Music News

31 Oct 2023

Sabrina Carpenter Brings on Bloody Karma for Obnoxious Men in ‘Feather’ Music Video: Watch

In her new music video, Sabrina Carpenter cheerfully facilitates the deaths of several obnoxious men. But don’t worry, it weighs heavily on her mind after the fact — as heavy as a feather, that is.

Posted on Halloween, Carpenter’s “Feather” music video is fittingly bloody. As the 24-year-old singer nonchalantly listens to music in her headphones, lifts weights and rides an elevator, men who catcall, mansplain and take inappropriate photos are met with instant karma. The cat-callers are run over by a truck; the fitness know-it-alls fight each other to death; and the predatory photographer gets his blood squeezed out of him in an elevator shaft — thanks to Carpenter, who jams his tie in the doors as they close without a second thought.

“I feel so much lighter like a feather with you off my mind,” she sings as she gleefully frolics around a church, presumably at the men’s collective funeral.

“Feather” is the latest song off Carpenter’s July 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send to get the music video treatment, following “Nonsense,” “Because I Liked a Boy,” “Fast Times” and “Skinny Dipping.” Upon its release, the album debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, marking the rising pop star’s highest peak on the chart to date.

Much like “Nonsense,” which became Carpenter’s second ever entry on the Billboard Hot 100 in January months after its initial release, “Feather” started gaining traction this year due to it being a major fan favorite on Emails. The former Disney Channel actress addressed this on Instagram Stories prior to the new music video’s release, writing, “You guys showed ‘feather’ so much love we had to make a video.”

The project comes about two weeks after Carpenter performed “Feather” for Spotify Singles, for which she also turned in a cover of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” “Well she nailed it,” Swift later praised Carpenter, one of several openers for the “Anti-Hero” singer on her Eras Tour.

Watch the “Feather” music video above.

31 Oct 2023

JoJo Siwa Doesn’t Care If She Lost Fans After Coming Out: ‘You’re Not Meant to Like Me’

It’s been almost three years since JoJo Siwa came out as a member of the LGBTQ community — and now, she’s ready to speak candidly about the blowback she received as a result.

In the debut episode of the reality star’s new iHeartMedia-produced podcast JoJo Siwa Now, Siwa talks at length about her coming out story, reflecting on how she decided to tell her fans that she identified as queer. “I was on the phone with my girlfriend at the time, and I said ‘I think I wanna come out to the world,’” she recalled. “I posted this picture and threw it on my Instagram Story, and that’s how I confirmed it … I didn’t think twice about it.”

The reaction, she said, were largely positive — but there were still plenty of people who were not happy that Siwa was sharing her truth publicly. “There was also a lot of negativity, and I did lose a lot,” she said. “I didn’t care, and I still don’t care about the things I lost and the people that I lost and if I lost a chunk of fans, because it’s who I am.”

Further explaining her point, Siwa, 20, explained that she had built her career off of “being genuine,” and if members of her audience couldn’t deal with her sexuality, then they were welcome to leave. “If you didn’t like me because [one day] I was straight, and [the next day] I was gay, then you’re not meant to like me anyways,” she said. “I just try to really be genuine, really be who I am.”

This is not the first time Siwa has talked about backlash to her coming out — during an interview on The Viall Files back in July, the Dance Moms star said that a number of corporations decided to “blackball” her from working with them because of her sexuality. “I had a lot of people of corporations [who] told me that I made the wrong choice and that I shouldn’t have come out,” she said at the time. “[They said] that I shouldn’t tell my young demographic that I’m gay.”

Siwa is currently starring as a contestant on the second season of Fox reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, in which a group of celebrities are subjected to military bootcamp-style challenges, until they decide to leave the competition.

Check out the full first episode of JoJo Siwa Now below:

31 Oct 2023

Tapping Into Superfans and Generative AI Among Hot Topics in New Edition of ‘The Trapital Report’

Why are hip-hop and R&B still popular streaming-wise but less so on the live music front? How can superfans and generative AI help further music industry growth? Those are just two of the hot topics addressed in Trapital’s second annual report on major trends in music, media and hip-hop. Presented by the ticketing company DICE, 2023’s The Trapital Report is being released today (Oct. 31) in tandem with Billboard‘s exclusive first-look preview.

