Search Results for: Gwen Stefani

The bands on this tour could have held an open casting call, but they wouldn’t have found a better set of screeching, adoring fans than the sold-out, 98-percent female ’tweens at tonight’s show.Sure, the performers are making a silly poke at the 2001 Ben Stiller-starring comedy Zoolander with their tour title, and they even incorporated Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” before playing, but from the crowd’s reaction, this tour might as well have been a serious male model showcase. Young girls nearly broke out into cat fights, storming the stage, shoving their peers (aka competition) just to make eye contact… Read more »

Madonna is the richest woman in music. The 49-year-old entertainer leads Forbes.com’s list of the top 20 “Cash Queens of Music,” earning $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007. The pop star’s “Confessions” world tour pulled in $260 million, Forbes said. She also made money from album sales, her fashion line with H&M and a deal with NBC to broadcast her concert performance at London’s Wembley Stadium. Forbes.com said it compiled the list by examining concert grosses, merchandising revenue, album sales and other revenue from clothing lines, fragrance deals and endorsements. Barbra Streisand is No. 2 with $60 million,… Read more »

There’s nothing like 1.3 billion potential ticket buyers to attract the attention of the live entertainment business. With the world’s largest population and an exploding economy, China may represent the future for international touring artists. That’s why the three biggest players in the U.S. live entertainment business — Live Nation, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Ticketmaster — have all staked claims in China. It’s virgin territory. “In China you have a huge potential market, a clean slate and opportunities you don’t see in more mature markets,” Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty said. “There is no established way of doing business yet,… Read more »

The stars of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” were among the fan favorites at the 34th annual People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday, as CBS scrapped its usual live broadcast of the show in favor of a strike-friendly, pre-taped program. The two-month-old Writers Guild of America strike has taken a toll on Hollywood’s awards season, leading to the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the scaling-down of People’s Choice. The fate of other shows, including the Oscars, remains in question. The People’s Choice Awards announced last month that it would replace its traditional live show with “a new format”… Read more »

There comes a time in every band’s career when it has to choose between staying on the well-worn path or taking a detour onto the road less certain. For Simple Plan, that decision was made earlier this year when they headed down to Miami’s Hit Factory studios to work with producer Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, Timbaland’s protégé and the man responsible for Britney Spears’ “Gimme More.” “We’re a band that’s sold something like 7 million records, had two records that did really well, so we had to find a way to change without changing, to kind of reinvent ourselves,” frontman Pierre… Read more »

It has finally come to this: labels are simply giving their music away. A new Web site named SpiralFrog.com allows visitors – with label approval – to download music free of charge. It launched Monday in the U.S. and Canada after a beta-testing period. The fine site features more than 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos, and promises hundreds of thousands more soon. It makes money through advertising, rather than by the 99-cent downloads popularized by Apple’s iTunes. The service, founded by Joe Mohen, pays record companies part of its advertising revenue. Thus far, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, the… Read more »

With their blinged-out video for “Clothes Off” still riding high in the “TRL” top five a year after the group’s latest album was released, you’d think Gym Class Heroes would finally be kicking back and enjoying the charts.But instead, the group is prepping a most unusual remix album for later this year; touring Australia opening for Gwen Stefani for the next week; and then heading to Japan for some headlining shows. The guys will then make their way to Paris on August 21 and London the 22nd for the Decaydance Fest, featuring their pals Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the… Read more »

After more than two years on the road in support of their Move Along album, the All-American Rejects finally wrapped things up in early 2007, with everyone returning home for a much-deserved break. So how did frontman Tyson Ritter spend his time away from the spotlight?”I’ve had a place for nearly three years now, but I was never home, so I finally got around to hanging some pictures up,” he said. “And now I just wake up, stay in my bathrobe all day and sit at my piano. It’s pretty nice, actually.” He’s being modest. Because ever since the Rejects… Read more »

Gwen Stefani knows you always want to give your hometown crowd a little something extra. And she didn’t disappoint over the weekend in her native Orange County, California, when the other members of No Doubt joined her onstage for the band’s first live performances together in three years..During her Friday solo show at Irvine’s Verizon Amphitheatre, No Doubt drummer Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young slipped onstage and took over for Stefani’s touring band for a wildly received run through the group’s hits “Just a Girl,” “Spiderwebs” and their cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.” At… Read more »

Verizon really didn’t want to see Akon “Smack That.” The communications company scrapped its partnership with the 25-year-old rapper Friday after a video was released that shows him simulating sex onstage with an underage girl during an Apr.12 concert in Trinidad. According to various accounts, 15-year-old Danah Alleyne thought she had won a dance contest when she was invited to dance with Akon, but soon found out that first prize was a close encounter with the Konvicted rapper. The Trinidad Express reported that Akon got seven women to come up and dance with him, promising that the best of the… Read more »