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03 Apr 2023

J. Cole and Drake Exude Hip-Hop Royalty During 2023 Dreamville Festival Finale Performance

J. Cole and Drake showed Raleigh, North Carolina, why they’re at the top of their class on Sunday night (April 2) with an incredible close-out set at the 2023 Dreamville Festival.

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For the first weekend in April, the Dreamville collective turned Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh into what felt like the biggest family cookout of the year, with over 100,000 fans being treated to various performances across the Rise and Shine stages. Jessie Reyez, Sean Paul, City Girls, Ari Lennox, Waka Flocka Flame, Burna Boy, Summer Walker (who announced her upcoming project CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE EP) and Usher tore down the house over the two-day event — but there was no questioning who people were really there to see.

J. Cole kicked off the main event at the Shine stage with an explosive rendition of the North Carolina anthem “Who Dat,” off his debut album 2011 Cole World: The Sideline Story, before going into a medley of hits from his decorated catalog. Fans erupted at each record that rang throughout the festival grounds, such as “9 5 . s o u t h,” “m y . l i f e,” “G.O.M.D.,” “Fire Squad,” “Power Trip,” “The London” and more.

Midway into his set, Cole called upon his Dreamville army, inviting JID, Lute, Cozz, Omen and Earthgang to join him on stage for electrifying renditions of “Under the Sun,” “Down Bad” and “Stick.” At one point, Cole even dipped into his nostalgic bag and saluted his Friday Night Lights era with a performance of “Villematic.”

Just when fans were getting situated with Cole’s amazing set, Drizzy Drake took the reins and brought the night to another level. The 6 God arrived with his fiery verse on Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE” before putting on his Nike sports gloves and running through his own medley of classic hits, such as “Over,” “Energy,” “Nonstop” and “Marvin’s Room.”

Fans tried to get a grip on Drizzy’s thrilling set, but the Toronto megastar brought out a heap of guests to keep the crowd guessing and continue the party well into the night. GloRilla got a chance to take the stage after missing her performance earlier in the day with a quick rendition of her hit single “F.N.F (Let’s Go)” and Lil Uzi Vert made time to hit the crowd with a two-song set of signature smashes “XO TOUR Llif3” and “Just Wanna Rock.”

The biggest special guest, though, was Lil Wayne, who shocked the crowd with his arrival during Drake’s run-through of their 2012 collaborative hit “The Motto.” Weezy F. Baby then took over to perform “Uproar” featuring Swizz Beatz and “A Milli,” which had the North Carolina faithful passionately recite every word.

Towards the tail end of the show, Drake promised he had one more surprise up his sleeve — which had fans pondering what else he could do to put a fitting cap on an already-amazing night. That question was answered by 21 Savage popping up on stage to help Drake perform “Knife Talk” and “Rich Flex.”

Before Drake gave Cole the stage back, he took a second to give his “brother” his flowers, as he asked the 100,000-plus guests to sing their hearts out to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” Cole was taken aback by the moving gesture, as he looked on at the massive sea of people hitting their high notes in unison as a sign of appreciation for everything he’s done for them in his 16-year career.

The incredible night finally saw its end once J. Cole grabbed the mic to praise Drake, with the two of them embracing and sharing a hug. Cole then eventually loosened the grip he had on the night and sent fans home with a fireworks-filled rendition of his 2014 Forest Hills Drive standout, “No Role Modelz.”

Once the show was over, there was not one upset face in the crowd, as people were smiling from ear to ear — with many even calling Dreamville Festival one of “the best events of the year.”

03 Apr 2023

43 Times Parody Singer Randy Rainbow Roasted Donald Trump

Shady singer extraordinaire Randy Rainbow is well-known for his politically charged parody videos.

Although they started off as mock interviews with politicians and celebrities, Randy eventually showed off his singing abilities in parody music videos based on Broadway tunes and pop hits. In these videos, Randy has taken a particular interest in President Trump and his administration.

Not only does he have incredibly versatile vocals, Randy is also a hilariously talented lyricist. His sharp wit and tongue are the perfect tools that allow him to create the most scathing videos, guaranteed to make you laugh.

Here are 43 times Randy Rainbow has read Trump for filth since the start of his 2016 presidential campaign.

