International
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Brazilian pop star Anitta is lashing out at Warner Music, saying she regrets signing with the label and would have “auctioned off her organs” to be let out of her contract.
The artist — who had a breakout 2022 with the success of her tri-lingual album Versions of Me, a No. 1 track on the Billboard Global Ex. U.S. chart with “Envolver” and performances at Coachella and the Latin Grammy Awards — went on a Twitter tirade last week when fans prodded her to explain her tortured history with Warner.
When one fan said he wished she could be free of her contract, she responded that “if there was a fine to pay, I would have already auctioned off my organs, no matter how expensive it was to get out. But unfortunately, there isn’t. When you’re young and still don’t know a lot, you need to pay close attention to the things you sign… if you don’t, you could spend a lifetime paying for the mistake.”
A spokesperson for Warner Music declined to comment. Leila Oliveira, Warner Music Brazil’s new president, did not respond to a message from Billboard. Brandon Silverstein, Anitta’s U.S.-based manager, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Meu amor se tivesse uma multa pra pagar eu já tinha leiloado meus órgãos por mais caro q fosse pra sair fora. Mas infelizmente não tem. Qndo a gente é novo e ainda ñ sabe muito tem q prestar muita atenção nas coisas q assina…se não pode passar uma vida inteira pagando pelo erro— Anitta (@Anitta) March 2, 2023
Anitta signed with Warner Music in the U.S. in January 2020 after previously signing with Warner Music Brazil in 2013. Under the U.S. contract, she produced Versions of Me, which was executive produced by Ryan Tedder. Anitta has said she’s required to deliver two more albums for the label to satisfy the contract. (In January 2022, she signed a publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing.)
This isn’t the first time Anitta has complained about Warner. She previously swiped at the label for having to pay for music videos out of her own pocket, including for “Gata,” which she said Warner refused to produce a video for when they saw that the song’s performance on streaming platforms was falling below expectations.
“They only invest after it pays off on the internet,” Anitta said in an Instagram livestream in May. “Unfortunately, there are things I can’t get, that’s why I don’t buy millionaire cars, because when I want to do something, I pay for it.” (She says she ultimately got a sponsor to help pay for the video.)
During the same livestream, Anitta also said that Warner only invests in her work after a song goes viral on TikTok. “The label is very tied to TikTok, to what goes viral, and if they don’t get a hit right away, they say ‘later,’” she said.
Anitta’s fans have also criticized Warner for the label’s perceived treatment of the Brazilian singer, with many complaining on Twitter that Warner didn’t give her 2021 single “Girl From Rio” the marketing push it deserved by including it in playlists on streaming services. (The song, which combined bossa nova and trap with English lyrics, dropped rapidly on the charts.)
Anitta has also said that Warner initially resisted the release of “Envolver,” the single that blew up after Anitta’s butt-grinding dance in the song’s video, which she directed, became a global TikTok sensation. “[Warner] said the song wasn’t going anywhere and that I wouldn’t have the sway to release it alone [without a feature on the track],” she said during an Instagram livestream in December.
Late last year, Anitta’s fans began urging her to release a funk remix of “Practice,” which she originally recorded with A$AP Ferg and HARV, but the singer said last week that Warner wouldn’t allow her to. “When I saw that you liked [the remix version] I asked to release it, and it has been a long time,” she wrote to her fans on Twitter. “But things can only be released with their authorization.”
Since Anitta’s tirade last week, fans have organized a #FreeAnitta movement on Twitter. One fan posted a photo depicting the singer sobbing in a jail cell with the Warner Music logo on the wall behind her. Another fan asked her if her harsh comments could damage her relationship with the label.
“Is there a way it could get worse? Hahaha,” she responded.
SM Entertainment shareholders have until the end of the month to weigh two competing visions for the South Korean music company’s future before its annual general meeting on March 31 — one from SM and Korean tech company Kakao and another from K-pop rival HYBE.
