Search Results for: Britney Spears

Beyoncé Knowles, multiplatinum sweetheart of the music award show circuit this year, was exhausted. She’d just appeared on the Vibe Awards and breathlessly arrived across town just in time to change clothes and take bows at the VH1 Awards. “Too many,” she said as she leaned against a wall backstage. Bad planning by VH1 and Vibe? Not really, there were four award shows that week including the American Music Awards and they were bound to butt heads somewhere. With television networks relentlessly reaching for younger viewers, an unprecedented 26 music award shows are now on cable and network TV. “There’s… Read more »

U.S. album sales rose 10.4 percent in the first month of 2004, Nielsen Soundscan reported, welcome news to the music industry after a three-year slump marked by costly litigation, rampant piracy and consolidation. The uptrend began late last year, a development hailed by Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson in a recent report. But he said he was hesitant to say declines were over. Other analysts note that comparisons were easy with last year when U.S. album sales fell. But many saw signs the music business – led by big record labels at Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG, EMI Group Plc, Sony… Read more »

Among the latest performances announced for the 46th Annual GRAMMY(R) Awards telecast are Prince, The Black Eyed Peas with Justin Timberlake, and Beyonce; a special segment celebrating the 40th Anniversary of The Beatles’ first U.S. appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” featuring Sting, Dave Matthews, Vince Gill, and Pharrell Williams; and a tribute to late singer/songwriter Warren Zevon with Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Timothy B. Schmit, Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam and Jorge Calderon, it was announced today by the Recording Academy(R). In addition, Britney Spears, Keith Urban, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, and Joshua Bell will make appearances as presenters. The… Read more »

If Sting wins a Grammy for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance this year, it will be the fourth time he will have had the honor bestowed upon him since 1992. Eric Clapton didn’t release a studio album in 2003, but if he had, you could wager with confidence that he’d be up for the award too, having won three times since 1992. As usual, most of the Pop Male Vocal playing field this go-round is dominated by old-timers: Sting, Michael McDonald, Warren Zevon, who died of lung cancer last September, and George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001. One… Read more »

Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) has added a new option that lets you browse music by yearly Billboard Hot 100 Charts (1946-2003). Apple has also added the iTunes Top 100 Albums of 2003 to the store. The top 10 for 2003 were: “On and On” by Jack Johnson, “Sacred Love” by Sting, “Life for Rent” by Dido, “Bare” by Annie Lennox, “Room On Fire” by The Strokes, “Everything to Everyone” by the Barenaked Ladies, “Afterglow” by Sarah MacLachlan, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” by OutKast, “In the Zone” by Britney Spears, and “Verve Remixed 2” by various artists.

Serious record collectors generally do not flip through the CDs and DVDs at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Target. The music departments in those stores are mainly known for offering a narrow selection of chart toppers. But increasingly mass merchandisers and electronics retailers have become the place to go for music that cannot be found anywhere else. That is because many big-name artists with new releases to promote do not just turn to their labels, they also strike exclusive deals with major retailers. In this holiday shopping season, for example, an extended version of Rod Stewart’s new CD, “As Time Goes… Read more »

Although industry-wide album sales were down from the same weeks of last year in the two stanzas prior to Christmas, an extra gift-shopping day during the holiday frame closed 2003 on an up note. With the holiday shifting back a day, from Wednesday in 2002 to Thursday, album sales are up a whopping 20.6% over the same week of the prior year. The final week’s splurge more than compensates for the 5.8% deficit seen the week before the Christmas frame or the 0.5% gap of the year’s 50th week. Further, the 31.3 million album units sold during this Christmas shopping… Read more »

Bruce Springsteen was the top concert draw across North America in 2003 as more than 1.6 million fans paid to take in his marathon shows and musings on the struggles of the working man. According to preliminary data published on Tuesday by concert trade publication Pollstar, the 54-year-old New Jersey rocker grossed $115.9 million from 47 shows to lead the annual rankings. His tour ranks as the second-biggest of all time, behind the Rolling Stones’ 1994 outing, which grossed $121.2 million. While Pollstar is still calculating final figures, it expects sales for all acts to rise for the fifth consecutive… Read more »

Janet Jackson will perform on one of the world’s biggest stages, the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. The National Football League championship football game is set to air Feb. 1 live on CBS from Houston’s Reliant Stadium. MTV is producing the Super Bowl halftime show, having previously produced the segment in 2001, which featured Aerosmith, ‘N Sync and Britney Spears. Last year’s halftime event saw Shania Twain, No Doubt and Sting perform at halftime. Jackson is working on her still-untitled follow-up to her 2001 album “All For You.” It is set for release sometime in 2004 on Virgin Records. Her… Read more »

Buying holiday gifts of music can be a tricky business. Sure, you know what discs you’d like to see in your stocking, but what do you buy your little sister, your dad or that cousin you only see twice a year? ChartAttack rounded up some of Canada’s top musicians to give their recommendations on what cool records to buy for those picky people on your gift list. We’re calling it our Holiday Gift Guide – stay tuned for new submissions every day until we go on our Christmas break on December 23. Today’s subjects are the always couth Craig and… Read more »