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Chris Kaba, a known UK Drill rapper, was shot and killed by a Metropolitan Police officer in September 2022 after a high-speed chase in South West London. Reports are now coming forth that the Met Police officer responsible for the death of Chris Kaba has been granted bail after they were initially charged.
We first learned of the Chris Kaba case via a report from The Sun, which shared in its reporting that the rapper was shot dead in Streatham Hill while driving an Audi Q8 that local police connected to an earlier gun incident. Kaba was followed by an unmarked police vehicle before officers boxed the car in. With Kaba trapped by the cars, one officer fired a shot into the front windshield, striking Kaba.
The unnamed officer, known only as NX121 according to a BBC report, was charged formally after an investigation from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded. The officer was held at Westminster Magistrates’ Court but appeared at the Central Criminal Court, known widely in London as the Old Bailey, and was granted bail.
Via a court order, officer NX121 was granted bail release but must alert the court of his living address, surrender his passport, and not apply to travel beyond the nation’s borders. Officer NX121 will appear again in court on December 1 of this year with a possible trial date of September 9 next year.
Kaba, also known as Itch, Madix, or Mad Itch, was a member of the 67 Hip-Hop collective and also worked as a construction worker. The crew has been framed as a criminal gang by Met Police and has faced criticism in the press due to the nature of their lyrics and beef with rival crews.
Chris Kaba was 24.
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Photo: @dimzy6ix7even / Instagram
Urgent action is needed to protect the United Kingdom’s longstanding success as one of the world’s biggest exporters of music, warns a new report from umbrella trade organization UK Music.
In particular, robust copyright laws must be put in place to ensure that creators and rights holders are shielded from the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI), says the trade body’s “Manifesto for Music,” published Tuesday (Sept. 12), which calls for increased government support to grow the sector.
In 2021, U.K. music exports totaled £2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) — up 10% on the previous year, but still lower than 2019’s pre-pandemic figures — according to data from UK Music. Those export totals are made up of record sales, publishing revenue, overseas touring by British acts and tourism spending by international tourists attending live shows in the United Kingdom.
When it comes to recorded music, hit albums by Harry Styles, Glass Animals and Ed Sheeran helped British music exports climb to a record high of £709 million ($910 million) last year, maintaining the country’s long-held position as the second largest exporter of music globally after the United States, according to labels trade body BPI.
Overall, the United Kingdom is the world’s third biggest recorded music market, as per IFPI rankings, behind the United States and Japan.
However, the growth of streaming in emerging territories such as Latin America, the Middle East and South Korea has eaten into the United Kingdom’s share of the global music market, which has fallen from a peak of 17% in 2015 to 12% in 2022. To arrest that decline, UK Music has published a five-point plan to boost exports, protect venues and studios, and promote diversity.
Among the trade group’s recommendations is the enforcement of strong copyright protections against generative AI systems, including clear labeling and a requirement for AI developers to keep and disclose records of any music works used for training purposes.
UK Music is additionally asking policymakers to introduce specific personality and image rights into the British legal framework — and ensure that AI-generated music is clearly distinguishable from human-created works.
Last month, a U.K. Parliament committee issued its own report on regulating the use of AI technology in the music and creative industries. One of the committee’s key recommendations was for the British government to commit to abandoning plans for a proposed (and since shelved) new text and data mining (TDM) exception that would allow AI companies to freely use copyright-protected works for commercial purposes.
“It’s critical that we ensure AI enables and supports human artistry and creativity, and does not damage it,” said UK Music interim chief executive Tom Kiehl, echoing the committee’s request to rule out any new TDM exceptions.
“Strong copyright and intellectual property protections must be at the center of any approach when it comes to AI,” said Kiehl.
Other recommendations in UK Music’s manifesto include the introduction of a new tax credit — similar to what’s in place in other European markets and some U.S. states — encouraging new music production in the country.
The trade group, which recently saw chief executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin exit the London-based organization to work for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is also calling for increased investment in music education and for the government to secure a post-Brexit cultural touring agreement with the European Union that would reduce costs for U.K. acts touring Europe.