Despite SM Entertainment’s announcement Monday that it had canceled plans due to a court injunction to issue new shares and give Kakao a 9.05% stake in the company, making it the leading shareholder, SM and Kakao are pushing forward with their strategy to maintain control. On Tuesday (March 7), Kakao launched a tender offer to buy a 35% stake from SM’s minority shareholders by March 26 and, if successful, could soon own nearly 40% of SM and hold significant voting power.
SM — home to such K-pop acts as NCT 127 and Aespa — has nominated a slate of independent directors and laid out a plan for adding 260 billion won ($200 million) of revenue by 2025 by setting up operations in the U.S., Japan and Southeast Asia, and making acquisitions — including a publishing company — in the coming years, according to a company presentation to shareholders. If the roadmap is successful, SM believes it can double its annual sales from an estimated 770 billion won ($690 billion) in 2023 to 1.5 trillion won ($1.14 billion) in 2025.
Much of SM’s road map stems from its battle with founder Lee Soo-man. In late 2022, an activist investor, Align Partners Capital, convinced SM’s board to appoint a new auditor and terminate a contract with Lee’s production company, Like Planning. Now, SM is attempting to remake itself under revamped corporate governance and a more decentralized organization than Lee’s hierarchical control of artist development.
The current inside directors — including Lee’s nephew, Lee Sung-soo — will resign their positions “in order to take responsibility for the problems of the [Lee Soo-man] system,” the company stated. In their place, SM is recommending its own slate of three executives: CFO Jang Chul-Hyuk; Kim Ji-Won, head of marketing center; and Choi Jung-Min, head of global business center.
To ensure an independent board of directors, SM has proposed the chairperson be one of its outside directors, not one of its own executives. Among the company’s picks for outside directors are Kim Kyu-Shik, president of the Korean Governance Forum; Moon Jungbien, a professor at Korea University that specializes in environmental, social and corporate governance matters; and Sung M. Cho, CEO of music analytics company Chartmetric. For part-time directors, SM recommends Lee Changhwan, the CEO of Align Partners, and Jang Yoon-Joong, Kakao’s global strategy officer.
Lee Chang-hwan
Courtesy of Align Partners
HYBE, home to the wildly popular boy band BTS, has different ambitions for SM’s future. HYBE acquired a 14.8% stake in SM from Lee, the SM founder, on Feb. 22, and an additional 1% through a tender offer, according to a March 6 regulatory filing. It has blasted “the bias and irrationality” of the SM management that approved the Kakao partnership.
“HYBE has been considering the acquisition of SM for a long time and gave much thought into how the two companies could work together,” Jung Jinsoo, HYBE’s chief legal officer, wrote in a letter to SM shareholders on Thursday.
In the letter, Jung argues HYBE solved two problems when it acquired Lee’s equity. First, HYBE acquired Lee’s shares in two SM subsidiaries: SM Brand Marketing and Dream Maker Entertainment Limited. That solves what Jung called “leakage in SM’s profits” to Lee. Second, HYBE alleges SM still owes Lee fees for three years even though it terminated the Like Planning contract as of Dec. 31.
Jung says HYBE structured the stock purchase agreement so payments to Lee stop “upon the execution of the agreement.” HYBE also added a clause to terminate any transactions from SM to Lee that HYBE did not know about.
While SM sees Kakao as the partner for its transformation into a larger, more global entity, HYBE calls it an “unfair partnership” that would give Kakao permanent and exclusive rights to distribute SM’s music, protect SM’s equity at the expense of other shareholders and create conflict of interests that favor Kakao’s interests. “We believe that these details demonstrate the bias and irrationality of the current SM management who approved such arrangements,” Jung writes.
Beyond SM’s relationship with Kakao, HYBE is concerned with SM’s roadmap to increase the number of artists on its roster by expanding production in Korea and building overseas outposts. Jung is questioning SM leadership’s understanding of the time and resources required to develop and break successful artists.
“It goes without saying but you cannot generate profit in K-pop just by having a longer artist roster,” Jung writes. “What’s important is to nurture artists who are loved by fans and provide a creative environment.”
