Depending on your timeline, technology companies have called Miami-Dade County home for decades. But in 2021, Miami tech became a nationwide movement that went into overdrive. As the pandemic bore … Click to Continue »
FKA Twigs and The Weeknd‘s new track has topped this week’s fan-voted new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll that was published Friday (Dec. 17) on Billboard, choosing “Tears in the Club” as their favorite new music release of the past week.
“Tears in the Club,” the first team-up between the two artists, brought in just over half of the vote at 52.43%. FKA Twigs and The Weeknd dropped the song on Thursday, with the atmospheric chorus “Tears in the club/ ‘Cuz your love’s got me f—ed up.”
While it’s unclear whether “Tears in the Club” will appear on an upcoming album from either FKA Twigs or The Weeknd, this year they’ve both hinted that new albums are in the works.
The Weeknd’s “Poison” collab with Aaliyah, released ahead of the late R&B singer’s posthumous album, and Roddy Ricch‘s Live Life Fast album were among the new music releases trailing behind “Tears in the Club” on the poll.
See the final results of this week’s favorite new music release poll below.
Charli XCX‘s SNL performance was called off Saturday night (Dec. 18) due to a limited crew amid the surge of COVID-19 cases linked to the omicron variant in New York City, but she did make a cameo in a pre-recorded musical sketch for the show.
“The Christmas Socks,” possibly a parody of the 2000 song “The Christmas Shoes,” was led by SNL host Paul Rudd and featured Charli as a very special guest: a singing bird named T.J. Rocks.
“Christmas is a time of charity and giving, and that was the inspiration for this next music video, which I shot yesterday morning with Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and what should have been tonight’s musical guest, Charli XCX,” Rudd said in his introduction of the musical segment. “It’s a heartfelt Christmas song about a magical moment between a boy and a strange man at a department store. Enjoy!”
Charli shared the unfortunate news that she would not be performing on Saturday night’s episode shortly after SNL announced the show would tape without a live audience that night.
“due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of snl my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead. i am devastated and heartbroken,” she said on social media, promising she’ll “be back.”
In a later tweet, Charli added, “heya just to clear up any confusion i didn’t decide to cancel or pull out of the show tonight! We were informed at around 3pm ish that my segment of the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead for everyone’s safety and so there was nothing we could do.”
Watch the pre-taped sketch that she was able to take part in below.
Jingle Ball’s stop in Florida, which was scheduled for Sunday (Dec. 19) in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market, has been canceled. The event at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, was called off due to COVID-19 concerns, amid the surge of the omicron variant.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, iHeartRadio wrote, “Due to the increased transmission of the new Covid-19 variant and to further minimize any potential risks, as a precautionary measure and for the safety of our staff, talent and guests, we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s iHeartRadio Y100 Jingle Ball. Thank you for your understanding. Ticket holders will receive a refund within 48 hours and if they have any issues, they should reach out to their point of purchase.”
The message was followed with a tweet regarding Ticketmaster refunds: “Ticket holders who purchased through Ticketmaster will receive a refund within 3 to 30 days. If you have any issues, you should reach out to your point of purchase.”
The original lineup for the concert in Miami featured Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, AJR, Black Eyed Peas, Saweetie and more, though Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion and others recently had to drop out of Jingle Ball dates. Doja Cat tested positive for COVID-19, and members of Megan Thee Stallion’s team were exposed to COVID-19.
The Florida Jingle Ball show was meant to be the final stop on the 2021 tour.
See the announcement below.
— iHeartRadio (@iHeartRadio) December 19, 2021
The organizers of a Los Angeles festival that was the scene of a high-profile homicide Saturday night (Dec. 18), when rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed, had recently made a major management change, ending its relationship with the organizers of Coachella in July to ink a new joint venture with global concert promoter Live Nation. Last month, Live Nation came under heavy fire for its alleged role in the deadly Astroworld festival headlined by Travis Scott that killed 10 people and left scores more injured.
Authorities say that Drakeo was murdered in a stabbing attack Saturday during the Once Upon a Time in LA festival at Exposition Park and Banc of California Stadium in downtown Los Angeles. Headlined by Snoop Dogg, the festival was a joint venture between Live Nation and veteran independent promoter Robert “Bobby Dee” Drieslein, who is Snoop’s business partner. Austin, Texas, festival promoter C3 Presents, which promotes Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, was also involved in producing the festival, a Live Nation rep confirmed.
Once Upon a Time in LA was created by Drieslein and well-known talent buyer Jeff Shuman in 2017 under the name Summertime in the LBC and had been promoted by Goldenvoice, the AEG-owned concert company behind Coachella. Goldenvoice also co-promoted the R&B-focused Lovers and Friends festival owned by Dreislein and Shuman and the Smokin Grooves festival, which the men co-owned with booking agent Cara Lewis.
