Month: November 2022

Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Drake are among the songwriters battling for song – feature film at the 2022 Hollywood Music in Media Awards. The HMMAs honor composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their work in film, television and video games.

Unlike the Oscars, which have just five nominees for best original song and five for best original score, the HMMAs this year have 32 nomination slots for songs across five categories and 49 slots for scores across eight categories. As a result, nominations here are much easier to come by. Even so, the HHMAs are seen as early indicators of the Oscars. Nominations-round voting for the Oscars extends from Jan. 12-17, 2023. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 24.

Composers receiving multiple nominations include Finneas, Danny Elfman, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross and Simon Franglen. Songwriter nominees include Selena Gomez, Drake, Tanya Tucker, Mel Brooks and Jazmine Sullivan.

Michael Giacchino has an impressive three of the six HHMA nominations for score – sci-fi film. He is nominated for Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Batman and Thor: Love and Thunder, which he composed with Nami Melumad.

Two of the most intriguing categories are ones where the Oscars don’t have an equivalent. The HMMAs have a separate category for song – onscreen performance. (Nominations go to the performers, not the songwriters.) The nominees are Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava’s “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, Austin Butler’s “Baby Let’s Play House” from Elvis, Knights of Swing’s “Cucamonga” from Knights of Swing, Billy Eichner’s “Love Is Not Love” from Bros and Jennifer Lopez’s “On My Way (Marry Me)” from Marry Me.

The Oscars also don’t have an equivalent category for music-themed film, biopic or musical. At the Oscars, these films compete with all other films for best picture. The nominees are Elvis, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Spirited, Tár and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Nominations go the film producer(s) and director(s).

Nor do the Oscars have a category for music documentary/special program. At the Oscars, these films compete with all other docs for best documentary feature. The nominees are Halftime, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, Killing Me Softly With His Songs, Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, Still Working 9 to 5 and The Voice of Dust and Ash. Here too, nominations go the film producer(s) and director(s).

The awards will be presented Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m. PT at The Avalon in Hollywood.

Here’s the complete list of nominees:

Song – feature film

“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Written by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Göransson. Performed by Rihanna.

“(You Made it Feel Like) Home” from Bones and All. Written by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Performed by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Mariqueen Maandig Reznor.

“Love Is Not Love” from Bros. Written by Billy Eichner & Marc Shaiman. Performed by Billy Eichner.

“Do a Little Good” from Spirited. Written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Performed by Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Sunita Mani, Patrick Page and Tracy Morgan.

“Stand Up” from Till. Written by Jazmine Sullivan and D’Mile. Performed by Jazmine Sullivan.

“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick. Written by Lady Gaga & BloodPop. Performed by Lady Gaga.

“Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing. Written and performed by Taylor Swift.

“new body rhumba” from White Noise. Written by James Murphy, Nancy Whang, Patrick Mahoney. Performed by LCD Soundsystem.

“The Songcord” from Avatar: The Way of Water. Written by Simon Franglen. Performed by Zoe Saldana

“Time” from Amsterdam. Written by Jahaan Sweet, Aubrey Drake Graham, Daniel Pemberton, Giveon Evans. Performed by Giveon.

Song – animated film

“Sunny Side Up Summer” from The Bob’s Burgers Movie. Written by Loren Bouchard, and Nora Smith. Performed by Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, and Kristen Schaal.

“Nobody Like U” from Turning Red. Written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. Performed by 4*TOWN (Finneas O’Connell, Grayson Villanueva, Jordan Fisher, Josh Levi, and Topher Ngo)

“Lift Your Wings” from My Father’s Dragon. Written by Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna, Frank Danna, Nora Twomey, Meg LeFauve. Performed by Anohni.

“Turn Up the Sunshine” from Minions: The Rise of Gru. Written by Jack Antonoff, Kevin Parker, Sam Dew, Patrik Berger. Performed by Diana Ross and Tame Impala

“Ciao Papa” from Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. Written by Alexandre Desplat, Lyrics by Roeben Katz and Guillermo del Toro. Performed by Gregory Mann

Song – documentary film

“My Mind and Me” from Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. Written by Selena Gomez, Amy Allen, Jonathan Bellion, Michael Pollack, Stefan Johnson, Jordan K Johnson. Performed by Selena Gomez.