“Without action, the U.K. risks being overtaken by countries who are more proactive and ambitious in promoting their music sectors,” said Kiehl.
The United Kingdom’s moves to police the rapidly evolving AI sector come as other countries and jurisdictions, including the United States, China and the European Union, explore their own paths toward regulating the nascent technology.
UK Music chief executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin has announced he is stepping down after three years at the helm of the British music industry trade body to become director of strategy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
A date has yet to be announced for Njoku-Goodwin’s exit from the organization, although it is expected to take place imminently. UK Music Deputy chief executive Tom Kiehl will take over from Njoku-Goodwin while the search for a new CEO is underway.
Njoku-Goodwin took over as CEO of UK Music in September 2020, succeeding Michael Dugher. Prior to joining the London-based organization, Njoku-Goodwin worked in politics, serving as a special adviser to former cabinet minister Matt Hancock and the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The first two years of Njoku-Goodwin’s time at UK Music, which represents all sectors of the United Kingdom’s music industry, coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and saw him campaign for government funding to help prop up the business at a time of national lockdowns and the shutdown of live shows.
In conjunction with other music trade groups, UK Music also lobbied the government to remove barriers to touring in Europe brought about by the country’s exit from the European Union. Those barriers — many of which still exist — include new restrictions for U.K. artists and crews entering Europe (and vice versa for European acts playing the United Kingdom) and increased production costs due to cabotage, carnets, visa and work permit charges.
A recent focus for UK Music has been ensuring that creators and rights holders receive effective protection from artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative impact on the industry.
Last year, Njoku-Goodwin strongly criticized what he referred to as “dangerous and damaging” plans by the British government allowing AI developers to freely use copyright-protected works, including music, to train their systems without the need for creators and rights holders to provide permission.
Speaking out against the proposals, which were met with a fierce backlash from across the music and creative industries, Njoku-Goodwin — who sits on the board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra — said they “would give the green light to music laundering.”
After further consultation with representatives of the music and media industries, the government announced that it was shelving the proposed text and data mining exceptions in February.
Other issues that UK Music has campaigned for in the past three years include music education and improving diversity and inclusion throughout the industry. The organization has also continued to regularly produce reports on the health of the U.K. music business, including last month’s “Here, There and Everywhere” assessment of the country’s live sector.
“The U.K. music industry is one of this country’s great national assets, and it’s been a privilege to represent it for the past three years,” said Njoku-Goodwin in a statement announcing his departure. “I’m delighted our sector is in much better shape now to take on the challenges and opportunities it faces in the future.”
Paying tribute, UK Music chairman Lord Watson said Njoku-Goodwin had “played a key role” in helping the industry get back on its feet after the struggles of the pandemic and called him “a passionate advocate for our sector.”
A U.K. Parliament committee is calling on the British government to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) developers are prevented from the free use of copyright-protected musical works for training purposes — and to commit to abandoning much-criticized plans that opponents say would significantly weaken copyright protections for artists and rights holders.
A report from the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee published Wednesday (Aug. 30) says that any future legislation governing the use of AI technology in the United Kingdom, the world’s third-biggest music market, must not risk “reducing arts and cultural production to mere ‘inputs’ in AI development.”
Committee members also state that urgent action must be taken to improve protections for artists and creators against the misuse of their likenesses, image rights and performances by emerging technologies such as generative AI.
The report comes more than a year after U.K. government body The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) first proposed the introduction of a new text and data mining (TDM) exception allowing AI developers to freely use copyright-protected works for commercial purposes.
Those plans, announced by the IPO last June, gave rights holders no option to opt out of the TDM exception, although they did state that tech developers would still require “lawful access” to any copyright-protected data, enabling rights holders to agree to license fees and charge for access.
The proposals drew strong criticism from across the creative industries, with Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, CEO of umbrella trade body UK Music, describing them as a “green light to music laundering.” In response, the government announced in February that it had listened to the objections and would no longer be proceeding with the original plans.
