music

Last August, British Prince protégée Lianne La Havas spent a very special day in Brooklyn: She performed at the Afropunk festival before her 30th birthday party later that night. This summer, though, any such celebrations are on a coronavirus pause, leaving her reflective. “I think I would’ve played longer if I had known,” said La …

Simon Cowell is to take full control of “Got Talent” and “The X Factor” producer Syco Entertainment after agreeing to buy out Sony Music Entertainment’s stake in the joint venture. Cowell is personally buying out the stake and the move will give him sole ownership of the entertainment company. It is the result of a …

Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden is stepping away from the band following his arrest for an alleged domestic violence incident. “I have some things that I need to deal with and address right now and so I have decided to take a leave of absence from Maroon 5 for the foreseeable future,” he told People. …

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign over using his song, “Memory,” at political rallies, Page Six has learned. The letter was sent by the composer’s UK-based company, Really Useful Group, Webber’s reps confirmed to Page Six. The miffed missive was mailed out after original “Cats” star Betty …

The artists formerly known as Lady Antebellum tested the court of public opinion this week when, after changing their name to Lady A in a gesture of support to the Black Lives Matter movement, news broke that they were suing a blues singer, Anita White, who has been using the stage name Lady A for years. …

POP songs are the happiest and most upbeat in years, data shows. The tempo of the top 20 is at an 11-year high. Dua Lipa, The Weeknd and Lady Gaga have released faster tracks despite Covid-19. Pop had been getting slower in the past few years, with the likes of Ariana Grande using hip-hop influences …

Kenny Loggins exudes strong dad energy on the phone: His alarm goes off mid-conversation, and he gushes at length about his son’s work in sustainable agriculture. The singer-songwriter — who straddled two decades of American pop, first as half of the multiplatinum soft-rockers Loggins and Messina in the 1970s and then as a 1980s solo …

Megan Thee Stallion gave us Hot Girl Summer last year — and now Lizzo is leaving her mark on a chaotic 2020 with a message of self-love. On Friday, the 32-year-old collaborated with the Fab Five from Netflix’s popular “Queer Eye” reboot to release new visuals for her “Soulmate” single. Lizzo released “Soulmate” more than …

The Bonnaroo 2020 festival has been officially canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the festival announced on Thursday. In March, the long-running festival, which is held in Manchester, Tenn., moved from its regular June dates to September in the hopes that the pandemic would have eased enough to allow for mass gatherings, but it has long …

Goodbye, Dixie. Amid calls for the removal of Confederate symbols and nostalgia prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement, the notoriously liberal country-music trio formerly known as Dixie Chicks have finally decided that “Dixie” had to die. Now simply the Chicks, bandmates Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire, who have sold some 33 million …