Griff is the 2021 winner of the Brit Award for rising star. She beat out Pa Salieu and Rina Sawyama, who was named a finalist after a rule change made the Japan-born artist eligible for the award.
Griff, who was born Sarah Faith Griffiths, is just 20, making her one of the youngest winners in this category. Adele was 19 when she won in 2008. Jorja Smith was 20 when she won in 2018.
On learning that she had won, Griff exclaimed: “In my head I’m still screaming from the phone call when I found out. It’s honestly such a miracle: how on earth did we manage to win a Brit and break through during a pandemic?”
The winner was announced early on March 19 (London time) almost two months before this year’s Brit Awards on May 11. Current plans are for the awards to be presented at O2 arena on ITV and ITV Hub.
Griff is the fourth artist of color to win the rising star award, which originated in 2008 as the Brit critics’ choice award. Emeli Sandé was the first, in 2012, followed by Smith three years ago and Celeste last year. (Celeste is a current Oscar nominee for co-writing “Hear My Voice” from the film The Trial of the Chicago 7.)
Griff is the British-born daughter of a Chinese mother and a Jamaican father. In 2019, she signed to Warner Records and released an EP, The Mirror Talk. Last summer, she was nominated for an Ivor Novello rising star award. She co-wrote Hailee Steinfeld’s 2020 single “I Love You’s.” She has also collaborated with Zedd and English electronic duo Honne. She had a moderate hit as an artist in the U.K. with “Love Is a Compass,” which reached No. 42 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart.
Griff was “selected by an invited panel of music editors, critics from the national press, online music editors, heads of music at major radio and music TV stations and more,” according to a press statement.
Here’s a complete list of Brit critics’ choice/rising star winners:
2008: Adele
2009: Florence + The Machine
2010: Ellie Goulding
2011: Jessie J
2012: Emeli Sandé
2013: Tom Odell
2014: Sam Smith
2015: James Bay
2016: Jack Garratt
2017: Rag ’n’ Bone Man
2018: Jorja Smith
2019: Sam Fender
2020: Celeste
2021: Griff
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-19 03:01:172021-03-19 03:01:17Griff Wins Brit Award for Rising Star Over Buzzy Finalist Rina Sawayama
The Blues Foundation has rescinded Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s 2021 Blues Music Awards nomination for best blues/rock artist based on what it calls “continuing revelations of representations of the Confederate flag on Shepherd’s ‘General Lee’ car, guitars and elsewhere.”
The Blues Foundation has also asked the performer’s father, Ken Shepherd, to step down as a member of its board of directors.
The move echoes the Academy of Country Music’s decision to not allow Morgan Wallen to compete for this year’s awards after a video surfaced of him using the N-word. The Blues Foundation’s need to disassociate itself from racist imagery is especially vital because the blues genre is unimaginable without Black artists and composers.
The foundation said its decision to rescind the nomination is in keeping with its statement against racism, posted March 15, which asserts “The Blues Foundation unequivocally condemns all forms and expressions of racism, including all symbols associated with white supremacy and the degradation of people of color. We will hold ourselves as well as all blues musicians, fans, organizations, and members of the music industry accountable for racist actions and encourage concrete commitments to acknowledge and redress the resulting pain.”
Shepherd’s name has already been removed from the foundation’s list of nominees in the category. The four remaining nominees are Tinsley Ellis, Reverend Peyton, Ana Popovic and Mike Zito.
Shepherd has responded to the move in a statement on his website: “I have just learned that the executive committee of the Blues Foundation board of directors has made the decision to rescind my nomination for the 2021 blues rock artist of the year award.
“We have been told this decision has been made because, in recent days, concerns have been raised regarding one of the cars in my muscle car collection. The car was built 17 years ago as a replica and homage to the iconic car in the television series, The Dukes of Hazzard. That CBS show was one of the highest rated and most popular programs of its era and like millions of others, I watched it every week. In the show, one of the central ‘characters’ was a muscle car which displayed a confederate flag on its roof. Years ago I put that car in permanent storage and some time ago, I made the decision to permanently cover the flag on my car because it was completely against my values and offensive to the African American community which created the music I love so much and I apologize to anyone that I have unintentionally hurt because of it.
“I want to make something very clear and unequivocal; I condemn and stand in complete opposition to all forms of racism and oppression and always have.”
Shepherd is correct that The Dukes of Hazzard, a comedy/adventure series that ran from 1979 to 1985, was a smash hit. Its ratings peaked in the 1980-81 season, when it was second only to Dallas in the Nielsen ratings. Shepherd was 8 years old when the show ended its run on CBS.
The current controversy was flamed by Mercy Morganfield, daughter of legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, who wrote a long social media post (originally on her Facebook and reposted via Reddit) titled “The Way My Daddy Looks At a White Man Winning a Blues Foundation Music Award While Waving A F*****g Confederate Flag.”
Shepherd has received two Blues Music Awards, the Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive award, two Billboard Music Awards and a pair of Orville H. Gibson awards. He received five Grammy nominations between 1998 and 2010 but has yet to win.
