Business
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Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Fridayy has extended his publishing deal with Prescription Songs, Billboard can exclusively announce Monday (Aug. 19).
“Prescription feels like home for me,” says Fridayy in a press statement. “Shout out to Eddie [Fourcell, vp of A&R at Prescription Songs]! Without him, who knows where I would be! All I ever needed was an opportunity, and Eddie and Prescription provided that.”
The news arrives days after his “When It Comes to You” single earned platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song, featured on his 2023 self-titled debut album, peaked at No. 29 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and broke into the top 40 of Rhythmic Airplay. It also became Fridayy’s first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100, reached No. 97.
“From the moment Eddie first played me Fridayy’s music, I knew he was a special talent,” says Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, Prescription Songs founder. “We are excited and honored to extend our publishing partnership with Fridayy and know this next chapter together will be even bigger and better.”
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Fridayy (real name Francis LeBlanc) first signed a deal with Prescription in 2022. Fourcell had sent DJ Khaled a chorus idea that Fridayy created, which led to the creation of the star-studded “God Did,” featuring Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, John Legend and Fridayy. “God Did” earned three nominations at the 2023 Grammy Awards, which closed with the hip-hop heavyweights’ performance: song of the year, best rap song and best rap performance. It also reached No. 17 on the Hot 100 in 2022, marking Fridayy’s highest-charting entry to date. He also co-wrote the 21 Savage-assisted “Calling For You” cut on Drake‘s Billboard 200-topping For All the Dogs album, which hit No. 5 on the Hot 100.
“It’s an honor to work alongside such a great team at Prescription. Six months after meeting my brother Eddie, all our lives changed for the better! If he didn’t send ‘God Did’ to Khaled, none of this is possible,” adds Fridayy’s manager Edgar Cutino. “I want to thank Luke and Rhea [Pasricha, head of A&R, West Coast at Prescription Songs] for empowering a great executive to sign a kid with no placements who was just dope. Shoutout to our team for the months of hard work it took to get this done: my partner Chris Washington, our incredible lawyers Brian Drach and Jason Berger, and the amazing Dayna Gomez, who keeps everything with us running.”
The Museum of Broadcast Communications has revealed eight new Legends inductees into the Radio Hall of Fame for 2024, honoring the talents and work of on-air personalities, programmers and operators who have made considerable contributions to the radio industry, and who have since passed away.
The inductees include on-air personalities Chuck Blore, Alan Colmes, Charlie Douglas, Jim Ladd, Byron MacGregor, journalist Maria Martin, executive Percy Sutton and programming executive/on-air personality Rusty Walker.
The Radio Hall of Fame will honor its 2024 class of inductees at the 2024 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Omni Nashville in Nashville. 2022 Radio Hall of Fame inductee Lon Helton will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.
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Dennis Green, co-chair of the Radio Hall of Fame, said in a statement, “These legends of broadcasting may have passed on, but their legacy and what they meant to the radio industry will never die. The Radio Hall of Fame Nominating Committee is honored to award Hall of Fame inductions to each of these individuals. May their contributions be a lasting tribute and inspiration for generations of broadcasters to emulate for years to come.”
Kraig Kitchin, co-chair of the Radio Hall of Fame, said in a statement, “Our nominating committee recognizes the history of our medium and the countless individuals who contributed to the dominant influence of radio for so many decades. Each of these individuals left an indelible mark on the audiences they connected with and the businesses that they were associated with. We’re grateful for their talents, and only regret that they were not able to receive this special recognition while alive.”
Blore served as a disc jockey and program director of several radio stations, launching his career in El Paso, Texas, before moving to Los Angeles in the late 1950s and overseeing KFWB-AM. He was known for identifying stellar on-air talent, including Gary Owens and Wink Martindale. Blore left day-to-day radio duties to form an advertising agency benefiting television networks and motion picture studios, among others with the agency producing thousands of radio and television commercials.
Colmes’s radio career includes years on WABC-AM and WNBC-AM in New York City, before being syndicated nationally on over 100 radio stations via Daynet, a radio syndication company he co-founded with other radio hosts. His program was eventually distributed by Fox News Radio, with Colmes offering a liberal viewpoint on American politics on broadcast radio. Colmes also appeared on television, as co-host with Sean Hannity on the Hannity & Colmes program, and later, as a frequent guest on The Greg Gutfeld Show, both on Fox News.
