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15 Feb 2023

Snoop Dogg, Al Green, Babyface, Jill Scott to Headline 2023 Cincinnati Music Festival

The Cincinnati Music Festival will take over the city’s Paycor Stadium for two nights in July with its patented mix of old school soul and R&B legends and hip-hop superstars, with Snoop Dogg, Al Green, Babyface and Jill Scott topping the bill on July 21 and 22.

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The annual gathering of the vibe will kick off on July 20 at the adjacent Andrew J. Brady Center with a tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with a lineup to be announced soon. Night one will feature Green and Scott joined by Jodeci, Midnight Star and Gerald Albright, while the second evening will include a visit from intergalactic funk icons P-Funk, as well as sets from Avery Sunshine and Norman Brown.

Tickets for the shows are on sale now through Ticketmaster and the festival’s office (513) 924-0900.

“We are thrilled with this year’s lineup for the Cincinnati Music Festival presented by P&G,” said producer Joe Santangelo in a statement. “It’s the first time for Snoop Dogg to perform at the Festival and Al Green last performed in 1974. We know they will both be huge draws for our fans. It’s also an honor for us to plan a Thursday performance to pay tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop.”

After cancelling two go-rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the beloved fest returned last summer with a stacked lineup featuring Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Anthony Hamilton, the O’Jays and more.

CMF began life as the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival in 1962 as an all-jazz event and has evolved over the year to embrace a wide variety of acts, from Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to Luther Vandross, New Edition, Whitney Houston, Earth Wind and Fire and many more, drawing more than 50,000 fans to the concerts and the adjacent Festival 513 street party.

15 Feb 2023

Outback Presents Hires Jason Miller as GM

Jason Miller is moving from Live Nation to Outback Presents, where he has taken the role of GM of the North East Division to help grow the independent promoter’s business.

Miller, most recently executive vp at Live Nation Entertainment, is a veteran of the live entertainment industry with more than 30 years of experience. Over the course of his career, he’s produced events for top artists and entertainers at the iconic venues including Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Prudential Center, Radio City Music Hall, Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, Carnegie Hall, The Beacon Theatre, Northwell Health at Jones Beach, MetLife Stadium and Central Park’s Great Lawn and SummerStage.

“This is a tremendous moment for me personally and professionally,” Miller said in a release. “The new position allows me to return to my creative roots and independent spirit. I’m proud to be able to continue working with world-class artists and events.”

Miller was with Live Nation for 16 years out of New York. While there, he worked with such major artists as Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Prince, Lady Gaga, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Dead & Company, Swedish House Mafia, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Eminem, Radiohead, Jay-Z and Rage Against The Machine.

“Jason carries decades of knowledge, history, and integrity along with a vast pool of experience promoting and producing the highest class of events in North America,” said Outback Presents’ Mike Smardak, Brian Dorfman and Vaughn Millette in a joint statement. “We are proud to foster his creative spirit and thrive in a new era of live entertainment.”

Outback’s team has also recently grown with the hires of Everett Ramsey and Hardy McBee, formerly of Beaver Productions, as well as Fallon Nell, who returned to Outback after stints in both artist management and at Belmont University.

15 Feb 2023

Rihanna Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Leaves Us Wanting More & Wondering: Who’s Next?

After Rihanna’s hits-filled Super Bowl halftime show performance — and unexpected pregnancy reveal! — what could be next for the superstar?

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’re talking all about the buzzy 13-minute set — like what she did perform (“All of the Lights”) and what she surprisingly didn’t (her Oscar-nominated Black Panther song “Lift Me Up”).

Rihanna performs at 2023 Super Bowl halftime show

Watch Rihanna’s Full 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show

We’re also wondering: Where does the halftime show go from here? Who could be next year’s headliner? We’ve got questions! So listen to our full chat below.

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on SZA’s SOS bouncing back to No. 1 for an eighth total week on the Billboard 200 albums chart, how a whopping 35 albums all see unit gains on the list thanks in part to the Grammy Awards’ broadcast, and how best new artist winner Samara Joy jumps to No. 1 on multiple charts after her surprise win.

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 senior director of charts 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.)

15 Feb 2023

13 Things You Should Know About Johnny Mercer

As we reported earlier on Wednesday (Feb. 15), Tim Rice is this year’s recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award, the top honor given by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rice joins a long list of Mercer Award recipients which includes Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Paul Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond.

Mercer died in 1976, so you can be excused if you don’t know all that much about him. Mercer was a top lyricist of the Great American Songbook era, but his creative peak extended beyond that era. He won back-to-back Oscars in 1962-63 for co-writing “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” Henry Mancini, who composed both of those hits, saluted Mercer with a memorable line from “Moon River” when they won for “Days of Wine and Roses,” saying “and my huckleberry friend, Johnny Mercer.”