The decisions regarding Shepherd and Wallen underscore how much times have changed in recent decades. Alabama, the hottest country act of the 1980s, had Confederate flag imagery prominently featured on the covers of three albums — My Home’s in Alabama (1980), Mountain Music (1982) and Roll On (1984) — in the same time frame that The Dukes of Hazzard was a smash TV show. The album covers caused little controversy at the time. Now, no act would dream of doing such a thing.
Current country superstar Luke Combs spoke last month about his previous use of Confederate flag imagery, saying there’s “no excuse” for it in this day and age. “I think as a younger man, that was an image I associated to mean something else, and as I’ve grown in my time as an artist and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, you know, I’m now aware of how painful that image can be to someone else.”
The 42nd Blues Awards will be livestreamed on the foundation’s Facebook and YouTube channels. The awards will be presented June 6 at 4 p.m. CT.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-19 03:01:162021-03-19 03:01:16Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s Blues Music Award Nomination Rescinded Due to Confederate Flag Use
Following last month’s premiere of “Ma’ G,” Colombian star J Balvin unleashes the second single, “Tu Veneno,” from his forthcoming album.
The hard-hitting reggaeton track, which premiered alongside a cryptic music video directed by José-Emilio Sagaró, finds Balvin reminiscing about a love interest that left him wanting more.
“Tu Veneno,” produced by Sky Rompiendo and Taiko, follows Balvin’s “Ma’ G,” which takes him tack to his rap roots. Balvin performed “Ma’ G” for the first time prior to the Canelo/Avni Yildrim fight at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Feb. 27.
Also included in his roster of events will be DJ Alex Sensation, Cornetto, DJ Pope, Agudelo888 and Matt Paris and La Gabi, the first two artists Balvin signed to his own label.
Japanese rockers [Alexandros] dropped their first greatest hits album Where’s My History?, a collection of key tracks that represent the band’s history as it wraps up its 10th anniversary year. The project includes the band’s representative track “Wataridori” and concert staples from their indie days, as well as a new number called “Kaze ni natte.”
The four-man band also faces a major turning point in its career as drummer Satoyasu Shomura, who officially joined in April 2010, will be departing after the two shows set for Mar. 20 and 21. As the countdown begins for [Alexandros] to exist as the current quartet, interviewer Chinami Hachisuka chatted with the members — Shomura, Hiroyuki Isobe (bass & chorus), Yoohei Kawakami (vocals & guitar), and Masaki Shirai (guitar) — on behalf of Billboard Japan and asked about their ten years together and what’s in store for the future of the band.
You all strike me as guys who don’t dwell on the past as a matter of principle, so your greatest hits album came as a surprise. Why did you decided to release it?
Kawakami: Since we’ve released seven albums over the course of ten years, we thought that perhaps new fans would find themselves at a loss as to which one they should listen to first when they feel like checking out our catalog before coming to a show. We’ve selected some good gateway songs, so it’d be great if people like them and then decide to delve further into our other works from there.
What did you feel while you were producing the album, or when you actually listened to its lineup?
Shomura: Each track reminded me that I enjoyed life so much back then and that I lived so earnestly. And that was what led to today. Though I’ll continue on outside the band in the future, when I listen to this album, I get excited thinking about what the band will do next. I’m really proud of all the songs.
Shirai: We mixed some of the tracks over again. On one of them, “For Freedom,” our previous drummer Hiroki Ishikawa is playing on the recording, so it was fun looking back, like, “Oh yeah, Isshi used to sound like this, remember?”
Isobe: I felt that a lot of these songs now thrive as live renditions. “Kill Me If You Can” has that little twang in the end, which I’d forgotten all about because I’ve played it so many times in concert. [Laughs] I was able to enjoy it from a listener’s point of view.
Kawakami: Regarding the lyrics, I felt that what I say basically hasn’t changed. [Kawakami is the band’s principal songwriter.] The first song we included in the set, “Ondosa,” is one we had since before our debut, but the way I feel and think really hasn’t changed. I think that’s a good thing. It was an opportunity to acknowledge that I probably won’t change from now on, either, and that the essence of what I want to say exist in these songs.
If there was a turning point for the band, which song captures that moment best?
Isobe: My choice would be “For Freedom,” because it kicked off our debut. There were multiple turning points during these past ten years, but “For Freedom” is the song that I really feel like, “If we hadn’t had that one, what would have happened?”
Shirai: “For Freedom” was the moment our direction was set, and it felt like a breath of fresh air. I’d just joined the band, and switched from bass to guitar at that timing, so I was still trying to find my style as a guitarist. I think that the reason why my style gradually became so rock-tinged is because the riff in “For Freedom” leaves such a strong impression.
Kawakami: Before we made our debut, we used to busk in Yoyogi Park [in Shibuya, Tokyo] every week. There were some good songs among the ones we used to perform on the street, but none of them felt most essential for the band. One day, I was playing the guitar cooped up in my room after coming home from work, and wrote a chorus for “For Freedom” fairly quickly. It felt like I’d aired out something from inside of me and thought, “I feel much better now.”
Isobe: All four of us were living together at the time, and we each had jobs so that we could keep performing. We were in the band because we had confidence, but couldn’t debut for a long time and were at the end of our ropes. So it was like that disappointment of, “Why won’t anybody acknowledge us?” and all the pent-up frustration were loaded on top of “For Freedom.”
