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12 Apr 2023

John Summit, Diplo & Tiësto Lead Groove Cruise Miami 2024 Lineup

All aboard, baby. Groove Cruise announced the lineup for its January 2024 voyage from Miami to The Bahamas on Wednesday (April 12).

Billboard can exclusively announce that Diplo, Tiësto and John Summit captain the lineup, with a strong crew of artists including Disco Lines, Gabriel & Dresden, Joel Corry, LP Giobbi, So Tuff So Cute, VNSSA rounding out the bill.

Additionally, the party will feature hosted stages by brands including LP Giobbi’s Femme House, Diplo’s Higher Ground and Summit’s Off The Grid. The boat will also host artist hosted games and activities like blackjack, bingo, volunteer opportunities, mentorship sessions and mental health workshops.

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The festival is largely sold out, although a few premium packages remain. The event will take place on the Norwegian Encore. Able to host 4,000 guests, this is the biggest ship Groove Cruise has employed to date.

The festival at sea departs from Miami on January 24, sailing to The Bahamas for a beach part on Great Stirrup Cay and returning to U.S shores on January 28. The event, produced by Whet Travel, marks the Groove Cruise’s 20th anniversary.

“I can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” Groove Cruise founder Jason Beukema tells Billboard. “When I first had the idea of Groove Cruise as a 25-year-old kid from Michigan with no money, not a single DJ contact, and not knowing anyone in the cruise industry, I never thought that two decades later I would be booking international superstars like Tiësto on a near billion dollar cruise ship.”

“Our first sailing,” he continues, “was a 125 person cruise in 2004, and it’s been incredible to witness lifelong friendships flourish out of that initial cruise and to hear how it changed people’s lives. It’s been humbling to watch the community and experience it evolve into the world class event it is today.”

While Groove Cruise helped innovate the festival cruise model two decades ago, they’ve since become a hugely popular format for live music consumption. In the dance world, HARD has hosted Holy Ship since 2021, while earlier this year Insomniac Events announced the maiden voyage of their EDSea cruise happening in November.

See the full lineup below

Groove Cruise Miami

Courtesy Photo

12 Apr 2023

Maggie Rogers Signs Publishing Deal With UMPG

Maggie Rogers has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group. The deal sees Rogers recorded music and publishing all joining under the Universal Music Group roof, given the singer-songwriter has been a longtime signee of Capitol Records.

Rogers got her start as a NYU student, writing and producing her own material. When Pharrell Williams gave a master class at the university, Rogers showed him a song she had been working on called “Alaska.” His astonishment at Rogers’ prowess as a producer, songwriter and singer was captured in a viral video that catapulted the young singer to instant acclaim. “Alaska” became her first major label release.

Since then, Rogers earned herself a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and released two albums Heart It In a Past Life — which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and No. 2 on Billboard 200 — and Surrender (2022) — which landed at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart and No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.

News of the publishing deal arrives just as Rogers prepares for her next tour through the U.S. and Europe. In an attempt to combat bots and scalpers, Rogers “went old school” as she put it in a recent Instagram post: she opted for an in-person, box office pre-sale for all tour stops. “F–k bots + f-k fees. come buy a ticket in person. tomorrow only… Come kick it like its 1965,” she wrote.

Rogers was previously signed to Sony Music Publishing.

Rogers said of her new publishing deal: “I’m so proud to call UMPG my home and can’t wait begin this next chapter of my career alongside so many writers and professionals I respect and admire.”

Jennifer Knoepfle, evp and co-head of A&R at UMPG, added, “Maggie is one of my favorite songwriters, and I have been lucky to work alongside her since the early stages of her incredible career. We are so excited for her next chapter in her new home at UMPG, and she will have the best support for her creative journey.”

12 Apr 2023

Luke Combs’ Cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ Rides to Hot Country Songs Top 10

Luke Combs covers one song on his new LP, Gettin’ Old: Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” The 1988 original, which Chapman wrote solely, won the Grammy Award for best female pop vocal performance and sparked her coronation as best new artist.

Combs is clearly getting fans up to speed on “Fast Car,” as his version cruises from No. 14 to No. 10 in its second week on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated April 15), becoming his 19th top 10.

On the Billboard Hot 100, it zooms 44-32 in its second frame.

Combs’ interpretation drew 11.1 million official streams (up 27%) and sold 6,000 downloads in the United States March 31-April 6, according to Luminate.

(Chapman’s original was up 22% to 3 million in radio airplay audience and 5% to 2.5 million streams in that span.)

Gettin’ Old spends a second week at No. 2 on Top Country Albums, with 54,000 equivalent album units, after launching with 101,000 units.

Combs supporters who have been to his live shows won’t be surprised about his update of “Fast Car,” as it’s been a fan favorite among his setlists.

