Kacey Musgraves Delivers Delicate Cover of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’

Kacey Musgraves serves a hearty helping of Coldplay’s 2005 hit “Fix You” in Chipotle’s new short film supporting farmers.

The country-pop sensation performs her cover in a nearly three-minute stop-motion animated flick, which the Mexican fast food restaurant chain revealed Monday to support the next generation of farmers. Chipotle is working to preserve the future of real food through seed grants, scholarships and a campaign to transfer more than 1 million acres of farmland to young farmers.

Musgraves elaborates further on why the cause is important in a behind-the-scenes video of her “Fix You” cover, where she explains how taking over a family farm isn’t as simple of a concept as it used to be. “Now, these farmers are getting too old to take care of it themselves, and they don’t really have anyone to pass the torch to,” she says in the clip before delving into the first verse of the Coldplay classic.

“And the tears come streaming down your face/ When you lose something you can’t replace/ When you love someone, but it goes to waste/ Could it be worse?” she laments while being backed by acoustic guitars, a piano and weepy cello. The lyrics soundtracks a pivotal scene when a farmer puts the land that was passed down to him up for sale.

“Fix You” was released as the second single from the British rock band’s third studio album X&Y in 2005. The song broke into the top five of Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs chart.

Watch A Future Begins short film, as well as the “Kacey Musgraves: Making of ‘Fix You,’” below, and listen to her version of “Fix You” on digital and streaming providers here.

 

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‘Spring Awakening’ Returns: 5 Things You Missed at 15th-Anniversary Reunion Concert

Fifteen years ago, Spring Awakening — the musical that transformed singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik into an in-demand theater composer and actors like Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff into Hollywood-bound stars — began its revolutionary run on Broadway. And on Monday night, the groundbreaking musical — along with its entire original Broadway cast — returned for one night only to celebrate its enduring legacy.

The Spring Awakening 15th-anniversary reunion show took place at Broadway’s Imperial Theater, currently home to the hit Ain’t Too Proud. The performance, produced by cast members Groff and Lauren Pritchard along with Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman and helmed by the show’s original director Michael Mayer, also served as a benefit for The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that offers financial assistance and services to entertainment professionals.

Lines of eager fans stretched down and around a busy 45th Street in Manhattan, which was also the site that evening of the New York premiere for Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s 2001 musical Tick, Tick … Boom!, as well as the long-awaited return of the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company for previews.

While some concertgoers were left waiting an extra hour outside due to ticketing delays at the Imperial, the sold-out show eventually went on, with the original cast performing a full concert version of the rebellious 2006 musical. With a full band onstage and the entire cast seated in a line of black chairs, the performance brought the story of teenagers in turn-of-the-century Germany discovering their sexuality and learning firsthand the consequences of shame and stigma back to life — and had audience members on their feet and cheering more often than not.

Those who couldn’t snag tickets to the near-immediately-sold-out performance are in luck: On Monday morning, HBO announced that a documentary surrounding the anniversary show — featuring behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, exclusive interviews, archival footage from the original production and filmed performances from Monday’s benefit — will premiere and be available for streaming on HBO Max in 2022. But for now, here are the highlights of a night that will go down in musical theater fan history.

The OBC OG’s return

There have been numerous Spring Awakening iterations around the world — including a 2015 Broadway revival featuring deaf and hearing cast members performing in American Sign Language and English, and this December the first London revival — but Monday evening’s performance was all about the original production, with every single original Broadway cast member present to reprise their roles, including the star trio of Michele as Wendla Bergmann, Groff as Melchior Gabor, and John Gallagher Jr. in his Tony-winning role as Moritz Stiefel.

In addition, cast members from other productions of the show were scattered throughout the audience. Even after the show, Groff still found himself dumbstruck at the mega-reunion that had occurred. “Every single cast member, and every single original band member is here onstage tonight,” he said. “That’s so incredibly special.”