Shomura: When we wrote “Starrrrrrr,” we were trying to figure out how to play a song that has a kind of unifying force. That track was born by blending the things we’d cultivated until that point, and also adding what was lacking by squeezing it out through our sessions in the studio. It was tough while we were producing it, but I have a special place in my heart for that one because so much love went into it.
Kawakami: If I were to choose another one, it’d be “Mosquito Bite.” We spent some time outside of Japan [in New York to record Sleepless in Brooklyn] because we needed some time to become nobodies. For the first time in a while, it felt like something significant had popped out when this song was born. We don’t have a producer, and write songs that we want to perform at that point in time, and even choose our own outfits. Still, we have our moments when we become lost, like, “What is it we want to do right now?” At the time, our way of finding the answer to that was to write songs in New York. “Mosquito Bite” might have been my biggest turning point in a personal sense, in that it taught me the importance not being caught up in anything and sort of popping songs out like that.
How are you feeling now as you kick off the next ten years of your career?
Kawakami: We want to destroy all the common sense that we’ve built up over the years. We have to use the past ten years as a springboard for the future or we won’t be able to grow. We still haven’t reached the place we dreamed about ten years ago. Right now, we’re taking a good hard look at ourselves once again in order to continue pursuing what we want to do, and we’re exploring what needs to be done for us to do so.
Your last show as a member of [Alexandros] is coming up soon, Mr. Shomura. How do you feel? [The Interview took place in mid-December.]
Shomura: It’s really hard to describe, but… One thing I can say with certainty is that I’ll get on that stage with my heart brimming with gratitude. I see my current situation in a positive light, and I like myself for being able to feel that way. I also love everybody who values my decision [to leave the band], so I guess in the words of Yoohei, “I love you all!” is how I feel now.
This article by Chinami Hachisuka first appeared on Billboard Japan.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-19 03:01:162021-03-19 03:01:16Japan’s [Alexandros] Talk 10th Anniversary, New Greatest Hits Album & More
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the 2021 Grammy Awards on Sunday (March 14) were those songs performed on the CBS television broadcast that were likely getting their biggest audience ever. Among the tracks that are shining brightest in the days after the show: Mickey Guyton’s “Black Like Me,” Black Pumas’ “Colors,” Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted” and Post Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding.”
More than 20 songs were performed on the Grammys by over 20 different acts. Here’s a look at how many times the tunes were streamed in the U.S. in the days leading up to the show (March 12-13), the day of the show (March 14), and the day after the show (March 15), according to initial reports to MRC Data.
Date – On-Demand U.S. Streams (Audio & Video Combined) Friday, March 12 – 21.66 million
Saturday, March 13 – 21.54 million
Sunday, March 14 – 18.76 million
Monday, March 15 – 27.97 million
(Note that Sundays, in general, tend to be a low day for streaming activity, hence the dip in streams on March 14 – which also happened to be the day of the Grammy Awards.)
The streaming figures above (and sales figures below) include the original or hit versions of songs covered on the show, including Kenny Rogers’ “Lady” (which was performed in tribute to the late Rogers on the broadcast by its songwriter, Lionel Richie).
If we focused just on a comparison of March 14 to March 15, the collected songs were streamed 27.97 million times on March 15, a gain of 49.1% compared to 18.76 million on March 14. Every song performed on the Grammys saw a streaming increase on March 15, versus March 14.
Collectively, the songs performed on the 2021 Grammy Awards were streamed 46.73 million times in the U.S. on March 14-15 — a gain of 8.2% compared to 43.2 million streams on March 12-13.
Looking only at March 14-15 activity, there were 12 songs performed (not counting snippets heard in a medley) that were streamed at least 100,000 times with a gain of at least 10% (compared to March 12-13). They are:
Artist, Title – March 14-15 Streams – % Gain (March 12-13 Streams) Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” – 185,000 – 124% (83,000)
HAIM, “The Steps” – 117,000 – 111% (55,000)
Black Pumas, “Colors” – 442,000 – 77% (249,000)
Post Malone, “Hollywood’s Bleeding” – 613,000 – 57% (391,000)
Taylor Swift, “August” – 522,000 – 56% (336,000)
Billie Eilish, “Everything I Wanted” – 1.63 million – 52% (1.07 million)
BTS, “Dynamite” – 2.18 million – 50% (1.45 million)
Taylor Swift, “Cardigan” – 911,000 – 41% (645,000)
Harry Styles, “Watermelon Sugar” – 2.09 million – 36% (1.53 million)
Lil Baby, “The Bigger Picture” – 1.22 million – 27% (956,000)
Dua Lipa, “Levitating” – 4.49 million – 22% (3.67 million)
Cardi B, “Up” – 7.91 million – 14% (6.92 million)
Awarded On-Air: Grammy Awards in 84 categories were presented on March 14, though the bulk of them were announced earlier in the day before the CBS television broadcast began. During the CBS show, 11 categories were presented, including best new artist (won by Megan Thee Stallion).
