venue’s lease. The management said in a press release, “We plan on reopening Highline Ballroom at a new location in the Chelsea/Meatpacking District and are currently

A comprehensive report highlighting how record labels are evolving in the streaming age, commissioned by the RIAA from an academic at NYU, has cast a positive light on the music business moving forward. “Same Heart. New Beat: How Record Labels Amplify Talent in the Modern Music Marketplace” was based on almost 50 interviews with top executives

A plane towing a sign that read “RCA/Sony: Drop Sexual Predator R. Kelly” flew over Sony Music’s offices in Culver City, Calif., Friday afternoon. The plane, commissioned by the national women’s organization UltraViolet, was intended to further calls for RCA, which is owned by Sony Music and has been affiliated with Kelly for his entire

January 11, 2019 10:31AM PT A beachfront cottage along Malibu’s sandy La Costa beach, owned by veteran pop song scribe and record producer Glen Ballard, is available at $7.995 million. Ballard, who co-wrote and produced Alanis Morissette’s seminal, Grammy-winning 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill” as well as Katy Perry’s 2008 platinum selling sophomore album “One

In the wake of last week’s airing of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary, the singer’s lawyer appeared on ABC’s Nightline Thursday to refute multiple allegations of sexual misconduct made by accusers in the series, and to criticize Illinois State Attorney Kim Foxx’s call earlier this week for others to come forward. “We deal with proof,

In the wake of last week’s premiere of the six-part docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly,” in which multiple women accuse the singer of sexual misconduct, Kelly’s own daughter spoke out against her father in an Instagram story on Thursday, the “Ignition” crooner’s estranged daughter took to her Instagram story to speak out, according to E! News. “To the

As she promised, Lady Gaga’s collaboration with R. Kelly has been removed from streaming services. The song, “Do What U Want (With My Body), was removed approximately 18 hours after Gaga tweeted her apology for working with Kelly, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, as featured in last week’s Lifetime documentary

January 10, 2019 3:14PM PT Just hours after Lady Gaga apologized for recording a song with R. Kelly, French alt-pop group Phoenix has issued an apology for their 2013 collaboration with the artist, who is accused of sexual misconduct against multiple women in last week’s Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” “We are deeply horrified by

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is, by any measure, gargantuan. It’s at the $195 million mark at the U.S. box office and just got a turbo boost heading toward the magic $200M mark, with a post-Golden Globes expansion back into 1,300 theaters set for Friday, including a new “sing-along” version set for more than 750 screens. Its foreign

January 10, 2019 12:58PM PT Netflix today dropped a trailer for “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” its documentary on the disastrous 2017 festival, which collapsed before it even started and landed its organizer, Billy McFarland, a six-year prison sentence. The doc will premiere on Jan. 18. “Fyre” is directed by Chris Smith, who helmed last

Fox’s “The Masked Singer” is a talent competition with a difference. The series, which drew 9.2 million viewers in its Jan. 2 debut, is not looking to find America’s next big star. Instead, it’s about hiding them as they perform covers of chart-toppers in masquerade. Twelve celebs compete, with one singer eliminated each week as identities

As the uproar around R. Kelly grew in the wake of last weekend’s premiere of “Surviving R. Kelly,” a three part Lifetime documentary that levels multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against the singer, a person who appeared to be Kelly — or someone who sings remarkably like him — took the mic at the Chicago

For years, rumors have circulated among Bob Dylan fans that a documentary about his legendary, star-studded “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour of 1975-76 was in the works, and occasional whispers had a name attached: Martin Scorsese. Now, the cat can come officially out of the bag. Variety has exclusively learned that Netflix plans to release the movie

Since he first emerged as a member of the Odd Future collective around the beginning of this decade, Frank Ocean has managed to build an admirable arms-length relationship with fame, releasing music, touring and communicating only when and how he wants to. He’s even used that relationship as its own form of performance art: In

Britney Spears’ recent announcement that she was undertaking an “indefinite work hiatus” following her father Jamie Spears’ recent life-threatening health crisis (he suffered a ruptured colon late last year and spent much of December hospitalized) has resulted in the postponement of her Las Vegas residency, “Britney: Domination.” Slated to run for 32 performances at the

Lady Gaga has addressed her 2013 collaboration with R. Kelly in a tweet on Wednesday night, revealing that she is pulling the song “Do What U Want” from iTunes and streaming services. “I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain and feel strongly that their voices should be

The Sundance Film Festival has added the world premiere of the documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on sexual abuse allegations against the late pop star Michael Jackson. The movie, produced and directed by Dan Reed, describes how Jackson allegedly began long-running relationships with two boys, aged 7 and 10, and their families while at the

As “Green Book” picks up accolades on the way to Oscars nominations, controversy continues to swirl around its veracity as a depiction of real-life concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley after his family asserted they were not consulted for the film, calling it a “symphony of lies.” Co-writer Nick Vallelonga, who based the story on his father’s

Steven Tyler is bringing the band back together for his second annual Grammy Awards viewing party. Hosted by Jane Lynch, the gala will celebrate the Grammy Awards with a rock ‘n’ roll performance from Aerosmith alongside a live auction in support of Janie’s Fund, Tyler’s philanthropic initiative for abused girls. “It’s so clear just by