Part concert, part re-enactment

If some audience members weren’t entirely sure how much of the musical would actually be performed during Monday’s concert, they were delightfully surprised when the cast performed the original show in its entirety, at times breaking from the concert format to re-enact key scenes in the show (such as Wendla and Melchior’s sex sequence during Act I closer “I Believe”). Some performances featured full choreography (such as the energetic “The Bitch of Living”), while others offered a more pared-down experience (like the moving “The Dark I Know Well”).

“Touch Me” strikes a chord

While big numbers like “The Bitch of Living” and “My Junk” certainly earned their ovations , the mid-Act I number “Touch Me” stood out as particularly moving. As ensemble members Krysta Rodriguez, Jennifer Damiano, Robi Hager and Gerard Canonico finally appeared on the stage during the stirring song, the audience instantly cheered, knowing that the full cast was finally performing together again. With the use of the show’s original, sensual choreography, expert lighting, and a fantastic band led by conductor and keyboardist Kimberly Grigsby, “Touch Me” quickly became a standout of the evening.

"Spring Awakening" 15th anniversary reunion concert cast

The full “Spring Awakening” 15th anniversary reunion concert cast on Monday, Nov. 15, at New York’s Imperial Theater.

The cast gets interactive on “Totally Fucked”

In the whole of Spring Awakening, there is likely no song quite as cathartic as “Totally Fucked.” Just as the characters in the show are finally letting all of their pent-up frustration loose, the actors decided that they would let their internal excitement boil over for this number. It began when Groff decided to get face-to-face with some very eager audience members in the front row, kneeling down and singing directly to one lucky concertgoer who squealed with glee as he serenaded her. After that, for the song’s explosive finish, the entire cast got out of their seats and began jumping, headbanging, dancing and skittering around the stage, all of them beaming and hugging each other as they sang the classic “blah blah blah” refrain.

A touching tribute to the show

After the cast took their bows at curtain call, Groff took a moment to thank the audience for coming, spread the word about The Actors Fund supporting struggling actors throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and give a few rounds of applause to the sponsors, producers and venue employees for helping put on the show. Then, Groff decided to have the audience participate in a “little exercise,” as he called on members of the original production’s creative team in the audience (including writer Steven Sater, composer Sheik, director Mayer and many more) to stand and be recognized by the adoring crowd. “This has been such an extraordinary experience for us,” Groff said, choking up. “We couldn’t wait to tell this story in front of an audience again, in honor of The Actors Fund. Thank you so much, all of you for being here tonight and making our dreams come true.”

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Kelsea Ballerini Writes About Eating Disorder, High School Shooting & More in Vulnerable Book of Poems

On Wednesday, Kelsea Ballerini reached a long-awaited career milestone by winning her first CMA Awards trophies: musical event of the year and music video of the year, both for “Half of My Hometown,” a collaboration with Kenny Chesney, who’s also from Ballerini’s hometown of Knoxville, Tenn.

After her pre-telecast wins were announced, as Ballerini holed up in a hotel near Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena to prepare to attend the show that evening, she heard a knock on the door.

“Kenny showed up at the hotel, brought a bottle of wine, and he sat in the room with me while I got my hair and makeup done for the show,” Ballerini tells Billboard during a Zoom call the day after the CMA Awards. “We’ve become such good buddies through this song. It’s been a good 24 hours.”

In “Half of My Hometown,” Ballerini sings about a sense of connection she will always feel to her hometown. Since releasing her debut album, The First Time, in 2015, Ballerini has notched four No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay singles — and as a writer on every song on her albums, her music has become more intimate and personal with each subsequent release, whether she’s writing about a new romantic crush (“Yeah Boy”) or finding courage to choose vulnerability over perfection (“Homecoming Queen?”).

On Tuesday, Ballerini’s writing will take on a new patina as she releases her first book, Feel Your Way Through, a collection of poems chronicling her 28 years of life so far and lessons learned along the way.

“It feels like a cannonball,” Ballerini says. “When I put out ‘Homecoming Queen?,’ I remember going, ‘You’ve been vulnerable, but this is a step further.’ I wouldn’t have had the confidence or trust in myself to do that had I not had songs like ‘Homecoming Queen?’ and ‘Half of My Hometown.’”

