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13 Dec 2023

Jodeci Announce 2024 ‘The Show, The Afterparty, The Vegas Residency’ Las Vegas Run

The latest superstar act to announce a 2024 Las Vegas residency are R&B legends Jodeci. The New Jack Swing quartet featuring DeVante Swing, K-Ci, JoJo and Mr. Dalvin announced on Tuesday (Dec. 12) that they’ll bring their aptly-named stay-put, “The Show, The After Party, The Vegas Residency,” to the Mandalay Bay Resort at the House of Blues beginning March 15.

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Pre-sale for the shows start on Wednesday (Dec. 13) at 10 a.m. local time with the code: VEGAS. General admission tickets will go on sale on Saturday (Dec. 16) at 10 a.m. local time.

The North Carolina-bred quartet released their debut album, Forever My Lady in 1991, which featured three No. 1 Billboard R&B hits, including the title track, “Stay” and “Come and Talk to Me.” They followed up with 1993’s Diary of a Mad Band and 1995’s The Show, the After Party, the Hotel, which spawned the hit singles “Freek’n You” and “Love U 4 Life.” The group went on hiatus in 1996, at which point K-Ci and JoJo broke off as a duo; they reformed in 2013 for their fourth album, The Past, the Present, the Future.

The Jodeci news came on the same day that hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan announced the initial four dates of their “Wu-Tang Clan: The Saga Continues… The Las Vegas Residency” at the Theater at Virgin Hotels during Super Bowl weekend (Feb. 9-10) and March Madness (March 22-24).

Check out the Jodeci residency dates and announcement below:

Residency dates

March: 15, 16, 20, 23, 24

July: 5, 6, 10, 12, 13

13 Dec 2023

Taylor Swift Fan Drops Class Action Against Live Nation Over Eras Tour Ticket Debacle

A Taylor Swift fan who filed a class action against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation in the wake of last year’s disastrous presale of tickets to the Eras Tour has agreed to drop her case against the concert giant, months after attorneys on the case said they were engaged in settlement talks.

Swift fan Michelle Sterioff filed her case in December 2022 just weeks after the botched Eras rollout, which saw widespread service delays and website crashes as millions of fans tried – and many failed – to buy tickets. At the time, her lawyers blasted Live Nation as a “monopoly” that had “knowingly misled millions of fans.”

But a year later, Sterioff voluntarily asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss her case. It’s unclear if a settlement was reached, but the two sides reported in August that they were engaged in “ongoing settlement discussions.” Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.

Sterioff’s proposed class action was just one piece of the legal fallout for Live Nation following the error-plagued pre-sale for Eras, which went on the earn hundreds of millions of dollars and dominate headlines as 2023’s biggest concert tour.

After the Nov. 22, 2022 incident, Live Nation quickly apologized to fans and pinned the blame on a “staggering number of bot attacks” and “unprecedented traffic.” But lawmakers in Washington and state attorneys general around the country quickly called for investigations. That included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the chair of the Senate subcommittee for antitrust issues, who suggest that regulators consider “breaking up the company” – a reference to Live Nation’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster.

Days after the incident, the New York Times reported that DOJ had already been investigating Live Nation for months over potential antitrust violations, reaching out to venues across the country to ask about the company’s conduct. Last month, Reuters reported that the probe was ongoing, with federal investigators focusing on whether Live Nation imposed anticompetitive agreements on venues. A Senate subcommittee investigation is also underway, sending out subpoenas last month demanding info about the company’s “failure to combat artificially inflated demand fueled by bots in multiple, high-profile incidents.”

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift performs onstage for night three of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium on May 07, 2023 in Nashville.

John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Sterioff’s case was one of two major class actions filed against Live Nation over the Eras ticket rollout. In her complaint, she accused the company of violating consumer protection and antitrust laws, calling Ticketmaster a “monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public.”

“Because Ticketmaster has exclusive agreements with virtually all venues capable of accommodating large concerts, Taylor Swift and other popular musicians have no choice but to sell their tickets through Ticketmaster, and their fans have no choice but to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing platform,” her lawyers wrote.

Sterioff’s lawsuit claimed that Live Nation has exploited that dominance to charge “ever more supracompetitive ticketing fees for both primary and secondary ticketing services,” including for “virtually all venues hosting ‘The Eras’ Tour.”

But the lawsuit has largely been paused for months. In August, both sides agreed that it would be better to wait to litigate the case after a federal appeals court rules on a separate antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, which will decide whether the company can force ticketbuyers to resolve such legal claims in private arbitration rather than open court.