“This report is for the key decision makers in music, media and entertainment, the executives, founders and investors in the space,” Trapital founder Dan Runcie tells Billboard. “These are the people who are working actively to serve the artists that they work with. They’re working actively to provide an experience to the end consumers as well as fans. And to do that they need to be as close as possible to the current trends that are happening within the actual revenue. But looking fast forward, what are the things that they need to invest their time and money in? How do they better understand this audience? Our report is able to offer those insights.”

The report begins with a look at the slowing growth of streaming. While music streaming revenue was $17.5B in 2022 versus $15.7B in 2021, that only represents 11% growth. That percentage figure is down from 24%, 19% and 29% in prior years, per Trapital’s analysis of data from Luminate, MRC, Nielsen and the IFPI Global Music Report 2022.

Explains Runcie, “Streaming growth has started to slow down from a revenue perspective year over year, especially from the heights that we had seen in the pandemic. That has sparked a lot of industry discussions about how to split the pie like pushes to raise prices and increase the payouts to certain types of artists; reducing the noise and fraud. But I do think that the two big opportunities that the industry has to grow the overall pie is to look at the superfan and lean into generative AI.”

“I do think even alone on the streaming services, they have a lot of valuable data and understanding as to who the superfans are,” says Runcie.  “And as well to all of the combinations of things that can be offered, whether it’s exclusive access to fans, community input …  I think there are different ways to have different tiers to enable that.”

Acknowledging the intense discussions emanating over the use of generative AI, Runcie says the emerging technology represents another growth opportunity by increasing derivative work. 

“Anytime in the history of recorded music, derivative work grows and that overall demand grows the pie,” he explains. “And it can do that because the underlying asset that a lot of popular derivative work comes from is work that the record labels already own. It’s what the rights holders already have. So being able to find the right attribution, being able to do it in a way that acknowledges both the safety and rights that the artists and the rights holders have, I think all of this is possible if you accept the fact that this isn’t necessarily a genie that’s going to go back in the bottle. It’s still very early, but no different than YouTube being able to figure out Content ID. The same can be possible for generative AI and allowing superfans to create making music, anything that enables that as that continues to grow, it only adds more value adds to the artists and the rights holders who have the valuable intellectual property.”

On the hip-hop front, the report notes the genre’s total global revenue rose slightly between 2021 ($2.72B) and 2022 ($2.78B). But its share of total revenue has dipped from 27.7% in 2021 to 26.8% in 2022. And while only three rap albums have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2023  — Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia and Drake’s For All the Dogs — hip-hop still reigns as the top genre. It accounts for 33% of all albums on the Billboard 200, more than twice pop and rock combined at 16% each.

However, in the report section titled “From URL to IRL” it points out the glaring fact that despite hip-hop and R&B’s popularity in terms of streaming and social media, pop and rock still command the live music front: 27% of concert revenue/33% of streaming revenue in the U.S. versus 11% of concert revenue/27% of streaming revenue for R&B/hip-hop according to Trapital’s analysis of stats from Pollstar and Luminate.

The report explains the disconnect is related to several factors. Among them: that hip-hop artists didn’t consistently begin touring on a global arena level until the 2000s; the hesitancy on the part of concert promoters to book rap acts owing to violence and safety concerns even though “rock acts often had worse violence issues”; younger fan bases; and the fact that many hip-hop and R&B acts “have clustered around larger festivals like Rolling Loud, the club circuit and other festival appearances” which are more economical than paying for expensive concert tickets.

“This is something I’ve been eager to dig into,” says Runcie. “And I’m glad we were able to do it with this report. When you transition from stream URL to in real life, hip-hop and R&B don’t necessarily dominate in the same way. Even though we’ve seen hip-hop and R&B artists that have done arena tours like Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, other hip-hop/R&B artists who’ve had very popular music haven’t quite gotten to that same point on the live music side.”