Mercer’s other most famous songs include “Hooray for Hollywood” (a perennial on the Oscars), “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” (a classic saloon song that is one of Frank Sinatra’s signature hits), “Summer Wind” (another Sinatra classic from 1966), “Fools Rush In” (which Rick Nelson revived in 1963), “Dream” (one of the most melancholy ballads of the World War II years), “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate-the-Positive” (it appeared recently in M3GAN), “I’m an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)” (Lucy and Ethel sang it on a 1954 episode of I Love Lucy), “That Old Black Magic” (Louis Prima & Keely Smith’s classic version was a winner at the first Grammy Awards) and “I Wanna Be Around” (Tony Bennett’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit).

Here are more Mercer songs you probably know: “Autumn Leaves,” “Blues in the Night,” “Jeepers, Creepers!,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “I Remember You,” “Charade,” “Skylark” and “Too Marvelous for Words.”

Scan these 13 Fun Facts and learn more about the man for whom the Songwriters Hall of Fame named their top award.

15 Feb 2023

Elon Musk Hopes to Have New Twitter CEO By Year’s End

Elon Musk said Wednesday that he anticipates finding a CEO for Twitter “probably toward the end of this year.”

Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said making sure the platform can function remained the most important thing for him.

“I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financial healthy place,” Musk said when asked about when he’d name a CEO. “I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”

It remains unclear how seriously Musk will take that timeline. His comment came only hours after he posted images of his shiba inu dog, Floki, on Twitter as the company’s “CEO.”

“So much better than that other guy!” wrote Musk, who often posts memes. After making the posts, a cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin, based around the image of a shiba inu meme, rose in value by around 5%. Musk previously has suggested Twitter accept Dogecoin in transactions.

Musk, 51, made his wealth initially on the finance website PayPal, then created the spacecraft company SpaceX and invested in the electric car company Tesla. In recent months, however, more attention has been focused on the chaos surrounding his $44 billion purchase of the microblogging site Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military’s use of Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink as it defends itself against Russia’s ongoing invasion has put Musk off and on at the center of the war.

Musk offered a wide-ranging 35-minute discussion that touched on the billionaire’s fears about artificial intelligence, the collapse of civilization and the possibility of space aliens. But questions about Twitter kept coming back up as Musk described both Tesla and SpaceX as able to function without his direct, day-to-day involvement.

“Twitter is still somewhat a startup in reverse,” he said. “There’s work required here to get Twitter to sort of a stable position and to really build the engine of software engineering.”

Musk also sought to portray his takeover of San Francisco-based Twitter as a cultural correction. Since taking over the company, he’s restored Donald Trump’s access to the platform after the then-president lost access to the website after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Musk also reinstated the accounts of several people who spread misinformation about the coronavirus, including that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

“I think that the general idea is just to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco and Berkeley, which are so somewhat of a niche ideology as compared to the rest of the world,” Musk said. “And, you know, Twitter was, I think, doing a little too much to impose a niche.”

Musk’s takeover at Twitter has seen mass firings and other cost-cutting measures. Musk, who is on the hook for about $1 billion in yearly interest payments for his purchase, has been trying to find way to maximize profits at the company.

However, some of Musk’s decisions have conflicted with the reasons that journalists, governments and others rely on Twitter as an information-sharing platform.

Musk on Wednesday described the need for users to rely on Twitter for trusted information from verified accounts. However, a confused rollout to a paid verified account system saw some impersonate famous companies, leading to a further withdrawal of needed advertising cash to the site.

“Twitter is certainly quite the rollercoaster,” Musk acknowledged.

Forbes estimates Musk’s wealth at just under $200 billion. The Forbes analysis ranks Musk as the second-wealthiest person on Earth, just behind French luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault.

But Musk also has become a thought leader for some as well, albeit an oracle that is trying to get six hours of sleep a night despite the challenges at Twitter.

Musk described his children as being “programmed by Reddit and YouTube.” However, he criticized the Chinese-made social media app TikTok.

‘“TikTok has a lot of very high usage (but) I often hear people say, ‘Well, I spent two hours on TikTok, but I regret those two hours,’” Musk said. “We don’t want that to be the case with Twitter.”

TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk warned that artificial intelligence should be regulated “very carefully,” describing it as akin to the promise of nuclear power but the danger of atomic bombs. He also cautioned against having a single civilization or “too much cooperation” on Earth, saying it could “collapse” a society that’s like a “tiny candle in a vast darkness.”

And when asked about the existence of aliens, Musk had a firm response.

“The crazy thing is, I’ve seen no evidence of alien technology or alien life whatsoever. And I think I’d know because of SpaceX,” he said. “I don’t think anybody knows more about space, you know, than me.”

15 Feb 2023

Former WMG CEO Stephen Cooper Joins Board of Directors for Web3 Company OneOf

Former Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Stephen Cooper has joined the board of directors for Web3 company OneOf, it was announced Wednesday (Feb. 15).

