Despite warnings from a parade of city and county officials from across the state that a Senate preemption bill could put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in … Click to Continue »
President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats’ push for national voting rights legislation ended with a thud this week in the Senate, but for Florida’s Val Demings and Marco Rubio the … Click to Continue »
A man riding a bicycle on a Broward street was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting Wednesday afternoon, Fort Lauderdale police said. The shooting happened just after 3 p.m. in … Click to Continue »
Days after former Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo was fired in October, his lawyers submitted a lengthy public records request for emails, phone records and other internal City Hall communications. … Click to Continue »
LOS ANGELES — Four women who accused the actor Danny Masterson of rape can move forward with a harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, a California appeals court ruled … Click to Continue »
After all the back-and-forth with her sister Jamie-Lynn Spears this week, Britney Spears is lightening the mood by coloring her hair.
On Thursday (Jan. 20), Spears took to Instagram to unveil her latest hair look — dying her signature blonde locks purple.
“Here’s me with purple hair,” Spears wrote in the caption with a series of shrug emojis. “I’m bored, ok ??? Very bored so my nail girl said do it !!!! Girl .. I did it but not sure I like it but hey.”
Spears is rocking a low-cut little black dress in the video with tall red boots, describing the look as “a 100 dollar mini dress with my boots.”
The pop star has been making daily headlines this week because of her sister Jamie-Lynn promoting her new memoir, Things I Should Have Said, in a series of interviews. Britney, in turn, has responded to Jamie-Lynn’s claims, including issuing a cease-and-desist over her media appearances.
See Britney’s hair transformation below:
Adele’s 30 collects an eighth consecutive, and total, week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Jan. 22). The set now has the most weeks in a row at No. 1 since 2014, when the Frozen soundtrack notched eight straight weeks atop the list (charts dated March 29-May 17, 2014), of its total 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
In terms of total weeks at No. 1 on Top Album Sales (not just consecutive No. 1 weeks), the last album with eight weeks at No. 1 was Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s soundtrack to A Star Is Born, with 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between the charts dated Oct. 20, 2018 and March 30, 2019.
30 sold 21,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 13 (down 26%). (The Jan. 22-dated Top Album Sales chart reflects the sales week ending Jan. 13.)
30 has sold 1.51 million copies in the U.S. since its release on Nov. 19, 2021 It is the most recently released album to surpass 1.5 million in U.S. sales since Taylor Swift’s Folklore, which was released on July 24, 2020 and has sold 1.59 million.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
The soundtrack to the Disney animated film Encanto surges 4-2 (a new peak) on Top Album Sales with 16,500 sold (up 44%). The album is only available to purchase as either a digital download (which sold 3,800 during the week; up 23%) and as a CD (with 12,700 sold; up 52%). The soundtrack is scheduled for release on vinyl LP on April 8.
The Weeknd’s new Dawn FM album debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 15,000 copies sold – all from digital album sales. Its CD edition is slated to be released on Jan. 28, while its vinyl LP and cassette editions are scheduled to arrive on April 29. Dawn FM is the eighth top 10 on Top Album Sales for The Weeknd.
Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour falls 2-4 on with 10,000 sold (up 33%). Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Red (Taylor’s Version) is a non-mover at No. 5 with 9,000 sold (down 22%). Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours rises 7-6 with 7,500 sold (down 11%) and NCT’s Universe: The 3rd Album, Neo Culture Technology falls 6-7 with nearly 7,000 (down 31%).
Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City climbs 11-8 with 6,000 sold (down 6%), NCT 127’s former No. 1 Sticker: The 3rd Album is stationary at No. 9 with nearly 6,000 (down 13%) and The Beatles’ chart-topping Abbey Road is steady at No. 10 with 5,500 (down 14%).
In the week ending Jan. 13, there were 1.716 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 5.9% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.318 million (down 7.4%) and digital albums comprised 398,000 (down 0.7%).
Year-to-date album sales total 3.541 million (down 14.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 2.742 million (down 12.5%) and digital album sales total 799,000 (down 19.8%).
Kelly Clarkson brought the emotion to her eponymous talk show on Thursday (Jan. 20), kicking the new episode off with a moving cover of Sarah McLachlan‘s 1997 song, “Adia.”
“Adia, I’m empty since you left me / Trying to find a way to carry on / I search myself and everyone / To see where we went wrong,” Clarkson belted the heartbreaking lyrics, backed by her full band.
“Adia,” off McLachlan’s 1997 album Surfacing, first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated May 30, 1998 — before shooting up to its No. 3 peak on the chart dated August 22, 1998. The song spent 27 total weeks on the Hot 100.
