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It was a wild ride on season 8 of The Masked Singer, which once again served up its patented mix of non-singing celebs (William Shatner, Jeff Dunham, Mario Cantone, Daymond John, Jerry Springer, Le’Veon Bell, George Foreman, Chris Jericho, Adam Carolla, Linda Blair, Nikki Glaser), veteran pop and R&B singers (Chris Kirkpatrick, Montell Jordan, Gloria Gaynor, Kat Graham, George Clinton and Ray Parker Jr.), as well as some actors who’ve been known to carry a tune (Eric Idle, Brady Bunch trio Christopher Knight, Barry Williams and Mike Lookinland and Joey Lawrence).
But in the end, when all the masks came off, it was seasonlong front-runner Harp who plucked her way to the winner’s circle with a commanding run that began on this season’s first episode when she turned P!nk’s “Perfect” into a soaring R&B ballad that blew the judges away. On episode 2, she soared with Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” then cruised through the Golden Girls theme song “Thank You for Being a Friend” and easily bounced along to Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” last week.
She showed her versatility by going toe-to-toe with Panther in a battle over Steppenwolf’s road dog classic “Born to be Wild,” easily bested Fortune Teller in the “Everywhere You Look” battle, and absolutely shut it down on finale night with Lady Gaga’s “The Edge of Glory” and a moving version of John Mayer’s “Gravity.”
As is always the case, judge Ken Jeong was wrong all along, absolutely confident that the woman under the golden dome was Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, giving off super-confident vibes while describing all the reasons he definitely nailed it this time. Fellow judge Robin Thicke was certain it was another triple threat, Jeong’s former Community castmate Yvette Nicole Brown, while Nicole Scherzinger was the one who knew what was up.
Wednesday night’s epic two-hour finale found judge’s favorite Harp facing off against three-headed threat The Lambs, who were in perfect harmony on Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.” But in the end, the three doe-eyed ladies (Wilson Phillips) were not woman enough to beat former Glee star and Broadway veteran Amber Riley.
Billboard caught up with Riley before the final reveal and spoke to her about how it felt to cruise to victory, what it was like to constantly lie to everyone she loves for months, and when we can expect new music from her.
You came out strong with your P!nk cover, and it felt like you were the front-runner all season. Did you feel pretty good about your chances after that first performance?
I felt great about my performance because it was a song that I really love and I decided every time I go out I was going to leave it all on the floor. I honestly didn’t hear anyone else singing so I didn’t know where I stood. I was just as surprised as anyone when I made it through every round.
Who figured out it was you right away?
Oh my gosh, I’ve been lying my face off for the past couple of weeks. My family has been listening to me sing since I was two-years-old and my sister is calling me like, “I know it’s you little girl!” And I was like, “Huh? I have no idea what you’re talking about!” I had to lie to everyone’s face and it’s been torture.
How did it feel to be crowned first Masked Singer queen?
It felt fitting because I am a queen anyway! [Laughs] Just kidding! It felt great because it was so cool. We’re Americans, so we don’t have kings and queens. If you want to give me a crown, I’ll take it!
I’ve seen a lot of complex costumes on the show, but that giant instrument on your back seemed pretty physically limiting. You said there was no chance you could shake your booty so the vocals had to be super on-point.
[Laughs] Honestly, the costume department is incredible. They are imagineers. It wasn’t as difficult as it looked because they put it on wheels. With every step I took they asked me if it felt comfortable. Even for the moment when I had to get out [of the costume] they imagined a way for me to easily be removed from it… it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
You mentioned that there’s something freeing about being masked as well as feeling like you were not always appreciated by the industry. What were you able to do in disguise that you can’t as Amber?
I think I’m always myself, but it was a way for people to just listen to my voice and have no preconceived notions of who I am or my gifts. That was cool to me. I’ve been in the industry for a pretty long time and I’m sure people think they know who I am, but knowing that they got to hear me with new ears and see me with new eyes when I was revealed was exciting.
