Kardinal Offishall, Def Jam’s Newest Exec, Says Canada’s Music Industry Needs ‘Radical Change’: ‘We’re Decades Behind Other Countries’

Longtime friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have been through it all together.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features It’s 25 minutesbefore showtime at Krakow, Poland’s Tauron Arena, and Michael Bublé is cool as a cucumber. A February chill in Europe, where he is touring across more than a dozen countries including the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy, is nothing new to the singer raised outside Vancouver. Likewise, the dress- ing room serves as a familiar home away from home for the five-time Grammy winner, who picked up his latest gramophone statuette for traditional pop vocal album in February. A dual citizen of both Canada and Italy, from where his maternal side hails, Bublé never gets stage fright. And 11 albums in — “Higher” was released last March — with sales topping 75 million and his songs streaming over 14 billion, sold-out crowds have also become de rigueur, worthy of recognition with Variety’s Intl. Achievement in Music Award, which he is receiving March 26 in London.

The Smile have confirmed that they have been working on their second album.The supergroup – made up of Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – told fans the news at the end of an email newsletter that was announcing additional North American tour dates. “We’re deep in recording, week 7,” The Smile wrote.

The cast of Neighbours has announced that a new series of the Australian show will start filming next month. Alan Fletcher, Jackie Woodburne, Stefan Dennis, Ryan Moloney, Annie Jones, and April Rose Pengilly told the audience of Neighbours – The Celebration Tour at the London Palladium that production will start in April.The six actors including Fletcher, 65, who played Karl Kennedy, and his on-screen wife Susan, portrayed by Woodburne, 67, were also confirmed for a new chapter of the long-running soap.

 — a live broadcast of MLB games on Apple TV+. Apple announced on Wednesday that broadcasts of Major League Baseball games on Apple TV+ this season will require a subscription to the service.Kicking off with a doubleheader on Friday, April 7, the Texas Rangers face the Chicago Cubs, followed by the San Diego Padres facing the Atlanta Braves. Just like last year, Apple will show two live baseball games every Friday night with a rotating cast of teams. Now, you will need an Apple TV+ subscription, which costs $7 per month with a seven-day free trial, if you want to watch.Sign up for Apple TV+Apple and MLB also announced the schedule for the first half of the season, which will last through June 30. This year, Wayne Randazzo and Alex Faust are handling the play-by-plays, joined by analysts Dontrelle Willis and Ryan Spilborghs, and sideline reporters Heidi Watney and Tricia Whitaker. Live pre- and postgame coverage will again be hosted by Lauren Gardner, along with Siera Santos.Beginning MLB Opening Day, fans in the U.S.

Country music stars Orville Peck, Mickey Guyton and Jimmie Allen are the judges for “My Kind of Country”, a new Nashville-themed music competition series streaming on Apple TV+, executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Mulgraves.

A siren-like emergency warning message will be sent by the government to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new public alert system.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Paramount+ is launching its first-ever mobile-only streaming subscription plan in Mexico and Brazil. Paramount+’s Basic Plan, described as “competitively priced,” will be available from April 18. It will allow subscribers to stream content on one mobile device or tablet at a time, uninterrupted and without ads. “This new offering is part of our broader strategy to scale Paramount+,” said Marco Nobili, executive vice president and international general manager for Paramount+. “With multi-tier pricing options, Paramount+ will reach even more subscribers by fitting diverse customer choices and grow our global direct-to-consumer distribution. With mobile entertainment consumption increasing around the world, a mobile-only option will make our slate of programming more accessible to our audiences in mobile-first countries.”

Karen Bliss Nickelback’s induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Monday’s Juno Awards called for a local hero — and who better to introduce the honorees than Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid. “The LeBron of hockey,” as Junos host Simu Liu called the athlete, is currently regarded as the NHL’s best player. In Edmonton, not far from the tiny town of Hanna, Alberta (where a sign welcoming visitors reads, “Proud to be the home of Nickelback”), the rock band is equally respected. To wit: an introduction by Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in an 11-minute video chronicling their start as a cover band to global rock act with sales of over 50 million albums. “They played a show here a number of years ago and I met them backstage and ended up having a really good time together,” McDavid — who is from Toronto and joined the Oilers in 2015 — tells Variety. “I think there’s always a mutual respect for athletes to musicians and musicians to athletes, and we definitely bonded over that.”

The world is in for a treat when All Elite Wrestling sends the signal from Canada Life Center in Winnipeg on Wednesday, March 15.

Kid approved! Misha Collins wasn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving his family in California to play the iconic Batman villain Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Gotham Knights after more than a decade filming Supernatural in Canada — but his son made it an easy choice.

Former Premier League referee Graham Poll insists Manchester United midfielder Casemiro has failed to "adapt" his approach following his second sending-off of the season.

Karen Bliss The Weeknd is now tied with Bryan Adams for the second most Juno Awards after the Canadian superstar added four more trophies to his stash at the Opening Night Awards, a gala industry dinner, held at the Edmonton Convention Centre on March 11. He did not come to Alberta for Canada’s biggest celebration of homegrown music, likely busy with his TV and film projects before the second leg of his global stadium tour starts overseas in June. Of course, it’s not too late for him to charter a plane to be there on Monday (March 13) for the two-hour televised show from Rogers Place, at which he’s up for two more awards — fan choice and album — and could possibly get closer to becoming the all-time biggest winner in the Junos’ 52-year history. The record-holder is songbird Anne Murray with 25 (Celine Dion has 20). In fact, the 33-year-old’s crown is guaranteed in years to come.

Bowen Yang introduced a new recurring political impersonation during the January 21 episode of Saturday Night Live by getting in drag to impersonate a George Santos.

APPOINTMENTSKobalt has promoted Alison Donald to the role of Head Of Global Creative, overseeing the company’s global creative teams and splitting her time between LA and London. CEO Laurent Hubert says that Donald “is not only an accomplished A&R but an incredible leader and mentor to songwriters and A&Rs alike – I am excited to see her step into this role and build upon our award-winning publishing team”.Composer and music supervisor management agency First Artists Management has hired Zoe Hart to work as an agent in its London office, while also promoting Hailey Flame to the same role within its LA team.

Heather Rae El Moussa is glad former “Selling Sunset” villain Christine Quinn has left the show.

Heather Rae and Tarek El Moussa think they might be done having kids after recently welcoming their newest addition — baby son Tristan.

Bebe Rexha has no interest in dating someone who works in the music industry, and explained why during a recent interview with ET Canada’s Keshia Chanté.

The 50th anniversary of hip hop will be celebrated with a special star-studded performance at the upcoming Juno Awards, featuring an array of Canada’s best-known rap performers.

Bebe Rexha is sharing some stomach-turning, behind-the-scenes details of the music video for her and David Guetta’s chart-topping banger “I’m Good (Blue)”.