Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct-17-15 i Billboard Magazine

Celia, a new TV series based on the life of legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz, opens with a vivid recreation of 1950s Cuba: fiery dance scenes, steamy sex and racially charged dialogue, including the young mixed-race singer being told, “Mulattas aren’t allowed in these [singing] competitions.” While the show takes some liberties with history, it’s the kind of drama the Telemundo network believes will keep viewers engaged through a whopping 80 weeknight episodes, the first airing Oct. 13. “Her life wasn’t scandalous,” says Colombian singer Aymee Nuviola, 43, who portrays the older Cruz. “But she had to leave her country [after the 1959 revolution], she went through great hardship in her career, she never saw her mother again because she couldn’t go back to Cuba.” And while Cruz, who died…

Ryan Adams’ Homage Means Mere Pocket Change For Taylor Swift Taylor Swift recently was quoted saying Ryan Adams’ interpretation of her smash 1989 album is “such an honor” — but that’s about all it will be. Adams’ homage debuted at No. 7 and has moved 66,000 pure and track-equivalent albums (according to Nielsen Music) as of Oct. 5. And Billboard estimates that publishing royalties for digital album and track sales, audio and video streaming, and radio spins for that period total $81,234. Swift, 25, will get only a portion of that because she worked with six other songwriters on 1989 — Max Martin, Shellback, Ryan Tedder, Jack Antonoff, Ali Payami and Imogen Heap — who, along with their publishers, will each get a cut based on their respective publishing deals…

A LOOK WHOT’S SAYING WHAT IN MUSIC “She was a bit of a hero ... Is it such horrible thing that she pretended be black? Black a great thing.” —RIHANNA The pop star, on the controversy over Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP official who pretended she was black, to Vanity Fair “There’s no way you could understand unless you have a family member who has challenges in life. I love him to death.” —FAT JOE The veteran rapper, captioning a picture of him and his mentally disabled son on Facebook “I want to forgive Kanye for what he said about me. want to let all that negativity go.” The model, addressing ex-beau Kanye West’s remark that he needed “30 showers” after dating her, at a Los Angeles “SlutWalk” protest against…

WE HAVE A QUEEN-SIZE BED, PATRICIA!” ST. LUCIA frontman and principal songwriter Jean-Philip Grobler, 32, shouts in mid-air. He’s jumping up and down on the bed with wife and keyboardist Patti Beranek, while a photographer tries to capture the moment for their Billboard photo shoot. “You’re kneeing me every time you jump!” Beranek, 33, fires back playfully. Though the bed proves too small for acrobatics, the indie power couple, who moved into a luxury one-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg in 2009, has every reason to be giddy. The act, who has toured with Ellie Goulding and Charli XCX, has just wrapped its sophomore album, a follow-up to 2013’s When the Night, as well as a mini-run with Empire of the Sun. Expats Grobler, who grew up in South Africa, and Beranek,…

OCT. 17 FRANK SINATRA AT 100 This nine-hour, 100-song marathon at Symphony Space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side promises to be the longest live music event of the centennial, with performances by Bucky Pizzarelli, Marilyn Maye, Kate Davis and others. OCT. 21 SINATRA: AN AMERICAN ICON This exhibition at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles — the Sinatra family’s contribution to the centennial — was already a success at New York’s Lincoln Center library and includes memorabilia, photos and home movies. OCT. 27 SINATRA: THE CHAIRMAN The concluding second volume of James Kaplan’s definitive biography of Sinatra will chronicle the marriages, the girlfriends, the mafia, the Rat Pack, the Kennedys and, yes, the music. NOV. 20 FRANK SINATRA: A VOICE ON AIR (1935-1955) The most essential package of new Sinatra…