HYBE has submitted a competing slate of inside director recommendations featuring a handful of HYBE executives: Jung; Lee Jaesang, president of HYBE America; and Lee Jin Hwa, HYBE’s chief of management and planning.
For outside directors, HYBE has recommended Kang Namkyu, managing partner at GAON Law Group; Hong Sounman, professor of public administration at Yonsei University; and Lim Dae Woong, a representative of the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative. HYBE’s recommendation for part-time director is Park Byungmoo, managing partner at buyout firm VIG Partners; and Choi Kyu Dam, a former NCSOFT finance executive, for part-time auditor.
SM portrays the battle with HYBE as a fight for its independence from a large company. A HYBE takeover would put its interests over SM’s artists, SM says, and could force SM to downsize or divest assets to meet regulatory approval. What’s more, HYBE might not receive a warm welcome: 85% of SM employees who voted on the workplace app Blind oppose HYBE’s “hostile takeover” and want to “protect the culture diversity of K-pop and the unique identity of SM,” according to SM’s investor presentation.
Ultimately, the two sides have competing visions for a board of directors that will best serve SM shareholders and lead the company. To SM, HYBE’s recommended directors are either tied to Lee, employed by HYBE or hurt shareholder value in their previous corporate tenures. To HYBE, SM’s proposals could result in a board controlled by Align Partners that lacks the experience to expand SM and reach the company’s lofty targets.
“[I]t is questionable whether the current management has a sufficient understanding on these circumstances,” writes HYBE’s Jung.
HYBE’s plan to control competing K-pop company SM Entertainment and thwart a partnership with tech company Kakao took another step forward on Monday when Kakao, responding to a court injunction, announced it had canceled its stock purchase agreement to acquire a 9.05% stake in SM Entertainment.
Last week, the Seoul Eastern District Court granted a provisionary injunction against SM’s plan to issue new shares and convertible bonds. The judge ruled that SM had made its decision without shareholders’ consent. It was a remarkable win for SM’s controversial founder, Lee Soo-man, and for HYBE, the reigning K-pop company and home to boyband BTS.
For weeks, SM’s management has been trying to wrest control of the company from Lee, who has been found guilty of embezzlement and exercised iron-fisted control over the company he founded in 1995. After SM made a deal with Kakao, Lee turned to HYBE, which became SM’s largest shareholder on Feb. 22 after it acquired a 14.8% stake from Lee, whose production contract with SM was canceled as of Dec. 31.
On Monday, HYBE sent a letter to SM demanding that “the current [SM] Board of Directors should fulfill its duty of care and duty of loyalty towards SM and actively exercise the right to terminate the business cooperation agreement, which contains clauses that are disadvantageous to SM and advantageous to Kakao,” according to a statement that described the letter.
With the injunction in place, HYBE also called for SM to exercise its right to withdraw the recommendation of the director candidate nominated by Kakao. SM had put forward Jang Yoon-Joong, Kakao’s global strategy officer, as a part-time director.
SM and HYBE are pushing competing visions for SM’s future before shareholders vote on a new board of directors at SM’s annual general meeting on March 31. SM wants to partner with Kakao – owner of the Melon music streaming service and KakaoTalk messaging service – to better monetize its intellectual property and launch a joint venture in the U.S.
Called “SM 3.0,” the road map calls for SM to break from the single-producer system maintained by Lee until his removal. Instead, SM wants to develop artists through multiple labels and production centers in Korea, Japan, Southeast and the U.S.
HYBE calls an SM-Kakao tie-up an “unfair partnership” that would give Kakao permanent and exclusive rights to distribute SM’s music, protect SM’s equity at the expense of other shareholders and create conflict of interests that favor Kakao. “We believe that these details demonstrate the bias and irrationality of the current SM management who approved such arrangements,” Jung Jinsoo, HYBE’s chief legal officer, wrote in a letter to SM shareholders on Thursday (March 2).
LONDON — A proposed hike in U.S. visa fees, which could take effect as early as this November, would have a “deeply damaging” effect on touring artists from other countries by more than doubling their costs, says a leading British music industry trade group.
