Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album con-tinues to rule the Billboard 200 chart for a fifth straight week, while Wallen’s previous set, 2018’s If I Know Me, reaches the top 10 for the first time.

Dangerous earned 150,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 11 (up 1%), accord-ing to MRC Data. Dangerous bowed atop the list four weeks ago, on the chart dated Jan. 23. It’s just the third album to spend five weeks at No. 1 in the last 12 months, following Taylor Swift’s Folklore (eight weeks) and Lil Baby’s My Turn (five weeks). My Turn and Folklore were also the two most popular al-bums of 2020, according to MRC Data.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks

sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Feb. 20, 2021-dated chart (where Dangerous is steady at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Feb. 17 (one day later than usual, owed to the Presi-dents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 15). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Dangerous’ 150,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending Feb. 11, SEA units comprise 107,000 (down 9%, equaling 146.38 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), album sales comprise 37,000 (up 49%) and TEA units comprise 5,000 (down 6%).

During the new chart’s tracking week, on Feb. 10, Wallen issued a five-minute video via social media addressing the Feb. 2 emergence of an earlier video

Morgan Wallen’s ‘Dangerous’ No. 1 for Fifth Week on

Billboard 200 While ‘If I Know Me’ Hits Top 10 for First Time

B Y   K E I T H C A U L F I E L D

(continued)

YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE

BulletinF E B R UA RY 1 6 , 2 0 2 1 Page 1 of 23

Sam Hunt’s second studio full-length, and first in over five years, Southside (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it earned 46,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac-cording to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

Southside marks Hunt’s second No. 1 on the chart and fourth top 10. It follows freshman LP Montevallo, which arrived at the summit in No-vember 2014 and reigned for nine weeks. To date, Montevallo has earned 3.9 million units, with 1.4 million in album sales.

Montevallo has spent 267 weeks on the list, tying Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party as the sixth-longest-running titles in the chart’s 56-year history.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Southside ar-rives at No. 5, awarding Hunt his second top 10 after the No. 3-peaking Montevallo.

Hunt first released the EP X2C, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on Top Country Albums in August 2014. Following Montevallo, Between the Pines: Acoustic Mixtape started at its No. 7 high in November 2015.

Montevallo produced five singles, four of which hit the pinnacle of Country Airplay: “Leave the Night On,” “Take Your Time,” “House Party” and “Make You Miss Me.” “Break Up in a Small Town” peaked at No. 2.

Hunt co-penned all 12 songs on Southside, including “Body Like a Back Road,” which was released in 2017. The smash hit ruled Country Airplay for three weeks and the airplay-, streaming- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart for a then-record 34 frames. It now ranks second only to Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” (50 weeks atop the latter list in 2017-18).

“Downtown’s Dead,” which is also on the new set, reached Nos. 14 and 15 on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay, respectively, in June 2018. “Kin-folks” led Country Airplay on Feb. 29, becoming Hunt’s seventh No. 1. It hit No. 3 on Hot Country Songs.

Latest single “Hard to Forget” jumps 17-9 on Hot Country Songs. It’s his eighth top 10, having corralled 8.2 million U.S. streams (up 96%) and 5,000 in

sales (up 21%) in the tracking week. On Country Airplay, it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil-lion audience impressions, up 16%).

TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITH YOUNG Brett Young achieves his fifth consecutive and total Country Airplay No. 1 as “Catch” (Big Machine Label Group) ascends

2-1, increasing 13% to 36.6 million impressions.Young’s first of six chart entries, “Sleep With-

out You,” reached No. 2 in December 2016. He followed with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved You” (three, January 2018), “Mercy” (two, August 2018) and “Here Tonight” (two, April 2019).

“Catch” completes his longest journey to No. 1, having taken 46 weeks to reach the apex. It out-paces the 30-week climb of “Here Tonight.”

On Hot Country Songs, “Catch” pushes 7-5 for a new high.

COMBS ‘DOES’ IT AGAIN Luke Combs’ “Does to Me” (River House/Columbia Nashville), featuring Eric Church, ascends 11-8 on Country Airplay, up 10% to 24.7 million in audience. The song is Combs’ eighth straight career-opening top 10, following a record run of seven consecutive out-of-the-gate, properly promoted No. 1 singles.

Church adds his 15th Country Airplay top 10.

THAT TOOK QUITE ‘A FEW’ MONTHS Travis Denning shatters the record for the most weeks it has taken to penetrate the Country Airplay top 10 as “After a Few” (Mercury Nashville) climbs 12-10 in its 57th week, up 4% to 21.4 mil-lion in radio reach.

The song surpasses two tracks that took 50 weeks each to enter the top 10: Easton Corbin’s “A Girl Like You,” which reached No. 10 in January 2018 be-fore peaking at No. 6 that February, and Aaron Watson’s “Outta Style,” which achieved its No. 10 high in December 2017.

“After” is Denning’s second Country Airplay entry. “David Ashley Parker From Powder Springs” traveled to No. 32 in September 2018.

SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country Albums; Brett Young ‘Catch’-es Fifth Airplay

Leader; Travis Denning Makes History

ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER jim.asker@billboard.com

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 19

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HUNT YOUNG

• Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’

Tops Hot 100 for 5th Week, Cardi B’s ‘Up’

Debuts at No. 2

• Vivendi Planning to Move Forward With UMG IPO This Year

• Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ Re-Recording Revs Up Streamers

• MSG Entertainment Revenue Down

94%, But Things Are Looking Up

• Former UMPG Chief Zach Horowitz

Partners In Pitaya, New Latin-Focused Podcast Company

• Russ Thyret, Former Warner Bros. Records Chairman/

CEO, Dies at 76

• Spotify Adds White House Veteran Mona Sutphen to Board of

Directors

INSIDE

5TH ANNIVERSARY202 1

ISSUE DATE 3/13 | AD CLOSE 3/3 | MATERIALS DUE 3/4

Raleigh Music Group was founded in 2016 by industry veteran partners Peter Raleigh and Steven Storch. The company is headquartered in the heart of Times Square, NYC with offices in Los Angeles. In its first five years has experienced remarkable global growth and expansion.

The boutique music publishing company attributes its success to its “client first” approach to music publishing – delivering a high touch, high service experience to a select roster of music publishing clients it represents. The company has benefitted from the support of Susan Aberbach, an owner of the Elvis Presley catalog and an early stage investor.

Raleigh’s client services are provided by A&R staff in NY and LA, a synch licensing team with strong relationships in the film/tv, advertising and gaming industries, and a first-class copyright and royalty administration department.

The company’s best in class global sub-publishing partner network includes Budde, Café Concerto, Peer Music, Native Tongue, Supreme Songs, Schubert, Cloud 9, GL Music, Clippers, Som Livre, Nichion, Geoff Paynter Music, Fujipacific, IDM, Pelikan and others.

Raleigh represents numerous iconic catalogs and songs including Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, “A Little Less Conversation”, and “All Shook Up”, George Gershwin’s “Summertime”, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “They Can’t Take that Away from Me”, The Tokens, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, Gregmark Music’s “Stormy Monday”, Anthony Newley’s “What Kind of Fool am I” and numerous other classics. The company also represents the classic catalogs of Bo Diddley, America, Anthony Newley, Willy (Mink) Deville, Lords of the Underground, Trax Records, and many others.

As Raleigh’s reputation has grown, the company has steadily built a contemporary roster of songwriters, artists and producers and now publishes songs performed by or featuring superstar artists including: Ariana Grande, Chris Brown, Kid Rock, Madonna, John Legend, Lil Uzi Vert, A$AP Ferg, Cardi B, A Boogie, Snoop Dogg, Trey Songz, Lil Durk, Busta Rhymes and film and tv composers Randy Edelman and Rick Marotta.

Please join Billboard in congratulating Raleigh Music group’s 5th Anniversary.

CONTACTSJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | joe.maimone@mrcentertainment.com

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | cmellow.billboard@gmail.com

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | marciaolival29@gmail.com

Gene Smith973.452.3528 | eugenebillboard@gmail.com

Debra Fink213.448.5157 | debra.fink@mrcentertainment.com

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | ryan.odonnel@mrcentertainment.com

Page 3 of 23

DECISIVE INTELLIGENCE. DELIVERED DIGITALLY.

DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DELIVERY

showing him using the N-word. Reaction to the Feb. 2 clip was swift – he was “sus-pended” from his recording contract with Big Loud Records, his music was removed from dozens of high profile playlists on streamers such as Apple Music and Spotify, and multiple radio groups dropped his music. In the tracking week that captured the initial fallout from the Feb. 2 video, Dan-gerous spent a fourth week at No. 1 (with a 14% gain in units earned in the week ending Feb. 4).

Among albums that charted on both Top Country Albums and the Billboard 200, the last to notch five total weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was Taylor Swift’s Red, with seven nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2012-13. The last country set to log its first five weeks at No. 1 was Shania Twain’s Up (Dec. 7, 2002 through Jan. 4, 2003). The last country album by a male artist to score five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – and its first five weeks in the lead – was Garth Brooks’ Double Live in late 1998 and early 1999, which spent its first five (and total) weeks at No. 1 (Dec. 5, 1998 – Jan. 2, 1999).

While Dangerous remains at No. 1, Wal-len’s previous album, 2018’s If I Know Me, reaches the top 10 for the first time, as it climbs 17-10 – surpassing its previous high of No. 13 (reached on the chart dated Aug. 20, 2020). If I Know Me rises with 29,000 equivalent album units earned in the week

ending Feb. 11 (up 33%) – which also marks the album’s best weeks, in terms of units earned.

Of If I Know Me’s 29,000-unit sum, 17,000 comprise SEA units (up 12%, equaling 24.95 million on-demand streams of the songs), 10,000 comprise album sales (up 101%, the album’s best sales week yet) and 2,000 com-prise TEA units (up 16%).

Back up near the top of the chart, The Weeknd’s new 18-song retrospective compi-lation The Highlights debuts at No. 2 (89,000 equivalent album units earned) — the high-est charting greatest hits set in over a year. The last best-of to see such great heights on the chart was Blake Shelton’s Fully Loaded: God’s Country, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Dec. 28, 2019-dated list.

The Highlights was released on Feb. 5, two days before The Weeknd played the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 7.

Of The Highlights’ 89,000-unit sum, 70,000 comprise SEA units (equaling 101.94 million on-demand streams of the songs), 10,000 comprise album sales and 9,000 com-prise TEA units.

The Highlights boasts 11 of The Weeknd’s 12 top 10-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Among the album’s songs are two that are also on his most recent studio album, 2020’s After Hours: “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears.” The TEA and SEA units for both songs contribute to The High-lights on the chart as a song’s activity is

assigned to the artist’s album with the most sales in a week. (After Hours sold 6,000 copies in the latest tracking week, while The Highlights sold 10,000. Due to the track reassignment, After Hours moves 4-37 on the Billboard 200, with 15,000 units earned – down 57%.)

In total, The Highlights is The Weeknd’s seventh top 10 album, the entirety of his charting efforts – and all of them have reached the top five of the list.

Foo Fighters fly in at No. 3 with the band’s new studio album Medicine at Midnight, marking the group’s ninth top 10. The set launches with 70,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 64,000 comprise album sales (it’s the No. 1-selling album of the week), 6,000 comprise SEA units (equaling 7.66 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and a negligible number comprise TEA units.

