business
Lorde Challenges Olivia Rodrigo For U.K. No. 1 Album
Sour leads on physical sales and streams, and is on track for a fifth non-consecutive week at No. 1. Lorde’s previous albums Pure Heroine (2013) and Melodrama (2017) reached No. 4 and 5, respectively, though the latter ruled the Billboard 200 chart following its release. In a midweek Top 10 stacked with new releases, Jake Bugg’s Saturday Night (RCA) bows at No. 3, and is poised to be his fifth straight Top 10 album; Brentford MCs Kurupt FM are on track for a Top 5 debut with their first LP, The Greatest Hits (Part 1) (via Polydor) at No. 4; while Irish indie-folk act Villagers complete the Top 5 with their sixth and latest studio album Fever Dreams (Domino Recordings), which is set to be their first Top 10 album. Elsewhere, new sets from Jane McDonald (Let The Light In at No. 6 via JM...
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Visiting Hours’ on Course For High Debut In U.K.
“Visiting Hours” is no ordinary record. Sheeran wrote while in quarantine en route to Gudinski’s state memorial in Melbourne on March 24, and he premiered the emotional number on the night. Also joining Sheeran on stage that evening was Gudinski’s good friends and signings Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes. Both are credited as backing singers on the single. Following his passing March 2, aged 68, Gudinski, the founder and chairman of the indie powerhouse Mushroom Group, was crowned Billboard’s International Power Player. Sheeran has described the Aussie entrepreneur as a “father figure” and a “tornado of joy,” and those memories will pour out in the new album, due out Oct. 29. The forthcoming LP is “a really personal record and one that means a lot to me,” ...
The Killers Snag Seventh U.K. No. 1 With ‘Pressure Machine’
With that feat, every studio album from The Killers has topped the main chart, dating back to their 2005 debut Hot Fuss. Including his solo work, The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers has an unbroken run of nine chart-topping albums, a chart record in the U.K. Other acts on an unbeaten run include Coldplay (with eight), Oasis (seven), and Arctic Monkeys (six), the OCC reports. The week’s most-streamed album belongs to Olivia Rodrigo, whose Sour (Geffen) lifts 4- 2, while electronic production duo Jungle swing in for a career-best No. 3 with Loving In Stereo (Caiola), their third album. Following the announcement last week Ed Sheeran’s forthcoming studio LP = (equals), his 2017 and most recent album Divide (Asylum) powers back into the Top 10, up 14-10. Over on the Official U.K. Singl...
R. Kelly Believed Aaliyah Was Pregnant Before They Married, Tour Manager Testifies
The conversation occurred before a concert in a city that Smith could not recall, but said he was instructed to book a flight after the show. With bodyguard Tyree Jameson along, Smith said, “As soon as the show was over, we got in the car and went to the airport.” Kelly was quiet in the limo, Smith recalled, and once they were on the plane, Kelly paused for a really long time with his eyes closed before making the revelation. “R. Kelly said, ‘Aaliyah, man. She think’s she’s pregnant,'” Smith testified. “It was a shock.” Smith said Kelly told him that his business manager and accountant Daryl McDavid was already making arrangements for Kelly and Aaliyah to get married. The two were later married in Cook Coun...
5 Seconds of Summer’s Luke Hemmings Lands Debut Solo No. 1 In Australia
Written and recorded during the 2020 lockdown, When Facing The Things We Turn Away From opens at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and is the 12th domestic leader on the national survey this year. In a statement, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd pays tribute to Hemmings and the “immense contribution” he’s made to “the Australian music landscape.” Also powering into the top tier this week is The Killers’ Pressure Machine (Island/Universal). It’s new at No. 6, for the Las Vegas alternative rock outfit’s ninth appearance in the Top Ten. Pressure Machine is the followup to Imploding The Mirage, which hit No. 1 in Australia just a year ago, in August 2020. Sydney indie rock outfit Polish Club cook up their first Top 10 appearance with their third studio album, Now We’re Cookin’ (Island/Universal). It...
R. Kelly Accuser Says in Tearful Testimony She Was ‘Trained’ to Please Singer as a Teen
“I went to Rob’s house and Rob called me ‘a silly bitch.’ Rob slapped me three times and said if I lied to him again it’s not going to be an open hand next time,” she read. “He spit in my face and in my mouth. He choked me during an argument. I had sex with him — oral sex with him. I became fed up with him and I went home and confessed.” Immediately after reading the the entry, Pace tearfully asked for a “bathroom break.” As the trial against Kelly entered its second day, at the prosecution’s request Pace detailed Kelly’s demands during their sexual encounters, at which time Pace was 16. “He wanted me to put my hair up in pigtails and dress like a Girl Scout,” she said. According to Pace, now 28, K...