03 Apr 2023

Sara Beth Liebe Unexpectedly Quits ‘American Idol’ After Katy Perry’s ‘Mom Shaming’ Joke

Sara Beth Liebe just walked away from her chance at winning American Idol, after calling out judge Katy Perry for a “hurtful” “mom-shaming” joke.

According to the 25-year-old hopeful, however, it wasn’t the “Firework” singer’s remark that made her quit — but it did have to do with her children. “This opportunity is really rad, but this is actually going to be my last performance, because my heart’s at home,” Liebe told Perry and co-judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie after performing her first round Hollywood week song — “Roxanne” by the Police.

“So, I’m going get home to my babies,” she continued on the Sunday (April 2) episode before making her grand exit. “They kind of need me.”

Both the judges and the show’s producers were shocked. Bryan called the decision a “mistake” and Perry pleaded with her to change her mind, but the young mother of three stood her ground. “I don’t even know what show business is,” she said. “I’ve been a mom since I was 18. I’ve been married since I was 18. … I don’t think I realized quite how hard it would be to be away from my kids.”

“They’re all still really young,” Liebe told a producer backstage. “There is a lot of guilt when you leave your kids to do something completely selfish. … I feel like I’m not gonna win the show anyway, so I might as well go home.”

The decision aired just a few weeks after the aspiring singer addressed a joke made at her expense by Perry during her initial audition for the show. “Honey, you’ve been laying on the table too much,” the “Dark Horse” pop star had said after discovering that Liebe was 25 and a mother of three.

“It was hurtful and that’s that,” the contestant later said in a TikTok about the interaction. “I think that women supporting and uplifting other women is so cool, and I think that mom shaming is super lame and I think that it’s hard enough to be a mom and it’s hard enough to be a woman.”

Billboard previously reached out to Perry after Liebe’s comments, but did not receive a response.

Even though she won’t be continuing with Idol, it looks like Liebe will continue to practice music in other ways. She recently announced on TikTok that her original song “Bruises” would be arriving “very soon.”

Better yet, it looks like Perry’s “mom-shaming” comment is water under the bridge now, as far as Liebe is concerned. After Sunday’s episode aired, the former contestant posted another TikTok reflecting on her experience, adding in her caption, “Can we talk about how gooooood Katy looked in that shade of purple…?”

“Sometimes we are presented with big opportunities and situations and we have to make big decisions,” she also wrote. “I’m so GRATEFUL.”

@sarabethliebe

Gratitude is the ONLY word that comes to mind. I can’t wait to continue supporting my new friends and to continue making music. ? that’s what it’s all about afterall. Oh and also, can we talk about how gooooood Katy looked in that shade of purple and how Lionel SLAYED that orange jacket? ????

♬ original sound – Sara Beth

Reminisce on Sara Beth’s short time on American Idol by re-watching her original audition below:

03 Apr 2023

CMT Music Awards 2023: 7 Things You Didn’t See on TV

On Sunday night (April 2), Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and power couple Kane and Katelyn Brown reigned as the biggest winners of the CMT Music Awards, which, for the first time in the awards show’s history, was held outside of Nashville, at Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

First-time nominee Jelly Roll took home the most awards wins of the evening (three accolades, including male video of the year), with Wilson taking home two (including female video of the year). Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown’s romantic video for “Thank God” took home the evening’s highest honor, video of the year.

Kelsea Ballerini and Brown returned as co-hosts, and also turned in powerful performances alongside Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, an all-star tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the 10th anniversary of the CMT Next Women of Country Franchise as highlights of the performances throughout the ceremony.

But not all the top moments on the CMT Music Awards are broadcast on television—such as some stars spilling the tea on their all-time favorite music videos (Kane Brown’s is Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” Lainey Wilson’s is the Lee Ann Womack classic “I Hope You Dance,” and Jelly Roll points back to the era of music videos created under Master P’s No Limit Records, and under the Ronald “Slim” Williams and Bryan “Birdman” Williams label Cash Money: “It was all just bling and parties,” says Jelly Roll. “They would literally just go to like project buildings, have parties and shoot videos. I miss that era.”)

Here are seven moments from the awards that you didn’t see on TV last night.