The third and final debut in the top 10 is Pooh Shiesty’s Shiesty Season, which bows at No. 4 with 62,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the rapper’s first album release, and was led by his first Hot 100 hit, the top 40-charting “Back in Blood,” featuring Lil Durk. The 21-year-old Pooh Shiesty was previously named as one of Billboard’s 2021 Artists to Watch, and also deemed Febru-ary’s Hip-Hop and R&B Rookie of the Month.

Lil Durk’s The Voice falls 2-5 with 49,000 equivalent album units earned (down 43%),

IN BRIEF

ISSUE DATE 4/3 | AD CLOSE 3/24 | MATERIALS DUE 3/25

TOP MUSIC LAWYERS2 0 2 1

Behind every artist, songwriter and music produc-er is a trusted group of advisers who provide guidance, advice and negotiate deals. Billboard’s 6th annual Top Music Lawyers list will recognize the biggest names and most prominent legal minds in the world of music and entertainment law. They are the deal makers behind the major contracts and lawsuits in the music industry. This feature will also include a round-up of top law schools attended by the notable alumni on the Top Music Lawyer list. Please join Billboard in congratulating this year’s music power lawyers. Advertise and position your law firm to the decision makers in the industry who are always in need for the best legal counsel.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | joe.maimone@mrcentertainment.com

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | cmellow.billboard@gmail.com

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | marciaolival29@gmail.com

Gene Smith973.452.3528 | eugenebillboard@gmail.com

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | ryan.odonnell@mrcentertainment.com

while Pop Smoke’s former leader Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon dips 3-6 with 41,000 units (down 4%). Three more previ-ous chart-toppers are next in the top 10, as Ariana Grande’s Positions climbs 9-7 with 32,000 units (up 14%), Juice WRLD’s Leg-ends Never Die descends 5-8 with 30,000 units (down 2%) and Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get drops 6-9 with nearly 30,000 units (down 1%).

As previously noted, Wallen’s If I Know Me closes out the top 10, jumping 17-10 with 29,000 units (up 33%).

Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Tops Hot 100 for 5th Week, Cardi B’s ‘Up’ Debuts at No. 2BY GARY TRUST

Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers Li-cense” dominates the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a fifth week, after soaring in at the sum-

mit four weeks ago.Plus, Cardi B’s “Up” blasts onto the Hot

100 at No. 2; The Weeknd doubles up in the top five following his Super Bowl LV half-time show performance, with “Blinding Lights” at No. 3 and “Save Your Tears” at No. 4; and the late Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love” enters the top 10, rising from No. 13 to No. 10.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. stream-ing (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data. All charts (dated Feb. 20) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Feb. 17, a day later than usual in observance of the Presidents Day holiday in the U.S. Feb 15). For all chart news, you can follow @bill-board and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

“License” was released Jan. 8 on Geffen/Interscope Records and debuted atop the

Jan. 23-dated Hot 100, marking Rodrigo’s first No. 1. The song from the singer-song-writer and actress, who broke through with roles on Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark and Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, totaled 27.6 million U.S. streams (down 14%) and 16,000 downloads sold (up 29%) in the week ending Feb. 11, according to MRC Data. It also drew 54.3 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 16%) in the week ending Feb. 14, as it wins the Hot 100’s top Airplay Gainer award for a fourth consecutive frame.

The track slips to No. 2 after four weeks atop the all-genre Streaming Songs chart and 3-4 after three weeks atop Digital Song Sales, while reaching the Radio Songs top 10, pushing 11-7.

“License” is just the 10th single to have debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and spent at least its first five weeks on top. It’s the first to earn the distinction for a female artist’s first No. 1 with a song on which she’s the sole billed act.

Singles to Spend First Five Weeks or More on Hot 100 at No. 1 16 weeks, “One Sweet Day,” Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, 1995-96 14 weeks, “Candle in the Wind 1997”/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” Elton John, 1997-98 11 weeks, “God’s Plan,” Drake, 2018 11 weeks, “I’ll Be Missing You,” Puff Daddy & Faith Evans feat. 112, 1997 10 weeks, “Hello,” Adele, 2015-16 8 weeks, “Fantasy,” Mariah Carey, 1995 6 weeks, “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga, 2011 5 weeks, “Drivers License,” Olivia Rodrigo, 2021 5 weeks, “7 Rings,” Ariana Grande, 2019 5 weeks, “Harlem Shake,” Baauer, 2013

Cardi B’s “Up” roars onto the Hot 100 at No. 2, following its Feb. 5 release. It launches with 31.2 million streams, 14.9 million in airplay audience and 37,000 sold (digital and physical singles combined; in addition to “explicit,” “clean” and “instru-mental” download options for $1.29 during the tracking week, a “limited CD single” and “alternative cover” CD single were available for purchase in Cardi B’s official webstore for $9.99 each).

The rapper/singer collects her ninth Hot

100 top 10, a sum that includes four No. 1s. She has notched at least one top 10 in each of the last five years, dating to her debut No. 1 “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” in 2017.

“Up” opens at No. 1 on both Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs, where it’s Cardi B’s fifth and fourth leader, respectively. It enters Radio Songs at No. 50.

The track also premieres at No. 1 on both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same method-ology as the Hot 100. Cardi B achieves her sixth No. 1 on the former chart and fifth on the latter list.

After The Weeknd included portions of each song in his Super Bowl LV halftime performance Feb. 7, his “Blinding Lights” (which closed the set) holds at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and “Save Your Tears” surges 8-4, becoming his ninth top five hit. Both songs are from his latest studio LP, 2020’s After Hours (which now sports three top five hits, as “Heartless” hit No. 1 for a week in December 2019) and appear on his new hits collection The Highlights, which debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

“Lights” tallied 58.7 million in airplay audience (up 2%), 21.8 million streams (up 45%) and 30,000 sold (up 247%) in the tracking week; “Tears” earned 32.1 million in radio reach (up 14%) and 21.7 million streams (up 45%) and sold 14,000 (up 152%). The former takes top Sales Gainer honors on the Hot 100 and the latter is the chart’s top Streaming Gainer.

“Lights” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 last April-May (eventually finish-ing as the chart’s top hit of all of 2020) and logs its 62nd total week on the chart. It adds a record-extending 49th week in the top 10 and record-furthering 40th week in the top five. The track also posts a record-padding 46th frame atop the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs survey.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top five, 24kGoldn’s “Mood,” featuring Iann Dior, dips 2-5, after eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in October through mid-January. It tops the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts for a 24th week each.

Ariana Grande’s “34+35” descends 4-6 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2 three

Page 5 of 23

IN BRIEF

ISSUE DATE 4/24 | AD CLOSE 4/14 | MATERIALS DUE 4/15

PRIMARY WAVE 15TH ANNIVERSARY2 0 2 1

On April 24, Billboard will salute Primary Wave Music on its 15th anniversary.

Founded in 2006, Primary Wave Music is home to some of the most iconic songwriters and artists across the history of recorded music including Bob Marley, Stevie Nicks, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Smokey Robinson, Whitney Houston, Burt Bacharach, Olivia Newton-John, and many more.

With offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville and London, Primary Wave Music has embraced an entrepreneurial spirit, offering and executing proactive one-of-a-kind ideas, unique services and marketing campaigns for our artists. Primary Wave has earned a stellar reputation for being forward thinking and re-introducing classic artists and their music into the modern marketplace as well as nurturing young talent to become legends themselves. This success is based upon their team of seasoned and creative executives collaboratively working together closely with our artists as partners. As a company, Primary Wave strives for excellence in the pursuit of iconic artists and catalogs that not only reflect great artistry, but moments of culture.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | joe.maimone@mrcentertainment.com

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | cmellow.billboard@gmail.com

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | marciaolival29@gmail.com

Gene Smith973.452.3528 | eugenebillboard@gmail.com

Debra Fink213.448.5157 | debra.fink@mrcentertainment.com

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | ryan.odonnell@mrcentertainment.com

weeks earlier; Chris Brown and Young Thug’s “Go Crazy” slips 6-7, after hitting No. 5, as it adds a fifth week atop Radio Songs (81.1 million in audience, down 2%); Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” featuring DaBaby, drops to No. 8 from its No. 5 Hot 100 high; and Grande’s “Positions” falls 7-9, after spend-ing its first week on the chart at No. 1 in November.

Closing the Hot 100’s top 10, Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love” rises 13-10, with 43.7 million in airplay audience (up 9%), 11 million streams (down 6%) and 2,000 sold (down 5%).

The rapper appears in the Hot 100’s top 10 with a second hit, after “For the Night,” featuring Lil Baby and DaBaby, debuted at its No. 6 high last July. Both songs are from his album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, released that month. The artist born Bashar Barakah Jackson, from Brooklyn, was fatally shot at age 20 on Feb. 19, 2020, during a home invasion in Los Angeles.

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram and all charts (dated Feb. 20), including the Hot 100 in its en-tirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomor-row (Feb. 17).

Vivendi Planning to Move Forward With UMG IPO This YearBY BILLBOARD STAFF

Vivendi may move forward with the Universal Music Group IPO before the end of 2021.

While the French media conglomerate has been planning an initial public offering for Universal for years, it has been moving up the timeline: It first planned the spinoff for no later than 2023; then, as recently as October, for 2022. On Saturday (Feb. 13), Vivendi announced its “intention to examine the distribution of 60% of the Universal Music Group share capital and its

subsequent listing before end 2021.”The plan, which calls for the company

to trade on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange, is subject to a Vivendi Extraor-dinary Shareholders’ Meeting on March 29, 2021.

The idea is to avoid the so-called “con-glomerate discount,” under which a com-pany could be valued by the market as less than the sum of its parts — especially by investors looking for more direct exposure to the music sector at a time when stream-ing is fueling growth and optimism.

“This plan is the result of the joint efforts in recent years by the Vivendi and the Uni-versal Music Group, under the leadership of Sir Lucian Grainge, to further the company’s position as the music industry’s undisputed leader,” Vivendi said in a letter about the move that was shared internally at Univer-sal by Grainge, the company’s chairman and CEO. “Recently the successful opening of UMG’s share capital to an international consortium led by Tencent has confirmed its attractiveness with strategic investors.”

A consortium led by Tencent owns 20% of Universal, and Vivendi now owns the remaining 80%. Based on the last acquisi-tion of shares, by the Tencent consortium in December, Universal could be worth as much as $37 billion.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” Grainge said in his letter to the company. “Not only is this a validation of our strategy, our teams, and our unprecedented record of success, it’s a natural evolution in the storied history of our company that will enable our entrepre-neurial and creative culture to continue to soar.”

Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ Re-Recording Revs Up StreamersBY KEITH CAULFIELD

Taylor Swift’s “Love Story (Tay-lor’s Version)” garnered 5.8 mil-lion in on-demand streams (audio and video combined) in the U.S. on

its day of release, Feb. 12, according to initial reports to MRC Data.

On Feb. 11, Swift announced that she had re-recorded her 2008 album Fearless, as Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and that the updated lead single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” would be unveiled on Thursday night (Feb. 11). Fearless became Swift’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, while “Love Story” was her second Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit. Since then, Swift has tallied seven more No. 1 albums, and 27 more top 10 Hot 100 hits.

Meanwhile, the original version of “Love Story” logged 672,000 on-demand streams on Feb. 12. On Feb. 11 it snared 504,000. In the days leading up to Feb. 11, the original “Love Story” would normally net between 270,000 and 325,000 daily streams.

To put the Feb. 12 streaming figure for “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” in perspec-tive, in the week ending Feb. 4, there were only 55 songs that logged more streams that week than “Love” did in a single day.

