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13 Jan 2023

Autographed Kobe Bryant Jersey Expected To Fetch $7M On Auction Block

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It’s been three years since the shocking and tragic death of NBA legend, Kobe Bryant and though he’s gone, his shadow still looms large on the sport of basketball and his memorabilia is proving to be a hot commodity out on these streets.

According to TMZ, an autographed Kobe Bryant jersey from his 2007-2008 MVP season is set to hit the auction block courtesy of Sotheby’s and estimates predict that it could fetch up to $7 million. The purple and gold threads that Kobe wore during his memorable season will be a must-have piece of history as it’s actually the only time that the five-time NBA Champion took home the Maurice Podoloff trophy for his remarkable play that year.

Sotheby’s, which is hosting the auction, tells us the item is the “most valuable Kobe Bryant game-worn jersey to ever appear at auction” as the Lakers legend “scored a total of 645 points over 8 months in this jersey.”

He averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game that season and led the Lakers to the NBA Finals.

What also makes the jersey so rare — Kob signed the gear by writing his first name on the stitched number on the back.

FYI, this is also the same jersey Kobe was seen tugging on in the first round of the 2008 playoffs — one of Bryant’s most iconic photos of all time.

Man, we hope whoever ends up winning this auction doesn’t walk around wearing the grail of grails like it’s another day at the office. Y’all know these millionaires don’t care. Then again, it’s their money so it is what it is.

The auction opens up Feb. 2 and is expected to get between $5-7 million once it wraps up, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it surpassed expectations and goes for $8 million like Kobe’s OG jersey number, 8.

What number do y’all think the autographed Kobe Bryant jersey will end up selling for? Let us know in the comments section below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY3dJ3ks424&t=1s

13 Jan 2023

First Country: New Music From Chris Young, Dierks Bentley, Ian Munsick & More

First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.

Chris Young, “All Dogs Go to Heaven”

Young releases two new songs today, and each revolves around love and devotion. “Looking For You” depicts a couple’s love story, while “All Dogs Go to Heaven” is a tribute to man’s best friend. “He’s the closest thing to pure love that I’ve never known,” Young sings in “All Dogs Go to Heaven.” On this tender track, Young’s low-key (yet passionate) vocal still pierces the soul.

Lukas Graham and Mickey Guyton, “Home Movies” 

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Guyton teams with Danish pop band Lukas Graham for the inspirational ballad “Home Movies,” which leans into the value in looking back on memories, even the less than superlative ones. These two artists pair wondrously on this sleek, anthemic pop ballad. The song is from Lukas Graham’s upcoming album 4 (The Pink Album), out Jan. 20.

Dierks Bentley, “Same Ol’ Me”

Bentley mashes up a swampy, honkytonk vibe with bluegrass flourishes as he declares that though time brings changes to fashions, hairstyles and age, he will remain steadfast in his love for down-to-earth bars, getting rowdy and his significant other. The song is from Bentley’s upcoming 10th album, Gravel & Gold, out Feb. 24.

Diplo feat. Kodak Black and Koe Wetzel, “Wasted”

Thomas Wesley (aka Diplo) comes galloping back into the country scene, this time teaming with Koe Wetzel and Kodak Black for the party jam “Wasted.” The track is a deft blend of pulsating, hard rock rhythm with a lyric that muses on the peaks and valleys of being intoxicated. “The pistol on the counter keeps starin’ at me, I threw away the bullets and I gave it away/ ‘Cause life is so much sweeter when you taste it/ Bring me back to life when I’m wasted,” they sing. Diplo released his first country-tinged project 2020, spearheaded by the hit “Heartless” with Morgan Wallen.

Ian Munsick, “River Run”

Gorgeous fiddle laces this organic musical romp as he recalls a short-lived romance with a lover whose “gypsy blood runs through her veins.” Though he, like many in his small town “just settle like the dust when the day is done,” he acknowledges that she, like the river, will never stay still. His sophomore album, White Buffalo, will be released April 7.

Alana Springsteen, “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song”

“You didn’t give me anything that’s worth writing down,” Springsteen sings with a forceful retort over a jaunty melody, making it clear she won’t be wasting her pen, paper and songwriting talents on a subpar ex-lover. This confidence bolstering jam also namechecks Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon,” Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me,” and Rascal Flatts’ “What Hurts the Most.” Bonus points for Springsteen tacking on a voice memo of her co-writers singing along at the end.

