Motown Records and Google Launch Program to Elevate Women of Color in Music Industry

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentViaplay has ordered a third and final season of “Face to Face,” the popular Danish psychological crime drama starring Lars Mikkelsen (“The Witcher,” “House of Cards”). “Face to Face” is created and directed by Christoffer Boe (“Warrior,” “A Taste of Hunger”) and produced by Miso Film.

Love Island star Demi Jones has admitted that her life will "never be the same" after she battled cancer and that she is "learning to live" with the side effects. The TV star, 23, announced that she is "cancer free" in December after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2021, something which was "scary" to share to the public and her 1.2million followers at the time. Demi, who is a judge and ambassador for The Pour Moi Uplifting Women Awards, has said that her cancer journey has made her look at life differently and she wants to continue to raise awareness of the disease, especially with young people.

Holly Willoughby has been photographed looking incredible in a sequinned dress for a glamorous night out with her husband Dan Baldwin.The 41 year old, who recently brought back a retro make up product, appeared to have raided her wardrobe for the most sparkly and colourful outfit she could find before heading out to a '70's themed party on Thursday 10 March.This Morning host Holly looked gorgeous in a halter neck multicoloured sequinned dress that featured a side split, flashing one bare leg.The dress, which was blue, purple, green, pink and gold, also had an orange feathery shawl going down on side and Holly teamed the outfit with some chunky open-toed silver heels. Get exclusive celebrity stories and fabulous photoshoots straight to your inbox with OK!'s daily newsletter Accessorising with a navy handbag and some dangling earrings, Holly wore a full face of make up, including a bright blue shimmering eyeshadow and black eyeliner alongside a pink lip gloss.

Marta Balaga Dutch Features has acquired international rights to Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde’s crime series “Evilside,” a six-hour Archipelago thriller set in the Oulu region of northern Finland.Filming took place from Dec. 2021 through Feb.

Gordon Ramsay was one proud husband on Thursday and didn't doubt for one second to crash his wife Tana's party at her beauty salon in London.MORE: Gordon Ramsay's lookalike son undergoes hair transformation - and his parents can't agreeTana and her team at her All About the Girl celebrated ten years in business with a glam party featuring canapes, cupcakes, cocktails and even a pop-up Birdie London shop.WATCH: Gordon Ramsay dances in sweet video before reunion with daughter TillyTana, 48, documented the fun night on her salon's Instagram and couldn't help but share a picture of herself and her team posing outside the salon alongside chef Gordon.SEE: Gordon Ramsay reacts as daughter Holly poses in daring mini-dressRELATED: Gordon Ramsay's £6million Cornwall holiday home will take your breath away"Look who gatecrashed the party @gordongram," she captioned the photo, which saw her look stunning in a sparkly high-slit dress whilst wearing her hair in perfect loose curls. Tana and Gordon posed with the All About the Girl teamGordon posed behind his wife with a big smile on his face, and resharing the picture on his own Stories, he added: "So proud of @Tanatamsay, her business @aatgbattersea and her fabulous team," alongside two heart emojis.Tana opened her salon back in 2012 and speaking about what inspired her to open it, she said at the time: "Having lived in Wandsworth for 10 years, I felt that there was a gap in the local market for somewhere that offered 'everything under one roof'.

Victoria Beckham's mum Jackie Adams' birthday.MORE: 9 cute photos of the Beckham kids as babies: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz & HarperThe whole family, including husband David Beckham, daughter Harper and sons Romeo and Cruz glammed up for the special dinner, which was attended by both of Victoria's parents and her niece Libby, daughter of her sister Louise.WATCH: David Beckham shares adorable video of daughter Harper playing footballDavid and his sons looked dapper in dark suits, as did Victoria's father Anthony, whilst the girls opted for gorgeous dresses. Victoria wore a black number, whilst Harper chose one in a maroon shade.