The proposal from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced in early January, would raise the rates for O and P visas for working entertainers in the U.S., including musicians playing festivals, concerts or label events.
U.K. Music, which represents the country’s recorded and live music industries, is protesting the fee hike, including a $600 “asylum program fee,” a new charge USCIS has proposed adding for U.S.-based employers, which the U.K. group says would raise total visa fees by more than four times their current levels. The trade group, which says the U.S. visa process is “already long, complex and prohibitively expensive” for many musicians, has asked British officials to lobby against the increases.
“The visa process for U.S. musicians entering the U.K. to work is far simpler and less costly,” the group says in a statement, “and we believe that this should be reciprocated by the U.S.”
Under USCIS’s proposed new rates, a concert promoter who employs an international musician qualifying for an “O” visa to tour the U.S. would pay $1,055, rather than the current fee of $460, an increase of 129% — or 260% with the proposed $600 asylum program fee. For the “P” visa classification for touring musicians, the U.S. employer’s fee would jump from $460 to $1,015, or 121% — plus the $600 fee, which would add up to a 251% spike.
A USCIS spokesperson tells Billboard the increases would not affect musicians themselves, but rather their U.S. employers, including promoters, club owners, labels or festival producers. International artists reps say employers are likely to pass these fee increases onto the artists — and possibly to consumers as higher-priced tickets —making it more challenging to tour crucial American concert venues.
“It leaves our artists in a state of paralysis,” says Courtney Askew-Conti of Verdigris Management, which represents U.K. bands Hot Chip and Jungle, adding that the fee increase “feels like the final nail in the coffin” after Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. government is proposing the new fees to allow USCIS to “more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years” and to “support the administration’s effort to rebuild the legal immigration system,” the agency’s director, Ur M. Jaddou, said in a January statement.
“For artists who are established, it’s an annoyance,” says Michael Lambert, whose management company A Modern Way represents Idlewild, We Were Promised Jetpacks and other Scottish bands. “There will be a lot of artists in that emerging to mid-level stage that just decide that they can’t afford to do it.”
While “some cases might be reasonable, this gigantic increase seems unreasonable,” says Rita Sostrin, a Los Angeles immigration lawyer who represents international artists trying to obtain O and P visas. “It’s just not the right way, to do this broad-brush increase for everyone.”
The USCIS rep stresses that the fee changes are not final, and the comment period is open through March 13. “If organizations have those concerns, that’s what they should be submitting,” the spokesperson says. “This is just a proposed rule.”
U.K. trade groups are particularly concerned about how the changes will affect artists during a period when gas prices, supply-chain issues and other lingering COVID-19 effects are making it challenging for club-and-theatre-level artists to tour international markets, including the U.S.
For U.K. artists, the U.S. is the second-largest touring market after Europe. Even before the proposed price hikes were announced, rising costs were already leading British artists to pull U.S. shows. In April, Mercury Prize-winning rapper Little Simz cancelled an 11-date U.S. tour, citing the financial unviability of the undertaking as an independent artist.
A survey conducted by two other U.K. trade bodies, Music Managers Forum (MMF) and the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), found that 70% of their members believe the increased visa charges would mean they could no longer afford to tour the U.S.
Avril Lavigne, Lauren Spencer-Smith and Jessie Reyez are among the presenters set for the 2023 Juno Awards, which will air Monday, March 13. Reyez will also perform on the show, as will Nickelback, Tate McRae, Tenille Townes and more.
Lavigne, a nine-time Juno winner, is nominated for five more awards this year. Spencer-Smith is a three-time nominee.
This year’s show, hosted for the second year in a row by actor Simu Liu, will broadcast live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
The 2023 Junos will follow the Grammys’ lead and include a spotlight on the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Kardinal Offishall, who had a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008 with “Dangerous” (featuring Akon), will co-host the celebration with Haviah Mighty, who last year became the first woman to win the Juno Award for rap album/EP of the year.