Drayton Farley, “Norfolk Blues”

Farley parlays his time working on the railroad into this driving folk-rock track, which finds him chronicling working double shifts far from home and hanging onto the hope of providing his family a better life in the process. The honesty, ache and resolution in Farley’s rough-hewn voice are palpable, making him a potential major contender with the new wave of rawer rock production and vulnerable vocals that is currently impacting country music. “Norfolk Blues” will be included on Farley’s upcoming Sadler Vaden-produced album Twenty on High, out March 3 via Hargrove Records/Thirty Tigers.

Michael Warren, “Another Round”

Warren delivers a polished, radio-friendly track that simmers in the romantic early days of a relationship and namechecks Shenandoah in the process. Warren’s warm and amiable, paired with the song’s smooth production, should make this track at home on any number of country and pop playlists.

Royale Lynn, “Runs in the Water”

This newcomer brings ferocious, ceiling-scraping vocals and melds them with a roaring chorus and scorching guitar work on par with anything that came out of the hard-driving 2000s rock and country scenes.

13 Jan 2023

Bootsy Collins to Funk Up Halftime of Cincinnati Bengals NFL Playoff Game With ‘The Ickey Shuffle’

Funk legend Bootsy Collins will take the stage on Sunday (Jan. 15) night to cheer on the Cincinnati Bengals for a halftime performance during his hometown team’s battle against the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the NFL playoffs.

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Marking the funketeer’s first public live performance since 2019, the halftime set will feature the debut of his new track, “The Ickey Shuffle.” The thumping song is a tribute to legendary Bengals running back Ickey Woods — a beloved late 1980s-early 1990s fan favorite best known for his iconic end zone dance of the same name — and it showcases Collins’ song, Ouiwey Collins, on vocals and is accompanied by a high-energy video starring Woods, the Ben-Gals cheerleaders and some digital tigers.

Collins will unveil the song at halftime of the game that begins on NBC at 8:15 p.m. ET, with members of nearby Dayton, Ohio’s The Ohio Players (“Fire,” “Love Rollercoaster”) joining in on the jam; the performance was originally slated to take place during the ill-fated Jan. 2 game between the Bengals and Buffalo Bills, during which Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest.

“We was ready to funk it out with the Bengals Who-Dey Baby and something just wasn’t right, everything just went chaotic,” Collins said of the scotched performance in a statement. “I immediately started watching the monitor in my dressing room and seen that beautiful young man on the ground. Patti my wife immediately looked at me and I said ‘Patti, God is trying to tell us that we all need to be On The One right now’ and she agreed. Bless that young man.” Collins will also play his Bengals pump-up anthem “Fear Da Tiger” during halftime.

Bengals fans are invited to create their own version of the Shuffle, with partial proceeds from the track going to the Jovante Woods Foundation in honor of Ickey and Chandra Woods’ 16-year-old song, Jovante, who died in 2010 from complications of an asthma attack.

Before Woods takes it to the stage, the game will open with a performance of the National Anthem by a member of the Stranger Things family. The Bengals announced that Aidan Fisher, the guitar body double for Joseph Quinn’s Metallica-shredding character Eddie Munson, will shred the Anthem to kick off the wild card game that marks the third battle between the Ravens and Bengals this season and the follow-up to last week’s Cincinnati victory.

Watch the “Ickey Shuffle” video below.

13 Jan 2023

Rihanna Models Steamy New ‘V-Day’ Savage X Fenty Lingerie: Watch

Need something steamy to wear this Valentine’s Day? You already know Bad Girl Ri Ri has you covered, or, as far as the clothing itself goes … not so covered. With just about one month left to go before Feb. 14, Rihanna dropped her “V-Day” line of lingerie on her Savage X Fenty website and posted a red-hot video of herself modeling one of the designs.

In the Thursday (Jan. 12) video, the “S&M” singer poses in a black lace jumpsuit with a revealing heart-shaped cutout just under the neckline. “Phuck yo roses,” she captioned the post on Twitter, adding a red heart emoji.

The piece Ri models in the video looks to be the “Lovestruck Lace” catsuit — which, according to the Savage X Fenty website, is “crotchless.” Do with that as you will.