While the song isn’t a radio single, some country stations are giving it airplay, one being Audacy’s WPAW Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C. “Luke’s take on ‘Fast Car’ is a gift to the original fans – the ones that instantly fell in love with him early on,” program director Clay Walker tells Billboard. “No doubt if you paid to see him in the clubs around North and South Carolina, you know that. Even though his version stays true to the Tracy Chapman original, he really is thanking his foundational fans with this.”

The song’s crossover appeal is also evident in SiriusXM’s support: Country channel The Highway is playing Combs’ cover, as is pop-focused TikTok Radio.

Combs isn’t the first artist to gas up a charted rendition of “Fast Car.” Jonas Blue’s version, featuring Dakota, hit No. 7 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, as well as No. 98 on the Hot 100, in 2016.

Those remakes mark the two that have hit the Hot 100 since Chapman took the original to No. 6 in August-September 1988. Until this week, the composition last ranked in the chart’s top 40 (at No. 39) on the list dated that Oct. 1 (as Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” breezed to a second week at No. 1).

While country artists aren’t exactly known for redoing pop hits, a few have charted highly since the late ‘80s. Rascal Flatts’ repaved “Life is a Highway” reached No. 18 on Hot Country Songs in 2006, after Tom Cochrane’s original hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1992.

Mark Chesnutt scored his most recent of eight Hot Country Songs leaders with his version of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” in 1999. Aerosmith’s recording of the Diane Warren-penned ballad debuted atop the Hot 100 and dominated for four frames in 1998.

In the mid-‘90s, country artist John Michael Montgomery and pop/R&B vocal group All-4-One shared hits simultaneously: In 1994, “I Swear” was a Hot Country Songs No. 1 for the former and an 11-week No. 1 Hot 100 smash for the former. A year later, “I Can Love You Like That” became another Hot Country Songs No. 1 for Montgomery and a No. 5 Hot 100 hit for All-4-One.

Back to the late ‘80s, Rosanne Cash’s update of The Beatles’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” became her most recent of 11 Hot Country Songs No. 1s, in 1989. The Lennon-McCartney original reached No. 39 on the Hot 100 for the Fab Four in 1965 (as the B-side of “Eight Days a Week,” which hit No. 1).

12 Apr 2023

Rihanna’s 11-Month-Old Son Pets Baby Bunnies & Hunts For Eggs in Adorable First Easter Photos

Rihanna‘s baby boy just celebrated his very first Easter — and his last as an only child. To mark the special occasion, the pop star went all out to celebrate by bringing in baby bunnies, baskets of eggs and more for her 11-month-old son to play with.

The adorable festivities were captured in a series of photos posted by Rih on Instagram Tuesday (April 11), two days after Easter Sunday. “Eastuh!!!” she captioned one carousel of pictures, featuring her son gnawing on brightly-colored eggs and sporting a pair of white bunny ears. In another set of pics, the Fenty heir sits in the grass outside and plays with five tiny bunnies, surrounded by more Easter eggs, pastel balloons and goodie baskets. “Look at heeeeee!!!!” Rih gushed over her son, who holds a book titled How to Catch the Easter Bunny in the snaps.

Rihanna shares the little boy — whose name has not been made public — with A$AP Rocky, with whom she’s currently expecting Baby No. 2. She surprise-announced the pregnancy in February, debuting her baby bump for nearly 119 million viewers during her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance.

The “Umbrella” singer kept her son out of the limelight for the first few months of his life, but has since started sharing his face more frequently on social media. Earlier this month, she shared a sweet video of the soon-to-be one-year-old clinging to her side. “Look who don’t want mommy to workout,” she captioned the clip.

See Rihanna’s adorable photos of her baby boy’s first Easter here and here.

12 Apr 2023

High-Res Stream Provider MQA Loses Backing, Enters Administration

MQA, the audio coding technology company that makes high-resolution streams for companies like Tidal, entered into administration after its founding financial backer stepped down from its board, according to company filings and media reports.

Anton Rupert, grandson of the billionaire South African tobacco tycoon of the same name, was terminated from the position of director of the board of MQA Limited on March 17, according to a filing. Rupert represented Reinet Investments S.C.A., MQA’s founding funder.

The London-based company specializes in making large music files small enough to be compatible on any service or playback device without losing any quality, it says. While it grew its brand presence through partnerships with major music compies like Xiami Music in China, Tidal and the independent music trade group Merlin, it has struggled to make a profit.

The company flagged its uncertain financial future in its most recent annual report, which was for the year ending Dec. 31, 2021. In a statement in the report, MQA chief executive Mike Jbara described the company as a “loss-making start-up” and said it is aware it faces competition for its employees from other U.K.-based technology companies offering certain financial incentives. The company also stated it had secured funding committments to maintain operations only through the first quarter 2023.