Here’s a look at the streaming gains of the songs that were awarded during on-air presentations on the CBS broadcast:
Category: Artist, Title – Streams on March 14-15; gain Record of the year: Billie Eilish, “Everything I Wanted” – 1.63 million – 52% (1.07 million)
Song of the year: H.E.R., “I Can’t Breathe” – 284,000 – 353% (63,000)*Best R&B performance: Beyoncé, “Black Parade” – 275,000 – 46% (188,000)*
Best pop solo performance: Harry Styles, “Watermelon Sugar” – 2.09 million – 36% (1.53 million)
Best melodic rap performance: Anderson .Paak, “Lockdown” – 120,000 – 30% (92,000)*
Best rap song: Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé, “Savage” – 1.45 million – down 3% (1.50 million) * not performed on CBS television broadcast
Sales Update: As earlier reported, the songs performed on the televised Grammys collectively posted a 330% sales gain on March 14 — selling 40,000 copies in the U.S. (up from 9,000 sold on March 13), according to initial reports to MRC Data.
Here’s a look at the daily sales of the collected songs performed on the Grammys in the U.S. in the days leading up to the show (March 12-13), the day of the show (March 14), and the two days after the show (March 15-16), according to initial reports to MRC Data.
Date – Sales Friday, March 12 – 8,200
Saturday, March 13 – 9,000
Sunday, March 14 – 40,000
Monday, March 15 – 30,000
Tuesday, March 16 – 17,200
Collectively, the songs performed on the 2021 Grammy Awards sold 70,000 in the U.S. on March 14-15 — a gain of 302% compared to 17,000 on March 12-13.
In a video for the title track of his new album Spaceman, Nick Jonas beams in from outer space. Now, he’s beaming in from heaven.
The brand-new music video for “This Is Heaven,” released Wednesday afternoon (March 17), shows Jonas performing in church, backed by a choir, as the sun streaks in through stained-glass windows. In another scene, he’s in front of a giant control panel, seemingly back to his lonely “Spaceman” character. Then he truly finds happiness not up in that space observation deck, but outdoors, as he’s seen running through the woods, surrounded by sky-high trees, and he can finally breathe.
The visual, directed by Daniel Broadley, was shot in England, and Jonas is joined by the London Community Gospel Choir, led by Anthony Williams, in St. John’s Church in London’s Hyde Park for the gorgeous performance scenes.
Jonas released his most recent solo album, Spaceman, on Friday. Over the weekend, he unleashed a deluxe edition that includes a new song featuring the Jonas Brothers.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-18 03:04:472021-03-18 03:04:47Nick Jonas Takes Us to Church With ‘This Is Heaven’ Video
For a band as frequently cited as X-Ray Spex, whose 1978 debut Germfree Adolescents was a blistering Molotov cocktail of nervous energy hurled at a society of plastic and consumerism, it’s strange to think how little we know about the personal life of frontwoman Poly Styrene. Part of that, of course, comes down to the British band releasing just one album during its original run, after which Styrene dropped one solo album and all but disappeared from the public eye. (But then again, the Sex Pistols had one album and have been part of the cultural conversation for decades). It’s not hard to wonder if the punk scene, which became increasingly white and suburban after its initial explosion in the late ’70s, has unfairly minimized the impact of a band led by a woman of color over the years.
Which is why Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, a new documentary about late X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene which made its North American debut at SXSW’s 2021 online festival, arrives as a welcome and necessary exploration of a complex, conflicted woman who carved a singular place for herself in the nascent British punk scene. Directed by Paul Sng and Styrene’s daughter Celeste Bell, who also narrates, I Am a Cliché pulls back the curtain on Styrene’s struggles, contradictions and decision to break up the band at the height of their success (while not a hit in the U.S., they placed three singles in the U.K. chart’s top 40).
Born Marion Elliott to a white mother and Black father (he was Somali born) in what she described as a tough neighborhood, Styrene felt like an outsider from both the white and Black communities; some of the most revelatory parts of the documentary are Zoë Howe’s reading of poems (“Half-Caste,” “I Wanna Go Back to Africa”) that Styrene wrote about her racial identity. Considering the banshee warrior wail that characterized Styrene’s vocals, it’s unfortunately easy to miss the depth of her lyrics, but hearing her poems read aloud is a testament to the succinct strength of her pen.
Forming X-Ray Spex as a teenager by taking out an ad in Melody Maker, Styrene was famous (in the U.K., at least, by punk scene standards) by 19, with songs like the female empowerment anthem “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” and the consumerism send-up “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo” spotlighting the absurdities of society. But as the documentary makes plain, Styrene was an artist full of contradictions. She was a DIY punk icon who made her own clothing and album artwork while railing against consumerism; she was also, according to her daughter, someone whose idea of letting loose invariably involved shopping for clothes. The righteous fury of her lyrics and vocals was a stark contrast to her all-smiles (braces and everything) warm personality in interviews. She was tough, but sensitive – a trip to New York City, whose underground scene was druggier and harsher than London’s, left her with scars she had a hard time shaking. As the documentary tells it, the darkness around her eventually began to take its toll, triggering episodes that would eventually lead to her spending time in a psychiatric ward (she was later diagnosed with acute bipolar disorder, which she struggled with until her death from cancer in 2011).
