Search Results for: Mariah Carey

While the World Health Organization said that it believes the worst of severe acute respiratory syndrome is over in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam – which got a clean bill of health on Monday for being the first nation to contain the virus – SARS is still affecting tour and promotional plans for many artists who were set to visit those regions. The Rolling Stones were the first to pull out of Asian concerts – their first-ever concerts in China – when news of the disease broke in March, though they did play two shows in Singapore. They also… Read more »

50 Cent’s triumphant smile is for real. This year, he arrived from nowhere to score the No. 1 album in the country for seven weeks in a row, 4 million albums sold to date and the financial backing of Eminem, the biggest pop-culture icon of the last 10 years. That said, the star sold his fans more than two quarters short when he walked off the stage at the House of Blues Saturday night after an 11-song, 25-minute set. Fans booed and he didn’t return. Cher and Mariah Carey have been getting away with that kind of diva temperament for… Read more »

Sony Music Entertainment said Friday it is eliminating 1,000 jobs in a move that had been expected as the company seeks to become more efficient. The cuts come to about 10 percent of Sony Music’s worldwide work force of approximately 10,000 people. Roughly 600 of the cuts will come from the company’s U.S. operations, specifically its manufacturing and corporate and label businesses, a source close to the company said, adding that the rest of the reductions will be overseas and no other cuts are expected. This is the latest in a series of changes at Sony Music. Tommy Mottola resigned… Read more »

Rap mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, one of contemporary music’s most successful entrepreneurs, has signed a distribution deal with Vivendi Universal’s Universal Records rather than sell the Bad Boy label he says is worth $100 million, the partners said on Thursday. The three-year deal leaves Universal paying marketing and promotion costs and giving Combs an undisclosed upfront fee, which analysts saw as a way for the producer of such hit acts as Faith Evans and the late Notorious B.I.G. to get the backing of the biggest record maker without selling his own company in a down market. Terms of the… Read more »

The biggest winners turned out to be MIAs at the 30th annual AMAs, including Eminem, winner of a leading four American Music Awards. Others absent when their names were called at Monday night’s American Music Awards were the bands Creed and the Dixie Chicks, who won two awards apiece. Tim McGraw, who sang a “Tiny Dancer” duet with Elton John at the start of the nationally televised show, left for Nashville before winning favorite male country artist, and Mary J. Blige – another absentee – was named favorite female hip-hop artist. Eminem won in every category in which he was… Read more »

Sony chose Andrew Lack, NBC’s president and chief operating officer, to take the helm of its music division on Friday, a day after Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola resigned to start a new label. The move was surprising, considering Lack has no experience in the music industry; a veteran newsman, he worked at CBS News from 1976 to 1993 before joining NBC News. He was named president of the entire network in May 2001. “We are delighted that Andy will join Sony and lead our music company,” Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corp. of America, said in a statement. “He… Read more »

Sony Music chairman and chief executive Tommy Mottola, who was responsible for building the careers of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and other superstars, announced Thursday he was leaving the company to start his own music label. The departure ends Mottola’s 14-year tenure at Sony, though the new label is being created in partnership with Sony. Mottola joined the company back when it was CBS Records in 1987. Sony is letting him out of his contract two years early. “I have been thinking about taking up this new challenge for about a year, and really made the decision to go forward… Read more »

‘Tis the season for holiday radio shows. As much a tradition as eggnog, mistletoe and broken resolutions, December always brings a bumper crop of all-star shows in which bands give back to their fans (and the radio stations that play their music) by jetting around the country and serving up short hit-heavy sets. The month of December will be especially star-packed for those living near Indianapolis, San Diego or Philadelphia. If you love Good Charlotte, Coldplay, Destiny’s Child and Queens of the Stone Age, you might want to cash in some frequent flyer miles, because those bands are among a… Read more »

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, on Wednesday announced it would make more than 43,000 song tracks available for download at retail outlets and music Web sites, opening a new front in the marketing of digital music. The initiative is aimed at attracting fans who may want to buy songs or albums on a one-off basis online rather than through monthly Internet subscriptions, the alternative the major labels have offered to peer-to-peer song swapping services. Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi Universal, said the downloads will be burnable to CD and transferable to secure portable devices. The digital… Read more »

A year after Michael Jackson gathered Britney Spears, ‘NSYNC, Destiny’s Child and dozens of other superstars to record “What More Can I Give,” the September 11 benefit single is finally being heard. New York radio station WKTU-FM debuted the song on Friday at 6 p.m. and has been playing it about six times a day since, albeit without permission. Program Director Frankie Blue, a longtime friend of Jackson’s, won’t say how he got the song, but he insists the King of Pop had nothing to do with it. Marc Schaffel, the executive producer of the single, said at least 200… Read more »