business
2020 ACM Awards: Carrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and This Dynamic Duo Are Set to Perform
All five of this year’s entertainer of the year nominees will perform on the show. Carrie Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and the team of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani will perform at the 55th ACM Awards on Sept. 16, as the Academy of Country Music, dick clark productions and CBS announced on Wednesday (Sept. 9). Underwood will perform from the Grand Ole Opry and will honor trailblazing female Opry members by performing a medley of songs by Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton. Underwood teamed with McEntire and Parton to co-host last year’s CMA Awards, sponsored by the rival Country Music Association. Underwood is nominated for the ACM award for entertainer of the year, an award she won at the ceremonies in 2009 and 2010. ...
Hometown Heroes: Country Ties Emotional Messages to Physical Roots
When Big Loud singer-songwriter HARDY drove back to Nashville after a visit with his dad in Philadelphia, Miss., sometime in the last two years, his father told him to hit Play on the CD in the dash at a specific point in the journey. His father had queued up Travis Meadows‘ reflective “Mississippi,” and as the track’s storyline unfolded with every-day, familial images about “the home I couldn’t wait to leave behind,” the journey away from his hometown weighed heavily on HARDY. “I just lost it,” he says. “I completely started crying, and I started thinking about how proud I was to be from where I was from. But I don’t know why that is.” Maybe not, but HARDY — like many of his fellow country artists and songwriters...
Craig David Signs Worldwide Publishing Deal With Round Hill Music
British R&B star Craig David has signed a global publishing deal with Round Hill Music. The new arrangement, announced Wednesday (Sept. 9), includes all of David’s catalog, including his U.K. chart-topping debut album Born to Do It, and a futures agreement that will see all his new music administered by the independent music publisher. The 39-year-old singer is one of Britain’s most successful male solo artists of the millennium, with 23 U.K. top 40 singles, including two No. 1s (“Fill Me In” and “7 Days”), and a pair of No. 1 albums. In the U.S., David has twice cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 and he has landed three songs on the Hot 100 chart, including a career-best No. 10 with “7 Days”. His trophy cabinet includes three Ivor Novello Awards and a brace of MTV Europe Mu...
Liz Phair Signs With Chrysalis Records for Forthcoming Album
After relaunching as a frontline label in February, U.K.-based Chrysalis Records has signed singer-songwriter Liz Phair for the release of her forthcoming album. The deal was announced Wednesday (Sept. 9). Phair’s signing with Chrysalis follows that of Laura Marling, whose Mercury Prize-nominated album Song For Our Daughter was released in April by the relaunched label in partnership with Partisan Records. A two-time Grammy nominee, Phair scored a breakthrough with her influential 1993 debut album Exile in Guyville, which finished at the top of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics’ poll that year. She followed it up with five more studio albums, including the Gold-selling Whip-Smart and 2003’s pop-driven Liz Phair. The latter album’s lead single, “Why Can’t I?”, netted Phair ...
The Rolling Stones Heading For Big Splash on U.K. Chart With ‘Goats Head Soup’ Reissue
A 21-year-old Englishman stands in the way of another Rolling Stones chart triumph. Declan McKenna leads the U.K.’s midweek albums chart with his sophomore effort Zeros (Columbia), ahead of the Stones’ Goats Heads Soup (Polydor) reissue. Based on weekend sales activity reported by the Official Charts Company, Zeros has shifted the most physical units in the week so far to lead the Official Chart Update. McKenna got his break in 2015 when he won Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition. His debut album What Do You Think About The Car? peaked at No. 11 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart following its release in 2017. Meanwhile, the Stones are rolling on to another big chart impact with Goats Heads Soup, an album that ruled the national sales tallies on both sides of ...
Ted Cockle, Amy Thomson Join Hipgnosis Songs
Ted Cockle, the Universal Music Group stalwart who most recently served as Virgin EMI president, has joined Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis Songs. Three months after announcing his departure from the U.K. label, Cockle is today (Aug. 8) unveiled as president of Hipgnosis Songs. Also joining the company is Amy Thomson, a management and marketing veteran who takes the role as chief catalog officer. The incoming executives will be expected to help “grow and care for songs and their legacy” within the expanding Hipgnosis Songs catalog, reads a statement announcing their arrival. “It’s a testament to the iconic song catalog that we have assembled over the last two plus years, and our songwriters, that we have been able to attract executives with the extraordinary talent, pedigree and success of Te...
