News

15 Mar 2023

Darren Criss Translates a Britney Spears Hit Into ’70s Soul, New Wave & Heavy Metal for ‘That’s My Jam’

Darren Criss competed on NBC’s That’s My Jam on Tuesday (March 14) and was tasked with several new spins on “Toxic” by Britney Spears.

The challenge came when the actor was assigned the brand new game “One Song, Many Genres” by host Jimmy Fallon’s giant chrome microphone lever. “I did Glee; I feel like I’m prepped for this,” Criss stated. “It’s kind of a complicated song, I would fare much better if I did this with a guitar. Is that OK if I play guitar on this? … So if I can’t sing it, at least I’ll be able to play.”

After coordinating with the band on the correct key, the Glee alum launched into Spears’ 2004 single in the style of ’70s soul. “Baby can’t you see I’m callin’?/ A guy like you should wear a warnin’/ It’s dangerous, I’m fallin’,” he sang before quickly having to transition to heavy metal, complete with a throaty growl. “There’s no escape, I can’t wait/ I need a hit, baby gimme it/ You’re dangerous, I’m lovin’ it.”

From there, Criss cycled through a litany of wide-spanning musical genres, from new wave and ska to Brazilian lounge and Eurodance before finishing up the song as a bluegrass jam.

Elsewhere during the episode, his teammate Sarah Hyland performed Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” in the pop-punk style of Avril Lavigne for “Wheel of Musical Impressions,” while Billy Porter nailed a gospel version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” and Patti LaBelle performed her own “Lady Marmalade” in a game of “Nonsense Karaoke.”

Watch Criss reinvent “Toxic” in seven different genres below.

15 Mar 2023

Believe Revenues Grew 32% in 2022 as Investments in Europe & Asia Yielded Results

Annual revenues for French music company Believe grew 31.8% to 760.8 million euros ($723.5 million) in 2022 as the company capitalized on investments and expansion in Europe, India and China. Digital sales accounted for 92% of Believe’s revenue while non-digital sources represented just 8%.

The company’s premium solutions segment grew 31.6% to 712.6 million euros ($677.7 million). Automated solutions, which includes the TuneCore distribution platform, improved 34.5% to 48.2 million euros ($45.8 million). TuneCore’s launch of an “unlimited pricing” plan in 2022, which allows artists to distribute an unlimited amount of music for a fixed annual fee, was “extremely successful and translated into an acceleration of growth,” CEO Denis Ladegaillerie said during Wednesday’s earnings call.

“We ended 2022 strongly delivering above our IPO commitments both operationally and financially for the second year in a row,” Ladegaillerie said in a statement. “In 2022, as we have done each year since 2005, we did what we said we would do … or better. We grew our market share; we improved profitability; we generated significant cash flow from our operations.” Free cash flow was 52 million euros ($49.5 million), an improvement from negative 30.7 million euros in 2021.

Believe also revealed that it invested in French pop label Structure, which it called “a new French pop label partnering with two successful producers, behind the recent success of several multi-platinum French pop artists.” It additionally noted an investment in Madizin Music, “a German well-known brand managed by two renowned producers, composers, and entrepreneurs,” as well as an exclusive partnership with Panorama Music, a new Indian label founded by a Bollywood film producer.

Digital revenues improved 34.7% organically as Believe served an additional 200,000 artists, to 1.3 million, either directly or through record labels. In France, Believe was the second-largest music company in digital local repertoire in 2022. Believe was the third-largest recorded music company in Germany “on local repertoire in the streaming market,” and the market’s second-largest company in hip-hop. The company pointed to the chart success of TuneCore artist Theo Junior and Milky Chance, who amassed 1.2 billion streams in 2022 on the strength of the track “Stolen Dance.”

In Asia, Believe has invested in India and Southeast Asia and now has about 80 people spread throughout five offices in China. “The level of activity remained sustained throughout the year as the digital monetization increased in Greater China, which led to the signings in Premium Solutions of more than 300 labels and above 250 artists directly,” the company said.

Looking forward to 2023, Believe expects to post organic revenue growth of 18%, improve its adjusted EBITDA margin to between 5% and 7% and again be cash flow positive. “In 2023, we will continue our profitable growth strategy: invest in our teams to grow market share, innovate in audience development products for our artists and labels, and further drive operational efficiencies through technology and scale to increase profitability,” said Ladegaillerie.

15 Mar 2023

HYBE Says There Is No Set Date for BTS Comeback, Asks for Respect for Members’ Privacy

Bang Si-hyuk, HYBE label chairman, made an appearance on Wednesday (March 15) at the Gwanhun Forum, where he shared a speech and held a press Q&A, discussing the company’s plans to expand K-pop globally. He also touched on plans for BTS following their mandatory military enlist.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Bang revealed that there is no set date for BTS’ comeback as a group, and requested respect for the band’s privacy regarding military service and their plans for their careers. In October, HYBE’s BIGHIT Music said all seven members would serve in the military and the group is expected to reconvene in 2025, though now that date is not confirmed.