“I am excited about how technology can reshape the future of music, entertainment and business models for many industries,” said Cooper in a statement. “OneOf has a stellar team and deep expertise in providing next generation Web3 technology to enterprises and brands. I look forward to serving on OneOf’s Board of Directors to help guide and accelerate their growth.”

During Cooper’s time as WMG CEO, the company became the most aggressive of the three major labels in embracing Web3 and the metaverse. Under the guidance of chief digital officer/executive vp of business development Oana Ruxandra — who Cooper first brought to WMG in 2012 and who returned in 2018 following a two-year stint at UMG — the company forged partnerships with and/or invested in NFT platforms like Blockparty and The Sandbox, avatar tech company Genies, immersive tech company Wave, blockchain startup Dapper Labs and OneOf, which signed a deal with WMG in January 2022 to create exclusive NFTs for the company’s artists.

In addition to its B2B pursuits, OneOf has a consumer-facing Web3 marketplace, OneOf.com, which is home to digital collectibles for artists including Doja Cat, The Notorious B.I.G. and Whitney Houston.

Cooper’s tenure as WMG CEO lasted from August 2011 to January 2023, when he was succeeded by former YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl. Prior to WMG, Cooper served as CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), CEO of Hawaiian Telecom, executive chairman of Blue Bird Corporation, executive chairman of Collins & Aikman Corporation, CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and CEO/chief restructuring officer at Enron Corporation.

“We are thrilled to welcome Steve to join our board and leadership team,” said OneOf founder/CEO Lin Dai. “Web3 will revolutionize how brands connect with the consumers of the future. Steve’s expertise across music, entertainment, and consumer brands is the perfect addition to OneOf’s leadership team. With his guidance, we look forward to advancing our mission to lower the barriers to entry into Web3 for enterprises and consumers alike.”

15 Feb 2023

Shania Twain Returns to Top Country Albums Chart With ‘Queen Of Me’

Shania Twain’s sixth studio set, Queen of Me — her first since 2017’s Now — flies in at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart (dated Feb. 18), becoming her seventh top five entry.

Released on Feb. 3, the LP earned 38,000 equivalent album units, with 34,000 in album sales, in its opening week, ending Feb. 9, according to Luminate.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Queen starts at No. 10, awarding Twain her sixth top 10.

The set, whose 12 songs Twain co-authored, is her first of new material since Now, which opened at No. 1 on Top Country Albums and the Billboard 200 in October 2017. Now marked Twain’s fifth No. 1 on Top Country Albums and her second on the Billboard 200.

Twain first appeared on Top Country Albums in 1993 with her No. 67-peaking self-titled debut set. She then reigned with The Woman in Me, which spent 29 weeks at No. 1 in 1995-96; Come on Over (50 weeks, 1997-2000); Up! (six weeks, 2002-03); Greatest Hits (11 weeks, 2004-05); and Now (one week, 2017).

In between Now and Queen of Me, Twain’s Not Just a Girl: The Highlights soundtrack, which accompanied her career-spanning Netflix documentary, opened at its No. 15 Top Country Albums peak last September.

With its 50 frames atop Top Country Albums, Come on Over is tied for the second-longest reign with Luke Combs’ This One’s for You, which began its rule in June 2017. Since the chart premiered in January 1964, Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album boasts the longest command: it racks up its 94th week in the penthouse on the latest list, with 46,000 units (up 8%).

Meanwhile, Twain joins five other acts with top five titles on Top Country Albums in the 1990s, 2000s, ’00s and ’10s: Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw, as well as Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, both of whose streaks date back to the ’60s.

15 Feb 2023

Jennifer Lopez Makes It Super Official With Ben Affleck With Matching Tattoos: ‘Commitment Is Sexy’

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have hit all the traditional relationship goals: they got married several times after breaking up two decades earlier, attended the 2023 Grammy Awards together and became a global meme and just co-starred in a Super Bowl commercial honoring his favorite coffee spot.

But now they’ve made their love official-official with matching ink.

Lopez celebrated Valentine’s Day on Tuesday (Feb. 14) by showing off the forever symbol she got tatted onto the left side of her ribcage, an infinity sign bisected by an arrow with the A-lister’s names running around the loop. “Commitment ♾️ Happy Valentine’s Day my love ? (Look for more deets on VDay coming #OnTheJLo soon…),” the singer/actress captioned an image of her new body art, along with the tags #CommitmentIsSexy #ThisIsUsThen #ThisIsUsNow #ThisIsMeNow.

The post featured a carousel of pics from the couple’s love affair, including one of Affleck smiling with his eyes shut, another that appeared to show his version of the forever ink — with a pair of crossed arrows featuring their first initials — and then a series of the happy couple on vacation, kissing on a night out and recreating the yacht scene from her 2002 “Jenny From the Block” video in which Affleck grabs a handful of her bikini bottom.

