More than two years after it was first announced, Live Nation has finalized the acquisition of a 51% interest in Mexican concert promoter OCESA Entretenimiento, the company announced Monday. Live Nation bought its stake from CIE, a Latin American entertainment company, and media company Grupo Televisa, for MXN $8.84 billion – $416 million at Monday’s exchange rate but $444 million when the deal was announced in July 2019. 

OCESA significantly improves Live Nation’s presence in Latin America and further expands its international business. In 2019, OCESA’s holding company, Grupo Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento, reported $233.2 million in ticket sales to 936 events for 4.3 million fans from 3,400 shows spanning from the U.S. to Colombia, according to Billboard’s 2019 year-end Boxscore charts. Live Nation’s international concerts – primarily in Europe – totaled 11,830 that year, compared to 28,400 in North America.  

The resulting joint venture is led by Alejandro Soberón Kuri, chairman of the board and chief operating officer of CIE. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino will be the joint venture’s chairman of the board of directors. 

Initially, Live Nation believed the deal would close by the end of 2019. But a slowdown in the regulatory approval process delayed the expected closing date to the second quarter of 2020, president Joe Berchtold said during Live Nation’s February 27, 2020 earnings call. Then in May 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Live Nation postponed the acquisition while it shored up its liquidity for a prolonged cessation of touring. The touring business has since stabilized, and Live Nation is optimistic about its 2022 touring schedule. Despite having $4.6 billion of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet on Sept. 30, and $571 million of available borrowings in a credit facility, Live Nation sold $450 million of notes in September to fund the purchase.  

Additionally, the deal adds OCESA’s ticketing business, Ticketmaster Mexico, to Live Nation’s high-margin Ticketmaster division. “This strategic agreement extends the already successful relationship we have with Live Nation and we are very proud to take it to the next level,” said Soberón Kuri in a statement.  

P!nk took time out of her busy schedule recently to connect with a terminally ill fan over Zoom.

Sixty-three-year-old Diane Berberian is currently in hospice with terminal bone cancer, and she shared a portion of her chat with the pop star on social media. “THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO TRY AND MAKE CONNECTIONS… OUR DREAM CAME TRUE!!!!!” the triathlete and Ironman competitor captioned the post.

“You have a kind of bravery I don’t understand,” P!nk says in the 13-minute clip to Berberian, who competed twice in the U.S. Paratriathalon National Championships. “You’re bringing comfort to other people while you’re walking through this.”

The singer also treated Berberian to a cover of Queen’s “We Are the Champions” over the call, which the elite runner promised she would attempt to “share later.”

As the visit wrapped up, the Philly native let P!nk know just how important it was that the superstar reached out to meet her. “You’ve made my day,” Berbian said with a smile. “I mean, I don’t even know what’s on my bucket list now. Because you were so far at the top, and all the other things started to happen, so it’s kinda like, ‘OK, I’ll think of something else.’ ‘Cause I am gonna rest for a couple days, but something else is gonna come up.”

Watch P!nk’s heartwarming chat with Berberian below.

Lizzo made a splashy return to the stage Saturday (Dec. 4) as the singer helped close out the last night of Art Basel Miami with a special performance for American Express cardholders.

Lizzo’s American Express UNSTAGED concert took place right on the beach, just steps from the Miami Beach EDITION hotel, with the singer performing for a few hundred Amex card members in person and thousands of fans who were able to stream the concert via the live streaming site LIVENow.

Kicking the show off with her latest single, “Rumors” (song partner Cardi B was coincidentally just a few blocks away, launching her vodka-infused “Whipshots” at the Goodtime Hotel), Lizzo’s Miami performance was just the second time the singer has taken the stage for a live show since the pandemic began. Though she revealed that she had been battling a sinus infection for three days (“My nose is stuffed up with so much green stuff it’s like my bank account,” she quipped), it was evident from the time she set foot on stage that she was here to have a good time.

“We’ve been through some s— in 2020, but I’m excited to be here to not just do this for me, but to do this for you,” she said, before launching into “Good as Hell,” backed by an all-female band and eight dancers (a.k.a. her “Big Grrrls”).

The singer ran through a tightly-choreographed, 70-minute set, which also included her hits “Truth Hurts” and “Juice,” along with brief covers of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” and even a Chris Evans-directed version of Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone.” (“Maybe I should call Chris Evans, so Captain America could put another bun up in my oven,” she sang, before adding, “Maybe I should call back Drake.”)

WHY AM I THIS WAYYYYYY 😩 https://t.co/QGXv8EZsop

— ALL THE RUMORS ARE TRUE (@lizzo) December 5, 2021

The unofficial theme for the evening according to Lizzo was “Breathe, B—-,” and the two words were prominently displayed on stage behind the singer. “I was so caught up in fear [last year] that I forgot to breathe,” she explained, about the significance of her now-mantra. “When I breathe, I bring life back to my joy.”

“This has been one of the craziest years I’ve ever witnessed,” she said later on in the show, “and to be present in my body right now and to be able to do this for you right now is a blessing and I’m so grateful.”