Bang also revealed that BTS haven’t yet renewed their contract with HYBE, adding that the company “still has time left” until the boy band’s contracts expire, according to The K-Pop Herald. “We’ll discuss [contract renewal with the members] within the time, and I believe it will be right for us to speak about it after the discussion ends,” he explained.

Just days after the release of their anthology album Proof — released as a celebration of the septet’s ninth anniversary — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook shared in a video posted in June 2022 that they plan to take a break from group activities so they can all have time to work on personal and solo endeavors.

In January, 30-year-old Jin became the first member of the septet to begin his mandatory 18-month stint in the South Korean army. At press time it had not yet been announced when Jin’s bandmates will begin their service.

Additional reporting By Jeyup S. Kwaak.

15 Mar 2023

Moneybagg Yo Talks Upcoming Album ‘Hard To Love’, Working With GloRilla, The Perfect Push-Up Form & More | Billboard News

Moneybagg Yo chats with our R&B / Hip-Hop reporter Neena Rouhani about his upcoming album ‘Hard to Love’, working with GloRilla on ‘On Wat U On’, leaning into social media, the perfect push-up form, his relationship with Ari Fletcher, and more!

15 Mar 2023

Ghazi Shami Launches White Label Distribution Platform Supply Chain

Music business entrepreneur and EMPIRE founder/CEO Ghazi Shami announced the launch of a new, white-label distribution platform called Supply Chain today (March 15). The product, which is available now and is separate from EMPIRE, will allow brands, labels, distributors, service providers and retailers to make use of the platform to distribute music to any service provider and integrate distribution into their own products and offerings.

“With Supply Chain, we have built the most comprehensive distribution platform in the music industry,” Shami said in a statement. “Brands and services can now tap into the power of Supply Chain and offer a full set of distribution services to their customers.”

Supply Chain will offer SaaS and API solutions to allow companies to tap into digital tools to allow them to offer distribution to clients for service providers all over the world. The new offering comes at a time in the music business when there is a heightened interest in services and distribution, with new companies flooding into the arena to offer new solutions for independent artists and labels and existing companies pivoting their business models towards non-ownership services offerings. Unlike many of those services, which sign deals with artists or allow them to upload to digital service providers for a flat fee, Supply Chain will allow companies to integrate its distribution offering into their own services, providing a back-end basis for their own offerings.

“The new Supply Chain product provides a tremendous amount of power, but does so with a very simple approach that is both flexible and recognizes that many partners will not want to build out their own UI,” said chief product officer Stephen White. “We have focused on making the product easy to integrate while not sacrificing any of the powerful functionality.”

15 Mar 2023

Kelly Clarkson Declares It’s ‘My Life’ With Her Billy Joel Cover: Watch

Kelly Clarkson gave one of Billy Joel‘s many classic songs a spin for the Wednesday (March 15) episode of her namesake talk show, opting for the Piano Man’s 1978 track “My Life” for the program’s Kellyoke segment.

Accompanied by her band Y’all, the American Idol alum injected the popular track with her signature belt and stunning vibrato, and even gave the camera a knowing wink while singing her rendition.

“I don’t need you to worry for me ’cause I’m alright/ I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home/ I don’t care what you say anymore this is my life/ Go ahead with your own life leave me alone,” The Voice coach sang on the chorus.

“My Life” was released as the first single from Joel’s sixth studio album, 52nd Street. The track made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1978, and peaked at No. 3 on the all-genre tally in January 1979. The track spent 18 weeks on the Hot 100. 52nd Street was a smash, spending a total of 76 weeks on the Billboard 200, eight of which were at the top of the chart.

In the past few weeks, Clarkson has covered Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979,” Death Cab for Cutie’s “You Are a Tourist” and more.

Watch Kelly Clarkson take on Billy Joel’s “My Life” in the video above.

15 Mar 2023

Tems Responds To Backlash About Her View-Blocking Oscars 2023 Drip

HipHopWired Featured Video

Tems Responds To Backlash About Her Oscars Dress

Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty /Tems

Nobody got slapped at this year’s Academy Awards, but plenty of moments had Twitter talking. One of those moments involved Tems and her beautiful Oscars dress.

Tems had everyone saying WOW when she graced the Oscars champagne carpet on Sunday evening. Later that night, the Best Original Song nominee was hit with backlash because that dress was blocking the view of the attendees, particularly one woman sitting behind her.

Monday, the 27-year-old Grammy Award-winning artist had a playful response to all of the people who had something to say about her beautiful white Lever Couture dress.

