Awards
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Composer Christopher Lennertz will be named a BMI Icon at the 39th Annual BMI Film, TV and Visual Media Awards on May 10 in Beverly Hills, Calif. The two-time Emmy-nominated composer will receive BMI’s highest honor for his body of work across film, television and gaming.
In addition, the ceremony will celebrate the composers of the previous year’s top-grossing films, top-rated primetime network television series and highest-ranking cable and streamed media programs. The event will be hosted by BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill and BMI vice president, creative, film, TV & visual media, Tracy McKnight.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate Christopher Lennertz and his tremendous musical accomplishments by presenting him the BMI Icon Award,” McKnight said in a statement. “His compelling body of work, from blockbuster films to hit TV shows and gaming, highlights Christopher’s passion for all styles of music and has made him one of the industry’s most sought-after composers.”
Previous BMI Icon Award recipients include Terence Blanchard, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, Rachel Portman (PRS), Alan Silvestri, Brian Tyler and John Williams.
Lennertz’s eclectic body of work includes scoring such blockbusters as Horrible Bosses and Ride Along, as well as such TV shows as Amazon’s The Boys, cult-favorite Supernatural (which originated on The WB before being picked up by The CW) Netflix’s Lost in Space and Marvel’s Agent Carter. Lennertz is also one of the most in-demand composers in video games, having worked on hits like Medal of Honor and the Mass Effect series.
Lennertz’s recent works include arranging and conducting a large orchestra for a new version of Guns N’ Roses “November Rain,” composing the score for Netflix’s coming-of-age drama 13: The Musical and producing, arranging and conducting Wondrous Journeys, Disney’s new salute to 100 years of animation. He has also written songs with Glenn Slater for Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monáe and Lizzo. Coming up, Lennertz’s work on Marvel’s Rogers the Musical will come to life during the Disney100 celebration at the Disney California Adventure Park.
Lennert has received Emmy nominations for outstanding musical composition for a series for Supernatural (2006) and outstanding original music and lyrics for The Boys (2021). He collaborated with lyricist Michael Saltzman on the latter project. He has also received 20 BMI awards.
Furthermore, he has demonstrated his passion for education and philanthropy by serving on the board of Education Through Music-Los Angeles and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, as well as Hands Together Haiti. Lennertz also launched the Symphony of Hope project, a collaboration of more than 25 leading film and TV composers and dozens of musicians and vocalists joining together to rally the film music community in support of Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry on Wednesday (April 12), and the icon celebrated the honor on social media.
“I’m honored beyond belief!” she wrote on both Twitter and Instagram about the special news. “I definitely did not even imagine this would happen when writing and recording this song! Thank you so much Ms. Hayden and the @librarycongress.”
Carey also shared a snippet of an interview she did with the Library of Congress, telling chief communications officer Roswell Encina, “This is major and this is so gratifying to me as an artist, as a songwriter, of course. You know, you can’t, like, come up with this. I wasn’t sitting there writing lyrics like, ‘I’m going to be in all these places and my song’s gonna mean something to people every Christmas.’ I had no idea, I just wrote from my heart what I wanted. So thank you for including me in this incredible company and the whole situation, thank you.”
The perennial holiday classic indeed finds itself in good company, with the National Recording Registry also inducting the likes of Madonna’s Like a Virgin, Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” the Super Mario Bros. theme, John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Queen Latifah’s All Hail the Queen and more.
According to the Library of Congress, the 25 recordings were selected for induction “based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”
Check out Mariah’s ecstatic reaction to her latest honor below.
Songwriter Ashley Gorley has three ACM Awards nominations for song of the year. He’s only the third songwriter to achieve that feat in the show’s 58-year history. (The category was introduced in the show’s second year.)
Gorley co-wrote Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave” with Stapleton and Chris DuBois; Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” with Swindell, Jesse Frasure, Mark D. Sanders, Thomas Rhett and Tim Nichols; and Morgan Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots” with Josh Osborne and Michael Hardy.
The only other songwriters to notch three nominations in one year are Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, each more than 50 years ago.
Hag was the sole writer of all three of his 1968 nominees – “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde,” “Mama Tried” and “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am.” He was also the artist on all three songs. The first two reached No. 1 on Hot Country Singles – now called Hot Country Songs. “I Take a Lot of Pride” peaked at No. 3. Jimmy Webb won the award that year for writing the Glen Campbell classic “Wichita Lineman.”
