Jem Aswad-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Rihanna will perform the Oscar-nominated song “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner have announced. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 12. “Lift Me Up,” with music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson and lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler, is nominated for original song. It is Rihanna’s first Oscar nomination. Rihanna, who has not released a new album since 2016’s “Anti,” headlined the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month — although her musical performance was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that she revealed she is several months pregnant with her second child. Rihanna made no reference to it during the show but was visibly pregnant and reps confirmed the news to Variety shortly after the performance.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As part of the ongoing bipartan examination of alleged anticompetitive conduct by Ticketmaster, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, sent evidence from their recent hearing to the Department of Justice and called on the DOJ to continue examining the company and its parent Live Nation. The bipartisan letter follows the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on America’s ticketing market in the wake of the chaotic on-sale for Taylor Swift’s 2023 stadium tour. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It’s sitting right there in the middle of SZA’s “Woman of the Year” interview with Billboard: A “deluxe edition” of her blockbuster second album “SOS” featuring “10 additional tracks” is “coming soon,” with no further details. While SZA had mentioned in previous interviews that a deluxe edition was in the works, it literally took her five years to release a deluxe version of her 2017 debut, “Ctrl” — however it appears this one will be coming much sooner. Contacted by Variety, a rep for RCA, SZA’s label, had no further information — and considering that “SOS” already packs 23 tracks into a surprisingly not-overlong 68 minutes, it’s already got plenty of substance. However, it’s not hard to guess what some of the tracks might be.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The solo catalog of George Harrison has moved to Dark Horse Records via BMG, the company announced on Tuesday. Harrison’s family retains the rights to the catalog. Beginning in 1968, Harrison’s solo discography was released first on the Beatles’ label, Apple Records, and later Harrison’s own Dark Horse Records through Warner Bros. Records. In 2021 Universal Music’s catalog division released a deluxe anniversary edition of Harrison’s classic 1970 album “All Things Must Pass.” The 12-album catalog includes Harrison’s debut “Wonderwall Music” (the soundtrack to the film “Wonderwall”), “All Things Must Pass,” the 1973 follow-up “Living in the Material World,” his 1987 comeback album “Cloud Nine: and his final studio album, “Brainwashed,” which was released in 2002, the year after his death from cancer. It also includes the live double album “Live in Japan,” featuring Eric Clapton and the compilations “Let It Roll – Songs by George Harrison,” “Early Takes Vol 1, The Apple Years 1968-1975,” and “The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992.” In celebration of Harrison’s 80th birthday on Feb. 25, Dark Horse/BMG have released his entire catalogue in Dolby Atmos surround sound exclusively on Apple Music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the esteemed Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.   The Johnny Mercer Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer. Tim Rice was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.  

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Guns N’ Roses return to the road on a major 2023 world tour produced by Live Nation, headlining stadiums, festivals, and arenas throughout the summer and fall. The band launch this jaunt on June 5 in Tel Aviv, Israel at Park Hayarkon and will continue across Europe through July 22, wrapping in Athens, Greece. The band will continue onto North America, starting on Saturday, August 5 in Moncton, NB at Medavie Blue Cross Stadium, and will visit historic venues across the country such as Fenway Park in Boston, MA on August 21 and Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL on August 24. The tour concludes in Vancouver, BC at BC Place on Monday, October 16.  Check out the full confirmed itinerary below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Just hours after Pink dropped her ninth studio album, “Trustfall,” the singer has announced a brace of fall arena dates that will launch just a week after her summer stadium tour. Produced by Live Nation, the 14-city tour kicks off on October 12, making stops at arenas across North America, including a date at Madison Square Garden in New York. The previously announced 2023 “Summer Carnival Stadium Tour” features special guests Brandi Carlile and 2022 Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo on select dates, along with Grouplove and KidCutUp on all tour dates. “Trustfall” features collaborations with Chris Stapleton, the Lumineers, and First Aid Kit, as well as songwriters and producers Max Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin, Fred Again, Billy Mann and others. Pink will be appearing on NBC’s “Today,” CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and a a show takeover special on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor More than 30 Turkish, Syrian and local musicians will perform at benefit concerts taking place in New York on Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 18-19), in an effort to help raise funds for those affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck those countries earlier this month. The death toll from the quakes is reported to be at least 35,000, a number likely to rise in the coming days. The concerts will be held at the New York venue DROM, with 100% of ticket proceeds going to benefit the Turkish Philanthropy Fund and Basmeh Zeitooneh, a registered non-governmental organization working in Syria and Turkey — more details can be found here and here; the concerts’ program appears below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Electronic-music titans Skrillex, Fred Again and Four Tet have announced that they will be performing live at New York’s Madison Square Garden this coming Saturday, Feb. 18. Skrillex made the announcement on his Instagram account Wednesday; tickets appeared on Ticketmaster around the same time. While the three have already played last-minute shows together at London venues such as Troxy and the Electric Ballroom, this show will be the first at a major venue. They have been working together on new music in New York and on Tuesday night sold out a special Valentine’s Day pop-up show at Good Room last night.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In 2018, when industry vet David Massey was leaving his post at the helm of Island Records and returning to his longtime home at Sony Music, he originally was going to give his label a new name — possibly Work of Art, the name of the Sony-affiliated publishing and management company he also heads up. But when the possibility arose of relaunching Arista — the label founded by Clive Davis in 1974, now owned by Sony, which famously had a roster that ranged from Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston to Patti Smith — he changed his mind. “A friend had said to me, ‘Your Island is almost like the new Arista,’ which I took as a real compliment, because they had that incredibly eclectic, colorful, vibrant roster, and yet they were smaller and contained and could focus very intensely. We asked Clive and he was up for it, and it was simple as that.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor After announcing an April 2023 West Coast tour, Phish have unveiled an extensive run of summer 2023 tour dates. Starting with a two-night stand in Huntsville, AL (July 11-12), the band will continue on for performances in Alpharetta, GA (July 14-16), Wilmington, NC (July 18-19), Burgettstown, PA (July 21-22), Syracuse, NY (July 23), Philadelphia, PA (July 25-26), and a seven-night run at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (July 28-August 5). The band’s summer 2023 will cap with their traditional Labor Day Weekend run at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, CO, returning for four nights (August 31-September 3). A ticket request period is currently underway at tickets.phish.com and will end on Monday, February 27th at 12PM ET. Tickets go on sale to the public beginning Friday, March 3rd at 10AM ET. Specific ticketing information for each show is available at phish.com/tours.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Philippines-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter-producer Eyedress has signed with RCA Records and dropped a new, Valentine’s Day-themed single, “Flowers & Chocolate,” the label announced today (Feb. 13). The song’s accompanying music video, directed by Eddie Huang (author of “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir” and director/writer of the upcoming film “Tuna Melt,” starring SZA and Chloe Cherry), finds Eyedress cruising around Los Angeles in a red convertible filled with flowers as he rushes home to impress his partner. Eyedress has moved between a multitude of musical styles since his 2019 breakthrough single “Jealous,” which has been certified platinum by the RIAA. Last year, he made his Coachella debut and released his “Full Time Lover” album, which featured the Neptunes’ Chad Hugo and got a remix from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine on the song “House of Cards.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan selling their catalogs for $600 million, Genesis and Phil Collins for $300 million, Stevie Nicks for $100 million — over the past few years dozens of artists have sold the rights to their music catalogs for eight or nine figures. There are all kinds of reasons why this is happening: Artists are getting older and are basically estate planning, the pandemic proved that copyrights can be a great investment, and the booming market is bringing more and more buyers and sellers to the table. But what do you do with that catalog once you’ve bought it? The old approach was to basically to sit and wait for the songs to make money — through radio, sales, use in films or TV shows or advertising campaigns, Broadway shows and lots of other ways.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It’s such a great idea, and so seemingly obvious, that it’s hard to believe no one had already thought of it: A line of horror and rock-themed pet products bearing the name Freak on a Leash, one of the most popular songs by long-running nu-metal pioneers Korn. “These premium products are created for all, paying homage to the horror and rock music we love,” singer Jonathan Davis, who created the line in partnership with promoter Danny Wimmer Presents and the non-profit animal rescue Take Me Home, wrote in an Instagram post. The series, announced last week, launches on Oct. 28 but had a preview at a special tent at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento. As the photos below show, the line runs from classy but low-key collars and leashes bearing just the logo, to items that more fully live up to the name, such as severed-hand or eyeball plushies.