In March 2020, Ballerini released the acoustic project Kelsea just as  COVID-19 derailed the touring and promotional plans she had for the album. For Ballerini, music has long been a place of celebration and community. Bereft of those things due to the pandemic, the singer-songwriter disconnected music from the writing process for the next eight months. “I never set out to write a book. I had all this extra time. I realized that I had a lot to process, and it had everything to do with all the things that I had been too busy to think about for a long time,” Ballerini says.

In Feel Your Way Through, she reveals more of her story than ever. A pair of particularly powerful poems — sequenced back-to-back in the book — address two of Ballerini’s toughest moments.

One of the poems, “His Name Was Ryan,” details a harrowing experience in 2008, when, as a high school sophomore, Ballerini saw a 15-year-old classmate, Ryan McDonald, shot to death by another classmate at Central High School in Knoxville.

One line from the poem reads, “His name was Ryan and he died on the cafeteria floor from a gunshot wound to the chest/ I can’t be too sure but I think I saw him breathe his last breath.” The poem details the ongoing impact of the loss of her classmate, with Ballerini expressing gratitude to have survived. “But I’m alive,” the poem ends, “and because of a boy named Ryan I know what a gift that is.”

“Some of my closest friends didn’t even really know that about me, but the truth is, it was something that happened,” Ballerini tells Billboard. “But when I hear pyro at shows, it happens again. And when I’m in a large crowd and I see everyone start looking in one direction, it happens again. It’s traumatic. I wanted to honor Ryan in telling his story truthfully and hopefully tastefully. I so badly just wanted it to be just what happened and not political. The beautiful thing about putting it in a book is I was able to say it exactly how I wanted.”

Because her experience was one that she has rarely discussed, Ballerini says she’s not as far along in the healing process as she would like to be, though she says, “Getting the help you need is super important, whether that be therapy or more, if that’s what you need. I think not shutting down is super important and getting help is not a sign of weakness — it’s a sign of strength.”

In “Kangaroo,” Ballerini addresses her freshman year in high school, when a cruel comment from a boy, which coincided with her parents’ breakup, intensified Ballerini’s struggle with body image. In the poem, Ballerini describes using diet pills in an attempt to lose weight — an attempt that would soon become a cycle of purging, bingeing and overexercising.

“I had struggled with body image and body dysmorphia before that, but that was the moment that I can trace it all back to where it got real,” Ballerini says. According to the poem, Ballerini quit the cycle by age 18, and for many years now, she has embraced a healthy lifestyle.

“It’s a journey; I don’t think it’s a straight line,” she says. “I have days where, especially being a public-facing person, I’ll walk a red carpet and people will think I’m pregnant when I’m just existing, carrying around my organs. And that’s really triggering. But at the same time, what matters to me is being healthy, and being able to keep up with the dreams, goals and the ambitions that I have for myself. Everything I do now has to fit into a category of, ‘Is this healthy, and is this helping me maintain who I want to be?’ When I did the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, a bunch of people were like, ‘You should lose weight.’ I’m like, ‘I’m a singer, not a model.’ I’d be lying if I said that I never felt insecure and I loved my body every day. But I think when you say it out loud, when you air out your journey to people, it takes that stigma away and it takes that sting away.”

For Ballerini, writing the book — much like crafting her music — has been its own form of therapy and a way to put her truth out in the world.

“I think the most powerful thing in the world is a community of people that are healing together and growing together. The first step of that is just talking about it, so this is my step of talking about it,” she says.

Another theme in the book is Ballerini’s journey to finding the courage to speak up about things she feels are important — even if speaking out comes with missteps along the way. In the poem “The Right Side of History,” she addresses the backlash she received earlier this year for a tweet she sent out after fellow country artist Morgan Wallen was caught on video uttering a racial slur.

“The news out of Nashville tonight does not represent country music,” Ballerini tweeted, and soon garnered criticism from others in the country music industry. In the poem, she addresses the situation with the lines, “did i misstep, did i misspeak did i f— up with that one tweet i meant to raise my hand for the oppressed voice the right side of history.”

