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Lady Gaga‘s Mayhem has officially been out for an entire weekend, meaning Little Monsters have had ample time to choose their favorite tracks. Even so, picking a favorite is no easy task for an LP as versatile and interesting as the pop star’s seventh studio LP, which dropped at long last Friday (March 7). Led […]
Ice Spice and Chappell Roan linked up at the Vivienne Westwood show during Paris Fashion Week, but that wasn’t the only similar experience they endured in France. Roan slipped her bare behind into her PFW recap post to Instagram on Sunday (March 9), which included the ripped red Ludovic de Saint Sernin dress exposing her […]
Lady Gaga knew from the very beginning of her relationship with Michael Polansky that their romance was anything but shallow.
In an interview with The New York Times published Saturday (March 8) — one day after the pop star’s new album Mayhem arrived — Gaga recalled how she knew from the jump that her now-fiancé’s feelings for her were “genuine,” as opposed to the people before him who had ulterior motives in pursuing someone as famous as her.
“From the moment that I met Michael, he had the most warm and kind disposition of maybe anyone that I had met in my whole life,” she told the publication of the tech entrepreneur. “Yes, he was impressive, but the thing I cared about the most was he wanted to know about my family.”
At that point the 14-time Grammy winner apologized for tearing up before continuing. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I knew Michael was genuine because he wanted to be my friend,” she gushed. “He didn’t want to do any of the things that the other people wanted to do. He wanted to take walks with me. He took me rock climbing. I also have a pain condition, but he had this belief that I could get better, and he inspired me to have more hope about it.”
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Gaga and Polansky first met in 2019 and got engaged in 2024. The “Disease” singer has been open about how their relationship has reshaped her life, music included; the businessman was initially the person who encouraged her to return to her dance-pop roots on Mayhem, and he’s credited as a songwriter on many of the album’s tracks.
“We do a lot together,” she told Good Morning America in a March 7 interview. “He includes me in his business as well. He’s really creative, he plays guitar — he’s like a beautiful musician. We have a really creative relationship.”
In the same interview, Gaga also opened up about how she wants “marriage and kids” with Polansky “more than anything.” “We’d been talking for, like, three weeks on the phone every single day just getting to know each other, and Michael flew to Vegas when I was doing my show to take me on our first date,” she recalled. “And before we even sat down, I said, ‘Do you want marriage and kids?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah I do.’ And I said, ‘Yeah OK, great. Do you want some champagne?’”
While speaking to NYT, Gaga added that the authenticity of her connection with Polansky is a “new world for me.” “It’s not a good feeling to have so much trouble making friends,” she said. “Being actually friends with somebody is a very specific thing. You can sit in a room together and not talk. You can take long walks and talk about your family. You can obsess over a new recipe and make it. I don’t think it should be transactional, but I was around a lot of that all the time. So it’s a big blessing that I met someone that was not like that.”
There were some celebrities that were just a little too hot at Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour. The pop superstar brought the run to London’s O2 Arena over the weekend, where she continued her popular onstage bit that occurs right before she performs her frisky hit, “Juno.” During the gimmick, she and her dancers […]
Rihanna is staying unbothered, even after one critic said something negative about her sons RZA and Riot Rose.
More specifically, the person in question came for the two boys’ names. On a recent The Shade Room Instagram post about how the Fenty mogul recently shared rare photos from each time she gave birth, the commenter wrote, “I hate their names so bad.”
Suffice to say, Ri saw the remark — but she quickly shrugged it off. “@tatianagalaxxy ok tatiana,” she simply commented on Sunday.
The “Umbrella” singer’s succinct shutdown comes one day after she commemorated International Women’s Day by posting pictures on Instagram from the births of her two boys. Both snaps — taken a little over a year apart — find Rihanna lying in hospital beds holding each newborn in her arms.
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“by far the most powerful thing I’ve ever done as a woman…my little miracles!” she wrote at the time. “And yes I gave birth in pearls and sunglasses…don’t ask, a lot was happening.”
The nine-time Grammy winner welcomed RZA with A$AP Rocky in May 2022, followed by Riot in August the following year. The couple didn’t reveal their firstborn’s name until his first birthday in 2023, confirming at the time that it was directly inspired by the three-letter moniker of the Wu-Tang Clan frontman.
And according to Ri’s February cover story interview with Harper’s Bazaar, their youngest son’s name was suggested to the parents by Pharrell Williams. “He gave us this name thinking it was going to be a girl, because he had seen something online,” the billionaire told the publication. “Pharrell is very deep. He’s not surface.”
In the same interview, Rihanna also opened up about her two boys’ different personalities. “RZA is just an empath,” she said at the time. “He’s so magical. He loves music. He loves melody. He loves books. He loves water. Bath time, swimming, pool, beach, anything.”
