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30 Dec 2022

Two 2023 Grammy Telecast Executive Producers Are Also Grammy Nominees: It’s a First!

Raj Kapoor and Ben Winston, two of the executive producers of the 2023 Grammy telecast, are Grammy nominees for best music film as the video producers of Adele’s Adele One Night Only.

This marks the first time that someone who is executive producing the Grammy telecast has also been nominated in a competitive category — though Pierre Cossette, who was responsible for turning the Grammys into a live telecast in 1971, came very close at the 1992 show, where The Will Rogers Follies won for best musical show album (now called best musical theater album).

Cossette was a producer of that musical, which starred Keith Carradine as the genial humorist, best known today for his saying “I never met a man I didn’t like.” The crowd-pleasing show won six Tonys, including best musical, which Cossette shared with the other producers.  But he was not a Grammy nominee for the cast album. The Grammy went to Cy Coleman, the composer of the show; Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the lyricists; and Mike Berniker, who co-produced the cast album with Coleman.

The fact that Cossette wasn’t nominated didn’t stop the hammy producer from joining his colleagues on the Grammy stage and giving an acceptance speech. But the Recording Academy, to its credit, didn’t bend the rules to give him an award.

Cossette and Ken Ehrlich, his successor as executive producer of the Grammy telecast, received trustees awards from the Academy in years they were executive producing the show. (Trustees awards are the equivalent of lifetime achievement awards for non-performers.) Cossette received it in 1995, during his reign as executive producer; Ehrlich in 2020, for his final show as executive producer.

Kapoor and Winston won Primetime Emmys in September as executive producers of Adele One Night Only, which won five Emmys, including outstanding variety special (pre-recorded). They shared that award with Adele, Jonathan Dickins, Tara Montgomery, Terry Wood and Rob Paine.

Adele and video director Paul Dugdale are also nominated for Grammys for their work on Adele One Night Only. The other nominees for best music film are Justin Bieber’s Our World, Billie Eilish’s Billie Eilish Live at the O2, Rosalía’s Motomami (Rosalía TikTok Live Performance), Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story (which is credited to Various Artists), and Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s BARN.

30 Dec 2022

Morgan Wallen’s ‘You Proof’ Becomes First 10-Week No. 1 in Country Airplay Chart History

Morgan Wallen hits an unprecedented milestone on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Jan. 7, 2023) as “You Proof” becomes the first song to lead the list for double-digit weeks.

The song, released on Big Loud Records, rules Country Airplay for a 10th week, with 22.8 million audience impressions Dec. 23-29, according to Luminate.

A week earlier, “You Proof” surpassed two titles that dominated Country Airplay — which began in January 1990 — for eight frames each and had shared the record for the list’s longest command for nearly two decades: Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett’s “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” (2003) and Lonestar’s pop crossover hit “Amazed” (1999).

“Breaking this record is simply a testament to a huge song and Morgan continuing to evolve and strengthen as a vital artist to country radio,” Big Loud vice president of promotion Stacy Blythe told Billboard when “You Proof” notched its ninth week atop Country Airplay. “It also shows the consistent work ethic of the Big Loud radio team and support from radio. There were a lot of folks who stepped up on a holiday week to help us get here and it’s not taken for granted.”

Wallen co-wrote “You Proof” — a stand-alone single that in October became his seventh No. 1 on Country Airplay — with ERNEST, Ashley Gorley, Keith Smith and Charlie Handsome, the lattermost of whom also produced it with Joey Moi.

The track also logs a record-breaking 16th week in the Country Airplay chart’s top three, passing Cole Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 beginning in September.

30 Dec 2022

Halsey, Courtney Love & More Remember Vivienne Westwood: ‘Your Legacy Is Immortal & Eternal’

Vivienne Westwood died on Thursday (Dec. 29) at the age of 81, and the music community flocked to social media to pay tribute to the fashion icon.

“Viv! My friend, my idol, my icon. There is not enough time or space in this format to appropriately describe the ways you impacted music, fashion, culture, and the like,” Halsey captioned a photo of herself and Westwood seated together in the front row of a fashion show. “Your legacy is immortal and eternal. I hope we will all continue to break boundaries and question institutions in your example and memory. I will cherish all of our conversations and teas (and *tea*! you had the best stories). Love always, and long live Queen Viv.”