The catsuit is now available for purchase on the site along with lacy bodysuits, corset tops, bra-and-panty sets and more. There’s even a Valentine’s-themed jockstrap for the fellas.

Similar to the design Rihanna models in her video, many of the pieces have racy cutouts or stretches of transparent fabric. As Savage X Fenty puts it in a tweet promoting the line on the company’s official account, they’re “Hot from e’ry angle.”

The new drop comes just days after the nine-time Grammy winner attended the Golden Globes Tuesday (Jan. 10), where she was in the running for best original song with her Wakanda Forever track “Lift Me Up.” Though she didn’t take home the award that night, she and A$AP Rocky — with whom Ri welcomed a son last May — did unofficially win best-dressed couple at the event.

Valentine’s Day isn’t the only major occasion happening in February that Rihanna is gearing up for, though. Two days before the holiday of love, she’ll headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show — an occasion she also celebrated with a Savage x Fenty line of “Game Day” clothing.

See Rihanna modeling her new V-Day line of Savage x Fenty lingerie below:

13 Jan 2023

SZA Spends First Week at No. 1 on Hot 100 Songwriters Chart Thanks to ‘SOS’ Tracks

SZA soars from No. 5 to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart (dated Jan. 14), becoming the top songwriter in the U.S. for the first time, thanks to 15 charting songs on the latest Billboard Hot 100, all of which appear on her latest album, SOS.

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Leading the way is the album’s standout track “Kill Bill,” which jumps 11-3 on the Hot 100, returning to its peak, with 28 million official streams (up 5%), 1.7 million radio airplay audience impressions (up a whopping 703%, as it’s now being promoted to pop radio, alongside the set’s “Nobody Gets Me”) and 1,000 downloads sold (up 1%) in the U.S. Dec. 30-Jan. 5, according to Luminate.

Here’s a recap of all 15 SZA songs on the latest Hot 100, with additional co-songwriters listed in parentheses:

Rank, Title (co-songwriters in addition to SZA)

  • No. 3, “Kill Bill” (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang)
  • No. 23, “Shirt” (Rodney Jerkins, “Freaky” Rob Gueringer)
  • No. 42, “Nobody Gets Me” (benny blanco, Rob Bisel, Carter Lang)
  • No. 45, “Low” (Rob Bisel, SANGE, Aire Atlantica, Jozzy)
  • No. 51, “Blind” (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, Yuli, Will Miller)
  • No. 53, “Snooze” (Babyface, Khristopher Riddick-Tynes, Leon Thomas III, BLK Beats)
  • No. 56, “Love Language” (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Yakob, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Ty Dolla $Ign, Ant Clemons, Jazzae De Waal)
  • No. 66, “Seek & Destroy” (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Scum)
  • No. 76, “Used,” feat. Don Toliver (DJ DaHi, John Hill, Ely Rise, Danny McKinnon, John Key, Don Toliver)
  • No. 79, “Ghost in the Machine,” feat. Phoebe Bridgers (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, Matt Cohn, Marshall Vore, Phoebe Bridgers)
  • No. 83, “Special” (benny blanco, Blake Slatkin, Shellback, Omer Fedi)
  • No. 85, “Open Arms,” feat. Travis Scott (Rob Bisel, Michael Uzowuru, Teo Halm, Dougie F, Travis Scott)
  • No. 90, “SOS” (Jay Versace, Rob Bisel, Gabriel Hardeman)
  • No. 94, “Gone Girl “(Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Jeff Bhasker, Emile Haynie)
  • No. 100, “Notice Me” (Carter Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Teo Halm, Michael Uzowuru)

SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Dec. 24 and has ruled every week since (four and counting). The set tops the latest tally with 125,000 equivalent album units earned Dec. 30-Jan. 5. All 23 songs on SOS charted on the Hot 100 in the set’s opening week.

SZA is the first solo woman to lead Hot 100 Songwriters since Taylor Swift ruled for five consecutive weeks in November-December. Kate Bush is the only other woman to have led in 2022, with eight weeks at the summit, thanks to “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” her 1985 single that was revived thanks to its synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things.

SZA concurrently spends a 15th week at No. 1 on the R&B Songwriters chart and a fourth week atop R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriters.