Re-recordings of older songs or albums are treated separately from their originals, with independent chart histories for each version. Thus, Fearless (Taylor’s Ver-sion) and “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” will chart separately from Swift’s original 2008 recordings of the album and song, respectively.

Page 7 of 23

IN BRIEF

MSG Entertainment Revenue Down 94%, But Things Are Looking UpBY GLENN PEOPLES

Madison Square Garden Enter-tainment’s (MSGE) revenue in the three months ended Dec. 31 — its fiscal second quar-

ter — was $23.1 million, down 94.1% from the $394.1 million posted in the period a year earlier, the company announced Friday (Feb. 12).

The quarter was the live music business’s third full quarter affected by shut-down orders that bought touring to a standstill. MSGE had just $46.5 million of revenues from April 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, down 94.1% year over year from $787 million.

Although MSGE’s share price fell as much as 6.5% to $94.01 on Friday, investors have faith in live entertainment: Closing at $97.02, MSGE has lost little value since it spun off from MSG’s sports division at $100 on April 9, 2020. Its shares were trading below $70 as recently as Nov. 2 — the ben-eficiary of a bull market as well as positive news about vaccination rollouts.

MSGE’s $1.45 billion of liquidity on Dec. 31 was helped by a debt sale of $650 mil-lion in November and $20.6 million raised from the sale of some its stake in fantasy sports platform DraftKings.com. Its opera-tional cash burn was just $64 million in the quarter and $107 million went to capital expenditures, mainly the construction of its next-generation venue, the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, that is planned to open in 2023.

In New York, where tours were sus-pended last March, music venues and concert promoters have reason for opti-mism: On Wednesday, the state announced that arenas with capacities over 10,000 will start to re-open to fans on Feb. 23, 2021 with limited capacities and strict safety require-

ments; the Madison Square Garden will host the New York Knicks and Golden State War-riors that evening. Events require approval by the state’s Department of Health and will be limited to 10% of capacity, a level that’s “very difficult” to make concerts viable, MSGE president Andy Lustgarten said during the earnings call.

Executive chairman and CEO James Dolan said in a statement the state’s actions are “another important step” to “a return to normal operations,” although he was vague enough to prevent investors from setting expectations. After all, promoters are still cancelling events more than announcing them. And while there is certainly a “pent-up demand for live entertainment,” as Dolan said, how and when that demand will be fulfilled is unknown.

A factor in MSGE’s favor is a local foot-print that subjects it to fewer regulations and road blocks than a promoter that must route national tours through multiple, un-even state and city restrictions. Then again, such imbalances in entertainment can hurt a regional promoter that relies on artists that conduct national tours — without national touring, the U.S. live music business will be hamstrung.

Former UMPG Chief Zach Horowitz Partners In Pitaya, New Latin-Focused Podcast CompanyBY LEILA COBO

In the 1990s, when Zach Horow-itz was COO of MCA (which would later become Universal Music Group), Universal had no Latin companies and

no presence in Latin America whatsoever.“I was looking at the demographic

changes in the country and thought: How do we penetrate what was the fastest growing

community at the time when we’re decades behind every other major?” says Horowitz today.

Horowitz, who spent 12 years as president and COO of Universal and later was chair-man and CEO of Universal Music Publish-ing Group, launched “alternative” lanes, going into rock en español with acclaimed producer Gustavo Santaolalla, launching Latin urban label Machete and helming the acquisition of Fonovisa and Disa, turning Universal into a Latin powerhouse.

Fast forward to 2021, and he’s looking to do it again, but in the podcast space.

Horowitz has partnered with longtime friend and Fonovisa founder and former president Guillermo Santiso, podcast pioneer and Megaphone co-founder Andy Bowers, Latina marketing and advertis-ing expert Diana Mejía-Jones of Campa-nario Entertainment and former Univision executive Jordi Oliveres to launch Pitaya Entertainment. The new company, named after the succulent fruit indigenous to many Latin countries, is focused on podcasts for and about Latinos, including Spanish and non-Spanish speakers.

Pitaya’s original six series programming slate ranges from Puerto Rican actress and TV host Giselle Blondet’s podcast on moth-erhood, “Ay, Mamá,” to comedians’ Joanna Hausmann, and Jenny Lorenzo’s Spang-lish “Hyphenated.” All have debuted on the Apple charts in the U.S. in their first week of release.

Horowitz, who most recently produced and co-produced the Los Tigres del Norte at Folsom Prison documentary and Latin Grammy-winning album, spoke to Bill-board about how he’s applied his Latin music expertise to podcasting.

Billboard: You left Universal Music Publishing Group in 2014. Why did you come back to music and to Latin music specifically?

Horowitz: Throughout my career at Uni-versal I was always passionate about Latin music, and I became immersed in the cul-ture. And when I left, one of the things I did was keep the friendship with Los Tigres del Norte. Getting Los Tigres del Norte at Fol-som Prison done was harder than pulling off the Polygram deal. It took us two years. The

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California Department of Corrections hadn’t allowed a concert since Johnny Cash.

During your Universal days, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding the vi-ability of the Latin market, wasn’t there?

It became a major focus for me and I had a lot of resistance along the way. I was called into a few corporate meetings when I was trying to make the Univision deal and I had to explain why this was so culturally impor-tant. And ultimately, we sold so much music that it was undeniable. But I was always looking for lanes the other majors weren’t in, because we were decades behind.

And now, you’re going into Latin podcasting, which is just taking off. Why foray there?

Podcasts are exploding in popularity but the Latino side of podcasting is woefully underdeveloped. What has been happen-ing in the podcast word is the business has doubled in the past five years But Latino podcasts are seriously under-represented. If you look at the surveys, again and again they say there’s not enough content that speaks to them; there’s not enough Spanish-language content or enough content that tells stories. There’s the same lack of aware-ness of podcasts that existed in the Anglo side five to 10 years ago. So 100% of Pitaya’s focus is Latino podcasting.

Your podcasts are all hosted by celebri-ties. But celebrity is not enough to make a good podcast is it? Why do you think these will work?

We have all sorts of formulas and algo-rithms we use before we make any decision. The five hosts we launched had over 25 mil-lion followers on social media. Before we do a podcast, we do a series of demo recordings to make sure there’s an exciting and compel-ling program built around what their fans love and are interested in. Their fans live on the Internet. And because podcasts are an Internet phenomena, our goal is, how do you take fans who are passionate about the hosts and convert them to a podcast listener.

What is the business model?Podcasts are an ad-supported business

in the U.S. Many of our hosts are known outside the U.S., but our initial focus is the U.S. because that’s where there’s revenue. If we’re able to generate the listenership,

advertisers will come.Will you have music programming at

some point?We may. What we’re trying to do ini-

tially is come up with podcasts that we feel creatively and culturally work. It feels like an extension of what I did at Universal. A lot of my deals were with people who were left of center; they were not Ricky Martin or Jennifer Lopez. They used to make fun of me at Universal for what they said was my focus on groups with hats and shiny suits. And those groups sold millions and millions of records. They were under represented voices that need marketing, and then, the money flowed. The goal with Pitaya is to give an opportunity to diverse voices and bring a new entertainment media to Latino culture.

Russ Thyret, Former Warner Bros. Records Chairman/CEO, Dies at 76BY MITCHELL PETERS

Russ Thyret, a longtime executive at Warner Bros. Records who played a pivotal role in sign-ing Prince to the label in the

1970s, died Friday (Feb. 12) after a long ill-ness. He was 76.

During his 30-year stint with Warner Bros. Records, the only label he ever worked for, Thyret rose through the ranks of sales, marketing and promotions posts, eventually becoming the Burbank, Calif.-based com-pany’s chairman/CEO from 1995 through 2001.

“Russ Thyret was a pivotal figure in the history of the Warner Music family,” a War-ner Music Group spokesperson wrote in a statement. “He will be deeply missed by his extended Warner family, his many friends in and out of the business, and all those artists whose lives he touched so deeply.”

Thyret passed away at his home sur-rounded by family in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. Further de-tails about his illness were not available.

Thyret started his career in the music industry by managing an independent retail store on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. He joined WEA Corporation in 1971 as a field sales representative in the company’s L.A. office, and by the mid ‘70s was serving as the label’s VP and director of national promo-tion.

During his successful run at Warner Bros. Records, Thyret helped boost the careers of artists such as Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, R.E.M., Depeche Mode and Ma-donna, among others. Perhaps his biggest accomplishment at the label was help-ing sign Prince in 1977. The major signing came after Thyret was given a demo by the 18-year-old Minnesota artist’s then-manager Owen Husney.

“Artists loved Russ, because he under-stood what made them tick, and the indus-try loved Russ, because his passion for the music drove everything he did,” the Warner Music spokesperson wrote.

Thyret was appointed chairman/CEO of Warner Bros. Records in 1995. His prede-cessor Mo Ostin called him “a total record man,” according to Warner Music’s state-ment. Thyret left the label in 2001 following the merger between Time Warner and AOL.

“When Russ left the company nearly two decades ago, he said, ‘My strongest ambition has always been to serve our artists well, and I leave hoping I’ve accomplished that ... It will forever be a magical memory,” the Warner Music spokesperson added.

Thyret is survived by his wife, Rebecca, and son, Russ Thyret Jr.

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Spotify Adds White House Veteran Mona Sutphen to Board of DirectorsBY TATIANA CIRISANO

Spotify will add Mona Sutphen to its Board of Directors in April, sub-ject to shareholder approval, the streaming giant announced today

(Feb. 16).Sutphen is currently a senior advi-

sor at Chicago-based private equity firm The Vistria Group as well as a co-founder and advisor of several technology start-ups. From 2009 to 2011, Sutphen served as White House deputy chief of staff for policy for President Barack Obama, who struck an exclusive multi-year partnership with Spotify in 2019 to produce podcasts through his and Michelle Obama’s production com-pany, Higher Ground. Sutphen also served on the Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board from 2013 to 2016.

“Mona has built a career in both the private and public sectors advising leaders on international and U.S. domestic policy, technology, macroeconomics and trade, and human rights...and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Spotify founder/CEO and chair-man of the board Daniel Ek said in a state-ment. “Mona will bring a new and highly valuable perspective to the Board as we focus on driving our strategy forward during this time of exceptional change around the world.”

Added Sutphen: “Spotify has been a revo-lutionary force and impressive innovator in the audio industry, transforming the content landscape globally. I’m excited to be a part of its continued evolution and expansion.”

Sutphen was previously a partner at Macro Advisory Partners (MAP), where she advised global corporate companies on risks and opportunities in areas like technology platform regulation and market entry strate-

gies. Before that, she served as a managing director at Swiss investment management firm UBS AG, where she developed new tools to evaluate political risk impacting capital markets.

Johnny Pacheco, Fania Records Cofounder, Dies at 85BY LEILA COBO

Johnny Pacheco, the legendary bandleader who cofounded Fania Re-cords in the 1960s and became one of the leading architects of the music that

would come to be known as salsa, has died. He was 85 years old.

The Dominican-born, New York-raised Pacheco, who lived in New Jersey, died at Holy Name Medical Center, according to published reports. Sources say he had been hospitalized for complications stemming from pneumonia.

Pacheco, a Juilliard-trained multi-in-strumentalist who’d found success record-ing with his band, Pacheco y Su Charanga, sparked a musical revolution when, in 1964, he met Jerry Masucci and together, they founded Fania Records. The two started the label with $5,000, selling albums in Spanish Harlem from the trunks of their cars.