To that point, the report includes a breakdown of which artists can sell out a tour at each venue level. The list encompasses 30+ stadiums (Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga), 10K+ arenas (SZA, Lizzo, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Miley Cyrus), 5K+ amphitheatres (Lil Uzi Vert, Janelle Monae, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Baby, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie) and 2K+ ballrooms (Latto, Chloe Baily, Yeat, Denzel Curry, Glorilla).

Also of interest in The Trapital Report is a look at Latin music’s popularity, the largest DSPs and most valuable private companies, indie artist case stories, audience profiles, the most valuable songs streamed on Spotify and YouTube and the top 1% of artists in streaming. According to Runcie, the full reports features detailed analyses on streaming revenue, music genre trends, live entertainment, short-form video, chart analysis among other topics.

For more information, visit trapital.co/report

31 Oct 2023

Mariah Carey Shows Off Red-Hot Jessica Rabbit Halloween Costume: See Photos

Mariah Carey may be the Christmas queen, but she’s also no amateur when it comes to Halloween. This year, the songstress looked fabulous as Jessica Rabbit, sharing photos of her Disney-inspired costume on social media Monday night (Oct. 30).

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In the photos, Carey sports a curve-hugging red dress, purple opera gloves and flaming red hair, just like the Who Framed Roger Rabbit femme fatale. “Happy Halloween!” she captioned the pictures, adding a spooky Jack-o-lantern emoji.

The “We Belong Together” singer also seemed to wink at the upcoming holiday season, which she’s all but trademarked at this point thanks to her evergreen chart-ruling hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” “#notyet,” she hashtagged her post.

The “not yet” is an ongoing joke between Carey and her fans, as the five-time Grammy winner typically kicks off her Christmas festivities immediately after Halloween concludes. Last year, she posted a video of her in a bubble bath midway through October, teasing fans who wanted to prematurely listen to “All I Want” with the coy caption “Not yet!”

Then, on Nov. 1, the star shared a video of her channeling the Wicked Witch of the West before morphing into a Santa-inspired jumpsuit, declaring, “IT’S TIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!”

In years past, Carey has taken on Halloween as a heavy metal rocker, a devil, a pink-haired nurse, a bride and a mermaid. This year’s Jessica Rabbit tribute comes on the heels of the pop diva’s announcement that more dates will be added to her upcoming Merry Christmas One and All Tour, which kicks off Nov. 15 in Highland, Cali. and wraps Dec. 17 with a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

See photos of Mariah Carey as Jessica Rabbit below:

31 Oct 2023

Peter Jackson-Directed Video for Final Beatles Song ‘Now and Then’ Sets Global Premiere

A video for “Now and Then,” which has been described as the “last Beatles song,” is scheduled to premiere on Friday (Nov. 3) at 10 a.m. ET., 24 hours after the track’s release on Thursday (Nov. 2). The clip was directed by Peter Jackson and is described in a release as a “poignant and humorous” visual that “invites viewers to celebrate The Beatles’ timeless and enduring love for one another with John, Paul, George and Ringo as they create the last Beatles song; the video will premiere on the Beatles YouTube channel.

“Now and Then,” which will be released by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe, is the final song written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and it was finished by living members McCartney and Starr more than 40 years after the group began work on it. The double A-side single will also include a touching throwback with the inclusion of the band’s 1962 debut single, “Love Me Do,” featuring the original cover art shot by Ed Ruscha. Both songs have been mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos.

The “Now and Then” video is Jackson’s first foray into music video production and in a statement, the director behind the acclaimed 2021 The Beatles: Get Back miniseries said when Apple first approached him with the gig he was initially reluctant to say yes. “I thought my next few months would be a hell of a lot more fun if that tricky task was somebody else’s problem, and I could be like any other Beatles fan, enjoying the night-before-Christmas anticipation as the release of a new Beatles song and music video approached – in 1995, l loved the childlike excitement I felt as the release of ‘Free As A Bird’ was inching closer,” he said of the 1995 Beatles song that began as a 1977 Lennon home demo that was completed by McCartney, Harrison and Starr.