Performers in the hip-hop segment include four-time Juno winner Choclair, two-time Juno winner Maestro Fresh Wes, 2021 Juno winner TOBi, Toronto rap duo Dream Warriors and hip hop pioneer Michie Mee, with veteran entertainer DJ Mel Boogie spinning. The track was produced by recording artist Rich Kidd.
“The history of hip hop around the world is incredibly rich, with so many distinct voices contributing to the narrative,” Offishall said in a statement. “It’s an honour to be able to help tell this story through a distinctly Canadian lens and celebrate this important cultural milestone at The 2023 Juno Awards.”
Offishall, a four-time Juno winner and Global A&R at Def Jam Records, wrote and produced the segment with writer and actress Jemeni, with involvement from ADVANCE, Canada’s Black Music Business Collective and the Juno Rap Music Advisory Committee.
Actor Ryan Reynolds will make a virtual appearance to honor Nickelback for their contributions to Canadian music. The band is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Connor McDavid, NHL All-Star and Edmonton Oilers’ captain, will be on hand to honor the band in-person. Nickelback will perform a medley of their hits.
The show will air on Monday, March 13 at 6 PM MT/8 PM ET on CBC TV, CBC Radio One and CBC Music. The show will also stream live on CBC Gem, CBC Listen, globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos, and on CBC Music’s Facebook, Twitter and Youtube pages.
Tickets for the 2023 Juno Awards start at $49 and are available for purchase at www.ticketmaster.ca/junos, by phone and in-person at the Rogers Place box office.
For more information, visit CBCMusic.ca/junos.
Here are all the performers and presenters for the 2023 Juno Awards:
Performers
Alexisonfire
AP Dhillon
Banx & Ranx with Preston Pablo and Rêve
Jessie Reyez
Nickelback
Northern Cree with Aysanabee
Tate McRae
Tenille Townes
50th anniversary of hip-hop segment: Choclair, DJ Mel Boogie, Dream Warriors, Haviah Mighty, Kardinal Offishall, Maestro Fresh Wes, Michie Mee, TOBi.
Presenters
Avril Lavigne
Lauren Spencer-Smith
Andrew Phung
Jessie Reyez
KallMeKris
Pablo Rodriguez
Pierre Kwenders
Tyler Shaw
Nickelback lifetime achievement award segment: Ryan Reynolds, Connor McDavid
Primary Talent International has announced a surprise decoupling with Creative Artists Agency, less than a year after CAA acquired the UK booking agency through a blockbuster $750 million purchase of its parent ICM Presents in June.
ICM Presents bought the 30-year old booking agency in March 2020, just days before international concert touring was suspended for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That acquisition — in which Primary would retain its name and office — came just months after ICM Partners sold a minority stake in the agency to private equity firm Crestview Partners.
When ICM acquired Primary Talent, ICM CEO Chris Silbermann noted that the 32-year-old company, with clients including The 1975, The Cure, Lana Del Rey, Noel Gallagher, Jack Harlow, alt-J, Dropkick Murphys and Patti Smith, “greatly enhances our ability to serve our clients on a global scale, through added resources, support and even greater opportunities,” noting the agency’s reputation for being “fiercely independent, which we love about them.”
Silbermann added: “We are honored that they believed we were the right partners to help take their clients and their agency to the next levels of success, while retaining their brand and management identity and philosophy.”
Primary Talent asked for a split from CAA in order to “re-establish Primary’s independent status,” one source tells Billboard. Shortly after closing the ICM deal last year, CAA laid off 105 ICM Presents employees from different parts of the company.
An agreement to terminate the coupling was finalized earlier this year in a deal led by Primary Talent managing partner and CEO Matt Bates along with former ICM founding partner and COO Rick Levy. Veteran agent Ben Winchester will continue to serve as a board member along with Bates and Levy.
As part of the new management configuration, the agency has promoted Primary agents Laetitia Descouens, Sally Dunstone, Martje Kremers and Ed Sellers to partner status. They will be joined by veteran agent Simon Clarkson, who will be based in Los Angeles. The agency, which currently numbers 35 employees, expects to announce additional agents to their growing ranks in the coming weeks.