RECIPIENTS OF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Gato Barbieri Sax master Barbieri, 82, first gained acclaim as a member of the free-jazz movement in the 1960s, with its emphasis on improvisation. His score for Marlon Brando’s ground-breaking 1972 film Last Tango in Paris established the Argentine “cat” as one of the most recognized and adventurous jazz instrumentalists in the world, a reputation borne out during his 50-album career. Ana Belen and Victor Manuel Married since 1973, singeractress Belen, 64, and singer-songwriter Manuel, 68, are among the most beloved artists in their native Spain. Their music has gained fans in all of Latin America through their poetic, socially conscious songs. Angela Carrasco Latin pop diva Carrasco, 70, a native of the Dominican Republic, found stardom in her adopted country of Spain. She is…

Rudimental Collab Boosts Sheeran Ed Sheeran (above) has spent the entirety of 2015 in the Billboard Artist 100’s top 10, joining Taylor Swift as the only act roosting in the top tier all year. Now, despite a 9-10 slip, he solidifies his standing in the region, thanks in part to his teaming with Rudimental on the danceleaning pop track “Lay It All on Me.” The song, on which Sheeran is featured as the vocalist, debuts at No. 96 on the Billboard Hot 100, highlighted by its No. 36 start on Digital Songs (26,000 first-week downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music). The cut is also off to a quick start at radio, entering Adult Top 40 at No. 33 and Mainstream Top 40 at No. 40. Sheeran gains by 5 percent…

With the decline in music sales slowing and streaming coming on strong, 2015 might be remembered as the year when the industry finally began its return to growth. During the first three quarters of 2015*, album sales plus TEA (track-equivalent albums, whereby 10 tracks equal one album) continued their gradual fall, dipping 6.4 percent to 243.9 million from 260.6 million in the same period in 2014, according to Nielsen Music. While that represents a 16.6 million album drop, it’s actually a significant improvement over the same stretch of 2014, which had a decline of 42 million units. Meanwhile, streaming numbers have nearly doubled during the past year. In the first nine months of 2015, streams totaled 232 billion versus 118.1 billion in the same period of 2014. SEA — stream-equivalent…

Against Me frontwoman Laura Jane Grace’s past three years have been as rocky as they are inspiring. In 2012, the 34-year-old punk-rocker came out to the world as transgender and began taking hormone treatments. Grace’s longtime drummer left Against Me soon after, followed by its bassist. Then, in 2014, Grace and artist Heather Hannoura, the mother of her 5-year-old daughter, got divorced. But Grace rebounded with the acclaimed Transgender Dysphoria Blues, one of 2014’s best rock albums, and AOL Web documentary series True Trans, which was nominated for a 2015 Emmy. Now, in the wake of Against Me’s new live album 23 Live Sex Acts (released Sept. 4 on Total Treble), Grace is focusing on the joys of living in her own skin for the first time. Congrats on your…

NAME Jamie Lawson FROM Plymouth, England LONG JOURNEY Singer-songwriter Lawson, 39, released his debut album in 2003 after starting out in a cover band in high school. But he didn’t land his first real success until 2011, when moving folk-pop single “Wasn’t Expecting That” found some radio play in Ireland. BIG BREAK Ed Sheeran heard Lawson’s hit that same year and was blown away. In early 2015 he convinced Lawson to become the first signee to his Gingerbread Man Records; Lawson’s self-titled debut is due Oct. 16. “Ed didn’t want me to be any different,” says Lawson. “Now I get to do what I’ve always done but on a bigger platform.” THE SHEERAN EFFECT “Wasn’t” entered the top 40 in Australia and New Zealand last June; Gingerbread and partners Elektra/Atlantic…

SEPT. 18 MGK lands in Las Vegas, shoots Jameson at his hotel and heads to rehearsals for his Bad Boy label boss Sean “Diddy” Combs’ iHeartRadio festival set — a great look in the run-up to the Oct. 16 release of the Cleveland-based 25-year-old’s second album, General Admission. After accepting a delivery (2 ounces of weed), the MC (born Colson Baker) heads to the fest, where he hangs out with Jared Leto. MGK is in a bathroom stall when, he recalls, “This 8-ball of cocaine slides under the door — then everything got weird.” SEPT. 19 At 8 a.m., MGK exits a strip club. His last memory before crashing at the hotel: watching The Weeknd at an after-hours spot with Avenged Sevenfold. He sleeps through practice. Later, he vomits at…