“I could have that experience once again – all I had to do was say no to The Beatles. To be honest, just thinking about the responsibility of having to make a music video worthy of the last song The Beatles will ever release produced a collection of anxieties almost too overwhelming to deal with,” the director continued. “My lifelong love of The Beatles collided into a wall of sheer terror at the thought of letting everyone down. This created intense insecurity in me because I’d never made a music video before, and was not able to imagine how I could even begin to create one for a band that broke up over 50 years ago, had never actually performed the song, and had half of its members no longer with us.”

But, as Jackson kept trying to think of new reasons to turn down the gig — to this day, he said, he still has never, technically, agreed to the job — he told Apple that the lack of “suitable footage” was worrisome because the project would require tapping into rare and unseen film of the Fab Four, not much of which is out there.

“Nothing at all seemed to exist showing Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’ in 1995 … There’s not much footage of John in the mid-seventies when he wrote the demo … I grizzled about the lack of unseen Beatles footage from the ’60s … And they didn’t even shoot any footage showing Paul and Ringo working on the song last year,” he said of his tortured thought process.

“A Beatles music video must have great Beatles footage at its core. There’s no way actors or CGI Beatles should be used,” Jackson continued. “Every shot of The Beatles needed to be genuine. By now I really had no idea how anyone could make a ‘Now And Then’ music video if they didn’t have decent footage to work with, and this was far from being a lame excuse. My fear and insecurity now had solid reasons why they should prevail and allow me to say no without looking too much like a chicken.”

But Jackson also knew the Beatles don’t take no for an answer once they set their minds to something, which might explain why they didn’t wait for him to decline before forging ahead. Jackson said he found himself “swept along” as McCartney and Starr addressed his worries and shot some footage of themselves that they sent to him. In addition, Apple dug up more than 14 hours of long-forgotten film shot during the 1995 sessions, including several hours of McCartney, Harrison and Starr working on the last song.

In addition, Lennon’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, and Harrison’s widow, Olivia, found some “great unseen home movie footage” that they shared with him. “To cap things off, a few precious seconds of The Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of The Beatles and never seen before, was kindly supplied by Pete Best,” Jackson revealed of the contribution from the band’s original drummer. “Watching this footage completely changed the situation – I could see how a music video could be made. Actually, I found it far easier if I thought of it as making a short movie, so that’s what I did… My lack of confidence with music videos didn’t matter anymore if I wasn’t making one. Even so, I still had no solid vision for what this short film should be – so I turned to the song for guidance.”

Jackson described separating Lennon’s voice on the demo tape a year ago, with producer Giles Martin cooking up an early mix of the single last year that the director loved and which he’s listened to more than 50 times since. After doing a deep-dive into the song looking for ideas and inspiration for the short film, Jackson said the more he listened the more the shape of the visual began to take form, “without any conscious effort from me.”

Working with his Get Back editor, Jabez Olssen, Jackson started pulling together “little fragments, sliding pictures and music around in different ways until things began to click in.” The idea, he said, was to create a short film that would “bring a few tears to the eye,” though he began to realize that generating emotion using only archival footage was “tricky” at best.

“Fortunately, the simple power of this beautiful song did a lot of the work for us, and we finished the first 30 or 40 secs of the film fairly quickly,” Jackson said, admitting that finding an appropriate ending that could “adequately sum up the enormity of The Beatles’ legacy” proved daunting. If not impossible.

“Their contribution to the world is too immense, and their wondrous gift of music has become part of our DNA and now defies description,” he said. “I realised we needed the imagination of every viewer to do what we couldn’t, and have each viewer create their own personal moment of farewell to The Beatles – but we had to gently steer everyone to that place. I had some vague ideas, but didn’t really know how to achieve this.”

Jackson said he got lucky because Harrison’s son, musician Dhani Harrison, happened to be visiting Jackson’s home country of New Zealand at the time, and after discussing the proposed ending with him, “his [Harrison’s] eyes immediately filled with tears — so that is the way we went.”

