International
Mory Kante, African Music Star and ‘Yeke Yeke’ Singer, Dies at 70
Guinean singer Mory Kante, an influential figure in African and world music, has died, his family said Friday. He was 70. Kante brought Guinean, and Mandingo, culture to the world. He was called an ambassador of Afro-Pop music. His song “Yeke Yeke,” released in the late ’80s, has been remixed and covered extensively. “Guinea and the whole world have lost a great personality,” Kante’s son, Balla Kante, told The Associated Press. “My father was a great personality. We lost a large library today.” [embedded content] Balla said his father had not been feeling well for quite some time and died in a hospital in the capital, Conakry. He will be tested for COVID-19, his son confirmed.“He was an elderly man who did a lot and exerted a lot of physical energy,” Balla said. Born on March 29, 1950 in A...
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s ‘Rain on Me’ Leads U.K. Chart Race
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s pop mega-collaboration “Rain on Me” is reigning over the U.K. singles chart. The new single, which dropped last Friday with an accompanying music video, rules the Official Chart First Look Top 20 with a lead of 7,000 chart sales over its nearest rival, DaBaby’s “Rockstar” featuring Roddy Ricch. [embedded content] “Rain on Me,” lifted from Gaga’s delayed sixth studio album Chromatica, due out this Friday May 29, holds the advantage on downloads and streams after the weekend’s activity. If it holds its position when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published this Friday, “Rain on Me” will mark the sixth No. 1 for Gaga and Grande. Also making a big splash on the sales blast is British rapper KSI, who places three songs in the top 2...
Why Madonna Brought 14 Cape Verdean Drummers on Tour – And What They Taught Her
In 2017, Madonna thought she was moving to Portugal to “be a soccer mom,” but instead, the 61-year-old icon found inspiration for her then-upcoming album, Madame X, thanks to a friend she calls her “musical plug,” Dino d’Santiago. One night, the Cape Verde-born, Lisbon-based singer — who coached Madonna on how to speak Portuguese and sing in Portuguese and Creole — had arranged a concert for her by Batukadeiras Orquesta, a group of female drummers specializing in batuka, a rhythmic call-and-response style created in Cape Verde during the early days of the slave trade. “I’d never seen anything like it, never heard anything like it. So of course, I couldn’t get it out of my head,” says Madonna. She invited several members of the collective to perform on her album and even brought some to the...
Big Hit Entertainment Global CEO Lenzo Yoon Talks New Role, ‘Localizing’ In the U.S. & Growing Artist Roster
“Any new service that Big Hit will present all starts from our business philosophy of ‘What content will fans enjoy the most?'” A decade into his tenure at Big Hit Entertainment, Lenzo Yoon is gearing up for some big moves — both in the company and in his personal life. One of the biggest takeaways of last week’s executive changeups at Big Hit Entertainment — the South Korean label home to the record-breaking BTS, Tomorrow X Together and GFriend — came in co-CEO Lenzo Yoon’s expanding his role to Global CEO and soon leading from the United States. The move not only pointed to a more global outlook for the company (which had its biggest year ever with a record $500 million in revenue in 2019), but also that it was official...
Live Entertainment Is Returning Down Under
Live music is about to awaken from its lockdown slumber Down Under. From next week, Live Nation will test a weekly series of socially distanced concerts and comedy events in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. The Together Again shows will start next Friday (May 29) and Saturday (May 30) at The Tuning Fork in central Auckland, part of Spark Arena (formerly Vector Arena) with a rotating line-up of local artists and comedians. The concerts giant is “excited to be welcoming back live events in New Zealand,” comments Live Nation New Zealand chairman Stuart Clumpas in a statement, issued Tuesday (May 19). Supported by Vodafone, the gigs are an “opportunity for us to unite and celebrate the power of live with some of the country’s first socially distanced shows,” he continues. Performers acros...
DaBaby Eyes Another Week Atop U.K. Chart With ‘Rockstar’
DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (Interscope) featuring Roddy Ricch is on track for a second week atop the U.K.’s singles chart, while Sleaford Mods have the early edge on the national albums survey. Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, the Nottingham electronic duo who record and perform as Sleaford Mods, lead the Official Charts Update with the career retrospective All That Glue (Rough Trade), ahead of Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (EMI). Capaldi’s hit debut LP is surging a year to the week since it first led the chart and it’s the most-streamed album at the midweek stage. It’s tight at the top. According to the Official Charts Company, just 1,100 chart sales separate the top 5. Also new to the midweek albums chart is Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit who are looki...
Drake Retains Australian Chart Crown, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber’s ‘Stuck With U’ Starts High
Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes (Republic/Universal) enters a second week at No. 1 on Australia’s albums chart, while SAINt JHN’s “Roses” (Sony) scores a sixth week atop the national singles survey and “Stuck With U” (Universal), the Ariana Grande–Justin Bieber collaboration, is the week’s highest debut. “Stuck With U” opens at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart, just behind The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (Republic/Universal), to give Grande her first Australian chart entry for 2020 and Bieber his fourth. Proceeds from the single will benefit the First Responders Children’s Foundation, which funds scholarships for kids of frontline workers who’ve been affected by the health crisis. Over the past two weeks, DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (Interscope/Universal) has risen 14-9–4 and no...
Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light: 10 Standout Moments
For the first time in Eurovision history, a global crisis has forced the competition to forgo crowning a winner for the year. With competitors self-quarantining to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there was no proper Eurovision Song Contest 2020, but in its place, there was Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light on Saturday, May 16. A global virtual event featuring contemporary and past competitors, the broadcast featured messages of encouragement from artists, clips from songs that would have competed for this year’s win and remote performances aplenty. From one past winner’s walk down deserted city streets to a surprise appearance from an ABBA legend, here are 10 standout moments from Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light. At the close, it was also revealed that the song contest will ret...
Here’s Where the 2021 Eurovision Competition Will Be Held
The location for 2021’s Eurovision Song Contest has been announced. In 2021, Eurovision will be held at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where 2020’s competition was originally set to take place and where some of its remote live special, Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light, which honored the 41 selected delegates from the participating countries of 2020 in a non-competitive format, was filmed. This year’s actual live contest, slated for May 12-16, 2020, was canceled amid the global coronavirus pandemic. “I can promise you: the Eurovision Song Contest will come back stronger than ever,” executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand had said. Watch the promo for 2021 Eurovision, which announces the Rotterdam news, below. [embedded content]
South Sudan registers two new coronavirus deaths
South Sudan has registered two new coronavirus deaths, just a day after recording its first virus related death. The government said that the dead were in their late 50s. Addressing the press on Friday in Juba, Dr Makur Koriom, the spokesman of the High-Level Taskforce says apart from the two deaths, the country also recorded four new Covid-19 cases on Friday. CONFIRMED POSITIVE “Three alerts that were admitted over the last 48 hours were confirmed positive. Unfortunately, the two of these alerts succumbed to their illness before we obtained their results,” Dr Koriom said. “The other alerts were positive, they came in critical conditions, but they were managed and they are now in a stable condition at Dr. John Garang Infectious Disease Unit. This brings the total number of confirmed Covid-...
Taeyeon Earns 15th Top 10 on World Digital Song Sales With ‘Happy’
The powerhouse vocalist has earned more than 30 top 10 hits as a soloist and in a group. We hope this week’s chart news can make Taeyeon a bit more “Happy.” The K-pop superstar returns to Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart with “Happy” entering at No. 9 this week. The nostalgic R&B-pop track sold 1,000 downloads in the week ending May 8, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The No. 9 debut for “Happy” marks Taeyeon’s 15th top 10 entry on World Digital Song Sales to date. Since making her first solo appearance in 2014 with the song “Breath,” sung alongside fellow K-pop singer Jonghyun, Taeyeon has been a consistent chart force. The star earned her highest-charting single in early 2016 with “Rain” ...
Blackpink’s Playlist With Lady Gaga, Troye Sivan & More Will Brighten Up Your Quarantine: Exclusive
It’s been a while since the world has heard new music from BLACKPINK, but even amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the K-pop quartet are keeping busy. Not only are they going to be in Lady Gaga’s area later this month with a feature on her Chromatica album, but the members have also been seen back in the studio working on their own new music. The group also released the live album from the Tokyo Dome performance of their 2019-2020 In Your Area world tour on Thursday (May 14), for those looking to relive that experience ahead of the upcoming releases. Though South Korea isn’t shut down with stay-at-home orders, life is still in all sorts of tumultuous states for the music industry in Seoul, with stars unable to interact directly with audiences. Like many around the world, BLACKPINK’s...