03 Apr 2023

CD Sales Are Up and Merch Tables May Be the Reason

On March 4, hundreds of metalheads stormed into Pierce the Veil’s pop-up store in Glendale, Calif., scooping up T-shirts, hoodies and other merchandise. In the process, they helped boost sales for an ostensibly dying product: compact discs. “Kids would look at the display and pick every single one of our records on CD,” says Michele Abreim, the band’s manager. “It definitely felt like CDs were a merch item, not just a means to listen to music.”

A relic of the record industry’s pre-Napster boom period thanks to megastars like *NSYNC, Britney Spears and Eminem, U.S. CD sales accounted for $13.2 billion in 2000, their peak year, according to the RIAA. But though the format has been in steady decline throughout the streaming era, retail, manufacturing and management sources say the digital discs have gained in popularity as keepsakes. More portable than vinyl albums and less affected by manufacturing delays due to supply chain issues, CDs are once again becoming merch table mainstays, and in the first 10 weeks of 2023, sales are up slightly over the same period last year, according to Luminate — 6.8 million in 2022 to 6.9 million, a 2.5% increase.

This growth could be a sign of a growing coolness factor, similar to the unexpected, and sustained, vinyl revival that began in the early 2000s, which is fueled by limited-edition releases pressed on colored vinyl and other bells and whistles. Taylor Swift took a page from that playbook when she put out Midnights CDs in different collectible colors last year, and BLACKPINK is among the many K-pop acts to sell elaborate CD box sets.

“There are ways to do CDs that are incredibly impactful,” says Carl Mello, brand engagement director for Newbury Comics. “You can get more revenue out of it, so it’s not like a ‘Will this do $7.99?’ thing. You’re selling a $30 thing that a customer will be really happy with.”

Bill Wilson, senior vp of operations and innovation for MNRK Music Group, which oversees 50 independent labels, says specialized CD-buying audiences are keeping the format afloat. “There are still pockets and subgenres of music [fans] — like metal — who like holding and cuddling CDs — and they’re not vinyl collectors,” he says.

For those who can’t afford box sets or to spend upwards of $20 for a standard-issue vinyl album, “the CD is a much more budget-friendly item,” says Tony van Veen, CEO of New Jersey-based vinyl/CD manufacturer Disc Makers, who crunched the latest RIAA sales data and found that vinyl album prices rose last year by 13.5%, to $29.65, while CD prices went up 15.3%, to $14.45. “Music fans are deciding with their wallets.” He adds that his company’s CD sales stabilized in 2022 after years of decline.

CDs are generally far cheaper than vinyl albums — especially classic-rock catalog releases, which labels occasionally put on sale in the format. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits goes for $13.99 on Amazon, compared with $28.31 for vinyl; a Foo Fighters Greatest Hits CD sells for $11.49, slightly more than half the $21.91 vinyl price.

Although pandemic-related manufacturing delays for vinyl are easing, they have prompted touring acts to stock their merch tables with CDs. “I had a conversation with somebody yesterday, and they’re about to go on tour,” says Ric Sherman, owner of The Production Department, a consulting company that works with artists, labels and record plants. “Trying to get vinyl on time was impossible, and they defaulted to CDs immediately.”

The profit margin for vinyl albums is slightly higher than CDs — a $15 CD would yield roughly $13.50 in profit; a $30 vinyl album, $15 — but Sherman adds: “Vinyl’s expensive to manufacture.” According to van Veen, 100 CDs cost $150 to manufacture, compared with $1,500 for 100 vinyl albums.

“If artists are touring, it’s easier to cart those around than vinyl,” says Mello. “There are utilities to it, for sure.”

Despite the small sales uptick so far in 2023, the 20-year decline in CD sales shows no sign of dissipating: Sales dropped from 40.6 million units in 2021 to 35.9 million last year, an 11.6% decrease, compared with a 4.2% rise in 2022 vinyl sales, according to Luminate. (That said, vinyl’s sales growth has slowed considerably from the 51% increase it logged in 2021.) Major labels are also reluctant to bet on CDs to drive significant revenue in the future. Says a major-label source: “I haven’t heard of the idea that somebody’s so committed to buying a physical product that they’re just going to move over to the CD if they can’t get a vinyl product.”