Kristofferson was the sole writer of all three of his 1970 nominees – “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” a No. 1 hit for Sammi Smith; “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” a No. 1 hit for Johnny Cash; and “For the Good Times,” a No. 1 hit for Ray Price. (All three chart references are to Hot Country Singles.) Kristofferson won the award for the sublime “For the Good Times.”
Hag, who died in 2016 at age 79, and Kristofferson, 86, have long been country music royalty.
Haggard was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2006 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2010.
Kristofferson was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and received that organization’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2006. He was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2006.
Gorley, 45, has written hits for a raft of country artists, as well as such non-country artists as Bon Jovi and Jason Derulo. He has topped Billboard’s Country Songwriters chart for 33 weeks and has headed Hot 100 Songwriters for three weeks.
The 2023 Billboard Music Awards, set for Sunday, Nov. 19, are shaking up the traditional awards-show format.
In addition to the artists who perform live that night, select BBMAs winners will celebrate their achievements through unique performance experiences with their top fans. One-hundred superfans of those award winners will receive a “golden ticket,” which will allow them to attend a performance with the winning artist at a secret location.
Curated in close collaboration with the performing artists, these experiences will connect talent with their most engaged fans, and in the process give artists the creative freedom to deliver awards show performances in a newly imagined way.
The program will weave together these artist-fan experiences with live components from the show in Los Angeles in a first-of-its-kind awards show format. The show will honor all BBMAs winners, as well as a salute to this year’s Icon Award recipient with special tribute performances. Additionally, select industry awards will be presented.
Billboard and Dick Clark Productions announced last month that the show was moving from its customary spring time slot to the fall.
From its debut in 1990 through 2006, the Billboard Music Awards took place in December. Every edition from 2011 onward was held in May, with the exception of the pandemic-delayed 2020 show, which rolled out in October.
The 2022 BBMAs were held May 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and were hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The BBMAs celebrates the hottest names in contemporary music, with winners determined by performance on the Billboard charts, which measure key fan interactions with music, including audio and video streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and touring.
Awards for the 2023 BBMAs are based on music consumption reflected on Billboard’s charts dated Nov. 19, 2022 through Oct. 21, 2023. Those are the dates encompassing the 2023 year-end chart period.
For more, follow @BBMAs and #BBMAs on socials and billboardmusicawards.com.
As the final nominees for the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards were announced Thursday (April 13), there were the usual number of expected names, as well as a handful of surprises and snubs.
The eligibility period for nominations ran Nov. 16, 2021-Dec. 31, 2022. The ceremony will stream live on Amazon’s Prime Video from Frisco, Texas, on May 11.
Here is a look at some of the year’s notable surprises and snubs.
Snub: Jelly Roll swept the CMT Music Awards earlier this month, and given how ascendent his star seems to be, it was shocking that he didn’t nab a single nomination — not even for new male artist of the year, which is overstuffed with six acts. Jelly Roll, who broke Billboard’s record for number of weeks at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists chart in February when he hit 25 weeks, also seemed like a contender for a song of the year nod after his confessional “Son of a Sinner” hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.
Surprise: Jason Aldean is no stranger to the winner’s circle, having taken home 15 ACM Awards, including artist of the decade in 2018. He’s even won entertainer of the year before three consecutive years, 2015-17. However, he had fallen out of the category after 2018 and makes a return for the first time in five years this year for his only nomination.
Snub: Maren Morris had a solid six-year run of female artist of the year nominations — including winning at the 2020 ceremony — but her streak is broken this year, perhaps because she is off album cycle. The ACMs have shown her plenty of love in the past, as she’s taken home six trophies over the last several years in a number of categories.
Surprise: Prolific songwriter Ashley Gorley has more than 50 No. 1s to his credit, so his inclusion for penning a song of the year entry is no surprise. However, he pulls off a hat trick, capturing three nominations in the category for co-writing Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave,” Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” and Morgan Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots.” He is the only non-performing songwriter to ever land a trio of songs in the category in one year. Songwriter/artists Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson achieved the feat in 1968 and 1971, respectively.
Surprise: Cole Swindell has received only two ACM nominations in his career, including for new artist in 2015, which he won. He’s making up for lost time this year with five nominations, including song and single of the year for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.”
Snub: Similar to Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett has been a contender for six years running — in this case for male artist of the year — but he drops off the list this year. He’s not completely shut out, however, as he earns a nomination for song of the year as a co-writer on “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.”