“At the Automat” from The Automat. Written and performed by Mel Brooks

“Ready As I’ll Never Be” from The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile. Written by Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker. Performed by Tanya Tucker.

“Sing a Brand New Song” from Killing Me Softly With His Songs. Written by Charles Fox and Lonnie “Common” Rashid Lynn. Performed by Donald Webber, Jr.

“Dust and Ash” from The Voice of Dust and Ash. Written by J. Ralph. Performed by Norah Jones

“We Are Art” from We Are Art Through the Eyes of Annalaura. Written by Annalaura di Luggo and Paky Di Maio. Performed by Annalaura di Luggo.

“A Sky Like I’ve Never Seen” from Wildcat. Written by Robin Pecknold. Performed by Fleet Foxes.

Song – independent film

“Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman. Written by Diane Warren. Performed by Sofia Carson.

“Til You’re Home” from A Man Called Otto. Written by David Hodges and Rita Wilson. Performed by Rita Wilson and Sebastián Yatra

“This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once. Written By Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski. Performed By Son Lux with Mitski and David Byrne.

“We Two Made One” from The Silent Twins. Written by Marcin Macuk, Zuzanna Wrońska, June Gibbons, Jennifer Gibbons. Performed by Tamara Lawrance.

“Stand the Test of Time” from Tomorrow’s Game. Written and performed by Lionel Cohen and Stefni Valencia.

Song – onscreen performance

“Naatu Naatu” from RRR – Rahul Sipligunj, Kaala Bhairava

“Baby Let’s Play House” from Elvis – Austin Butler

“Cucamonga” from Knights of Swing – Knights of Swing

“Love Is Not Love” from Bros – Billy Eichner

“On My Way (Marry Me)” from Marry Me – Jennifer Lopez

Score – feature film

Marcelo Zarvos – Emancipation

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Empire of Light

Nicholas Britell – She Said

Carter Burwell – The Banshees of Inisherin

Terence Blanchard – The Woman King

Abel Korzeniowski – Till

Mychael Danna – Where the Crawdads Sing

Danny Elfman – White Noise

Hildur Guðnadóttir – Women Talking

Score – animated film

Steve Jablonsky – DC League of Super-Pets

Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio

John Debney – Luck

Heitor Pereira – Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Daniel Pemberton – The Bad Guys

Finneas, Ludwig Göransson – Turning Red

Score – sci-fi film

Lorne Balfe – Black Adam

Ludwig Göransson – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Danny Elfman – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Michael Giacchino – Spider-Man: No Way Home

Michael Giacchino – The Batman

Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad – Thor: Love and Thunder

Score – fantasy film

Tom Holkenborg –Three Thousand Years of Longing

Simon Franglen – Avatar: The Way of Water

James Newton Howard – Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Bruno Coulais – Wendell & Wild

Joseph Metcalfe, John Coda, Grant Kirkhope – The King’s Daughter

Score – horror film

Anna Drubich – Barbarian

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies – Halloween Ends

Michael Abels – Nope

Lance Treviño – Scream Legacy

Mark Korven – The Black Phone

Colin Stetson – The Menu

Score – documentary

Simon Poole – Black Ice

Ray Angry, Rhiannon Giddens, Dirk Powell – Descendant

Lisbeth Scott – Gratitude Revealed

Emilie and Peter Bernstein – Landis: Just Watch Me

Jessica Jones – The Tinder Swindler

Clare Manchon, Olivier Manchon – Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb

Score – independent film

Xander Rodzinski – Dead for a Dollar

Jessica Weiss – Don’t Make Me Go

Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Emilie Levienaise – Farrouch – Living

Alexandre Desplat – The Outfit

Rob Simonsen – The Whale

Score – independent film (foreign language)

Carlo Siliotto – Cuando Sea Joven (Spanish)

Paweł Mykietyn – EO (Polish)

Min He – Railway Heroes (Mandarin)

M. M. Keeravaani – RRR (Telugu)

Volker Bertelmann – War Sailor (Norwegian)

Music themed film, biopic or musical

Elvis – Produced by Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Patrick McCormick, Schuyler Weiss. Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – Produced by Alexander Bulkley, Corey Campodonico, Guillermo del Toro, Lisa Henson, Gary Ungar. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Spirited – Produced by Diana Pokorny, Daniel Silverberg, David Koplan, Sean Anders, John Morris, George Dewey, Jessica Elbaum, Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell. Directed by Sean Anders and John Morris.