“The pandemic changed the landscape of the music touring business, and we felt it was beneficial to return to our roots as the UK’s largest independent music talent agency,” said Bates. “Adding to the strength and experience of the original Primary agent team, we are excited to bring aboard the next generation of talented agents to join as founding partners. In this new incarnation, Primary will be even better positioned to support the evolving careers of our artists and guide them wherever needed.”
TOKYO — A court ruling in South Korea on Friday added further confusion to K-pop’s biggest corporate shakeup in years: the rollercoaster battle for control over SM Entertainment, the once-industry leader bedeviled by corporate governance concerns, which rival HYBE is eager to take control of.
The Seoul Eastern District Court granted a provisionary injunction to block SM from issuing new shares, which Kakao, a Korean tech giant, had agreed to buy as part of a partnership deal between the two companies. The court ruled that SM’s decision was taken without shareholders’ consent, accepting the argument from SM founder Lee Soo Man, who has been battling SM’s management over the future of the company he created in 1995.
The ruling marks a win for HYBE, K-pop’s largest agency and home to boy band BTS, which in recent weeks acquired a 14.8% stake of SM shares from Lee – and announced plans to take control and overhaul SM’s management and board of directors. HYBE was offering shareholders a premium to boost its stake up to 40%, but the market price has since exceeded the offer price. SM’s management has slammed HYBE’s acquisition as a “hostile takeover.”
Following the ruling, HYBE, in a statement, thanked the court for the “appropriate” ruling. “With this result, everything should now fall back into place,” the company said.
In a statement from his lawyers, Lee said the decision “clearly confirmed that the resolution by SM’s current management to issue new shares and convertible bonds was made in an unlawful attempt to influence the company’s control and governance.” The attorneys added that “if SM’s current management further attempts to commit unlawful acts in the future, we will respond firmly by taking appropriate legal actions.”
A Kakao spokesperson said late Friday that the company didn’t immediately have a comment but “plans to issue a response after internal discussions.” A SM spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached.
Lee and the company he founded are widely considered trailblazers, developing K-pop’s signature formula of visually driven performances and dance pop, and tirelessly knocking on overseas markets’ doors. But in recent years SM’s output has slowed, which its management has blamed on the founder-led single-pipeline structure.
SM’s co-CEO Lee Sung-su, a nephew of the founder’s late wife, has lashed out at the uncle with a litany of accusations, from using artists’ music for personal gains to tax evasion through a Hong Kong-based paper company. Shareholders in recent years have also objected to the founder’s ballooning producer fees, which he was receiving via a separate entity he owned.
Kakao in February agreed with SM’s management to buy 9.05% of SM shares, as part of a wider partnership agreement. The messenger-app-and-search-engine company, which has successfully expanded into e-finance and music, was going to distribute SM’s music and related content on its platforms. Kakao has also acquired several entertainment agencies in recent years, leading some, including HYBE, to argue Kakao was trying to gain managerial control over SM. Both SM executives and Kakao have rejected the claim.
With an annual shareholders meeting scheduled for March 31, SM and HYBE are expected to spend the coming weeks courting SM investors, which includes South Korea’s National Pension Service.
BRISBANE, Australia — A brouhaha between Bluesfest and a touring party that includes the Soul Rebels and Big Freedia is entering legal territory after the groups — which also includes Talib Kweli and GZA — has jointly claimed they were canceled by the Australian event “in bad faith and in breach of contract.”
All of those acts were initially slated to perform at the festival this Easter in Byron Bay, in addition to several theater shows on Australia’s east coast promoted by Bluesfest Touring.
And then, they weren’t.
When the second artist announcement for Bluesfest dropped in October 2022, the growing lineup included The Soul Rebels & Friends with special guests Talib Kweli, GZA and Big Freedia.
The bill as it stands for Bluesfest 2023 no longer features the four acts.
