Country
The Chicks Switch Representation to John Silva’s Silva Artist Management
Less than a month before the Chicks’ first studio album in 14 years arrives, the trio has changed artist management. The Chicks, who dropped Dixie from their name earlier today (June 25), have inked with John Silva’s Silva Artist Management (SAM), Billboard has confirmed. Among the other artists repped by SAM are Foo Fighters, St. Vincent and Nine Inch Nails. The group has been managed by Simon Renshaw for more than 20 years until he retired two years ago. Since then, the Chicks had been repped by Monotone/LBI Entertainment, who also manage Vampire Weekend, Jack White and Margo Price, Jamie Foxx, LCD Soundsystem and Amber Mark, among others. In March, Natalie Maines and sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire released “Gaslighter,” the first single and title track from t...
How We Work Now: Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside
In a series amid the coronavirus pandemic, Billboard is asking individuals from all sectors of the music business to share stories of how they work now, with much of the world quarantined at home and unable to take in-person meetings, attend conferences or even go into the office. Read the full series here. This installment is with Damon Whiteside, the new CEO of the Academy of Country Music. Damon Whiteside: I started the job Jan. 6 and I was still getting to know everybody. I’m based in Nashville and was at [the ACM’s Los Angeles] office two weeks a month for those first couple of months. And then, suddenly, we’re isolated and quarantined after we decide to close the office in L.A. the week of March 16. That was literally the week that I was planning to go back to L.A., so that’s b...
Marcus King on El Dorado, Dan Auerbach, and Why He’ll Never Sing About White Claws
Kyle Meredith With… Marcus King Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public Marcus King calls into Kyle Meredith to speak about his new album, El Dorado. The South Carolina-born singer-songwriter discusses the album’s production by The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, leaving home for a life on the road, the loss of style and character, and finding a strong metaphor in old Cadillacs. He also talks about taking inspiration from Willie Nelson, his Grand Ole Opry debut, what Beatles song he listened to every morning before school, and singing about whiskey. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Fri...
Marcus King on El Dorado, Dan Auerbach, and Why He’ll Never Sing About White Claws
Kyle Meredith With… Marcus King Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public Marcus King calls into Kyle Meredith to speak about his new album, El Dorado. The South Carolina-born singer-songwriter discusses the album’s production by The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, leaving home for a life on the road, the loss of style and character, and finding a strong metaphor in old Cadillacs. He also talks about taking inspiration from Willie Nelson, his Grand Ole Opry debut, what Beatles song he listened to every morning before school, and singing about whiskey. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Fri...
Zinedine Zidane unconcerned by Real Madrid’s fixture list complaints
Zinedine Zidane has claimed Real Madrid will accept the congested fixture list for what it is, despite the club complaining to La Liga. Los Blancos issued a complaint to top-flight officials on Monday after the schedule for matchdays 33 and 34 of the season left them with less than 72 hours between fixtures against Getafe and Athletic Bilbao. Madrid felt this left them at a disadvantage compared to title rivals Barcelona, who were given five days of rest between games against Atletico Madrid and Villarreal. However, it has since emerged that Madrid will have accumulated more rest – approximately 26 hours in total – than Barca until matchday 35, and asked if he felt the club’s complaints to La Liga were fair, Zidane insisted he is fully focused on preparing his side for the fixture list as ...
Miami Dolphins Rookie QB Reached Out to His Celebrity Music Crush and She Said ‘Thank You Baby’
Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did a Q&A on Twitter recently in which he gave fans a peek into his private life, weighing in on whether pineapple should ever be on pizza (nope), the strangest thing a fan ever said to him (that they named their dog after him) and what peanut butter would be called if it wasn’t called peanut butter (peanut cream). But it was when he was asked who his favorite guilty pleasure singer was that things got interesting. You see, Tagovailoa, 22, said Shania Twain, but then he also said she was his celebrity crush. “Shania if you watch this, from this moment on, please message me back,” he said. Here’s where things got interesting. It seems Shania, 54, caught wind of Tua’s feelings and she tweeted back on Sunday, w...
Scotty McCreery’s ‘In Between’ Tops Country Airplay Chart: ‘It Means More Than I Can Say’
Plus, Kenny Chesney adds his 53rd Hot Country Songs top 10. Scotty McCreery notches his third consecutive and total No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, as “In Between” blasts from No. 8 to the top of the list dated June 27. In the tracking week ending June 21, the song increased by 25% to 26.7 million audience impressions. It drew its biggest gains on WIVK Knoxville, Tenn. (up 324,000 impressions); WKHK Richmond, Va. (up 260,000); WNSH New York (up 247,000) and KSCS Dallas (up 235,000). The track’s 8-1 flight is the second-greatest to the Country Airplay summit in the chart’s 30-year history. On the Oct. 12, 1991-dated survey, another song with “between” in its title leapt 9-1: Ricky Van Shelton’s “Keep It Between the Lines.R...
Carly Pearce Files for Divorce From Michael Ray After 8 Months of Marriage
Carly Pearce and Michael Ray have called it a quits after eight months of marriage as Pearce just filed for divorce, a rep confirmed to Billboard. People originally broke the story today (June 22). “This was a hard decision. It wasn’t something she wanted to have to do,” a source close to Pearce told People. “This hasn’t been a quarantine realization — it was a last resort.” The “Her World or Mine” singer told People earlier that the couple split their time during the COVID-19 pandemic between their Nashville home and their families’ homes. He even quarantined with Pearce in her parents’ coastal Alabama house for a month. But Ray also admitted that despite all the rest the two were getting, they...
Tim McGraw Shares Touching Performance of ‘Something Like That’ for ‘United We Sing’ Special: Watch
Tim McGraw stripped it down for his performance on Sunday night’s (June 21) United We Sing: A Grammy Salute to the Unsung Heroes. During the two-hour special honoring essential workers, the country superstar delivered a touching acoustic rendition of “Something Like That,” lifted from his Grammy-nominated 1999 album A Place in the Sun. Harry Connick Jr. hosted the special event on CBS, which also featured performances from Jon Batiste, Andra Day, John Fogerty, Jamie Foxx, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Trombone Shorty and more. United We Sing supports charities that benefit underserved children, including No Kid Hungry and the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans, as well as the MusiCares COV...
Kane Brown Makes a Promise ‘For My Daughter’ in Father’s Day Performance: Watch
Kane Brown is making this Father’s Day a special one for his baby girl. The country star shared a new acoustic Vevo performance of “For My Daughter” on Sunday (June 21). Brown wrote the moving song for his daughter, Kingsley, who was born in October 2019. He released “For My Daughter” just days after her birth. “They say dads are supposed to shape you, in a way I guess mine did/ I knew what I wouldn’t do if I ever had a kid/ They say history repeats itself — well, I guess that’s up to me/ Yeah, I grew up without a dad/ I’m gonna be the best one I can be,” he sings in his vow to be a good father. Brown recently shared an adorable, smiley father-daughter photo on Instagram. Watch his performance of the emotional song belo...
Luke Bryan Debuts ‘Build Me a Daddy’ Live on ‘The Tonight Show’: Watch
Luke Bryan pulled on heartstrings with a performance of “Build Me a Daddy” just in time for Father’s Day weekend. The country star offered a live take of the new song with a poignant, socially distanced performance for The Tonight Show Thursday night (June 18). “A boy walks past a window of a glowing ‘open’ sign/ Full of wooden toys and trucks and painted trains/ Rings a bell up on the counter, hands a picture to the man/ Of a kid beside a soldier smilin’ away/ Said, ‘Sir, I’ve heard you can build anything’/ ‘Could you build me a daddy?'” Bryan asks in the first verse of the emotional ballad, from the perspective of a child who’s lost his father. “Strong as Superman/ Make him ten feet tall with a south...
First Country: New Music From Rascal Flatts, Brett Young, Gabby Barrett & More
First Country is a compilation of the best new country songs, videos and albums that dropped this week. A Father’s Day edition of First Country includes a memorable video from Brett Young, who’s celebrating his first Father’s Day as a dad, as well as a welcome return from Rascal Flatts as they prepare to say goodbye. Rascal Flatts, “How They Remember You”The title track from the trio’s presumptive last effort, an EP out July 31, is a great send-off. The upbeat song, written by Marc Beeson, Josh Osborne and Allen Shamblin, features strong harmonies and a catchy melody, but is really about the message on how you choose to live your life. “Did you stand or did you fall/build a bridge or build a wall?,” Gary LeVox asks. The set also includes the band’s tribute to Kenny Rogers, “Through the Yea...