“And Riot, he’s just hilarious,” she continued. “When he wakes up, he starts to squeal, scream. Not in a crying way. He just wants to sing. And I’m like, ‘OK, here we go!’ He’s my alarm in the morning! He’s not taking no for an answer from anyone.”
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl says the major is willing to forgo buying an indie distributor if it can achieve the same long-term gains by building in-house what would likely cost hundreds of millions to acquire.
“I’ve looked at all distribution companies over the last 18 months … and what I can tell you is that we’re not willing to grow this at all costs,” Kyncl said. “We have an incredible technology team … and they have been building features already for a year and a half. This way you get to the same outcome much more efficiently.”
The Warner Music Group (WMG) head made the comments during a wide-ranging conversation at a Morgan Stanley conference last week that touched on tech improvements and the motivations for WMG’s management overhaul last September, as well as the company’s deal with Spotify and Kyncl’s conviction that there is still room to raise streaming subscriptions prices in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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Kyncl, whose comments on mergers and acquisitions have been under a microscope since WMG abandoned a bid to acquire Believe last April, admitted that building technology in-house will take longer and doesn’t come with the immediate market share gains that accompany an acquisition.
The new hires and organizational changes Kyncl oversaw in the past two years are aimed at increasing WMG’s market share, he says. Under Ariel Bardin, who joined WMG in February 2023 as president of technology, the company has been working to fix the “boring things” in its core tech and digital supply chain to “ensure the stability of systems and [make] sure they could handle much higher volume for the future” without adding staff. It has also worked on WMG’s artist-focused tech services, like its client portal and the pipelines that can accelerate royalty payments.
Several rounds of staff cuts and a full-blown corporate reorganization removed multiple layers of management, giving Kyncl more direct contact with leaders like Alejandro Duque, president of Warner Music Latin America, and Elliot Grainge, the new CEO of Atlantic Music Group.
The company reported in February that these moves freed up money for investments — such as the $450 million acquisition of Tempo Music‘s catalog — and helped Atlantic claim a half-a-percentage point market share expansion.
Another of Kyncl’s hires, Carletta Higginson — the former Google executive who was hired as chief digital officer — was key to WMG’s direct deal with Spotify, which Kyncl says included assurances of more frequent price increases that distributors can profit from.
“In an industry where we are all tied at the hip together, it is important to approach it collaboratively and build for the future together,” he said. “We have a healthy set-up together with incentive to grow.”
Saying that WMG’s market share has improved since he joined the company, Kyncl called out promising upcoming releases from Ed Sheeran and Lizzo that are scheduled to come out later this year. Because more than half of WMG’s revenue comes from outside the U.S., Kyncl said the company’s global market share, particularly in certain countries, is as important as its U.S. numbers.
For the third straight year at the annual Morgan Stanley event, Kyncl sounded an optimistic note on streaming subscription prices thanks to “the incredible resilience of music.”
“I think there’s quite strong evidence that there’s a lot of room to grow on pricing, especially in … mature markets,” he said.
The legal battle over whether Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” infringed Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On” has reached the U.S. Supreme Court more than a decade after Sheeran’s hit was released.
In a petition filed last week, a company that owns a stake in the rights to Gaye’s 1973 song urged the justices to overturn a November ruling by a lower appeals court, which said Sheeran had done nothing wrong and that the two tracks shared only “fundamental musical building blocks.”
The company, Structured Asset Sales (SAS), says that the ruling unfairly restricted its allegations to written sheet music rather than all elements included in Gaye’s iconic recorded version. That thorny issue, which has also cropped up in other major cases over “Blurred Lines” and “Stairway To Heaven” in recent years, must finally be resolved by the high court, the company says.
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“The rights of thousands of legacy musical composers and artists, of many of the most beloved and enduring pieces of popular music, are at the center of the controversy,” SAS’s lawyers write in the petition, filed with the high court Thursday (March 6).
Such an appeal, known as a petition for a writ of certiorari, faces long odds. The Supreme Court takes less than 2% of the roughly 7,000 cases it receives each year, hearing only the disputes it deems most important to the national legal landscape.
Sheeran has faced multiple lawsuits over “Thinking,” a 2014 track co-written with Amy Wadge that reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately spent 58 weeks on the chart. He was first sued by the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the famed 1973 tune with Gaye. That case ended in a high-profile jury verdict that cleared Sheeran of any wrongdoing.
Thursday’s petition came in a separate case filed by SAS, an entity owned by industry executive David Pullman that controls a different stake in Townsend’s copyrights to the legendary song. That suit was rejected in November by the federal Second Circuit appeals court, which said the lawsuit was essentially seeking “a monopoly over a combination of two fundamental musical building blocks.”