Jussie Smollett learned his fate Thursday after a judge delivered the terms of his sentence following a contentious four hours in a Chicago courtroom. Mere minutes after being ordered into custody to begin serving 150 days in jail, the actor addressed the court one last time – despite the fact he said prior to having his sentence read that he had nothing to say. The former "Empire" star, 39, stood up and affirmed his innocence in a passionate declaration to Cook County Judge James Linn, saying, "I'm not suicidal." "I respect you, your honor," Smollett said as he placed his hands together in a gesture toward the bench.

A heartbroken Lanarkshire dad was due to marry his soulmate before she tragically lost her battle with cystic fibrosis, aged just 31.

A 28-year-old man caught with foul child porn has been spared a jail sentence.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAdele addressed the abrupt postponement of her Las Vegas residency and revealed that she plans to have a child with partner Rich Paul in a pre-recorded interview on Britain’s “Graham Norton Show” that aired Friday in the U.K. and is slated to run on BBC America next week.“I tried my hardest and really thought I would be able to pull something together in time,” Adele said of the Vegas postponement, which was announced just hours before the first show, after hundreds of fans had traveled to the city for the show, according to reports of the interview in the British press.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRani Hancock, the recently appointed executive vice president and head of Columbia Records’ A&R department, took a bold and uncommon course into the music industry — uncommon for a woman, anyway. She studied to become a recording engineer at the prestigious Berklee College of Music.“I’d started out trying to be a musician but realized quickly that I was terrible at it,” she says.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs long expected, Universal Music Publishing has acquired 17-time Grammy Award winner Sting’s career catalog of music. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but in recent months the artist was said to be seeking around $350 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRapper-entrepreneur Snoop Dogg, who rose to fame during the 1990s on Death Row Records, has acquired the label’s brand from MNRK Music Group, which is controlled by private equity funds managed by the investment firm Blackstone, the firm announced on Wednesday.Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, however, a source close to the situation tells Variety that Snoop’s acquisition of the Death Row brand is the first part of a transaction that is expected to see him also acquiring some of the label’s music rights — his own and unspecified other artists. The source says the deal is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.In a statement, Snoop Dogg, now owner of Death Row Records, said: “I am thrilled and appreciative of the opportunity to acquire the iconic and culturally significant Death Row Records brand, which has immense untapped future value.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs the Prince estate moves forward after years of confusion following the singer’s 2016 death, the six heirs are divided into two camps: the three siblings who sold their interests to Primary Wave, and the three who have retained their holdings.With the value of the estate recently determined at $156.4 million, the two parties are now establishing a structure for how to work together. In a ruling on Tuesday, a Minnesota judge decided against Primary Wave’s proposal to create a single holding company.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKevin Liles is a name that people in the music industry have been hearing for more than 30 years, for an impressive variety of reasons. He was a top executive at Def Jam and Warner Music, he managed Mariah Carey, D’Angelo and Trey Songz, and he was even a recording artist who had one of his songs covered by Milli Vanilli, of all people, on their multi-multi-platinum 1990 debut album.But he got his biggest look yet in January, when the company he co-founded, 300 Entertainment, was acquired by Warner Music for a reported $400 million.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran rapper Talib Kweli and roots-ish rock band Dawes are set to headline the inaugural Pure Imagination festival, to be held in the geological wonderland of the Granite Dells at Watson Lake in Prescott, Arizona on Saturday, May 21.The lineup also features three-time Grammy-winning blues artist Fantastic Negrito, Rising Appalachia, Atlas Genius, Katie Pruitt, Ponderosa Grove, Chateau Chateau and Walt Richardson, with more acts to be announced. The “eco-forward” all-day event will have food, drink, on-site hiking, kayaking, and (limited) ticketed camping.“Prescott has a rich history in music and we want to continue to keep it alive.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMelissa Goodwin, a former top executive at the T.J. Martell Foundation, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges related to accusations that she embezzled $3.7 million from the charity by using company credit cards to buy Super Bowl tickets and other purchases.Goodwin entered a guilty plea to a single count of wire fraud, in which prosecutors say she abused her position of control over the charity, one of the music industry’s largest.Goodwin, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, will be sentenced on May 20.