NEWS
‘The Voice’ Contestant Aaron Konzelman Soars With Duran Duran Cover: Watch
In January of 2021, Duran Duran celebrated 40th years since the release of their debut record “Planet Earth.” How time flies. On Tuesday night’s blind audition of The Voice, Aaron Konzelman kept the party going with a faithful rendition of another classic from the British alternative rock legends’ well. The Waco, Texas native introduced his gravely, country tones to Duran Duran’s comeback number from 1993, “Ordinary World,” earning an “oh my gosh” from Kelly Clarkson. 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. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and he...
Maximo Park on Track For First U.K. No. 1 With ‘Nature Always Wins’
Just 2,500 chart sales separate the Top 5 on the chart blast. Maximo Park crashed through with their 2005 Warp debut A Certain Trigger, which caught the attention of the NME and earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Their sophomore album Our Earthly Pleasures, from 2007, peaked at No. 2 on the Official Albums Chart and is their only Top 10 album to date. Nature leads an all-new Top 7. Cooper’s Detroit Stories could become the shock-rock legend’s highest position on the U.K. chart since 1989’s Trash peaked at No. 2. Detroit Stories is the best-selling album on CD at the halfway mark. Meanwhile, metalcore group Architects could snag their first U.K. Top 10 album with For Those That Wish To Exist (Epitaph), new at No. 3 on the Chart Update. It’s the most downloaded LP over the p...
Civil Rights Activist & Bill Clinton Adviser Vernon Jordan Has Died
Source: PGA TOUR Archive / Getty Vernon Jordan, a notable civil rights activist and an adviser to President Bill Clinton has died. The family said that Mr. Jordan passed away peacefully surrounded by family and loved ones. Jordan was born August 15, 1935, in Atlanta, Ga., later graduating from Indiana’s DePauw University and the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. In 1971, Jordan was the president of the National Urban League, a post he commanded for a decade. The NUL’s State of Black America report was first initialized by Jordan in 1976 in response to President Gerald Ford’s State of the Union Address which Jordan and the NUL failed to speak to the concerns that Black Americans faced at the time. Jordan’s tenure with the NUL was productive, as it expanded national chapter...
Netflix’s Biggie Doc Revists When His Mom Tossed His Crack In The Garbage Thinking It Was Mash Potatoes
Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty Netflix just released one of the most highly anticipated projects in their March rollout, and it happens to fall just days away from the 24th anniversary of Notorious B.I.G’s tragic death. ‘ In Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, viewers get to hear some never before told stories directly from the mouths of those who knew him best. For instance, Damian “D-Roc” Butler recalled a situation from back in the day when he and Biggie were hustling crack rocks in Brooklyn. In his vivid description of events, the childhood friends secretly processed a plate full of the product in the future rap star’s bedroom and left it on the windowsill before stepping out of the apartment. Unbeknownst to them, Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace, discovered the contraband whi...
Iconic Reggae Vocalist Bunny Wailer Has Died
Source: Sakura/WENN.com / WENN Bunny Wailer, an original member of The Wailers singing group with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, has died. The details of Wailer’s death have yet to be revealed but it has been reported that the singer and songwriter passed away in his native Jamaica. Wailer was born Neville O’Riley Livingston on April 10, 1947, growing up in Nine Mile in St. Ann Parish where he befriended his future musical partner in Marley. The pair were bonded by the union of Livingston’s father and Marley’s mother, which produced a daughter, Pearl Livingston. The musical journey for Wailer began in the 1960s after forming The Wailing Wailers band with his stepbrother in Marley and their friend Tosh. Junior Braithwaite and Beverley Kelso were also early members of the band. The band cut two ...
Primavera Sound Festival 2021 Canceled Due to COVID-19
Next verse, same as the first: Primavera Sound Festival 2021 has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 edition of the Barcelona fest was first postponed, then scratched outright. But there was reason to think the 2021 iteration would be allowed to go on this June as scheduled. In January, Primavera organizers hosted a trial concert that showed no transmission of the novel coronavirus. Besides that, the global vaccine push has inspired optimism in all corners of the globe. But those sunny feelings are tempered by uncertainty surrounding three potentially alarming new virus variants first identified in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil. Besides that, America’s foremost infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci has been cautioning that live events won’t be able to safely return until ...