Fania soon became known as the Latin Motown, home to superstars like Celia Cruz, Cheo Feliciano and Héctor Lavoe, and the breeding ground for seminal artists in the genre of music that would come to be known as “salsa,” a collision of traditional Cuban song and pan-Latin rhythms with American jazz and funk.

Fania’s musical scope was breathtaking. Its roster included Willie Colón, Ruben Blades, Larry Harlow, Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto and Bobby Valentín among many, many others. The Fania sound would rule the ‘70s in New York City, where the Fania All Stars headlined Yankee Stadium in 1973.

When the label closed production in the

early 1980s, it boasted over 1,000 albums, 3,000 compositions (under Fania publish-ing) and approximately 10,000 master tracks, many written or recorded by Pa-checo.

A congenial man known for his sense of humor, his limitless enthusiasm and an abundance of talent, Pacheco was a gener-ous artist who happily endorsed a genera-tion of artists –his more than 10 albums alongside Celia Cruz are legendary—and was fearless in his willingness to experiment with all genres of music.

“Maestro of maestros and my good friend,” wrote Marc Anthony via Insta-gram following the news of Pacheco’s death. “You were there for me from Day 1, and I am forever grateful for your support, for the opportunity to be in your presence and for your amazing legacy.”

In concert, Pacheco was a dynamo, clad in bell bottoms and tight shirts – often rhinestone-studded – that would be soaked in sweat by the end of night after his tireless movement as bandleader and owner of his stage.

“What I most remember about Pacheco is his enthusiasm, his happiness,” says José Alberto “El Canario,” who collaborated numerous times with Pacheco and Cruz. His last show alongside Pacheco was five years ago in the Dominican Republic, when Pacheco turned 80, and many of Fania’s alumni showed up to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. “He always said that when he died, his tombstone would read: ‘Here lies Johnny Pacheco, against his will,’” El Canario told Billboard.

Born Juan Azarías Pacheco Knipping in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco and his family moved to New York when he was 11 years old. A precocious talent, he studied percussion at Juilliard and was already successful with his group when he met Masucci, a former New York City cop who had fallen in love with Cuban music while stationed at Guantanamo Bay during the Korean War.

When Pacheco’s first marriage fell apart, he turned to Masucci, who had studied business and law, to handle the divorce. Together, they had an idea: a Latin music la-bel. Each of them invested $2,500 and their

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album, from Pacheco, included an old Cuban song by Reinaldo Bolanos, “Fanía Funché.”

“Between [Jerry and I] we couldn’t come up with a lot of money,” Pacheco told Bill-board in 2014, when Fania turned 50. “So I said, ‘Let’s do the recording and see if we sell it.’ The Fania name came from a Cuban song called “Fanía Funché” on that album. The word Fania was catchy. It sounded good. Fania Records.”

Fania took off. The money made from re-cord sales, Pacheco and Masucci reinvested in the label. Their first signing was a Jewish pianist, Larry Harlow. Acts like flutist Bobby Valentín and a teenager trombonist and ar-ranger named Willie Colón followed.

It was Pacheco who suggested to Colón that he change the singer in his band and hire a young Hector Lavoe. “It was a great combination,” Colón told Billboard. “It was total New York. I barely spoke Spanish. And Hector spoke zero English. Hector had a repertoire of all that [Puerto Rican] stuff. He was also a very funny guy. I would write songs that were almost like parodies, satires. It was really something fresh from what was going on. We were doing what rappers are doing now.”

Everything Fania did seemed to be groundbreaking, and often, historic. In 1968, Pacheco had the idea for a superband of the label’s top talent: the Fania All Stars. Live al-bums and a concert documentary, Our Latin Thing, followed. In August 23, 1973, Musucci rented Yankee Stadium for $280,00 and the Fania All Stars performed for nearly 50,000 people. More than 40 years would pass before another Latin act, Romeo Santos, would play to that size of a crowd at Yankee Stadium.

The boom years continued with a concert for over 100,000 people in Zaire 1974, helmed by Cuban superstar Celia Cruz, as well as history-making albums by Ruben Blades and Colón.

Masucci passed away at 63 in 1997, and the Fania catalog was sold in 2005 to Emu-sica Entertainment Group. In 2018, the label was bought by Concord Records.

Pacheco’s legacy, however, was never diminished. In 2004, he received the ASCAP Silver Pen Award and in 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the

Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sci-ences. Pacheco is survived by his wife, María Elena Pacheco, In addition to this wife, Mr. Pacheco’s survivors include two daughters, Norma and Joanne; and two sons, Elis and Phillip.

With additional previous reporting by Judy Cantor Navas.

Concord Establishes $1 Million Scholarship Fund for Stax Music AcademyBY GAIL MITCHELL

To commemorate the 20th anni-versary of Stax Music Academy (SMA), Stax Records owner Concord is pledging $1 million to

fund scholarships to attend the Memphis institute, Billboard has learned.

Over the next five school years, the Con-cord Stax Scholarships will cover full tuition for at least 20 students each year.

Awarded by the Stax Music Academy based on financial need and merit, the scholarships presented to each student will bear the name of a legendary Stax Records artist or executive. The list thus far includes Stax founder Jim Stewart, former owner Al Bell and former director of publicity Deanie Parker as well as signature artists Otis Redding, William Bell and members of the iconic solo and house band Booker T. and the MG’s. Additional names will be revealed at a later date.

In the months leading up to the COV-ID-19 global pandemic, Concord, its friends and extended family donated $450,000 to SMA parent the Soulsville Foundation to provide critical funding for SMA students, instructors and programming. Now as part of its scholarship fund, Concord and its partners — PULSE Music Group, Creative

Titans, Hang Your Hat Music and Easy Eye Sound — will continue to extend their phil-anthropic efforts to underwrite potential workshops on A&R, songwriting and music tech, remote internship programs and an annual trip to its Nashville headquarters.

In a joint statement announcing the scholarships, Concord’s chairman Steve Smith and CEO Scott Pascucci commented in part, “It’s been 60 years since Estelle Ax-ton and Jim Stewart named their fledgling music company Stax Records. The Soulsville Foundation was inspired to create the Stax Music Academy some 40 years later. The legacy of Stax goes well beyond the music and its extraordinary artists. The Stax Music Academy gives its students a unique ground-ing in the Stax musical heritage while supporting their development as the next generation of leaders in the music industry. Concord is proud to invest in the future of these young people, ensuring that the cultural ideals of the original Stax remain a beacon in the global music business and the Memphis community where it all began.”

Parker, also the founding/retired presi-dent and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said, “The architects of Stax music, along with those of us that contributed to the soul company’s prophetic history and unique culture, are grateful to Concord for their generous financial commitment. Concord’s support of SMA mirrors that of Stax’s in-vestment in us when Booker T. Jones, Carla Thomas, Steve Cropper and Otis Redding were just budding artists. Concord Stax Scholarships ensure that SMA will continue to give us more, great Stax-like music to expand our catalog of memorable songs in the key of Memphis Soul music.”

Soulsville Foundation president/CEO Richard Greenwald noted, “We’re so deeply grateful to our friends at Concord for shar-ing our passion to not only preserve and promote the legacy of Stax Records, but also to embrace the present and help guide the future through the Stax Music Academy. Their commitment to establishing these new scholarships provides so much hope and opportunity for so many young mu-sic students that it will essentially change the trajectory of their lives as we prepare them to move forward with post-secondary

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education and thriving careers in the music industry.”

Launched in 2000 and operated by the Soulsville Foundation, SMA engages and inspires youth from under-served communi-ties in the greater Memphis area through an afterschool and summer slate of music edu-cation and special programs. To date, SMA has taught music theory, composition and music business basics to more than 4,000 students. In the last 12 years, its graduates have scored a 100% college acceptance rate, with 67% of the SMA class of 2020 earning college music scholarships. Most recently, SMA students performed alongside Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons during the Biden inauguration television special, Cel-ebrating America.

Rupert Neve, Audio Equipment Trailblazer and Grammy Recipient, Dies at 94BY LARS BRANDLE

Rupert Neve, the audio industry icon whose name was shorthand for the highest-quality mixings consoles on the planet, died

Friday (Feb. 12) in Wimberley, Texas due to non-COVID pneumonia and heart failure. He was 94.

Born in Newton Abbott, England, in 1926, Neve had a spark for electronics from an early age. As a youngster, he repaired and built radios for fun, and turned that hobby into something else when, at 17, he joined the war effort with the Royal Signals, which provided communications support to the British Army during WWII.

After returning to his homeland, Neve developed a mobile system for recording choirs and public events, and public address systems used by then Princess Elizabeth and

Winston Churchill.At the dawn of the ‘60s, he was com-

missioned to build his first audio-mixing console. And in 1961, Rupert and his wife launched Neve Electronics, which would set the bar for professional audio equipment and mixing desks.

By the time Neve Electronics was sold in 1975, the company employed over 500 staff.

Countless artists would record albums on analog desks that bore the Neve brand, from U2 to Neil Young, Queen and Nirvana, as his consoles became the first choice for high-end recording studios around the globe.

Neve moved with the times, and adopted digital technology in 1977. He developed the world’s first “flying” fader system, NECAM (NEve Computer Assisted Mixdown), in-stalling the first system at producer George Martin’s Air Studios in London.

In 1997, Rupert’s contributions to the pro-fessional sound industry were recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Technical Grammy Award.

Neve and his wife Evelyn moved to Texas in late 1994 and became U.S. citizens in 2002. In 2005, they acquired premises near where they had settled in the Texas Hill Country and established Rupert Neve De-signs (RND), which in recent years present-ed new high-fidelity audio products, from a headphone amplifier, phono preamplifier, digital-to-analog converter and more.

“When Rupert, his wife Evelyn, and I sat at his kitchen table and founded Rupert Neve Designs 16 years ago, he had two goals,” recounts Josh Thomas, Rupert Neve Designs’ co-founder and GM. “The first was to set a new standard in the qual-ity of recorded sound, drawing upon his unparalleled depth of experience to create high-end solutions for the modern record-ing engineer, musician, and listener alike. The second was to pass on his philosophies, techniques, and methodologies to a new generation of designers to carry his life’s work and passion into the future.”

Neve is survived by his wife; five children, Mary, David, John, Stephen, and Ann; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

56th Academy of Country Music Awards Headed Back to NashvilleBY GIL KAUFMAN

After postponing last year’s event until September and then so-cially distancing the show due to COVID-19, the Academy of

Country Music announced on Tuesday (Feb. 16) that the 56th annual ACM Awards will be back in Nashville on April 18 for a broad-cast that will pay homage to Music City by setting up in three of its most iconic venues.

The show will be broadcast on CBS from the Grand Ole Opry House, as well as the Ryman Auditorium and the Bluebird Cafe. The event will also stream live and on de-mand on Paramount+, ViacomCBS’ upcom-ing global streaming service.

“We’re thrilled to return to Music City’s most iconic venues as we come together on April 18th to celebrate the best in Country Music, back in our normal awards cycle,” said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music in a statement.

“A huge thank you to the city of Nashville, Grand Ole Opry House, Ryman Auditorium and Bluebird Cafe for welcoming us back to Nashville, where we can look out for the safety of our artists while shining a spotlight on this vibrant city after a tough 2020.”