MQA’s business was built on driving demand for their tech by providing tools to content creators who would add to the catalog of music made using MQA’s technology. Those MQA files would make their way to consumers ears via distributors and broadcasters that have agreements with MQA.

For listeners, the proof would be in the quality of the stream. The company said it had 132 consumer product agreements as of Dec. 2021.

Last week, technology news website What HiFi? wrote MQA was going into administration, citing a statement from the company. What will happen to the services MQA provides to its partner companies is unclear, but going into adminstration does not always disrupt a companies’ core operations, at least not at first.

Similar to declaring bankruptcy in the U.S., entering into administration in the U.K. protects insolvent company from creditors. This breathing space gives the company time to pull itself out of its financial problems or the court-appointed administrator will advise taking steps — such as selling off assets — to help pay off the company’s debts.

MQA did not respond to a request for comment.

In their last annual report, the company said it is “confident that we will obtain additional funding commitments during those discussions in (the first quarter) 2023.”

12 Apr 2023

Ariana DeBose Returns to Host 2023 Tony Awards

Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose will return to host the 76th Annual Tony Awards, which is set to air live coast-to-coast from the historic United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights on Sunday, June 11. The show will air from 8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT on CBS and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.

DeBose also hosted last year’s Tony Awards. She’ll be the first person to host back-to-back ceremonies since Neil Patrick Harris fronted the show from 2011-13. Since the Tonys’ first broadcast in 1967, just three other people have served as solo hosts of back-to-back ceremonies – Angela Lansbury (1987-89), Rosie O’Donnell (1997-98) and Hugh Jackman (2003-05).

“I was honored to serve as host last year and even more so to be asked back!” DeBose said in a statement. “So looking forward to celebrating this incredible season and the people who make the work happen. Here’s to adding some uptown flavor to the magic of the Tony Awards!”

“Ariana will host and dance and sing, we’re so thrilled she’s back to do the thing,” said Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, executive producers, White Cherry Entertainment, in a playful nod to DeBose’s widely panned rap at this year’s BAFTA Awards. DeBose said at the time she wasn’t bothered by the social media criticism, and the quote from Weiss and Kirshner supports the idea that she has taken the jabs in stride.

DeBose received critical acclaim for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reboot of West Side Story, for which she received Oscar, BAFTA, Critics Choice and SAG Awards. Onstage, DeBose is best known for her role as Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which earned her a 2018 Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical.

The Tony Awards, which honor theater professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway, have been broadcast on CBS since 1978.

The Tony Awards eligibility cut-off date for the 2022-23 season is Thursday, April 27 for all Broadway productions which meet all eligibility requirements. Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, May 2.

The Tony Awards are produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, and White Cherry Entertainment. Kirshner and Weiss are executive producers for White Cherry Entertainment. In addition, Weiss will serve as director.

12 Apr 2023

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15: Who Should Be Crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar? Vote!

After three months, 12 eliminations and 20 lip syncs, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 is finally coming to a close on Friday (April 14).

The finale (airing Friday at 8 p.m. on MTV) will see the show’s four finalists — Anetra, Luxx Noir London, Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Sasha Colby — duke it out for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, as well as the series’ record-high cash prize of $200,000.

Drag Race has yet to announce the specific format of this year’s finale. Throughout the show’s history, finale episodes have had a tendency to change — while the final episodes for much of the show’s history simply featured a series of performances and interviews before the winner was crowned, more recent seasons have seen each of the top queens battle for the title in a series of lip syncs.

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With the format still unannounced, there are a number of criteria that could be used to choose a winner from season 15. If fans go purely off of queens’ track records on the show, then Sasha Colby would stand out as the clear front-runner — the former Miss Continental winner has taken home four challenge wins (more than any of the other finalists), and never landed in the bottom two. If fans are looking for the queen with the best lip sync record, Mistress Isabelle Brooks is currently undefeated when it comes to lip syncs, having survived both lip syncs she performed in on the show.

Whatever your criteria, the question still remains; who do you think should win RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15? Vote in our official poll below:

12 Apr 2023

Lil Nas X & Tommy Lee Rave About Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem in ‘The Muppets Mayhem’ Trailer

Disney+ dropped the trailer for The Muppets Mayhem on Wednesday (April 12) featuring appearances by Lil Nas X, Tommy Lee and more.

The teaser kicks off with a parade of famous faces praising Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem for their influence and place in rock history in the style of a retrospective documentary. “The Mayhem? They taught Mötley Crüe how to shred and party!” Lee exclaims in a confessional. “They tattooed their name on me when I was passed out! What?”

“I grew up idolizing Dr. Teeth,” adds Lil Nas X. “I bought gold grills just to be like him!”