Surprise: Not only is Kane Brown one of the leading nominees with five nods, but a very pleasant surprise is that he scores two nominations for the first time — including the prestigious entertainer of the year. It marks the first time in 50 years that a biracial or Black artist has been nominated in the category since Charley Pride in 1972. Brown, who previously won video of the year for “Worldwide Beautiful,” also snags his first male artist of the year nomination.
HARDY is the top nominee for the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards, with seven nods. Lainey Wilson, who won two awards last year, is a beat behind with six nods, followed by Cole Swindell, Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Miranda Lambert, with five nods each.
The ACM expanded the number of nominees for entertainer of the year from five to seven this year with Brown and Morgan Wallen receiving their first nominations in the category, while three-time winner Jason Aldean returns with his first nomination in the category in four years. Reigning entertainer of the year winner Lambert is also in the running, along with Combs, Chris Stapleton and Carrie Underwood, all of whom were nominated last year.
Lambert landed her 17th nod for female artist of the year, which enables her to pass Reba McEntire for the most nominations in the category. McEntire amassed 16 nods from 1983 to 2017.
Women accounted for three of the five nominees for album of the year: Lambert’s Palomino, Ashley McBryde’s Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville and Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country are competing for the award alongside Combs’ Growin’ Up and Jon Pardi’s Mr. Saturday Night.
This marks the first time that women (solo artists or all-woman groups) have accounted for three of the five nominations in this category since 1999, when The Chicks, Faith Hill and Jo Dee Messina were all nominated. The Chicks, then known as Dixie Chicks, won that year for Wide Open Spaces.
Combs’ album won the CMA Award for album of the year in November. Should it win here too, it would be the first album to win album of the year at both shows since Combs’ previous album, What You See Is What You Get, three years ago.
Brown’s “Thank God” (with wife Katelyn Brown) is nominated for single of the year. It’s the first single by a married couple to be nominated in that top category since “It’s Your Love” by Tim McGraw with Faith Hill, which won the 1997 award.
Carly Pearce & McBryde’s “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” is also nominated for single of the year. It’s the first all-female collab to be nominated in that category since “Does He Love You” by McEntire with Linda Davis 29 years ago. “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” won an ACM Award last year for music event of the year.
This year’s other nominees for single of the year are Cody Johnson’s “Til You Can’t,” Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” and Wilson’s “Heart Like a Truck.” “Til You Can’t” won the CMA Award for single of the year in November.
Brown is a first-time nominee for both entertainer of the year and male artist of the year. Brown is the first biracial or Black artist to be nominated for entertainer of the year since Charley Pride, who was nominated the first three years the ACM presented the award (1970-72). The War and Treaty, consisting of married couple Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, are nominated for duo of the year. They are the first Black duo to be nominated in that category.
Hit songwriter Ashley Gorley co-wrote three of the five songs nominated for song of the year – Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave,” Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” and Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots.” Gorley is the only the third songwriter with three songs nominated in the same year, following Merle Haggard (1968) and Kris Kristofferson (1970).
Maren Morris and Thomas Rhett broke six-year streaks of nominations for female artist of the year and male artist of the year, respectively. But artists can come back after having a streak interrupted, as Kelsea Ballerini proves this year. She is nominated for female artist of the year for the sixth time after missing out last year.
The ACM Awards split their songwriter of the year category, won last year by HARDY, into two categories this year – songwriter of the year and artist-songwriter of the year. HARDY is nominated in the latter category, along with Combs, Lambert, Wallen and Ernest Keith Smith (ERNEST).
In another change, the name of the video of the year category was changed to visual media of the year.
The 2023 Studio Recording Awards and Industry Awards will be presented at the 16th Academy of Country Music Honors, which will be held Aug. 23 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Here’s a complete list of nominees for the 2023 ACM Awards.