The CMS Committee welcomed the change of course but warned that the government’s handling “shows a clear lack of understanding of the needs of the U.K.’s creative industries.”
“The chorus of warnings from musicians, authors and artists about the real and lasting harm a failure to protect intellectual property in a world where the influence of AI is growing should be enough for ministers to sit up and take notice,” said CMS Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage in a statement.
Dinenage said the government must follow through on its pledge to abandon plans for a text and data mining exception to copyright-protected works and regain the trust of the creative industries by developing “a copyright and regulatory regime that properly protects them” from the potential risks of AI.
The U.K.’s current legal framework, which contains TDM allowances for non-commercial research purposes while also allowing rights holders to commercially license their work, “provides an appropriate balance between innovation and creator rights,” said the committee report.
The U.K.’s moves to police the rapidly evolving AI sector comes as other countries and jurisdictions, including the United States, China and the European Union, explore their own paths toward regulating the nascent technology.
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which was first proposed in April 2021 and is now being negotiated among politicians in different branches of government, is leading the way as the world’s first comprehensive legislation around AI. It states that generative AI systems will be forced to disclose any content that they produce that is AI-generated — helping differentiate computer-created works from those authored by humans — and provide detailed, publicly available summaries of any copyright-protected music or data they have used for training purposes.
Other provisions in European law, most notably those contained in 2019’s EU Copyright Directive, also deal with AI and text and data mining exceptions of copyrighted content, such as music, although these are more robust than those initially proposed — and since abandoned — by the U.K. government. These EU provisions include allowing rights holders to stop AI systems from using their content for training purposes, or to limit which ones can in order to license that right.
Responding to the CMS Committee’s recommendations, BPI chief executive Jo Twist said it was “essential that artists and rightsholders can work in partnership with technology and that policies do not allow AI to get a free ride, but to always respect human creativity by seeking permission and remunerating the use of creative content.”
LONDON — Located around 65 miles outside London, Bicester in leafy Oxfordshire is far removed from the bustling world of rock and roll. Despite its lack of star power, the historic market town is nevertheless set to play a key role in the British record industry as home to the United Kingdom’s biggest distribution warehouse for physical music and home entertainment.
Due to begin trading today (Aug. 29), the new 25,000-square meter facility is being opened by Swiss-based Utopia Music as part of a £100 million ($125 million) long-term deal with international logistics company DP World. With handling capacity of up to 250,000 units per day, operators say the state-of-the-art warehouse will distribute over 30 million CDs, vinyl records and Blu-ray discs a year across the United Kingdom and export markets on behalf of clients, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and [PIAS].
For Utopia Music, the opening of the Bicester site provides a much-needed boost after a troubled 12 months that has seen the company undergo multiple rounds of job cuts, executive departures, office closures, legal action over a stalled acquisition deal and the offloading of three of its businesses — Absolute Label Services, U.S.-based music database platform ROSTR and U.K.-based publisher Sentric.
For the wider music industry, the new warehouse facility acts as further proof of the continued demand for physical music formats, driven by the ongoing vinyl boom.
Last year, vinyl sales climbed 2.9% to 5.5 million units in the United Kingdom, marking the 15th consecutive year of growth, according to labels trade body BPI. In contrast, CD sales fell 19% year-on-year to 11.6 million units in 2022, though the format still accounted for more than two-thirds (67%) of all physical music purchases. Total revenue from physical music sales stood at £280 million ($352 million) in the United Kingdom last year — down 3.8% versus 2021 but up £9 million ($11 million) on 2020’s total, according to trade organization the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).
The latest year-to-date figures from BPI, meanwhile, show slight growth across the U.K. physical music market in 2023 compared to last year, while vinyl sales are up by around 15% versus the first 33 weeks of 2022 in volume terms. The trade body says that physical music revenues are on track to record double-digit percentage growth in 2023.
“A lot of people were too quick to write off physical and maybe now realize there is still a large and viable business here,” says Utopia Music vp of distribution Drew Hill on the eve of the new facility opening.