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kendrick Lamar’s sold-out show at the Accor Arena in Paris on Saturday will be livestreamed exclusively through Amazon Music and Prime Video, the company announced today. The event will mark the 10-year anniversary of the release of Lamar’s monumentally influential album, “Good Kid, m.A.A.d City” and will give fans with a special look at Lamar’s 65-date world tour in support of his latest release, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Airing live on October 22 at 2 p.m. ET, fans will be able to watch the livestream for free exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, and on the Amazon Music app. The stream will also feature sets from pgLang’s Tanna Leone and Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Baby Keem. Lamar’s performance will be available to view on-demand on Prime Video following the livestream event.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Warner Chappell Music publishing has unveiled an original podcast series called “Setting the Standard: Stories from the Great American Songbook,” in partnership with Bang/Audiation – the team behind WCM’s podcast “Final Sessions: Harry Nilsson’s Losst and Founnd.” The new podcast will “weave together story and song into a tapestry of American cultural history for songwriters, historians, musicians, artists, and fans alike,” according to the announcement. Launching on October 25th, “Setting the Standard” will feature eight episodes – each on a different legendary songwriter – starting with three-time Oscar-winning and pioneering film composer Harry Warren. Additional episodes will roll out throughout the year and spotlight composers and songwriters including Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jule Styne, and more. Using historical sources and new discussions with scholars, critics, artists, and family members, the series will tell the stories of their lives and highlight their most iconic songs. It will also feature exclusive interviews from artists like Billy Corgan and Michael Feinstein, and top songwriters such as Justin Tranter.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Grammy and Oscar winning singer-songwriter Sam Smith has announced their fourth studio album, “Gloria,” will be released on January 27, 2023 via Capitol Records. Made with longtime collaborators Jimmy Napes, Stargate and Max Martin stablemate Ilya, the album is described in the announcement as “not only a creative revelation but something of a personal revolution for the celebrated artist. Lyrically, the subjects dive deep and wide, into contemporary narratives around sex, lies, passion, self-expression and imperfection.” Smith says, “It feels like emotional, sexual and spiritual liberation. It was beautiful, with this album, to sing freely again. Oddly, it feels like my first-ever record. And it feels like a coming of age.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In the digital age, the traditional songbook — filled with lyrics and sheet music and maybe some pictures — can feel like a lost art, but it certainly is not to classical musicians, and particularly musical theater veterans. So even for Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, his first songbook, containing 27 songs from “Hamilton,” “Encanto,” “In the Heights” and more, was a big deal.Can’t believe there’s enough music for a collection, but here we are. I have a songbook. From In The Heights through Encanto. Wrote a foreword and everything. Overwhelmed and proud and grateful. Available now from @hal_leonard. -LMM pic.twitter.com/ydfREAs3Ym Such a big deal that Miranda’s songbook-release party in Manhattan last week was an extended-family gathering, attended by his parents, sister, nephews, friends, music teachers from several New York schools — and even Lin-Manuel’s former teachers — as well as city music programs serving underrepresented children, and fellows from the Miranda Family Fellowship Program, which aims to increase access to education and careers in the arts for emerging artists from underrepresented communities.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The courtship between art and commerce is a tricky one, but when a brand invests in music in a way that legitimately benefits not only its customers and the artist but people from the artist’s community, it’s good business all around. And at a time when the concert experience can be downright insulting to the customer — most of whom have invested horrifying amounts of money and time with no guarantee of it paying off — it’s even better business to make them feel like they’re flying first-class.   “Jack Harlow’s Louisville,” a hometown-themed concert sponsored by American Express and exclusively for card holders, was basically like a large version of one of those corporate events most humans only read about, crossed with a really rich friend’s kid’s sweet sixteen party. It was held at Brooklyn Steel, an 1,800-capacity, five-year-old venue with a spacious upstairs balcony (which was used as VIP for this event) that includes a sunken terrace that’s basically the equivalent of box seats (and was ultra-VIP).