Lizzo’s concert marked the last American Express UNSTAGED event of 2021, and company reps say there was no better person to help celebrate the return of live music.

“Lizzo has continued to grow and really develop her voice, especially over the past few years, of just living authentically and highlighting racial injustices and different issues that are happening all over the world,” says Brandy D. Sanders, vice president, global entertainment experiences & partnerships, American Express, who heads up the company’s UNSTAGED partnerships. “As we think about American Express and even just personally as a woman of color, this is really special to be able to highlight diverse and inclusive artists and really give them a platform for the whole world to see their magic. We are so pumped,” Sanders says, “to be able to bring Lizzo’s Black girl magic to the whole world.”

While Saturday’s in-person event was reserved for American Express cardholders and select fans who were able to snag a ticket online, Lizzo’s set was able made available for live streaming via LIVENow. Sanders says it was important for American Express to provide an experience not just for card members, but for everyone.

“What we’re so excited about is that we’re also shooting this for our fans around the world,” Sanders says. “We’re obviously in a new day and age, and now we are bringing together for the first time ever, this new iteration of a ‘live plus digital’ hybrid.”

The American Express UNSTAGED program launched just over 10 years ago, and the concert series has featured partnerships with everyone from Coldplay and John Legend to Alicia Keys and Shawn Mendes. While Sanders says that each artist has brought something unique to the table, she admits that it’s always nice to see some of the artists’ careers grow alongside the UNSTAGED platform.

“I feel like every artist that we work with is so special, and obviously there are some that we work with multiple times over time — Lizzo being one of them,” she says. “We have a long history of working with Lizzo, starting with the Cuz I Love You Tour in 2019,” Sanders continues, “and it was amazing because she was actually in this very crazy trajectory at that time where it was starting very small, but she was growing. When you got to see those performances, they were in small clubs and theaters and nobody had anticipated her growth. Now,” Sanders says, “it’s so sweet to be able to bring it full circle.”

Before the release of 30, Adele had one entertaining chat with fans on Instagram Live — but she has no plans to do that again any time soon.

In her recent interview with makeup and beauty vlogger NikkieTutorials, the “Easy on Me” singer admitted that she didn’t love handling the live streaming experience herself, and that she doesn’t even have the password to her account anymore, anyway.

“In COVID, they let me have my password,” Adele, whose new album is currently spending its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, said in the YouTube clip, which had Nikkie showing the “power of makeup” by applying it to only half of Adele’s face. “I was never allowed my passwords for my socials before. It’s actually quite a well-known fact.”

She clarified, “They were worried if I’d get drunk, or be annoyed, whatever I would do. Not responding to anyone, more just posting my general thoughts.”

But once Adele had her official social media account login details, she explained, “I would just share funny memes and stuff with my actual friends.”

“And then I posted a picture, which a lot of people know about. It’s the only picture I ever posted myself. And then they took my password away from me again,” said Adele. (She didn’t specify which photo got her password revoked, but in the summer of 2020, a number of celebrities and fans were talking about a personal snapshot she posted in which she wore traditional Bantu knots and a Jamaican flag bikini top at the Notting Hill carnival in London.)

Nikkie then asked Adele if she’d go on Instagram Live again. Adele didn’t hesitate to answer.

“No, because I had no idea how to f—ing use it … I would never do it again,” she quipped. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I didn’t enjoy it at all. I mean I enjoyed it while I was doing it, but then all my friends were like, ‘Are you OK?’ And they told me what I was supposed to be doing, and what I was supposed to look like … Honestly, it was, like, meme-worthy.”

Watch her chat about it in the makeup video/interview with Adele below.

Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi‘s new collaboration “Just Look Up” has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Dec. 3) on Billboard, choosing the soaring pop track as their favorite new music release of the past week.

“Just Look Up,” which appears in Adam McKay’s upcoming sci-fi black comedy Don’t Look Up, brought in 35% of the vote, beating out new music by Juice WRLD and Justin Bieber (“Wandered to LA”), Shawn Mendes (“It’ll Be Okay”), SZA (“I Hate U”), Ed Sheeran and Elton John (“Merry Christmas”), and others.

“Just Look Up” finds Grande steering some romantic balladry with a gorgeous tone and open heart, while Cudi takes a few seconds to fully deploy his croon but sounds comfortable when it arrives.

“Just look up/ Turn off that s— box news/ Cause you’re about to die soon everybody/ Look up/ Here it comes/ I’m so glad I’m here with you/ Forever in your arms,” Grande belts out.

Don’t Look Up has a stacked cast which includes Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio and the two singing stars. The film hits Netflix on Dec. 24.

Following in a close second on the past week’s tally with 34% of the vote was Juice WRLD and Bieber’s collab “Wandered to LA,” which appears on the late Chicago rapper’s upcoming second posthumous album, Fighting Demons.

With production by HARV and Louis Bell, the chilled-tune is an account of a bender in the City of Angels. “I wandered to LA hopin’ to explore/ Little did I know, I’d find a little more/ Love at my hotel room door/ From the bed to the hotel room floor,” Juice raps.

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.