business
Forever No. 1: B.J. Thomas’ ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’
“When the film was released, I was highly critical — how did the song fit with the film? There was no rain,” Redford told USA Today in 2019, a half-century later. “At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was.” “Raindrops…” was hardly the most sophisticated song that Burt Bacharach and Hal David — the duo who’d penned many of the most pristine and affecting pop songs of the late ’50s and ’60s, including most of Dionne Warwick’s signature smashes — ever wrote. But it may have been their most universal, a song that everybody who has ever had a bad day or a rough patch could relate to. David’s lyric has a dash of whimsical humor (“So, I just did me some talkin’ to the sun/ And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done...
Ruido Fest Organizer on Returning After a Year Away: ‘I Never Had Any Doubt That We’d Come Back’
The summer festival scene seems to be more optimistic than last year. Prior to Ruido Fest, Chicago’s Lollapalooza will also make its return in full capacity from July 29-Aug. 1 at Grant Park. It will mark one of the first major North American festivals to occur since the pandemic began in March 2020. While those attending Lollapalooza will have to produce full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test results, for now, Ruido Fest producers say they will follow city, state and CDC guidelines but will not require proof of vaccination for entrance. “In terms of requiring people to do things, it’s tough in a society that praises freedom to enact things on people,” says Max Wagner, co-founder of Ruido Fest and owner of event productio...
IPOB sit-at-home: Black marketers sell petrol at N300 per liter in Ebonyi
Black marketers on major streets of Abakaliki cashed in on the sit-at-home order by the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Monday to make brisk business. They sold the premium motor spirit, otherwise called petrol, for between N200 and N350 per litre, following the closure of fuel outlets in the city due to the IPOB order. In separate interviews with newsmen, a cross-section of the hawkers expressed happiness over the development. Chidi Onu, who said he “made good business”, frowned at the restriction on business activities by IPOB. “Well, it is not my fault that these things are happening. It is high time we sat on a roundtable as citizens to discuss many issues affecting us as a nation. “Yes, the IPOB order has favoured me. I only came out to sell and have something for my ...
Olivia Rodrigo Smashes Records En Route to U.K. Chart Double
That’s also the biggest opening week for a debut album in two years, since Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent dropped in May 2019. Sour racks up 45.7 million track streams over the seven-day cycle — or 30,945 streaming-equivalent sales — for the most first-week streams for a debut album, eclipsing Capaldi’s record, according to the OCC. The last artist to score the double with their debut was Sam Smith, who achieved the feat six years ago with2015’s In The Lonely Hour and “Lay Me Down”. The big numbers keep coming, as “Good 4 U” gives Rodrigo her second leader following “Drivers License” back in January. “Good 4 U” generates 117,000 chart sales in seven days — including 13.5 million str...
Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Good 4 U’ Is On Track to Extend U.K. Chart Reign
Olivia Rodrigo should extend her stay atop the Official U.K. Singles Chart for at least another week with “Good 4 U” (Geffen). The teenage U.S. artist and actor last Friday (May 28) set a handful of new records as her debut album Sour opened at No. 1 and “Good 4 U” climbed to the top of the national singles survey, for her second leader. Rodrigo’s latest hit single rules the First Look chart, which ranks tracks based on the first 48 hours of sales and streaming activity, while her second single “Déjà Vu” (No. 5) and her debut “Drivers License” (No. 6) are impacting the Top 10. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. ...
Amotekun operatives to patrol South-west borders
Chairman of Council of Amotekun Commanders in the South-west region, Chief Adetunji Adeyeye, has said operatives of the Amotekun corps will engage in inter-state border patrol in the South-west to ensure synergy in crime fighting. Adeyeye, who is the Corps Commander of Ondo Amotekun, said the synergy expected among the South-west states would be enhanced so that a criminal that escaped from Ondo to Ekiti State could be easily apprehended Adeyeye, who spoke in Akure, said the destruction of farmlands by herders in Ondo State has greatly reduced owing to enforcement of the ban on open grazing. He said herders now offer money to farmers whose crops were destroyed unlike previously when they would walk away. His words: “Being Chairman of the Council of Amotekun Commanders is a greater call to ...