“The four-chord progression at issue—ubiquitous in pop music—even coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands,” the appeals court wrote. “Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”
Appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court last week, attorneys for SAS argued the lower court had botched the case by relying only on the “deposit copy” — a bare-bones written version of music sent to the U.S. Copyright Office for many old songs. Doing so was not only legally erroneous but also out of step with reality, the company’s lawyers wrote.
“Nobody who understands the music industry would ever suggest that songwriters consult the deposit copies on file with the Copyright Office as part of their creative (or clearance) process,” SAS wrote to the justices. “To the extent they are aware of the music that preceded them, it is from hearing it on the radio, in movies, television and—for the last quarter century—the Internet.”
That ruling was even more legally problematic, SAS’s lawyers write, because it came in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that said courts should afford less deference to legal guidance from federal agencies. By siding with Sheeran — and an agency interpretation from the Copyright Office — SAS says the lower appeals court “openly defied this Court.”
Sheeran’s attorneys can file a response brief in the weeks ahead. The court will decide whether or not to hear the case at some point in the next several months.
Lady Gaga is joining the ghoulish world of Wednesday for its second season, and the Netflix series’ star Jenna Ortega opened up about working with Mother Monster. “I love working with Gaga,” she told Access Hollywood at SXSW on Monday (March 10). “I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her a couple of times now, and […]
Venue impressario Peter Shapiro is at it again with a new live music project, announcing Monday (March 10) the launch of Garcia’s, a first-of-its-kind jazz and super club in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood that was built and designed in honor of legendary Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
Shapiro has long collaborated with original members of the iconic 1960s band through projects like the Fare Thee Well concerts honoring the band’s 50th anniversary; he also worked as the long-time promoter for late Grateful Dead founding member Phil Lesh. For the new club, he has enlisted the help of Garcia’s family members, including his daughter Trixie Garcia, who said the inspiration for Garcia’s was “a live music club with a comfortable atmosph
The 300-capacity concert venue will feature a full bar and restaurant, says Shapiro, adding that the concept for Garcia’s comes from iconic old supper and jazz clubs of yesteryear, including New York’s Birdland, Harlem’s esteemed Bill’s Place or the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans.
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It’s a different vibe,” says Shapiro, creator of the Brooklyn Bowl venue chain and owner of the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y., and the Bearsville Theater near Woodstock, N.Y. “The club is a big open room and it kind of feels like a high-end Vegas-style supper club. It’s a got dark, red and sexy ambiance and most people will be seated in booths, but there will be some [general admission] space for standing on the outer edge for those who want to dance. For some music fans, they’ll travel to Chicago for a show and it’s going to feel like a bucket list experience. But we will also have regulars who come each night for the vibe. Music fans will love Garcia’s — they will feel like this place was built for them.”
Peter Shapiro
Joshua Skolnik
Veteran Chicago promoter Michael Berg has joined the project to support its bookings and management, with an initial lineup that includes the Blind Boys of Alabama, Grace Potter and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The venue will open March 21 with Lesh’s son, Grahame Lesh, playing with his band alongside Nashville improvisational standout and “cosmic country” creator Daniel Donato.
Garcia’s was designed by Bob Quellos of local Chicago architectural firm fc STUDIO alongside designer Tristam Steinberg. The duo developed the venue with art and designs that draw inspiration from Garcia’s life in California and his prominence in psychedelic culture. Garcia’s is decorated throughout with Garcia’s original artwork, as well as previously-unseen family portraits and posters and imagery celebrating Garcia’s favorite films, books and records.
Garcia’s “Spain meets San Francisco” menu was developed by Lowder-Tascarella Hospitality Group with a focus on American comfort food. The kitchen will be led by executive chef Ivy Carthen and the beverage program will be led by award-winning mixologist Chris Lowder. Cocktails will include a tequila-soda called “Mission In The Rain” and a White-Russian variant called “Russian Lullaby”, both honoring his Garcia’s career.
Garcia’s will be powered by Meyer Sound, and performing artists will all have access to a full multitracking and live-streaming setup. The club will feature a full backline, a new Yamaha DM7 console and a state-of-the-art lighting package to enhance the vibe.
A full list of shows can be found below. More at GarciasChicago.live.
Garcia’s
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DDG has aired out the visitation issues he’s apparently experiencing with Halle Bailey over their son, Halo, which he discussed in a new song titled “Don’t Take My Son.” The rapper released the Cash Cobain-produced track on Saturday (March 8), when he addressed the alleged problems surrounding the custody of his one-year-old son. “Don’t take […]
