Music
Page: 72
Stephen Schwartz, the composer of the Broadway and film juggernaut Wicked, and music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg are set to receive honorary awards at the 15th Guild of Music Supervisors Awards. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 23 at The Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.
Schwartz is set to receive the Icon Award, which celebrates those who have made legendary contributions to the music and film industries. Previous recipients include Robbie Robertson, Paul Williams, Diane Warren, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Kenny Loggins and Marc Shaiman.
Schwartz, 76, has won three Oscars, four Grammys, four Drama Desk Awards and a Golden Globe. He has received six Tony nominations, in addition to receiving their Isabelle Stevenson Award in 2015. Schwartz was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009. In addition to Wicked, Schwartz’s other credits include Godspell and Enchanted and the animated classics Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt.
Trending on Billboard
The Legacy Award will be presented to music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg, known for her work on such films as My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Mask and The Hunting Ground. The Legacy Award is bestowed to a music supervisor who has made an impact within the industry over the course of their career. Previous recipients include Allan Mason, Pilar McCurry, Mitchell Leib, Maureen Crowe, Bob Hunka, Joel Sill, Gary Lemel and Chris Montan.
Greenberg began her career as an entertainment attorney. She was a business affairs executive at MCA Records and Paramount Pictures, then pivoted to become a sought-after music supervisor. After getting a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Greenberg pivoted again, turning her attention to documentaries and films that shed a light on issues. She is one of the founding members of the Guild of Music Supervisors.
“The Guild of Music Supervisors Awards is a night of coming together in our community, and we need this more than ever,” GMS president Lindsay Wolfington and vice president Heather Guibert said in a joint statement.
Further information and details about tickets can be found at www.gmsawards.com.
More than 40 years after the formation of New Jersey rock outfit Bon Jovi, the group’s namesake is set to trace the band’s history in an upcoming book.
Fittingly titled Bon Jovi: Anthology, the forthcoming volume is an extensive look into the history of the band, with frontman Jon Bon Jovi penning a 35,000 word account of their four decades of fame, complete with hundred of photographs and memorabilia items from the band’s personal archives.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“As band members, you share a unique bond that no one else can truly understand, not even family,” Jon Bon Jovi explains in the book. “That brotherhood comes with a long career like ours. We all felt part of something special, trusted each other, and they trusted me. I never let them down. It was always a give-and-take by everybody.”
Trending on Billboard
Described as “all-access pass to the world of Bon Jovi”, Bon Jovi: Anthology is set for release in June and is available in a limited edition of 1,150 copies signed by Jon Bon Jovi. The book is also quarter-bound in black vegan leather and comes packaged in a handmade black clamshell box with a silver heart and dagger. Additionally, it includes replicas of pins and badges, tour passes, and a special chrome-colored 7″ record which features two as-yet-unannounced tracks.
“I was single-minded. There was no plan B, even before there was an audience,” reads another passage from Jon Bon Jovi. “It was just the feeling that you got singing a song, and then playing in a band. There was something in that electricity, in the sheer sound of loud. There was something about it that captured my imagination.”
Bon Jovi first formed in New Jersey in 1983, releasing their self-titled debut album the following year. Though their first two records charted modestly, they achieved a global breakthrough when third album, Slippery When Wet, arrived in 1986 and gave the band their first No. 1 atop the Billboard 200.
Their 42-year career has since resulted in a total of 16 studio albums, four No. 1 singles, and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Bon Jovi: Forever releases in June, with pre-orders available now.
Tommy Lee isn’t fond of artists engaging in self-promotion while the Los Angeles wildfires continue to rage, it seems. The founding Mötley Crüe drummer let his opinions be known in an Instagram post shared on Monday (Jan. 13), where he took aim at those who have continued to plug upcoming products and events while the […]
Paramore‘s Hayley Williams is about to have some familial competition in the music game, with her grandfather releasing his debut album five decades on from its recording.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Rusty Williams, at 78 years old, will release Grand Man on Feb. 14 thanks to the help of his granddaughter and her bandmates, but his musical journey has been a long time coming. According to a press release, Rusty was a lifelong lover of music, having written songs and joined a band in his earlier years. In fact, his talents even made an appearance on Hayley’s Petals for Armor album in 2020 – providing vocals and piano on the closing track, “Crystal Clear”.
For many, that was likely as far as Rusty’s musical story was going to go. Despite claims that he’d recorded an album back in the ’70s, few were certain the album even existed until “the senior Williams’ old production partner” Frank Morris rediscovered the record.