Fintech firm Utopia Music has owned a large stake in the U.K. physical music distribution business since January 2022, when it acquired Proper Music Group, the United Kingdom’s biggest independent physical music distributor, for an undisclosed sum. Eight months later, Utopia bought up the assets of Cinram Novum — which provides warehouse, fulfillment and distribution services to music labels and home entertainment companies — and renamed it Utopia Distribution Services (UDS).
Drew Hill
Utopia Music
Over the summer, stock has been transported from UDS’ previous warehouse in Aylesbury to the new Bicester site, which will handle 70% of all U.K. physical music sales, as well as 35% of domestic physical video (DVD and Blu-ray discs) sales each year, according to Utopia. Proper Music Group, which trades as a standalone entity within the Utopia group and provides distribution to over 5,000 indie labels and service companies, will continue to operate from its existing warehouse in Dartford.
Hill says the multi-million-pound investment that UDS is making in physical music will help ensure the survival of CD and vinyl formats for future generations. “Lots of other distributors have either gone to the wall or they have been massively underfunded. The physical music business is still a quarter of a billion-pound industry, and it really needed someone to come in and upgrade the infrastructure to be able to support that,” he says.
Utopia Music co-founder and interim CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt says the Bicester facility “marks a new beginning for the U.K.’s physical distribution market.”
The continuing shift away from physical formats toward streaming does, however, present considerable challenges to any company operating in the physical market. In 2022, Proper Music Group recorded revenue of £30.1 million ($38 million) for the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, down from £42 million ($53 million) in the prior 12-month accounting period, according to its latest financial records. The company says lower sales and increased operating costs were behind the £1.9 million ($2.4 million) net loss it posted last year.
In response to inflationary pressures, Proper raised its prices for the first time in over 15 years in late 2022, with UDS also increasing prices on what Cinram Novum was previously charging clients. Hill declines to reveal how much prices have increased but is confident that the measures taken will help Proper return to profitability in 2024, while the new Bicester facility will enable UDS to grow its client base through increased capacity and a greater focus on direct-to-consumer sales.
By tapping into DP World’s global network, which spans 75 countries on six continents, UDS will also be looking to grow physical music exports outside the United Kingdom. It also, says Hill, has long-term plans to replicate its centralized distribution model overseas, possibly in North America or Europe.
Commenting on Utopia’s well-publicized recent difficulties, Hill says support from the Swiss-based tech firm has been “unwavering” and both Proper and UDS have been “ring-fenced” from the cuts Utopia has implemented elsewhere over the past year.
“[CEO] Mattias [Hjelmstedt] has talked internally about how physical distribution is the engine room of Utopia. We provide a funnel through which it can present and sell its other products and services,” says Hill, who has worked for Proper for more than 15 years.
Hill adds that he has no concerns about the financial stability of Utopia and points to the growing popularity of vinyl, deluxe boxsets and special edition releases among music fans as a thriving growth area for the physical music business.
“Over time, maybe we will start to shift fewer units, but they will be units of higher value,” he says. “As long as you create a beautiful package with valuable content in it, people will always want to buy it.”
The U.K. live music industry enjoyed a post-pandemic boom in 2022, resulting in a windfall for the country’s economy, according to new figures published Tuesday (July 18).
According to a new report from umbrella trade organization UK Music, more than 37 million people attended live concerts and festivals in the country last year, contributing £6.6 billion ($8.6 billion) to the local economy. It was the first full calendar year that the U.K. live music industry was open for business after months of intermittent COVID-19 restrictions led to the cancellation of thousands of concerts.
The report, called “Here, There and Everywhere,” also found that the resurgence of live music events such as the Glastonbury Festival — which returned in 2022 after two years away — and sell-out tours by big-name artists like Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Stormzy helped attract more than 14 million international and domestic tourists to British gigs last year, reports UK Music.
Included among the 14.4 million “music tourists” — which UK Music defines as someone who has traveled at least three times the average commuting distance for their region — were 1.1 million overseas visitors.