Douglas created the original all-night radio show for truckers in 1970, after joining WWL-AM in New Orleans. The Road Gang, hosted by Douglas, played country music and offered conversation and companionship for radio audiences that primarily included truck drivers. Douglas launched his career in Louisiana in 1953, and became a program director for the first time three years later in 1956 at KOCY-AM in Oklahoma City. He then worked at Asheville, N.C.; San Antonio, Dallas and Houston among other markets before joining WWL-AM. In 1983, he joined WSM-AM in Nashville as a host of The Music Country Network, before retiring in 1995 to devote his attention to music promotion firm Compact Disc Express. He also served as president of Country Radio Broadcasters for two terms and was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994.
Southern California on-air personality Ladd was dubbed “The Last D.J.” by Tom Petty in 2002. Ladd was part of KNAC-FM in Los Angeles in 1967, before joining KLOS-FM in 1969 and then joined archival station KMET-FM in 1975, until the station switched formats in 1987. He then re-joined KLOS-FM to host an evening program for 24 years. In 2011, he became an on-air personality for SiriusXM, staying on the air until his death in December 2023.
MacGregor is known for many years on-air in Detroit, Mich. MacGregor became news director at CKLW-AM by the age of 22. His career also included time at the CBS Radio-owned all-news station WWJ-AM, where he served as both morning and afternoon drive anchor during his 13 years with the station.
Martin was first heard on the first Latino-owned community radio station in the U.S., at KBBF-AM in Santa Rosa, Calif. She then joined National Public Radio (NPR) and became an editor of their program Latin File. Martin was the network’s first Latin American Affairs Editor on their national desk, and left NPR in 1993 to launch the English-language program Latino USA, to reflect the experiences of the Latino community.
Sutton founded the Inner City Broadcasting in New York City in 1970 and the company purchased its first station, WLIB-AM, in 1972, making it the first Black-owned radio station in New York. The company later acquired WBLS-FM and purchased stations in 10 more U.S. cities. As the stations programmed R&B music and later, urban contemporary music, talk radio programs also played a vial role in the community of listeners. As founder and chairman, Sutton became known as “The Godfather of Urban Radio.” In 1981, Sutton and his investment partners purchased the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The theater was renovated and reopened in 1985 and included a cable television studio that was used to produce the variety show It’s Showtime at the Apollo.
Country music radio personality and radio station programmer Walker served as a country music radio personality and station programmer before founding Rusty Walker Programming Consultants in 1983, and becoming a revered consultant to many country music formatted stations and helping over 500 radio stations with their music selections, on-air personality coaching, promotional support and more. For seven consecutive years, Walker was named Billboard‘s consultant of the year, and in 2024 the Country Radio Hall of Fame inducted Walker, recognizing his industry impact.
The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988, and the Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations of the Hall in 1991.
Maxie Solters, a third-generation entertainment publicist, died unexpectedly Thursday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles. She was 37. She was also a writer, actor and producer. No cause of death was shared.
Solters followed her father, Larry Solters, and her grandfather, Lee Solters, in the family business. Her grandfather was a legendary press agent, who handled such acts as Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Carol Channing and Frank Sinatra. Larry Solters’ Scoop Marketing represents the Eagles, Irving Azoff and Iconic Artists Group, among other clients.
Solters, who was known for her helpful and friendly demeanor, joined Scoop in 2012, working with such clients as the Kia Forum, the Hollywood Bowl and Music Forward.
Maxie Solters
Solters family
Solters grew up in Sherman Oaks, California, and graduated from Oakwood School and the University of Southern California with a theater degree. Before joining Scoop, she worked in film and television casting and also served as a coordinator for One Billion Rising, the global movement for justice and equality. In addition to acting in a number of theatrical productions, Maxie, who was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, also created, produced and starred in her own comedy web series, including 2016’s Chooch and Adventures in Online Dating and 2017’s Climax! The Series.
Her social justice work also included involvement in V-Day International and work on women’s rights.
Survivors include her father, Larry, and his partner, Carol Greenhut; her mother, Debra Graff; her longtime partner, Dim Dobrin; her aunt, Susan Reynolds; her cousin, Jonah Reynolds; and her dog, Pookie. A celebration of life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Maxie’s name to One Billion Rising, a cause she deeply believed in.
