Brandi Carlile, James Taylor, Jon Batiste, More to Honor Joni Mitchell at MusiCares Person of the Year Concert

Some 50 years after its debut, Joni Mitchell’s melancholy song River finally has it own video. River first appeared on Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue. 

Chris Willman Music WriterAn animated river runs through Joni Mitchell’s video oeuvre now, as a 50-year-old song that has been gradually drafted into the holiday music canon, “River,” has just gotten its first music video. The clip made its debut with little time to spare in this “Blue” semicentennial year, premiering two days before Christmas.The video is stylized as a series of moving black-and-white water-colors, as it were, only opening up into actual color at the end.

Joni Mitchell has shared the first official music video for her classic track ‘River’, which was released in 1971.The song featured on the singer-songwriter’s seminal album ‘Blue’ and over the years has become a melancholy Christmas staple.For its first-ever video, ‘River’ has been given the animation treatment by director Matvey Rezanov and Skazka Studios.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPhish, who have made a tradition out of New Year’s Eve concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden, have rescheduled their 2021-22 “New Year’s Run” due to the surge of Covid-19 in the New York area.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOlivia Rodrigo, BTS, Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, Pooh Shiesty were among the artists topping the major streaming services’ year-end charts, according to a list distributed Thursday by the Digital Media Association, of which Amazon, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube are members.DIMA noted that streaming continued to rise in 2021, and that major hip-hop and reggaeton artists garnered many of the top spots in the year-end lists, “benefitting from streaming

Joni Mitchell has a treat for fans this Christmas.

Ellie Goulding, Norah Jones and Brittany Howard were among the artists that paid tribute to Joni Mitchell at the ceremony for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, where the iconic singer-songwriter received a lifetime achievement award.All of the performers put their own spins on classics from Mitchell’s discography, which between 1968 and 2007, spanned 19 studio albums.

The lifetime achievement awards for artistic excellence were presented to Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, “Saturday Night Live” mastermind Lorne Michaels, actress-singer Bette Midler, opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.This year’s event at the Kennedy Center’s main opera house represented a return to political normalcy, with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attending.President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump skipped the show the first three

The 2021 Kennedy Center Honors are airing tonight!

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt’s the holiday season, and Mariah Carey’s perennial “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is not only No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBrandi Carlile, Billie Joe Armstrong, Saweetie, Anitta, 24kGoldn, Kitty Ca$h and recent Variety cover star Jack Harlow will join Miley Cyrys and “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson’s New York’s Even special, airing live from Miami on Friday, Dec. 31 from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs expected, Warner Music Group has acquired 300 Entertainment, home to Megan Thee Stallion – who won Best New Artist at this year’s Grammy Awards — Young Thug and his label Young Stoner Life, Gunna, Fetty Wap, Highly Suspect, the newly signed “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” Mary J.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorClaudia Butzky has been promoted to executive vice president of brand partnerships & sync for Warner Records. In her expanded role, Butzky will continue to lead the label’s brand partnership team while also overseeing the strategy for creative music placement and campaigns across film, television, gaming, sports and related platforms.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMidem, for decades the primary international conference for the music industry, will not be returning in 2022 and the brand will be taken over by the city of Cannes, France, owner RX France announced on Wednesday.“Due to the lasting pandemic and following a review of its activity, RX France [formerly Reed Midem] has decided to no longer organize the Midem events,” the announcement reads in part.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” was the most-played video, both globally and in the U.S., on the major video network Vevo, the company announced Monday as part of its annual year-end look back on music video viewership.“Save Your Tears” topped the list with 615 million views globally, and 102.9M views in the U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhy was pioneering hip-hop photographer Ricky Powell important? This exclusive clip from the forthcoming Showtime documentary “The Individualist” — which premieres tonight (Dec. 10) at 8 p.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAhead of the reveal of the 2021 Time magazine prestigious Person of the Year honor, happening Monday, December 13, the publication on Thursday has revealed that Olivia Rodrigo is its 2021 Entertainer of the Year and Simone Biles the 2021 Athlete of the Year.Rodrigo was featured on the cover of Variety’s Young Hollywood issue over the summer and was named Songwriter of the Year at our Hitmakers event on Saturday, where she gave a moving acceptance speech and was

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDef Leppard and lead singer Joe Elliott, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Living Colour, Rob Thomas, Gary Oldman and more are among the artists joining the second annual “A Bowie Celebration,” set for January 8, 2022, what would have been David Bowie’s 75th birthday.

Paul Harris To the delight of a standing-room-only audience that included the First Family, the Kennedy Center Honors paid hearty tribute on Sunday night to actress/singer Bette Midler, opera bass-baritone Justino Diaz, Motown founder Berry Gordy, “Saturday Night Live” honcho Lorne Michaels and singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell.The event, last staged before a live audience in pre-COVID 2020, had been conspicuously ignored by former President Donald Trump following criticism from two honorees in