The thorniest contradiction of her personality also provides the documentary with its bittersweet, difficult emotional crux: She loved Bell, her daughter, but was often ill-equipped as a parent. When Styrene walked away from music to devote herself to Hare Krishna in the ’80s, she brought her daughter along to Bhaktivedanta Manor, where she refocused herself on her spiritual growth. And while Bell narrates some pleasant memories from that time, she makes it clear she was both undernourished and under-parented at the Hare Krishna community, and was grateful to eventually leave it for a more stable life with her grandmother.
Eventually, the two would come to terms with their fractured relationship, growing closer than ever before in the last years of Styrene’s life and even singing “Oh Bondage, Up Yours” together at a Rock Against Racism rally in 2008. As the documentary unravels the story of Styrene’s life, co-director and narrator Bell unwinds her knotty feelings toward her mother, an undeniably inspirational iconoclast who also wasn’t the best of parents. As Styrene’s daughter digs through her mother’s archives, she comes to terms with how both of those things can be true without one taking away from or justifying the other. And that’s what makes this nuanced documentary so satisfying. When Bell talks about her mother shaving her head right before a major gig, she acknowledges that such an act can exist both as a powerful statement against sexualization and a cry for help at the same time. One doesn’t negate the other.
Testimonials from the Raincoats, Thurston Moore, Vivienne Westwood, Kathleen Hanna and Neneh Cherry (another iconoclastic woman of color in music who outright tells us “I started singing because of her”) and an abundance of vintage footage make clear the appeal and impact of Styrene’s brightly blazing artistry. But it’s the documentary’s refusal to gloss over the bumpier parts of her life – or fall into the tired trope of the tortured genius whose artistry excuses any missteps – while still treating Styrene with love and admiration that ensures I Am a Cliché is anything but.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-18 03:04:462021-03-18 03:04:46‘Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché’ Doc Explores Punk Trailblazer In All Her Contradictions
Following Mickey Guyton’s stirring performance of “Black Like Me” during Sunday’s Grammy Awards, her label EMI Nashville has partnered with fellow Universal Music Group label Republic Records to promote the song to adult contemporary stations. The new version is dubbed “Black Like Me (Our Voices).”
“We believe in the power of ‘Black Like Me’ and after speaking with Republic, they too felt there was a bigger audience for this song,” Universal Music Group Nashville president Cindy Mabe tells Billboard. “They serviced the song to multi-formats Monday and are currently working it to AC radio.”
While “Black Like Me,” which EMI Nashville released in June during the protests following the death of George Floyd, has only received a few spins so far from a handful of stations, “I think ‘Black Like Me’ will do well with our listeners and they’ll certainly be able to relate,” John Anthony, PD at AC outlet WJKK, Jackson, Miss., tells Billboard.
“Black Like Me” saw immediate sales gains following Guyton’s appearance, selling 1,600 copies after the Grammys on Sunday, according to MRC Data. That signified a staggering 13,225% increase from March 13 and was enough to land Guyton among the artists seeing the biggest sales gains immediately following the telecast.
The song received a nod for best country solo performance, making Guyton the first Black woman to be nominated in that Grammy category.
Universal Music Group Nashville deployed a similar tactic in 2019 after Kacey Musgraves won four Grammys, including the coveted album of the year prize for Golden Hour. The next morning, UMGN’s MCA Nashville serviced “Rainbow” to Country, AC, Hot AC and Triple A radio.
“Black Like Me” has not appeared on any of Billboard’s country charts since its release nine months ago, and airplay for Black women remains staggeringly low. According to a study released last week titled Redlining in Country Music: Representation in the Country Music Industry (2000-2020), only 2.7% of country radio airplay over the past two decades was for songs performed by women of color.
Guyton told Billboard recently that she has “made peace” with the fact that country radio may never play her. (Her song “Better Than You Left Me” peaked at No. 34 on Hot Country Songs in 2015). “A white friend of mine signed to a major label was told by a radio promo person that country radio will not play Black people. So I realized I’m not going to get on any kind of country station,” she said. “And I’m certainly not going to do that by falling in line and shutting up and singing. I’ve made peace with that. I may not ever have some massive career, but I’m going to use the influence I have to open those doors for the future generation. And for young Black and Brown girls who have dreams that people will never consider, I’ll consider them. I’ll see them. And I will use the connections that I have to help them.”
Republic did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-18 03:04:462021-03-18 03:04:46Mickey Guyton’s ‘Black Like Me’ Sent to AC Radio After Knockout Grammy Performance
When it comes to women supporting women, there may be no artist more supportive to her fellow legendary ladies than Ariana Grande.
The pop superstar has always been a collaborative artist — starting with her breakthrough single “The Way,” featuring Mac Miller, back in 2013 — and over the years, she’s been especially collaborative with her fellow female stars. In fact, she’s scored 12 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with all-female collabs.
And her lucky 13th hit might come from Demi Lovato’s next album, Dancing With the Devil…The Art of Starting Over: Lovato confirmed in an interview Tuesday that she teamed up with her fellow Scooter Braun signee for a last-minute addition to the April 2 project.