SoundCloud to Launch “Fan-Powered” Royalty Payment Model
SoundCloud is putting artists’ revenue in the hands of their fans. Today, the streaming platform announced a new royalty payment system in which each listener’s subscription or advertising revenue is distributed among the artists to which they listen, rather than being pooled to every artist of the platform. The music streaming service says the “fan-powered royalties” model “levels the playing field for independent artists by tying payouts to fandom” and claims the system will allow artists to grow a deeper connection with their most dedicated fans, and give those fans the opportunity to “directly influence how their favorite artists are paid.” SoundCloud adds the move was inspired by feedback from independent artists. Michael Weissman, Chief Executive Officer of SoundCloud, issued a state...
Eddie Vedder Says His Baseball Walk-Up Song Would Be Fugazi’s “Give Me the Cure”
Every baseball fan has imagined it: bottom of the ninth, two outs, and the loudspeakers start blasting your walk-up song. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is no different, and the longtime Chicago Cubs backer recently revealed that the music he would like played as he stepped up to the plate would be Fugazi’s “Give Me the Cure”. Vedder indulged his athletic fantasies in an appearance on the podcast The Artist and the Athlete, hosted by broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak. Alongside Chicago’s All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo, the songwriter told stories of taking drunken batting practice with Cubs’ President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein and meeting a “baby-faced” Rizzo back when he was still a minor league prospect. When Czarniak asked about Vedder’s theoretical walk-up music, the r...
2022 Volvo C40 Recharge First Look: One Swede SUV Coupe
See all 16 photos So, think of the new C40 as a coupe variant of the existing XC40 Recharge, only this is one of those fastback SUVs, such as the Porsche Cayenne Coupe or Mercedes GLE Coupe, that retains all four doors and simply uses “coupe” as a call-sign for its slightly more dramatic profile. This is the XC40 Recharge, only a little swoopier and a bit more aspirational. Underneath, the C40 Recharge rides on the same CMA platform as the XC40 and the aforementioned Polestar 2. It scoots around with the XC40 Recharge’s electric powertrain, too. A 78-kWh battery juices a set of front and rear motors to the tune of 408 hp and a thick 486 lb-ft of torque, enough grunt for a 0-60 mph hustle of 4.7 seconds. Like the XC40 Recharge, the EPA-estimated range is a usable 210 ...
Work Hard, Playmobil Hard: Hop on the Plastic VW Bus Bandwagon
See all 5 photos Playmobil just might have the answer with its Volkswagen T1 Camping Bus. Yes, it’s a toy that casts a shadow much smaller than that of an actual VW Bus, but at $49.99, this plastic German van also costs a fraction of the price of the real thing. You need not be a child to enjoy this toy, either, as Playmobil markets it for individuals as young as 5 and as old as 99 years old. Sorry, folks who’ve crossed the century mark—guess this van just isn’t for you. Those within Playmobil’s assigned age range, however, can enjoy the intricate exterior and interior details of this T1 Camping Bus. This includes its split-windshield, roof-mounted luggage rack, and two-tone—red and white—exterior finish. Inside, Playmobil fits this van with a bench seat that ...
Jessie J Reflects on ‘Who You Are’ Album 10 Years Later & Says New Music Can ‘Hang’ With Her Biggest Hits
For the 10-year anniversary, Jessie J got on a video call with the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast to talk all about the making of the album, scoring her first (and second) No. 1 hits in her native U.K., and a familiar face that popped up in her early music videos. Listen to the podcast below: She also has some great stories about writing “Do It Like a Dude” with Rihanna in mind but keeping the aggressive anthem for her first U.K. single instead (“I just remember seeing the complete split of ‘I love her’/’I hate her’ [when it debuted] … I loved the extremity”) and writing what would become one of Miley Cyrus’ biggest hits. “‘Party in the USA’ put my foot in the door as a credible artist that can write songs, and that ...
Kali Uchis Trusted Her Instincts & Got Her First No. 1 Album: ‘A Lot of People Didn’t Want Me to Make This Album’
Uchi’s sophomore effort rises to the top in its 15th chart week with 10,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 25, up 129%, according to MRC Data. The surge concurrently takes the set to a No. 3 high on Top Latin Albums, a new peak. It previously topped out at No. 8 on the Dec. 5, 2020-dated chart, the week following its debut at No. 21 (from two days of tracking activity in the week ending Nov. 19). As Sin Miedo rises to the top of Latin Pop Albums, Uchis becomes the first female solo act to rule with her first Latin Pop Albums entry since Rosalía’s El Mal Querer in November 2018. Sin Miedo traces its surge to “Telepatía’s” streaming gain across services like YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music, sparked by its popularity on TikTok. (TikTok itself...