Then again, 35.9 million in annual sales is not nothing, and CDs will probably be around for a long time. “They’re highly valued and sought-after,” Mello says.

03 Apr 2023

Watch Snoop Dogg Viciously Drop the People’s Elbow on The Miz at WrestleMania 39

Snoop Dogg showed up to this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 at Los Angeles’ Sofi Stadium to provide ringside commentary. But in classic WWE fashion, he somehow ended up in the ring as part of the action. The hometown rapper was supposed to co-host a segment between bouts with wrestler Mike “The Miz” Mizanin when he spontaneously provoked the rapper into a tangle with Shane McMahon.

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The son of WWE founder Vince McMahon — returning after a year off — ran into the ring ready to take on The Miz. According to reports, though, he quickly suffered a torn quad in the opening minutes of his first bout in 14 months while executing a leapfrog move while trying to escape The Miz’s grasp.

With the medical crew looking McMahon over, Snoop did the noble thing and hopped into the ring to keep the match going, landing two punches on the former Real World star and two-time WWE champ and sending him crashing to the mat. Tossing aside his microphone, Snoop strolled around The Miz’s prone body and kicked Miz’s arms closer to his sides before striking a few poses and tossing his shades into the crowd. The Doggfather then flapped his arms and bounced his way across the ring and off the ropes before unleashing The Rock’s signature “people’s elbow” to win the match.

“My hat’s off to Snoop, just picking it up and like, ‘oh man, he’s hurt? That’s alright, I’ll fix that.’ Just a natural born entertainer,” WWE head of creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque told the AP. “I’ve known Snoop for years in this environment and what kind of a fan he is, but tonight he put himself on a different playing field and respect factor for me. I know a lot of guys that have been in business a long time; if that happened, they’d go, ‘what do we do?’ It was amazing.”

After the surprise slam, Snoop spoke to WWE’s Cathy Kelley backstage, who reminded the rapper that he had warned her to “expect the unexpected” during his appearance. When she said she didn’t expect him to win a match on night two, a glassy eyed Snoop said he didn’t either. “I didn’t even know I was gonna be in that match until the match actually took place,” he said of the completely unexpected ring appearance.

“But that’s what I love about WrestleMania, it’s always so much that’s unpredictable, it’s always something to keep you on the edge of your seat,” he continued. “And tonight I was able to be a part of it from the inside and not just on the outside. It was a great feeling to be able to be a part of it, to be able to do what I did and to hold my belt up high at the end of the night.”

Watch Snoop in the ring and post-match below.

03 Apr 2023

‘Carpool Karaoke: The Series’ Returning With Avril Lavigne, Yungblud, Alison Brie, Alanis Morissette & More

Apple TV+’s Carpool Karaoke: The Series will be back this summer with another batch of episodes featuring A-list musicians, actors and comedians belting out tunes in traffic. The series will return on June 23 with all-new episodes featuring some classic pairings, including Avril Lavigne and Yungblud, Alanis Morissette and model/actress Cara Delevingne and Somebody I Used to Know co-stars Alison Brie and Danny Pudi.

Other classic pairings will include comedian Cedric the Entertainer and Abbott Elementary‘s Sheryl Lee Ralph, another ride around the block for former Glee castmates Lea Michele and Darren Criss, as well as the cast of the Netflix girl group mockumentary Girls5eva and the casts of CBS’ Ghosts and Apple Tv+’s The Afterparty.

A minute and a half long teaser for the upcoming sixth season dropped on Monday morning (Apil 3), opening with Succession star Brian Cox and The Traitors‘ Alan Cumming singing the beloved Scottish children’s song “Ye Canny Shove Yer Grannie Aff a Bus,” followed by their take on the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe. We also got Morissette and Develvingne crushing the singer’s iconic “Ironic,” Cedric and Sheryl getting smooth with Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much” and Michele and Criss looking for “Sweet Understanding.”

The Ghost team tackled Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the Line” and Cumming tried to convince Cox that he’s never done karaoke before.

