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Shares of Live Nation and MSG Entertainment rose 4.2% and 9%, respectively, on Monday (Nov. 29) as investors considered how the coronavirus omicron variant will affect the touring business’ recovery.
The day’s gains halved Live Nation’s 8.8% fall on Friday when news of the omicron variant was first widely publicized, and a 2% gain in after-hours trading suggests investors’ concerns could ease in the following days. MSGE’s spike on Monday more than made up for Friday’s 8.4% drop. Both companies outperformed the market, with the S&P 500 Index rising 1.32% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.68%.
Reports Friday that the new variant, first discovered in South Africa, had been detected in Europe sent global markets tumbling and gave the Dow Jones Industrial average its worst drop in 2021. Shares of Live Nation reached an all-time high of $123.80 on Nov. 5 following encouraging third-quarter earnings results and optimism for a strong 2022 concert schedule, but fell 9.3% to $112.32 the following week after 10 fans and hundreds more were injured at the Astroworld festival the company produced in Houston on Nov. 5. Then, on Friday, shares fell from $112.61 to $103.53 at close, based on the omicron news.
Friday’s decline was greater than the short-lived deficit due to COVID-19 delta variant concerns on July 19 when the Live Nation’s shares fell 4.8% and fully recovered in just two days. Going into slow months of winter, the timing of the omicron breakout is less concerning for out-of-home entertainment companies such as concert promoter and theme parks than for recovering industries such as movie theaters and cruise liners that do brisk business in cold months.
Concerns about omicron hampered the recovery of stocks throughout the travel and leisure industries. Delta Airlines and American Air Lines shares fell 8.8% and 8.3%, respectively, on Friday while each fell less than 1% again on Monday. Some hotel companies rebounded slightly on Monday: Hilton Worldwide Holdings recovered a fifth of its 6.2% drop, and Marriot International made back a third of its 6.5% decline. Markets in general have surged in the latter half of 2021 as countries re-opened to travel and governments eased restrictions. Stocks have fared well even as hospitalization rates throughout Europe grew to record levels in November.
Many countries — including the United States, United Kingdom and European Union member nations — quickly restricted travel from South Africa and seven other countries on the continent on Friday. Israel closed its borders to non-citizens at midnight Sunday to stop the omicron variant from spreading beyond two cases detected last week. Japan, which opened to some business travelers and students this month, followed suit and closed its borders to all international travel on Monday. No cases had been reported in the United States through Friday, although the variant has been detected in Canada, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong and Belgium.
The World Health Organization said on Monday that the omicron variant carries a high likelihood of global spread and its mutations “may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility,” although it stressed there are uncertainties about whether the new variant is more transmissible or leads to more severe COVID-19 symptoms than the delta and other coronavirus variants. In addition, some experts are concerned that existing vaccines will be less effective against the omicron variant. Existing PCR tests continue to detect infection of variants including omicron, and researchers are trying to find out if the types of rapid testing used at concerts and other live events are also effective, according to the World Health Organization.
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Home Alone has long been a holiday favorite, ever since little Kevin McCallister was left home by himself and tried aftershave for the first time back in 1990.
It’s been 21 years since Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Catherine O’Hara and Daniel Stern graced the screen of the iconic film, and now the latest 2021 reboot, Home Sweet Home Alone, is available to watch exclusively on Disney+.
The newest installment in the Home Alone universe takes place in the same town as the 1990 film, but with new themes and adventures.
Want to watch the new 2021 version of Home Alone? Feeling nostalgic for the first five Home Alone films? See below for how to stream every single Home Alone movie online this holiday season.
Home Alone (1990)
The original Home Alone finds eight-year-old Kevin (Culkin) protecting his house from a pair of goofy burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation.
Home Alone is available to stream on Disney+, which you can sign up for here. While there is no free trial, the base Disney+ plan is only $8 per month and you’ll get immediate access to stream Home Alone plus hundreds of other Disney films and movies. You can also sign up for the Disney+ bundle, which also includes Hulu and ESPN Plus for $14 per month.
Home Alone is also available to rent or purchase on Prime Video here.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
One year after the first film, Kevin is once again left alone — this time stranded in New York City — and the same criminals run into him there.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York is available to stream on Disney+, and also up for rent and purchase on Prime Video here.
Home Alone 3 (1997)
Home Alone 3 is the first film without Kevin McCallister. In the third installment, Alex Pruitt (played by Alex D. Linz), is an eight-year-old boy living in Chicago who must fend off international spies looking for a computer chip in his toy car.
Home Alone 3 is available to stream on Disney+, and can also be found to buy or rent on Prime Video here.
Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002)
Home Alone 4 brings back a few of the main characters from the first two films, but all played by different actors. The plot revolves around Kevin McCallister (played by Mike Weinberg) trying to defend his future stepmother’s house from his old nemesis Marv and his wife Vera.
Home Alone 4 is available to buy or rent on Prime Video here.
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)
Home Alone 5 introduces a new protagonist, Finn Baxter (played by Christian Martyn), who sets up booby traps in his house to catch the ghost of the former occupant, but ends up protecting the house and his sister from three art thieves.
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist is available to buy or rent on Prime Video here.
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
In the latest Home Alone 2021 reboot, a married couple tries to steal back a valuable heirloom from Max Mercer (played by JoJo Rabbit‘s Archie Yates).
Home Sweet Home Alone is available to stream exclusively on Disney+ here.
Salsa lovers, rejoice: Spanish Broadcasting System launched a new radio station in Miami that will play salsa music at all times, Billboard has learned.
Salsa 106.3FM, which began its broadcasting transmissions on Nov. 25, targets South Florida’s Hispanic adults from 18 to 34 years of age and the 25 to 64 demographic, rotating salsa gems from icons like Marc Anthony and Oscar D’ Leon to the newer generation of tropical artists such as Luis Vazquez.
“Listeners were asking for more salsa,” Jesus Salas, SBS’ EVP of programming, tells Billboard. “Most of the audio radio stations have gone the Latin urban route.”
The brand-new station, with the slogan “Donde la Salsa Vive” (where salsa lives), becomes the second SBS Radio station broadcasting a market-specific genre, following Puerto Rico’s salsa station Zeta 93FM.
“It’s a different station than all the others in the market and fills a need,” Salas elaborated. “Salsa music spans many decades and hundreds upon hundreds of proven super salsa hits. It already is a salsa success.”
Salsa 106.3FM now complements SBS’ other three radio stationsL Z-92.3 FM (Spanish Adult Contemporary and News), El Zol 106.7 (Tropical Latin Urban and Top 40), and Ritmo 95.7 (Cubaton y mas).
Taylor Swift achieved something very unusual in the nominations for the 64th annual Grammy Awards: She received an album of the year nod for evermore, an album that received no other nominations.
Swift has one other Grammy nod this year, as one of the songwriters on Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, a credit she was granted because two songs on the album contain interpolations of old Swift songs.
Swift isn’t alone in being nominated in a marquee category after being passed over in a subordinate category. Lil Nas X received an album of the year nod for Montero, which was passed over for a nod for best pop vocal album. He also received a record of the year nod for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” which was passed over for a nod for best pop solo performance. In Lil Nas X’s case, there’s a plausible explanation for why he may have failed to register in those pop categories.
Lil Nas X’s only nomination in a genre-specific category was best melodic rap performance for “Industry Baby,” featuring Jack Harlow.
Grammy voters were allowed to vote in up to three musical fields, in addition to the General Field, the Academy’s name for the Big Four categories: album, record and song of the year, plus best new artist. It’s possible that some of Lil Nas X’s supporters in the Academy simply didn’t vote in the pop field, focusing instead on rap and R&B.
Two other record of the year nominees were passed over for nominations in performance categories this year. They are ABBA’s “I Still Have Faith in You” (which was passed over for a nod for best pop duo/group performance) and Jon Batiste’s “Freedom” (which was passed over for a nod for best R&B performance).
ABBA’s record of the year nod is the group’s first Grammy nomination in any category, so its failure to land a nod for best pop duo/group performance is not a surprise. But Batiste’s failure to land a nod for best R&B performance is a surprise. He was this year’s leading Grammy nominee, with 11 total nominations, the most by any artist since Kendrick Lamar amassed 11 nods six years ago.
Justin Bieber’s soul/pop jam “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, is nominated for song of the year, but was passed over for a nod for best R&B song. That could be in part because his supporters in the Academy are more apt to vote in the pop field than in R&B, but “Peaches” was nominated for best R&B performance – Bieber’s first nomination ever in an R&B category.
Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile both made headlines in the run-up to the announcement of the Grammy nominations when they or their representatives expressed displeasure that their recordings had been moved.
Musgraves’ star-crossed was moved from best country album to best pop vocal album. It wound up not being nominated in that category, though a track from the album, “Camera Roll,” was nominated for best country solo performance and best country song. Those were Musgraves’ only nominations this year. It’s possible that her voters would have been more inclined to find her and vote for her in the country album category.
Carlile’s “Right on Time” was moved from the American roots music field to pop. That didn’t deter her voters. She is nominated for three awards for “Right on Time” – record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance. Carlile is also nominated for song of the year for co-writing “A Beautiful Noise,” her collab with Alicia Keys, and as a guest artist on Brandy Clark’s “Same Devil,” which is vying for best American roots performance.
When the Recording Academy announced the 64th annual Grammy nominations on Tuesday, they simultaneously announced that they were bumping the number of nominees in each of the Big Four categories from eight to 10. They acknowledged then that this was a last-minute decision but framed that as a positive.
“Perhaps in the past, the leadership would have waited for the next awards cycle to make a change,” Harvey Mason jr., Academy CEO, and Tammy Hurt, chair of the board of trustees, said in a joint statement. “But one thing that we’ve heard loud and clear from you is that you are tired of waiting for big changes. You asked for – and you deserve — an organization that is as nimble and brave as you. In that spirit, we went to the board of trustees and made the case for this direction, and just minutes ago, they adopted it.”
In an interview with Billboard last week, Mason denied that the decision was made based on knowing what finished No. 9 and No. 10 in the Big Four categories.
The New York Times published a report on Wednesday, authored by Ben Sisario and Joe Coscarelli, in which those reporters said they had gotten hold of a copy of the initial nominations list, when there just eight nominees in each of the Big Four categories, and thus could see what was added.
According to The Times’ story, the entries that moved up were: for record of the year, “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”; for album of the year, evermore and DONDA; for song of the year, “Kiss Me More” (co-written by Doja Cat and SZA, who performed it, and five more writers) and “Right on Time” (co-written by Carlile, who performed it, and three more writers); and for best new artist, Arooj Aftab and Baby Keem.
On Thursday, Mason issued the following statement. “Realizing that today is a time to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, we reluctantly felt compelled to respond to the suggestive and sometimes erroneous reports we have seen in the media regarding the Academy’s decision to expand our general fields from eight to 10 nominees…
“I applaud our board of trustees, for having the agility and foresight to approve this expansion as a way to honor more music, more artists and more genres. And yes, they did it quickly and decisively, and they did it without knowing who the additional nominees would be. For those who would suggest any counter-narratives to stir drama and drive clicks, I would ask that you please take a fresh look at the new Recording Academy.”
Turning back to this year’s nominees, three of the 10 nominees for best new artist are nominated for the best album award in their respective genres. Rodrigo’s Sour is nominated for best pop vocal album (as well as album of the year), Arlo Parks’ Collapsed in Sunbeams and Japanese Breakfast’s Jubilee are both nominated for best alternative music album.
Four other nominees in that category received other nominations on this year’s ballot. Finneas has four other nominations — three for work with his sister, Billie Eilish, and one for his work as a producer on Bieber’s album Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe). Baby Keem has two other nominations – one as a featured artist on West’s DONDA and one for best rap performance for “Family Ties” (featuring Lamar). Aftab and The Kid LAROI each have one other nomination. Aftab’s other nod is for best global music performance for “Mohabbat.” The Kid LAROI’s other nod is as a featured artist on Bieber’s album.
The three other best new artist nominees — Jimmie Allen, Glass Animals and Saweetie — received no other nominations.
Ed Sheeran and Elton John are teaming up to give fans a new holiday song for their festive playlists.
After teasing the release of Christmas music, the English musicians announced Monday (Nov. 29) that their new song “Merry Christmas” will be released on Friday. In addition, the duo revealed in a joint Instagram post that all U.K. profits from the song this holiday season will go to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The post features a video of Sheeran doing his best Love Actually impression, borrowing the famous scene where Andrew Lincoln’s Mark silently professes his love to Keira Knightley’s Juliet with romantic cue cards. This time, though, Sheeran is just announcing his and John’s “Merry Christmas” song.
The pair posted a second joint post, in which John and Sheeran shared a sneak peek of the corresponding video for the track, which contained a short snippet of the song. “Filled up with so much love/ All our family and friends are together where we all belong/ Merry Christmas, everyone,” the 71- and 30-year-old are heard singing. “This was an absolute blast! Our music video for ‘Merry Christmas’ is coming this Friday,” they captioned the post.
During Sheeran’s Nov. 8 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he revealed that John, who recently released a hit collaborative album The Lockdown Sessions, pitched him a Christmas duet idea. The collaborators would later go on to write three Christmas songs together.
“I’ve always been quite against it,” Sheeran recalled. “Not that I don’t like Christmas, I love Christmas, but in terms of doing a Christmas song, you need to chuck the kitchen sink at it.”
John already has a holiday hit under his belt: “Step Into Christmas” topped Billboard‘s Christmas Singles chart in 1973 and also hit the top 10 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart that same year.
See John and Sheeran’s new posts below.
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