You’ve been on a hit show [Glee], won an Olivier for playing Effie in Dreamgirls on the West End, and you won Dancing With the Stars back in 2013, but watching you cry through your mask really made it seem like this was a big, cathartic moment for you.
I’ve been in this industry a really long time and just like anyone else I’ve dealt with rejection and second-guessed my gifts. I’ve gone through it when it’s 90% rejection and 10% go for it. Being able to hear my peers and people I admire, especially Nicole [Scherzinger], encourage me and [praise] my gifts brought me to tears. As we try to pretend we are an island, we do need to hear people encourage us. I needed that and it was inspiring to me.
Was it inspiring enough to work on the follow-up to your 2020 Riley album?
Yes! I’ve been working on it the whole year. I went into the studio with an ignited fire and the music coming out of it and the confidence I have now has been absolutely incredible. I didn’t know that was going to happen doing this show.
How did it feel when Jenny [McCarthy-Wahlberg] said your Gaga was the best performance ever on the show?
I couldn’t even believe that. I watched LeAnn Rimes’ season, and she floored me every single week, so hearing that was big.
What’s coming up for you next? It sounds like you’ll be on our screens a lot over the next few months.
I’ve got the Black Beauty Effect [available now on the Black Experience on Xfinity channel], which is an amazing docuseries I got to be part of that is talking about black women in the beauty industry and how we disrupted the status quo. It’s about finding ourselves and making a mark in beauty, makeup and hair in Hollywood. It’s a story of triumph and it’s very inspiring to hear from women behind the scenes. I’m also going to be on Celebrity Name That Tune [premiering Jan. 11 on Fox], which I got to do with my little brother [fellow Glee alum] Chris Colfer. Me and Chris are super competitive, so it was really fun to do that with him.
A task force formed in the aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy unveiled a new agreement on Tuesday (Nov. 29) designed to ensure event safety at NRG Park, the former home of the Travis Scott-helmed festival.
The interlocal agreement — put forth by the City of Houston-Harris County Special Events Task Force, formed in February — is meant to streamline safety protocols, permitting requirements and communication for large-scale events at NRG Park, the trade show, convention, sports and entertainment complex where a crowd crush during Scott’s headlining performance last November led to the deaths of 10 people and injured hundreds more. The document is an update to an existing interlocal agreement that was last amended in 2018.
Under the new agreement, any event hosting more than 6,000 people at the complex will require an on-site unified command center staffed by the Houston Fire Department (HFD), Houston Police Department (HPD), Mayor’s Office of Special Events (MOSE), Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office (HCFMO), NRG Park and the event organizer. Going forward, review and approval of event capacity as well as site, security and medical plans will fall on the HFD chief or a designee. The HFD will also be tasked with clarifying requirements with event organizers to ensure they meet safety, medical and site planning requirements at the venue. Security plans will require additional sign-off by the HPD, while event plans will need sign-off from MOSE. Ideally, having a designated authority will lessen the likelihood of confusion and inaction during events. Permits for NRG Park will continue to be issued by the City of Houston.
The interlocal agreement “defines rules of responsibility and communication and makes us a better county to deal with whatever comes up,” said Houston police chief Troy Finner at a hearing Tuesday.
Mayor’s Office of Special Events director and task force co-chair Susan Christian tells Billboard that the new agreement is designed to ensure all parties are aligned when it comes to planning and executing large-scale events at NRG Park. “We’re much closer with this new [interlocal agreement] in achieving a more communicative process, as well as a process that involves peoples’ input,” she says.
In April, a report by the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety (TFCS) — created by Texas governor Gregg Abbott in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy — concluded that establishing standardized safety procedures could help prevent a similar mass casualty event from happening in the future. According to that report, the lack of communication around permitting, the failure to determine a chain of command and the absence of a capacity limit all contributed to the deadly crowd crush. It recommended the implementation of a universal permitting template that would help clarify the murky permitting process across the state. The Texas Music Office, which led the TFCS report, previously released an online Event Production Guide so as to centralize information around permitting guidelines and the penalties for not complying with them.