Last year’s fifth season of the Emmy-winning show that spun off from a beloved bit on James Corden soon-to-end Late Late Show featured rides with Anitta and Saweetie, Sandra Oh and Duran Duran, Nikki Glaser and her favorite band, Wilco, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton with Amber Ruffin and Vanessa Williams, Method Mad and Chris Redd, Ciara and Russell Wilson and Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott.

The most recent edition of the network version featured Corden saddling up with Lil Nas X, with the two discussing celebrity dating and while collaborating on the MC’s 2019 breakthrough hit, “Old Town Road,” as well as “Industry Baby” and “That’s What I Want,” before Corden surprised Montero with a visit to the set of the long-running soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, on which Lil Nas will make his daytime debut on April 19.

Check out a preview of the upcoming Carpool Karaoke: the Series season below.

03 Apr 2023

Burna Boy Set to Become the First Nigerian Artist to Headline a U.S. Stadium: Exclusive

Burna Boy will make history come July when he becomes the first Nigerian artist to headline a U.S. stadium, Billboard can exclusively announce Monday (April 3).

His July 8-dated show at NYC’s Citi Field marks another major stadium date in the Afro-fusion superstar’s Love, Damini world tour, which includes future stops at Paris La Defense, London Stadium and Gelre Dome in Amsterdam. The Citi Field stop, which is produced by Live Nation, falls on the first anniversary of Burna’s most recent album, Love, Damini, which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard‘s World Albums chart and received a 2023 Grammy nomination for best global music album.

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Just last April, the “Last Last” singer became the first Nigerian act to headline Madison Square Garden for his concert that was billed “Burna Boy Presents One Night in Space.”

Burna Boy

Burna Boy’s Global Vision: Taking Afro-Fusion to the Next Level

Citi cardmembers will have special access to pre-sale tickets starting Tuesday, April 4 at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday, April 6 at 10 p.m. local time through the Citi Entertainment program. For pre-sale details, go to www.citientertainment.com. General on-sale will start on Friday, April 7 at 10 a.m. local time on wwww.onaspaceship.com.

Burna has a busy couple of months ahead of him. Over the weekend, he performed at Dreamville Music Festival in Raleigh, N.C. He’ll also return to Indio Valley, Calif., for Coachella in April, then headline Afro Nation Miami in May. He’s also slated to co-headline the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show by Pepsi in June at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium.

“It has always been my vision to build a bridge between all Black people in all parts of the world through the music and performance,” he told Billboard in his previous cover story. “Music is the No. 1 messenger.”

03 Apr 2023

Will Corny Musical ‘Shucked’ Pop on Broadway? Hit Country Songwriters Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark Are Counting on It

Around a dozen years ago, hit country songwriter Shane McAnally had a revelation after seeing his first Broadway show, The Book of Mormon.

“At the end of that show, I just looked at my husband and said, ‘I’m going to do this’ — not even knowing the first thing about how you would do that,” he says. “I feel like I set a dream in motion.”

Similarly, even though revered fellow singer-songwriter and frequent McAnally collaborator Brandy Clark had been raised on musicals (after seeing Oklahoma at an early age) and had “this big, lofty dream at some point of writing a musical,” she tells Billboard, “I thought ‘I can’t do that. I didn’t go to college to do that.’ I thought you had to be super trained.” 

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After more than a decade, and a winding road that included abandoning both the original concept and a second attempt — taking a few years off before resuming and then dealing with pandemic delay — McAnally and Clark’s dreams come true Tuesday (April 4) when Shucked opens on Broadway at the Nederlander Theater.

The show, directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien, features lyrics and music by McAnally and Clark and a book by Robert Horn, who won a Tony for best book of a musical for Tootsie, which he wrote during a break from what ultimately became Shucked. 

The musical comedy is a laugh-out-loud “farm-to-fable” about the denizens of a small, rural Midwest community, one of whom heads to the big city — well, Tampa — to figure out why the village’s corn has quit growing. The musical combines the good-natured, fish-out-of-water vibe of The Book of Mormon and the occasional bawdiness of Avenue Q, with a redeemed con man tale reminiscent of The Music Man. 