MAIN CATEGORIES
Entertainer of the year
Jason Aldean
Kane Brown
Luke Combs
Miranda Lambert
Chris Stapleton
Carrie Underwood
Morgan Wallen
Female artist of the year
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Ashley McBryde
Carly Pearce
Lainey Wilson
Male artist of the year
Kane Brown
Luke Combs
Jordan Davis
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Duo of the year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
The War and Treaty
Group of the year
Lady A
Little Big Town
Midland
Old Dominion
Zac Brown Band
New female artist of the year
Priscilla Block
Megan Moroney
Caitlyn Smith
Morgan Wade
Hailey Whitters
New male artist of the year
Zach Bryan
Jackson Dean
ERNEST
Dylan Scott
Nate Smith
Bailey Zimmerman
Album of the year
Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Label(s)
Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville – Ashley McBryde; Producer: John Osborne; Label: Warner Music Nashville
Bell Bottom Country – Lainey Wilson; Producer: Jay Joyce; Label: Broken Bow Records
Growin’ Up – Luke Combs; Producers: Luke Combs, Chip Matthews, Jonathan Singleton; Label: Columbia Records
Mr. Saturday Night – Jon Pardi; Producers: Jon Pardi, Bart Butler, Ryan Gore; Label: Capitol Records Nashville
Palomino – Miranda Lambert; Producers: Jon Randall, Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert, Mikey Reaves; Label: Vanner Records/RCA Records Nashville
Single of the year
Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Label(s)
Heart Like a Truck – Lainey Wilson; Producer: Jay Joyce; Label: Broken Bow Records
Never Wanted to Be That Girl – Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde; Producers: Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally; Label: Big Machine Records/Warner Music Nashville
She Had Me at Heads Carolina – Cole Swindell; Producer: Zach Crowell; Label: Warner Music Nashville
Thank God – Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown; Producer: Dann Huff; Label: RCA Nashville
‘Til You Can’t – Cody Johnson; Producer: Trent Willmon; Label: Warner Music Nashville/CoJo Music
Song of the year
Awarded to Songwriter(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)
Sand In My Boots – Morgan Wallen; Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Josh Osborne, Michael Hardy; Publishers: Relative Music Group; Sony/ATV Accent; Sony/ATV Cross Keys Publishing; Sony/ATV Tree Publishing
She Had Me at Heads Carolina – Cole Swindell; Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Cole Swindell, Jesse Frasure, Mark D. Sanders, Thomas Rhett, Tim Nichols; Publishers: Ashley Gorley Publishing Designee; Be A Light Publishing; Colden Rainey Music; EMI Blackwood Music Inc; Songs Of Roc Nation Music; Sony Tree Publishing; Telemitry Rhythm House Music; Universal Music Corp; WC Music Corp; Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp
‘Til You Can’t – Cody Johnson; Songwriters: Ben Stennis, Matt Rogers; Publishers: Anthem Canalco Publishing; Dead Aim Music; The Stennis Mightier Music
wait in the truck – HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson; Songwriters: Hunter Phelps, Jordan Schmidt, Michael Hardy, Renee Blair; Publishers: Humerus Publishing Global; Nontypical Music; Pile of Schmidt Songs; Rednecker Music; Relative Music Group; Round Hill Verses Publishing; Sony/ATV Accent; Sony/ATV Tree Publishing; The Money Tree Vibez; WC Music Corp; Who Wants to Buy My Publishing
You Should Probably Leave – Chris Stapleton; Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Chris DuBois, Chris Stapleton; Publishers: One77 Songs; Sea Gayle Music; Songs of Southside Independent Music Publishing; Spirit Two Nashville; WC Music Corp
Visual media of the year
Awarded to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)
HEARTFIRST – Kelsea Ballerini; Producers: Christen Pinkston & Wesley Stebbins-Perry; Director: P Tracy
She Had Me at Heads Carolina – Cole Swindell; Producer: Troy Jackson; Director: Spidey Smith
Thank God – Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown; Producer: Luke Arreguin; Director: Alex Alvga
‘Til You Can’t – Cody Johnson; Producer: Maddy Hayes; Director: Dustin Haney
wait in the truck – HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson; Producer: Inkwell Productions; Director: Justin Clough
What He Didn’t Do – Carly Pearce; Producer: Ryan Byrd; Director: Alexa Campbell
Songwriter of the year
