Nicki Minaj honored her former business manager Angela “Angie” Kukawski, who recently died in a suspected homicide.

The Los Angeles-based business manager was reported missing a week ago on Dec. 22, but Los Angeles and Simi Valley police officers found her body inside her car parked on Patricia Avenue in Simi Valley the next day, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department issued Wednesday (Dec. 29). Her death was ruled a homicide by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office. She was 55.

On Minaj’s Instagram Story Wednesday, the rapper wrote, “Hardest working, most reliable, sweetest person you could ever know. You didn’t deserve this, Angela. My heart is breaking for your children. Rest In Peace.”

Nicki Minaj sympathizes with the family of her business manager Angela Kukawski who passed away 🙏🏽💔. pic.twitter.com/I4zCTGNcjR

— Pop Base (@nmpopbase) December 30, 2021

Kukawski worked at Boulevard Management in Woodland Hills. Aside from Minaj, her other former A-list clients include Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), Offset, the Tupac estate and the Kardashians.

Her boyfriend Jason Barker, 49, was arrested on suspicion of murder, according to Los Angeles police. Police suspect Barker killed her inside her home in Sherman Oaks and transported her body to her car that he drove to the Simi Valley street before fleeing. The LAPD release reports Barker was booked into Van Nuys Jail, and since his arrest, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has filed murder charges on him.

Todd C. Bozick from Boulevard Management told Variety in a statement, “We are saddened and heartbroken by the loss of our colleague, Angie Kukawski. Angie was a kind, wonderful person, and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Our deepest condolences go out to all of Angie’s family and friends.”

The Kardashian family described Kukawski as “truly the best” in a statement to E! News: “She cared about everyone of us and made things happen that were impossible. She will be greatly missed and we send our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones during this most difficult time.”

Dead & Company announced Wednesday (Dec. 29) it will move ahead with its back-to-back concert weekends in Riviera Cancún, Mexico, next month, but any ticket holders who no longer wish to attend as the omicron variant drives a surge in COVID-19 cases around the world are now eligible to receive refunds. Playing in the Sand is scheduled for Jan. 7-10 and 13-16, all performances will be held outdoors on the beach.

Refund requests must be submitted by 5 p.m. EST on Friday.

For those fans who still plan to attend the concerts, in an email sent to ticket holders on Wednesday, the band and promoter CID Presents “strongly” advised eligible guests “to be boosted against COVID-19 before traveling to Mexico.” The email contained a form for fans to submit who wish to receive refunds.

The Playing in the Sand health and safety police requires guests to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination before departure for the event, as well as negative COVID-19 PCR test or any NAAT lab or technician-certified test no more than two days prior to event check-in. Guests must also provide a negative antigen test administered at check-in and an additional negative antigen test for departure from Mexico no more than 1 day before your flight home per CDC order.

With CID Presents, Dead & Company — which has both led in concerts’ comeback amid the pandemic and coronavirus safety precautions — has also enacted a number of measures for the Playing in the Sand shows for both staff and guests. See those here:

• All staff are required to wear KN95 masks at all times.
• All guests will be required to wear masks in all indoor public spaces except while actively eating.
• All CID Presents staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
• All Moon Palace staff who are guest-facing are fully vaccinated against COVID-19,
• All CID Presents staff and Moon Palace staff are tested daily.
• We highly encourage guests not to leave the resort throughout their Playing in the Sand vacation. Therefore, all CID Presents-hosted off-site adventures have been canceled and will be automatically refunded.
• In the event a Playing in the Sand guest tests positive for COVID-19 either upon arrival antigen testing or prior to departure, an on-site quarantine room will be provided complimentary by CID Presents and Moon Palace until a negative test result is produced.
  • In the event that all on-site quarantine rooms are occupied, CID Presents will arrange for lodging at a nearby hotel and cover all associated transportation and lodging costs.
• Guests who arrive in the Cancun area more than two days prior to event check in and need assistance with obtaining a PCR test locally can visit our medical partner Protech at one of THESE locations. You will not be allowed to check into the event or resort until you have received your PCR test results.
  • We strongly advise against flying without a negative test result. Guests who get PCR tests via Protech Medical will experience at least a 6-8 hour wait for test results. Please use the code “RockOn” for a discounted rate of $85 per person per test.
• New CDC Isolation and Quarantine Period guidance has been lowered from 10 days to 5 days for asymptomatic US Citizens. For the most up to date guidance, click here.
  

