Robyn, whose first album in eight years, “Honey,” has met with an ecstatic response from critics, today announced dates for North American and European tour dates in support of the album. The dates appear in full below. The tour launches in Norway on Feb. 5, 2019, moves through Scandinavia and then to North America before
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“Songwriters and sidemen are my favorite people,” Lee Ann Womack said on the red carpet before going into Monday night’s ASCAP Country Awards in Nashville. A sideman-honoring ceremony would have to wait for another day, but Womack was at least half in her element at the Monday gathering, where songwriters were not just being feted
November 13, 2018 7:16AM PT A day after his performance with Kid Cudi at Camp Flog Gnaw, Kanye West has delayed the release of his forthcoming “Yandhi” album again, from Nov. 23 to an unspecified future date. “It felt so good being on the stage last night with my brother Cudi,” West tweeted Monday night.
Joan Baez has sung a lot of putative protest music, or at least participated in more than her fair share of rallies, over the last six decades. But here’s something to protest, in 2018: the idea of Baez retiring. She’s currently on what’s being billed as her farewell tour, and when someone like Baez or
Remember rock bands? You can be forgiven if you don’t, in this day and age, but one of the very few great and viable ones of the 21stcentury, Muse, is back to save the day with “Simulation Theory,” their first album in three and a half years. Just one caveat: they aren’t sounding so rock
November 12, 2018 2:21PM PT Kids See Ghosts, the duo featuring Kanye West and Kid Cudi, made its live debut Sunday night at the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles, performing inside a rectangular glass box that reminded many observers of the very similar rectangular glass box that Lorde used on her “Melodrama” tour
APA has named Bruce Solar Partner and Co-Head of Worldwide Music, it was announced today by Jim Gosnell, the company’s president and CEO. Solar, who previously served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Music since first joining the agency in 2015, will now oversee the west coast operations for APA’s Concerts division alongside fellow Co-Head
With so many options for music competition shows on television – “The Voice,” “American Idol” and “American’s Got Talent” among them — it’s high time the Country genre got its share of the spotlight. Enter: USA Network’s “Real Country,” a national showcase for promising artists hand-selected by panelists Shania Twain, Travis Tritt and Jake Owen,
November 12, 2018 11:46AM PT Lady Gaga was forced to evacuate her Malibu home as the Woolsey fire rages on, but the singer and “A Star Is Born” actress took time to visit a Red Cross shelter on Sunday. “I extend my love to each and every one of you,” Gaga told the displaced crowd
Bjork and the Shed announced today that the singer will premiere “Cornucopia,” a new concert production, at the venue in spring of 2019. The show will be part of the inaugural season of the new arts venue, which is located in New York’s Hudson Yards neighborhood and scheduled to open in the spring, and will
Well, did anyone expect them to just stand there and rap? On his last two tours, Kanye West has performed atop a flying stage and alongside a giant fake mountain, and for the live debut of his Kids See Ghosts collaboration with Kid Cudi at Camp Flog Gnaw on Sunday night, the duo performed inside
MTV has acquired SnowGlobe Music Festival, the annual three-day December gathering held in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., with plans to expand the brand as a music and lifestyle event and to help freshen up the cabler’s New Year’s Eve programming. The deal is in keeping with Viacom’s goal of growing its activity in live events.