A Missouri woman has been arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud the family of Elvis Presley and steal their ownership interest in Graceland, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday (Aug. 16).
The 53-year-old woman, whose name is Lisa Jeanine Findley but has gone by numerous aliases, has been charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the former charge and a mandatory minimum of two years on the latter; she made an initial court appearance in Missouri on Friday.
“As alleged in the complaint, the defendant orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, in a statement. “As part of the brazen scheme, we allege that the defendant created numerous false documents and sought to extort a settlement from the Presley family. Now she is facing federal charges. The Criminal Division and its partners are committed to holding fraudsters to account.”
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According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on Thursday (Aug. 15), Findley allegedly posed as three different people affiliated with a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending in claiming that Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had used the famed Memphis mansion as collateral to secure a loan of $3.8 million that she failed to repay. She also allegedly fabricated loan documents and forged the signatures of Lisa Marie and a notary public to file a false creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles and a false deed of trust with the Shelby Country Register’s Office in Memphis. The Justice Department also claims that Findley published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in the Memphis daily newspaper The Commercial Appeal announcing that Naussany Investments would auction Graceland on May 23.
The attempted auction was quickly blocked after Presley’s granddaughter and Lisa Marie’s daughter, Riley Keough — who took over as trustee of Promenade Trust, the entity that controls Graceland, following Lisa Marie’s death in January 2023 — won a court order halting it. Shortly thereafter, Findley allegedly wrote to Presley family representatives, the Tennessee state court and the media to falsely claim that the person responsible for the faud was an identity thief based in Nigeria.
“Fame and money are magnets for criminals who look to capitalize on another person’s celebrity status,” said Eric Shen, inspector in charge of U.S. Postal Inspection Service Criminal Investigations Group (USPIS), in a statement. “In this case, Ms. Findley allegedly took advantage of the very public and tragic occurrences in the Presley family as an opportunity to prey on the name and financial status of the heirs to the Graceland estate, attempting to steal what rightfully belongs to the Presley family for her personal gain. Postal Inspectors and their law enforcement partners put an end to her alleged scheme, protecting the Presley family from continued harm and stress.”
Sphere Entertainment Co. shares spiked 22.3% this week after the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday (Aug. 14) showed that the Las Vegas venue brought in $151 million in the quarter and $489 million in its first three full quarters of operation. Total revenue of $273 million — a figure that includes MSG Networks — was in line with analyst estimates while earnings per share beat estimates.
During Wednesday’s earnings call, CEO James Dolan said the company is learning how to get the most out of the $2.3 billion venue with not just concerts but corporate and sporting events and Sphere’s current cash cow, motion pictures. “Our plan for Sphere is to create widespread demand for our offerings and drive utilization far in excess of traditional venues,” Dolan said.
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After hosting residencies by U2, Phish and Dead & Company, Sphere will begin a string of concerts by the Eagles from September to November and will host its first EDM events in December with Italian producer Anyma. Dolan didn’t provide specifics about additional residencies but said to expect an artist in “the country category” in 2025.
LiveOne’s shares rose 16.3% this week after the Los Angeles-based music streamer announced its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Tuesday (Aug. 13). A 29% increase in paid members, to 653,000, helped revenue improve 19% to $33.1 million from $27.8 million in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization jumped 31% to $2.9 million.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) fell 0.7% to 1,780.54 despite most of the stocks gaining and the market enjoying one of its best weeks of 2024 thanks to a host of positive news. Driven by stronger-than-expected retail sales data on Thursday (Aug. 15) and encouraging inflation news earlier in the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 5.3% to 17,631.72 and the S&P 500 finished its best week of the year, gaining 3.9% to 5,524.25.
The BGMI’s largest companies fell in the middle of the pack. Live Nation shares were up 3.2% to $95.18 and Universal Music Group rose 0.9% to 22.35 euros ($24.66). Among the losers were Warner Music Group, down 0.4% to $28.22, and Spotify, down 0.7% to $337.38.
Stock gains were seen globally. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 1.8% to 8,311.41. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index jumped 4.2% to 2,697.20. China’s Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.6% to 2,879.43.
Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) dropped 18.8% this week following its second-quarter earnings release on Tuesday (Aug. 13). TME revenues were 1.7% lower as gains in music were overshadowed by losses in social entertainment. Despite the sharp decline, TME shares are still up 16.9% year-to-date.