The new agreement is designed to help alleviate that confusion, but it’s only a first step in a long process to ensure safety for future events throughout Houston and Harris County, including the 2026 World Cup, which will be partially hosted in the city. “It is a thing of moving forward,” said Finner, “but also it is a work in progress. This is a great start.”
The City of Houston-Harris County Special Events Task Force will continue to meet quarterly to review and expand safety protocols. The agreement — which the Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to approve — will now need signatures from Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Houston Police Department and the Houston Fire Department, among others. All signatures are expected by next week, says Christian.
On Nov. 5, 2021, 10 people died from compression asphyxia due to a massive crowd surge during Scott’s headlining performance at the 2021 Astroworld festival. In the wake of the tragedy — which resulted in thousands of lawsuits being filed against Live Nation, Scott and other event organizers that were eventually consolidated into a single giant case — the City of Houston-Harris County Special Events Task Force and the TFCS were formed in order to prevent similar mass casualty events in the future.
In addition to the aforementioned task forces, in Dec. 2021 Scott’s charitable entity Cactus Jack Foundation joined forces with The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) on an initiative designed to put new safety protocols in place in the festival industry. At the time, a draft USCM agreement stated that a comprehensive report based on discussions and research conducted by a working group comprised of individuals across multiple sectors along with outside experts would be compiled between January and June 2022. Billboard reached out to USCM and representatives for Scott but did not hear back on the task force’s progress.
Burl Ives blasts back onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Dec. 3), as his holiday standard “A Holly Jolly Christmas” re-enters the ranking at No. 10.
The track’s revival can be attributed to annual gains for yuletide hits during the holiday season. The song debuted on the Hot 100 during the 2016 holiday season, 52 years after its release, and has re-entered every year since. The song first hit a No. 4 high over the 2019 holidays, and has returned to its peak in each of the last two years. This year is especially notable in that it brings the song’s highest re-entry, as it becomes the first holiday song ever to re-enter in the top 10.
How rare is it for songs to return to the Hot 100 all the way in the top 10? Pretty rare. In the chart’s 64-year history, “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is just the ninth song to re-enter directly in the top 10.
Generally, songs make steady runs up and down the Hot 100, though in more recent years it’s become more common for titles to debut at high ranks thanks to splashy streaming debuts and then decline, with many also regaining their footing on the chart as their radio airplay solidifies.
Hot 100 rules prevent most catalog titles from returning or debuting if below No. 50. Descending titles are removed from the Hot 100 after 20 weeks on the chart if below No. 50 or after 52 weeks if below No. 25. To re-enter after having graduated to recurrent status, a song must garner enough chart points, with a notable reason for its resurgence.
This is all to say that, for older titles, it’s generally difficult to re-enter the Hot 100 and compete with newer songs generating hefty radio airplay and streaming figures. It’s even tougher to suddenly re-enter in the top 10.
The select songs that have achieved the feat of re-entering the Hot 100 in the top 10 have, for the most part, gained newfound interest after artists were prominently in the news, performed on massive stages or scored a notable synch, as Kate Bush did earlier this year when “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” was featured in Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Here’s a look at all nine songs that have re-entered the Hot 100 in the top 10, listed chronologically:
Additional reporting by Gary Trust
Artist Billing, Title, Chart Date (Hot 100 Re-entry Rank):
Back in October, Greta Van Fleet were forced to postpone seven shows of their Dreams in Gold tour after singer Josh Kiszka ruptured his eardrum during a show in Bangor, Maine.
However, the group revealed the rescheduled tour dates on Wednesday (Nov. 30), noting that all seven shows in Jacksonville, Fla.; Hollywood, Fla.; Tampa, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz., El Paso, Texas; Anaheim, Calif. and Sacramento, Calif. will take place in March 2023.