Ben and Jen got married last July in Las Vegas after re-booting their romance in 2021 after getting engaged nearly 20 years earlier before splitting in 2004. They said “I do” again a month later in Georgia in a larger ceremony featuring their friends, family and children.

Check out Lopez’s post below.

15 Feb 2023

Metallica Foundation Donates $250K for Turkey/Syria Earthquake Relief Efforts

Metallica‘s All Without Our Hands foundation has donated more than $250,000 to aid victims of the Feb. 6 magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria that has killed 41,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

“We’re at a loss for words to describe the devastation in southern Turkey and northern Syria. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake has reduced the entire region to rubble. The death toll continues to rise, tragically exceeding 36,000 lives lost,” the band wrote in a tweet announcing their donations to Direct Relief and World Central Kitchen to help deliver medical aid and meals.

“Two of @AWMHFoundation’s partner organizations, @DirectRelief & @WCKitchen, have boots on the ground providing medical aid & food to the victims of this disaster. #AWMH is providing $125k to each organization to support their efforts,” they added.

The massive quake and a series of aftershocks have left tens of thousands dead, injured more than 114,000 and displaced two million people while carving a path of destruction that leveled 6,500 buildings, many of them crushing victims who were sleeping when the early morning temblor struck.

The donation from the metal icons is just the latest charitable news from their AWMH foundation, coming on the heels of the more than $3 million raised by their Dec. 16 Helping Hands concert in Los Angeles at the Microsoft Theater, with funds earmarked for efforts to support workforce education, fight hunger and provide disaster relief.

The gig hosted by late night’s Jimmy Kimmel was streamed live on Paramount+ and also featured sets from Greta Van Fleet, a surprise appearance by St. Vincent and Robert Downey Jr. introducing the headliners. The Helping Hands Concert and a parallel auction honored a number of local organizations, including:  Baby2Baby, First Star, Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, mikeroweWorks Foundation, and The Skatepark Project.

See Metallica’s tweets below.

15 Feb 2023

Tim Rice Is Songwriters Hall of Fame’s 2023 Johnny Mercer Award Recipient: Exclusive

Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner, which is slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.

Rice, who teamed with Andrew Lloyd Webber to write such classics as Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, is the first songwriter primarily known for his work in theater to receive this award since Stephen Sondheim in 1999.

Rice is the second EGOT recipient to receive the Johnny Mercer Award – following Alan Menken. The two songwriters shared an Oscar and three Grammys for their work on Aladdin.

He’s the fifth songwriter or songwriting team from the U.K. to receive the honor, following Jule Styne (1993), Phil Collins (2010), Elton John & Bernie Taupin (2013) and Van Morrison (2015).

The Mercer Award, the SHOF’s highest honor, is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work upholds the standards set by Johnny Mercer, a four-time Oscar-winner.

“I am truly honoured to be chosen to receive the Johnny Mercer Award,” Rice said in a statement. “My induction into the SHOF in 1999 was itself a highlight of my writing career and I never expected to receive any further recognition from the most distinguished gathering of songwriters in the world. So, I am bowled over (a cricketing metaphor) with gratitude. I have attended quite a few SHOF events in the past 25 years and they have always been among the most enjoyable of entertainment world extravaganzas – unpretentious, unpredictable, and spectacular. So, June 15, 2023, is a golden booking in my electronic diary.”

Inductees at this year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner are Sade Adu, Glen Ballard, Snoop Dogg, Gloria Estefan, Jeff Lynne, Teddy Riley and Liz Rose. The recipient of a second honorary award, the Hal David Starlight Award, will be announced at a later date.

SHOF Chairman Nile Rodgers said, “Tim Rice is an artisan. He has crafted some of the greatest lyrics and stories in musical history with Jesus Christ Superstar, and his incredible work with Andrew Lloyd Webber being amongst my favorites.”

Rice has won an Emmy, five Grammys, three Oscars and three Tonys. He won an Oscar and three Grammys for his work on Aladdin; two Tonys, a Grammy and an Oscar for Evita and its film adaptation; a Tony and a Grammy for Aida; an Oscar for The Lion King and an Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert.

Rice has worked in music, theatre, and films since 1965. In addition to his work with Webber,  Rice has worked with such other top composers as Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast) and Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess). He has also written with Freddie Mercury, Burt Bacharach and Rick Wakeman, among others.

Rice’s recent musical From Here to Eternity returned to London in November 2022. A new Broadway presentation of Chess is set to open in the fall of 2023. In early 2024, a new production of Aida will make its U.K/West End début. Rice is currently writing and presenting a podcast, Get Onto My Cloud, in which he reminisces about his years in music, theater and film.