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor This past spring, as the omicron wave subsided and the world began a ready-or-not return to something resembling normal, the floodgates opened and thousands of musicians returned to the road. Audiences flocked to arenas and big theaters see Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Elton John and many others. Coachella launched the festival season with a bang, and smaller clubs began to cautiously figure out how to put on shows in tight spaces. It was a bumpy start — many acts (even Sir Elton and Bon Jovi) had to cancel or postpone shows because of positive Covid tests — but a start, nonetheless. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino says ticket sales are on their way to a record year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor TikTok parent ByteDance has begun talks with music labels about expanding its music-streaming service into more than a dozen markets in a move that would place it in direct competition with Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming services, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the initial plan is to expand the company’s Resso service, which is currently only available in India, Indonesia and Brazil, into more than a dozen markets, although the U.S. is not said to be part of the next phase of expansion. The Journal’s sources say significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, but ByteDance wants the service to eventually be integrated within TikTok and to serve as a major platform for distributing music around the world.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruno Mars has announced that Silk Sonic — the R&B duo consisting of him and Anderson .Paak — will not submit their album “An Evening With Silk Sonic” for Grammy consideration, he told Rolling Stone. “We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year,” Mars said. “We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.” The album’s lead single, “Leave the Door Open,” was released in April of 2021 and won four Grammys for which it was nominated at the 2022 awards, including album and single of the year. The album was released last November and thus of last year and is not only eligible for 2023 awards, but was expected by nearly all prognosticators to be a top contender for album of the year .

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor BMI is changing to a for-profit business model, the company announced to its staff in an internal email Wednesday morning. The performing rights organization, like most across the globe, had previously operated broadly on a not-for-profit basis, like its chief U.S. competitor ASCAP, since it was founded in 1939. However, as for-profit PROs, notably SESAC and the relatively new Global Music Rights, launched in the U.S., the restrictions of that model began to limit BMI’s opportunities. BMI attempted a sale last year but did could not come to terms with potential buyers. CEO Mike O’Neill tells Variety, “We realized that we needed to make certain changes to the organization in order to be even more competitive in the future. As you know, there’s lists of companies that waited too long to change. And as a result, you know, they’re no longer in business.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Julie Greenwald has been elevated to chairman & CEO of the newly created Atlantic Music Group. In her new post, Greenwald oversees Atlantic Records — including the Atlantic, Atco, Big Beat, and Canvasback labels — as well as 300 Elektra Entertainment, which encompasses 300, Elektra, Fueled by Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound, DTA, and Public Consumption. Greenwald and Craig Kallman will continue to jointly lead Atlantic Records, with Kallman continuing as chairman & CEO. Late last year, the company launched 300 Elektra Entertainment with Kevin Liles as chairman-CEO, merging the two labels as part of Atlantic parent Warner Music’s acquisition of 300 Entertainment.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has promoted Jenna Park Adler to co-head of the agency’s global hip-hop/R&B touring group, alongside current head Mark Cheatham.  Adler personally reps artists across multiple genres as well as hip-hop and R&B, with a client roster that includes Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Charli XCX, Green Day, Chloe x Halle, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Deftones, and Mark Ronson, among many others. She played a key role in Doja Cat’s rise, architected Green Day’s “Hella Mega” tour and helped Lopez develop her multi-dimensional businesses. “Jenna’s an undeniable force in the business and an invaluable member of the CAA team, brilliantly delivering for artists across genres,” said CAA Co-Head of North American Music Darryl Eaton.  “Mark and Jenna bring an incredible level of energy, experience and strategic vision to our industry-leading Hip-Hop/R&B group.  