“We appreciate your patience as we navigated logistics and can’t wait to see you again soon,” GVF captioned the post, noting that original tickets are still valid for the rescheduled dates.
After his ear ruptured in Maine, Kiszka said he’d been experiencing a “situation” in his left ear that’s “caused plenty of infections, tinnitus (ringing in the ear) and difficulty hearing” — leading Greta Van Fleet to postpone three shows in support of their latest album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate.
After playing at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, in early November, the band had to reschedule four more shows. “I just wanted to express how beautiful and how awe-inspiring these couple of shows have really been, truly. Also, unfortunately, they’ve been rather painful,” he said in a video message to fans announcing the postponements. “The last time I spoke with you, I had asked for your understanding; I was dealing with a ruptured eardrum. Unfortunately, while the eardrum continues to heal, it also has continued to cause me great deal of physical pain, which has made it very difficult to perform.”
Independent music company Concord is the latest to tap into a growing market for music royalty-backed securities with Concord Music Royalties, LLC, Series 2022-1, a $1.65 billion asset-backed security. The bond will be supported by mechanical, performance and synchronization royalties from more than 1 million assets.
The proceeds will be used to fund reserve accounts, pay transaction expenses, repay debt and for other general corporate purposes, according to a report by ratings agency KBRA.
KBRA gave Series 2022-1 a preliminary rating of A+ (on a scale ranging from AAA to D), citing the “large, diversified catalog with globally recognized songs and artists” such as R.E.M., Plain White T’s, Creed, Evanescence, Genesis, Phill Collins and Mike + The Mechanics — the latter three being purchased just two months ago.
The catalog generated $344.7 million in 2021, with 63% coming from recorded music and 37% from music publishing. More than 41% of the catalog’s assets were released more than 20 years ago and 23% are between 10 and 20 years old. About 3.5% of the catalog is comprised of frontline releases, defined by KBRA as “recently recorded and released music with little or no history,” and option rights that Concord can exercise for rights to future recorded music or publishing from artists in the catalog.
FTI Consulting put a $4.1 billion valuation on the catalog, according to the KBRA report. That’s about the same amount Billboard estimated Concord’s price tag would be when the company was exploring a sale in 2021 — before the purchase of the Genesis, Phil Collins and Mike + The Mechanics catalogs that Billboard estimated were worth at least $335 million and its acquisition of Australian music publisher Native Tongue. Concord had sought additional equity from its majority owner, the Michigan Retirement Systems pension fund, but turned to debt in 2020 to raise $600 million, which it used to pay down existing debt.
Among the offering’s sound recordings, Concord Music Group administers a majority and Universal Music Group distributes a majority. Concord Music Publishing administers most of the music publishing rights and ICE, ASCAP and BMI are the collective management organizations for most of the publishing rights.
Series 2022-1 contains two components: Class A-1 VFN, with a principal balance of $150 million and an anticipated repayment date of January 2026; and Class A-2, with a principal balance of $1.5 billion and an anticipated repayment date of January 2029. Class A-1 VFN will have a variable interest rate — the secured overnight financing rate plus a margin — and Class A-2 will have a fixed interest rate. The notes will pay interest quarterly.
Concord’s offering is the largest of the music royalty-backed offerings rated by KBRA in the last 12 months. KKR’s Hi-Fi Music IP Issuer II, backed by about 62,000 songs, raised $732.5 million in February. Crescendo Royalty Funding, a joint effort of Lyric Capital Group and Northleaf Capital Partners and backed by over 52,000 songs owned by Spirit Music Group, raised $303.8 million in Dec. 2021. Hipgnosis Music Assets 2022-1, backed by the Kobalt Music Copyrights Fund 1 that Hipgnosis Songs Fund acquired in 2020, raised $221.7 million in Dec. 2021.
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