Nicolle Galyon
Ashley Gorley
Chase McGill
Josh Osborne
Hunter Phelps
Artist-songwriter of the year
Luke Combs
ERNEST
HARDY
Miranda Lambert
Morgan Wallen
Music event of the year
Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Label(s)
At the End of a Bar – Chris Young with Mitchell Tenpenny; Producers: Chris DeStefano, Chris Young; Label: RCA Nashville
She Had Me at Heads Carolina [Remix] – Cole Swindell & Jo Dee Messina; Producer: Zach Crowell; Label: Warner Music Nashville
Thank God – Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown; Producer: Dann Huff; Label: RCA Nashville
Thinking ‘Bout You – Dustin Lynch feat. MacKenzie Porter; Producer: Zach Crowell; Label: Broken Bow Records
wait in the truck – HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson; Producers: Derek Wells, HARDY, Joey Moi, Jordan Schmidt; Label: Big Loud Records
STUDIO RECORDING AWARDS
Bass player of the year
Mark Hill
Tony Lucido
Steve Mackey
Lex Price
Craig Young
Drummer of the year
Fred Eltringham
Miles McPherson
Jerry Roe
Aaron Sterling
Nir Z
Acoustic guitar player of the year
Tim Galloway
Todd Lombardo
Danny Rader
Bryan Sutton
Ilya Toshinskiy
Piano/keyboards player of the year
Jim “Moose” Brown
Dave Cohen
Charles Judge
Billy Justineau
Alex Wright
Specialty instrument player of the year
Dan Dugmore
Stuart Duncan
Jenee Fleenor
Josh Matheny
Justin Schipper
Electric guitar player of the year
Kris Donegan
Kenny Greenberg
Rob McNelley
Sol Philcox-Littlefield
Derek Wells
Audio engineer of the year
Drew Bollman
Josh Ditty
Gena Johnson
Justin Niebank
F. Reid Shippen
Producer of the year
Buddy Cannon
Luke Dick
Jay Joyce
Joey Moi
Jon Randall
Derek Wells
INDUSTRY AWARDS
Casino of the year – theater
Deadwood Mountain Grand – Deadwood, SD
Golden Nugget – Lake Charles, LA
Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas – Las Vegas, NV
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – Hollywood, FL
Soaring Eagle – Mount Pleasant, MI
Casino of the year – arena
Fallsview Casino Resort – Niagara Falls, ON
Harrah’s – Council Bluffs, IA
Harveys Lake Tahoe – Stateline, NV
Mystic Lake Casino Showroom – Prior Lake, MN
Northern Quest Resort & Casino – Airway Heights, WA
Turning Stone Resort Casino – Verona, NY
Festival of the year
C2C: Country to Country – UK
Carolina Country Music Fest – Myrtle Beach, SC
Country Concert – Fort Loramie, OH
Country Fest – Cadott, WI
Country Thunder – Bristol, TN
Stagecoach Festival – Indio, CA
Tortuga Music Festival – Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fair/rodeo of the year
Auburn Rodeo – Opelika, AL
Cheyenne Frontier Days – Cheyenne, WY
Florida Strawberry Festival – Plant City, FL
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – Houston, TX
Iowa State Fair – Des Moines, IA
Club of the year
Billy Bob’s Texas – Fort Worth, TX
Coyote Joe’s – Charlotte, NC
Grizzly Rose – Denver, CO
Gruene Hall – New Braunfels, TX
Joe’s on Weed St. – Chicago, IL
Theater of the year
Crystal Grand Music Theatre – Wisconsin Dells, WI
Florida Theatre – Jacksonville, FL
Grand Ole Opry House – Nashville, TN
Orpheum Theater – Omaha, NE
Stiefel Theatre – Salina, KS
Outdoor venue of the year
Bank of NH Pavilion – Gilford, NH
FirstBank Amphitheater – Franklin, TN
Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
St. Augustine Amphitheatre – St. Augustine, FL
The Wharf Amphitheater – Orange Beach, AL
Arena of the year
Denny Sanford PREMIER Center – Sioux Falls, SD
Dickies Arena – Fort Worth, TX
Hertz Arena – Estero, FL
Moody Center – Austin, TX
Simmons Bank Arena – Little Rock, AR
Thompson-Boling Arena – Knoxville, TN
Don Romeo talent buyer of the year
Ron Pateras
Pat Powelson
Michelle Romeo
Stacy Vee
Troy Vollhoffer
Promoter of the year
Patrick McDill
Aaron Spalding
Ed Warm
Adam Weiser
Jay Wilson
Colin Hay, the singer, songwriter and frontman of beloved Australian rock group Men At Work, and the late trailblazing tour promoter Colleen Ironside are this year’s recipients of the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music.
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The prestigious honor will be presented at the 2023 APRA Music Awards, to be held April 27 at ICC Sydney, on Gadigal land.
Hay will be on hand to receive his circular trophy, recognition for a stellar career that launched in the early ‘80s with Men At Work’s hit debut album Business As Usual, and its standout single “Down Under.”
