Tag Archives: pop music

“The first time I ever sang for a paying audience was at a gay club, The Lion, in Greenwich Village. I was 18 years old and had never been in a nightclub before. The gay community supported me from the start, and I will always be grateful. Decades later, I remember sitting in a theater and watching Larry Kramer’s play, …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Gregg Allman, the soulful singer-songwriter and rock ‘n’ blues pioneer who founded The Allman Brothers Band with his late brother, Duane, and composed such classics as “Midnight Rider,” “Melissa” and the epic concert jam “Whipping Post,” has died at age 69. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and underwent a liver transplant in 2010. …

CNN reports: Singer Ariana Grande has announced she will return to Manchester, England, for a benefit concert following a terror attack at her concert earlier this week. The event, she said, will honor and raise money for the victims and their families. “I want to thank my fellow musicians and friends for reaching out to be part of our expression …

The Daily Mail reports: Several people have been killed after two explosions inside Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande gig tonight. Video footage showed people fleeing in tears from the venue after bangs rang out immediately after the concert finished. Bloodied concertgoers were pictured being helped by emergency services outside the gig and armed police were seen …

The Upcoming reports: Elton John and long time co-writer Bernie Taupin have made some of the most famous pop songs of the 20th century. Many of the pair’s biggest hits came during a highly productive period in the early 70s, with songs including Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man and Bennie and the Jets. This period of work formed the basis of …

The Associated Press reports: Rocker Chris Cornell, who gained fame as the lead singer of the bands Soundgarden and later Audioslave, has died at age 52, according to his representative. Cornell, who had been on tour, died Wednesday night in Detroit, Brian Bumbery said in a statement to The Associated Press. Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said …

I really thought Italy and the dancing gorilla had this, especially since the video for their entry has over 114 million views on YouTube. Sky News reports: Portugal has won its first-ever Eurovision Song Contest for Salvador Sobral’s performance of Amar Pelos Dois. Sobral, who has fought ill health to take part in the competition, was crowned winner during a …

Broadway World reports: Donna Summer’s husband Bruce Sudano has big Broadway plans as he prepares to launch his new stage show SUMMER at La Jolla Playhouse in November. The show, based on the life of his late wife, will feature all of the disco queen’s greatest hits, with hopes taking the show the Broadway in 2018. According to WENN, the …

Grammy-winning DJ Frankie Knuckles, known worldwide as “the Godfather of House,” died three years ago this month. But his personal record collection is now on display for the public to actually touch and play. MixMag reports: With the record collection of Frankie Knuckles now at Theaster Gates’s Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, The Frankie Knuckles Foundation has shared a …

The Guardian reports: Few rules have been bent, manipulated and outright broken quite like the Eurovision song contest’s ban on “lyrics, speeches [or] gestures of a political or similar nature”. Over the six decades of the competition there have been peace, war and the fall of the Berlin Wall – but this year politics has gripped Eurovision in a more …

Billboard Magazine reports: Guitarist J. Geils, born John Warren Geils Jr., has died at age 71. Geils was found dead in his Groton, Massachusetts, home. He had lived in the town for 35 years. Groton police said officers responded to Geils’ home around 4 p.m. ET Tuesday for a well-being check and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at …

Robert Philpot reviews: Although there were music videos before 1975, Queen’s clip that year for its now-classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is seen as groundbreaking. That was before MTV, way before YouTube, and certainly before any of the five members of Pentatonix was born. But the Arlington-founded a cappella group — which released its latest EP, “PTX Vol. 4 — Classics” — …

People Magazine reports: For decades Barry Manilow gave the world timeless hits, while keeping his own world a total secret. Now at 73 years old, the music legend is opening up about his life, struggles and, for the first time, his sexuality. Fiercely private, the pop icon recently welcomed PEOPLE into his Palm Springs home for an exclusive interview and …

Broadway World reports: Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” Barbra Streisand’s “People” and the original cast album of Broadway’s THE WIZ are among the 25 titles which will be preserved by the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for 2016. Each year, the Librarian of Congress selects 25 songs that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and at least 10 years …

Billboard Magazine reports: Chuck Berry, the singer, songwriter and guitar great who practically defined rock music with his impeccably twangy hits “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Memphis,” “My Ding-a-Ling” and “Sweet Little Sixteen,” has died. He was 90. The singer/songwriter, whose classic “Johnny B. Goode” was chosen by Carl Sagan to be included on the golden record of Earth Sounds and …

The New York Times reports: George Michael, the English singer-songwriter who became a pop legend in the 1980s and ’90s and who was found dead on Christmas Day, died of a heart condition, according to a coroner’s statement released on Tuesday. Darren Salter, the senior coroner for Oxfordshire County, said Mr. Michael, 53, died at his home in Goring-on-Thames of …

Billboard Magazine reports: Leave it to Grace Slick to make an activist statement by saying “yes” to use of Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” in an ad for fast food chain Chick-fil-A. The co-founder of Starship’s predecessor, 1960s psychedelic group Jefferson Airplane, Slick has penned an op-ed explaining her decision to authorize a license of the 1987 hit to …

People Magazine reports: David Cassidy is battling dementia. The 66-year-old actor, widely known for his starring role as Keith Partridge on the 1970s series The Partridge Family, reveals to PEOPLE that he is fighting the memory loss disease. Cassidy, who watched his grandfather battle the disease and witnessed his mother “disappear” into dementia until she died at age 89, tells …

NPR reviews: Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce are radiant beings who make every minute louder, more glamorous and deeply personal as PWR BTTM. The punk duo has announced Pageant, its follow-up to 2015’s Ugly Cherries, with the outrageous “Big Beautiful Day.” “There are men in every town / Who live to bring you down,” Hopkins sings. “My advice is to …

The International Olympic Super Bowl Of Homosexuality And Camp, more commonly known as the Eurovision Song Contest, arrives in May and ten nations so far have selected their entries. Watch below. You’ll note that a “Celebrate Diversity” logo appears between every snippet. This year’s contest will be held in Kiev as Ukraine won last year with their grim song about …