The middle section aimed to capture the band’s legendarily silly side using a collection of unseen outtakes where the Beatles are “relaxed, funny and rather candid.”

The video will be accompanied by a 12-minute Now and Then — The Last Beatles Song documentary written by Oliver Murray, due out on Wednesday (Nov. 1). The doc will tell the story behind the track and feature exclusive footage and commentary from McCartney, Starr and Harrison, as well as Sean Ono Lennon and director Jackson.

31 Oct 2023

Ms. Lauryn Hill Postpones Fort Worth Show Due to Ongoing Vocal Issues: ‘I Need to Heal and Rest the Voice’

Ms. Lauryn Hill is pressing pause again on the 25th anniversary tour celebrating her Grammy-winning 1998 solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill due to ongoing vocal issues. After postponing the third U.S. date of the tour in Philly last week, Hill announced on Monday (Oct. 30) that she’s been ordered by doctors to rest her voice.

“As you may know, I’ve been doing my best to overcome a serious case of vocal strain/injury over the past week or so,” Hill wrote in a tweet hours before showtime. “I fought through the last couple shows, pushing my voice, and masking the injury with medication. This isn’t safe or sustainable. I woke up this morning hoping to have enough voice to get through tonight, but I can barely talk let alone sing or rap.”

That situation meant that Hill had to postpone Monday night’s scheduled show at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX, because, as she told fans, “I need to heal and rest the voice in order to continue the tour. For these reasons, sadly, my doctors have advised me to postpone tonight’s show. Much love to all of you for your support, and I look forward to coming back to Texas soon.” At press time Hill had not announced a rescheduled date for the Fort Worth show.

The Miseducation tour — which also features a reunion set by the Fugees on some dates — kicked off in early September in Minneapolis. Hill postponed a Philly show due to the vocal issues, saying at the time she had to rest to prevent “any more serious strain or damage to my vocal cords.” She did make it to the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, where one of her famous fans, Chance the Rapper, made the scene with his mom.

The next scheduled date on the tour is a Thursday (Dec. 2) gig at the Ball Arena in Denver, CO.

See Hill’s statement below.

31 Oct 2023

Chance The Rapper Paid Loving Tribute to His Mom After They Saw Lauryn Hill: ‘She Taught Me So Much About Love’

Music can take you to so many places, from the highest highs to the lowest lows and every stop in between. For Chance the Rapper, Ms. Lauryn Hill’s landmark The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill solo album is a reminder of his fondest memories of growing up listening to her with his mother, a time he recalled in a touching Instagram tribute on Monday (Oct. 30) after they took in a Hill show together at Chicago’s United Center on Saturday night.

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“In the 90s my mom owned Touches, an incredibly successful hair salon and barbershop on the South Side of Chicago,” Chance wrote alongside a snap of him and his mom at the gig. “She employed a lot black folks and got a lot of people started in the industry. Her business fostered relationships, built marriages and friendships and was a cornerstone of the community. There she met my father and eventually they got pregnant with me.”

Chance (born Chancelor Johnathan Bennett), 30, then described the difficult decision his mom faced about beginning a “new path of motherhood and family for herself” or continuing to pursue her art and business. “My mama chose me. She was at the top of her field, a black woman in her 20s with ownership and investment in her community, but she chose the difficult yet beautiful path to family,” he wrote. “My mom sold the salon and spent all her time raising me and teaching me so many of the things i love about myself. She taught me so much about love and faith and kindness and most importantly music.”

During that time, Chance said, the soundtrack of those lessons was provided by Hill, specifically the Miseducation tribute to the Fugees singer/rapper’s first-born son, Zion David Marley, “To Zion.” Chance remembers his mom singing him the lyrics:

“Unsure of what the balance held
I touched my belly overwhelmed
By what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
For unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
But everybody told me to be smart
‘Look at your career,’ they said
‘Lauryn, baby, use your head’
But instead I chose to use my heart

Now the joy of my world is in Zion”

Chance concluded by thanking Hill and her Fugees bandmates, Wyclef Jean and Pras, and most importantly, his mother. The next date on the Hill/Fugees reunion tour, on Thursday (Nov. 2), IN Fort Worth, TX has been postponed due to Hill’s vocal issues.