At press time, no host or performers had been announced, but the show’s producers promise “exciting performances, unprec-edented collaborations, surprising moments and more” to be rolled out in the next few months. The awards broadcast is also ex-pected to adhere to all pandemic protocols to keep the performers and presenters safe.

In an effort to support Nashville, the Academy of Country Music’s charitable arm, ACM Lifting Lives, will donate $25,000 to the Music City, Inc. foundation for their Nashville Christmas Day Explosion Relief Fund, with the funds earmarked for local musicians out of work due to damage to

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venues from the Christmas Day incident that damaged dozens of downtown build-ings.

The 56th ACM Awards airs April 18 at 8 p.m. on CBS. (The event is produced by dick clark productions, which shares a parent company with Billboard.)

Larry Robins, Music Manager and Producer, Dies at 75BY MIKE BARNES

Larry Robins, who managed such acts as Natalie Cole, Peter, Paul and Mary and George Wallace and served as a producer on a Netflix

series due this year, has died. He was 75.Robins died Jan. 23 in Los Angeles after a

battle with multiple myeloma, nephew and producer J. Miles Dale, an Oscar winner on Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Wa-ter (2017), said.

Robins, who had a 50-year career in show business, came to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1969, and one of his first gigs was in pro-duction on CBS’ The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. He also managed other musical acts like Delaney & Bonnie and Bill Medley; actors Cree Summer and Tamara Taylor; and voice-over artists from such kids shows as Animaniacs, Rugrats and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Robins recently helped set up the 2021 Netflix series Sex/Life with Dale. Created by Stacy Rukeyser, the show centers on a suburban mother who, according to the streamer, “takes a fantasy-charged trip down memory lane that sets her very mar-ried present on a collision course with her wild-child past.”

For the past 35 years, Robins held court from 6:30 a.m.-8 a.m. at a table at the Farm-ers Market on Fairfax Avenue. A plaque ded-icated to his memory will be placed at his table with the words, “If you have the power to do something to improve someone’s life,

you do it.”He also enjoyed his pastry and coffee as a

regular at République on La Brea.“Larry was truly a man who led by

example,” Walter and Marge Manzke of République said in a statement. “He was always full of stories, jokes and life lessons that he was eager to share with anyone and everyone. He had the special gift of forming meaningful relationships with everyone he met.”

Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Catherine Scott.

This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

David Bisbal, Rosalia, Pablo Alborán & More Earn 2021 Premios Odeón Nominations: Full ListBY JESSICA ROIZ

The 2021 Premios Odeón have un-veiled the full nominations for its second annual awards show taking place virtually on March 10. This

year’s nominees include Rosalia, David Bisbal, Pablo Alborán, C. Tangana, Aitana, and Nathy Peluso, to name a few.

The Spanish-based awards show, which was officially announced at the end of 2019 by the Asociación De Gestión De Derechos Intelectuales (AGEDI) and kicked off in 2020, not only celebrates the diverse music scene in Spain but also Latin and interna-tional acts.

Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Karol G, BTS, Harry Styles, and The Weeknd, among others, are also nominated at the Premios Odeón this year.

The winners are chosen by the fans, ac-cording to the official statement, “through

their active participation of consuming music, both on digital platforms and with the purchase of physical formats during the previous year.”

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 Premios Odeón will be held virtually on March 10. For more informa-tion, click here.

See the full nominees list below:ODEÓN POP ARTIST

AITANA DANI MARTÍN DAVID BISBAL PABLO ALBORÁN ROSALÍA VANESA MARTÍN

ODEÓN NEW POP ARTIST BELÉN AGUILERA CEPEDA DANI FERNÁNDEZ MIKI NÚÑEZ NATALIA LACUNZA NIL MOLINER

BEST POP ALBUM ANTONIO OROZCO - AVIÓNICA DANI MARTÍN - LO QUE ME DÉ LA GANA DAVID BISBAL - EN TUS PLANES PABLO ALBORÁN - VÉRTIGO ROZALÉN - EL ÁRBOL Y EL BOSQUE VANESA MARTÍN - SIETE VECES SÍ

BEST POP SONG AITANA / CALI Y EL DANDEE - + ANA MENA / ROCCO HUNT - A UN PASO DE LA LUNA BERET - SI POR MI FUERA DAVID BISBAL / AITANA - SI TÚ LA QUIERES JARABE DE PALO - ESO QUE TÚ ME DAS PABLO ALBORÁN / AVA MAX - TABÚ

ODEÓN URBAN ARTIST C. TANGANA CHEMA RIVAS DON PATRICIO KIDD KEO LOLA ÍNDIGO NYNO VARGAS

ODEÓN NEW URBAN ARTIST BAD GYAL LÉRICA MORAD NATHY PELUSO OMAR MONTES

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RVFVBEST URBAN ALBUM

DELLAFUENTE - DESCANSO EN PODER KASE.O - DENTRO DEL CÍRCULO KIDD KEO - BACK TO ROCKPORT LOS CHIKOS DEL MAÍZ - COMAN-CHERÍA MORAD - MDLR NATHY PELUSO - CALAMBRE

BEST URBAN SONG C. TANGANA - TÚ ME DEJASTE DE QUERER CHEMA RIVAS - MIL TEQUILAS LÉRICA / BELINDA - FLAMENKITO LOLA ÍNDIGO / RAUW ALEJANDRO / LALO EBRATT - 4 BESOS OMAR MONTES / BAD GYAL - ALOCAO RVFV / OMAR MONTES / DAVILES DE NOVELDA - PRENDIO (REMIX)

ODEÓN ROCK ARTIST BUNBURY LEIVA LOQUILLO ROSENDO RULO Y LA CONTRABANDA SIDECARS

ODEÓN NEW ROCK ARTIST ARDE BOGOTÁ DESVARIADOS LOS ZIGARROS MARLON MIKEL IZAL PLAYA CUBERRIS

BEST ROCK ALBUM BUNBURY - POSIBLE LA POLLA RECORDS - LEVÁNTATE Y MUERE LEIVA - MADRID NUCLEAR MANOLO GARCÍA - ACÚSTICO, ACÚSTI-CO, ACÚSTICO MIKEL IZAL - DESDE DENTRO SIDECARS - RUIDO DE FONDO

ODEÓN FLAMENCO ARTIST DIANA NAVARRO ESTRELLA MORENTE MARÍA JIMÉNEZ MIGUEL POVEDA PACO CANDELA RAIMUNDO AMADOR

ODEÓN NEW FLAMENCO ARTIST CALIFATO ¾ DANI DE MORÓN DEMARCO FLAMENCO

ISRAEL FERNANDEZ MARÍA JOSÉ LLERGO SARAYMA

BEST FLAMENCO ALBUM DIANA NAVARRO - INESPERADO ISRAEL FERNANDEZ & DIEGO DEL MORAO - AMOR MARÍA JIMENEZ - LA VIDA A MI MANERA MARÍA JOSÉ LLERGO - SANACIÓN MIGUEL CAMPELLO - 5 PACO CANDELA - SENTIMIENTOS AL AIRE

ODEÓN ALTERNATIVE ARTIST CARLOS SADNESS FUEL FANDANGO IZARO SEN SENRA TXARANGO VETUSTA MORLA

ODEÓN NEW ALTERNATIVE ART-IST ALIZZZ DELAPORTE GINEBRAS LA LA LOVE YOU RODRIGO CUEVAS STAY HOMAS

BEST ALTERNATIVE ALBUM CARLOS SADNESS - TROPICAL JESUS FUEL FANDANGO - ORIGEN IZARO - LIMONES EN INVIERNO STAY HOMAS - DESCONFINATION TXARANGO - DE VENT I ALES VETUSTA MORLA - MSDL, CANCIONES DENTRO DE CANCIONES

ODEÓN LATIN ARTIST ANUEL AA BAD BUNNY J BALVIN KAROL G OZUNA SECH

ODEÓN INTERNATIONAL ARTIST AC/DC BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BTS DUA LIPA HARRY STYLES THE WEEKND

BEST MUSIC VIDEO AITANA / CALI Y EL DANDEE - + ANA MENA / ROCCO HUNT - A UN PASO

DE LA LUNA C. TANGANA - TÚ ME DEJASTE DE QUERER DAVID BISBAL / AITANA - SI TÚ LA QUIERES PABLO ALBORÁN - SI HUBIERAS QUERIDO ROSALÍA / TRAVIS SCOTT – TKN

Ari Gold, Groundbreaking Queer Dance Artist, Dead at 47BY STEPHEN DAW

Ari Gold, the New York City-based LGBTQ dance artist and DJ, died Feb. 14 after a long battle with leukemia, according to multiple

reports. He was 47.“Deeply saddened over the passing of

trailblazing queer artist Ari Gold,” World of Wonder Productions tweeted Sun-day, confirming his death. “Gold released 7 albums & paved the way for many out artists since the early 2000s.” World of Wonder had worked with Gold and RuPaul on their collaborations.

RuPaul, as well as Laverne Cox, Pepper-mint, and more shared their condolences online as the news of Gold’s death spread. “So many people have come and gone from my life over the past 25 years but you have been a constant,” Cox wrote in a tribute post on her Instagram. “I’m so utterly devastated that you’ve moved on today. But I know you’ll be watching over me as you always have. I’m so grateful to have known you.”

RuPaul added, “Until we meet again, dear friend.”

Gold, who went by multiple stage names — including Sir Ari and GoldNation — throughout his career, was widely consid-ered a queer pioneer in the dance music genre. In 2004, his music video for “Wave of You” became the first music video by an openly LGBTQ artist to premiere on Logo TV. The musician performed alongside stars

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such as Cyndi Lauper and Diana Ross, col-laborated with Boy George on “Underneath This Earth — Jared Jones Culture Club Remix,” and served as an opening act for Chaka Khan.

Over the course of his career, Gold released seven studio albums — Ari Gold (2001), Space Under Sun (2004), The Remixes (2005), Transport Systems (2007), Between the Spirit & the Flesh (2011), Play My F**kn Remix (2013)and Soundtrack to Freedom (2015) — and charted three entries on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart, with his 2007 single “Where the Music Takes You” featuring Sasha Allen peaking at No. 10 on the chart dated Aug. 2, 2008.

In 2018, Gold wrote an essay for NewNowNext, where he revealed that he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syn-drome (MDS), a rare form of blood cancer curable through bone marrow transplants, in 2013. In a 2019 episode of his podcast “A Kiki From the Cancer Ward,” with RuPaul as a guest, he said he had been officially declared cancer-free.

“I was an out and proud gay pop mu-sic artist at a time when many feared that being open about their sexuality would ruin their careers,” Gold wrote in his 2018 NewNowNext essay. “I made every at-tempt I could to wave the gay flag, from using male pronouns to men-on-men love scenes in my videos. I told stories from a pointedly gay perspective ... If you are a cancer warrior or a warrior of shame, don’t forget to treat yourself better than anyone else could ever treat you, tell your story proudly every day you walk this earth, and use that fucking cancer card, gay card, or any card that you’ve earned as if you have all the credit in the world.”

See some of the tributes to Gold below:

Taylor Swift’s Re-Recorded ‘Love Story’ Sells 10,000 in U.S. on First DayBY KEITH CAULFIELD AND GARY TRUST

Taylor Swift’s “Love Story (Tay-lor’s Version)” is off to, well, a swift sales start. Meanwhile, the track — which is not being actively

promoted to radio stations — drew a smat-tering of airplay on its first day of release.

The Sales ‘Story’ … The new re-record-ing, which was released on Feb. 12, sold 10,000 downloads in the U.S. that day, ac-cording to initial reports to MRC Data.

