International
Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker Honored For Streaming Milestone
“During the recording session,” Parker told APRA AMCOS staff, “I was working myself up to tell him I was going to take it back.” There were no bad feelings from Ronson. The Brit Award-winning producer bestowed the songwriter of the year award to Parker during the annual APRA Awards, via video link. “You think of ‘The Less I Know the Better,’” Ronson explained during his speech, “it’s one of the most iconic basslines of the past 20 years.” Parker wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the song, which appeared on the Grammy-nominated album Currents and went to No. 1 on the triple j station’s Hottest 100 listener’s poll for decade. Currents went to No. 1 in Australia, and Top 5 on both side of the Atlantic. Today, the song is four-times platinum certified in Australia, double-platinum in t...
Coldplay Set to Open 2021 Brit Awards
Coldplay has won British group at the Brits four times, more often than any other group. They have won British album of the year three times, which puts them in a tie with Arctic Monkeys for the lead. Coldplay has won two other Brit Awards, for a total of nine. Their 28 Brit nominations is the record for a group. The Brit Awards 2021 with Mastercard – as the show is officially billed – has previously announced performances by Olivia Rodrigo, Arlo Parks, Dua Lipa, Griff (this year’s Rising Star winner), Headie One, and Rag’n’Bone Man & P!nk with the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir. This year’s Brit Awards, hosted by comedian and actor Jack Whitehall, will be exclusively broadcast on ITV and ITV Hub. The Brit Awards last month announced that it will be the first major indoor music...
Months After Her Arrest Made Global Headlines, Sama’ Abdulhadi Is Still Pushing Palestinian Techno
When she got out and home to her family in Ramallah, Abdulhadi’s situation had become an international story. The heart of the matter was essentially public opinion. While Abdulhadi had secured all of the proper permits from the Palestinian authorities to host the livestream, when word got out that a woman was playing techno at the site, an angry crowd turned up in protest, shutting down the show and looking for someone to blame for the perceived impropriety. Authorities arrested Abdulhadi. Critics accused her of desecrating a holy site; others said she’d simply become a scapegoat. While Abdulhadi is typically based in France — where she moved years ago after gaining acceptance into the artist-in-residency program at Cité internationale des arts and where she cu...
Tom Jones Lands Record-Setting U.K. No. 1 With ‘Surrounded By Time’
Surrounded By Time is Jones’ fourth leader in the U.K. and his first since 1999’s Reload. He also becomes the first Welsh soloist to top the national chart in nearly a decade, since Marina and The Diamonds’ Electra Heart, in 2012. In a slow week for new releases, the next highest debut is an album familiar to many, John Lennon’s 1971 solo debut LP, Plastic Ono Band (Apple Corps). The classic set enjoys a reissue rollout in various computations, blasting it to No. 11 on the weekly chart. Further down the list, a campaign for The Who’s third studio album The Who Sell Out sends the recording to No. 15, and a reissue of ska band The Selecter’s 1980 album Too Much Pressure (Chyrsalis) arrives at No. 24. Veteran alt-rock outfit Dinosaur Jr. snag their fifth Top 40 album with Sweep It Into Space ...
Billie Eilish Set to ‘Power’ Into U.K. Top 10
Eilish’s latest single is the third lifted from her upcoming sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, due out July 30 via Darkroom and Interscope Records. Previously released singles “Therefore I Am” and “My Future,” which respectively peaked at No. 2 and No. 7 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart. Both tracks cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. There’s movement at the top of the chart blast for the first time in more than a month, as Tion Wayne and Russ Millions’ “Body” leapfrogs Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” the leader for the past five weeks. Don’t bet the house on “Body” taking the crown. After just 48 hours, just 100 chart sales separate the two singles. “Confetti” by Little Mix is all set for a return to the upper deck of the ...
SEVENTEEN Soars to No. 1 on Japan Hot 100 With ‘Hitorijanai’
SEVENTEEN’s “Hitorijanai” soars to No. 1 on the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Apr. 19 to 25, selling 372,913 CDs in its first week. The K-pop boy band’s third Japanese single had charted at No. 44 on the Hot 100 last week before the CD dropped on the 21st, powered by Twitter mentions, downloads, and streaming. The track comes in at No. 1 for physical sales and Twitter, while also jumping 53-24 for streaming this week. The single is off to a great start for the group about to celebrate its fourth anniversary since its Japan debut in May. NiziU’s “Take a Picture” continues to hold at No. 2. Three weeks have passed since the single’s release, and it still remains in the top 10 for sales, downloads, streaming, look-ups, and video views. The track has led video for four straight weeks, ...
Will Harry Styles & Dua Lipa Win Brit Awards to Go Along With Their Recent Grammys?