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Music set a record for quarterly revenue in the fiscal first quarter that ended on Dec. 31, 2021, with $1.614 in revenue powered by a 31% increase in publishing revenue, 19% in recorded music and 21% in digital revenue.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran executive LaTrice Burnette, who was named president of the relaunched 4th & Broadway Records in 2020 — has been appointed executive VP of Def Jam Recordings while retaining her post at 4th & Broadway, new Def Jam chairman & CEO Tunji Balogun announced Tuesday.The 4th & Broadway roster — which, along with Burnette, was formerly with sister Universal label Island Records — includes Young Devyn, Lil Migo, Pap Chanel, Chiiild, and Kidd Kenn; the label’s core staff will move over to Def Jam as well. Burnette will remain based in New York and will report directly to Balogun.“LaTrice is a proven leader, a consummate professional, and someone who’s work and reputation I’ve admired for a long time,” said Balogun.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAfter seeing her song “Fingers Crossed” become a TikTok smash, Vancouver Island singer/songwriter Lauren Spencer-Smith has partnered with Universal Music Group’s Island Records and Republic Records. According to the announcement, “The innovative partnership, structured with manager and business partner David Ehrlich (pictured above, right, with UMG chief Lucian Grainge, left, and Spencer-Smith), allows Lauren Spencer-Smith to keep her independent spirit via her own imprint while tapping into premium services from both labels.”After breaking through on TikTok, “Fingers Crossed” garnered over 100 million streams hitting the Top 50 on Spotify in 23 countries and peaked at No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs Spotify awkwardly attempts to defend its stance on Joe Rogan — first over the Covid-19 misinformation on his show, and then over his frequent use of the N-word on that same show — the controversies have revived musicians’ longest-standing problem with the platform: The royalty rates it and other streaming platforms pay, which most musicians and many rights-holders feel are far too low.This is particularly true in publishing: In January of 2018 the Copyright Royalty Board ruled to increase songwriter rates for interactive streaming by nearly 50% over the following five years, to 15.1%. However, in March of 2019, Spotify, Google, Amazon and Pandora then appealed to keep the previous rate of 10.5% — and are gearing up to argue for that rate for the next five-year period (2023-2027) as well.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt’s cool enough that U.S. Olympic skaters Madison Chock and Evan Bates chose Daft Punk for their performance on Sunday — but even cooler was the music they chose: One would expect maybe one of their dancefloor hits, like “One More Time,” “Around the World” or their actual 2013 radio hit, “Get Lucky.”But instead, the pair performed to beautifully curated a medley of three songs from the duo’s 2013 (apparent) swan song album, “Random Access Melodies,” beginning with the album’s wild closing track “Contact” and its driving arpeggiated rhythms, then moving into “Within,” and concluding with the gorgeous orchestral finale of “Touch.” It paid off, too: Their winning score was 129.07, an international personal best for the duo, which added to the U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music announced that it has acquired the music rights from the estates of Layne Staley and Mike Starr of the Grammy-nominated Seattle band Alice In Chains.The deal will see the publisher acquire a stake in the Layne Staley’s and Mike Starr’s music publishing catalog, as well as master royalty income stream; terms of the deal were not disclosed.The work of the band’s main songwriter, Jerry Cantrell, was not included, nor drummer Sean Kinney or later members Mike Inez and William DuVall. However, the deal does encompass shares in some of the band’s biggest hits, such as “Man in the Box,” “Rooster” and “No Excuses,” as well as their biggest hit, “Would?” The latter song, released in 1992, and not only appeared in the era-defining Cameron Crowe film “Singles” but was also included on the hit soundtrack.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Band’s Robbie Robertson has joined the growing catalog-sale party and sold his music publishing, recorded interests and name, image & likeness rights to Iconoclast, a new firm founded by Olivier Chastan, the former CEO of Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group. The news was first reported by Music Business Worldwide.The acquisition covers Robertson’s entire six-decade career, from his early 1960s compositions with early outfits like the Hawks to his classic songs with the Band to his solo and film soundtrack material.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources tell Variety the deal was for around $25 million, for a catalog including such iconic songs as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Shape I’m In,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and more.