However, there’s just one problem: In their nearly 50 years together, the Muppets band never recorded a single album. Cue the entrance of Lilly Singh as an ambitious exec from the fictional Wax Town Records, who’s determined to help Dr. Teeth, Janice, Animal, Floyd Pepper, Zoot and Lips finally record their long-awaited debut.

“How ’bout a hot music collab, huh?” she suggests, trotting the likes of Zedd, Deadmau5 and Kesha into the studio to work with the band. From there, mayhem ensues — whether it’s Animal going viral on TikTok, Janice discovering the power of a ring light or Dr. Teeth accidentally starting a feud with the many fandoms of pop music with a single rogue tweet.

The Muppets Mayhem also stars Tahj Mowry and Saara Chaudry with guest appearances by everyone from Paula Abdul, Steve Aoki and Sofia Carson to Chris Stapleton, Ziggy Marley, Ryan Seacrest and more. All 10 episodes are slated to hit Disney+ on May 10.

Watch the trailer for The Muppets Mayhem below.

12 Apr 2023

Maren Morris, Jonathan Van Ness to Be Honored at 2023 GLAAD Media Awards

As Pride season gets closer, the GLAAD Media Awards are ready to celebrate the artists who are helping the LGBTQ community thrive.

On Wednesday (April 12), GLAAD announced that country-pop star Maren Morris and Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness would be receiving special honors at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, May 13.

Morris is set to receive the organization’s excellence in media award, given out each year to “allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people,” according to a press release from GLAAD. The singer has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights in recent years, teaming up with GLAAD and other organizations to protest recent anti-LGBTQ bills passed in the U.S.

Van Ness, meanwhile, will be the first non-binary recipient of the Vito Russo award (named after the GLAAD co-founder and ACT UP activist), which is presented annually to “a LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in accelerating LGBTQ acceptance.”

The pair of stars are just the latest celebrities to receive special recognition from the organization. In March, Christina Aguilera and Bad Bunny were honored at the organization’s Los Angeles ceremony with the advocate for change and vanguard awards, respectively. In her speech, Aguilera called on the audience listening to “raise our voices if we want to live in a world that is free of discrimination, hate and violence.” Bad Bunny, meanwhile, specifically thanked the LGBTQ community “for embracing me, for loving me the way they do, and for inspiring me, too.”

The 2023 GLAAD Media Awards will take place in New York City on Saturday, May 13. To find tickets, click here.

12 Apr 2023

‘Truth Hurts’: A Twitter Troll’s Attempt at Body-Shaming Lizzo Just Backfired

There’s a reason Lizzo is known as “100% that b–ch.” After a Twitter troll tried to take cheap shots at her figure with a 2021 nude photo, the 34-year-old hitmaker’s fanbase rose to the occasion to make sure the body-shaming backfired — plus, Lizzo herself even seemed to chime in.

It all started on Monday (April 10) when one Twitter user snidely wrote that his “beauty standards remain unchanged” by sharing a photo of Lizzo posing fully naked, which she previously said she posted to “change the conversation about beauty standards.” Then, another user going by the name Cassandra replied to the tweet with “make obesity bad again” before posting a photo of herself alongside a photo of the four-time Grammy winner.

“Me or Lizzo?” Cassandra captioned the side-by-side photos, inviting followers to compare her looks to the “About Damn Time” singer’s. (The tweet has since been deleted.)

“Lizzo,” responded one person. “I don’t know you but Lizzo is a publicly kind and inspiring individual. Loving yourself and others should be the basis of humanity. She preaches that. I can only assume you’re terrible.”

“One has four Grammys and is classically trained on the flute. The other just posted a six year old blurred picture of herself drinking wine with ice from a straw,” replied another, before choosing. “Lizzo. Truth hurts.”

“We’re all choosing Lizzo, right??” weighed in another fan, adding that the Yitty founder is “compassionate, stunning and genuinely unproblematic” whereas “Cassandra is the walking embodiment of the ‘school bully’.”

And while Lizzo herself didn’t directly reply to Cassandra’s tweet, she did seem to cast her vote by simply tweeting Tuesday (April 11): “Lizzo.”

So many came to the star’s defense that Lizzo’s name also became a trending topic.

The singer-songwriter has long been an advocate for body inclusivity and positivity. In addition to speaking out about its importance multiple times throughout her career, she also designed her Yitty shapewear to comfortably fit customers up to a size 6X in the name of “radical inner confidence” and launched a series in 2022, Prime Video’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, that welcomed plus-size backup dancers to compete for spots on her tour.

“I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive at this point. It’s easy. I would like to be body-normative,” she told Vogue in 2020. “I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?”

See Lizzo and her fans’ tweets shutting down body-shaming below: