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DaBaby Rocks Australia’s Singles Chart For Fifth Week
DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (Interscope/Universal) is still rocking Australia’s singles chart, while there’s an all-new, all-Australian top three on the national albums survey. “Rockstar” enters a fifth week at No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The viral hit, featuring Roddy Ricch, holds onto the chart crown following the release of the “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) remix, which references his experiences with the police and the ongoing protests after George Floyd’s death. Meanwhile, Topic’s “Breaking Me” featuring A7S rises 5-4, a new peak, while Harry Styles scores a fourth solo top 10 as “Watermelon Sugar” (Columbia/Sony) climbs 12-6, a new high. It’s the former One Direction star’s third top 10 from the chart-topping album Fine Line, following “Lights Up” and “Adore You”, both of which...
Lil Baby’s ‘My Turn’ Spends Third Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
Lil Baby’s My Turn nets a third total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set holds atop the list for a second straight week. It earned 72,000 equivalent album units earned (up 12 percent) in the U.S. in the week ending June 18, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The set (released via Quality Control/Motown/Capitol Records) notched its first frame in the penthouse when it opened in the top slot dated March 14. Only three albums have logged at least three weeks at No. 1 in 2020: My Turn, The Weeknd’s After Hours (four) and Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial (three in 2020, one in 2019). The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units compri...
The 10 Best Moments From John Legend and Alicia Keys’ Juneteenth Verzuz Showdown
In a time of civil unrest throughout the country, Alicia Keys and John Legend’s Verzuz event was a healing balm. For more than two hours the pair played their biggest hits (20 each), including their solo songs and features. At times Keys sat at a fuschia piano as Legend took a seat behind a black piano. Other times, the pair got up and danced along to their hit songs, singing over the recordings. In addition to playing their biggest hits, Legend and Keys also performed their newest singles. More than 150,000 tuned into the event on Instagram Live at its peak. The Juneteenth-themed event — the latest in the Verzuz series created by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, Keys’ husband — was also the the first in the series to be streamed on Apple TV. The Instagram Live events, which sta...
Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera Scrap Fall Seasons Due to Coronavirus
The Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera have canceled the fall portions of their 2020-21 seasons due to the new coronavirus. The Lyric Opera eliminated four of its 10 productions and delayed opening night from Sept. 17 to Jan. 16. San Francisco canceled five of seven stagings and delayed opening night from Sept. 11 to April 25. Twenty-six performances were canceled in Chicago and 37 in San Francisco. Lyric general director Anthony Freud said Tuesday he hopes to reschedule the missed stagings for future seasons: a double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci;” what was to have been the North American premiere of George Benjamin’s “Lessons in Love and Violence;” Puccini’s “Tosca;” and Verdi’s “Attila.” The season now is set to start with the Chicag...
NPR Variety Show ‘Live From Here’ Canceled by American Public Media
The Chris Thile-hosted variety series was a retooled version of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Live From Here, the Chris Thile-hosted radio show that served as a successor to A Prairie Home Companion when the latter series was retooled in 2017, has been canceled by American Public Media. CEO Jon McTaggart revealed the news in a post on APM’s website announcing drastic cuts at the broadcaster. Thile and Live From Here’s official social accounts also broke the news on Tuesday (June 16). “Not one live broadcast has gone by where I didn’t thank my absurdly lucky stars for your wide open ears and hearts,” Thile wrote on Twitter. “Over the weekend, I was informed that American Public Media will no longer be producing the show. “While this news fills me with sadn...
Universal Music UK Reboots EMI Records With Rebecca Allen at the Helm
Universal Music Group is relaunching EMI Records, the iconic British record label which UMG acquired for $1.9 billion in 2012. As part of the relaunch, UMG’s Virgin EMI is renamed EMI Records, effective immediately. The Virgin Records imprint will continue under the new EMI Records banner. At the helm is newly-appointed EMI president Rebecca Allen, a 20-year UMG veteran and former Billboard Women In Music honoree. Closely associated with the British pop movement of the 1960s, EMI’s star-studded roster in the UK in the ’60s and ’70s included The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Jackson Five, The Temptations and Smokey Robinson. EMI continued to be home to the UK’s top music stars in the 1990s, when it signed acts l...
Liam Gallagher On Track For Third Solo U.K. No. 1 With ‘MTV Unplugged’
Liam Gallagher is plugged in for a third solo No. 1 in the U.K. The former Oasis frontman blasts to the top of the midweek albums chart as his live LP MTV Unplugged (Warner Records) outsells the rest of the top 5 combined, the Official Charts Company reports. If the set holds its spot when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published this Friday (June 19), it’ll continue a streak for Gallagher, which began with As You Were (from 2017) and continued with his sophomore album Why Me? Recorded in Hull City Hall, MTV Unplugged has generated the most physical sales — CD and vinyl – and is the most downloaded release in the first half of the week, according to the OCC. The album was due to be released April 24 but was delayed when the vinyl manufacturing plant pressing the LP was temporarily...
Universal Music Opens First-Ever Offices in Israel and Morocco
The new outposts, in Tel Aviv and Casablanca, continue the arms race among the labels of overseas resources sniffing for new talent. After broadening its footprint in Asia in 2019, Universal Music is continuing its global expansion with new offices in Israel and Morocco, marking the label as the first major music company to open standalone operations in either country. The new outposts in the Middle East and North Africa will add to UMG’s existing network of A&R and marketing in more than 60 countries. UMG Morocco will be based in Casablanca, while the Israel office will operate out of Tel Aviv. The moves come one month after Universal officially opened a new hub for hip-hop label Def Jam Africa based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Lagos, Nigeria. And the push into North Africa and...
BMI Announces Winners of 2020 Film, TV & Visual Media Awards
The winners of BMI’s 36th annual Film, TV & Visual Media Awards were announced Monday (June 15) across the organization’s social and digital platforms. Honorees — who were awarded for their work on the top-performing films, TV shows and other visual media from the previous year — include composers Tyler Bates, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Atli Örvarsson, Mike Post, Mac Quayle and Brian Tyler. Örvarsson was the top winner this year, with a total of five awards (known as “crystals”) for his work on TV series including Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, FBI and FBI Most Wanted. Elsewhere, Tyler, Quayle and Bates received three apiece. Tyler won for his work on Hawaii Five-0, Magnum P.I. and Yellowstone; Quayle won for 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star and American Horror Story;...
Twitch Users Are Getting Takedown Notices En Masse for the First Time: Here’s Why
A flurry of copyright takedown notices hit Twitch users last week, causing a storm on social media. Here’s what’s really going on and what to watch for next. Over the last week, users on gaming-focused livestream platform Twitch received a sudden flurry of takedown notices for clips of old videos using unlicensed background music. The more than 2,500 notices — which the RIAA filed on behalf of rights holders for recordings including Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” and DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean” — caused a storm on social media, with users complaining on Twitter they felt blindsided by the requests, some for clips dating as far back as 2017. Contrary to some users’ claims, Twitch’s Music Guidelines — which explicitly prohibit users from incorporating music into their streams wit...
Lady Gaga’s ‘Chromatica’ Enters Week Two Atop Australia’s Chart
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica (Interscope/Universal) hangs on for a second week at No. 1 in Australia, as DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (Interscope/Universal) completes a month at the top. Chromatica, which also snares the U.K. chart lead for a second week (by a narrow margin), is Gaga’s fourth No. 1 Down Under. The highest new debut this week belongs to Melbourne alternative rock act Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, whose sophomore album Sideways To New Italy arrives (Ivy League/Universal) at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart and is the best-selling vinyl album of the week. It’s the followup to their debut Hope Downs, which peaked at No. 24 in June 2018. Sideways To New Italy impacts the Official U.K. Albums Chart this week, at No. 45. Also bowing in the Australian top 5 is The Ghost Inside’s self-title...
Tekashi 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj Aim for U.K.’s Highest New Debut With ‘Trollz’
Tekashi 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj are bound for the highest new entry on the U.K. singles chart with “Trollz”. After a busy weekend of sales and streaming activity, “Trollz” starts at No. 5 on the Official Chart: First Look. It’s on track to secure Minaj her highest-charting single in the U.K. since Little Mix’s 2018 hit “Woman Like Me,” on which assisted. “Woman Like Me” peaked at No. 2. Tekashi 6ix9ine has only impacted the U.K. top 10 on one occasion, with his “comeback” track “Gooba,” which hit No. 6 last month. A portion of the proceeds from the single, including merch items, will benefit The Bail Project, Minaj explains, which provides free bail assistance to low-income individuals who can’t afford to pay bail while awaiting their trial. Leading the U.K. sales blast is DaBa...
