Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/17/2016 i Billboard Magazine

AS THE 50TH anniversaries of various events from The Beatles’ career roll on, finding a fresh take is a formidable challenge. But for The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years — which combines archival footage, fan-generated clips and the band members’ personal reels spanning from 1962 to the group’s last concert in 1966 — Oscar-winning director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and a star of ’70s sitcom Happy Days) found an unexpected angle as he dug into the project. “I began to see this time frame was a brilliant idea: It could be an adventure-ensemble survival story,” says Howard. “I could put my Apollo 13 narrative mind-set to work.” Billboard spoke with Howard and former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr about the film, which…

WHEN JUAN GABRIEL DIED from a heart attack on Aug. 28, the Mexican singersongwriter was enjoying a level of commercial success rare for an artist in the prime of his career, let alone a 66-year-old legend. His last thee studio albums debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, with his 2015 release Los Duo moving 138,000 units and becoming the top-selling Latin album of 2015, according to Nielsen Music. An active live performer, he had notched the highest-grossing U.S. Latin tour of 2015 — close to $40 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, plus nearly $10 million more from 12 dates at Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional alone — all of which brought him to No. 18 on Billboard’s 2015 Money Makers list. At the time of his…

“Saving PANDAs!” —DESIIGNER The “Panda” rapper on Twitter after the World Wildlife Fund announced that giant pandas are no longer classified as an endangered species. “But, you know what, I don’t remember at all. I have no recollection. I couldn’t tell you anything about it.” —BRITNEY spears The diva speaking about her first performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards, in 1999, during an interview on Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. “It ain’t about no strip-club shit.” —DRAKE The rapper revealing plans to open a nightclub in Houston while onstage at his second Houston Appreciation Weekend on Sept. 5. “That guy is selling inflammatory things that I have never in my whole entire life heard … except from, you know, Hitler.” —CYNDI LAUPER The Celebrity Apprentice alum talking Donald Trump…

Photographed by Eric Ray Davidson on Aug. 22 in Sunland, Calif. Styling by Jordan Grossman. Richie wears a Sergio Hudson top and pants, Charlotte Olympia shoes and Cartier bracelets. SOFIA RICHIE — MODEL, ASPIRING designer and singer, and 17-year-old daughter of Lionel — is 36 hours away from adulthood. “Freedom!” she exclaims. To celebrate, there will be a birthday party at a club and she will be embarking on a romantic trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Justin Bieber. Post-festivities, she’s moving out of her dad’s Beverly Hills home — “It’s time to go!” She has plenty of ideas about the direction she is headed, though that hasn’t stopped her dad from slyly trying to help steer. “One night he intercoms me, like, ‘Come have dinner in the studio,’…

In 1981, Journey earned its only No. 1 album with Escape, thanks to mega-hit “Don’t Stop Believin’.” FEW SONGS HAVE RESONATED MORE in recent pop culture than Journey’s 1981 hit single, “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The Chicago White Sox adopted it as an anthem during the team’s 2005 march to the World Series. The song served as the closing number for both the Broadway and film versions of the musical Rock of Ages, was covered by the cast of Glee and, most famously, played on a jukebox during the controversial final scene of the Sopranos series finale in 2007. Twenty-six years earlier, the track — which was co-written by lead singer Steve Perry, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and guitarist Neal Schon — enjoyed its first run of success when it became one…

AS SPOTIFY BEGINS TO PREPARE for an IPO, which sources say the company is planning for late 2017, the relationship between the Swedish streaming giant and its trifecta of major-label frenemies (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group) is going through some drama. Spotify’s licensing contracts with the majors — which typically have terms of two to three years — have expired, and, although it continues to offer the service under monthto-month deals that roll over, negotiations over new long-term agreements have been contentious. Spotify wants to pay less for music than it currently does, according to label insiders, and it already pays less than Apple Music — a rate that’s said to be about 55 percent of its revenue, as compared to Apple’s 57.5 percent, although…

I’ve known Juan Gabriel for as long as I can remember. He was a confidant of my mother [Mexican actress Susana Dosamantes], one of her great friends, and he was also friends with my grandmother, who died in 1998. He became my friend, my mentor, my fairy godmother, my everything. One of my earliest memories of Juan Gabriel was seeing him sing in my mother’s house. He would touch my hair, my outfits. I always called him “Don Alberto,” and he called me mi niña or mi niña adorada [my little girl or my adored girl]. He always empowered me. I remember as a little girl, one time I peeked through the balcony and my mother was there with [singers] Lupita D’alessio, Angelica Maria and Camilo Sesto, and Juan Gabriel…

