Search Results for: GRAMMYs

Los Angeles – Welcome to the best sales week of this still-young 2005. Contributing to this buoyant frame are historic chart accomplishments by Tina Turner, the fastest start for the 10-year-old “Grammy Nominees” line of releases and, nestled between those two albums, a not-too-motley week for Motley Crue. Album volume for the week stands at 11.4 million, and 6.9 million of those units sold were current titles. Both figures are high-water marks for the year. The volume of digital tracks, which slipped to less than 5 million last week for the first time since the week ending Dec. 19, is… Read more »

New York – It’s been a stunning year for Brian Wilson. The former Beach Boy released his rerecording of the group’s “SMiLE” album to critical acclaim, and staged a worldwide tour chock-full of standing ovations. The original “SMiLE,” recorded more than 37 years ago, was never released officially. The Nonesuch Records release bowed at No. 13 on The Billboard 200. The set, whose full title is “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE,” has sold more than 300,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been nominated for three awards at the Grammys on Feb. 13. Two nights before that, he will be… Read more »

Since few people actually care about the winners of the Grammy Awards, the producers of the show always stack the program with top-notch performers to keep things interesting. Few people can remember who won the top award last year, but those images of Prince grinding with Beyonce during last year’s show opener will go down as one of the greatest musical moments in television history. This year, the Grammy people have drawn on 2004’s best-selling artists to make up their list of performers. Performers announced earlier today include Green Day, Alicia Keys, U2 and Tim McGraw. The Grammys will air… Read more »

licia Keys will sing “America the Beautiful” prior to this year’s Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. It will be just the third time the song is sung at the Super Bowl – previously performed only by Vicki Carr and Ray Charles. Accompanying Keys will be 150 students from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, which Charles attended as a youth in 1937. “I’m very excited to be playing at the Super Bowl for the first time especially because I will be singing a song made famous by an artist I admire, miss and respect, Ray Charles, along… Read more »

Los Angeles – Grammy-nominated punk trio Green Day returned to the top of the U.S. pop charts Wednesday with its hit opus “American Idiot,” which sold just 178 copies more than Eminem’s reigning champ. “American Idiot” (Reprise/Warner Bros.) sold 100,167 copies in the week ended Jan. 9, according to Nielsen SoundScan, taking its total to 1.9 million units. Worldwide sales stand at over five million copies, the label said. Upon its Sept. 21 release, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, a first for Green Day, and it also opened at No. 1 in Britain, Canada, Japan… Read more »

In the hierarchy of awards shows, the U.K.’s Brit Awards are the funnest, craziest and, generally, drunkest of the bunch. The champagne-happy show will take place on February 9 this year, celebrating its 25th anniversary with Franz Ferdinand heading up nominations. With nominations being released today, the Scot-rock band are up for five possible awards, including British Group, Album, Breakthrough Act, Rock Act and Live Act. Muse came in second, with four nods, while American bands Maroon 5 and Scissor Sisters were each nominated three times. Since the Brits organizers don’t divide up their genres quite as much as the… Read more »

Los Angeles – Evanescence singer Amy Lee hopes to have a follow up to the goth-rock group’s two-year-old mega-hit “Fallen” in stores by the end of the year. “I knew it was going to take a while, and it is. We’re obviously taking longer than the average band,” she told Billboard recently. “Fallen,” released in March 2003, has sold 6 million copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Last February, the band won two Grammys, for best new artist and hard rock performance. In addition to writing individually, the members have done a little collaborating, Lee said.… Read more »

Los Angeles – In a dismal year for the touring industry, with ticket prices soaring and seats going unsold, music fans in North America partied like it was 1989 as Prince and Madonna topped the concert box office. According to freshly tabulated estimates provided by concert trade publication Pollstar, Prince sold $87.4 million in tickets in 2004, while Madonna earned $79.5 million. Prince also worked a bit harder for his payday, playing 96 shows, compared with 39 for Madonna. Canadian pop singer Celine Dion actually topped Madonna by about $900,000, but her haul came exclusively from 154 dates performed at… Read more »

Hoobastank’s lead singer, Doug Robb, has a pretty good reason why he is canceling the remainder of the band’s December tour: pneumonia. The band’s label announced Robb is still ill with bronchial pneumonia Thursday, though the condition is not said to be serious. Robb’s management insists that the singer is on his way to a full recovery, despite a trip to the hospital over the weekend. He is expected to take the rest of the month off in order to recuperate at his home in Los Angeles. Some of the shows affected by the alt-rock singer’s illness include KROQ’s annual… Read more »

Las Vegas – With a No. 1 debut for its current album “American Idiot,” and now Tuesday’s news of six Grammy nominations, Green Day has found itself back in the spotlight. But if the punk-rock trio has its way, its Reprise album may yet fuel a crossover into an entirely new medium. “We’re definitely working on a film based on the album,” bassist Mike Dirnt told Billboard.com ahead of the group’s performance on Wednesday’s Billboard Music Awards. “I mean, the story is already there. But to some degree, it will depend on who ends up doing the writing as to… Read more »