To compare, in the week ending Feb. 4, just three songs sold more than 10,000 in the entire week in the U.S. — Tom MacDon-ald’s Fake Woke (14,000), BTS’ “Dynamite” (13,000) and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” (13,000). (Sales in the week ending Feb. 4 are reflected on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart dated Feb. 13.)

On Feb. 11, Swift announced that she has re-recorded her 2008 album Fear-less, as Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and that the updated lead single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” would be unveiled that night. Fearless became Swift’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, while “Love Story” was her second Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit. Since then, Swift has tallied seven more No. 1 albums, and 27 more top 10 Hot 100 hits.

As for the original version of “Love Story,” it sold about 200 downloads in the U.S. on Feb. 12. In the week leading up to the release of the re-recording’s release, the original version had been selling a negligible amount on a daily basis. Through Feb. 4, the original “Love Story” had sold 6.13 million down-loads in the U.S.

Re-recordings of older songs or albums are treated separately from their originals,

with independent chart histories for each version. Thus, Fearless (Taylor’s Ver-sion) and “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” will chart separately from Swift’s original 2008 recordings of the album and song, respectively.

News on the Feb. 12 streaming activity of “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” will be reported in the coming days.

And Now, The Radio ‘Story’ … As for radio airplay in its first day, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” — which is not being ac-tively promoted to radio stations — drew 144 plays on Feb. 12 on 89 stations that report to Billboard’s all-genre, audience-based Ra-dio Songs chart, a sum that translates to 777,000 audience impressions. Leading the way among those 144 plays, 83 were on reporters to the Pop Airplay chart, 34 were on Adult Pop Airplay reporters and 12 were on Country Airplay panelists.

How does that play compare to the 2008 version?

The new take drew more than twice as many plays as the original on Feb. 12, which logged 67 plays yesterday on Radio Songs reporters. Adult Contemporary chart reporters accounted for 25 of those spins, followed by Country Airplay panelists con-tributing 12.

While the new version attracted 777,000 in audience impressions on Feb. 12, the original drew 227,000.

Though “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” is not being actively promoted to radio, instead, three tracks continue to be promot-ed to various formats from Swift’s latest LP, Evermore. “Willow” rose 11-9 on the most recently published Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated Feb. 13), becoming Swift’s 24th top 10 on the tally, extending her record for the most among women. It also held at its No. 9 high on Adult Contemporary and climbed 23-20 on Pop Airplay. Mean-while, the set’s “Coney Island,” featuring The National, repeated at its No. 26 best on Adult Alternative Airplay, and “No Body, No Crime,” featuring Haim, kept at No. 60 on Country Airplay.

The original “Love Story” hit No. 2 on Radio Songs (and No. 4 on the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100). It topped Country Airplay and Pop Airplay and re-

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mains the only song to have led both lists. It also crowned Adult Contemporary and rose to No. 3 on Adult Pop Airplay.

A Decade of Dreams: Lee Burridge Shares 10 Key Moments From His Iconic Party & Record Label, All Day I DreamBY KATIE BAIN

Ten years ago, Lee Burridge saw a gap in the party sphere.

Not really a fan of the minimal techno that was then dominat-

ing clubs, he longed for a sound that was warmer, more beautiful, more feminine and more fun. The British DJ and producer started collecting house and techno tracks, assembling them into mixes and finding that people resonated with these sounds as much as he did. He had a dream of what to do with the music. Like, literally.

Ten years later, Burridge’s All Day I Dream events have become highlights of the global dance circuit, with Burridge hosting hundreds of ADID parties in 38 locations — from New York to L.A. to Mykonos, Burning Man’s Black Rock City to cities in Russia, Turkey, Brazil and beyond — during the last decade. These events are beloved for their emphasis on a beautiful natural surrounding (even if said party is happening the midst of an urban jungle), friendly crowds and smart, emotive music with enough power to make you dance and enough depth to make you cry.

And while the parties are ephemeral, their soundtracks live on, via the All Day I Dream Label — which has dropped roughly 60 releases from Burridge and friends since

2011. Today (February 12), Burridge delivers the latest ADID material, his Leee EP. The project’s four tracks add up to roughly 35 minutes of pretty, vibey music that works as well at home as it does on the dancefloor.

To celebrate a decade of dreaming, here, in his own words, Burridge shares ten for-mative moments of his celebrated brand.

1. The dream begins: 2007/2008I started collecting tracks that align with

All Day I Dream’s sound in 2007, when I was simply over minimal. I never really resonated with it. I ended up having a folder of about 20 of these tracks, and that was all I could find. But they all sat well together and weaved into each other, and it felt like something.

The first mix I made with this music was for my girlfriend at the time — and her dog, who used to bark when there was no music on at home. [Laughs.] She didn’t listen at first, but when she did, she loved it. After that, I started handing out the mix to a few friends who were girls, and it was just a thing. I always thought this music had a more “feminine appeal,” and I wanted to re-balance the dancefloor because in the past there were generally more dudes at parties.

The response was constantly the same: “This is beautiful, I listen to it all the time!” I did this for about a year. Resident Advisor later asked me to do a podcast, and I felt there was a wider audience for the music and this particular mix, which felt really special. That was the first step forward with sharing these different sounds.

2. An epiphany in Playa del CarmenI played a set with this music at BPM,

where Stacey Pullen was playing before me. Everyone was sitting down at that point, but soon after I started playing, everyone was up dancing. That was when I had this epiphany that I needed to play this music at events and parties out there in the world, and bring it to the dance music scene.

3. The sunset at All Day I Dream’s sec-ond party: Brooklyn, July 4, 2011

Bear in mind that Manhattan is the sky-line in the distance that you can see from Brooklyn , which is obviously a gorgeous skyline. At night, you see that come alive. So the sun started to set, and other than it be-ing a cloudy day, the color shifted so quickly

and so intensely, to this kind of maroon or blood red sky — we seemed to be at the epi-center, underneath this circle of clouds that surrounded the whole thing.

Obviously the sunset itself is beautiful, and then the sky just lit up into this vivid color. Everybody who was at the party danc-ing was standing still, staring in that sort of “captivated by nature” kind of way. I can’t remember what I played, but something gorgeous. Every element came together. Na-ture was very generous that day, so beautiful sunset, amazing after sunset colors — and then it got dark suddenly. Just then is when the fireworks went off over the Manhattan skyline.

4. Forging the sound with Matthew Dekay 

I told [Dutch producer] Matthew Dekay about my idea to do an event based around his music — what it would feel like, where it would happen, that it was outdoors. I wanted to use these organic elements offset against the hardness of the city. There would be clouds and bamboo.

He listened to the original “All Day I Dream” mix over and over and over, and it became, in his words, “a Bible.” He began translating musically his vision of what he thought All Day I Dream would sound like. We worked on our first track together, “Lost in a Moment,” and Matthew was jamming on the synth for about half an hour. We pulled out the best part and couldn’t stop listening to it. He and I were just laying on the floor for an hour with this one minute loop going around and around. We just knew it had some sort of magical essence to it, that was saved within all those first releases.

These were very magical times, because we were staying in Berlin in the winter, where it’s cold and bleak, and creating something that really hadn’t been created a great deal prior.

5. Making a magical setting, then watching everyone else do the same damn thing

There was such excitement about this type of event. It felt very different to people because prior to that, it was a DJ standing between a stack of speakers, with maybe some flashing lights. Looking back now it’s

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charming and cute, what we did and how we produced it — because we had a limited budget — but it still had that essence of the flowing material and the lanterns, Christmas lights and all that stuff. It just had a charm to it that nobody really had done before, that I know of anyway.

When people started taking on our aes-thetic, we were initially pissed off, actually — because we were developing an aesthetic and everybody was leaning in on it ma-jorly. That was a fleeting thought, though — then I was kind of proud, because from the inception of the idea I’ve always said I wanted to encourage more people to play this music, make this music, to drop more of this concept into their own parties. Because ultimately, only so many people can come to one party. If you’re going to any party and it looks and feels better, you have a good time.

6. Junior blowing people away while singing “Lingala,” live in Golden Gate Park: San Francisco, 2016 

Junior is such a vibrant character. He just exudes love and warmth and joy. He hadn’t sung to that many people before, but suddenly, he was belting out “Lingala” in perfect pitch. He nailed it so perfectly that even I had droplets in the corner of my eye. There was a massive crowd, and he some-how connected to everyone. People were just in awe of seeing this guy sing this track that they’ve only heard on Spotify — and we’re surrounded by nature in Golden Gate park, so it was really amazing.

7. So many dancefloor romances We have a lot of diversity at All Day I

Dream, but the beauty is the kind of person that comes has this sort of loving, open-ness to them. They’re very warm and sweet people. That’s how it always feels. We have couples come up to us, gay and straight, that often have the same story with slightly dif-ferent words — they say, “Hi, we just want to tell you something. We’re so grateful. We love your event, and this is my partner. We actually met at your event and we got mar-ried. Thank you so much. We were living in these cities, and we didn’t always have a way to find people that are like us.”

I think you can go to festivals and parties and nightclubs, but it doesn’t lean as heavily on community. You go, you have fun, you

stay with your friends, and then you leave. With All Day I Dream, however, the music can be a focus, but you can also just wander around, and you tend to expose yourself — or you tend to find yourself exposed — to people who are happy to just chat. That’s why people have met and made great friends or life partners. I’m super proud of that.

We’ve had one or two couples who got engaged in the DJ booth. They’d ask, “I’m going to get engaged to my girlfriend. Can I do it in the DJ booth?” and it’s like, “Sure, absolutely!”

8. Dee Montero’s edit of Everything But the Girl’s “Missing”: 2018 

The original “Missing” was a special mo-ment in dance music history, and one of the tracks that really stayed with me. I didn’t know if people would know the track, but I just saw people start to melt. By the time the second breakdown came in, which adds a little bit more of the original song, people were stunned, crying, elated.

I got that kind of goosebumps, hair-standing-up-on-my-arm moment, because the whole crowd was one. What is a DJ if you can actually create that sort of moment where that feeling runs between every person, after all? It was just a high point, and it was the last track of the night. When it finished, there was this moment of total silence and like, “Is it over?” A pause, and there were so many people there. It was just so peaceful.

9. Partnering with Belgian producer Lost Desert: 2016-2019

Lost Desert and I just resonated as people. I never go to people’s houses anymore like that; we’re usually so busy or traveling, and I just go back to the hotel and sleep. But there was just something about him, that I knew I just wanted to hang out when we met in Belgium. At that time, I’d not really been working with anybody in the studio, and he suggested that we work together. He was really into the idea. I instantly saw that there was something special about the way he produced and the way he viewed life.

We had some time on our hands, and a bunch of tracks that suddenly felt like they were fit to go on an album. I don’t think people really listen to albums these days so much, let alone whole tracks. But for us, we

decided we wanted to create a little journey. In some ways, Melt is like a mix CD — each track complements the other. We decided that we would create an album that you could dance to, but if it was on at a dinner party in the background, it would still create an ambience in the house.

The ultimate intention for ‘Melt’ is that it stands the test of time and it’s not just throwaway material that some DJs will play for a while and then forget about forever. Something that you would return to or mark a summer, a moment in time. The reaction to it was great. It stuck with people, which is another achievement, I think, to have put out an album and actually have it resonate with people, not just have them play one track.