Tár – Produced by Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra Milchan. Directed by Todd Field.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – Produced by Eric Appel, Lia Buman, Mike Farah, Joe Farrell, Zachary Halley, Tim Headington, Whitney Hodack, Henry R. Munoz III, Neil Shah, Max Silva, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. Directed by Eric Appel.

Music documentary/special program

Halftime – Produced by Courtney Baxter, Jason B. Bergh, Bernardo Loyola, Christopher Rouse, Yong Yam. Directed by Amanda Micheli and Sam Wrench

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song – Produced and Directed by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine

Killing Me Softly With His Songs – Directed by Danny Gold.

Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues – Produced by Oprah Winfrey, Derik Murray. Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Selena Gomez My Mind & Me – Produced by Alek Keshishian p.g.a., Michelle An p.g.a., Katherine LeBlond. Directed by Alek Keshishian

Still Working 9 to 5 – Produced and Directed by Camille Hardman and Gary Lane

The Voice of Dust and Ash – Produced by Frank Coraci and Fuschia Sumner. Directed by Mandana Biscotti

A decade after her death, Whitney Houston‘s legacy is the focus of Billboard‘s latest cover story, with Primary Wave using the singer’s legendary catalog to supercharge the fortunes of her estate.

And speaking of that catalog, Houston notched a whopping 23 top 10 hits — including 11 No. 1s — on the Billboard Hot 100 across three decades. And now we want to know: Which of her songs is your all-time favorite?

“You Give Good Love,” the debut single from Houston’s eponymous debut album, peaked at No. 3 in July 1985, and its trio of follow-up singles — “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All” — all shot to No. 1 on the chart for a combined total of six weeks.

By the release of 1987’s Whitney, Houston was a bona fide superstar, and she scored four more No. 1 hits with “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and hit the top 10 with “Love Will Save the Day.”

In the early 1990s, the icon churned out more smashes with “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” “You’re All the Man That I Need” and “Miracle,” but it was the release of 1992’s The Bodyguard that she found her career-defining hit with a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The power ballad ultimately spent 14 weeks reigning atop the Hot 100 and easily became the love song of a generation due to Houston’s sky-high vocals and emotional aplomb.

Throughout the rest of that decade and into the 2000s, her status as a hitmaker remained intact, with her 2001 reissue of “The Star Spangled Banner” serving as her final top 10 single in her lifetime.

From “Saving All My Love for You” to “My Love Is Your Love” and beyond, vote for the Whitney song you love best and let your voice be heard in Billboard‘s latest poll!

Taylor Swift‘s latest single “Anti-Hero” received a new remix on Thursday (Nov. 3) courtesy of mash-up master Girl Talk.

In his inventive reimagining of the track, the DJ (real name: Gregg Gillis) injects the No. 1 hit with a ’70s flair as Taylor sings, “I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser/ Midnights become my afternoons/ When my depression works the graveyard shift/ All of the people I’ve ghosted stand there in the room” over the instrumental of Diana Ross‘ 1970 recording of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

By the time Swift reaches the chorus, the familiar chords of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — the Ashford & Simpson-written song first recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1967 — are as unmistakable as the ghosts she’s running from in the music video, punctuated with horn blasts while the superstar comes face to face with her “Anti-Hero” doppelgänger.

In an Instagram video Swift shared leading up to the release of Midnights, the singer/songwriter says, “Track 3, ‘Anti-Hero,’ is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. You know, I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized…This song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself.”

“Anti-Hero” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, as Swift historically held all 10 positions in the Hot 100 top 10. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was a top 20 Hot 100 hit for Gaye and Terrell, while Ross took the song to the top of the chart.

Stream Girl Talk’s remix of “Anti-Hero” below.