Overall, the report found that more than 30 million people went to concerts in the United Kingdom last year — spanning everything from arena shows to tiny grassroots gigs — while 6.5 million music fans attended festivals.
“Here, There and Everywhere” is UK Music’s first report measuring the economic benefits of music tourism since its 2020 “Music by Numbers” study, meaning that accurate comparable numbers for preceding years are not available. According to 2020’s “Music By Numbers” report, which covered the prior 12 months, 33.7 million people attended U.K. live music events in 2019, including around 850,000 overseas visitors, contributing £4.7 billion ($6.1 billion) to the economy.
In 2022, 56,000 jobs were sustained by live gigs, said the London-based organization. The £6.6 billion ($8.6 billion) in music tourism spending for the year encompasses money spent on ticket sales, food and beverage sales, merchandise, venue parking, camping fees, accommodation, travel and additional spending outside of venues.
On a regional basis, London was the United Kingdom’s most popular destination for attending gigs, drawing 4.9 million music tourists who contributed £2 billion ($2.6 billion) in spending. The North West of England, a region which includes the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, was the second most popular destination for traveling music fans, with 1.9 million people visiting for live shows and spending £696 million ($907 million).
UK Music chief executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin said in a statement that last year’s figures were a “testament to just how important a thriving musical ecosystem is for our towns and cities,” but warned that the sector still faces huge challenges as it continues its post-COVID-19 recovery.
“With a venue closing every week, one in six festivals not returning since the pandemic, and many studios facing huge economic pressures, it’s vital that we protect the musical infrastructure that does so much for our towns and cities,” added Njoku-Goodwin, citing research from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) and Music Venue Trust (MVT).
LONDON — Global hit records by Harry Styles, Glass Animals and Ed Sheeran, coupled with the popularity of U.K. acts in emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa, helped British music exports climb to a record high of £709 million ($910 million) in 2022, according to new figures released by labels trade body BPI.
The London-based organization says 2022’s export tally is the highest annual total since BPI began analyzing labels’ overseas income in 2000. Last year also marked the ninth consecutive year of growth in U.K. music export trade revenues, which slumped to just over £200 million ($254 million at today’s exchange rates) in 2007.
BPI, which represents over 500 independent labels, as well as the U.K. arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, says the consistent year-on-year rise puts the country’s record industry on track to exceed £1 billion ($1.27 billion) in annual music exports by the end of the decade.
Driving last year’s 20% growth was a combination of globally successful British artists and the strong value of the U.S. dollar and other foreign currencies against the pound sterling.
British singer-songwriter Harry Styles’ hit single “As It Was” was the world’s most-streamed song in 2022, according to Luminate data cited by BPI, while Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” was number two. Other songs by U.K. artists in the year-end global top 10 included Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)” and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers.”
In total, around 450 U.K. artists accumulated more than 100 million global streams last year, up from almost 400 in 2021, BPI reports. That list includes Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Dave and Sam Smith, as well as veteran acts The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Queen. Overall, British artists claimed more than a quarter of the 50 most-streamed songs on Spotify in 2022.
Worldwide, consumption of British music increased in every region last year, says BPI, with export revenues rising 11% in Europe and up 28% in North America (equivalent trade values were not provided). The fastest-growing regions for U.K. music exports were Africa (up 48%) and the Middle East (up 59%).
On a country-by-country basis, all but one of the U.K.’s leading music export markets recorded a rise in export sales, including the U.S. – the leading international market for British acts – where revenues grew 28% to £292 million ($371 million). The second biggest country for U.K. music sales is Germany, where revenues climbed 4% to £58 million ($74 million), followed by France (up 15% to $54 million).
In line with the past several years, the U.K.’s share of the global recorded music market remains around 10%, reports BPI, despite the growing international popularity of music acts from Latin America and Asia, particularly South Korea.
In a statement, BPI interim chief executive Sophie Jones said the continued success of U.K. labels and artists overseas was “an exceptional achievement in the face of unprecedented competition on the global music stage, both from long-established and rapidly-expanding new music markets.”