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify’s staff was up in arms about the company and co-founder/CEO Daniel Ek’s defense of Joe Rogan in a town hall meeting Wednesday that followed its middling quarterly report and subsequent stock drop, according to a report in the Verge that cites a leaked audio recording of the meeting.In Ek’s 15-minute speech, he positioned the company as both a platform and publisher, saying that “There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,” he said, but defended the company’s relationship with the controversial podcaster by stating, “If we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with. Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify posted middling results for the fourth quarter of 2021 — a period that does not include the recent controversy over Neil Young and other musicians removing their music from the streaming giant, which is the world’s largest paid music-subscription service.Premium subscribers grew to 180 million — up 8 million from the 172 million reported last year — and monthly average users grew 18% to 406 million, from 381 million.However, ARPU (average revenue per user) grew just 3% year over year in the quarter, and just 1% on a constant currency basis. Ad-Supported revenue reached a record 15% of total revenue, according to the announcement, with gross margin at 26.5%.Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span last week after Young pulled his songs from the audio-streaming giant.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn Wednesday (Feb. 2), nearly a week after Joni Mitchell requested for her music to be removed from Spotify, several of her albums remain available on the streaming service.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDavid Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.According to the announcement, in support of stopping harmful misinformation about Covid-19 on Joe Rogan’s Spotify-hosted podcast, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.In a unified statement, the band members commented, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.Following a similar request by Joni Mitchell, the move reunites the five artists, who have been friends and collaborators since the 1960s, in a stance that they certainly could not have imagined 50 years ago.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“The Sound of Philadelphia,” a documentary on the 1970s “Philly Soul” sound and its masterminds Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell, is coming from Warner Music Entertainment, Warner Chappell Music, and Imagine Documentaries, in partnership with Jigsaw Productions, the companies announced on Wednesday. The lushly orchestrated but soulful sound — exemplified by songs like “Love Train” by the O’Jays, “If You Don’t Know Me Now” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, “Me and Mrs.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMegaforce Records co-founder Jon Zazula — who launched the iconic label, which released the first albums from Metallica, Anthrax and many others, with his wife Marsha in 1982 — died Tuesday in Florida, a rep for the label confirms to Variety. He was 69.Marsha passed away of cancer in January of last year.Known as “Jonny Z,” Zazula was the more freewheeling half of the company’s founding duo, known for his raucous laughter and, sometimes, his temper.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs part of its first Environment Social Governance report, Warner Music Group announced on Tuesday that it will waive unrecoupled debuts for heritage artists, following Sony Music, which made that move last year.Just hours later, a source confirmed to Variety that Universal plans to make a similar announcement as part of its ESG report later this year; Music Business Worldwide first reported that news.What that means is that eligible artists, songwriters and others who had not recouped their advances and/or other expenses will now receive royalties that previously had gone toward paying down those expenses. That situation has meant that many artists have received low or even no royalty payments as the company applied their earnings to paying down debts they may have incurred through signing advances or other recoupable expenses that standard record-label contracts oblige the artist to cover.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCountry artist Mickey Guyton will sing the National Anthem, R&B singer Jhene Aiko will perform “America the Beautiful,” and gospel act Mary Mary will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied by the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, as part of the pre-game ceremonies for the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, the NFL announced on Tuesday.Also, actress Sandra Mae Frank will perform the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful in American sign language on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf, and veteran DJ-producer Zedd will act as the official pregame DJ during player warmups.The choices speak to the NFL’s recent moves toward greater diversity, announced when it first teamed up with Roc Nation as an entertainment consultant in 2019.