Ray Charles Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

R&B legend Ray Charles, who helped redefine country music in the Civil Rights era, and Grammy-winning duo The Judds will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame on Monday announced their new members, who will be formally inducted in a ceremony in 2022.

The 2021 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees have been announced.

NASHVILLE, Ten.. -- R&B legend Ray Charles and Grammy-winning duo The Judds will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.The Hall of Fame on Monday announced their new members, who will be formally inducted in a ceremony in 2022.Charles showed the commercial potential of country music when he released “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" in 1962, a genre-defying personal project to the Georgia-born singer and piano player.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe Country Music Hall of Fame has announced its class of 2021, with the Judds and Ray Charles representing superstar inductees and musicians Pete Drake and Eddie Bayers joining the hall’s ranks as well.Drake and Bayers have something in common: Drake is the first steel guitar player ever to get voted into the Hall of Fame, and Bayers the first drummer to be thus included.

Prince Estate has sold a controlling stake in the rights to the late musician’s intellectual property.According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the three youngest of Prince’s six siblings have each agreed to sell their inheritance in the estate to New York independent music publisher and talent management company Primary Wave.The new report has revealed that Primary Wave, which also owns a music catalogue that includes Nirvana and Ray Charles, last month bought 100 per cent of Prince’s youngest

Chris Willman Music WriterClarence “Mac” McDonald, a keyboard player, producer, songwriter and arranger who worked with artists including James Taylor, Ray Charles, Bill Withers and the Emotions, died in Las Vegas July 21 from complications related to cancer, his friends and family reported. He was 76.During a 50-year-plus career in the music business, McDonald had as among his biggest hits as a producer the 1977 No.

Clarence “Mac” McDonald, a keyboardist who played with such legends as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and produced the Emotions’ No. 1 smash “Best of My Love” and many others, has died. He was 76.

NPR reported.

Jeremy Helligar At the beginning of the 1970s, mainstream Black music was a massive singles scene. A handful of Motown acts, including the Supremes and the Temptations, had managed to score Top 10 albums during the ‘60s, but with the exception of Aretha Franklin’s Atlantic Records releases post-“Respect” and Ray Charles’ run of early ‘60s hits on ABC, Black artists weren’t typically creating classic album-length artistic statements on par with The Beatles’ “Sgt.

We’ve had definitive biopics on legendary Black soul artists like James Brown (“Get On Up“), Miles Davis (“Miles Ahead“), Tina Turner (“What’s Love Got To Do With It“), and Ray Charles (“Ray“). And while she’s appeared in many films and there have been documentaries made about her, there’s never really been a definitive movie biopic about the Queen of Soul, at least one that’s stuck in the collective conscious.

Joe Biden nixed one of Donald Trump’s plans for a lasting legacy: A National Garden Of American Heroes, filled with statues of historical figures, sports stars, entertainers, business figures, activists and inventors.

Miles Davis‘ final live performances is set to be released as a new live album next month.‘MERCI MILES! LIVE AT VIENNE’ is a documentation of the legend’s 1991 performance at the Vienne Jazz Festival in France, just three months before his death.The record will come out on June 25 via Rhino Records, and comes as part of the label’s Black Music Month series.

NEW YORK -- Twenty-time Grammy winner Al Schmitt, whose extraordinary career as a recording engineer and producer included albums by Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and many other of the top performers of the past 60 years, has died at age 91.Schmitt's family announced on Facebook that he died Monday, without identifying a specific cause. Schmitt lived in the Los Angeles area.

Recording engineer Al Schmitt died at the age of 91 on Monday, according to the his family. With 20 Grammy wins for his work with everyone from Ray Charles to Paul McCartney to Natalie Cole to Steely Dan, Schmitt won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer in music history.

Chloe x Halle have shared a new Ray Charles cover – listen to their version of ‘Georgia on My Mind’ below.The cover version was recorded for an ESPN commercial ahead of the Masters golf tournament, which is set to be held in Augusta, Georgia next month (April 5-11).In a statement discussing the new song, the pair said: “We are happy to be given the opportunity to record our version of the timeless ‘Georgia On My Mind’ for the Masters Tournament.”Listen to the version below.Last September, Chloe

H.E.R. is planning to put her own spin on America The Beautiful when she performs it at the Super Bowl this Sunday (February 7, 2021).The singer, real name Gabriella Wilson, will take to center field to belt out the Ray Charles’ tune before the big game, and told Entertainment Tonight that she’s been watching previous renditions to ensure that she brings something different with her performance.“Honestly, I am so excited to just be performing at the Super Bowl,” she explained.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterNatalia Nastaskin, who has been General Manager of the Global Music Group at United Talent Agency since 2015, is joining the executive team at Primary Wave Music as Partner and Chief Content Officer, effective Feb. 1.Nastaskin will spearhead the development of various content for Primary Wave’s roster of management acts and publishing artists including Stevie Nicks, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, Prince, Ray Charles among others.

Kelly Clarkson is paying tribute to America’s veterans.

John Legend has Georgia on his mind! News emerged early on Friday morning that Joe Biden was more than 900 votes ahead of Donald Trump in the Georgia vote count for the 2020 presidential election — boosting his chances of victory.Legend shared his joy on social media while singing the Ray Charles hit, «Georgia on My Mind.»The two-minute clip shows the 41-year-old singer passionately belting out the classic.

John Legend is celebrating Georgia.

Ray Charles, "America The Beautiful": 6000%Bruce Springsteen, "Born In The U.S.A.": 2400%Demi Lovato, "Made In The USA": 1800%Toby Keith, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)": 1600%James Brown, "Living in America": 890%Fall Out Boy, "Fourth Of July": 880%Darryl Worley, "Have You Forgotten?": 670%Lenny Kravitz, "American Woman": 650%Granger Smith aka Earl Dibbles Jr, "Merica": 585%Simon & Garfunkel, "America": 505%Chicago, "Saturday in the Park": 430%DJ Jazzy Jeff & The

Primary Wave Music Publishing has finalized a multi-million dollar deal to acquire a majority stake in the pre-1964 music publishing catalog of soul music pioneer Ray Charles.

Rob Kardashian's birthday present to Kourtney Kardashian might just be the sweetest gift ever.  To celebrate his big sister's 41st birthday, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star gifted her something that also paid tribute to their late father Robert Kardashian: His old record collection.

Justin Bieber shaved off his mustache a couple of months ago, but he only just revealed the real reason why he did it.

Music fans in West Lothian are in for a treat this spring.

"I was a lucky son of a bitch" is the way talent agent Dick Alen describes how he navigated a 60-plus-year career working with a slew of some of music's biggest stars. "You do what you do, and it turned out very well for me and my clients."Alen's stacked roster doubles as a list of American icons.

Justin Bieber is back to his signature “baby face” look after finally shaving off his moustache.

A New York City jazz festival comes with a musical slice of Motown.

Finneas is the first individual in 15 years to receive Grammy nominations for both album of the year (as a producer) and best engineered album, non-classical for work on the same album: his sister Billie Eilish's first full-length, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? The last person to achieve this feat was Terry Howard, who won in both categories for his work on Ray Charles' final album, Genius Loves Company.Fourteen other people in Grammy history have received nominations as a producer