The U.K. is the world’s third biggest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with sales of just over $1.8 billion in trade value, according to IFPI’s 2022 Global Music Report.
LONDON – Key players from the United Kingdom’s music industry have pledged to improve the digital metadata for song recordings to help ensure that artists and rightsholders are paid fairly.
Under the voluntary two-year agreement published Wednesday (May 31) by the U.K. government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the U.K. industry commits to progressively improve metadata for new music recordings and to accurately award credits on streaming services.
Signatories include representatives of major and independent record labels, publishers, creators and streaming services. Trade bodes BPI —which represents more than 500 labels, including the U.K. arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — and the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which acts on behalf of U.K. independent record labels and music companies, are among the music groups backing the pledge
The U.K. government also says that it will be setting up a new working group with music business stakeholders “to explore and consider industry-led actions on remuneration for existing and future creators” over the coming weeks. The working group will review a range of issues facing creators and rightsholders, says the IPO, including the impact of artificial intelligence.
“The U.K. is a hotbed for world-beating musical talent but as technology advances we need our thriving music industry to continue to offer viable career opportunities,” John Whittingdale, a U.K. government minister for the creative industries, says in a statement.
Whittingdale calls the metadata pact a “landmark agreement” that will help ensure musicians “in the digital age are fairly credited and compensated for their contributions and creativity.”
As streaming has grown to become the dominant mode of music consumption globally, the need for accurate metadata — the descriptive data underlying music recordings detailing who contributed what to a song’s creation and who owns it — has grown in importance in determining who gets paid what share of a track’s streaming royalties. But digital platforms, artists and rightsholders have complained that streaming metadata is often incomplete or inaccurate, which delays payments to songwriters and labels.
“Currently a fraction of recordings being streamed properly credit the people that wrote and published the song,” says Graham Davies, CEO of U.K. songwriters trade group The Ivors Academy, which has also signed the metadata agreement.
In 2021 the Ivors Academy estimated that at least £500 million ($625 million) in global streaming royalties a year were being wrongly allocated or not being paid at all due to missing or incomplete metadata. In a statement, Davies says the pledge “gives us the first proper step on a journey of closing the metadata gap.”
Sophie Jones, BPI interim CEO, says she hopes the agreement will lead to “immediate improvements” in the “speed and accuracy of songwriter payments.”
Other music groups and companies backing what is officially titled the United Kingdom Industry Agreement on Music Streaming Metadata include The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA), whose members include streaming services; Hipgnosis Songs Fund; the Music Publishers Association (MPA); Musicians’ Union (MU); Featured Artists Coalition (The FAC) and U.K. collecting societies PRS for Music and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL).
Wednesday’s metadata agreement is the latest in an ongoing series of government-led interventions into the U.K. music industry that spun out of a Parliamentary inquiry into the economics of the music streaming business.
That initial review concluded in July 2021 with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Select Committee calling into question the major record labels’ dominance of the industry and branding the global streaming model as unsustainable in its current form, saying it “needs a complete reset.”
Since then, the government has initiated multiple investigations and inquiries into the U.K. music industry, including a market study review of the record business by the U.K. competition regulator. That ended in November when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) determined that low returns from streaming for most artists “are not the result of ineffective competition” between the three major labels.
Last year the British government set up two working groups – led by the IPO and made up of industry stakeholders — looking at issues raised by the Parliament probe. One focused on metadata, which has now concluded. A second working group is looking at improving transparency around licensing and royalties for artists. The IPO says it is due to publish the second group’s findings, including a code of practice, in the coming months.
LIVERPOOL, U.K. — On Saturday, 26 music acts from Europe, Israel and Australia — many dressed in a dazzling display of outlandish outfits — will take the stage at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena to compete in the Grand Final of what can justifiably call itself the biggest music competition in the world: the Eurovision Song Contest.