The other class action over the Eras debacle, filed by an outspoken fan named Julie Barfuss and more than two dozen other spurned Swifities, remains pending in California federal court. In her complaint, Barfuss went even further than Sterioff, claiming Live Nation had tacitly allowed the kind of mass-scalping that caused so many problems during the pre-sale.

“Ticketmaster has stated that it has taken steps to address this issue, but in reality, has taken steps to make additional profit from the scalped tickets,” Barfuss’ lawyer wrote. “Instead of competition, Ticketmaster has conspired with stadiums to force fans to buy more expensive tickets that Ticketmaster gets additional fees from every time the tickets are resold.”

13 Dec 2023

Amy Winehouse Biopic, ‘Back to Black,’ Announces Spring 2024 Release Date

The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black will hit theaters on May 10, 2024. Focus Features announced on Tuesday (Dec. 12) that the movie directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) with a script from Matt Greenhalgh (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool) will offer a “never-before-seen glimpse into Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame and the release of her groundbreaking studio album, Back to Black. Told from Amy’s perspective, the film is an unapologetic look at the woman behind the phenomenon and the relationship that inspired one of the most legendary albums of all time.”

The movie stars Industry‘s Marisa Abela as Winehouse, along with Jack O’Connell (Ferrari), Eddie Marsan (Fair Play) and Lesley Manville (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris). Focus noted that the movie was made with the full support of the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Publishing and the Amy Winehouse Estate.

Winehouse rocketed to fame with her 2006 sophomore album, Back to Black, which won five Grammy Awards, including record and song of the year, as well as best new artist, best pop vocal album and best female pop vocal album. That album included the Hot 100 hits “Rehab” and “You Know I’m No Good.” Winehouse, who battled drug and alcohol addiction, died in 2011 at age 27 from alcohol poisoning.

StudioCanal previously announced the international release dates for the film, which include April 12 (UK, Poland), April 18 (Germany, Netherlands), April 24 (France) and April 25 (New Zealand).

A book featuring Winehouse’s handwritten lyrics, photos and personal journals, Amy Winehouse: In Her Words, was released in August, in time for what would have been the singer’s 40th birthday.

12 Dec 2023

Cher, Brandy, Sabrina Carpenter & More Make Our Christmas List With Fresh Holiday Hits

We all know and love the Christmas classics, but you might need to find some extra room on your decorated mantel for some new holiday hits this year.

On the latest episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith are chatting about five brand-new Christmas songs for 2023: Cher‘s “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” Jason & Travis Kelce’s “Fairytale of Philadelphia,” Jimmy Fallon & Meghan Trainor‘s “Wrap Me Up,” Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Santa Doesn’t Know You Like I Do,” and Brandy‘s “Christmas Party for Two.” All these songs or their parent albums are already making moves on Billboard‘s charts — including Cher hitting No. 1 on the Holiday Digital Song Sales, Adult Contemporary and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts with “DJ” and Top Holiday Albums with Christmas. (The football-playing Kelce brothers have a chart-topper too: “Fairytale of Philadelphia” — their update of the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” from the charity album A Philly Special Christmas Special — hit No. 1 on Rock Digital Song Sales.)

Listen to the new episode below:

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on K-pop boy band ATEEZ scoring their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” decorating the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week. Plus, could Nicki Minaj get her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in more than a decade with her new album Pink Friday 2?

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

12 Dec 2023

Dove Cameron on Her Debut Album, ‘Boyfriend’ Success, Her Disney Days & More | Billboard News

Dove Cameron opened up to Billboard’s Rania Aniftos about creating her debut album Alchemical: Volume 1, life after the success of her song “Boyfriend,” being vulnerable in her writing and the lessons she learned from her Disney Channel days.

Dove Cameron:
It was just like I was learning as I went and everybody was watching every inch of it.

Hey, I’m Dove Cameron, and this is Billboard News.

Rania Aniftos:
Hi, everybody. It’s Rania Aniftos with Billboard News, and I am so excited to be here with singer-songwriter, Emmy Award winner Dove Cameron.

Dove Cameron:
Hey!

Rania Aniftos:
Hello!

Dove Cameron:
I’m so excited to be here with you.

Rania Aniftos:
Me too!

Dove Cameron:
It’s been a long time coming.

Rania Aniftos:
It has been a long time coming. We’ve both been manifesting this to happen.

So your debut album, Alchemical: Volume 1, so you’re splitting it into two parts. What was the idea behind telling a story in sequence like that?