TME’s latest quarterly results weren’t unlike those that preceded it, with strong music subscription growth at music apps QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music helping offset a decline at its karaoke business. While music average revenue per user grew 10% and TME finished the quarter with 117 million music subscribers, the company’s weak guidance on future subscriber growth likely caused its share price to fall.
JYP Entertainment’s 11.3% decline following its second-quarter earnings results marked the second-worst performance for BGMI stocks. The K-pop company’s revenue dropped 37% due to an 82% decline in album sales. Other K-pop companies experienced lighter declines: HYBE fell 3.4%, SM Entertainment slipped 3.8% and YG Entertainment dropped 1.3%. Those losses deepened the K-pop companies’ already significant losses in 2024. Year to date, the four South Korean companies have lost an average of 34.8% while the KOSPI composite index has gained 1.6%.
Courtney Kramer, the Republican challenger to Fani Willis in the race for Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia, is vowing to end the long-running YSL RICO trial involving Young Thug if she’s elected, according to a statement issued by her campaign on Friday (Aug. 16).
“With no apparent justice in sight, I have become highly concerned and disappointed in the lack of prosecutorial oversight in this case,” Kramer said in the statement. “As time goes on, the public has witnessed a trial that is undoubtedly over prosecuted by attorneys who have repeatedly been admonished for lack of trial prepartion: a complete and utter waste of the court’s time.”
Kramer goes on to blast prosecutors in the case, noting that they were recently “condemned” by new judge Paige Reese Whitaker “for not following the ethical and legal duty to disclose exculpatory evidence that could prove fruitful for the defense, one of the most basic requirements in the courtroom.” She further contends that the case “was brought to bring fame” to Willis, “not to bring justice to the community,” and that it’s resulted in “endless amounts of taxpayer dollars” being spent “on a prosecution that is based almost entirely on witnesses with little to no credibility.”
“If I am elected as the next District Attorney of Fulton County, I promise to end this prosecution immediately,” said Kramer. “I challenge my opponent to do the same thing, the right thing, and end this prosection and release the accused in this case who are being held without bond.”
Representatives for Willis and Young Thug did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.
The YSL case was set into motion in May 2022 when Thug (real name Jeffery Williams) was indicted along with dozen of others over allegations that their YSL was not a record label called Young Stoner Life but a violent Atlanta street game called Young Slime Life. The group of defendants was charged under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, with prosecutors claiming they operated a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
Since his arrest, Thug remained in jail despite multiple calls for his release. On Aug. 8, Judge Whitaker denied requests by Thug’s attorneys to declare a mistrial over the explosive revelation of a secret “ex parte” meeting between the since-removed judge in the case, Ural Glanville, prosecutors and a key witness. Prior to that, she denied their renewed motion to release Thug on bond.
Notably, the trial, which began in January 2023 and resumed on Monday (Aug. 12), is now the longest in Georgia state history; with dozens of witnesses still set to testify, it’s estimated to run well into next year.
You can read Kramer’s full statement here.
Liz Phair has signed a global publishing administration deal with Warner Chappell Music. The agreement encompasses her full catalog, including hits like “Why Can’t I?,” “Supernova” and “Never Said.” Phair said of the deal: “My songs represent my life’s work, and I am excited to take a fresh look at my catalog with the support of such a unique and maverick team at Warner Chappell, co-headed by the charismatic Carianne Marshall.”
Jonas Group Publishing has signed two-time SESAC songwriter of the year Justin Ebach, a writer behind hits like Luke Bryan’s “Down To One”; Jordan Davis’s multi-platinum “Singles You Up”; “Sleep Without You” and “Here Tonight” by Brett Young; and Jon Pardi’s “Your Heart or Mine.” Ebach said in a statement, “I look forward to celebrating a lot of success together.”
Iconoclast has struck a strategic partnership with Ujama Designs to acquire the intellectual property rights of Half Pint, a legend in reggae. Born Lindon Andrew Roberts, Half Pint is best known for songs like “Greetings,” “Mr. Landlord” and “Winsome,” which was covered by The Rolling Stones, and “Loving,” which was sampled in Sublime’s massive hit “What I Got.” Joe Serling and Greg Brooks from Serling Rooks Hunter McKoy Worob & Averill represented Iconoclast, while Peter Csathy of Creative Media and David Baram of Baram & Kaiser represented Half Pint.