Dead & Company had one of the year’s biggest tours with a hybrid of amphitheater-stadium shows that started in August and continued through October.

Two tribute albums to famed singers are nominated for best traditional pop vocal album at the 64th annual Grammy Awards – Willie Nelson’s That’s Life, which is the ninth tribute to Frank Sinatra to be nominated in this category, and Ledisi’s Ledisi Sings Nina, the first tribute to Nina Simone to be nominated here.

Sinatra virtually personifies the traditional pop genre, which was built around songs from the Great American Songbook. But Simone, a jazz-styled singer who is nearly as well known for her calls for social justice, isn’t usually thought of in those terms.

So how did a tribute to Simone wind up in the traditional pop category?

Ledisi won her first Grammy in March for best traditional R&B performance for “Anything for You,” a track from her 2020 album The Wild Card, but the Grammys don’t have a traditional R&B album category. The Grammy screening committee, which makes the final determination of where albums land, had to choose between placing the album in best traditional pop vocal album or best R&B album, where Simone would have competed with the likes of Jon Batiste, H.E.R. and Jazmine Sullivan.

The Grammys have, in recent years, been trying to expand the notion of what traditional pop entails. Here’s the current guideline: “This category is for performances of a type and style of song that cannot properly be intermingled with present forms of pop music. This includes older forms of traditional pop such as the Great American Songbook, created by the Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the period between the [1920s] and the end of World War II, as well as cabaret/musical theater-style songs and previous forms of contemporary pop. This would also include contemporary pop songs performed in traditional pop style – the term ‘traditional’ being a reference, equally, to the style of the composition, vocal styling and the instrumental arrangement, without regard to the age of the material.”

Simone is the ninth singer to be the subject of a tribute that received a nod for best traditional pop vocal album. The others, in addition to Sinatra, are Nat King Cole and Judy Garland, each of whom have been the subject of two nominated albums; and Fred Astaire, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee, each of whom have been saluted with one nominated album.

Simone, who died in 2003 at age 70, never won a Grammy in competition. She was nominated just twice, in both cases for best R&B vocal performance, female. She was nominated in 1967 (the category’s first year) for “(You’ll) Go to Hell” and in 1970 for her album Black Gold. She lost in both cases to Aretha Franklin, whose eight-year lock on the award from 1967-74 helped clinch her title as the Queen of Soul.

Simone was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2017. Two of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which functions as a second chance for the Grammys to salute worthy recordings. Simone has been recognized for “I Loves You, Porgy” from Show Boat (recorded in 1959) and “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” (recorded in 1969). Both songs reached the top 10 on Billboard’s principal R&B chart, now called Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

Voting members of the Recording Academy have one more week to cast their ballots. Final-round voting closes on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2022, at 6 p.m. PT. The Grammy telecast is set for Jan. 31.

Ledisi Sings Nina, which features Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, appears to have little chance of winning for best traditional pop vocal album. Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Love for Sale is the clear favorite to win in the category. In addition to its nomination here, it is up for album of the year. This would be Bennett’s 14th win in this category, Gaga’s second. The two stars won seven years ago for their previous collab, Cheek to Cheek.

The other nominees in the category — besides Nelson’s aforementioned That’s Life — are Norah Jones’ ’Til We Meet Again (Live) and a pair of holiday albums, Tori Kelly’s A Tori Kelly Christmas and Dolly Parton’s A Holly Dolly Christmas.