The Judds Are Just the 4th Act to Go From Winning CMA Horizon Award to Country Music Hall of Fame
Garth Brooks: The superstar who took country to a whole new level won the horizon award in 1990 and was voted into the Hall in 2012—just 22 years later. It really can’t be done much faster than that. He beat Alan Jackson, Kentucky Headhunters, Lorrie Morgan and Travis Tritt for the horizon award. (Tritt nabbed the horizon award the following year. CMA rules allow artists two tries at the award.) Randy Travis: The country and gospel singer won the horizon award in 1986 and was voted into the Hall in 2016—30 years later. He beat the Forester Sisters, Kathy Mattea, Dan Seals and Dwight Yoakam for the horizon award. Ricky Skaggs: The country and bluegrass musician won the horizon award in 1982 and was voted into the Hall in 2018—36 years later. He beat John Anderson, Rosanne Cash, David Frizze...
How Risky Are Concerts? We Asked an Infectious Disease Expert
Billboard spoke with Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and an authority on infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness, to raise these questions. Adalja, 45, is a go-to pandemic expert, sharing his views on CBS This Morning, NPR and the BBC, among many others during the past year and a half. It turns out Adalja knows his way around concerts, too: A longtime skateboarder, Adalja grew up listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Metallica and Rancid and saw the original Lollapalooza twice. “We’ll have COVID cases 20 years from now,” he says. “Then we have to come up with a way to be able to go about our lives, making risk calculations jus...
Maroon 5 Will Be First Major US Act to Perform in Canada After Border Reopening
A spokesperson for Live Nation confirmed to Billboard that Maroon 5 will be the first major U.S. act to perform in Canada since the pandemic began early last year. Vaccinated Americans and permanent residents must submit proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival to Canada. The vaccinations must have been administered at least 14 days before entry. A steady stream of concerts in Canada featuring U.S.-based artists — most for dates in 2022 — have gone on sale this summer, including John Mayer, The Killers, Sebastian Maniscalco, Elton John and Sepultura. On the books from October through December of this year are shows in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver featuring Ricky Martin with Enrique Iglesias, Lemonheads, Maluma, Ge...
Downtown Music Holdings Names New CEO, Kalifowitz to Executive Director
Founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz moves to the role of executive director in the new leadership alignment. Downtown Music Holdings — the umbrella organization that houses several music-services brands like CD Baby, FUGA, Songtrust, Downtown Neighboring Rights and more — is shaking up its executive leadership team. Founder and CEO Justin Kalifowitz will transition to a new role as executive director of the company, while longtime general counsel and COO Andrew Bergman rises to the role of CEO. The moves will take place effective Sept. 1. Kalifowitz started Downtown in 2007 as a music publisher, a business it largely exited in April when it sold the rights to its 145,000-song catalog of publishing copyrights to Concord in a deal estimated at $350 million. (Downtown still serves a...
A24 Names NBA’s J.B. Lockhart as Studio’s First Chief Financial Officer
Indie film and TV studio A24 has tapped J.B. Lockhart, previously chief financial officer for the National Basketball Association (NBA), as its first CFO, according to The New York Times. Lockhart first started working for the NBA in 2013, before being named CFO in 2017. In that role, he spearheaded long-term strategic planning objectives and managed finances for the NBA and its various other entities, which include the WNBA, NBA G League, Basketball Africa League and esports league NBA 2K League. Before leading finances for the NBA, Lockhart worked in investment banking, primarily in the media and technology sector, and held positions in Disney’s Strategic Planning Group. Last month, A24, which is behind films including Moonlight, Ex Machina and Midsommar, was exploring pot...
Longtime Warner Music Central Europe CEO Bernd Dopp Is Stepping Down
Dopp is a five-decade veteran of WMG and the company’s longest-serving CEO in Europe. After working in retail, he joined Warner Music in 1984 as a label manager before working his way up to managing director of WEA Records a decade later. When WEA merged with Warner Classics and other entities to form Warner Music Germany in 2001, he was put in charge. In 2004, Warner Music International created a new European structure, grouping the major’s operations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GSA) into what would eventually be known as Warner Music Central Europe. As CEO from the very start, Dopp guided WMCE through the music industry’s oft-bumpy transition into digital and, more recently, through a once-in-a-generation pandemic. Through it all, he has delivered hits in his t...