It was a dream breakthrough, the type few acts have done before or since, as the single and its parent topped simultaneously topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and the group went on to win the Grammy Award for best new artist.
“Who Can It Be Now” logged a single week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, and “Down Under” would climb the summit later that year, holding top spot for four weeks. Today, the latter song has passed more than one billion streams across all platforms, and is treasured as Australia’s unofficial anthem.
“Overkill” and “It’s a Mistake” both hit the top 10 on the Hot 100, “Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive” cracked the top 40 (at No. 28). Followup LP Cargo peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The band called it quits in 1985, but the music lives on. Career record sales top 30 million, according to APRA.
This award is “for outstanding services to Australian Music,” notes Hay in a statement. “I think services is the key word here. It’s important to realise at some point in your life that it is a valuable thing to be of service. To be of some use.”
Hay’s music would be introduced to new generations through Scrubs and Garden State, and he continues to tour, both as a solo artist and as a guitarist in Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band. “Down Under” has been revisited in recent years with a hit drum ‘n’ bass cut by DJ Luude, and by award-winning Yolŋu surf rockers King Stingray.
Speaking to Billboard over Zoom from Sacramento, CA, Hay admits “Down Under” is “very dear to me. When I wrote the song, I had a lot of fear and trepidation about Australia becoming overdeveloped, like you know, Florida or something,” the Scottish-born artist notes, “and on the other side of the coin, there was this beautiful uniqueness and incredible — a kind of awesomeness — of the country which I thought, ‘we don’t want to lose that’. We have to nurture, it’s a precious thing we have.”
Also at the APRAs, Ironside will be posthumously saluted for a career during which she set the groundwork for a pan-Asian touring network and producing scores of tours in the region.
Ironside, who died in 2022, is equally remembered for her force-of-nature personality.
The concerts giant cut her teeth as a booking agent for the Harbour Premier Agency in Sydney, Australia. She went out on her own, establishing and running APA Booking Agency, which booked INXS, Ratcat, James Reyne, Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews and Def FX for Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
In 1994, Frontier Touring recruited Ironside as head of its Asia division, where she managed tours by Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Tom Jones and others. In 1999, she established Live Limited and toured the Rolling Stones, Elton John, David Bowie, Sting and other titans of rock and pop music.
Later, in 2005, she began a five-year stint with Live Nation as senior VP of bookings in Pan-Asia, before reviving Live Limited, through which she promoted Janet Jackson in Hong Kong, Bruno Mars in Malaysia and Bob Dylan in Hong Kong and Vietnam.
“Colleen championed Australian songwriters and artists and created live music pathways into Asia with a business acumen that was years ahead of her peers,” comments Dean Ormston, CEO, APRA AMCOS.
And Hay “is a songwriter of the highest level and with the biggest heart, whose songs continue to connect and hit No. 1 on the charts. We look forward to honoring them with the Ted Albert Award at this year’s APRA Music Awards”.
The Ted Albert Award is one of the Australian music industry’s highest accolades, and is decided by the APRA board of writer and publisher directors.
Previous recipients include Paul Kelly, the late Mushroom Group founder Michael Gudinski, Slim Dusty, The Seekers and last year’s recipient The Wiggles.
In other APRA Music Awards news, the most performed international work has been awarded to global smash “As It Was” by Harry Styles, with co-writers Thomas Hull and Tyler Johnson). Universal Music Publishing and Concord Music Publishing are publishers.
As previously reported, Grammy Award winners Flume and Rufus Du Sol are among the artists and songwriters scoring multiple nominations for this year’s ceremony.
Established in 1982, the Australasian Performing Right Association’s annual songwriters’ ceremony is one of the Australian music industry’s favorite events, a worthy counterpart to Britain’s Ivor Novello Awards.
The special moments in the APRAs program includes the performance of those song of the year nominees, often completely reimagined by another star from Australia’s music scene.
For more information visit the APRA website.
Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose will return to host the 76th Annual Tony Awards, which is set to air live coast-to-coast from the historic United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights on Sunday, June 11. The show will air from 8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT on CBS and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.
DeBose also hosted last year’s Tony Awards. She’ll be the first person to host back-to-back ceremonies since Neil Patrick Harris fronted the show from 2011-13. Since the Tonys’ first broadcast in 1967, just three other people have served as solo hosts of back-to-back ceremonies – Angela Lansbury (1987-89), Rosie O’Donnell (1997-98) and Hugh Jackman (2003-05).