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Photographed by Jean-Francois Campos on Aug. 23 at the Universal Studios lot in Universal City. Sey (left) wears a Levi’s top and jeans. Keys wears a Levi’s top and jeans, vintage Caché jacket and Alaia shoes. ELVIS SWIVELED HIS HIPS IN them. The Ramones rocked them on the cover of their landmark debut. Bruce Springsteen showed off his patriotic backside in them on the front of Born in the U.S.A. From Bing Crosby to Blake Shelton, the list of musicians who have been Levi’s lovers through the decades spans generations and genres. “Music chose us,” says Levi’s chief marketing officer Jennifer Sey, explaining her decision to strengthening the brand’s relationship with the music world since she stepped into her current role three years ago, after 14 years at the company.…

Photographed by Eric Ray Davidson on Aug. 22 in Sunland, Calif. Styling by Olori Swank. Swae Lee (left) wears a Gucci shirt and shoes and Hudson Jeans. Slim Jxmmi wears a KTZ sweatshirt and pants, Givenchy sandals, Puma socks and Gucci goggles. WELL PAST NOON ON A sweltering Wednesday, Rae Sremmurd’s rented Encino, Calif., home is still. A large breakfast takeout order remains mostly untouched on the dining room table. Empty Hennessy bottles line one side of the kitchen sink, while on the other, fresh pineapples wait to be hurled from the stage, one of the group’s trademarks. Eventually, Swae Lee, 23, and his brother, Slim Jxmmi (pronounced “Jimmy”), 24, emerge from within the house, their eyes sleepy from morning weed-smoking sessions and their demeanors polite, in keeping with their…

Summer ’16 officially belonged to Drake. With the tally complete, the artist’s “One Dance,” featuring Wizkid and Kyla, is tops on Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart, which tracks the most popular hits based on cumulative performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 from Memorial Day through Labor Day. “Dance” led Songs of the Summer for all 14 of the survey’s weeks this year — a feat also reached by Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” in 2014 and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” in 2010. It was the most-heard song on U.S. terrestrial airwaves during the chart’s tracking period, accumulating a monstrous 2 billion in radio audience in that span, according to Nielsen Music, although the No. 2 song on the chart, Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” was the top-selling song of…

Budweiser’s Made In America PHILADELPHIA, SEPT. 3 - 4 “I’M NOT ACTUALLY MADE IN AMERICA, WHICH ALSO MEANS I can’t vote. If you have a cellphone in your hand, you don’t have an excuse not to be registered,” Barbadian-born singer Rihanna told the crowd at Budweiser’s fifth annual Made in America festival, before assuring fans, “Hillary [Clinton] didn’t pay me to say that, I promise.” Political overtones were felt throughout the Labor Day weekend event, as artists expertly threw shade at Donald Trump — see SZA’s red “F— Donald” tee — and former President Bill Clinton did his part to persuade the 46,000 attendees at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to register. But politics couldn’t overshadow the weekend’s stacked lineup, with the hip-hop artists coming out on top: Schoolboy Q surprised…

Who pumps up the volume on an artist? The imagemakers named here, as money today flows fast and furious between the two intertwined industries with Kanye cashing in on pop-ups, Bieber bringing bank at Barneys, Beyoncé launching her own brands and an “I never give a f— what people think” attitude at work both on and off the runways…

Photographed by Jessica Chou in Los Angeles, Meron Menghistab in New York and Joséphine Oeding in London. I F YOU’RE GOING TO BE AN ARTIST, YOU GOT TO DO WHAT’S IN YOUR heart: Fight for your dream,” declared Kanye West in February to an audience of 20,000 that included editors, fans, celebrities and a Balmain-clad row of Kardashians at Madison Square Garden in New York. The occasion was two-fold: part listening party for the 39-year-old’s seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo, and part fashion show for his Yeezy Season 3 collection for Adidas. The production not only proved to be one of Fashion Week’s largestscale events (Season 4 debuted Sept. 7), it marked the time laypeople, and not just industry insiders, could buy tickets for a fashion show (they…

Nathan Sykes, 23, has risen from the ashes of boy band fame to propel himself as one of this year’s buzziest new artists. Formerly one-fifth of the defunct U.K. act The Wanted, he’s now a certified solo pop upstart all his own, and — on the heels of massive collaborations alongside his former flame Ariana Grande (“Over and Over Again”) and of-the-moment mc G-Eazy (“Give It Up”) — he’s readying the release of his aptly titled solo debut LP, Unfinished Business, set to arrive No. 4 on Global Entertainment. “I didn’t want to just be known as that guy from the band that took a break at the age of 20 and no one ever saw again,” he tells Billboard of his solo ambitions during his stay at The Patch…