Part of the show’s charm is its effervescent embrace of obvious, often lowbrow, humor: The female lead is named Maizy, who lives with her grandfather and friends in, naturally, Cob County. It pokes fun at rural stereotypes, but always with great affection for its characters and a knowing wink, provided by Storyteller 1 and Storyteller 2, who serve as the in-on-the-joke narrators.

With Horn’s script often focused on laughs, much of the emotional lifting comes from Clark and McAnally’s songs — including poignant, tender ballad “Maybe Love,” resilient mid-tempo track “Somebody Will,” perky empowerment tune “Woman of the World” and audacious anthem (and bonafide showstopper) “Independently Owned.”

Shucked

“Shucked” writers Shane McAnally (music & lyrics), Robert Horn (book), and Brandy Clark (music & lyrics).

Emilio Madrid

Responsible for such hits (together and separately) as Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road,” Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Merry-Go-Round” and dozens of others, Clark and McAnally know their way around a country hook. But they didn’t know their way around the structure and timing of crafting a Broadway musical — so they were thrilled when they got a care package from Horn early in the process.

“He sent us CDs, saying, ‘These are opening numbers. There are 11:00 numbers,’” Clark recalls. Hairspray’s bouncy, inviting first tune, ‘Good Morning, Baltimore’ was on the opening numbers CD, while powerful ballads The Wizard of Oz’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and West Side Story’s “Tonight” were examples of 11 o’clock numbers (even if those songs didn’t end their respective projects), meant to demonstrate the pacing and mood of writing for different acts.

“The thing about Robert is he’s a generous collaborator,” Clark says. “He wanted real country songwriters and he was willing to do that work to help us do our homework.”

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Around 10 years ago, Horn was approached by the Opry Entertainment Group to write the book for a musical based on Hee Haw, the hokey variety show that ran from 1969 to 1991 and mixed country music with groan-worthy skits, often set in a cornfield. He asked Clark and McAnally to work with him.

“We loved the idea of doing something associated with Hee Haw. We were the only people who felt that way,” McAnally says with a laugh, sitting with Clark in a second floor lounge in the Nederlander Theater the morning after a sold-out preview.  

McAnally and Clark quickly discovered that, while Hee Haw did offer them their first exposure to artists like Buck Owens, Roy Clark and Tammy Wynette as young children watching with their grandparents, “there wasn’t a lot there and some of the humor did not age well,” McAnally says. The idea morphed into the broader-themed Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, which opened in Dallas in September 2015, and told the story of a small town girl who goes to the big city to be a TV weathergirl. 

Feeling that Moonshine wasn’t where it needed to be, after the Dallas run, the trio put the musical on hold. “We stepped away from it and said, ‘Maybe it’s just not going to happen,’” Horn says. “But there was a seed of an idea that we loved.” 

A year or two later, as Horn watched America riven by political and ideological conflict, he reached out to Clark and McAnally. ‘“We need to start over,’” he recalls saying. “Let’s write a show about how we find commonality in a country so divided. We can’t fix that, but maybe we can be a part of the healing.”

The show was completely overhauled, with O’Brien now onboard and the theme evolving to “a girl who is underestimated and finds out she has the ability to be a hero inside of her,” Horn says. 

Shortly after the producers booked the show for a late 2020 run at the National Theater in Washington, D.C., the pandemic hit and the run was canceled.

“If the show’s successful, I credit it to the pandemic,” Horn says. “We sat down and dug into the show and said, ‘It’s not there yet.’ Had we opened that show, it was still a good show — but it wasn’t the show. We literally rewrote the whole show again.”

Though country songs are renowned for their storytelling, Clark says writing for characters for a musical hits different. “When Alex Newell (Lulu) gets a standing ovation [for ‘Independently Owned’], it feels out of body,” she says. “I remember seeing Miranda Lambert after ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ had been a hit, and when that part of the show came, being super-excited. This doesn’t feel like that. I forget that these are our songs. They are [the characters’ songs] — and when they feel like their songs, then I know it’s right.” 

McAnally adds writing for Shucked is closer to his and Clark’s truest selves. “What’s funny is this actually feels like what we always did. We switched for [Nashville],” he says. “We have to edit [those songs] because we have a much more irreverent sense of humor. We love rhymes that are completely shocking, that people would go, ‘I’d never say that.’ Here we don’t have to do that — because we’re saying what these characters would say and not trying to figure out if Dierks Bentley would say it.”