On the latest Hot 100 Producers chart, Joey Moi returns to No. 1 for a 15th week on top, thanks to five production credits on the Hot 100, four via songs recorded by Morgan Wallen. Here’s a recap:

Rank, Artist Billing, Title (co-producers in addition to Moi)

  • No. 13, Morgan Wallen, “You Proof” (Charlie Handsome)
  • No. 22, Morgan Wallen, “Wasted On You” (Jacob Durrett)
  • No. 33, Morgan Wallen, “Thought You Should Know”
  • No. 38, HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck” (HARDY)
  • No. 77, Morgan Wallen, “One Thing at a Time”

Moi passes Greg Kurstin for the third-most weeks spent at No. 1 on Hot 100 Producers, dating to the list’s launch in June 2019. Dan Nigro has logged the most time at No. 1, 27 weeks, followed by Louis Bell (18).

Moi also adds a record-extending 90th week at No. 1 on the Country Producers chart.

The weekly Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100; plus, genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).

The full Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com.

13 Jan 2023

SZA Drops Four-Track ‘Kill Bill’ Bundle

SZA has quadrupled down on the success of her hit “Kill Bill.” On Friday (Jan. 13), the singer dropped a four-track “Kill Bill” bundle featuring the original song, as well as a sped-up version, instrumental and vocal takes. The track from the singer’s Billboard 200 No. 1 album SOS leapt to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart this week, marking her first chart-topper on the list.

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“Kill Bill” raced to No. 1 from No. 11, surpassing its prior No. 5 high set upon its debut three weeks earlier. The song marks the first No. 1 for the St. Louis-born, New Jersey-raised singer-songwriter, among three top 10s.

The quad-song release came just days after SZA dropped the blood-drenched video for the fictitious murder-confession song directed by Christian Breslauer. The cinematic clip pays homage to Quentin Tarantino’s early aughts revenge film of the same name, and features a cameo from Vivica A. Fox, who played the kick-ass character Vernita Green opposite Uma Thurman’s sword-wielding Bride. The high-octane mini action movie blends anime, fantasy and buckets of blood.

“I love Vivica A. Fox’s character. I love Lucy Liu’s character. I even love Bill because he’s super complex,” SZA told EW of the original 2003-2004 films. “I feel like he doesn’t understand why he did what he did. He’s void of emotion, but he loved The Bride so much that he couldn’t stand her to be with anyone else. That was really complex and cool to me. It’s a love story. I just watched it again for inspiration for the music video that we’re gonna shoot for ‘Kill Bill.’”

Listen to the alternate versions below.

13 Jan 2023

First Stream: New Music From Miley Cyrus, Bizarrap & Shakira, Sam Smith and More

Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

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This week, Miley Cyrus grows with “Flowers,” Shakira doesn’t hold anything back alongside Bizarrap, and Sam Smith recruits two pals to keep evolving. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:

Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” 

Throughout her career, Miley Cyrus has remade her image and sound at the start of a new album era, from the grown-up synth-pop of Can’t Be Tamed to the audacious hip-hop influence of Bangerz to the pensive country-pop of Younger Now to the homage-paying guitar-rock of Plastic Hearts. As a sleek, disco-adjacent midtempo pop track, “Flowers,” the first taste of upcoming album Endless Summer Vacation, doesn’t tip its hand and reveal a radical sonic reinvention for Cyrus — but that lack of transformation actually benefits the superstar, who sings of changing course and finding self-fulfillment after a breakup, in this context. Singing with wisdom and a steady sense of space on “Flowers,” Cyrus shows that she can still conjure pop magic, but can also feel comfortable in her own skin.

Bizarrap & Shakira, “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” 

“This is for you to be mortified, to chew and swallow, swallow and chew,” Shakira declares on volume 53 of Bizarrap’s acclaimed (and increasingly popular) music sessions — and indeed, the collaboration is intended as an evisceration, with several haymakers directed at Shakira’s ex-husband, soccer star Gerard Piqué, already making the rounds on social media. However, don’t let the tabloid fodder outshine Shakira’s most vibrant single in years: “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” is rich with hooks, beat changes and invigorated singing, as if dunking on her ex has unlocked the most dazzling version of an all-time superstar.