Even outside the Hot 100, Grande teamed up with Missy Elliott for the Sweetener deep cut “Borderline,” Macy Gray for “Leave Me Lonely” from Dangerous Woman, and Lizzo for a “Good as Hell” remix (Lizzo earned full credit for that one, so it’s not in Ari’s chart history). Plus there’s the female-forward 2019 Charlie’s Angels soundtrack that Grande executive-produced, which, in addition to its lone Hot 100 hit, includes “Bad to You” with Normani and Nicki Minaj, “Got Her Own” with Victoria Monet, and “Nobody” with icon Chaka Khan.
Below, ahead of the release of her team-up with Lovato, find all of Ariana Grande’s Hot 100-charting collaborations with women — including one that just took home the Grammy this past weekend for best pop duo/group performance.
2014: “Problem” (feat. Iggy Azalea)
Grande enlisted the Australian MC for the lead single from her sophomore album, My Everything, which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in June 2014.
2014: “Bang Bang” (Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj)
The power trio peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in October 2014 with this lead single from Jessie J’s third album, Sweet Talker.
2015: “Get On Your Knees” (Nicki Minaj feat. Ariana Grande)
The explicit Pinkprint track — which includes a co-writing credit from Katy Perry — wasn’t released as a single, but still hit the chart at No. 88 in January 2015.
2016: “Side to Side” (feat. Nicki Minaj)
The besties teamed up again for another top five hit, with the cheeky Dangerous Woman duet peaking at No. 4 in December 2016.
2018: “Bed” (Nicki Minaj feat. Ariana Grande)
Nicki again! This steamy track was from Minaj’s Queen album and peaked at No. 42 in August 2018.
2018: “The Light Is Coming” (feat. Nicki Minaj)
OK, this is the last Nicki entry… for now. The Pharrell-produced Sweetener song — complete with a prominent sample — peaked at No. 89 in August 2018.
2019: “Monopoly” (Ariana Grande & Victoria Monet)
The bouncy bop, released as a one-off treat following the success of Grande’s No. 1 hit “7 Rings,” peaked at No. 69 in April 2019. The lo-fi video is a perfect glimpse into tour life with these friends and collaborators.
2019: “Don’t Call Me Angel (Charlie’s Angels)” (Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus & Lana Del Rey)
When a pop princess, a raspy rocker, and a dream-pop enigma join forces, it’s a sure-fire hit: This lead cut from the Grande-produced Charlie’s Angeles soundtrack peaked at No. 13 in September 2019.
2020: “Rain On Me” (Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande)
Gaga and Grande teamed up for the first time on this Chromatica electropop dream, which went all the way to No. 1 in June 2020. Oh! And it just picked up a Grammy at Sunday’s show for best pop duo/group performance.
2020: “Motive” (feat. Doja Cat)
This dance-pop collab has so far peaked at No. 32, following the November 2020 release of Grande’s sixth album, Positions. But it wouldn’t be the last time Ari and Doja joined forces…
2020: “Oh Santa!” (Mariah Carey feat. Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson)
Mariah Carey, the undisputed Queen of Christmas, invited some festive friends along for the sleigh ride with this new take on her holiday original “Oh Santa!,” which peaked at No. 76 in December 2020 following the release of Carey’s Apple TV+ Christmas special.
Ariana called on Doja for another Positions look, this time teaming up with Megan Thee Stallion for a remix of the project’s second single, “34+35,” which peaked at No. 2 in January.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-18 03:04:462021-03-18 03:04:46All of Ariana Grande’s Hot 100-Charting Collabs With Women
Demi Lovato doesn’t hold back one bit about what led to her 2018 heroin overdose and what the future of her sobriety holds in Dancing With the Devil.
The four-part YouTube Originals docuseries, which opened SXSW on Tuesday (March 16), takes place over three years since she started filming a completely separate, now-shelved documentary that was meant to follow the pop superstar around her Tell Me You Love Me Tour.
In fact, the clips of her past performances and talk of the doc’s companion album Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, which she recently announced will be released on April 2, doesn’t add up to a total of more than 10 minutes over the course of the four 22- to 28-minute episodes. The album is about where she is today, but where she was on July 24, 2018, the morning paramedics arrived at her Hollywood Hills home after she had overdosed on heroin, takes precedent in the new feature.
Even from the trailer she released on Feb. 17, fans couldn’t begin to wrap their heads around how much damage Lovato had suffered from her overdose, including three strokes, a heart attack and blind spots in her vision that don’t allow her to drive anymore.
Dancing With the Devil, directed by Michael D. Ratner, is not a by-product of her discarded 2018 documentary. It has a completely different foundation, refocusing her narrative from center stage — as seen in snippets of the previous performance-heavy feature Lovato says would’ve only captured the “tip of the iceberg” — and opening up the floodgates about her 2018 overdose while the cameras began rolling again in 2020. The anecdotes are so harrowing that YouTube Originals featured trigger warnings regarding addiction, mental health, eating disorders and sexual abuse ahead of each episode.
With the entire docuseries having premiered at SXSW on March 16, and ahead of the first two episodes making their debut March 23 on YouTube Originals, here are the 10 biggest revelations we learned from Dancing With the Devil.