Dove Cameron:
I felt like I was writing the two halves in such different headspaces. Like, the first half was really, like, about the ending of something and an entire year of my life and the processing of that that happened. And then there was, like, a very stark kind of sonic page turn when it came to the sort of, like, next musical phase that I stepped into. It just kind of ended up making sense to split it.

Rania Aniftos:
You’ve also been sprinkling singles throughout the past few years, and now you finally have a full project out. How does that feel to have like a complete body of work to share with your fans?

Watch the full video above!

12 Dec 2023

Dove Cameron Talks Exploring Her ‘Personhood’ on Debut Album ‘Alchemical: Volume 1’ 

Dove Cameron is fresh off the release of her debut album, Alchemical: Volume 1, and the 27-year-old star sat down with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos to discuss the inspiration behind the two-part project.

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“I felt like I was writing the two halves in such different headspaces. The first half was really about the ending of something, and an entire year of my life, and the processing of that. There was a very stark sonic page turn when it came to the next musical phase that I stepped into,” she explains, noting that the upcoming part two is a lot more fun and “sexy.”

However, Cameron also reveals that it was important for her to get vulnerable in her first release, including songs like “Sand,” one of the project’s standout tracks. “I always said that I never wanted to release any sad music or ballads, because I was really avoidant for a long time, like, ‘Everything’s happy! Everything’s so amazing!’ But I was not happy,” she says. “I decided if I was going to be a person, right? Your personhood and your life has to come before everything. If I was ever going to become the person I was going to be — and music is so important to me — I had to integrate what has happened so far and I have to write for me first and foremost.”

Watch Billboard‘s full interview with Dove Cameron above, in which she also talks about the unexpected success of “Boyfriend” and her days on the Disney Channel.

12 Dec 2023

Beyoncé’s Father Mathew Knowles’ Memoir to Be Adapted Into Film, TV Series

Mathew Knowles — longtime music manager, entrepreneur and father of Beyoncé and Solange — is bringing his 2017 memoir to the screen, according to his agent, Shawn Scallon at Buchwald.

Knowles has partnered with Say Unkel Entertainment to adapt the book, Racism From the Eyes of a Child, into a feature film as well as a limited series. The feature will cover the first half of the book, which goes into Knowles’ early life in Alabama as one of just six black students to attend an all-white school and his participation in peaceful protests calling for racial equality. It also addresses how the efforts of such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Turner and Ralph Abernathy helped shape the person he became.

Variety was first to report the news.

Robert Unkel, a former vp of programming at 20th Century Fox, told Variety the script for the feature is complete. Unkel will oversee the development of the project with producer Howard Kazanjian.

Knowles famously managed Destiny’s Child, the girl group featuring Beyoncé that rose to fame in the late 1990s and helped set the stage for her ascent to superstardom the following decade. He managed Beyoncé’s solo career until the two parted ways in 2011. Through his faith-based record label and management company Music World Entertainment, he has also managed such gospel acts as Brian Courtney Wilson, Trin-i-tee 5:7 and Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams. In June, Knowles formed Music World TV, Film & Media, where he serves as CEO.

12 Dec 2023

Ty Dolla $ign Drops Off Cover Art From His & Ye’s Upcoming Joint Album ‘Vultures’

Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign have unveiled the cover art to their upcoming album Vultures. 

Posted on Ty’s Instagram page, the hazy cover finds a bird perched on a shovel atop a coffin in a grassy field. The album art comes after Ye and Dolla $ign previewed new music during Art Basel and performed at Miami’s LIV Nightclub. The newly formed tag team also unleashed the upcoming album’s tracklist, featuring their previously released song “Vultures” with Bump J and Lil Durk and the elusive song “New Body” with Nicki Minaj. “New Body” was slated to appear on West’s 2018 album Yandhi, but the album was shelved, and he pivoted to 2019’s Jesus Is King. It will also include “Everybody,” which sampled Backstreet Boys 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).”

After playing the album on Monday night (Dec. 11), West looks to have numerous features on display, including Future, Playboi Carti, Freddie Gibbs, Lil Baby, and North West, who was rapping alongside Ye during his listening party. The event was also starry as Offset, Lil Durk, and Freddie Gibbs were all in attendance as they watched Ye and Ty perform cuts from the project. 

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Vultures will be Ye’s first album since the release of his 2021 album Donda, which won a pair of Grammys the following year, most notably for best rap song. As for Ye and Ty, their collaborations date back to Ty’s “Ego Death” (2020), Ye’s “Everything We Need” (2019), “Real Friends” (2016), and “Only One” (2014). 