Metallica Rock Australia’s Albums Chart With ‘S&M2’
Metallica come out swinging on Australia’s albums chart as S&M2 (Virgin/Universal) bows at No. 1, while Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” (Atlantic/Warner) enters a third straight week atop the national singles survey. More than 20 years after Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony led the ARIA Albums Chart with S&M, the unlikely partnership yields another leader. The live compilation, recorded last September at San Francisco’s Chase Center, gives Metallica their seventh No. 1 album Down Under following Metallica (August 1991), Load (June 1996), S&M (November 1999), St. Anger (June 2003), Death Magnetic (September 2008), Hardwired…To Self-Destruct (2016). New mom Katy Perry returns to the top tier of the albums chart with Smile (Capitol/EMI), new at No. 2. It’s th...
Patrick Donovan, Founding CEO of Music Victoria, Announces Departure
Patrick Donovan is stepping down as chief executive of Music Victoria, the trade association that he played a central role in launching a decade ago. “It’s been an exciting journey over the last ten years being at the helm of Music Victoria,” Donovan tells Billboard. “I remember when I went to SXSW in 2011 and I struggled to get people to meet with me because they had hardly heard of Melbourne. And now we’re recognized globally as a leading music city with best practice live music laws.” Prior to joining MV as its founding CEO, Donovan was The Age newspaper’s chief music writer, and he’s an adjunct professor of RMIT’s Bachelor of Arts (Music Business) Course. Donovan will leave the organization later this year having ticked-off a long list of accomplishments. During his tenure, MV pl...
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘WAP’ Takes Early Lead In U.K. Chart Race
Its rise to the summit took the best part of a month. Now “WAP” looks set to hang around at the top for a little while longer. Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s hit climbed to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart last Friday (Sept. 4), and it’s atop the leader board on the Official Chart: First Look, which crunches sales and streaming data from the first 48 hours of the chart week. The chart blast also sees Nathan Dawe and KSI’s “Lighter” gain one place to No. 2, while “Mood” by 24kGoldn featuring Iann Dior lifts 4-3. Joel Corry and MNEK “Head & Heart” enjoyed a six-week streak at No. 1, but that joyride appears to have come to its end. The summer dance track slips to No. 5 on the preliminary chart. The strongest performing new track so far this week is Sigala and James Arthur’s “L...
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘WAP’ Becomes First-Ever No. 1 Female Rap Collab In U.K.
It took four weeks to get there, but Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” (Atlantic) is now the U.K.’s best-selling single. The U.S. hip-hop artists’ hit lifts 2-1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, to become the first-ever female rap collaboration to go to the summit in that territory. After two weeks at No. 2, the track snags 65,000 charts sales, including 8.5 million streams, to take the title, the Official Charts Company reports. It’s a person best for both artists. Cardi’s previous peak on the U.K. chart was No. 5 for 2018’s “Finesse,” her collab with Bruno Mars. Megan’s previous high point was a No. 3 for “Savage” in May of this year. “WAP” is just the second female-led single to hit the top this year, following Lady Gaga’s “Rain On Me” featuring Ariana Gr...
R. Kelly Attacker Confesses, Singer Requests Release on Bail
An inmate claims he was “forced” to assault Kelly “in hopes of getting spotlight attention and world news notice to shed light on the government corruption.” R. Kelly is asking a judge to release him on bail after he was attacked last week by an inmate. In a motion filed Friday (Sept. 4), Kelly’s attorney Michael I. Leonard says not only did the Bureau of Prisons not protect his client, but also that personnel at the facility actually encouraged the inmate to attack the singer. As proof, Leonard presented to the judge a handwritten motion from inmate Jeremiah Farmer confessing to the attack. In the motion, titled “The Government Made Me Attack R-Kelly,” Farmer said after he told a mental health professional at the facility of his plan to attack Kelly, the person enc...
Live Nation Discrimination Case Moved To Binding Arbitration
The move came after Live Nation produced a 2009 letter in which plaintiff Candace Newman agreed to arbitrate disputes with the company. A furloughed touring executive who sued Live Nation in July for race and gender discrimination and wrongful termination will have her case heard by a third-party arbitrator, according to court records in LA County Superior Court. Candace Newman, 38, who identifies as an African American single mother, filed a lawsuit against the touring giant in July, alleging she was furloughed by the company after complaining about a lack of diversity and alleged race discrimination. Newman was one of more than 2,000 employees affected by job cuts at the company, where she had worked for more than 10 years, including her most recent stint as tour director for North ...