During her 1998 VH1 Storytellers performance, the Canadian singer-songwriter told the crowd that the song is about her problems “dealing with feeling responsible for everyone else.”
In 2018, however, McLachlan revealed the true meaning of the song, which doesn’t “paint her in the best light.” She later retold the story to a crowd in Las Vegas, explaining that she “crossed a line” by falling in love with “my best friend’s ex.” Her relationship with her best friend, Aida, was ruined after that. “It wasn’t a fling,” she assured the audience, revealing that the man was her former husband Ashwin Sood. “I did marry the guy and had kids with him, and subsequently divorced him.”
Luckily McLachlan and Aida reconnected, and Aida’s son is now the singer’s godson.
Clarkson’s wide array of choices for other recent “Kellyoke” moments include Aerosmith’s 1994 power ballad “Crazy,” The Pretenders’ 1995 single “Angel of the Morning,” “Working” by Tate McRae and Khalid, Alanis Morissette’s “Hands Clean” and her very own Piece By Piece-era album cut “Someone.”
Watch Clarkson’s rendition of “Adia” below.
Sony Music Publishing UK has teamed up with creative executives Caroline Elleray and Mark Gale to launch Second Songs, a joint venture publishing and songwriter management company. Helmed by both Elleray and Gale, who both previously served as executives at Universal Music Publishing Group, Second Songs will focus on making sustainable careers for both developing and established songwriters.
Under its management arm, producer and songwriter Steph Marziano — who has penned songs with Hayley William, Matilda Mann, Denai Moore and more — will act as Second Songs’ first signee. At this time, there have been no announcements regarding publishing clients.
During their tenure at UMPG, Elleray and Gale were responsible for signing some of the hottest artists and writers of the last two decades, including Coldplay, The xx, Mumford & Sons, Rex Orange County, Little Simz, Tom Misch, Bastille, Chvrches, Jin Jin, Sigala, Laura Mvula, and Matt Hales.
“Caroline and Mark’s reputations speak for themselves, but what is most exciting and inspiring about Second Songs is the prospect of them bringing all of their experience, energy, know-how and talent into a venture of their own design,” says Tim Major, co-managing director, Sony Music Publishing UK, of the partnership. “They are passionate and caring executives who live and breathe music and relentlessly support the careers of the people that they work with. Their ethos for the Second Songs publishing venture chimes beautifully with our own – from creating an environment where the songwriter is always put first to helping to nurture young talent into the industry – and we are thrilled to be partnering with them.”
Elleray adds, “we are incredibly excited to be launching this partnership and have been immensely impressed by the people we have met at Sony Music Publishing. Their approach under the leadership of Jon, Tim and David is inspiring. Mark and I have always advocated for and championed the songwriters and artists we have signed with passion and unwavering belief. We hope to continue to foster this culture with Second Songs and are humbled by the support SMP has shown us.”
“Steph is a wonderful person and hugely talented. We share similar music taste and the same ethics and ethos, which is essential to us as we grow our business into a modern, forward thinking music company,” says Gale.
Along with their publishing and management initiatives, Elleray and Gale, through Second Songs, plan to create a program called “In The Loop” to help aspiring music industry professionals find a pipeline into a career.
Harry Styles will no longer bring his Love on Tour to Australia and New Zealand.
Live Nation revealed on Thursday (Jan. 20) that the Down Under shows originally set for November 2020 have been officially canceled. As the coronavirus began to spread, the original dates were postponed indefinitely.
“Due to the continuing challenges for international touring, the Harry Styles ‘Love On Tour’ is unable to be rescheduled for Australia & New Zealand in 2022,” reads a statement on Live Nation’s Australian website. “The current arena tour will be cancelled whilst we work towards a new tour, with all ticket holders receiving a full refund accordingly.”
The singer announced the rescheduled dates for the European and South American legs earlier in the week. The outing that will feature opening sets from Arlo Parks (Dublin), Koffee (Latin America), Mitski (UK dates) and Wolf Alice (select European shows) on select dates is slated to kick off on June 11 with a show at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow and run through a Dec. 10 gig at Pedreira Paulo Leminski in Curitiba, Brazil.
All existing tickets for rescheduled shows will remain valid for the new dates; tickets for the new shows go on general sale at 9 a.m. on Jan. 28. According to a release announcing the dates, the tour will follow all local and public health guidelines as well as venue protocols at the time of each gig.
Styles wrapped his Love On Tour North American run on Nov. 28 in Long Island, N.Y. after 42 shows.