A strongly worded statement from the tour’s reps, seen by Billboard, lays all the blame at Bluesfest and its director Peter Noble.
“The artists had fully executed signed contracts with Peter Noble and had already booked travel to Australia and were looking forward to returning to the country to perform for their fans,” the statement reads.
“Peter Noble removed the artists and the tour without further communication or reason from Bluesfest other than him stating his decision to not want to pay the artists.”
Furthermore, it continues, “these are all black artists, and Big Freedia is an LGBTQ icon.”
Bluesfest
Courtesy Bluesfest
The statement then points to the controversial Australian rock group Sticky Fingers, which, after a weeks-long backlash, has been removed from the lineup.
“It appears the tour may have been replaced by other artists including Sticky Fingers,” reads the statement, which was originally distributed to a handful of media outlets in late February, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Double J network. “We are uncertain about who else on Bluesfest may have also been cancelled.”
Noble’s “cancellation of the tour of the aforementioned artists and on Bluesfest has resulted in significant financial loss to the artist,” the statement continues. “Peter’s egregious treatment and disregard of his contractual and moral obligations and disrespect can be completely supported by his actions and written communications.”
Speaking with Billboard on Friday (March 3), Noble read from a prepared statement from Bluesfest’s lawyers.
“The termination of the Soul Rebels contract by Bluesfest has nothing to do with the announcement of Sticky Fingers playing at Bluesfest 2023,” the statement reads. “The Soul Rebels contract was terminated because they did not comply with the contractual terms. By that, we mean, Soul Rebels, Big Freedia, GZA and Talib Kweli.”
Noble declined to go off script.
The impresario and his long-running festival have rolled with many punches these past few years, from the pandemic to floods, to the border closures and public health orders which saw the 2021 edition nixed just hours before showtime.
In the new year, a new problem.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Sampa The Great recently bailed from the bill, a boycott to the booking of Sticky Fingers, whose frontman has a well-publicized and controversial past.
On Thursday of this week, after a weeks-long backlash on social media, Noble and Bluesfest announced that Sticky Fingers “is to step off the Bluesfest 2023 line-up.”
The 2023 edition of Bluesfest is set for April 6-10 at Byron Events Farm, with headliners including Gang of Youths, Paolo Nutini, Tash Sultana, Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers and more. Last year’s event reported more than 100,000 attendees.
LONDON — Security services could have prevented a suicide bomber from killing 22 people in a terror attack outside an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in 2017 if they had acted swiftly on key intelligence, a public inquiry has found.
The chair of the inquiry, John Saunders, says there was a “realistic possibility” that the bomber could have been stopped from carrying out the atrocity if British security service MI5 had acted decisively upon on two pieces of intelligence that they received in the months leading up to the attack. The significance of that intelligence, Saunders notes, “was not fully appreciated at the time.”
A 207-page report, published Thursday (March 2), details the radicalization of bomber Salman Abedi but does not disclose details of either piece of intelligence, citing national security reasons. It does, however, state that neither piece of intelligence was shared by MI5 with counter-terror police — a failing that Saunders calls “a further example of a communication breakdown” between security agencies.
The inquiry found that an MI5 officer, identified as Witness C, failed to write a report on the second piece of intelligence on the same day MI5 assessed it and did not discuss it with colleagues. That delay “led to the missing of an opportunity to take a potentially important investigative action.”
Abedi flew from Libya to Manchester on May 18 — four days before he detonated a homemade explosive device in the foyer of Manchester Arena (now known as the AO Arena) at the end of Grande’s sold-out show. Twenty-two people died in the terror attack, the youngest aged 8 years old. Hundreds of people were injured, many of them children.
The report contends that had MI5 taken the intelligence more seriously Abedi could have been stopped at Manchester Airport upon his return from Libya and followed to his car where he had stored his explosives.
In a press conference in Manchester on Thursday, Saunders said the “failure by the security service to act swiftly enough” had contributed to a “significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented the attack.”