Father’s Day Triggers Her Fear About Her Biological Father’s Death
Her biological father Patrick Lovato, who died in June 2013, also struggled with alcohol and addiction on top of bipolar and schizophrenia. Lovato notes no one in her family knows the exact date of his passing because his body, which she added had been discovered a week and a half after his death, was “too decomposed” upon discovery for an open-casket funeral.
She says she spends every Father’s Day contemplating which day he passed away on. “And then also knowing that by the time Father’s Day rolls around, he was just laying there, rotting,” she says. “That was the fear I always had for him was that he would end up alone — and he did. He died alone.” The singer had been estranged from her father since 2007 after witnessing him abuse her mother, Dianna De La Garza, who wrote about it in her 2008 memoir Falling With Wings: A Mother’s Story.
She Wrote “Sober” Shortly After Her Introduction to Hard Drugs
One month after DJ Khaled and Kehlani celebrated Lovato’s six-year anniversary of her sobriety at a March 16, 2018-dated concert, Lovato confesses in the doc that she relapsed with alcohol and drugs one month after the show. “I’m surprised I didn’t OD that night,” she recalls of the night she picked up a bottle of red wine and contacted someone she knew would have drugs on them.
“I ended up at a party. I just so happened to run into my old drug dealer from six years before,” she continues. “That night, I did drugs that I had never done before. I had never done meth before — I tried meth. I mixed it with molly, with coke, weed, alcohol, oxytocin. And that alone should have killed me.”
Her dear friends, Matthew Scott Montgomery and Sirah, emphasize her secrecy about that night and how it plays into her pattern of hiding details from her family and friends. “The thing was is that we really didn’t know about the drugs,” Sirah says during her interview portion.
Lovato shares that two weeks after the party, she was introduced to heroin and crack cocaine. While on a trip to Bali, she realized she had a physical dependency on the hard drugs and wrote her June 2018 somber anthem “Sober”; performed it on tour that wrapped by July. By the time she returned to L.A., she began heavily using again. “That is one thing that I was very good at is hiding the fact that I was addicted to crack and heroin,” Lovato says, her eyes flitting across the floor.
Her Assistant’s 911 Call Saved Her Life
On the morning of July 24, 2018, Lovato’s assistant at the time, Jordan Jackson, discovered the singer’s immobile body in her bed and called head of security and chief of staff Max Lea in a panic. While Jackson describes more people rushing into the house, she recalls sneaking downstairs out of fear of “[getting] in trouble for calling 911.” She had been alerted by someone in Lovato’s home to instruct the operator that there be no sirens, but the operator said he had no control over the matter.
In his interview, Lea commends Jackson for her action, adding he was “quite impressed” with how she handled the emergency. The medics who arrived quickly administered Narcan, a nasal spray version of naloxone that reverses the effects of an opiate overdose, before rushing the performer to the hospital.
“I’m really lucky to be alive,” Lovato, who suffered what one of her physicians said was “multiple organ failure,” reflects while thinking about what the doctors had told her. “My doctors said that, like, I had five to 10 more minutes, and had my assistant not come in, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Lovato’s Inability to Recognize Her Little Sister Was Part of a Full-Circle Moment
Her younger sister Madison De La Garza describes the moment she first saw Lovato in the hospital and grabbed her hand. “And she looked me dead in the eye, and she said, ‘Who is that?’” De La Garza tells the camera.
Lovato woke up legally blind following her heroin overdose, and she remembers asking her younger sister who she was, which caused De La Garza to start sobbing because, according to the artist, “she thought from then on, I was not going to be able to see.” One of Lovato’s doctors, neurologist Dr. Shouri Lahiri, explains with Lovato by his side in an interview that one of the initially affected areas of her brain were the vision centers.
Lovato calls it “ironic and in a weird way, poetic” that she couldn’t physically recognize her little sister. The reason, she explains, is that one of the reasons why she first became sober was because her parents said she couldn’t see De La Garza, despite her best efforts to want to have a relationship with her younger sibling. “God has a twisted sense of humor sometimes,” Lovato chuckles while blotting away her tears.
There Are More Layers to the Night She Overdosed
Toward the end of the second episode, Lovato says that on the night of July 23, 2018, she didn’t just overdose.
“I’ve had my fair share of sexual trauma throughout childhood, teenage years. And when they found me, I was naked. I was blue,” Lovato says of the morning following the visit from the man who supplied her drugs. “I was literally left for dead after he took advantage of me.”
Despite telling her doctors that she had had consensual sex, the singer adds it wasn’t until a month after her overdose that she realized she was not “in any state of mind to make a consensual decision.”
When the Going Got Tough, Scooter Braun Got Going
While Lovato stayed in The Cirque Lodge rehabilitation facility shortly following her overdose, she told her longtime business manager Glenn Nordlinger that she wanted to get back into music under the condition that new management would be in place. Having been managed by Phil McIntyre since she was a teenager, Lovato purposefully sought out Scooter Braun, who currently oversees Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, and who had meticulously planned out how he would say no to Lovato because he felt “overwhelmed.”
But once the two sat down together, he knew she not only needed a manager, but she also needed a friend, and Braun was willing to be both. “I am an artist who just overdosed on heroin. I’m kind of a liability,” Lovato admits in the doc while sitting next to Braun. “I don’t know if people are going to want to work with me.”