A few remnants from Moonshine remain — including the rowdy “We Love Jesus (But We Drink a Little),” which opens the second act and serves as the theme of the small-town girl going to the big city and actor Kevin Cahoon, who is the only holdover from the Moonshine cast, where he played an idiot savant named Junior Junior. 

In Shucked, Cahoon’s character is now Peanut, the town philosopher — who come across as a bit of a rube, but then spouts profound universal truths. Based on Horn’s husband’s uncle, who was a peanut farmer, Cahoon’s character also runs the radio station, marries and buries people, and is the town clerk. 

Kevin Cahoon, Shucked

Kevin Cahoon

Emilio Madrid

As Cahoon researched his part, he discovered the “great tradition of country storytellers, whether it’s Minnie Pearl or Jerry Clower,” he says. “You may have thought [they] were hayseeds, but they are saying things that are connected to you in a simple, pure, honest way. I thought about those great country comedians when I’m playing him.”

BOSNER’S ‘BEAUTIFUL’ EFFECT

The show may have remained dormant after Dallas, if not for Mike Bosner, one of the lead producers on the Tony-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, signing on as lead producer. He heard about Moonshine after the Dallas run and met McAnally through McAnally’s husband, who knew Bosner’s wife, Brittany Schreiber, a booker for Today.   

“Shane and I started talking about doing a different show, because I was obsessed about bringing a show to Broadway with country music,” Bosner says. “The fact that [there] hasn’t been one in recent years is a crime.”   

Those involved say Bosner’s palpable enthusiasm, connections (he brought in O’Brien) and backing made all the difference. “We’re very happy that he got on board and feels so passionate,” McAnally says. “That relationship was really what put this into high gear.”

Around 2019, as Bosner began lining up other investors — the SEC filing’s range for the show is a minimum of $13 million and a maximum of $16 million — he approached Sandbox Entertainment head Jason Owen, whom he knew through his wife, to become a producer. (Even though artist manager Owen and McAnally are partners in Monument Records, it was Bosner who brought him in.)

Owen then brought in the other lead investor, AEG, which had last invested on Broadway in 2005’s The Color Purple, and whose team, led by Jay Marciano and Gary Gersh, has provided not just money but business acumen. “For the last six or seven months, we’ve had weekly calls with AEG,” Owen says. “They’ve been involved in looking at how we’re marketing in and outside of New York [and] cross-analyzing data on the ticket buyers that are seeing certain shows in and around New York.” AEG has also used its buildings and other venues to provide billboards and other out-of-home marketing. 

(Owen further tapped into the music community, recruiting Sony Music Entertainment and clients Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook as co-producers.)

Broadway previews began March 8, and given how Shucked is an unproven commodity with no known hit songs and no big names in the cast, the show aggressively discounted preview tickets — with some going for as low as $29, and none higher than $149. According to Broadway News, the gambit worked, with attendance running at (or close to) 100% for the first three weeks of previews. “What we really needed to do was get butts in seats,” Owen says. “We were able to capture an audience that lives on social media and was able to start spreading the word about how great the show is.”

The play is deliberately being marketed as a musical comedy and not a country musical. As the U.S. emerges from COVID and remains mired in political division, the producers are counting on a show with no agenda, other than to make people laugh and accept one another, to have broad appeal. 

The promotional ad campaign initially relied on stressing the punny humor, while keeping an air of mystery. One ad had the tagline, “’I saw it 300 times before it even opened’-George Santos.” Another read, “’The musical that has Broadway all a-Twitter’-Elon Husk.”

Despite its rural themes and Clark and McAnally’s pedigrees, the music falls more solidly in the pop range, and the producers didn’t want to risk alienating any attendees by labeling the show “country.”  “In a big metropolitan city like New York, saying, ‘Oh, we’re doing a country show’ — the theater elite is [going to be] like, ‘I don’t know if that’s for me,’” Bosner says. “But if you’re selling musical comedy and saying this is a laugh-out-loud hilarious, then a country score or whatever [genre] it is, would be the gift with purchase. From the get-go, I’ve been saying, ‘We need to sell this as the best time out,’ and our goal is to not create any potential pothole that says, ‘That doesn’t sound like a show for me’.”