10. Dreaming in the pandemicI think All Day I Dream, in general, has

the ability to create a soothing feeling. When the world started closing down last year, I was a little torn as to whether or not to release new music on the label, because obviously there’s no parties. There’s nobody out hearing this music.

We decided to carry on forging forward, including my EP, to give people that escap-ism. It might be at home. It might be on a stream online, but the music’s still impor-tant as something that helps make the day a little bit better, something that helps you feel a bit more comfort in your life. We’re all stuck in our houses or not traveling or not seeing people we love. We’re not going out dancing, but the music kind of somehow still connects us all and brings that beauty back into our lives — if only for seven minutes and 42 seconds, or whatever the length of the track is.

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Bad Bunny Set as Next ‘Saturday Night Live’ Musical GuestBY ANNA CHAN

Saturday Night Live has its next musical guest lined up! The sketch comedy show announced dur-ing its Feb. 13 episode that Bad

Bunny will be gracing Studio 8H Feb. 20. Hosting the show will be Bridgerton star Rege-Jean Page. It will be both stars’ first appearance on the long-running NBC show.

Bad Bunny (born Benito Antonio Mar-tínez Ocasio) had a busy 2020, including making history on the Billboard 200. The rapper earned his first No. 1 on the chart with El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, which became the first all-Spanish-language album to reach the peak position in the chart’s 64-year-history.

The album was also the Puerto Rican art-ist’s third studio album of 2020, which also included YHLQMDLG — released in Febru-ary and and peaked at No. 2 — and Las Que No Iban a Salir from May.

Page, meanwhile, has seen his fame skyrocket after Netflix’s steamy ro-mance Bridgerton premiered to record numbers with its Christmas Day launch. The actor played the dreamy Duke of Hast-ings.

Fans of the stars quickly reacted to the news of the two appearing on the same episode of SNL:

“omgg rege-jean page and bad bunny on the same day i’m not well,” one Twitter user tweeted in response to the show’s an-nouncement.

“Love next week’s host and musical guest,” added another.

See Saturday Night Live’s announcement below:

D’Angelo Is Booked For the Next Verzuz BattleBY BILLBOARD STAFF

Get your snacks and drinks orders in, prep your couch: D’Angelo is on the bill for the next Verzuz battle.

The R&B star will rumble with his as-yet unannounced opponent live from Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater on Feb. 27.

He’ll be joined by some mystery “friends” on what’s bound to be a “legendary night,” organizers say.

D’Angelo’s most recent album, 2014’s Black Messiah, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. His highest-charting Hot 100 hit, “Lady,” stands as his lone top 10, having hit No. 10 on March 30, 1996.

Co-created by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, Verzuz is now in its second season. In recent weeks, we’ve seen Jeezy vs Gucci Mane, E-40 take on Too Short, and Ashanti against Keyshia Cole.

D’Angelo and friends take center stage next Saturday 8 p.m. ET on VerzuzTV’s Instagram Live and Apple Music.

Spanish Rapper In Prominent ‘Gag Law’ Case ArrestedBY ASSOCIATED PRESS

A 24-hour standoff between police and a rapper barricaded with dozens of his supporters in a university ended Tuesday with

anti-riot officers arresting the artist.Pablo Hasél was escorted by riot police

out of Lleida University’s rectorate build-ing, in the northeastern Catalonia region, where he and over 50 supporters had locked

themselves in since mid-Monday.It was the rapper’s latest effort to resist

imprisonment and draw attention to what he portrays as a campaign for free speech. The rapper has been sentenced to 9 months in prison for insulting the monarchy and praising terrorism.

“We will win, they will not bend us with all their repression, never!” the 32-year-old rapper said as he passed TV news cameras.

The case of Hasél, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, has drawn increasing attention in Spain and has been linked to the government’s sudden announcement that it is changing a national law that is deemed to curtail freedom of expression.

Over 200 artists, including film director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, signed a petition last week in support of the rapper.

Spain’s left-wing coalition government unexpectedly announced last week that it would make changes to the country’s criminal code to eliminate prison terms for offenses involving freedom of expression. It did not specifically mention Hasél or set a timetable for the changes.

Foo Fighters Land Third No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart With ‘Medicine at Midnight’BY KEITH CAULFIELD

Foo Fighters land their third No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 20) as Med-icine at Midnight debuts atop the

tally. The set sold 64,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 11, according to MRC Data. The band previously led the tally with Concrete and Gold in 2017 and Wasting

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Light in 2011.Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks

the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count infor-mation from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 al-bums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and stream-ing equivalent album units. The new Feb. 20-dated chart (where Medicine debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Feb. 17 (one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 15). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Medicine at Midnight’s first-week sales of 64,000 across all formats (CD, vinyl LP, digital download, etc.), 36% came from vinyl LP sales: 23,000, as it starts at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart). CDs and digital albums split the remainder of the first-week sales, with 20,000 each.

Medicine’s 23,000 in vinyl LP sales marks the third-largest sales week for a hard rock album since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991. The only bigger weeks logged by a hard rock set were Pearl Jam’s Vi-talogy (34,000 in its debut frame, week ending Nov. 27, 1994) and Queen’s Greatest Hits (slightly more than 23,000; week end-ing Nov. 19, 2020).

Medicine also debuts at No. 1 on the Tastemaker Albums chart, which ranks the top-selling albums at independent and small chain music stores. Sixteen percent of the album’s first-week sales (10,000) came via indie and small chain stores.

All told, Foo Fighters have notched nine top 10s on the Top Album Sales chart, first visiting the region with the band’s second album, 1997’s The Colour and the Shape. It peaked at No. 10 on the chart dated June 7, 1997. The act’s self-titled 1995 debut topped out at No. 23.

At No. 2 on the latest Top Album Sales chart, Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The

Double Album is pushed down from the top slot, despite a gain of 49%, with 37,000 cop-ies sold. Wallen doubles up in the top three, as his previous album, If I Know Me, surges 17-3 with its best sales week yet, 10,000 (up 101%). Wallen is the first male artist to have two out of the top three on Top Album Sales since the May 14, 2016-dated chart, when Prince had Nos. 2 and 3 (with The Very Best of Prince and Purple Rain) following his death. Wallen is also the first artist to have two country albums in the top three at the same time since Feb. 15, 1992, when Garth Brooks was Nos. 1 and 3 with Ropin’ the Wind and No Fences.

During the new chart’s tracking week, on Feb. 10, Wallen issued a five-minute video via social media addressing the Feb. 2 emergence of an earlier video showing him using the N-word. Reaction to the Feb. 2 clip was swift — he was “suspended” from his recording contract with Big Loud Re-cords, his music was removed from dozens of high profile playlists on streamers such as Apple Music and Spotify, and multiple radio groups dropped his music.

The Weeknd’s new best-of compila-tion The Highlights arrives at No. 4 with 10,000 sold. The album was released on Feb. 5, two days before he played the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 7. His last stu-dio set, 2020’s After Hours, bolts 26-8 with just over 6,000 sold (up 67%).

One Direction’s former No. 1 Up All Night makes a grand re-entry at No. 5 with a little over 7,000 sold, thanks to the Feb. 5 arrival of the 2012 album on green vinyl, exclusive to Urban Outfitters. Vinyl sales ac-count for effectively all of the album’s sales for the week.

Taylor Swift’s Evermore climbs 14-6 (7,000; up 26%), Ariana Grande’s Posi-tions zooms 89-7 (a little more than 6,000; up 263%, owed to a surge in sales of a signed CD sold via Grande’s webstore), Harry Styles’ Fine Line ascends 10-9 (6,000; down 22%) and Barry Gibb’s Barry Gibb & Friends: Greenfields – The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 rises 16-10 ( just under 6,000 sold; up 10%).

Slowthai’s ‘Tyron’ Blasts to Midweek U.K. Chart LeadBY LARS BRANDLE

Slowthai is taking the fast route to the U.K. chart title.

The English rapper’s sophomore album Tyron (Method) blasts ahead

to lead the Official Chart Update, opening up a margin of more than 4,000 chart sales over its nearest competitor, Pale Wave’s Who Am I? (Dirty Hit).

Tyron is the most streamed and physically purchased album, the OCC reports.

It’s the followup to the Northampton artist’s debut Nothing Great About Britain, which peaked at No. 9 in May 2019, got short-listed for the Mercury Prize and earned him a pair of NME awards.

Last week’s leader, Foo Fighters’ Medicine at Midnight (Columbia), dips to No. 3 on the chart blast, while New York City rockers The Pretty Reckless bow at No. 4 on the mid-week survey with their fourth album Death by Rock and Roll (Century Media), the most downloaded album over the past weekend.

The top tier is closed out by David Bowie’s live album Look At The Moon! (Par-lophone), new at No. 5.

Following the release of a “Moonlight Edition,” Dua Lipa’s former leader Future Nostalgia (Warner Records) lifts 20-6, while Taylor Swift’s Evermore (EMI) en-joys a 21-10 rise after the release of her new re-recorded single “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”.

Over in the singles chart race, there’s no change in the Top 3 following the week-end’s sales and streaming activity as Lil Tjay & 6Lack’s “Calling My Phone” (Co-lumbia) holds the edge over Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” (Interscope).

Unless “Drivers License” hits the gas in the second half of the week, it’ll be dumped from the top spot for the first time in five weeks.

The Official U.K. Singles and Albums Charts are published late Friday local time.

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Foo Fighters’ ‘Medicine At Midnight’ Debuts at No. 1 In AustraliaBY LARS BRANDLE

Foo Fighters are on top in the Land Down Under with Medicine At Midnight, their eighth No. 1.

Medicine becomes the Foos’ sev-enth successive No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, equaling U2, Taylor Swift and home-grown comedy act The 12th Man.

Only Eminem has had a longer streak of No. 1 studio albums, with nine.

Dave Grohl and Co. previously ruled the chart with the studio sets One By One (October 2002), In Your Honor (June 2005), Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Oc-tober 2007), Wasting Light (April 2011), Son-ic Highways (November 2014) and Con-crete And Gold (September 2017), plus their Greatest Hits compilation (November 2009).

The Foos’ 10th album also leads the ARIA Vinyl Albums Chart.

Following his halftime performance at the Super Bowl, The Weeknd kicks another goal as The Highlights slots in at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart, with several tracks from it impacting the singles survey, led by “Save Your Tears,” lifting 18-7 for a new high.

After setting a record for the youngest homegrown solo No. 1, The Kid Laroi’s F*ck Love (Savage) dips 1-3.

Rounding out a top five stacked with new arrivals is Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ Shy-ga! The Sunlight Mound and Kate Cebera-no’s Sweet Inspiration, respectively. Shyga! is the first ARIA Top Ten for Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, while Sweet Inspiration gives Ceberano her seventh Top Ten overall.

Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo continues to cruise atop the ARIA Singles Chart as

“Drivers License” holds No. 1 for a fifth straight week, ahead of Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (No. 2) and The Kid Laroi’s “Without You” (No. 3).

Veteran Dutch EDM star Tiësto has his highest-charting single in Australia with “The Business,” lifting 8-4.

Finally, Cardi B snags the week’s highest debut with “Up,” the second single from her forthcoming sophomore album release. It’s new at No. 20.

Lil Tjay and 6LACK Could End Olivia Rodrigo’s U.K. Chart StreakBY LARS BRANDLE

Lil Tjay and 6LACK could bring an end to Olivia Rodrigo’s long streak atop the U.K. singles chart.