He was adamant on figuring out what treatments worked and didn’t work for her, who was her support system, and where she was in her recovery process.
Her Overdose Wasn’t the Last Time She Used Heroin
“I wish I could say that the last night that I ever touched heroin was the night of my overdose, but it wasn’t,” Lovato says while setting the record straight about her relapse following a brief pause in the third episode.
After a weeklong intensive trauma retreat, the singer called the same man who had previously given her what she believes to be fentanyl-laced “after-market pills” and later allegedly took advantage of her the night she overdosed. “I wanted to rewrite his choice of violating me. I wanted it now to be my choice,” she declares while facing the camera head on. “And he also had something that I wanted, which were drugs. And yeah, I ended up getting high. I thought, ‘How did I pick up the same drugs that put me in the hospital?’ I was mortified at my decisions.”
She also remembers calling her dealer back and asserting, “No, I’m going to f— you” as a way to take her power back. But the singer adds it only brought “me back to my knees of begging to God for help.”
Rihanna’s 2009 Assault Made Her Uncomfortable Coming Forward About Her Own
Prior to Dancing With the Devil, Lovato had only briefly hinted at being sexually abused in her 2013 song “Warrior,” which starts off with the lyric, “This is a story that I have never told.” She told Cosmopolitanfor her August 2017 cover that she’ll tell the story behind “Warrior” when she’s ready.
At first, she cites the pictures coming out of Rihanna and Chris Brown’s assault case as making her “very uncomfortable with even more of my story playing out in the press and also maybe people not believing me.” Lovato later begins telling the story of how she lost her virginity “in a rape” as a teenager. And similarly to her situation with the dealer, she called the person back a month after “and tried to make it right by being in control, and all it did was just make me feel worse.” Archival footage of her Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam days and an old interview around that time reveal how aware a young Lovato quickly became of needing to her protect herself in the industry.
“I was a part of that Disney crowd that publicly said they were waiting till marriage,” she notes about the pressure she faced in the PG environment as a “little child star role model.” Without naming anyone, the actress adds how difficult it was to see the person who raped her all the time while they never faced any consequences, such as being taken out of the movie they were filming.
It all took a physical toll on her, as her bulimia worsened to the point where she was vomiting blood. In finally disclosing her #MeToo story, Lovato encourages others to speak out, saying, “I’m coming forward about what happened to me because everyone that it happens to should absolutely speak their voice if they can and feel comfortable doing so.”
Ending Her Engagement Changed How She Viewed Her Sobriety
Due to the pandemic, the singer had to film her own interview segments, and she ended up documenting one of her biggest milestones in her life when she got engaged to now ex-fiancé Max Ehrich in July after the couple began dating in May. But a minute after she breaks the happy news during the fourth and final episode, her demeanor switches completely from ecstatic to earnest when discussing how they broke off their engagement and how she hadn’t picked up any hard drugs to cope.
Another minute passes, and self-taped footage from the same night as the previous clip reveals a tearful Lovato expressing how she “missed the person I started quarantining with.” Quarantine not only impacted how she filmed her discussions about her relationship, but also how rapidly it had evolved, leaving her feeling “just as shocked” as the rest of the world after getting to know Ehrich better.
But the impact of her high-profile breakup impacted how she perceived her sobriety. “I’ve learned that it doesn’t work for me to say, ‘I’m never going to do this again,’” she explains of her personal discipline. She expresses her desire to seek relief from smoking marijuana or having a glass of wine, but telling herself those options are completely off the table feels like she’s setting herself up for failure.
After hesitantly admitting she occasionally smokes joints and drinks wine now, Lovato cautions viewers that she’s not endorsing a “one-size-fits-all solution” for recovery after years of being upheld as the “poster child of sobriety.” Elton John, who celebrated 30 years of being sober last summer and hopes Lovato also experiences the “most incredible things” in life while in recovery, puts it simply in the doc that, when discussing sobriety, “moderation doesn’t work.”
But her recovery case manager Charles Cook begs to differ, saying he hopes a takeaway from the docuseries is that no one path to sobriety looks the same for each person. Cook and Lovato also elaborate on the precautions she’s put in place, such as taking the Vivitrol shot, an injection of naltrexone that blocks the opiate receptors and is used to prevent relapses.
“The one slipup that I ever had with those drugs again, the scariest thing to me was picking up heroin and realizing, ‘Wow, this isn’t strong enough anymore.’ Because what I had done the night I overdosed was fentanyl. And that, that’s a whole other beast,” she says while slightly shaking her head. “Realizing the high I wanted would kill me was what I needed to get me clean for good.”
“I came out to the public when I found out I was bipolar because I thought that it put a reasoning behind my actions,” she explains, while an old headline pops up about Lovato leaving the Jonas Brothers tour after hitting a backup dancer. “I know now from multiple different doctors that it was not because I was bipolar. And I had to grow up. I had to grow the f— up.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2021-03-17 03:09:222021-03-17 03:09:2210 Biggest Revelations From Demi Lovato’s Docuseries ‘Dancing With the Devil’