When it comes to music television shows, Eurovision, taking place this year in Liverpool on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, dwarfs them all. More than 161 million people across 34 countries watched last year’s show, held in Turin, Italy and won by Ukrainian rap-folk band Kalush Orchestra, an increase of 7 million viewers (4.5%) from 2021, according to organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
In audience terms, that puts Eurovision ahead of the Super Bowl, the biggest annual U.S. television event, which drew 113 million TV and online viewers for February’s contest. Comparing to awards shows, 12.5 million viewers tuned into this year’s Grammy Awards, a rise of 31% year-on-year, while 2022’s MTV Video Music Awards averaged 3.9 million viewers, up 3% on the prior edition. This year’s Brit Awards, the U.K.’s biggest music awards show, also drew a television audience of just under 4 million.
While many viewers in the United States and United Kingdom have long regarded Eurovision as little more than a kitsch joke with novelty costumes, the song contest’s enormous audience gives it an unrivaled reach as a marketing platform, making the competition – famous for introducing ABBA to the world — an increasingly attractive launching pad for record labels to develop artists.
Netflix 2020 musical comedy film “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, further elevated the event’s international profile, introducing its idiosyncrasies to a wider global audience.
But it was the success of Italian rock band Måneskin, whose international career exploded after winning 2021’s contest with “Zitti e buoni” (Shut up and behave) that “changed the game completely” in how executives and labels approach the competition, says Andrea Rosi, CEO of Sony Music Italy, which counts Måneskin on its roster.
Earlier this week, the Italian act played a sold-out show at London’s 20,000-capacity The O2 arena, while the band’s most recent album, Rush!, topped the charts in multiple countries and debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 in January – Måneskin’s highest ever U.S. chart placing.
In the past, Eurovision “was not so important for the Italian market,” and there were some years when it was not televised in Italy at all, says Rosi. “Now the picture is completely different. National television is giving much more space to the [competition] and it brings massive exposure to the artists [taking part] across the world.”
Italy’s entry in Eurovision’s 67th edition, which wraps up Saturday, is Marco Mengoni, already an established star in his home country, who came seventh in the competition 10 years ago and is signed to Sony Music Italy. Rosi is confident that Mengoni’s song, “Due Vite” (Two Lives), a soaring orchestral ballad sung in Italian, will help open up new markets for the artist.
Ahead of the competition, which kicked off Tuesday with the first of two semi-finals, Sony Music Italy worked with its international label partners to devise an extensive marketing campaign to build Mengoni’s profile in Europe. Last month, he played club dates in France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. A larger follow-up European tour, promoted by Live Nation, is scheduled for the fall. This summer, Mengoni will play a series of sold-out stadium shows in Italy, wrapping July 15 at Rome’s Circus Maximus.
Since being selected in February to represent his home nation at Eurovision, Mengoni’s “Due Vite” has topped the charts in Italy and, says Rosi, is now “starting to have traction” in other European countries, including Germany and Switzerland. “It’s been a long time [since] an Italian pop artist has been successful outside Italy,” he says. “We have big hopes for Marco.”
As one of the so-called ‘big five’ countries taking part in Eurovision, Italy’s entry automatically qualifies for a place in Saturday’s grand final because of their broadcaster’s financial contributions to the event. The rest of the big five is made up of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain, while Ukraine also receives a free pass as last year’s winner. In total, 37 countries are taking part in Liverpool across two semi-finals and the main show.
Among this year’s favorites to win is Sweden’s Loreen, who won the competition in 2012. Her 2023 Eurovision entry “Tattoo” has earned around 20 million combined views on YouTube. (The singer’s official Eurovision video has 3.8 million views).
Another hotly tipped act is Finnish rapper Käärijä, whose catchy entry “Cha Cha Cha” has generated around 15 million combined views on YouTube, by Billboard’s calculations. Since being first released in January, the song has been streamed more than 18 million times and has become “the biggest phenomenon ever in Eurovision history in Finland,” says a spokesperson for Warner Music Finland.