Courtney Love, meanwhile, paid tribute to the designer on her Instagram Stories, writing, “I am so very sorry she has left & so very glad that she lived. & her message always will. Xxx.”&

Cyndi Lauper reminisced about Westwood’s vibrant fashion shows from the 1990s and legacy as a pioneer in “punk couture,” while Annie Lennox memorialized the designer’s longstanding commitment to activism. “Her life force simply blew definitions out of the water,” the Eurythmics singer shared, “far more an eighteen year old than eighty – one in human years – A fearless, formidable force of nature who turned everything upside down – inside out and back to front, both ‘literally’ and figuratively! Britain’s version of ‘Frida Kahlo’… Not ‘gone’ – She’s just moved elsewhere…”

RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. winner The Vivienne, whose drag name was inspired by the designer, also paid tribute on Twitter. “Vivienne Westwood is the woman that showed me I could do anything, I could wear what I wanted, she was an ICON and I lived my life through hers in some sorts of way,” the reality contestant tweeted. “There will never be another, but we’ll continue your fight.”

Read more tributes to Westwood’s memory below.

30 Dec 2022

Watch Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat Roast Kanye West, Salute U2 at 2022 Kennedy Center Honors

In the span of four minutes, Sacha Baron Cohen hilariously scorched Kanye West, honored U2, dissed Donald Trump, made President Joe Biden laugh and played himself out on a keytar, all in character as his beloved Borat persona. It all went down Dec. 4 at the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors event, and on Thursday (Dec. 29), the arts organization shared a video of the moment so that everyone who wasn’t in attendance can see — and laugh — for themselves.

In the video, Baron Cohen steps out onstage dressed in Borat’s signature suit and bushy mustache, greeting a crowd that also included honorees George Clooney, Amy Grant and Gladys Knight. The comedian — who is Jewish — was there to help celebrate U2, also one of the night’s honorees, but it didn’t take long for him to get topical with his speech.

“I must say I’m very upset about the antisemitism in U.S. and A,” he said. “It’s not fair. Kazakhstan is No. 1 Jew-crushing nation. Stop stealing our hobby!”

Of course, antisemitism has been thrust into the center of public discussion in the past couple months thanks in particular to Kanye West (who now goes by Ye). The rapper has been banned by several social media platforms and has been dropped from his deals with major brands — losing his billionaire status in the process — because of his repeated use of hate speech online and in interviews attacking Jewish people.

“Your Kanye, he tried to move to Kazakhstan and he even changed his name to Kazakhstan-ye West,” Baron Cohen continued, his Borat character a fictional journalist from the real country Kazakhstan. “We said no, he too antisemitic even for us.”

Baron Cohen also saved a little heat for the guys of U2, making a dig at their infamous partnership with Apple that involved the band’s 2014 album, Songs of Innocence, being automatically downloaded onto iTunes users’ personal devices, angering many. He also performed his own Borat-ified cover of one of the band’s biggest hits, “With or Without You,” earning uncomfortable laughs from the audience by replacing the word “you” with “Jews.”

“What the problem? They loved this at Mar-a-Lago,” he quipped, referencing Donald Trump’s current residence before performing a spirited solo on his keytar.

Watch Borat’s Kennedy Center Honors speech above. Want to check out the entire event? Here’s how you can stream it.

30 Dec 2022

Back To The Courts: Megan Thee Stallion Battle With 1501 Entertainment Over Contract Headed To Jury Trial

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Megan Thee Stallion is not done with court battles. Fresh off of a significant victory in the Tory Lanez trial and getting justice after being shot, she scored another win after a Houston judge sided with her instead of her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment.

Spotted on Billboard, Megan Thee Stallion is heading back to court. Her ongoing legal battle with 1501 Certified Entertainment is heading to a jury trial.

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Back in September, the label asked judge Robert Schaffer to decide a dispute in which Megan Thee Stallion claimed 1501 would not acknowledge her 2021 project Something for Thee Hotties as an album, meaning she had not fulfilled her contract back in September.

Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyers argued that the case should be decided by a jury rather than just a judge, and Schaffer agreed her $1 million lawsuit would proceed to trial.

After rendering his decision, Schaffer said that he was “of the opinion that the motion should be and hereby is denied in its entirety.”

Both Megan Thee Stallion’s & 1501 Certified Entertainment’s Legal Teams Had Something To Say

1501 Certified Entertainment’s legal team pointed out that the judge’s ruling did not resolve the dispute. “There is no amount of discovery that will change the answer to that question,” 1501’s lawyers wrote in their original motion filed in September.

