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Ari Emanuel Leaves Live Nation Board After Stocks Vest, Taking Endeavor Public
But his timing exiting Live Nation makes sense for another reason: Documents obtained by Billboard suggest Emanuel was waiting until June 3 for the vesting of his final stock award of 4,470 shares issued June 2020 worth nearly $400,000. In a Live Nation SEC filing announcing Emanuel’s exit, the company said he “withdrew from reelection to the board of directors and will not be standing for reelection at the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders” on June 10. Live Nation officials note that the split was amicable and “not the result of any disagreement.” Emanuel has enjoyed a long relationship with Live Nation chief executive and president Michael Rapino. Endeavor’s talent agency, WME, is one of the world’s largest music agencies and has booked the company’s clients across Live Nati...
Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Other Big U.K. Musicians Join Campaign For Larger Streaming Share
The letter’s signatories are calling for a government referral of the multinational corporations that wield “extraordinary power” over the music business to the U.K. competition enforcer, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which can act against businesses engaging in anti-competitive behavior. The U.K. Parliamentary probe has seen major labels’ dominance of the market emerge as a central issue. The first stage of the inquiry concluded with government minister Caroline Dinenage saying she would support a referral of the three biggest music companies — Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music — to the CMA. The committee expects to publish their report next month before Parliament breaks for its summer recess, although a date has not been announced. Ministers will then have eigh...
Wolf Alice Leap Into Top Spot on U.K. Midweek Chart With ‘Blue Weekend’
The London band will hope to go one better than their previous albums. Their 2015 freshman set My Love Is Cool and 2017 followup Visions of a Life both reached No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, missing out to releases from Florence + The Machine and Shania Twain, respectively, after leading at the hallway mark. Coming in at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update is veteran Manchester band James with All The Colours (Nothing But Love Music), while last week’s leader, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (Geffen), dips 1-3. Neil Finn’s reunited Crowded House could snag their highest-charting album in 14 years with Dreamers Are Waiting (EMI), the followup to 2010’s Intriguer. It’s new at No. 4. The ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted band has four U.K. Top 10s, including a No. 1 for 1996’s career retrospective&nb...
Paul Onuachu wins Ebony Shoe Award for Best African Player in Belgium
Paul Onuachu has won the Ebony Shoe award for the Best African player In Belgium for the 2020/21 season, reports Completesports.com. The Nigeria international succeeded Antwerp and Congo Democratic Republic forward Dieurmaci Mbokani as the winner of this year’s award. The 27-year-old was top scorer in the Belgian Pro-League with 29 goals in 33 appearances. He scored four times in five games in the Jupiler Pro League PlayOff and once in the Beker van Belgie to bring his total tally to 35 in 41 games. The striker is the fifth Nigerian to win the award after Daniel Amiokachi (1992,1994), Victor Ikpeba (1993), Godwin Okapara (1995) and Celestine Babayaro (1996). Onuachu beats his Genk teammate Théo Bongonda who scored 18 goals and bagged six appearances in 39 games in all competitions; RSC And...
Exam malpractices: Lagos fines 27 schools N13.5 million
The Lagos State Government has fined a total of 27 private schools N13.5 million as part of punishments for being involved in examination malpractices during the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) which was conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Each of the affected schools is to pay N500,000. This decision was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the Office of the Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) of the state’s ministry of education. The statement, which was signed by the spokesman for the OEQA, Emmanuel Olaniran, noted that the decision followed a report by the regional examination body which indicted the concerned private secondary schools. According to Mr Olaniran, WAEC officials, who monitored the conduct of the examination across the stat...
Nigeria orders broadcasters not to use Twitter to gather information
Nigerian television and radio stations should not use Twitter to gather information and have to de-activate their accounts, the broadcast authority said following the move to suspend the US social media giant in Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria’s government on Friday said it had suspended Twitter’s activities, two days after the platform removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish secessionists. Nigerian telecoms firms have since blocked access to Twitter. International diplomats responded with a joint statement in support of “free expression and access to information as a pillar of democracy in Nigeria”. Buhari, who was Nigeria’s military ruler in the 1980s, has previously been accused of cracking down on freedom of expression, though his government has ...