From 2017 to 2019, the three festivals were staged at an outdoor site in Long Beach near the Queen Mary, a 1930s-era luxury ocean liner that had been permanently moored and converted into a hotel. In 2019, Summertime in the LBC was renamed Once Upon a Time in LA following a settlement with the Long Beach band The Dove Shack, who wrote the 1995 song “Summertime in the LBC” and claimed the Summertime in the LBC festival infringed on the group’s intellectual property. Goldenvoice also promoted a Latin music and Chicano rock festival on the site called Tropicalia festival in 2017 and 2018 before moving the festival to the Pomona Fairplex in 2019. Records show that Shuman owned a trademark for Tropicalia Festival and that Bobby Dee Presents Inc. owned a trademark for both Once Upon a Time in LA and Once Upon a Time in the LBC.
The festivals were rapidly growing and selling out in record time (Once Upon a Time in the LBC 2019 sold out in an hour) when the pandemic hit in March 2020, followed by the bankruptcy of Urban Commons in April 2021 amid fraud accusations. The real estate company had reportedly used the Queen Mary as collateral for a number of large loans and was threatened with jail time by a federal bankruptcy judge accusing Urban Commons executives of diverting $2.4 million in PPP loans meant for Queen Mary to personal bank accounts, court records show.
The bankruptcy ended Goldenvoice’s agreement with Urban Commons, and the concert company moved the events it owned to different venues, including a park space in Long Beach. Then in July 2021, Shuman parted ways with Goldenvoice and joined global concert promoter Live Nation, which inked a new JV with Shuman and Drieslein under more favorable terms, Dreislein confirmed to Billboard in a September interview.
Th 43-year-old Dreislein manages Snoop’s Dogg’s live business and its Uncle Snoop’s Army platform, which is part booking agency and part fan club. He also co-manages Ice Cube’s concert business and manages the careers of Cypress Hill frontman B-Real, Warren G, Xzibit, Lisa Lisa, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Trae tha Truth and Berner. Dreislein is the son of a successful night club owner and promoter and grew up in in South Los Angeles.
The killing of Drakeo the Ruler is the second deadly incident to happen at a Live Nation festival this year, although the circumstances between Astroworld and Once Upon a Time in LA are quite different. A crowd crush of fans trying to rush the stage is the cause of the high casualty count at the Houston festival, while the death of Drakeo was the result of a fight backstage at the festival, sources tell Billboard. No arrests have been made in the case.
Billboard contacted reps for Dreislen and Shuman, and neither man elected not to comment at this time.
Adele’s 30 holds firm at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a fourth consecutive, and total, week. It’s the first album with four weeks in a row at No. 1 since March. 30 earned 183,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 16 (down 6%) according to MRC Data.
The last album with four straight weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which spent all 10 of its weeks at No. 1 from its debut frame, between the charts dated Jan. 23 and March 27. The last album by a woman with four weeks in a row at No. 1 was Taylor Swift’s Folklore, which spent its first six weeks atop the list (of its total of eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1) beginning in August 2020.
30 is the fourth album released in 2021 to spend at least four weeks at No. 1 in total. Previously, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (five weeks), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (five) and Wallen’s Dangerous (10) all clocked at least four weeks in the lead.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 25, 2021-dated chart (where 30 spends a fourth week at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 21. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of 30’s 183,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 16, album sales comprise 146,500 (down 2%), SEA units comprise 35,000 (down 19%; equaling 47.3 million on-demand streams of the set’s track) and TEA units comprise less than 1,500 units (down 15%).
30 logs the biggest fourth week for any album in over three years, since Drake’s No. 1 Scorpion earned 184,000 in its fourth frame (chart dated Aug. 4, 2018).
Juice WRLD’s second posthumous album, Fighting Demons, debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 119,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 110,000 units (equaling 155.49 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs), TEA units comprise 5,000 and album sales comprise 4,000. Fighting Demons is Juice WRLD’s fifth chart entry, and all five have reached the top five. He previously hit No. 1 with both his first posthumous release, Legends Never Die (which debuted at No. 1 on the July 25, 2020-dated chart and spent two weeks at No. 1), and with Death Race for Love (debuted at No. 1 on the March 23, 2019, chart, and spent two weeks at No. 1).
Four former No. 1s are next up on the Billboard 200. Swift’s second re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s Version), dips 2-3 in its fifth week on the list, and fifth frame in the top 10 (68,000). It has now spent more weeks in the top 10 than Swift’s first re-recorded project, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which has notched four nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 (between April and October).
Michael Bublé’s Christmas is steady at No. 4 with 64,000 equivalent album units earned (up 7%), Rodrigo’s Sour is stationary at No. 5 with 60,000 units (though up 18%, thanks to a surge in vinyl LP sales) and Wallen’s Dangerous holds at No. 6 with 45,000 (down 6%).
Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas rises 8-7 with nearly 45,000 equivalent album units earned (up 11%). Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to the animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas hits a new peak, climbing 9-8 with 44,500 units (up 15%); it beats its previous chart high, set just a week ago, when it reached No. 9.
Drake’s former No. 1 Certified Lover Boy falls 7-9 with 44,000 units (down 5%) and Polo G’s chart-topping Hall of Fame falls 3-10 with 43,000 (down 45%), following its run back up the chart a week ago following a deluxe reissue.
After 553 docket entries, 533 days in prison, 33 witnesses and 15 days in court, testimony in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial concluded Friday, with Maxwell announcing she would not … Click to Continue »
Charli XCX will no longer be performing on Saturday Night Live tonight (Dec. 18).
She shared the news shortly after SNL made the announcement that Saturday’s show would tape without a live audience on Saturday as COVID-19 cases linked to the omicron variant surged in New York City.
“hi everyone,” she wrote on social media Saturday evening. “due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of snl my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead. i am devastated and heartbroken. myself, caroline, christine and all of our crews and teams have worked so hard all week alongside the snl team to bring the most amazing music performance to life. it can’t happen this time but I’ll be back! i am currently safe and healthy but of course very sad.”
“please look after yourselves out there and make sure you get vaccinated if you haven’t already,” Charli added.
As of Saturday afternoon, the singer — whose upcoming album, Crash, is set to be released on March 18 — had been promoting her planned appearance on the Paul Rudd-hosted episode through her Instagram and Twitter accounts. She’d shared pictures of “2014 baby me on snl vs 2021 grown me,” reminding fans to “tune in tonight.”
Charli’s new album features the song “New Shapes,” with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek. Earlier on Saturday, she had teased that they would be joining her on SNL.
“stay safe everybody, much love,” Polachek wrote on Twitter, atop Charli’s update about the canceled performance.
“be safe everyone happy holidays we love you,” Christine added in a post.
Read Charli’s note below.
— Charli (@charli_xcx) December 18, 2021
Kangol Kid, a member of the legendary hip-hop group UTFO, has died after a battle with colon cancer. He was 55.
The family of Kangol Kid — whose real name is Shaun Shiller Fequiere — said in a statement that he died peacefully around 3 a.m. Saturday (Dec. 18) at a hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was diagnosed with cancer in February.
Kid was known for often sporting the popular Kangol headwear and being a member of UTFO, which stands for Untouchable Force Organization. The four-member group was known for 1980s hits including “Roxanne, Roxanne” and “Ya Cold Wanna Be With Me.”
Along with his hip-hop success, Kid became recognized for his efforts against breast cancer through the Mama Luke Foundation. Following his diagnosis, he had spoken publicly about the need for regular screening.
Wanda Young, a member of the 1960s Motown group The Marvelettes, has died, Rolling Stone reports. She was 78.
Young, who also performed under the name Wanda Rogers, was the lead vocalist on Marvelettes songs like “I’ll Keep Holding On” and “Don’t Mess With Bill.” Further details about her death were not available at press time.
“We are so saddened by the news of Wanda Young of the Marvelettes passing,” Motown official Twitter account wrote on Thursday (Dec. 16). “What an impact she has had on the world of Classic Motown and the lives of so many. Her legacy will continue to live on.”
We are so saddened by the news of Wanda Young of the Marvelettes passing. What an impact she has had on the world of Classic Motown and the lives of so many. Her legacy will continue to live on ❤ https://t.co/K3Ycax2zFH
— Classic Motown (@ClassicMotown) December 17, 2021
Born in Inkster, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Young joined The Marvelettes in 1961 after being brought in by her high school classmates Gladys Horton and Georgia Dobbins. Young served as a replacement for Dobbins, who left the group to take care of her ill mother and because her father didn’t want her involved in the music industry.
Young’s passing follows the death of Marvelettes co-founder Horton, who died in 2011 at the age of 66. Horton sang lead on the group’s hits including “Please Mr. Postman.” Released on Motown’s Tamla Records, the legendary company’s first label, “Postman” topped the Hot 100 on Dec. 11, 1961. Dobbins, a co-writer of the track, died in September 2020. Young can be heard singing backup vocals on “Postman,” as well as other Marvelettes classics like “Playboy” and “Beechwood 4-5789.”
Young went on to marry The Miracles singer Bobby Rogers in 1963, taking on his last name. By the mid-’60s, she was singing lead vocals on Marvelettes songs “I’ll Keep Holding On,” “Don’t Mess With Bill,” “My Baby Must Be a Magician” and “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game.”
The Marvelettes officially split following the release of their Smokey Robinson-produced 1970 album, Return of the Marvelettes, which was originally planned as a solo release for Young. Soon after, she mostly stepped away from the music industry, but performed alongside a semi-reunited Marvelettes in 1989, according to Rolling Stone.