“The court can compare the recording to the contractual requirements for an album and determine that ‘Something for Thee Hotties’ is not an album as a matter of law.”

“Pete should be allowed her day in court to present evidence and testimony to the jury demonstrating that she has done all that was required of her in the delivery and release of her albums,” her legal team said in response.

Roc Nation’s “Real Lawyers” Pointed Out Her Contract With 1501 Was “Crazy”

The 23-year-old Hip-Hop star claimed in her suit that 1501 tricked her into signing an “unconscionable” record deal that fell well below industry standards in 2018.

After linking up with Roc Nation the following year to handle management, she spoke with “real lawyers,” and they pointed out how “crazy” her contract with 1501 is. Thee Stallion also claims Carl Crawford and his imprint have “systematically failed” to pay her royalties.

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Photo: Jerritt Clark / Getty

30 Dec 2022

BLACKPINK Takes Over Los Angeles With Album Promo in 5th ‘Born Pink Memories’ Video: Watch

BLACKPINK is continuing to to share memorable moments from the year, and with just a couple of days left in 2022, the group released its fifth installment of “Born Pink Memories” on Friday (Dec. 30).

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The new episode sees members Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé kicking off a series of promotional events to support the release of Born Pink in the United States. In the visual, the quartet touches down in Los Angeles for Spotify and BLACKPINK present Born Pink: The Pop-Up Experience. The two-day event took place Sept. 16-18 and saw the K-pop idols posing for photos in the event space, interacting with the special merch items and celebrating the album’s release with glasses of champagne.

After the pop-up, the girls then head to a radio show for some promo — something they admit hasn’t happened for quite some time. “We’re in L.A., but we’re here for a radio recording,” Lisa tells BLINKs. Rosé adds, “It’s been a while since we’ve been on a U.S. radio show.”

But the promotional activities don’t stop there. BLACKPINK then goes for something a bit more casual with a stop at Target to share the contents of the Born Pink CD box set, before the video cuts to footage of the group’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Backstage, Lisa hilariously tells the camera, “I heard BLINKs are also coming today … I’m very happy to perform together with our L.A. BLINKs. Perform together? I’m very happy to perform in front of BLINKs today.”

The video closes out with tour rehearsal and promo video shoots. With the girls’ hectic Los Angeles schedule concluding, the four performers unanimously agree about their excitement to head back to Korea.

Watch the full episode of Born Pink Memories above.

30 Dec 2022

Here Are the 2023 Grammy Nominees for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

The Recording Academy has added compilation producer and music supervisor credits for the nominees for best compilation soundtrack for visual media. These names were not on the nominations list when it was first published on Nov. 15.

The category pits the soundtracks to four feature films – ELVIS, Encanto, Top Gun: Maverick and West Side Story – against the soundtrack to a TV series, Stranger Things. The soundtrack from that Netflix series is vying to become the second from a TV series to win in this category, following Boardwalk Empire: Vol. 1 (2012).The category was introduced in 2000.

Four of these five soundtracks are credited to Various Artists, rather than specific artists. The exception is Top Gun: Maverick, which is credited to Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe. Those individuals are also credited as compilation producers, but they would each win just one Grammy if the album won. Gaga won in this category three years ago for A Star Is Born. She was also credited as both an artist and compilation producer on that soundtrack.

ELVIS would be the sixth soundtrack from a biopic to win in this category, following Ray (Ray Charles, 2006), Walk the Line (Johnny Cash, 2007), Miles Ahead (Miles Davis, 2017), The Greatest Showman (P.T. Barnum, 2019) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Billie Holiday, 2022).

Here are the nominees for best compilation soundtrack for visual media, with newly added credits shown.

ELVIS (Various Artists)

Dave Cobb, Baz Luhrmann, Jamieson Shaw & Elliott Wheeler, compilation producers; Anton Monsted, music supervisor

Encanto (Various Artists)

Mike Elizondo, Tom MacDougall & Lin-Manuel Miranda, compilation producers

Stranger Things: Soundtrack From the Netflix Series, Season 4 (Vol 2) (Various Artists)

Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer, compilation producers; Nora Felder, music supervisor

Top Gun: Maverick (Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer & Lorne Balfe, artists)

Lorne Balfe, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga & Hans Zimmer, compilation producers

West Side Story (Various Artists)

David Newman, Matt Sullivan & Jeanine Tesori, compilation producers

30 Dec 2022

White House’s 2022 Year-End Review References a Taylor Swift Lyric

Taylor Swift’s “22” completely changed how people think about its title number. Even the White House isn’t immune to the 33-year-old pop star’s contagiously catchy melody — at least, that’s what the executive branch’s official year-end review, posted Thursday (Dec. 29), would suggest.

