Carrie Underwood and John Legend won video of the year at the CMT Music Awards for their song 'Hallelujah', whereas Kane Brown was the only double-winner of the night, for male video of the year ('Worship You') and collaborative video ('Famous Friends', with Chris Young), US Weekly reports.
Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato and Bon Jovi performed at the star-studded inauguration of the new American president. The theme of the concert was unity, with Bruce Springsteen kicking off the event with his song 'Land Of Hope and Dreams'. John Legend powered through a big band arrangement of Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good', while Demi Lovato sang an upbeat cover of Bill Withers' 'Lovely Day', accompanied by doctors and nurses in their hospital scrubs. Texan soul band Black Pumas played their uplifting anthem Colors, and the concert was closed by Katy Perry, who sang a rousing, orchestral version of her signature song 'Firework'. Alexis Petridis compares this and previous inauguration: "Donald Trump couldn’t secure a Springsteen tribute band for his inauguration, whereas Biden had Springsteen himself – plus Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and even a Republican in Garth Brooks". Outside the official ceremony, Indie Drummer Collective - including drummers of Thursday, The Promise Ring, Helmet, Titus Andronicus, and Cymbals Eat Guitars covered 'We Are The World' for Inauguration Day.
John Legend made a provocative comment in the Entertainment Weekly about Grammy Awards, saying: “It’s almost impossible for a Black artist to win Album of the Year. How many years do we have to see Beyoncé snubbed? Kanye [West] has never won. It’s kind of insane…We’ve got to do something, because that’s a terrible record, and Diddy is right to complain about it”. Billboard double-checked Legend's claim. Of the 62 albums that have won album of the year, 12 – nearly 20% -- are by Black artists (as the lead artist). The most recent Black artist to win the album of the year, Herbie Hancock, won 12 years ago. Even if a Black artist wins when the 63rd annual Grammy Awards are presented on Jan. 31 - and The Weeknd and Lil Baby both appear to be strong candidates – that would be a 13-year gap between wins by Black artists – the longest such gap since Black artists starting win this award in the mid-‘70s.
The Weeknd, Lizzo and John Legend have signed an open letter calling for police budgets to be cut following the death of George Floyd, All Hip Hop reports. The open letter was launched by Patrisse Cullors, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter and a founding member of the Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL) and calls for local officials to cut police spending and budgets and instead increase spending on health care, education and community programs.
The Rolling Stones, Billie Eilish (covering Bobby Hebb), Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga (covering Charlie Chaplin’s 'Smile'), Elton John, Stevie Wonder (covering Bill Withers), Lizzo (covering Sam Cooke), Kacey Musgraves, The Killers, Kesha, Billie Joe Armstrong, Eddie Vedder, Common, Christine and the Queens, Taylor Swift, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots (covering Men Without Hats‘ 'Safety Dance'), John Legend, and many other have performed at Global Citizen’s One World: Together at Home live stream. Watch them all at Global Citizen's YoutTube.
Norah Jones said she had heard Guns N' Roses' 'Patience', it made her feel good, so she covered it; John Legend in his new song 'Actions' says, more or less, he should practice what he preaches, on a trivia note, it samples 'The Edge' by David McCallum, which is the same track Dr. Dre sampled on his 2000 hit 'The Next Episode'; Eyes Without A Face is made of musicians that used to play metal and pop, together they make - goth synth, check them out on 'Cold Moon'; M.I.A. has released ‘OHMNI 202091’, her first new song in three years, on the 15th anniversary of her debut album ‘Arular’; 'Resiliencia' by El Búho and DJ Raff is South American traditional music plus electronica, a hommage to Chilean activism; 'March 13' by Ellis is a big and gentle piano song; soul band Black Pumas have turned Detroit proto-punk legends Death’s 'Politicians In My Eyes' into a smooth soul song; Danish singer-songwriter Oh Land sings about how she misses normal on her new song 'I Miss One Week Ago', Run The Jewels have released new track ‘The Yankee and The Brave’, an ear-attack.
John Legend hosted a virtual concert on Instagram Live (watch it below) in an effort to bring happiness and content in a time of, well, bleakness (Chris Martin started it quite nice). Legend played 'Stay With You', 'Good Morning', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Beauty and the Beast' (his daughter Luna wanted to hear it), while his wife Chrissy Teigen was sipping some rose wine sitting on a piano. So, a lovely evening in the house of Legend.
Talib Kweli, John Legend, Yusuf Islam, and actor Mahershala Ali have vowed to help raise funds for the restoration and preservation of Nina Simone's childhood home. Now a crowdfunding campaign has been launched on Indiegogo to allow members of the public to donate to efforts to renovate the exterior of the house in Tryon, North […]
"We on this rooftop. Man, the energy was so beautiful. It's been hard for me to watch the video, and listen to the song, but also, it's very beautiful" - DJ Khaled says of his new video 'Higher', from his new album 'Father of Asahd', out today. DJ Khaled says to Billboard how he told Nipsey […]
John Legend will be among six new voices coming to Google Assistant. The voices were created using WaveNet, which analyzes speech patterns and uses raw audio to generate speech that mimics typical humans delivery. Naturally, as they are apt to doing, Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen had some fun with the announcement on Twitter. Upon hearing […]