The publicity has given a massive boost to Käärijä’s profile. At the start of the year, the artist had around 1,500 followers on TikTok. Following the first semi-final on Tuesday, that number had grown to just under 100,000. Monthly listens on Spotify have jumped from just under 50,000 in January to 1.2 million.
Käärijä is one of four Warner Music entries in this year’s contest – the others being Austria’s Teya & Salena’s “Who The Hell Is Edgar?”, Reiley’s “Breaking My Heart representing Denmark and Polish singer and model Blanka, whose song “Solo” marks her debut for the label. Since its release in November, “Solo’s official video has had 23 million views, while Spotify streams have crossed 10 million — largely fueled by the publicity from Eurovision.
Hubert Augustyniak, head of non-urban A&R at Warner Music Poland, is confident that competing in the competition can help break Blanka outside her home market, where, he says, Eurovision has already made her a “really well-known” star.
“It is not easy to do international marketing when you are a Polish label,” says Augustyniak, “so this is a huge opportunity for us.”
LIVERPOOL, U.K. — The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 kicked off Tuesday with a jubilant party of elaborate PVC costumes, soaring rock ballads and cheesy Euro pop, as contestants competed in the first of two semi-finals to determine which 20 acts would move on to Saturday’s Grand Final.
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The semi-final at the 11,000-capacity M&S Bank Arena, standing on Liverpool’s waterfront next to the River Mersey, marked the official start of the annual competition. The 10 acts moving on were Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway. That means the Netherlands, Malta, Latvia, Ireland and Azerbaijan were eliminated.
The United Kingdom is hosting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest – famous for introducing ABBA to the world – on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, which won last year’s competition with “Stefania” by Ukrainian rap-folk band Kalush Orchestra (the U.K. finished second through Sam Ryder’s “Space Man”).
It is the first time that the U.K. has held the contest in 25 years with Liverpool – whose illustrious music history includes The Beatles and Echo & the Bunnymen — fully embracing its role as host city.
Memorable highlights (although not always for the right reasons) included Croatia’s Let 3, who stripped down to their underwear as they wielded giant missile props for their song “Mama ŠČ!”, and Israel’s Noa Kirel with her marauding dance pop track “Unicorn.”
Some of the night’s biggest cheers went to two of this year’s favorites to take home the main prize: Sweden’s Loreen, who won the competition in 2012 and performed “Tattoo” on Tuesday; and Finnish rapper Käärijä, who sung his catchy song “Cha Cha Cha,” semi-topless, wearing only black spiky trousers and bright green Incredible Hulk-style sleeves.
In a mid-show interval of the two-and-a-half-hour show Rita Ora also performed a medley of her biggest hits, including singles “Anywhere,” “I Will Never Let You Down” and Praising You.”
Other non-competition performers included Liverpool singer Rebecca Ferguson and Ukraine’s Alyosha in a duet of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” which they dedicated to refugees who had been forced to leave their country.
The semi-final was hosted by British TV personality and singer Alesha Dixon, “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina — who opened the show with her band The Hardkiss. It was broadcast live on television in the U.K. and throughout Europe.
In total, 37 countries are taking part in this year’s contest. Ukraine automatically qualifies for the final as 2022 winners, as do the so-called ‘big five’: the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who all get a free pass to the main show because of their financial contributions to the event.
Viewers in participating countries vote to decide the winner, although people can’t vote for an act from their own country. The second semi-final takes place on Thursday when another 16 acts will perform.
In the runup to the competition, Liverpool has been transformed into a vibrant display of Eurovision banners and Ukrainian flags.
Ahead of Thursday’s semi-final, the English National Opera put on a free show at the purpose-built fan village on Liverpool’s Pier Head, where they were joined by a series of former Eurovision contestants, including singer Ruslana, who won for Ukraine in 2004, and international opera stars who performed classical arrangements of some of the contest’s past hits.
“I bring one message: Listen my sisters and brothers, we need to stop this bloody terrible war as soon as possible,” Ruslana said. “And I ask you, just help Ukraine to win. Because we are fighting for freedom. We are fighting for light. The light of human heart.”