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was rushed to the hospital after performing with Billy Joel at New York’s Madison Square Garden Saturday night. He remained in the hospital Sunday, according to a rep, where he is “alert and responsive.” “Following a guest performance during Billy Joel’s show last night at Madison Square Garden, Joe Perry experienced shortness of
While it wasn’t quite a Donald Glover turn, Lil Wayne made the most of his appearance on this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live,” performing two songs and contributing a long guest verse to “Permission,” one of the show’s trademark hip-hop comedy clips. In “Permission,” the show’s Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd play the Booty Kings, a
Rosanne Cash, who has been frequently outspoken about gun control issues in recent years, isn’t being shy about speaking up again in the wake of the mass shootings in Thousand Oaks, California, near where she grew up as the daughter of Johnny Cash. “Step back and take the wide view and see that we have
November 9, 2018 1:10PM PT Universal Music Publishing Group today announced that it has signed young singer-songwriter Billie Eilish to an exclusive co-publishing deal. The fast-rising 16-year-old — who is one of Variety’s 2018 Young Hollywood Power Players — posted her song “Ocean Eyes” onto SoundCloud early in 2016, followed with a video in March, and by November
“We don’t get to die young. … We just have to push on. … We don’t get to give up this life.” These words, lyrics obtained by Variety that were purportedly from a collaboration with Swedish dance music superstar Avicii (ne Tim Bergling) before his death in April at age 28, offer a glimpse into
November 9, 2018 7:16AM PT A gunman fired multiple shots at a video shoot in Beverly Hills where Kanye West and Tekashi 6ix9ine were both working Thursday night, according to TMZ and the Blast. Local police confirmed to Variety that shots were fired at around 10:25 p.m. local time on the 900 block of North
Just one week after the release of David Archuleta’s new Christmas album, “Winter in the Air,” Variety has an exclusive video premiere of the title cut. The clip features Archuleta in a snowy forest, while dancers Ezra Sosa and Cassidy Forsyth — from the second season of NBC’s “World of Dance” (featuring former Idol judge
According to, well, just about everyone, hip-hop and R&B are the streaming generation’s musical genres of choice and rock is in a hard place. Yet rock, or at least the style formerly known as alternative rock, is finishing out the year with a bang as two of its biggest acts — Imagine Dragons and Muse
November 8, 2018 10:17PM PT Lady Gaga was honored by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Thursday night alongside Harrison Ford, and took a quick moment to react to Tuesday night’s midterm elections. “There’s 100 women in the House and I’m really happy about that,” she told Variety‘s Marc Malkin on the red carpet. Tuesday’s midterms were notable
In the category of decent jokes that haven’t dated well, count the scene from “Men in Black” in which Tommy Lee Jones walks Will Smith through a lab where aliens are developing new technologies and he holds up a disc even more minuscule than the Sony MiniDisc. “This is gonna replace CDs soon,” says Jones’
Rufus Wainwright introduced himself on May 19th, 1998. He was the first new artist signed to DreamWorks Records, the label appendage of the new film studio which launched in 1996. His self-titled album was only a modest success, sales-wise — there were no hit singles — but critics and musicians immediately genuflected. The album made
Joni Mitchell did not sing during a rare public appearance Wednesday night, but she did show off one of the most instantly recognizable grins in pop music history, which was emotional climax enough for the curtain call of “JONI 75: A Birthday Celebration Live at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.” The tribute took place over two
Not long before Canadian pop-rocker Avril Lavigne and also Canadian Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger announced the end of their two-year marriage in the fall of 2015, via Instagram, they shelled out $5.4 million for a decidedly traditional chateau-inspired mansion in a beautifully leafy, upscale neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, Calif., that’s now back on the market
November 8, 2018 2:00AM PT Singer-songwriter Michael Bublé is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Nov. 16, adding the 2,650th star to the legendary sidewalk. The ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. PT in front of the W Hollywood Hotel. Throughout his lengthy career, Bublé has sold more than
November 7, 2018 5:05PM PT The “Frozen” sequel may already have its “Let It Go.” “We have a new song that I think is an evolution,” Jennifer Lee, co-director of the first and second films, told Variety on Monday at the “Ralph Breaks the Internet” premiere in L.A. “It’s its own song…Bobby [Lopez] and Kristen
Missy Elliott becomes the first female rapper to be nominated for the Songwriters Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019, it was announced today. Joining Elliott as performing nominees are Mariah Carey, Chrissie Hynde, Vince Gill, the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Jimmy Cliff, Jeff Lynne, Cat Stevens, John Prine, Lloyd Price, Tommy
Riot Games created a hologram K-Pop band made up of characters from its “League of Legends” game and had them perform live during the World Championships in Korea over the weekend. The single by K/DA, voiced by Madison Beer, Jaira Burns and (G)I-DLE members Akali and Miyeon, managed to rake in 13 million views in
Ariana Grande performed her new single “Thank U, Next” on “Ellen” Wednesday morning, amplifying the song’s theme by appearing with two dancers on a set made up to look like a wedding reception. Midway through the song, she climbed on top of a chair and stumbled as she stepped down from it, but she literally