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Concord Music Publishing has signed Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Sammy SoSo. The deal includes his back catalog, including “Water” by Tyla, and his future works.
Reach Music Publishing has acquired select publishing assets and songwriter shares from multi-platinum writer Wyatt Durrette, including his shares in songs like “Chicken Fried,” “Toes,” and “Whatever It Is” by Zac Brown Band and “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs. Wyatt’s longtime publisher, Blackstone Entertainment, will remain his publisher and will co-administer these works together with Reach.
Big Machine Music has signed singer/songwriter Lanie Gardner to her first-ever global publishing deal. The news of the deal comes just after Gardner was featured on the star-studded Twisters: The Album soundtrack with her song “Chasing the Wind.”
Avex USA has signed LA-based Nigerian producer Tyson “Zone” Kong. Though he is just 23 years old, he has already worked with the likes of Jason Derulo, Sexxy Redd, Ludmilla, Lay Bankz and more.
Prescription Songs, in partnership with Hazheart Music, has added producer, songwriter and artist atlgrandma to its roster. Though he is perhaps best known for his work as a writer and producer for Willow, SNOW WIFE, Dorian Electra, The Hellp, D4ine, Izzy Spears, ericdoa, lil aaron, Y2K and Frost Children, atlgrandma also releases his own music, including his latest track “Nightmare Blunt Rotation.”
The shine on the music industry, a darling of Wall Street in recent years, appears to have lost a bit of its luster.
Record label and publisher stocks that boomed in 2023 are mostly down in 2024. Universal Music Group (UMG), riding high until two weeks ago, is down 14.0% through Thursday (Aug. 15). Warner Music Group (WMG) is off 21.0%. Reservoir Media is up 2%, although it has declined 15.0% since July 26. K-pop companies have fallen off a cliff.
Not that business is bad — far from it. But as companies released earnings results over the last couple weeks, good results have occasionally been overshadowed by a financial metric — namely, subscription growth — that either missed expectations or is headed in the wrong direction. In some cases, the results were simply disappointing.
Ever since UMG produced weaker-than-expected subscription growth in the second quarter, analysts and investors have been revisiting their forecasts, wondering if they set their expectations too high and trying to figure out if UMG’s results reflect the broader market. The company’s recorded music subscription revenue rose 6.5% in the quarter, about half of analysts’ expectations.
Although UMG executives warned against reading too much into the results from any one quarter, investors did exactly that. UMG’s share price, which had been among the better performers in its label-publisher peer group in 2024, dropped 24% in a single day despite UMG posting a 10% increase in revenue and better margins than a year earlier.
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Subscription growth isn’t the only facet of the modern music business, but it’s probably the main reason most investors bought into music companies. As Billboard wrote in March, the music business is increasingly reliant — perhaps too much so — on subscription revenue. In the U.S. in 2023, subscription revenue accounted for 59.3% of recorded music revenue, up from 57.8% in 2022 and far above 47.3% in 2018, according to the RIAA. With ad-supported streaming stagnant, subscriptions take on even greater importance.
Subscription revenue was on everybody’s mind when WMG released earnings a week later. The company’s streaming revenue didn’t show signs of UMG’s slippage, though, which suggested the reaction to UMG’s quarter may have been overblown. WMG’s recorded music subscription revenue was up 7% while ad-supported streaming revenue was unchanged. The streaming market, said CEO Robert Kyncl during the Aug. 7 earnings call, is “diverse,” “healthy’ and has more room for subscriber growth. While analysts’ opinions varied, investors seemed happy enough, as WMG’s share price gained 2% that day.
Sony Music had similarly positive streaming results in its latest fiscal quarter. Total recorded music streaming revenue improved 6%, suggesting subscription revenue exceeded 6% to compensate for a small decline in ad-supported streaming.
Often overshadowed by UMG and WMG, Reservoir Media has delivered consistent growth since going public in 2021. The company’s latest earnings results delivered more of the same: Revenue was up 8% and operating income before depreciation and amortization jumped 27%. While there was a decline in recorded music revenue, it couldn’t be attributed to a stubborn streaming market. Rather, Reservoir was riding high a year earlier from the reissue of De La Soul’s catalog, which it picked up in the 2021 acquisition of Tommy Boy Music. Even so, its share price is down 11.9% since its quarterly earnings release while the S&P 500 is up 2% over the same period.