Check out Chance’s tribute below.

31 Oct 2023

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Add 22 European Stadium Shows to 2024 Trek

As Bruce Springsteen continues his recovery from a bout of peptic ulcer disease, the rock icon and the E Street Band announced the dates for a 22-dates European stadium run in spring/summer 2024 on Tuesday morning (Oct. 31).

The new dates will kick off on May 5 in Cardiff, UK, and keep the band on the road through a July 25 date at Wembley Stadium in London, with stops along the way in Belfast, Dublin, Prague, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Helsinki and Stockholm. Tickets for the trek will go on sale starting with the Odense, Denmark show (July 9) on Nov. 2; click here for more information on tickets and dates.

Earlier this month, Springsteen and the E Street Band announced the new dates for their postponed 2023 tour, pushing the shows to early 2024 to give the 74-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer to recover from the stomach issue that has kept him off the road. The U.S. dates of the tour will now pick up again on March 19 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix and keep them on the road through a Sept. 13 show at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Check out the dates for the E Street Band’s 2024 European tour below.

May 5 – Cardiff, Wales @ Principality Stadium (On-sale: Nov. 3 at 10am*)

May 9 – Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Boucher Road (On-sale: Nov. 6 at 8am*) 

May 12 – Kilkenny, Ireland @ Nowlan Park (On-sale: Nov. 6 at 8am*) 

May 16 – Cork, Ireland @ Páirc Uí Chaoimh (On-sale: Nov. 6 at 8am*) 

May 19 – Dublin, Ireland @ Croke Park (On-sale: Nov. 6 at 8am*) 

May 22 – Sunderland, England @ Stadium of Light (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

May 25 – Marseille, France @ Orange Vélodrome (On-sale Nov. 7 at 10am*) 

May 28 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Airport Letnany (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

June 1 – Milan, Italy @ San Siro Stadium (On-sale Nov. 6 at 12pm*) 

June 3 – Milan, Italy @ San Siro Stadium (On-sale Nov. 6 at 12pm*) 

June 12 – Madrid, Spain @ Cívitas Metropolitano (On-sale Nov. 7 at 10am*)

June 14 – Madrid, Spain @ Cívitas Metropolitano (On-sale Nov. 7 at 10am*)

June 20 – Barcelona, Spain @ Estadi Olímpic (On-sale Nov. 14 at 10am*)

June 27 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Goffertpark (On-sale Nov. 3 at 9am*)

July 2 – Werchter, Belgium @ Werchter Park (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

July 5 – Hannover, Germany @ Heinz von Heiden Arena (On-sale Nov. 8 at 10am*)

July 9 – Odense, Denmark @ Dyrskuepladsen (On-sale Nov. 2 at 10am*)

July 12 – Helsinki, Finland @ Olympic Stadium (On-sale Nov. 6 at 11am*)

July 15 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Friends Arena (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

July 18 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Friends Arena (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

July 21 – Bergen, Norway @ Dokken (On-sale Nov. 6 at 10am*)

July 25 – London, England @ Wembley Stadium connected by EE (On-sale Nov. 3 at 10am*)

*All on-sale times are local time

31 Oct 2023

Daniel Johns Signs ‘Landmark’ Global Publishing Deal With BMG

SYDNEY, Australia — Daniel Johns signs a global publishing deal with BMG, a so-called ”landmark” agreement that includes the veteran Australian artist’s Silverchair catalog.

The worldwide deal includes all of Johns’ compositions on his second solo album FutureNever, which led the ARIA Chart in 2022, along with his Silverchair hits including “Straight Lines,” “The Greatest View,” “Ana’s Song,” “Freak,” “Tomorrow” and “many others reverting into the deal in 2025,” according to a joint statement (the rock trio’s catalog of recordings were united under one roof, at Sony Music Australia, in early 2021).

Confirmed Tuesday, Oct. 31, the new agreement expands on the recording deal Johns struck with BMG in 2017, ahead of the release of FutureNever, which became ARIA’s best-selling new Australian album of 2022.