Under their leadership, the future is very bright.” 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Duran Duran have confirmed details of a brand-new, 75 minute docu-concert film titled “A Hollywood High,” that captures the band performing live on a rooftop in Los Angeles, alongside interviews and archival footage that tells the story of their long-time relationship with the city. The film will be released in theaters on November 3, 2022.  “For our first US show in several years we wanted to do something really special and intimate,” explains keyboardist Nick Rhodes.  “After considering many options, a rooftop performance quickly became the frontrunner. It was post-pandemic, we had never done anything like that before, and we had just released a new album.  Somehow it seemed like a magical doorway to the next part of our journey.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Sault, the intentionally shadowy British R&B outfit led by Little Simz/ Michael Kiwanuka/ Adele producer Inflo, are back with a new EP called “Angel” — which is actually a single 10-minute song that is more like three different songs and a spoken-word passage combined into one. While details on the release are slim (as always with this group), presumably an album is not far behind. Not surprisingly, the new release is different from virtually everything the innovative R&B group has released in the past. “Angel” starts off like a power-trio version of a Bob Marley song, with a male reggae vocalist — apparently Jamaican singer Chronixx, who is credited on the song along with Inflo and British singer Jack Penate — singing over a jazzy drumbeat and a repetitive lead guitar hook. But after three minutes, the song stops and shifts into a piano-led ballad, with Chronixx continuing on theme about Zion, but with a gorgeous soulful chorus backing him. A spoken word passage then follows, and the song concludes with what is basically a third song, a gentle acoustic song that fades out with a “Soul Rebel” chorus.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor One of the new honors the Grammy Awards will introduce at their next ceremony is song for social change — a special-merit award that “recognizes creators of message-driven music that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact.” While the honor is “curated by a blue-ribbon committee,” there’s little question that the number of submissions will have an impact — and according to the Recording Academy, 95,000 of the 115,000 submissions received have been for Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour’s song, “Baraye,” a protest song about 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested and beaten by Iran’s so-called morality police for not wearing a proper head covering, in line with the country’s Islamic law.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Of all the issues currently threatening U.S. democracy, attacks on the voting system may be the most severe. Yet as the 2020 election showed, despite those threats, the system can still work — and the best thing people can do is, in order, vote, and get involved. Leading the charge for the music industry for the past 18 years is HeadCount, the not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that you’ve probably seen at any number of concerts, registering voters at a table in the venue’s lobby or merch areas at festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and many more. With support from Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Panic! At The Disco, David Byrne, Anderson .Paak, Tinashe (pictured above), Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews Band, Dead & Company, Paramore and many more, the organization has registered more than 145,000 voters already this year — the most it has seen to date for a midterm election (the previous peak was 89,000), and has led hundreds of thousands of others to check their registration status. (Head here for information on the organization and volunteering.)

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Fiona Apple has dropped a new song as part of the season finale of Amazon Studios’ series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” With vocals by Apple and music by Bear McCreary, the song is titled “Where the Shadows Lie” and is from a J.R.R. Tolkien poem that appeared in the original books — the song appears only on Amazon Music but a link and excerpt is below. “The musical legacy of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ brings to mind ethereal vocals carrying lyrical melodies over evocative harmonies, so it was my natural inclination to compose such a song for ‘The Rings of Power,’” said McCreary. “Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic ‘Ring Poem’ text, I wrote the song ‘Where the Shadows Lie’ as a theme for the titular Rings of Power, for the magic of mithril, for the sinister machinations of Sauron, and for his land of Mordor.”