K-pop is a different story altogether. While these South Korean companies are riding the genre’s success to aggressively expand globally through partnerships, joint ventures and acquisitions, they’re showing signs of growing pains. Year-to-date through Aug. 15, the four main K-pop companies’ share prices had dropped an average of 35.5%.
Second-quarter results explain part of the decline. Three of those K-pop companies had an average decline in net income of 84%, while the fourth saw its net profit turn into a net loss. At JYP Entertainment, home to Stray Kids and iTZY, revenue dropped 37% and net profit plummeted 95%. SM Entertainment managed a 6% increase in consolidated revenue — the main SM Entertainment segment fared far better than its subsidiaries — but net profit still dropped by 70%. HYBE’s revenue increased 6% and set a quarterly record, but its net profit slipped 86%.
The South Korean companies’ relatively small rosters and lack of diversity help explain a quarter-to-quarter shortfall. JYP Entertainment, for example, was missing its most popular artists from its second-quarter album release schedule — a problem for a K-pop label dependent on fans’ tendency to buy CDs. (albums accounted for 49% of total revenue a year earlier). With an 82% drop last quarter, albums’ share of revenue fell to just 14%.
There’s plenty of opportunity for companies to regain their luster. UMG CFO Boyd Muir insisted the company will consistently deliver high single-digit revenue growth. WMG’s Kyncl insisted that “streaming dynamics remain healthy” and the company sees “plenty of headroom for subscriber growth” globally. K-pop labels won’t go two successive quarters without priority releases to pad sales figures. Any single quarter may have a hiccup, but the long-term trend lines are still pointing in the right direction.
Breakdancing debuted as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Olympics in Paris — and a Canadian competitor won a gold medal in its first year.
The Vancouver-based Phil Wizard, born Philip Kim, took home the gold in breaking, beating France’s own Dany Dann in the final.
Breaking won’t be at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but the art form that began on the streets of the Bronx as one of the four pillars of hip-hop was well represented at this year’s event. The men’s tournament, which took place on Saturday (Aug. 10), was filled with impressive moves as dancers battled each other one-on-one.
Unlike other music-based events like rhythmic gymnastics or synchronized swimming, the breakers didn’t know which songs they would be dancing to, which meant there was a heavy dose of improv. The DJ played plenty of hip-hop classics, from A Tribe Called Quest‘s “Scenario” to Method Man‘s “Judgement Day” to “Live at the Barbeque” by New York/Toronto group Main Source.
Wizard and his competitors busted out some head-spinning moves, showing off the art of breaking to the world after a competitor at the previous day’s women’s tournament made news for different reasons. After going viral for her less-than-crisp bunny hops and sprinklers, Raygun (a.k.a. Australia’s Rachael Gunn), has faced significant backlash and accusations of rigging the process to get to the Olympics.
“I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate,” Gunn said in a statement this week. “Which has frankly been pretty devastating. While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly.”
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The tone was different for Wizard, who expressed his thanks on Instagram this week.
“The sheer amount of love and support from this past week has warmed my heart,” he said. “My goal winning aside was to enjoy the moment as much as possible, as it was years in the making coming down to one moment. I didn’t want to let that one moment define me ever, and I wanted to show how much love I have for this art, dance, community, sport. Looking back I can’t help but be in awe of everyone that showed up, both on and off the field. The camaraderie between all the competitors was truly beautiful, all knowing how hard it was to get here.” – Richard Trapunski
Tragically Hip Docuseries ‘No Dress Rehearsal’ Will Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
A beloved Canadian band is shedding new light on their journey. The Tragically Hip, who are celebrating 40 years since their founding, will premiere a long-promised new Prime Video docuseries at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is directed and produced by late frontman Gord Downie‘s older brother Mike and features never-before-seen footage of the band. It tells the story of their rise to popularity — the band has nine No. 1 albums in Canada and 17 Junos, and is synonymous with Canadian music for many listeners — and the tragic loss of Downie from brain cancer in 2017.
“This project is a labour of love,” said Mike Downie in a statement. “We set out to understand what held the band together, what pushed them apart and how they captured the hearts and minds of so many fans both in Canada and around the world.”