Now, the independent music company represents the Newcastle-based artist for both publishing and records. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

“There is nothing without a heartbeat that I value more than my songwriting catalog,” Johns says. “Bringing my life’s work as a composer to BMG signifies the level of faith I have in this company and their people.”

It was BMG that, in 2021, spearheaded the hit Spotify podcast Who Is Daniel Johns? And in 2022, the music company developed Past, Present and FutureNever, the immersive, award-winning exhibition in Melbourne’s iconic Rialto building. Next year will see the release of the “grunge sci-fi” featurette film What if the Future Never Happened?, starring Rasmus King (6 Festivals, Bosch and Rockit) as a young Johns.

FutureNever hit No. 1 on Australia’s chart in April 2022, then, with its vinyl release, returned to the top, a full 22 weeks later – a record-setting gap between stays at the chart penthouse by a solo Australian artist. The LP won for best independent pop album or EP at the 2023 AIR Awards.

Johns is the most ARIA-awarded artist of all time, with 21 pointy trophies, and his collection includes six APRA Music Awards, three of which are for songwriter of the year — a record-equaling haul. Across his recording career, Johns has sold 10 million albums and enjoyed six ARIA No. 1 albums, including all five Silverchair studio releases.

Formed in 1992 by Newcastle schoolmates Johns (vocals, guitar), Ben Gillies (drums) and Chris Joannou (bass), Silverchair enjoyed global success, starting from the tip-off with their grunge-influenced 1995 debut album Frogstomp and the powerhouse single “Tomorrow.” Frogstomp went to No. 9 on the Billboard 200, and its followup, 1997’s Freak Show, peaked at No. 12.

In 2011, still at the peak of their powers, Silverchair’s members announced they would go their separate ways.

Johns’ is also behind FutureNeverFund, a charitable organization to help raise money to create better futures for people and animals in need. The not-for-profit has now raised and disbursed more than A$100,000 from personal and public donations.

“Daniel is a true multi-talent and musical icon,” says Jodie Feld, BMG senior creative director Australia & New Zealand. “It’s an honor for the whole BMG team to expand our relationship with Daniel and to have the opportunity to work across not just a record, but a podcast, film, exhibition and now his iconic publishing catalog.”

30 Oct 2023

Ariana Grande & Liz Gillies Make All Their ‘Showgirls’ Dreams Come True With Joint Halloween Costumes

Ariana Grande and Elizabeth Gillies have been besties since co-starring on Victorious together more than a decade ago — but their new joint Halloween costumes are a long way from Nickelodeon.

The pair shared a dozen photos of their detailed costumes to Instagram on Monday night (Oct. 30), with Grande dressed up as Nomi Malone, Elizabeth Berkley’s rookie stripper in the 1995 Paul Verhoeven-directed erotic thriller, and Gillies dressed up as Cristal Connors, Gina Gershon’s jaded showgirl desperate to cling to her position as the top dancer.

“You and me…we’re exactly alike,” Gillies captioned one photo of the pair side-by-side, wearing coordinated black ensembles that look like they’re borrowed directly from the movie set. In a joint post, Gillies quotes another of Gershon’s famous lines from the film: “You are a whore, Darlin’!” And in a final quotable caption: “There’s always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.”

In Grande’s final post, she gives one of Berkley’s famous lines some shine: When asked where she’s from on the East Coast, Nomi angrily responds, “different places !!!!!” (You can almost see Elizabeth Berkley throwing her basket of french fries in frustration when you hear those two simple words.)

Last year, Grande and Gillies put together equally elaborate Halloween costumes, re-creating a series of scenes from the Christopher Guest mockumentary Best in Show. Gillies portrays Jane Lynch’s character Christy Cummings while Grande takes on her partner, Jennifer Coolidge’s Sherri Ann Cabot. Later on in the scenes, Grande transforms into Eugene Levy’s Gerry Fleck — eyebrows and all — while Gillies plays Catherine O’Hara’s curly-haired Cookie Fleck.

See all the Showgirls magic below: