entertainment blog
Dr. Dre on Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: “She Has the Opportunity to Really Blow Us Away”
Earlier this week, the NFL announced that it will partner with Apple Music as the sponsor for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show. After rumors that Taylor Swift would be chosen as this year’s halftime performer began to circulate, Rihanna announced that she will officially be headlining the show. As part of the Super Bowl announcement, Dr. Dre sat down with Apple Music 1 host Ebro Darden to discuss Rihanna’s headlining performance. “I just like her and what she does, and her get down, and how she approaches her artistry and the whole nine,” Dr. Dre said. “It’s fantastic. She has the opportunity to really blow us away. I know we set the bar extremely high.” Dr. Dre notably performed alongside Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg at last year’s event, which was also the first...
Portola Festival Responds to Crowd Control Incident in San Francisco: “A Minimal, Isolated Issue”
Portola Festival took place this weekend at Pier 80 in San Francisco, and on Saturday (September 24), the Goldenvoice-affiliated festival experienced crowd control issues as a large group of people rushed toward one of the festival stages, Billboard reports. Around 5 p.m., guests were making their way to the festival’s Warehouse stage for a performance by the English electronic producer Fred Again.., when attendees began climbing over barricades surrounding the stage. Video of the incident posted to social media show guests breaking free from the bottlenecked crowd and forcing themselves through the VIP area to make their way to the performance. “There was a minimal, isolated issue with a festival stage entrance yesterday,” a representative for Goldenvoice shared with Pitchfork. “This occu...
NFL Announces Apple Music as Its New Super Bowl Halftime Show Sponsor
Following the announcement made earlier this year that Pepsi is ending a decade-long partnership and will no longer be the sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the NFL has brought on another major player, in hopes to expand its musical offering at one of the most watched performances of the year. The league officially announces a multi-year partnership with Apple Music to continue the celebration of the world’s greatest songwriters, musicians, producers and artists. The partnership sees the Super Bowl Halftime Show move in a direction that focuses on the music listening experience of the performance, tapping into Apple Music’s over 90 million songs catalog. In a statement, NFL’s SVP of Partner Strategy Nana-Yaw Asamoah said, “We are proud to welcome Apple Music to the NFL family as our...
Wynonna Judd Says She and Sister Ashley ‘Are So United Right Now’ While Opening Up About Mother’s Passing
Wynonna Judd is sharing her emotional journey following the passing of her late mother, Naomi Judd, the other half of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds. In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, the country singer opened up about her relationship with her mother before her death in April, her experience of saying goodbye to Naomi and the various emotions she’s grappled with since. “I did not know that she was at the place she was at when she ended it because she had had episodes before and she got better,” the singer recalled. “And that’s what I live in is like, was there anything I should have looked for or should I have known?” Naomi died by suicide on April 30 at the age of 76, a day before The Judds were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was ...
Portola Festival Organizers Address Crowd Rush Incident: ‘A Minimal, Isolated Issue’
San Francisco’s Portola Festival at the city’s Pier 80 experienced a crowd issue Saturday (Sept. 24) when a large group of people rushed an early evening set by English producer Fred Again. The incident at the site occurred around 5 p.m. on the festival’s opening day. Video shared to social media shows members of the crowd jumping over the barricade surrounding the event’s Warehouse stage, a large enclosed space with two separate entrances for general admission and VIP attendees. The crowd waiting to get in through the GA entrance began gathering outside the Warehouse roughly 30 minutes before Fred Again’s set was scheduled to begin. As the crowd ballooned in size, a large throng of people bottlenecked at the GA entrance, with many of them unable to get inside and with some membe...
David Foster, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette & More Inducted Into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) honored David Foster, Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, Alanis Morissette and francophone legend Daniel Lavoie Saturday night (Sept. 24) at a gala ceremony at Toronto’s Massey Hall that highlighted their incredible hit-stacked careers, influence and legacy. Hosted by platinum-selling Quebec singer-songwriter Marie-Mai, the three-and-a-half-hour show included tribute performances by such artists as Corey Hart, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake, Alessia Cara, JP Saxe, Charlotte Cardin, Jessie Reyez, Serena Ryder and Chicago’s Neil Donell, backed by a house band. Deborah Cox — the 2022 inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame — kicked off the ceremony with a showstopping rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” written by Foster and Li...
Dr. Dre Gives Advice to Rihanna Ahead of Super Bowl Halftime Show
Rihanna is headlining the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show, and last year’s headliner, Dr. Dre, has some words of wisdom for her. Dre spoke with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1 on Sunday (Sept. 25), soon after Rihanna’s news was announced. Apple Music was recently named the official sponsor of the annual event. “Oh, my god,” said Dre, who took the Super Bowl stage last year. “Let me tell you something, man. I actually just got the news that Rihanna’s going to do it, and I’m a super fan of Rihanna. I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do. “ “I just like her and what she does, and her get down, and how she approaches her artistry and the whole nine. It’s fantastic. She has the opportunity to really blow us away. I know we set the bar extremely high,” he added. His advice to the n...
BLACKPINK’s ‘BORN PINK’ Is First Album by a Female Group to Debut at No. 1 in 14 Years
BLACKPINK‘s is opening this week’s Billboard 200 at No. 1 with BORN PINK. The South Korean four-piece’s sophomore studio effort debuts with 102,000 equivalent album units in its first week, including 75,500 in album sales, 25,000 in streaming equivalent album units (37.49 million on-demand streams of the songs) and 1,500 in track equivalent album units. BORN PINK marks BLACKPINK’s second top 10 entry following THE ALBUM’s debut and peak at No. 2 in 2020, and marks the first time in 14 years that an album from a female group opened atop the chart. Other new additions in this week’s top 10 are NCT 127’s 2 Baddies at No. 3 with 58,500 equivalent album units and EST Gee’s I Never Felt Nun at No. 8 with 30,000 equivalent album units. Elsewhere on the chart, Bad Bunny moves down to No. 2 while M...
Rihanna Performing at 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show
Rihanna and the NFL have announced that she’s headlining the 2023 Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show. It marks Rihanna’s first public performance since her appearance with DJ Khaled and Bryson Tiller at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Super Bowl LVII takes place on February 12 and will broadcast live on Fox. The news comes after a flurry of updates regarding this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. Following rumors of Taylor Swift being asked to perform, it was subsequently reported that the singer-songwriter turned down the opportunity. Apple Music recently stepped in as the new presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, taking the place of Pepsi after a decade. Prior to her 2018 Grammys performance, Rihanna’s last tour was a 2016 run behind her last album Anti. This year, she welco...
Rihanna To Headline Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show
Rihanna will perform at next year’s Super Bowl LVII halftime show. The performance is sponsored by Apple Music and is scheduled to go down at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on February 12. The NFL announced the news on Sunday afternoon by sharing an image of the singer’s distinctly-tattooed hand holding a football with the caption, “Let’s GO.” The football league also changed its Twitter and Instagram bios to pay homage to Rihanna, reading, “national fenty league.” Let’s GO – @rihanna @rocnation #SBLVII @AppleMusic @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/xmIXK5jsRg — NFL (@NFL) September 25, 2022 Last season saw an especially rap-heavy roster of performers. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak took the field at Inglewood, California’s ...
Warner Music Group Discloses Compensation for Incoming CEO Robert Kyncl
Warner Music Group’s newly named CEO Robert Kyncl will earn roughly $15 million, depending on meeting performance targets, in his first year on the job, according to a company SEC filing. Kyncl will share chief executive duties with outgoing CEO Stephen Cooper in January 2023 and will become sole CEO on Feb. 1, the SEC filing shows. Kyncl, named as Cooper’s replacement on Sept. 21, will also become a director of the company. Kyncl, formerly the chief business officer at YouTube and an executive at Netflix, will receive a base salary of $2 million, a target performance-based bonus of $3 million and an annual grant of performance share units with an aggregate, pre-tax value of $10 million (the first grant will be in January 2023). He will be reimbursed for expenses up to $500,000 for relocat...
Fans Choose Sam Smith’s ‘Unholy’ Featuring Kim Petras as This Week’s Favorite New Music
Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ new collaboration “Unholy” has topped this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Sept. 23) on Billboard, choosing the devilish team-up as their favorite new music release of the past week. “Unholy,” which will be featured on Smith’s upcoming album, beat out new music by Lil Nas X (“Star Walkin’”), GloRilla featuring Cardi B (“Tomorrow 2”), Joshua Bassett (Sad Songs in a Hotel Room), Kelsea Ballerini (Subject to Change), and others. “Unholy” is the latest single off of Smith’s forthcoming, yet-to-be-announced fourth studio album, which they told Billboard in an August cover story would be their “first non-heartbreak album,” and mark a new, more optimistic sound for them. “I think joy for me, and for a lot of q...
