Sting, Elton John, Lady Gaga and Dame Shirley Bassey will perform together at Carnegie Hall, as part of the bi-annual Rainforest Fund benefit concert on May 13.
Pop superstar Lady Gaga has canceled a slew of concerts after collapsing prior to last night’s concert at Purdue University, however performed live on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” this afternoon.
The World Trade Organization’s top arbitrators upheld a ruling that China is illegally restricting imports of U.S. music, films and books, and Washington pushed forward with a new case accusing China of manipulating the prices for key ingredients in steel and aluminum production.
Superfans often compare listening to their favorite band to a religious experience. A church in Florida is taking that sentiment to the next level by introducing its congregation to a Sunday service that features the music and lyrics of Bono and Co., reports Twenty Four Bit. The rockin’ First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, Fla. will host the U2charist – a play on the word Eucharist – which includes U2’s “One,” “With or Without You” and the service-opening prayer of “Beautiful Day.” The debut U2charist in Pensacola took place August 23rd at First Methodist. The U.S. Episcopal Church first developed… Read more »
Britney Spears’ “Circus” tour is getting an encore. Holly Shakoor, Spears’ publicist, confirms that concerts will be held in several U.S. cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The shows will kick off August 20th in Canada. Concerts are also scheduled for North Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. They will follow Spears’ concerts in London and several other European cities. The 27-year-old singer also announced this week that her tour will go to Australia in November. Spears’ “Circus” tour reached second place in recent box-office gross rankings by Pollstar.
Apple’s iTunes online music store may reach more customers throughout Europe after the body tasked with collecting artist royalties in France agreed to allow counterparts elsewhere to license its catalog. SACEM, which collects royalties for about 128,000 artists, said it would be willing to drop territorial restrictions and allow national counterparts to license its repertoire, European antitrust regulators said on Tuesday. If pan-European licensing becomes a reality, Apple, which controls slightly more than half of global digital music sales through iTunes, may look at broadening access to the system, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes added. “If iTunes was readily able… Read more »
There’s a certain serendipity to Paramore’s opening slot on the upcoming and much-anticipated No Doubt return tour. Fans of the latter might remember the video for “Don’t Speak,” where No Doubt’s three male members look daggers at bejeweled frontwoman Gwen Stefani as they’re cropped out of a magazine shoot. A similar thing might have happened over the last two years to Paramore. The young Tennessee pop-punk quintet vaulted into the charts on the strength of such buoyant singles as “Misery Business,” the “Twilight” soundtrack cut “Decode” and their platinum-selling 2007 sophomore album “Riot!” But Paramore’s ochre-haired spitfire singer, 20-year-old Hayley… Read more »
On Sunday, dozens of the world’s best-known entertainers gathered on the site where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” 45 years ago to offer an exuberant welcome to President-elect Barack Obama. U2 provided one of several emotional highs of the day, performing their tribute to King, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” during which Bono declared, “On Tuesday that dream comes to pass!” Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Beyoncé and Garth Brooks were among the A-list performers who helped set the joyful, optimistic tone at the concert, officially called “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural… Read more »
Rock band Fall Out Boy’s fifth album, “Folie a Deux,” will hit shelves November 4, the same day as the U.S. presidential election. Heralding Island’s release of the album, the band on Monday (August 25) released an online mixtape, “Welcome to the New Administration.” On it are five Fall Out Boy demo tracks expected to appear on the album, including “Lake Effect Kid,” “America’s Sweethearts,” “I Don’t Care,” “ALPHAdog and OMEGAlomaniac” and “Catch Me if You Can/Proclamation of Emancipation,” the latter featuring Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy. The album’s first single, “I Don’t Care,” will be released to radio September… Read more »
It’s 30 Seconds to Mars. And about half that to file a lawsuit. Jared Leto and his bandmate brother, Shannon, were sued Friday by Virgin Records America for failing to come through on a five-album deal the eyelinered duo and the now-defunct indie label, Immortal Records, inked with the plaintiff nine years ago. While Leto used a couple of those years to appear in movies like Girl, Interrupted and American Psycho, his band eventually got the ball rolling with its 2002 self-titled debut. The alt-rockers followed that up with 2005’s A Beautiful Lie. But since their sophomore effort, according to… Read more »