“I was honored to serve as host last year and even more so to be asked back!” DeBose said in a statement. “So looking forward to celebrating this incredible season and the people who make the work happen. Here’s to adding some uptown flavor to the magic of the Tony Awards!”
“Ariana will host and dance and sing, we’re so thrilled she’s back to do the thing,” said Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, executive producers, White Cherry Entertainment, in a playful nod to DeBose’s widely panned rap at this year’s BAFTA Awards. DeBose said at the time she wasn’t bothered by the social media criticism, and the quote from Weiss and Kirshner supports the idea that she has taken the jabs in stride.
DeBose received critical acclaim for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reboot of West Side Story, for which she received Oscar, BAFTA, Critics Choice and SAG Awards. Onstage, DeBose is best known for her role as Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which earned her a 2018 Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical.
The Tony Awards, which honor theater professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway, have been broadcast on CBS since 1978.
The Tony Awards eligibility cut-off date for the 2022-23 season is Thursday, April 27 for all Broadway productions which meet all eligibility requirements. Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, May 2.
The Tony Awards are produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, and White Cherry Entertainment. Kirshner and Weiss are executive producers for White Cherry Entertainment. In addition, Weiss will serve as director.
As Pride season gets closer, the GLAAD Media Awards are ready to celebrate the artists who are helping the LGBTQ community thrive.
On Wednesday (April 12), GLAAD announced that country-pop star Maren Morris and Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness would be receiving special honors at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, May 13.
Morris is set to receive the organization’s excellence in media award, given out each year to “allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people,” according to a press release from GLAAD. The singer has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights in recent years, teaming up with GLAAD and other organizations to protest recent anti-LGBTQ bills passed in the U.S.
Van Ness, meanwhile, will be the first non-binary recipient of the Vito Russo award (named after the GLAAD co-founder and ACT UP activist), which is presented annually to “a LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in accelerating LGBTQ acceptance.”
The pair of stars are just the latest celebrities to receive special recognition from the organization. In March, Christina Aguilera and Bad Bunny were honored at the organization’s Los Angeles ceremony with the advocate for change and vanguard awards, respectively. In her speech, Aguilera called on the audience listening to “raise our voices if we want to live in a world that is free of discrimination, hate and violence.” Bad Bunny, meanwhile, specifically thanked the LGBTQ community “for embracing me, for loving me the way they do, and for inspiring me, too.”
The 2023 GLAAD Media Awards will take place in New York City on Saturday, May 13. To find tickets, click here.
Recordings by Madonna, Daddy Yankee, Mariah Carey, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, The Police and Queen Latifah are among 25 being added to the National Recording Registry, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday (April 12).
The inductions include some history-makers. Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” is the first reggaeton recording to be inducted; the Super Mario Bros. theme (composed by Koji Kondo) is the first theme from a video game to join the registry; Lennon’s “Imagine” is the first recording by a former Beatle to be honored. The Beatles’ landmark 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was inducted in 2003.
This year’s inductions include three albums that topped the Billboard 200 – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Déjà vu (1970), The Police’s Synchronicity (1983) and Madonna’s Like a Virgin (a 1984 release that topped the chart in 1985). Synchronicity was The Police’s only No. 1 album, Déjà vu was the first of three for CSNY, Like a Virgin was the first of nine for Madonna that made her the queen of pop.
This year’s inductions include five songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – The Four Seasons’ “Sherry” (1962), Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” (1967), Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” (1983), Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (1983), and Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (a 1994 release that first topped the Hot 100 in 2019 and has returned to No. 1 every year since).
Four newly-inducted recordings reached the top 10 on the Hot 100, though they fell short of the top spot – Jackie DeShannon’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” (No. 7 in 1965), John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (No. 2 in 1971), Lennon’s “Imagine” (No. 3 in 1971) and Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” (No. 8 in 1977).
These 25 recordings were deemed worthy of preservation “based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” according to the Library of Congress. This brings the number of titles on the registry to 625. The latest selections were released between 1908 and 2012.
Several of these inductions are linked to creative figures who have recently died. Cara died on Nov. 25, followed by David Crosby of CSNY on Jan. 18; Burt Bacharach, the composer of “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” on Feb. 8; and Seymour Stein, who signed Madonna to his Sire Records imprint, on April 2. (Bacharach and lyricist Hal David received the Library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song award in 2012.)