The U.S. rappers’ “Calling My Phone” rings up an early lead and is on track to end Rodrigo’s reign with “Drivers License” at five weeks.

“Calling My Phone” is at No. 1 on the First Look survey, which measures the most popular tracks following the first 48 hours of the chart week, with “Drivers License” parked at No. 2 after the weekend, the OCC reports.

Also enjoying a fast start is Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Love Story,” now titled “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).” The original peaked at No. 2 in 2008 and marked her first U.K. chart entry, while the new cut appears at No. 4 on the chart blast.

Further down the list is Dua Li-pa’s “We’re Good,” the latest single from Fu-ture Nostalgia, (The Moonlight Edition). It starts at No. 20.

The Official U.K. Singles Chart is pub-lished late Friday local time.

Mariah Carey & More to Be Honored by African American Film Critics AssociationBY PAUL GREIN

Mariah Carey and George C. Wolfe, director of the ac-claimed film adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, are

among those set to receive special awards from the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) at the 12th annual AAFCA Awards, which are set to be pre-sented virtually on April 7.

Carey will receive the innovator award, which will recognize her creative role in her dozens of music videos and specials. Carey has directed or co-directed such videos as “Fantasy” and “Always Be My Baby.”

“Mariah Carey is often recognized as a global icon for her musical gifts, but rarely is she celebrated for the visual storytelling in her music videos and specials,” says Gil Robertson, the association’s CEO/president. “We’re recognizing her as a creator. She has been very involved over the years in the creation, stories and storylines in her videos and we thought she deserved recognition.”

Musicians who have received special awards from the AAFCA in the past include “Glory” co-writers John Legend and Com-mon and Harold Wheeler, the multi-tal-ented orchestrator, composer, conductor, arranger and record producer.

Wolfe is set to receive the salute to excel-lence award. In addition to directing the Oscar-bound film adaptation of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, star-ring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, Wolfe has had a long career as a playwright and director in both theater and film. He has received Tony Awards for both direc-tion of a play, Angels in America: Millen-

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nium Approaches (1993), and direction of a musical, Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk (1996).

The Oscar-shortlisted documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy and Netflix will also be honored with special awards.

All In: The Fight for Democracy, the docu-mentary about Stacey Abrams’ mission to fight voter suppression, which last week was shortlisted for the Oscar for best documen-tary (feature), is set to receive the Stanley Kramer Award for Social Justice. The re-cipient of this award is chosen by Kramer’s widow, Karen Kramer, and her team. Past recipients in this category include Quincy Jones and the late Carl Reiner.

Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus directed All In and also co-produced it with Dan Cogan and Abrams.

Stanley Kramer received nine Oscar nom-inations, including twin nods for producing and directing The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s Coming to Din-ner, the 1967 film about interracial romance that was groundbreaking in its time.

Netflix is the cinema vanguard recipi-ent “for fostering a global tribe rooted in bringing all people together across various languages and continents through the power of cinema.”

Robertson, a veteran journalist and au-thor, co-founded the AAFCA in 2003 with Daryle Lockhart, Kathy Williamson and Kevin Chill Heard. The organization bills itself as the world’s largest group of Black film critics, with about 90 members who are active film critics. Most are in the U.S., but there are also a handful of “ex-pats” around the world.

According to a statement, “The organiza-tion’s primary mission is to cultivate under-standing, appreciation and advancement of the contributions of African-descended talent to cinematic and television culture…As a non-profit organization, AAFCA is committed to numerous educational and philanthropic efforts, particularly those that foster and celebrate diversity and inclusion.”

The AAFCA presents awards in 12 catego-ries, but, like many other film critics groups, it doesn’t announce nominees, just winners. “I don’t think it’s fair to pit actors against each other in that way,” Robertson says.

In the 18 years that the AAFCA has been in existence, and especially in the last six years, there has been much more emphasis on diversity in Hollywood and in award vot-ing bodies.

For two years running (2014-15), all 20 actors nominated for acting awards at the Academy Awards were white, which led the Academy of Motion Picture Artists &Sci-ences to launch a major effort to enlarge and diversity its voting body.

Robertson was critical of the Oscars in the #OscarSoWhite years. “Individuals work very diligently at their craft and for someone to question whether or not they deserve to be nominated is unfair,” he says. “It’s offen-sive to anyone who would question it.”

He applauds the Oscars for taking steps to correct the problem. “I think it’s great,” he says. “I think diversity and inclusion is a good thing.”

Donald Glover & Phoebe Waller-Bridge Team for ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ SeriesBY LESLEY GOLDBERG

How’s this for a collabora-tion: Donald Glover and Phoe-be Waller-Bridge are uniting for an Amazon series, Mr.& Mrs.

Smith. The Atlanta star teased the series, coming to Amazon in 2022, on his Insta-gram story Friday (Feb. 12).

The project, a reboot of the 2005 New Regency film starring Brad Pitt and Ange-lina Jolie, has quietly been in the works for months and stems from the Fleabag cre-ator’s overall deal with Amazon.Waller-Bridge and Glover will create and star in the series. Francesca Sloane (Atlanta, Fargo) — who is also under an overall deal with Amazon — is also attached as a co-creator and will serve as showrunner. New Re-gency’s Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer

will also exec produce, as will Jenny Robins of Wells Street Films.

The updated Mr. & Mrs. Smith marks a teaming of Emmy winners Glover and Waller-Bridge who both have a history of creating and starring in their own material. Glover, who sources say quietly renewed his overall deal with FX Productions last year after drawing interest from Amazon and other outlets, continues to have Atlanta in the works at FX. The series marks Waller-Bridge’s follow-up to Amazon’s Emmy-winning Fleabag.

The original Mr. & Mrs. Smith grossed $487 million worldwide when it was re-leased in 2005. Key to doing reboots is hav-ing the original producers involved, which is the case here with New Regency.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Sprinkle Stardust on Your Feet With This David Bowie Sock CollectionBY GIL KAUFMAN

Happy Socks has unveiled a new collection in honor of Da-vid Bowie that includes two limited-edition designs based

on iconic moments in the late rock star’s career.

The collection features six pairs of cotton crew socks and four pairs of kid’s cotton crew socks, available as singles ($8-$16) and in collectible gift boxes ($32-$96).

The Silver Lining socks — matte black wrapped in silver foil — are based on the silver zebra outfit that Bowie wore on h9is 1976 Station to Station album. According to Happy Socks, the Ziggy Special is inspired by the Japanese concept Basara, which is “characterized by colorful attention-grab-bing garments.”

The asymmetrical knitted leotard created by designer Kansai Yamamoto became one of Bowie’s signature pieces, with the sparkly

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Page 22 of 23

nium Approaches (1993), and direction of a musical, Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk (1996).

The Oscar-shortlisted documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy and Netflix will also be honored with special awards.

All In: The Fight for Democracy, the docu-mentary about Stacey Abrams’ mission to fight voter suppression, which last week was shortlisted for the Oscar for best documen-tary (feature), is set to receive the Stanley Kramer Award for Social Justice. The re-cipient of this award is chosen by Kramer’s widow, Karen Kramer, and her team. Past recipients in this category include Quincy Jones and the late Carl Reiner.

Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus directed All In and also co-produced it with Dan Cogan and Abrams.

Stanley Kramer received nine Oscar nom-inations, including twin nods for producing and directing The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s Coming to Din-ner, the 1967 film about interracial romance that was groundbreaking in its time.

Netflix is the cinema vanguard recipi-ent “for fostering a global tribe rooted in bringing all people together across various languages and continents through the power of cinema.”

Robertson, a veteran journalist and au-thor, co-founded the AAFCA in 2003 with Daryle Lockhart, Kathy Williamson and Kevin Chill Heard. The organization bills itself as the world’s largest group of Black film critics, with about 90 members who are active film critics. Most are in the U.S., but there are also a handful of “ex-pats” around the world.

According to a statement, “The organiza-tion’s primary mission is to cultivate under-standing, appreciation and advancement of the contributions of African-descended talent to cinematic and television culture…As a non-profit organization, AAFCA is committed to numerous educational and philanthropic efforts, particularly those that foster and celebrate diversity and inclusion.”

The AAFCA presents awards in 12 catego-ries, but, like many other film critics groups, it doesn’t announce nominees, just winners. “I don’t think it’s fair to pit actors against each other in that way,” Robertson says.

In the 18 years that the AAFCA has been in existence, and especially in the last six years, there has been much more emphasis on diversity in Hollywood and in award vot-ing bodies.

For two years running (2014-15), all 20 actors nominated for acting awards at the Academy Awards were white, which led the Academy of Motion Picture Artists &Sci-ences to launch a major effort to enlarge and diversity its voting body.

Robertson was critical of the Oscars in the #OscarSoWhite years. “Individuals work very diligently at their craft and for someone to question whether or not they deserve to be nominated is unfair,” he says. “It’s offen-sive to anyone who would question it.”

He applauds the Oscars for taking steps to correct the problem. “I think it’s great,” he says. “I think diversity and inclusion is a good thing.”

Donald Glover & Phoebe Waller-Bridge Team for ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ SeriesBY LESLEY GOLDBERG

How’s this for a collabora-tion: Donald Glover and Phoe-be Waller-Bridge are uniting for an Amazon series, Mr.& Mrs.

Smith. The Atlanta star teased the series, coming to Amazon in 2022, on his Insta-gram story Friday (Feb. 12).

The project, a reboot of the 2005 New Regency film starring Brad Pitt and Ange-lina Jolie, has quietly been in the works for months and stems from the Fleabag cre-ator’s overall deal with Amazon.Waller-Bridge and Glover will create and star in the series. Francesca Sloane (Atlanta, Fargo) — who is also under an overall deal with Amazon — is also attached as a co-creator and will serve as showrunner. New Re-gency’s Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer

will also exec produce, as will Jenny Robins of Wells Street Films.

The updated Mr. & Mrs. Smith marks a teaming of Emmy winners Glover and Waller-Bridge who both have a history of creating and starring in their own material. Glover, who sources say quietly renewed his overall deal with FX Productions last year after drawing interest from Amazon and other outlets, continues to have Atlanta in the works at FX. The series marks Waller-Bridge’s follow-up to Amazon’s Emmy-winning Fleabag.

The original Mr. & Mrs. Smith grossed $487 million worldwide when it was re-leased in 2005. Key to doing reboots is hav-ing the original producers involved, which is the case here with New Regency.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Sprinkle Stardust on Your Feet With This David Bowie Sock CollectionBY GIL KAUFMAN

Happy Socks has unveiled a new collection in honor of Da-vid Bowie that includes two limited-edition designs based

on iconic moments in the late rock star’s career.

The collection features six pairs of cotton crew socks and four pairs of kid’s cotton crew socks, available as singles ($8-$16) and in collectible gift boxes ($32-$96).

The Silver Lining socks — matte black wrapped in silver foil — are based on the silver zebra outfit that Bowie wore on h9is 1976 Station to Station album. According to Happy Socks, the Ziggy Special is inspired by the Japanese concept Basara, which is “characterized by colorful attention-grab-bing garments.”

The asymmetrical knitted leotard created by designer Kansai Yamamoto became one of Bowie’s signature pieces, with the sparkly

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Page 23 of 23

lurex knitted heel and toe sock matched with two eye-popping ankle bangles in green and red.

The collection launches today and will be sold on the Happy Socks website and its retail stores as well as some other retail out-lets. Following a private battle with cancer, Bowie died Jan. 10, 2016, just two days after his 69th birthday.

Check out images from the collection below.

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