Three other 2021 Grammy winners are nominated for Brits this year. Taylor Swift, who won album of the year for Folklore, and Billie Eilish, who won two awards, including record of the year for “Everything I Wanted,” are competing for the Brit for international female solo artist. Swift won in that category six years ago. Eilish won last year. (Eilish is vying to become the first artist to win in that category two years running since Rihanna in 2011-12.) Burna Boy, who won a Grammy for best global music album for Twice as Tall, is nominated for a Brit for international male solo artist. If any of these artists win at the Brits, they’ll receive a uniquely designed award that is meant for sharing. The award was redesigned by Es Devlin and Yinka Ilori in what the Brits call a “collaborative do...
2021 Helpmann Awards Canceled Due to Pandemic
LPA chief executive Evelyn Richardson says it’s simply “not feasible to proceed” with presenting the 2021 edition, after the industry’s nightmarish experience over the past 12 months, “Our industry is only now getting back to work and there is still more to be done to ensure we can fully operate in every state and territory at 100 percent capacity in all indoor and outdoor venues,” she continues. “For our live music sector in particular, some significant challenges remain before it can fully reactivate.” Richardson says the organization will use this gap-year to “take a step back and reimagine the Helpmann Awards for 2022 onwards.” The Helpmann Awards were established by LPA in 2001, and in 2018 expanded its program into a two-evening s...
Chinese Pop Music Superstar JJ Lin Signs With UTA
He launched his career with his debut album Music Voyager, which earned him the best new artist trophy at the Golden Melody Awards. Lin’s earlier hit singles include “River South,” “Cao Cao,” “If Only” and “Twilight,” while he also lent his voice to the Mandarin version of Luis Fonsi’s international hit single “Despacito.” Lin has collaborated with Hans Zimmer, Jason Mraz, Ayumi Hamasaki, Steve Aoki and Jackson Wang, among others. And he has completed four world tours and more than 130 shows, with 66 shows from his recent Sanctuary World Tour selling out within 10 minutes of tickets being released . He was named as one of Forbes Asia’s 100 Digital Stars and did guest appearances on China’s The Voice. In gaming, Lin launched Team Still Moving under Gunfire (Team SMG), a professi...
Tom Jones on Track For U.K. No. 1 With ‘Surrounded By Time’
Coming in at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update is John Lennon’s first solo album Plastic Ono Band (Parlophone), which reenters the survey off the back of a 50th anniversary release. The late former Beatles great saw his LP peak at No. 8 following its release in 1971. Another legendary British act is on track for a return to the Top 5 as The Who’s third studio LP The Who Sell Out (Polydor) blasts to No. 4, just one spot behind the current chart leader, London Grammar’s California Soil (Ministry of Sound), down 3-1. The Who Sell Out peaked at No. 13 back in 1968. Meanwhile, veteran alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. are chasing their first Top 10 album in almost thee decades with Sweep It Into Space (Jagjaguwar). It’s new at No. 9 on the chart blast, just ahead of indie pop group Scouting For G...
Hi-Res Streaming Service Qobuz Launches In Australia, NZ
Australia’s recorded music is thriving right now, largely due to streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music. Streaming powered the market to a sixth consecutive year of growth in 2020, according trade data published by ARIA in March. Subscription platforms, a category that includes Spotify and Apple Music, generated A$362 million in the calendar year 2020, up 14% from the previous year. The market is far from saturated at the high-res end, notes Fornay. Qobuz is “offering something uniquely different to the other platforms out there,” he enthuses, namely the ability to download or stream at CD quality or Hi-Res “studio quality” audio (24-Bit up to 192 kHz). In addition to its catalog of 70 million tracks, Qobuz also offers album reviews, artist biographies, music...
Lil Nas X, London Grammar Rule U.K.’s Charts
Meanwhile, London rapper AJ Tracey bows at No. 2 with Flu Game (Revenge Records), his sophomore album. It’s the U.K.’s most-streamed album of the chart cycle, according to the OCC, and it’s Tracey’s career high, narrowly beating the No. 3 peak of his 2019 self-titled debut. Veteran U.S. rock outfit The Offspring complete an all-new Top 3 with Let The Bad Times Roll (Concord), their first album in almost a decade. Let The Bad Times Roll starts at No. 3 to give The Offspring their highest-charting to date in the U.K., easily eclipsing the No. 10 peak of Americana from 1998. Also new to the weekly albums survey is Irish rock singer Imelda May, whose sixth LP 11 Past The Hour (Decca) opens at No. 6, while U.S. rockers Greta Van Fleet enter the survey at No. 8 with The Battle at Garden’s Gate (...