IPOB sit-at-home records success in Onitsha
The sit-at-home protest ordered by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, recorded total compliance and success with all the residents of Onitsha and Nnewi and business outfits complying with the directive. All business activities were shot down, all markets were under lock and key public and private Secondary and Primary Schools were shot down, government offices and banks were also not opened for business as they were under lock and key, Petrol and Gas filling stations were also not opened for business as streets and roads shops and artisans in both Onitsha and Nnewi shut for the day business when Vanguard moved round the cities. All the roads leading into and exit of Onitsha, the commercial city, and those ...
How Does Atlantic Records Chief Partnerships Officer Camille Hackney Stay Mindful?
Balance, for me, is more like a dance, and not always a graceful one. Where I spend my time and who I spend it with helps me achieve balance. I live in Manhattan, and the day-to-day energy of Manhattan, I love. But it can take its toll. You do need to take breaks, and every break can’t be flying down to the Caribbean and hanging out on a beach. You have to find some way to escape it, and then be able to re-emerge into that frenetic environment with ease. I have been fortunate to have a second home in upstate New York, in the middle of the woods, on a mountain. All I see is air, blue sky, trees and no people other than my immediate family. That brings a certain sense of calmness. Space to connect, to clear your head and think about things. It breaks up the frenzy. What I do in order t...
How Does LVRN Co-Founder Junia Abaidoo Stay Mindful?
I try to be as real as possible with all of our artists. A big part of what we do is manage expectations and their mental state to a certain degree. It’s easy to get high and very low when you’re dealing with someone judging your artwork. Music is one of the career choices where you literally put something out and get immediate responses that come directly to your phone. On one level, it’s being as honest as I can with them. Giving them a truth that they don’t want to hear and then other times, it’s reinforcing not to forget who they are and why they’re so dope and in the position they’re in. Artists put a lot of pressure on themselves. You could find out if people think what you put out is a piece of s–t instantaneously. Artists get in their...
UK Festival Season Facing ‘Make Or Break Moment’
“The vast majority of music festivals do not have the financial resilience to cover the costs of another year of late-notice cancellations,” said committee chair Julian Knight in announcing the inquiry’s findings. “If the commercial insurance market won’t step in, Ministers must, and urgently.” Similar government-backed insurance schemes exist in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Denmark, and, after months of delays, were recently finalized in Germany. They provide a much-needed safety net for promoters committing non-recoupable upfront costs for future events amid the uncertainty of a pandemic. The committee’s inquiry into the future of U.K. music festivals began on Nov. 6, with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, Paul Reed, chief executive at the Association of Independent Festivals, a...
The Players Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Good 4 U’: See the Full Credits
Artists:Main Artist – Olivia Rodrigo Songwriters:Composer Lyricist – Daniel NigroComposer Lyricist – Olivia Rodrigo Producers:Producer – Alexander 23Producer – Daniel Nigro Production Team:Drum Programming – Alexander 23Drum Programming – Daniel Nigro Engineers:Asst. Recording Engineer – Ryan LinvillMastering Engineer – Randy MerrillMixer – Mitch McCarthyRecording Engineer – Daniel Nigro Performers:Acoustic Guitar – Daniel NigroBackground Vocalist – Alexander 23Background Vocalist – Daniel NigroBass – Alexander 23Bass – Daniel NigroElectric Guitar – Alexander 23Electric Guitar – Daniel NigroSynthesizer – Daniel Nigro Labels:Distributor – Universal Music GroupLabel –...
Garth Brooks Remembers Dewayne Blackwell, ‘Friends in Low Places’ Songwriter: Exclusive
Blackwell, who also wrote songs recorded by The Fleetwoods, Conway Twitty and David Frizzell, died May 23 at 84. Songwriter Dewayne Blackwell, who, with Earl Bud Lee, wrote “Friends in Low Places,” the rowdy standard that catapulted Garth Brooks to stardom 30 years ago, died Sunday (May 23), Mark Ford, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, confirmed to Billboard. The Hall inducted Blackwell, 84, in 2017 for penning “Friends,” as well as pop hit “Mr. Blue,” which The Fleetwoods took to No. 1 in 1959, and country staples “Honkytonk Man” by Marty Robbins and David Frizzell’s “I’m Gonna Hire a Wino to Decorate Our Home.” Acts ranging from Roy Orbison to Bobby Vinton, The Everly Brothers and Conway Twitty cut Blackwell’s songs. “Friends in Low Places” was the first...