Sam Smith feat. Koffee & Jessie Reyez, “Gimme” 

The Sam Smith Renaissance continues with “Gimme,” a lush dancehall riff on which the singer-songwriter, having recently tinkered with their microphone persona on the sweaty hyperpop smash “Unholy,” downplays their crooning for a more subtle, sensual delivery, to great effect. Instead of sacrificing the intimacy of a sexually charged song like “Gimme,” guest stars Koffee and Jessie Reyez switch up the song’s chemistry and make every second of the track, from the chiming refrain to the bumping second verse, as impactful as possible.

Moneybagg Yo & GloRilla, “On Wat U On” 

Give Moneybagg Yo and GloRilla, two rock-solid Memphis rappers increasingly crucial to mainstream hip-hop, a bass-heavy beat with a menacing piano line, and the results are probably going to be stellar. Yet “On Wat U On” represents more than a reliable head-knocker from the CMG label mates: as the pair justify their kiss-offs while cosplaying in an unstable relationship, they form a symbiotic relationship of loners who know what they want and can toss in the right ad-libs to demonstrate as much (GloRilla earns extra points for dropping “Hate yo’ ass!” to punctuate a line).

Margo Price, Strays 

In the summer of 2020, during the throes of the pandemic, Margo Price and her husband/collaborator Jeremy Ivey spent six days in South Carolina taking a ton of hallucinogenic mushrooms and furiously penning the album that would eventually become Strays; that backstory explains the inhibited songwriting at the heart of the country-folk mainstay’s fourth album, but also underscores how nuanced the album can be in between more free-wheeling moments. Tracks like the kicky “Been to the Mountain” are balanced out with “County Road,” a poignant message to a young victim of a car accident, and “Lydia,” a powerhouse ballad about abortion that stands among Price’s best work.

PartyNextDoor, “Her Old Friends” 

About 95 seconds into new single “Her Old Friends,” PartyNextDoor locks into a groove that reminds casual fans why he’s still such an exciting presence in popular R&B: his voice floats up then twists back down, and stacked vocals circle in and out of harmonizing, as if a ghostly chorus can’t decided whether or not to support him. The new track follows singles like “Sex in the Porsche” and “No Fuss,” hinting at the first PND full-length since 2020… but regardless of when that arrives, moments like that in the middle of “Her Old Friends” are worth savoring.

13 Jan 2023

Robin ‘Robbie’ Bachman, Bachman-Turner Overdrive Drummer, Co-Founder Dies at 69

Robin “Robbie” Bachman, the co-founder and drummer of 1970s rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died at 69. The news was announced by Bachman’s older brother, former Guess Who singer and BTO vocalist Randy Bachman in a statement on Thursday (Jan. 12), in which he wrote, “Another sad departure. The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad & brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine and we rocked the world together. #RIP #littlebrother #family.”

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The Winnipeg, Manitoba-bred band (also known as BTO) formed in 1973 and blazed a trail through the prog rock and disco era with a series of hard-charging AM radio rock hits including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” as well as “Takin’ Care of Business,” “Roll on Down the Highway” and “Let It Ride.” The original lineup included another Bachman sibling, guitarist Tim Bachman (replaced by Blair Thornton in 1974), as well as bassist Fred Turner.

BTO released their self-titled debut in May 1973, but it was their second album, Dec. 1973’s Bachman-Turner Overdrive II that broke them in the U.S., thanks to signature hits “Takin’ Care of Business” and “Let It Ride.” The group’s third effort, 1974’s Not Fragile, hit No. 1 on the Billboard album charts and spawned the driving, stuttering No. 1 hit “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and another enduring classic rock radio staple “Roll on Down the Highway,” co-written by Robbie Bachman.

Singer Randy Bachman split after the release of 1977’s Freeways, replaced by bassist Jim Clench, with the group forced to perform as BTO due to the ex-singer’s rights to the full name. The band split up in 1980 and reunited three years later, with Robbie Bachman replaced by former Guess Who drummer Gary Peterson; he returned in 1988 for another three-year run.

Due to ongoing tensions between the Bachman brothers, the revolving door of band lineups continued throughout the late 1980s through a second break-up in 2005; that break-up marked the official end of Robbie Bachman’s run with BTO. Randy Bachman returned for a fourth stint on the mic in 2009, leading the group through its final split in 2018.

See Randy Bachman’s tribute and listen to “Roll on Down the Highway” below.