Rivals say Boko Haram chief dead as jihadists battle for control
When Nigeria’s military claimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been badly wounded in an air strike 2016, the jihadist chief soon appeared in a video to deny another of the many reports of his impending death. Over the weekend, it was an audio from a rival jihadist group finally claiming Shekau had died, detonating explosives to kill himself rather than surrender after a raid on his forest stronghold by his Islamic State-allied enemies. The Boko Haram warlord’s death marks a major shift in Nigeria’s conflict, potentially allowing ISIS jihadists to consolidate and further challenge an already stretched army in their long war. In the audio obtained by AFP, a voice apparently of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander Abu Musab Al-Barnawi confirmed Shekau killed himself whi...
Senegalese navy seizes 8 tonnes of cannabis resin from boat
The Senegalese navy on Sunday intercepted a boat smuggling over 8 tonnes of cannabis resin through the waters off the West African nation’s coast, the armed forces ministry said in a statement. The vessel, which was flying a Togolese flag, was stopped 140 kilometres (87 miles) from the coastal capital of Dakar with seven crew members on board. After escorting the boat to a naval base in Dakar, the authorities discovered the 8.37 tonnes of hashish split between 279 bags. The boat was also carrying sacks of plaster, the ministry said on Monday. It did not provide a street value for the seized drugs. Earlier this year, authorities in Niger seized 17 tonnes of cannabis resin worth around 31 million euros ($37 million), the largest bust in the country’s history. According to Interpol, drug king...
Maduka Okoye: Super Eagles ready for revenge vs Cameroon
Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye says the team will look to avenge last Friday’s defeat to Cameroon when they face the Indomitable Lions in their second friendly on Tuesday night. Zambo Anguissa struck in the 37th minute to hand Antonio Conceicao’s side their first win against the West Africans in over two decades. The Super Eagles created a number of chances after the break but failed to make them count. Gernot Rohr’s charges have another opportunity to make amend in the second friendly and Okoye is confident they will come out with a win this time around. “We have taken some positives from the first match against Cameroon,” the Sparta Rotterdam of Holland goalie told the NFF media. “We had a good game and it was unfortunate that they scored with just that one shot on target. “However...
Sultan: What Nigeria needs now is excellent leadership
The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, says what the country needs at this time is excellent and purposeful leadership. Abubakar said this during the inauguration of an ultramodern camp for Muslim and Christians pilgrims in Bauchi state. He called on leaders to strive to ensure that they fulfill the purpose for which they were elected to their various positions. “Leaders should always strive to do what the people want, because it is the main reason they were voted into power by the people. “What the country needs now is excellent and purposeful leadership. Leadership has been bestowed on us by Allah. We should know that one day, we will all give account of our stewardship in the hereafter. “It is incumbent on us as leaders to discharge our responsibilities to the best of our ability. The fo...
How New Zealand’s Six60 Became the World’s Biggest Live Act This Year
Eden Park capped a string of major open-air shows in New Zealand, Six60’s second lap in support of their 2019 self-titled album. The band grossed $13.7 million and sold 168,761 tickets across seven shows in New Zealand in 2021, according to Billboard Boxscore. (Six60 played to another 10,000 fans at Cardrona Valley in Wanaka on Jan. 1; The pre-bought tickets were not included in official box office reports.) Having conquered their homeland, Six60 are now planning to take their touring juggernaut to audiences in Australia, the U.K. and Europe. “Every month we have a sit-down and try to figure out how to do something really big, to make a difference,” frontman Walters tells Billboard. “We’re continually trying to challenge ourselves.” A travel “bubble” connecting the lands Down Under op...
Shehu Sani: A submissive legislature will enable dictatorship
CNN Former senator representing Kaduna central, Shehu Sani, says having a subservient legislature leads to dictatorship. Speaking at the 2021 national conference of the Nigerian Progressives’ Coalition in Abuja, Sani said that a submissive legislative will only enable a governance style in which the whole nation will bow to the whims of one person. Although he made no mention of the current national assembly, the comments come amid the criticism against the leadership of the legislature which has remained silent on the government’s decision to suspend Twitter’s operations in Nigeria. At the conference held over the weekend, Sani spoke against a legislature that is “afraid to speak truth to power.” “The legislature is supposed to have the duty of oversight on the activities of the executive...