Pandora’s $450 million acquisition of ticketing company Ticketfly, announced Oct. 7, marks a seismic shift in the way that digital music companies serve artists. In the face of long-standing criticism from rights holders over what they consider to be low royalties, the leading Internet radio service has made a move that will strengthen the link between listening and live events — and, by extension, fans’ money. The purchase is a crowning achievement for Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews, who inherited a bitter relationship with the creative community when he arrived in 2013. But the company soon withdrew its support for the Internet Radio Fairness Act — which would have reduced its royalty burden but embittered rights owners and artists — and a 2014 deal with indie rights organization Merlin marked the…

FOUND E R /CEO MES S I NA TOU RI NG G ROUP AS THE EXCLUSIVE PROMOTER for Taylor Swift, George Strait, Kenny Chesney and more, Louis Messina has pulled off what might be the greatest second act in live-music history. The son of a New Orleans boxing promoter, Messina cut his teeth in the Big Easy’s rough-and-tumble music scene before being called to Houston by his friend and mentor Allen Becker, with whom he co-founded PACE Concerts in 1975. Messina quickly became one of the live industry’s stars, promoting the biggest acts of the day (Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, U2, Fleetwood Mac and others) and launching or helming major tour concepts like Ozzfest, Texxas Jam, Monsters of Rock and the George Strait Country Music Festival. Along the way, he…

THE PULSE OF MUSIC RIGHT NOW CHEERS!” RAISING A MAYOdunked French fry in the air, a young singer leads his three bandmates in a greasy toast before playing for 50 or so people at a basement bar in Manhattan. It could be any new group playing one of its very first shows, except for one thing: The singer is Joe Jonas. Not too long ago he and siblings Kevin and Nick were playing for stadiums of screaming tweens as the Jonas Brothers, one of the world’s biggest boy bands, who landed two No. 1 Billboard 200 albums, 13 Billboard Hot 100 hits and several blockbuster Disney channel shows and movies before splitting in 2013. Two years later, Joe is starting over, and starting small, as frontman of a new group…

The Gear, The Looks, The Trends NICK JONAS The singer wore an allwhite biker to the Time Warner Cable MTV VMA concert in August. SWIZZ BEATZ The producer donned a sleek red style in the season-two premiere of Empire last month.…

NUMBERS: FETTY WAP FLIESINAT NO. 1 Fetty Wap crowns the Billboard 200 as his self-titled debut studio album opens at No. 1. The set, released by 300 Entertainment, tallied 129,000 equivalent-album units in the week ending Oct. 1, according to Nielsen Music. 3 The Patterson, N.J., native’s No. 1 start follows a series of hits from the rapper earlier in 2015. He already has logged three top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Trap Queen” (peaking at No. 2), “679” (No. 5) and “My Way” (No. 7). 75 k Fetty Wap’s bow is powered by 75,000 in pure album sales, with the remainder of its 129,000-unit total earned from track-equivalent and streamingequivalent albums (thanks to the set’s successful singles). 2 The rapper is the first hip-hop act to…

REWINDING THE CHARTS FOR CHILDREN OF THE LATE 1970s who danced around their bedroom to the Grease soundtrack, their awareness of Olivia Newton-John most likely began with her turn as Sandy Olsson, the prim love interest of greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta). But years before that career-making crossover role, she had grabbed America’s attention as the country girl next door who hailed from Melbourne, Australia. On Oct. 12, 1974, Newton-John, then 26, scored the first of two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 with If You Love Me, Let Me Know, but that wasn’t her first chart achievement. Earlier in the year, the LP had peaked atop the country albums chart, as had her Grammy-winning debut, Let Me Be There She continued to make an indelible mark on the…