13 Jan 2023

Oak View Group Launches New Paid Network for Theater Venues

Tim Leiweke’s Oak View Group has created the entertainment industry’s first paid membership-based theater network, signing iconic venues like New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and Orange County’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts as its first clients. Led by executive director Noël Mirhadi, a longtime music agent in the performing arts and theater space, the new Theater Alliance is modeled after OVG’s Arena Alliance and Stadium Alliance and is being developed to utilize the collective strength of its members to scale up booking, routing and sponsorship sales. 

The Theater Alliance will have 18 members in total representing 39 performance spaces including the Madison Square Garden-owned Beacon Theater and Chicago Theater, the ACL Live at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas; the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, the Portland’5 Centers for the Arts and Stifel Theatre in St. Louis. 

Each venue is independently run, Mirhadi explains, and “will work with OVG as an extension of their team with the two main pillars being programming and sponsorship opportunities.” That includes working with OVG’s Joe Giordano, vice president overseeing the Theater Alliance and Arena & Stadium Alliance, to identify and expand booking opportunities to more member venues, as well as offer sales and development resources not always available at arts organizations. 

“Theaters serve as the heartbeat of their community. I understand and appreciate this sentiment having started as a musician and having gone on to dedicate my professional life and career to music and the arts,” Mirhadi said. “I’m thrilled to have joined Oak View Group as we create and launch our new Theater Alliance, which will support these critically important institutions and help them continue to thrive. ” 

Having a presence in the theater world has long been a priority for Leiweke and Chris Granger, president of OVG 360, the company’s venue services division. Besides viewing theaters as an important development platform for the company’s many arena clients, Grangers says the formation of the Theater Alliance is a major opportunity to bring together the country’s leading art institutions.  

“At OVG, we not only want to support venues, artists and our corporate partners, we also want to be good stewards of the communities that we’re in,”Granger tells Billboard. “We want achieve success through the arena and stadium alliances, and now the Theater Alliance, by bringing together like-minded venues to book together, sell together, buy together, think together and brand together.” 

Granger says that facilities will pay a “mid-six figures” annual contribution for their membership in the theater alliance and that members must make a multi-year commitment to the invitation-only Theater Alliance when they commit to join.  

“Our goal is to not just to help our members work in concert to improve their operations and overall guest experience, but, perhaps more importantly, to creatively elevate the arts and attract a new generation of theatergoers from within their communities, because we are all better when the arts thrive,” Granger added. 

OVG will announce the inaugural members of the Theater Alliance, which also include the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, Boston’s Boch Center, the First Interstate Center in Spokane, Loew’s Jersey Theater, the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, the Paramount Theatre in Denver, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, during the Association for Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) conference opening session today.  

“The demand for the Theater Alliance was certainly amplified coming out of the pandemic.” Giordano says. “Performing arts venues across the nation, which are traditionally costly to operate, all face similar challenges. The Alliance, under Noël’s outstanding leadership, is eager to continue building the network of top venues in first tier markets to help them meet and exceed their programming and budgetary goals, and bring opportunities to the table that they didn’t even know were possible.” 

More information at OakViewGroup.com 

13 Jan 2023

Kanye West Married Yeezy Architect Bianca Censori In Private Ceremony: Report

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Bianca Censori x Kanye West dining

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Ye fka Kanye West is off the market, allegedly. Reportedly, the MAGA-friendly rapper and designer recently married a Yeezy architect named Bianca Censori in a private wedding ceremony.

Bianca Censori is the same formerly unnamed blonde mystery woman that Ye had been spotted about town with by the paparazzi. However, their marriage isn’t officially in the books, at least not yet.

Reports TMZ:

Sources connected to the couple tell TMZ the woman is Bianca Censori, and she’s worked as an architectural designer at Yeezy for several years. She’s also been a brunette until switching things up to the short blonde look we’ve recently seen.

Our sources say Ye and Bianca recently had some sort of wedding ceremony — though we’re told it doesn’t appear they’ve filed a marriage certificate to make it legal.

Ye was seen wearing a wedding ring of sorts while eating with Censori at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. TMZ’s “source,” surely a Ye homie, says the ring symbolizes his commitment.

This news comes after Ye was keeping a low profile, which caused speculation that he was in some sort of hiding. Before going underground, he was on a scorched Earth campaign of antisemitism and tomfoolery that kicked off after a tweet where he said he was going “Death Con 3 [sic] on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He’s been fumbling multiple bags and his fortune ever since.

Congratulations?