The brand new trailer for the four-episode series features reflections from the band members on The Hip’s ups and downs as well as their final tour with Downie in 2015 after his diagnosis. The interviews are accompanied by concert footage and commentary from well-known Canadians like actor Will Arnett and broadcaster George Stroumboulopoulos. The band’s longtime manager, Jake Gold, serves as an executive producer.
After its TIFF premiere, the series will stream on Prime Video, though no date is available yet. Incidentally, the series follows another recent Prime Video documentary on a Canadian icon dealing with illness: I Am: Céline Dion.
TIFF 2024 is also set to feature appearances from musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Pharrell Williams. The festival runs Sept. 5-15. – Rosie Long Decter
PartyNextDoor Re-Enters Canadian Albums Chart Following Drake Collaboration News
A local star is back on the Canadian Albums chart this week after a headlining-grabbing performance at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage.
PartyNextDoor‘s PartyNextDoor 4 (P4) has re-entered the chart at No. 87 following that headlining show, which saw a special appearance by Party’s longtime collaborator Drake.
After playing his own set, Drake brought PartyNextDoor back to the stage before the show’s end to duet on “Come and See Me” and announce some special news: “We’ve been working on something for y’all,” he said. “When it gets a little chilly, PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be waiting right there for you.”
In the meantime, Party’s own album has seen a resurgence, re-entering the chart where it spent three previous weeks and peaked at No. 13. The album is also on the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 152 (Canadian Albums only has 100 spots).
Also on the Canadian Albums chart this week, Punjabi artist Navaan Sandhu has debuted at No. 97 with his album, The Finest. Amritsar-born Sandhu has been racking up millions of streams with the album, and the music video for its title track, released two weeks ago, has 2.9 million views.
The chart debut is yet another indicator of Punjabi music’s popularity in the country, with artists like Diljit Dosanjh, Karan Aujla and AP Dhillon seeing similar success on Canada’s charts over the last year.
Ye and Ty Dolla $ign‘s Vultures 2 is the No. 1 album in Canada this week. – RLD
This summer, nothing has been bigger than the Paris Olympics. The global games — held across 17 days from late July through last Sunday’s Closing Ceremony — set all kinds of records. They drew an average U.S. daily viewership of 30.6 million, an 82% jump from the 2021 Tokyo Games, and created worldwide stars out of some of the top athletes on the planet.
The Paris Games culminated in that star-studded Closing Ceremony, which featured a huge performance headlined by French band Phoenix in the iconic Stade de France, with onstage assists from Air, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and French producer Kavinsky, among others. The Closing Ceremony drew more than 20 million viewers in the U.S. alone, while its effect led to a giant surge in streams and sales for Phoenix and Kavinsky in particular: Streams for Phoenix’s catalog jumped 86% over the prior week following the performance, while Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” broke the record for most Shazams in a single day and saw its streams grow 74%.
But it was also a massive showcase for one of the most successful groups of the past few decades and one of the top French groups of all time — and it helps their manager, C3’s Matt Sadie, earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week. Here, Sadie talks about all the work that went into the performance behind the scenes, the platform of performing in front of an estimated 800 million people worldwide and what this means for the band. “There have been so many times over the years when we — the management team and Branco, Christian, Thomas and Deck in the band — have all worked very, very closely to bring their special vision to fruition,” Sadie says. “The Olympics performance felt like a real crowning moment in Phoenix’s career, and I am thrilled to have been a part of it.”
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This week, Phoenix performed in Paris for the Olympics Closing Ceremony, a huge event for the band and the country. How did that come together, and what key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
As soon as Paris was given the Olympics for 2024 back in 2017, we immediately identified the opportunity internally. It felt very logical that a band of their international stature, from near Paris and largely based there, should have a place in the Olympics. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were definitely top of the list.
Clearly, the Olympics team weren’t at the stage of picking acts for the ceremonies in 2017, but around two years ago, alongside my counterpart in France, Laurence Muller, and the band’s agent in France, Sofiene Bijaoui from Corida, we identified who the powers that be were and began conversations. There was a lot of perseverance from everyone on the team. In the meantime, last year we planned the band’s touring to keep them in Europe over this summer, leaving gaps in the schedule where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were. This allowed the flexibility needed in case the call came, which it eventually did.