Måneskin is all for keeping the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll alive — which is why the Italian rockers took issue with the MTV Video Music Awards censoring their performance back in August.

When Maneskin’s Victoria De Angelis suffered a wardrobe malfunction that left her chest exposed during their performance of the Alternative Airplay No. 1 hit “Supermodel,” the live broadcast cut away from the bassist to wide shots of the stage instead. In a new NME interview with De Angelis and frontman Damiano David published earlier this week, the duo shared that the censorship was a major disappointment to them as a band.

“It shows that there are still many, many prejudices towards rock bands and towards women,” David told NME. “There is a lot to work on and we try to do our part.”

The televised moment saw cameras at the awards show hastily panning away from the stage following De Angelis’ exposure and to an area containing empty seats; shortly after the moment, De Angelis went down into a pit of fans at the show to continue the performance.

“It’s sad, but it’s good that people then talk about it and think about it,” De Angelis added. “It’s stupid that there has to be this control and censorship over people’s bodies.”

On Sept. 6 — a week after the 2022 VMAs took place — MTV shared a “restored,” slightly less censored version of Måneskin’s performance. De Angelis’ wardrobe malfunction remains, though her bare chest is blurred in the final cut.

Revisit Måneskin’s performance of “Supermodel” at the 2022 MTV VMAs below.

UTA has signed rapper, singer, songwriter and actress KaMillion in all areas, the company tells Billboard.

In music, KaMillion’s single “Twerk 4 Me” recently racked up over 1 billion streams in its first six months on TikTok and other social platforms, according to the agency. Her follow-up single, “Fine Azz,” served as the opening theme song for the second season of HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. In May she released her second EP, Self Made, which was preceded by the lead single “Rich Bitch Walk” and released by her label Pink Money Musiq. As a songwriter, she has written for artists including H.E.R., penning tracks for the singer and guitarist’s Grammy-winning self-titled 2017 album. She has also toured both nationally and internationally and performed at shows including the 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards.

“It’s underdawg season, & I’m Lawry’s!“ said KaMillion in a statement on the signing.

On the small screen, KaMillion is best known for her starring role in Issa Rae‘s HBO Max series Rap Sh!t, on which she plays Mia, an aspiring Miami-based rapper trying to make her way in the music industry alongside high school friend Shawna (Aida Osman). That series was renewed for a second season in September 2022. In July, the fictional freestyle performed by her and Osman’s characters on the show was released as the lead single from the series’ season 1 soundtrack via Rae’s Raedio record label. KaMillion was also a cast member on the third season of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Miami in 2020.

KaMillion will continue to be represented by Eric Feig Entertainment & Media Law and managed by Dream Lab Music.

Jason Aldean is known for hit collaborations with artists including Miranda Lambert (“Drowns the Whiskey”), Carrie Underwood (“If I Didn’t Love You”), Kelly Clarkson (“Don’t You Wanna Stay”) and Eric Church and Luke Bryan (“The Only Way I Know”), but he says he’s also open to the idea of another future duet partner: his wife, Brittany Aldean.

“Brit’s a great singer,” Aldean recently told Audacy’s TC and Dina B for Stars and Strings. “It’s one of those things where, to me, it all comes down to the song. If you find the right song, I think that’s really the key. It’s definitely something I’m not opposed to at all if the right thing came along and made sense.”

Aldean says he would love to hear his wife record a song in the studio. “I don’t think she’s ever done that before, that would be cool. She’d be a little reluctant until she got in there. I think she’d be great,” he says.

Prior to marrying Aldean in 2015, Brittany auditioned for season 11 of American Idol in 2012 under her maiden name, Brittany Kerr. She auditioned with a cover of Joss Stone’s “Spoiled,” singing for the show’s then-judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. Kerr made it to the Hollywood round before being eliminated from the competition.

In a separate interview with Audacy for Stars and Strings, Aldean also commented on why he has yet to collaborate with fellow artist Kane Brown, saying that he’s waiting for the right song.

“It’s all about the song. Kane’s music and my music is really, really different, you know what I mean? So, when he sends a song to me sometimes, it’s just not really what I would normally do. … I think it’ll happen at some point, when the right thing comes along.”