“I am a peacemaker, a people pleaser. I get scared to piss anyone off,” Ballerini says. “That is truly at my core of who I am, but when you do that, you don’t stand up for anything. I think the more that I grow up and the more that I find my beliefs and what I want to stand up for, I feel like I have a responsibility to do so. That doesn’t mean that I’m always going to do it right. I had an incredibly embarrassing, difficult time with what that poem is about, but in hindsight, I misstepped in the right direction, and I’ll take that any day of the week.”

Ballerini has been finding her voice over the past few years and using her platform to stand up for other  women in country music, at a time when airplay on country radio an uphill battle for female artists.

“I think the first few years, I was just holding on for dear life, and I think I didn’t have any capacity to understand that there was a lack of females until I did. I grew up with Trisha, Reba, Shania, Faith, Jo Dee, and the list goes on. There were always women on the radio. So all of a sudden I had a couple of hits, and I was looking around going, ‘There’s Carrie and Miranda and… what’s going on? You have to be so sharp as a woman to cut through. But that means that the women we’re getting — Maren, Mickey, Ashley, Gabby, Carly, Lauren — they don’t need development. You’re getting fully formed artists that are sharper than ever, and that’s what it takes to break through. And I think that’s why you’re seeing so many more female superstars emerging now because no one has the luxury of sitting around and having people help them figure it out. They have figured it out already.”

This fall, Ballerini has finally and joyously returned to touring, opening shows for pop sibling trio Jonas Brothers. Ballerini says fans can expect a new album next year, though she’s not yet sure how the album will sound.

“I’ve been so all in on this book, it’s really all I can think about. I’m excited for the holiday to just live a life to write about, and then figure out what the record is next year. But it’s been nice to write and not write for an album, because I think it’s made me such a better writer. And I think it’ll show up for me in the songs.”

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Which Album Should Taylor Swift Re-Record Next? Vote!

Two down, four to go. On Friday, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), a re-recording of her beloved 2012 album, which followed her very first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), back in April. But which album should come next?

Swift vowed to re-record her first six albums after her Big Machine record label, and therefore her master recordings, were sold to Scooter Braun in June 2019. Now she’s two-sixths of the way through the ambitious undertaking, with four albums left to go.

In chronological order, she has her 2006 self-titled album, which includes debut single “Tim McGraw” as well as “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Our Song” and “Picture to Burn.” Then there’s 2010’s Speak Now, with “Mine,” “Back to December,” “Mean” and “The Story of Us.”

Next up was 2014’s 1989, Swift’s self-proclaimed first pop album, which features “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style” and “Bad Blood.” And finally, there’s Reputation, Swift’s final album for Big Machine in 2017, which includes “Look What You Made Me Do,” “…Ready for It” (featuring Ed Sheeran and Future) and “Delicate.”

So there’s still a lot of ground left to cover. Which project will be next? Swifties have been picking up clues that 1989 is on deck, though they also thought the 2014 album was going to be next ahead of the announcement of Red (Taylor’s Version), so it remains to be seen.

We want to know what you think below:

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Streaming Is Reliable Revenue, So What’s Next for Warner Music and Other Labels?

Streaming, record label’s biggest source of revenue, is becoming predictable. Revenue consistently grows by double digit percentages from year to year: Spotify’s revenue was up 26.6% in the third quarter, while streaming at Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment jumped 23.8% and 45%, respectively, in the quarter ending Sept. 30. Streaming companies constantly add bells and whistles, and they experiment with plans and pricing, but the basic value proposition has changed little in a decade.

Warner Music Group, too, posted strong gains in the quarter ending Sept. 30, the company announced Monday (Nov. 15). In the recorded music segment, streaming revenue rose 23.7% to $2.97 billion in the fiscal year and accounted for 65.4% of recorded music revenue and 56.1% for the entire company, up from 53.8% the previous year. Company-wide quarterly revenue grew 22.2% to $1.38 billion and full-year revenue improved 18.8% to $5.3 billion.

Music companies are thrilled their income is rising — with regularity — after more than a decade of trench warfare battling piracy and declining CD sales. And, at this point, it’s worth considering what comes next.