The induction of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is the third major accolade for Eurythmics in the past year. In June 2022, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. This year, they are scheduled to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The induction of the Super Mario Bros. theme is the latest sign of increased respect for video game music. The Recording Academy added a new category, best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media, at the 65th annual Grammy Awards, which were presented on Feb. 5.
Four of these entries received Grammy nominations in marquee categories. Déjà vu and Synchronicity both vied for album of the year; “Ode to Billie Joe” for record and song of the year; Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feelin’” for record of the year. The latter smash also won an Oscar for best original song.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” joins a short list of holiday perennials in the Registry. Others include Associated Glee Clubs of America’s 1925 recording of “Adeste Fideles,” Bing Crosby’s 1942 classic “White Christmas,” Eugene Ormandy’s 1959 album Messiah, Nat King Cole’s 1961 re-recording of The King Cole Trio’s 1946 classic “The Christmas Song,” The Vince Guaraldi Trio’s 1965 TV soundtrack, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Latifah’s All Hail the Queen is just the second album by a female rapper to join the Registry, following Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which straddles the line between hip-hop and R&B.
All Hail the Queen was Latifah’s debut album. Déjà vu was the first CSNY album. At the other extreme, Synchronicity was the final studio album by The Police before Sting left for a successful solo career.
Koko Taylor’s 1966 hit “Wang Dang Doodle” is the fifth recording by a female blues artist to be saluted, following Memphis Minnie’s “Me and My Chauffeur Blues,” Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues,” Bessie Smith’s “Down-Hearted Blues,” and Gertrude “Ma” Rainey’s “See See Rider Blues.”
Led Zeppelin’s 1971 classic “Stairway to Heaven” became as famous as most No. 1 hits even though it was never released as a single. It was one of the first tracks to show the power of the album-oriented rock (AOR) format.
Déjà vu showed the influence of Joni Mitchell, this year’s recipient of the Library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Mitchell wrote “Woodstock,” which was the first and biggest hit from the album. Graham Nash, her live-in partner at the time, wrote “Our House,” a diary-like account of an average day at their home in California. Both songs became top 30 hits on the Hot 100.
“Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra” recorded by Northwest Chamber Orchestra, was released on CD in 2012, making it the most recently-released recording to make the Registry. The classical recording captures the shifting moods of Sept. 11, 2001, from the hustle and bustle of a normal working day in New York City to the violence, anger and sorrow that followed. WNYC’s radio broadcast for that historic day was inducted last year.
“The National Recording Registry preserves our history through recorded sound andreflects our nation’s diverse culture,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. “The national library is proud to help ensure these recordings are preserved for generations to come, and we welcome the public’s input on what songs, speeches, podcasts or recorded sounds we should preserve next. We received more than 1,100 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”
Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian ofCongress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 titleseach year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10years old. For more information about the registry, including a complete list of previous inductions and directions on how to nominate a recording, go here.
Here’s a complete list of the 2023 selections for the National Recording Registry. They are listed in chronological order by release date.
The Very First Mariachi Recordings — Cuarteto Coculense (1908-1909)
“St. Louis Blues” — [W.C.] Handy’s Memphis Blues Band (1922)
“Sugar Foot Stomp” — Fletcher Henderson (1926)
Dorothy Thompson: Commentary and Analysis of the European Situation for NBC Radio (Aug. 23-Sept. 6, 1939)
“Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” — The Fairfield Four (1947)
“Sherry” — The Four Seasons (1962)
“What the World Needs Now is Love” — Jackie DeShannon (1965)
“Wang Dang Doodle” — Koko Taylor (1966)
“Ode to Billie Joe” — Bobbie Gentry (1967)
Déjà Vu — Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” — John Denver (1971)
“Imagine” — John Lennon (1971)
“Stairway to Heaven” — Led Zeppelin (1971)
“Margaritaville” — Jimmy Buffett (1977)
“Flashdance…What a Feeling” — Irene Cara (1983)
“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” — Eurythmics (1983)
Synchronicity — The Police (1983)
Like a Virgin — Madonna (1984)
Black Codes (From the Underground) — Wynton Marsalis (1985)
Super Mario Bros. theme — Koji Kondo, composer (1986)
All Hail the Queen — Queen Latifah (1989)
“All I Want for Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey (1994)
“Pale Blue Dot” — Carl Sagan (1994)
“Gasolina” — Daddy Yankee (2004)
“Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra” — Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer (2012)