What are the considerations when putting an act onto an event as prestigious as the Closing Ceremony? Was there any hesitation or was it an automatic yes?
How do you say no? Given the scale of the opportunity and the very natural connection in being a French band from the area, it was as close to an automatic yes as one can get. In our conversations with the Olympics team, we were immediately given a lot of independence in putting their set together — there was simply the remit that the performance had to feel like a party for the athletes and that we had 15-17 minutes to play with. Knowing that the band would be playing to a global audience of around 800 million, the priority for us was to put a show together which would have the potential to appeal to people who’d never heard of Phoenix before and would remind those who had why they’ve continued to be one of the most beloved artists of the last 20 years. We immediately felt the pre-conditions of the set given to us by the Olympics meant that this was a no-brainer.
How did you prepare for this differently than any other gig?
Pretty much every aspect of this show required preparations that were different to a normal show for the band. It was very much non-stop from myself, Laurence and the rest of the team from the moment we got the green light.
The band haven’t played a medley set of this kind before, so that was a challenge in itself. They knew they wanted to have some guests, so identifying them, getting them on board, and working through logistical gymnastics was pretty consuming for all. For the band, having the acts they wanted to join them in Air, Kavinsky, Angele, Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and VannDa, was a very different approach to a normal show but one they relished.
If you’ve seen them play before, you’ll know that the band have always put a lot of focus into the production at their live shows. They’d usually have the control and time to finesse it into something very special. We had neither of those luxuries here; we were simply told, “You’ll be playing on a stage in the middle of the stadium which is shaped like the world map — you’ll be playing in Africa.” We worked closely with the team to create a scenario which would work for the band and their guest performers. Playing in a stadium is very different to a festival show or the sheds the band played at during their recent U.S. co-headline run with Beck, but it gave our brilliant lighting designer Pierre Claude a huge scale of production elements to work with. His efforts to pull things together were truly herculean.
We’ve done plenty of live streams — from festivals and most recently with Air from the roof of the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, but this was on a whole different scale, with over 80 cameras in the stadium capturing the show. We also weren’t in control of the direction during the livestream. As a solution, Laurence brought in David Ctiborsky from Blogotheque, who’d worked closely with the band on various livestreams, to ensure that the various “moments” were filmed effectively, advising the team from the Olympics capturing it. We also were conscious that this was being broadcast around the world via local broadcasters, so talking points on each of the songs and artists involved was critical promotionally.
Outside of the show itself, promoting it was very different from any other show. Rather than the usual heavy promotion into a show, news of their performance was technically embargoed until the last minute, despite the odd leak here and there. This meant that we had to be reactive with media after the fact, which we were ready to do via our PR — Jen Appel of The Oriel and Nathalie Ridard of Ephelide — our digital marketing team, Dream Team, and the team at C3 Management.
With the band appearing onstage with Kavinsky and Air, and the closing ceremony also featuring a medley of Justice songs, what does it all say about the importance of electronic music to French culture?
To their credit, in choosing artists from the “French Touch” movement, the creative team behind the Closing Ceremony identified something very special that France brought to the world. Daft Punk, Air, Phoenix, Justice and many more have had a huge, and sometimes unsung, impact on music globally, not just in the electronic space. To my mind, it’s one of the country’s greatest present-day cultural exports. Highlighting it in the ceremony really allowed them to celebrate something uniquely French but also globally relevant and ultimately timeless.
What position does a performance like this put the band in, in terms of their next moves? How do they capitalize on the moment?
Clearly this has been a huge watershed moment for the band globally. Every metric has shown that this week, notably seven of the top 11 songs on Shazam this week are from their set, including Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” receiving the most Shazams of any song in a day ever. We’ve seen serious growth on socials and streaming numbers, alongside a vast amount of media coverage. There’s no doubt that a huge number of people have discovered the band, and I’m sure many others have enjoyed being reminded of some of their favorite songs from the last couple decades. The performance has opened a lot of doors already and we’re still seeing the impact in real time.
More than anything, though, after more than a decade as one of the band’s managers, I’m proud of them for always being open to new challenges that push us all creatively and beyond. There have been so many times over the years when we — the management team and Branco, Christian, Thomas and Deck in the band — have all worked very, very closely to bring their special vision to fruition. The Olympics performance felt like a real crowning moment in Phoenix’s career, and I am thrilled to have been a part of it.