In WMG’s earnings call on Monday, a word repeatedly came up when analysts probed for insights about the opportunities that await: metaverse. Thank Mark Zuckerberg for that. The term gained widespread attention since Facebook announced its name change its to Meta on Oct. 28 and detailed its plan to create a metaverse, a combination of augmented and virtual reality, where people interact with other users’ avatars in simulated worlds. Other tech titans share Facebook’s vision. Microsoft is also working on a metaverse for its Office products and Xbox gaming platform. Apple is reportedly working on a augmented reality glasses and “mixed reality,” a combination of AR and VR.

WMG already has a metaverse play through a January investment in Roblox, a platform that hosts user-generated games. WMG artist Twenty One Pilots showed Roblox’s potential in September by kicking off a really-word tour with a virtual concert that allowed viewers to choose songs in real time. Other labels and artists are getting in too: Sony Music Entertainment struck a strategic partnership with Roblox in July that will put its artists in front of Roblox’s more than 42 million active daily users. Fortnite — arguably a social media platform rather than a metaverse — is best known in the music business for its groundbreaking performances by Marshmello and Travis Scott that attracted 10 million and 12 million viewers, respectively.

The metaverse picks up where streaming leaves off. WMG CEO Stephen Cooper described the difference between traditional streaming and the metaverse in terms of interactivity. With traditional streaming, labels and digital service providers push music to listeners, and listeners pull the music they want to hear. That’s a big change in how streaming was framed just a few years ago. For nearly 20 years, music streaming was called “interactive” because on-demand music represented a fundamental change from one-time vinyl album, CD or download purchases. In fact, there is a legal distinction here: interactive means the listener has a “lean in,” on-demand experience with unlimited song selection. Non-interactive services let listeners “lean back” by limiting the amount of control they have over the music played. For now. this nomenclature works, but it’s fast becoming outdated.

The metaverse is the interactive experience that has “interconnectivity between content, between people, between people and content, between communities [and] interaction between adjacent communities,” said Cooper. “It is bringing music and our artists to those environments, to build and enhance not only the interconnectivity of music to people, but our artists to people [and] our artists to [other] artists. And it just creates so many possibilities for the convergence of content, artists, fandom and distribution, that I think it will take music, and music’s ability to really be the one, true global language, to an entirely different level.”

At least that’s the plan. Today, the metaverse is a promising promotional opportunity without meaningful revenue. Five years from now, it may approach revenue from a current slate growing segments. Revenues from gaming, social and fitness, for example, are growing in importance, although their contribution to WMG’s income statement remained unchanged from the previous earnings call at $235 million on an annualized basis. Still, WMG believes that these platforms cannot meet users’ needs without licensed music. “I don’t see any reason why these models — whether it be social, gaming, fitness or other areas — aren’t going to continue to emerge,” said CEO Stephen Cooper. “I personally couldn’t imagine Peloton without music, or a TikTok without music.”

Not that streaming revenue can be taken for granted, especially when advertising revenue growth requires brand spending to remain stable as COVID-19 surges again around the world. And a healthy streaming market demands that labels release music that excites listeners. Streaming services must do their part, too, in drawing consumers to their platforms and turning new releases into major events (as seen with Adele’s latest release). What’s more, the amount of revenue that streaming services share with rights holders is in flux.

But for the most part, the music streaming business model is set for the foreseeable future. Now innovation and investment in audio streaming comes from podcasts, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, SiriusXM and other major companies on original content and licensing popular shows. Audiobooks are gaining in important, too — Spotify announced on Nov. 11 it plans to acquire Findaway, a platform for established publishers and self-service authors, to better compete with Amazon’s Audible.com. In China, Tencent Music Entertainment acquired Lazy Audio, a producer of audiobooks and podcasts, in January for $417 million.

Where else does Warner look for growth? Good old acquisitions. Cooper continued his ongoing message about WMG’s approach to catalogs in the face of rising multiples amidst a growing number of competitors. “We’re certainly not going to be one of the lemmings going over a cliff by spending unwisely and thinking that without the organization and expertise [that] these assets are going to grow through some mystical and magical formulation,” said Cooper.

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