The inquiry chair went on to say that while “it is not possible to reach any conclusion on the balance of probability” as to whether the bombing would have been prevented, he believed “there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack.”
The report also found that Abedi’s family held “significant responsibility” for the radicalization of both him and his brother, Hashem Abedi, who was sentenced in the U.K. in 2020 to a minimum of 55 years for his role in the murders.
Thursday’s report is the third and final set of findings to come out of the public inquiry into the terror attack. The U.K. Home Secretary launched the inquiry in October 2019 with its first hearings taking place in Manchester in September 2020. In total, more than 250 witnesses gave 194 days of oral evidence, although much of the evidence from MI5 and counter-terror police officers was heard in secret.
The inquiry’s two previous reports have focused on how emergency services responded to the attack and whether police and concert security should have done more to prevent the bombing.
Families of the victims called the failures exposed in Thursday’s report “unacceptable” and a “devastating conclusion” to the inquiry. “Those killed and injured in this murderous attack had every right to feel safe and protected, but as this inquiry has demonstrated, they were failed at every level — before, during and after this horrific attack,” said Richard Scorer, principal lawyer at Slater and Gordon, reading out a statement on behalf of 11 of the victims’ families.
Andrew Roussos, the father of 8-year-old Saffie-Rose Roussos, who was one of the 22 victims, said the security services’ actions amounted to a “cataclysmic failure.”
“The fact that MI5 failed to stop [Salman Abedi] despite all of the red flags available demonstrates they are not fit to keep us safe and therefore not fit for purpose,” said Roussos.
Following the report’s publication, MI5’s director general, Ken McCallum, said he was “profoundly sorry” that the security service did not prevent the attack. “Gathering covert intelligence is difficult,” McCallum said in a statement, “but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma.”
Max Lousada, CEO of recorded music for Warner Music Group, will sit down for a keynote interview at this year’s electronic music conference IMS Ibiza. The keynote will mark Lousada’s first appearance at the annual event, which is slated for April 26-28 at Destino Pacha Ibiza Resort.
For the summit’s 14th edition, co-hosted by BBC Radio 1 broadcasters Pete Tong MBE and Jaguar, the theme will be Face the Future. Topics will range from the complexities of AI and Web3, diversity and inclusion and ageism in electronic music. Further, conversations are scheduled to explore music rights management, understanding neurodiversity, the ever-changing dynamic between agents and promoters, an analysis of music journalism and the unveiling of the IMS Business Report.
Lousada is one of the first 10 speakers announced for the 2023 conference. IMS Ibiza will also welcome TaP Music co-founder Ben Mawson, who will discuss spearheading the lawsuit that led to house legends Larry Heard and Robert Owens winning a major court battle to reclaim the rights to their back catalogs after decades of struggle.
Across the three days, there will also be a live podcast recording of Takin’ Care of Lady Busine$$ with Justice Department founder/CEO Jennifer Justice and TOKiMONSTA, who will discuss SONA, a new Web3-based music protocol she co-founded that aims to put artists in control of the culture they create.
BBC Radio 1 resident and Hooversound label boss Sherelle will be joined in conversation with Fabio & Grooverider, while DJ Fat Tony will share the journey of his rise to become a kingpin of the ’80s and ’90s club scene in London.
“IMS returns to open the Ibiza season with a powerful and diverse mix of carefully considered content focused on the key issues facing our industry today. In 2023, we no longer have the luxury of speculating about the future: AI has fully arrived, and things will move fast from this point forward,” said IMS co-founder Ben Turner in a release. “As a tidal wave of AI-generated content sweeps in, some welcome a new era of creative possibilities, while others lament the loss of another aspect of humanity in music, all while a cornucopia of unanswered questions are created concerning the control of rights. It’s time for us to collectively ‘Face the Future.’”
Additional speakers include Femme House founder and music director for W Hotels LP Giobbi, manager Cristiana Simon of Alegria Agency, Wasserman music partner Tom Schroeder, iii Points founder David Sinopoli and artist Yellow Squares.
Check out a full list of events and speakers here.