Trending on Billboard
“So many people our age are mining these albums for tones and things you can’t even replicate,” Hayley said in a statement. “And Grandat has a way of cutting to the core of a feeling, and not overcomplicating it. Which we tend to do, because the world is hard. It’s nice when you can hear something plain and simple and know that it is true.”
Rusty’s songs hadn’t ventured much further than the Mississippi recording studio where the tracks were first laid down all those years ago. However, Paramore’s Zac Farro put his hand up to ensure that they live on, plotting to release the record by way of his Nashville-based label Congrats Records. “I thought that it was a crime that these songs were sitting there on the shelf,” Farro said.
Ahead of its arrival next month, the album has been previewed by way of the single “Knocking (At Your Door)”. However, despite the long-awaited release of Grand Man, Rusty isn’t hoping for a major career renaissance to come his way.
“I don’t expect anything, and I’m too old to be famous,” he explained. “But I just want to know someone liked what I did, and to be touched by whatever the hell they are listening to. I want people to see how it felt when things were real.
“You write stuff, and you want somebody to get something out of it,” he added. “I just had to wait for a granddaughter and a band with her to really do anything with mine.”
Rusty joins a slowly-growing list of famous relatives who have released albums due to their more famous descendants. In 2023, Lana Del Rey’s father, Rob Grant, issued his debut album Lost at Sea at the age of 69, all while leaning into the tongue-in-cheek “nepo daddy” descriptor.
The Critics Choice Awards — initially scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 12, and then postponed to Jan. 26 due to the wildfires that have devastated the Los Angeles region for the past week — have been postponed again. The ceremony is now set to take place in February, with an exact date to be announced. It […]
Ever since its release in 2015, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” has become a musical representation of hope for anyone overcoming obstacles or struggling with tragedy.
As the wildfires in Los Angeles continue to devastate the city, Platten took the stage at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday (Jan. 13) to perform her hit before the playoff game between the LA Rams and the Minnesota Vikings. “It was such an emotional night. It was so much bigger than me and the song,” she tells Billboard of the moment, which served as a tribute to victims of the fires as well as first responders who are risking their lives to save their city.
Platten and her family are thankfully safe, and were able to return home after a precautionary evacuation. “My heart breaks,” she says. “We know friends who have lost their houses, friends whose schools have burned down. It’s horrifying, and it’s been a really scary experience.”
Trending on Billboard
During her “Fight Song” performance, Platten switched up the line in the song’s first verse — “I might only have one match/ But I can make an explosion” — to a fitting and more appropriate lyric given the circumstances: “We might have been knocked down/ But I know we’ll keep going.”
“I feel really incredibly grateful for the whole night,” she says. “We can do so many things with tragedy. We can mourn together, and we can cry together — but then there are also times to be strong together. What I felt on stage was, ‘May this song touch people like medicine, may this song be healing.’ I did feel feel a reverberation and an echo in the stadium of that hunger for hope in the midst of darkness. Sometimes music can do what words can’t.”
Platten hopes to continue her message of hope as she embarks on her Set Me Free tour, which kicks off on March 17 in Denver, Colo., and hits multiple cities including Los Angeles before wrapping on May 9 in Orlando, Fla. “It’s freedom, and it’s earned joy, not superficial way of celebration,” she says of the upcoming run of live shows. “It’s the kind of joy where you’ve been through some shit, and you’ve seen pain and you’ve seen tragedy, and you are choosing to stay strong and resilient. We’re all going to sing and dance, but we’re also going to cry and feel our feelings. Hopefully, the whole tour gives people permission to feel everything.”
Watch Platten perform “Fight Song” before the Rams and Vikings game below.
As wildfires continue to devastate parts of Los Angeles, Billboard is working to support the community by canceling all of the company’s Grammy-related events. “Our hearts are with the people of Los Angeles as they face the reality of these devastating fires. Many members of our staff and community have been personally affected, and our […]
The calendar may have turned to 2025, but the Cardi B and Offset drama has spilled into the new year. Cardi took to X Spaces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) where she accused her estranged husband along with his mother, Latabia Woodward, of robbing her. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]
Dipset fans and Harlem residents have been heartbroken over this recent spat between Cam’ron and Jim Jones. In recent days, the two Diplomats and close friends have been going back and forth about things that happened in the past. Jim Jones ultimately took issue with Cam’ron’s December interview with former foe 50 Cent where the […]
There have already been rumors about real estate developers offering up money to homeowners impacted by the recent fires in the Los Angeles area, and Vince Staples may be one of those people. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Long Beach rapper took to X and […]