All eyes on the red carpet at Sunday’s Grammy Awards went straight to Lady Gaga and her solar-system gown that was totally out of this world.
Clay Aiken says blood did not truly pour forth from his ears when he heard American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert sing “Ring of Fire ” – and he is sorry for his “colorful choice of words.” “I obviously meant it as a colorful statement to imply that I did not enjoy what I heard, the former Idol contestant wrote in a blog entry dated Friday on his Web site. He also says he did not mean it as “a ‘slam’ on Adam as a person.” He had previously blasted Lambert’s take on the classic Johnny Cash tune as “contrived,” “awful”… Read more »
No matter who is crowned the next American Idol on Wednesday night, season eight has already been one for the books. After a wild five months that has included emotional breakdowns from near-finalists, a comedian/singer who almost crashed the top 13 with his over-the-top shtick, the first top 13, a wild card round, a judges’ save and some serious bickering in the expanded judging panel, you’d think that whatever happens on the finale would be anticlimactic. But thanks to the surprise exit of early favorite Danny Gokey last week, tonight’s sing-off between Kris Allen and Adam Lambert has injected some… Read more »
According to the Chinese calendar, 2008 was the year of the rat. But if you ask us, ‘08 belongs to a different animal: The Collabo. And no artists cross-pollinated more than Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump (he got down with Questlove!), Elvis Costello (he went emo!) and T-Pain (he was permanently attached to a vocoder!) Here’s your guide to this year’s most collabo-happy stars: Patrick Stump Collaborations: Gym Class Heroes; Tyga; Pete Wentz protégées the Cab. And Stump’s stamp was all over hip-hop – he teamed up with Ne-Yo (”Finish Your Food”), the Roots (”Birthday Girl”) and T.I. (”Out in… Read more »
It was another brush-with-an-icon moment for the Killers : back in May of this year, joining Duran Duran – the first name in ’80s fashionista Britpop – onstage, aptly in Las Vegas, to perform the vets’ chestnut “Planet Earth.” Brandon Flowers, resplendent as ever in a tux, looked like a young James Bond. And you know he had to have been stirred, if not a little bit shaken. There are no more unabashed Anglophiles among U.S. pop-rockers than the Killers. From day one, they have made that clear: They took their name from a New Order video, they’ve covered Joy… Read more »
Actor Joaquin Phoenix, who played Johnny Cash on the big screen, is cutting an album with Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess, Billboard.com has learned. But whether the set will be released remains unclear. According to U.K.-born Burgess, who has lived in Los Angeles for several years, the album came about after Phoenix learned to play guitar in preparation for his role in the 2005 film “Walk the Line,” for which he received an Academy Award nomination. “Once he learned guitar, he found that he had quite a lot of demons inside himself that he wanted to expel through music,” says Burgess,… Read more »
Every record collector’s library contains a handful of forgotten classics, great records mismanaged by labels and lost to the annals of history. In recent years, some specialty labels have started reissuing these records for new audiences. Among them, Hacktone Records, founded in 2005 by Rhino Records veterans David Gorman and Michael Nieves. “Our goal is not to cater to completists or to be a legacy label,” Gorman said. “We’re not putting out lost demos by famous acts or throwing a few bonus tracks on a well-known record and putting it back out.” Rather, they acquire the rights to lesser-known works… Read more »
High School Musical officially graduated at the top of its class. The surprise monster hit soundtrack accompaniment to the Disney Channel’s tween song-and-dance fest, finished as 2006’s chart valedictorian, selling more than 3.7 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Thursday. In the SoundScan era, the only other soundtracks to finish atop the yearend chart were The Bodyguard in 1993 and Titanic in 1998. Remarkably, High School Musical debuted on the charts way down at number 143 in January 2006. The disc increased its position each week, eventually hitting the top spot on two nonconsecutive weeks in March. It… Read more »
Burbank, CA – Since the April 26, 2005, release of “Trouble Is Real,” his debut album on Reprise Records, singer and songwriter Johnathan Rice has emerged as one of the most promising up-and-coming young vocalists and songwriters on the scene today. While building a loyal following here in the U.S., Rice’s popularity overseas is exploding at an alarming rate, especially in the UK: “‘Trouble Is Real’ is a tremendous debut,” enthused The Guardian. “Although indebted to Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, it is a record of singular ambition.” The excitement surrounding Rice is certain to spike when he… Read more »
Berlin – German media group Bertelsmann AG said Thursday its profit rose sharply in 2004 thanks to strong performances by its television, music and media services businesses and lower writeoffs due to changed accounting rules. Earnings rose to 1.03 billion euros ($1.28 billion) from 154 million euros in 2003, while revenue rose 1.2 percent to 17.02 billion euros ($21.17). A company statement did not include fourth-quarter figures. The Guetersloh-based company credited a good showing by subsidiary RTL, Europe’s largest television broadcaster, which boosted earnings to 668 million euros ($831 million) from 503 million euros, helped by the company’s acquisition of… Read more »