Written by domestic policy advisor Susan Rice and published on the White House’s website, the report summed up several of the Biden-Harris administration’s major accomplishments in 2022. But first, it began with the best, most obvious word-lyric association.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling ‘22,” Rice wrote, referencing the lyric from the chorus of “22.” She also posted the quote on Twitter.

Rice went on to cite President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress’ progressive strides in gun-control policy, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act — which Swift would most definitely approve of in particular, as she emotionally spoke about her personal stake in the act in Netflix’s Miss Americana — and many more as notable achievements made by the White House in the past 12 months.

“The past year undoubtedly brought its share of daunting challenges — from Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine, to devastating hurricanes along the Atlantic Coast and fires in the West, to stubbornly high inflation around the globe,” Rice wrote. “Yet, 2022 also yielded remarkable progress for the American people.”

The love between the current administration and Swift goes both ways. During Biden’s campaign in 2020, the “All Too Well” singer publicly endorsed him and even baked cookies declaring her support for his presidency. Biden later thanked her for her advocacy, and quoted one of her other lyrics on Instagram.

“Election Day is right around the corner — are you ready for it?” he wrote, referencing Swift’s Reputation single “…Ready For It?”

30 Dec 2022

Kimbella & Juelz Santana Break Up After 3 Years Of Marriage

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After three years of wedded bliss, Juelz Santana and Kimbella Vanderhee are calling it a wrap.

This past Wednesday (Dec. 28), the Love & Hip-Hop star took to her Instagram page to announce the news by posting a seductive picture of herself on the beach and simply stating “next chapter…S I N G L E” in the caption. Looking to explain the sudden split, Kimbella went back on her IG Stories and used a few movie clips to demonstrate how she felt while writing things like:

“Arguing 24/7 because his feelings were all that mattered… Begging him to change so we could make it work… Feeling numb because he made you feel like the problem… Watching him mess up again when he promised he’d change… Feeling alone after he lied the whole relationship.”

A person can only take so much before moving on. She stood by him while he dealt with his gun charge, apparent addiction problems and even dental struggles. She did her part, b.

Whether or not Juelz is in his feelings about the split or feels free (some men would celebrate the ending of a marriage), is unclear as he hasn’t commented on the matter. Spending more than a decade together, the couple share two children, Bella Monroe, 10, and Juelz Santana James, 12, and ultimately married in 2019.

Now that Kimbella and Juelz Santana are “back on the market” you can expect them to be “living their best lives” on social media for all to see and dissect.

What do y’all think of the breakup? Let us know in the comments section below.

30 Dec 2022

Adam Lambert Needs a Hero for His Moody New Bonnie Tyler Cover: Listen

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a new cover song by Adam Lambert!

On Friday (Dec. 30), Lambert shared his latest in a new string of covers with “Holding Out for a Hero,” his rendition of Bonnie Tyler‘s 1984 hit. For his version, Lambert brings the tempo down from its frenetic original pace, and replaces the iconic, chunky piano chords with a syncopated, sinister bass and guitar section that permeates the track. When it comes to his voice, though, the singer keeps the pure glam-rock sound alive with his signature growl as a choir joins him for the chorus.

The new cover comes as Lambert preps his next album, High Drama, for release in the new year. The LP will consist entirely of covers, two of which the star has already shared with the world (his renditions of Noël Coward’s “Mad About the Boy” and Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” respectively). High Drama will see Lambert taking on a few other classic singles — such as Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” and Ann Peeble’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain” — while also taking on some contemporary favorites including Billie Eilish’s “Getting Older” and Sia’s “Chandelier.”

“Holding Out for a Hero,” along with being a quintessential song of the ’80s, remains as one of Tyler’s biggest chart hits in her career. While “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “It’s a Heartache” both landed in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 1 and No. 3, respectively), “Hero” stands as her only other top 40 hit to date, reaching its peak of No. 34 in April 1984.

High Drama will be released on Feb. 24. Check out Lambert’s rollicking new cover of “Holding Out for a Hero” above.