In a Twitter post, the “Free Mind” singer wrote “Oops,” along with four beautiful photos of herself in the dress, just looking as fine as she wants. The dress’s standout feature was a structured veil wrapping around her shoulder, forming a halo above her head.

In an Instagram post sharing more photos of herself in the dress, she wrote in the caption, “Uh Ohh!”

Fans were here for Tems owning the moment. “Block their view!” one Instagram user wrote. “Block them love… They don’t deserve to see front,” another fan said.

“How can Tems block the view when she is the view — like,” one person on Twitter wrote. 

Plenty of love was spread in Tems’ comment section on Twitter, but there were also people who felt the dress designer was inconsiderate by not making the veil removable.

“Imagine waiting your whole life to be at the Oscars, and you end up sitting behind a stratus cloud,” one person tweeted.

“She looks stunning, but perhaps they could have made the top bit detachable,” another Twitter user said.

Welp, it’s water under the bridge now.

—

Photo: Emma McIntyre / Getty

15 Mar 2023

Esther Phillips, Josh White & More Inducted into Blues Hall of Fame: Full List of 2023 Inductees

R&B and blues singer Esther Phillips is among the 2023 inductees into The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame. Phillips had two top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Release Me” (1962, when she was known as “Little Esther” Phillips) and a remake of Dinah Washington’s “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (1975). Phillips didn’t live to see her induction. She died in 1984 at age 48.

Josh White, who went from being a Piedmont blues artist to an important voice in the folk music world of the 1940s, was also inducted. White, who died in 1969 at age 55, received the Folk Alliance International’s 2023 lifetime achievement award for a legacy (deceased) artist on Feb. 1 in Kansas City, Mo. Leyla McCalla and Josh White Jr. performed in tribute to White at that event. McCalla performed “I Gave My Love a Cherry (The Riddle Song).” White Jr. sang “One Meatball.”

This year’s other Blues Hall of Fame honorees include four Chicago bluesmen (Carey Bell, John Primer, Snooky Pryor and Fenton Robinson) and a Mississippi juke joint king (Junior Kimbrough).

Of the seven artists being inducted this year, four (Bell, Phillips, Primer and Robinson) had been nominated for Grammy awards, but none had won (which suggests the need for these specialized awards). Phillips was a four-time nominee for best R&B vocal performance, female. She lost three times to Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin.

Of the seven artists, only Primer is still living. He is 78.

Since its inception in 1980, The Blues Foundation has inducted more than 400 industry professionals, recordings, and works of literature into the Blues Hall of Fame. Members are inducted in five categories: performers, individuals, classic of blues literature, classic of blues recording (song), and classic of blues recording (album).

David Evans, who won the award for individuals, is a two-time Grammy winner for best album notes. He won for Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented By William Ferris and Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues – The Worlds of Charley Patton.

One of the five recordings being honored has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. That’s Son House’s 1930 recording “My Black Mama,” which was voted into the Grammy HOF in 2013.

Little Walter: The Complete Chess Masters is 2023’s classic blues recording: album. Hip-O’s five-CD, 126-track compilation was released in 2009.

Entering the Blues Hall of Fame as a classic of blues literature is The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville 1899-1926. The book, by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, chronicles the minstrel and ragtime traditions in vaudeville theatre that was major public venue for blues in its early years.

The Blues Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held in conjunction with the Blues Music Awards, will take place on Wednesday, May 10, at the Halloran Centre in Memphis. A cocktail reception honoring the BHOF inductees and Blues Music Awards nominees will begin at 5:30 p.m., with the inductions commencing at 6:30 p.m. Tickets, including the ceremony and reception, are $75 each and available with Blues Music Awards tickets.

The Blues Hall of Fame Museum in Memphis will showcase several items representing the 2023 class of inductees. These artifacts will be on display for public viewing beginning the first week of May and will remain on view for the next 12 months.

Here’s a full list of The Blues Foundation’s 2023 Blues Hall of Fame inductees.

Performers

  • Carey Bell
  • Junior Kimbrough
  • Esther Phillips
  • John Primer
  • Snooky Pryor
  • Fenton Robinson
  • Josh White

Individuals – Business, Production, Media, Academic

  • David Evans

Classic of Blues Literature

  • The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville 1899-1926 by Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff (University Press of Mississippi, 2017)

Classic of Blues Recording – Album

  • Little Walter: The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967) (Hip-O Select, 2009)

Classics of Blues Recording – Single or Album Track

  • “Black Nights” — Lowell Fulson (Kent, 1965)
  • “I’m Tore Down” — Freddy King (Federal, 1961)
  • “Mojo Hand” — Lightnin’ Hopkins (Fire, 1960)
  • “My Black Mama” — Son House (Paramount, 1930)
  • “The Red Rooster (Little Red Rooster)” — Howlin’ Wolf (Chess, 1961)

15 Mar 2023

Will Morgan Wallen Fend Off No. 1 Challenges from Miley Cyrus & TWICE on the Billboard 200? 

Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated March 25), a longtime stateside household name and a growing global force will compete against Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster in its second week.

Miley Cyrus, Endless Summer Vacation (Columbia): You might expect Miley Cyrus’ new album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Cyrus has been a household name for a decade and a half, and she’s coming off her biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit with the six-week No. 1 “Flowers” — and her new album has largely been met with critical acclaim and positive fan response since its Friday release.  

Despite her continued stardom, however, Cyrus has not scored a No. 1 album since 2013’s Bangerz, with her most recent effort (2021’s Plastic Hearts) debuting at No. 2 with 60,000 equivalent album units. A number anywhere near that range would probably not be enough to dethrone Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which debuted at No. 1 with 501,000 units on last week’s Billboard 200 (dated March 18). Even if One Thing posts only 40% of that in its second week, that would still be over three times Plastic Hearts’ first-week tally.  

Vacation is expected to do better than Hearts, though – helped not only by the continued success of “Flowers” (which holds at No. 2 on the Hot 100 this week) and strong early returns for follow-up single “River,” but also by a variety of physical releases. That includes four vinyl variants (including one exclusive to Target, and two exclusive to her web store) and two deluxe box sets exclusive to her web store — one with a puzzle and a CD, the other with a beach towel and a CD.  

TWICE, Ready to Be (JYP/Republic): Though they might not have name recognition as wide as Miley Cyrus in the United States, Korean girl group TWICE might be just as big a threat to Wallen’s place at the top of the Billboard 200 this week. TWICE have reached the chart’s No. 3 spot, well, twice: with 2021 LP Formula of Love: O+T=<3> and 2022 EP Between 1&2. The latter moved over 100,000 units in its first week, thanks largely to robust physical sales numbers that demonstrated the group’s devoted and expanding U.S. fanbase.  

TWICE, which received the Breakthrough Artist award at Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music event, could do even better with its first EP of 2023, Ready to Be. The seven-track set includes the group’s second-ever Hot 100 hit, “Moonlight Sunrise,” and is available in a whopping 11 CD variants (including multiple exclusives for Barnes & Noble and the group’s webstore, and one for Target), each with randomized elements like photo cards and folded posters, as well as two vinyl LP variants. 

IN THE MIX 

Meghan Trainor, Takin’ It Back (Epic): If not for Cyrus, the most noteworthy comeback by a 2010s pop star would be that of bubblegum revivalist Meghan Trainor, whose TikTok-boosted single “Made You Look” became her biggest Hot 100 hit since 2016 when it peaked at No. 11 in February. This week, that single’s album, Takin’ It Back (which debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 last November), could reenter the chart, thanks to the release of its new deluxe edition, which boasts four new tracks, including the “Mr. Sandman”-sampling follow-up single “Mother.”  

15 Mar 2023

Randy Rainbow Enlists Mary Poppins & The Seekers to Roast George Santos: Watch

As George Santos continues to dig himself deeper and deeper into the ongoing scandal about his many (many) lies, viral comedian Randy Rainbow is happy to sit back and watch … and yes, sing a show tune or two.

On Wednesday (March 15), Rainbow released his latest parody song, “Life’s a F–king Fantasy for Santos,” castigating the New York congressman for his repeated lies both on and off the campaign trail. Kicking off the video with a cheery reinvention of “Jolly Holiday” from Disney’s 1964 classic Mary Poppins, Rainbow wastes no time in letting Santos know exactly what he thinks of him. “Ain’t he a sack of BS?/ How’d they elect such a mess?” Rainbow opines in the song’s opening strains. “I think he might be high.”

As the song picks up steam, Rainbow — now dressed in full Julie Andrews drag — begins to rattle off a list of things on Santos’ resumé. The resulting patter mixes in disputed claims the representative has actually made (that he was a “Wall Street tycoon,” for example), other claims that he has attempted to obscure (such as his alleged career as a drag queen in Brazil), and a few funny jokes that the comedian peppered in (calling Santos “the very first woman to land on the moon.”)

Just as things begin to get as chaotic as they can, Rainbow suddenly transitions into new parody of The Seekers’ 1966 hit “Georgy Girl,” taking on the Australian folk-pop group’s groovy look to further humiliate Santos. “Hey there, Georgy girl/ Shut your stupid hole and don’t deflect,” he croons over the mellow production. “Find a little self-respect/ And maybe it’s you they’ll like.”

By the time it’s the final stanza of the song, Rainbow expertly mashes both songs together to get in a series of last digs at the embattled congressman. “His nose keeps growing as the Feds close in,” Rainbow declares. “‘Cause everything’s a fantasy with Santos/ My fantasy’s that Santos goes away!”

Check out Rainbow’s full parody video above.