Owen agrees. “The marketpace on Broadway is currently 90% existing jukebox musicals, whether that’s [MJ the Musical] or Moulin Rouge. You know to some extent what you’re getting,” he says. “If we would have pigeonholed ourselves into a country [box] when it’s really not — it just didn’t feel right to look at it like that.” 

Clark and McAnally join a short list of Nashville-based, country music songwriters to open original musicals on Broadway. The most successful of those musicals has been Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with music and lyrics by Roger Miller (“King of the Road”). The Tony winner for best musical originally opened in 1985 and ran for 1,005 performances. Keeping with the Mark Twain works, Don Schlitz (“The Gambler”) wrote the music and lyrics for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which ran for 21 performances in 2001. 

More recently, Nashville based Wayne Kirkpatrick (“Change the World”) was nominated for a Tony for best original score for co-writing the words and music for Something Rotten!, which opened in 2015 and played for 708 performances. 

Sony Masterworks Broadway will release Shucked’s original cast recording digitally on May 5 and on CD June 9, but there are already thoughts of finding big pop names to possibly reinvent the songs, à la 2016’s The Hamilton Mixtape, featuring Kelly Clarkson and Alicia Keys, or 2017’s The Greatest Showman: Reimagined, which included P!nk, Zac Brown Band and Kesha. “Imagine ‘Independently Owned’ sung by Lizzo,” Clark says. “That’s where our head goes.” 

There are also dreams of taking Shucked into corners that Broadway musicals have never ventured before. “AEG has Coachella and Stagecoach. Is there a world where we can do the music of the show at Stagecoach in some way?” Bosner asks. “That’ll be amazing, right? But let’s get the show open on Broadway first.” 

03 Apr 2023

Robert Smith Says The Cure Got 7,000 Secondary Market Tickets Cancelled

The Cure‘s Robert Smith continues to fight back against high concert ticket prices. After weeks of battling to knock out or knock down what he called Ticketmaster’s exorbitant extra fees for the band’s upcoming North American tour, Smith was at it again over the weekend.

Smith revealed that “approx. 7K tickets across approx 2200 orders have been cancelled.” The singer claimed those tickets were acquired with fake accounts and/or listed on secondary resale sites. “TM have identified specific locations from secondary postings,” he said. He then asked fans who think their tickets may have been wrongly cancelled to reach out to TM fan support (@TMFanSupport).

The Cure leader also had another notion about the ongoing imbroglio over ticket fees and the secondary market, writing, “A WEEKEND THOUGHT… THIS ONGOING TM ‘CONVERSATION’ IS NOT TAKING PLACE IN A VACUUM… THE SYSTEM THAT VALUES PROFIT OVER PEOPLE IS REALLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED…”

To date, spokespeople for Ticketmaster have not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on Smith’s ongoing battle against fees and the secondary market.

In the lead-up to the veteran group’s upcoming The Lost World North American tour, The Cure had hoped to keep seat-buying fair and simple for their fans by opting out of dynamic pricing and shielding against scalpers with non-transferable tickets. But when the sale opened mid-March, customers were disappointed to find that the Ticketmaster had tacked on sky-high fees to tickets that totaled more than the price of the actual tickets themselves.

At the time, Smith went on a similarly all-caps Twitter rant, writing that he was “AS SICKENED AS YOU ALL ARE BY TODAY’S TICKETMASTER ‘FEES’ DEBACLE” before promising to investigate what went wrong. Soon after, he took to social media again to announce that Ticketmaster would be offering refunds and lower fees.

Last week Smith warned fans of a scam in which scalpers offered to sell account login details to get around TM transfer limitations. ANY/ALL TICKETS OBTAINED IN THIS WAY WILL BE CANCELED, AND ORIGINAL FEES PAID ON THOSE TICKETS WILL NOT BE REFUNDED,” he wrote, adding that the fees from those tickets will be donated to human rights organization Amnesty International.

The Lost World tour is slated to kick off on May 10 at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center and run through a July 1 gig at Miami’s Miami-Dade Arena.

See Smith’s latest tweets below.