Check out Ye and Ty’s album cover for Vultures below. The album arrives Friday (Dec. 15). 

12 Dec 2023

Spotify Won’t Be Leaving Uruguay After All

After Spotify said it would begin to phase out service in Uruguay on Jan. 1, 2024, the streamer reversed course on Tuesday (Dec. 12). “We can say with great confidence, they transmitted it to us today: Spotify is going to continue operating in Uruguay for the benefit of all users,” Secretary of the Presidency Álvaro Delgado said in a press conference, according to El Observador.

The origin of the dispute: Uruguay’s parliament passed a bill in November that changed the country’s copyright laws and demanded “equitable remuneration” for artists. Spotify objected to the lack of “clarity” in the new bill’s language because it was unclear where that additional “remuneration” would come from. “Changes that could force Spotify to pay twice for the same music would make our business of connecting artists and fans unsustainable,” a Spotify spokesperson warned, “and regrettably leaves us no choice but to stop being available in Uruguay.” 

However, as El Observador reported on Tuesday (Dec. 12), Delgado told the press that “after several days of exchange and interaction, especially with legal aspects, the President of the Republic, the Minister of Education and Culture and the Minister of Industry” have come together to “make it clear that there will be no double payment by the platforms.”

Spotify welcomed the news. “The Uruguayan government has issued much-needed clarification of the recent music copyright law changes, specifically that rightsholders are responsible for ensuring artists are fairly paid, rather than requiring Spotify to pay multiple times for the same content,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are pleased that this clarification will allow Spotify to remain available in Uruguay so that we can continue giving artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it,” the spokesperson continued. “We thank President Lacalle Pou and his team for recognizing the value Spotify provides to local artists, songwriters and fans.”

It has been a tumultuous month for Spotify: Earlier in December, the company announced it was cutting around 1,500 employees in an effort to close “the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs,” as CEO Daniel Ek wrote to staff. This marked Spotify’s third round of layoffs in 2023. 

Ek acknowledged that a “reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance.” But he added he was “convinced this is the right action.” 

A few days later, Spotify announced that CFO Paul Vogel would leave the company at the end of March.

12 Dec 2023

TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Jung Kook, Jimin, Stray Kids & More Join the RIAA Class of 2023

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) unveiled its Class of 2023 this week, highlighting the artists who have made the biggest impact with their music over the past year, with its latest inductees gaining recognition from the institution for achievement in top album sales and singles, first-time placement and more.

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K-pop has a clear presence in this year’s class, with several Billboard chart-toppers making the cut. Both Stray Kids and TOMORROW X TOGETHER earned Gold certifications for the first time, with 5-Star and The Name Chapter: Temptation, respectively, with the latter group sharing in a statement, “It means so much to us to not only be certified Gold, but also be part of this program with amazing artists. We wouldn’t be able to join them without all of the love and support we receive from the world.”

Jung Kook and Jimin of BTS, who both released solo material for the first time this year, earned platinum certifications for the first time with their singles “Seven (feat. Latto)” and “Like Crazy” selling over 1 million units each. Other chart-topping singles that made the cut for platinum status include PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2,” Raye and 070 Shake’s “Escapism” and GloRilla and Hitkidd’s “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).”

SZA earned the most certifications with 15 titles, with her album SOS becoming the top album of 2023 for going 3x platinum and single “Kill Bill” going 5x platinum. Latin also scored big on the list, with Peso Pluma’s Génesis earning the highest album certifications for a first-time artist, Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito becoming the top Latin album after going 5x platinum and Carin Leon & Grupo Frontera’s “Que Vuelvas” being named top Latin single.

“This is truly one of our favorite times of the year – the chance to commemorate extraordinary firsts!” RIAA COO Michele Ballantyne said in a press release. “This kind of certification represents the incredible connection between artists, record labels, creative partners and fans. We are continually amazed by the unique talents who break through and are honored to recognize the RIAA Class Of 2023 … we can’t wait to celebrate their next big milestones!”

Ice Spice represented for hip-hop with “In Ha Mood” and breakthrough hit “Munch (Feelin’ U)” by securing Gold status, and Luke Combs represented country with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” being the highest-certified country single.

“Music moves culture and has the power to connect like never before. The RIAA is so proud to acknowledge the impact of incredible voices and innovative engagement that captivated fans in 2023,” RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazie added in the release. “These albums and singles earned coveted RIAA Gold & Platinum certifications because they reflect the very best!”

See the full RIAA Class of 2023 here.