Month: December 2022

Dionne Warwick used her title as the unofficial queen of Twitter to say she still wants a meeting with Elon Musk in a new interview on Wednesday (Dec. 28).

“I’m going to find out what Mr. Musk has in mind,” she told The Los Angeles Times when asked about the social platform’s recent controversial changes. “I’m hoping to have a meeting with him. I want to ask him, ‘Where’s your head? Where are you going with this?’ Lots of people have jumped off, and I want to find out what he’s thinking before I decide to stay on. Or leave.”

The vocal legend, who has more than 610,600 Twitter followers, further elucidated that her primary concerns with how the billionaire has been running the site since his takeover include “inviting everybody who was crazy to come on back, the disregard for what social media is all about.”

Later in the interview, Warwick also reflected on the changes she’s witnessed in former friend Donald Trump. “Oh, my goodness. I don’t know who this man is. He’s not the person I met many, many years ago, the one I knew when I performed at his casinos or his houses,” she told the paper. “I don’t know what happened to him. To me, he’s a frightening entity. I distance myself from people like that.”

Meanwhile, the singer’s new documentary, Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, is set to debut on CNN Sunday (Jan. 1), and will tell the story of her life and career from the days of working with Burt Bacharach and Hal David to the present. Quincy Jones, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg, Olivia Newton-John and former president Bill Clinton are among the talking heads who offer their perspectives on Warwick’s legacy throughout the film.

Among the most prominent Latin stars of the 21st century, Daddy Yankee has played the final shows of his farewell tour, ending at Miami’s FTX Arena on Thursday night (Dec. 22). According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, La Ultima Vuelta World Tour wrapped with $197.8 million and 1.9 million tickets sold over 83 shows in 2022. That makes it the biggest tour of his career, by a long shot.

The tour kicked off at Denver’s Ball Arena on July 25, and played 33 shows until finishing its first leg at Madison Square Garden. The U.S. and Canada run earned $61.6 million and sold 376,000 tickets before venturing to Latin America.

There, Yankee hit 22 Spanish-speaking markets and earned $112.7 million and sold 1.383 million tickets. He then closed the tour with 12 additional American shows, adding $23.4 million and 143,000 tickets to the final count.

With something of a home-field (or language) advantage, Latin American shows averaged $3 million and 36,000 tickets in mostly stadiums, compared to $1.9 million and 12,000 tickets in mostly domestic arenas.

Yankee’s geographical divide is in contrast with that of the year’s other major Latin tour from Bad Bunny. With more significant crossover success in recent years, Bad Bunny paced a similar 40,000-plus attendance in both territories but earned nearly three times more per show in the U.S. and Canada because of more elastic ticket scaling.

Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee played a major role in lifting promoter Cardenas Marketing Network to No. 3 on the year-end Top Promoters ranking. After the final show in Miami, Henry Cardenas reflected to Billboard via email on the impact of Yankee’s final tour and touring career that started on day one.

“It was an unforgettable tour for me and for the entire CMN team. Having produced the farewell tour of the icon and influencer of an entire generation is one of the greatest accomplishments that our company has achieved. In 2005 we were the producers of his first tour, Barrio Fino, and today we say goodbye to him in La Ultima Vuelta. I thank Raymond and Mireddys for giving us the opportunity to be part of this dream that is now a reality and for allowing us to be direct witnesses of their great legacy.”

The La Ultima Vuelta World Tour was 2022’s second-biggest tour in Latin America, besting Bad Bunny’s $80 million-plus total, but falling short of Coldplay’s $127.9 million from two separate legs of Music of the Spheres Tour.

Still, Yankee’s nearly $2 million average in the states on a robust 45-date routing made for a gargantuan global total. Excluding Latin American dates, La Ultima Vuelta World Tour represents a leap of more than 100% from his previous nightly best. All shows considered, he’s up by 162%.

Regardless of geography or genre, Daddy Yankee finished at No. 13 on the year-end Top Tours chart, ranking artists on their concert business between Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022. On Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart, he’s climbed from No. 22 in July to No. 9 to No. 5 and, for October and November, to No. 3 (December’s ranking will publish next month).

Further, in the calendar year of 2022, Daddy Yankee has the sixth-highest grossing tour worldwide, behind Bad Bunny, Elton John, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles.

And even beyond his year-end achievements, La Ultima Vuelta World Tour finishes as the second-highest grossing Latin tour in Boxscore history, sandwiched between Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour ($314.1 million) and El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo ($116.8 million).

In 2023, Jennifer Lopez‘s new era will take flight with the release of her new album, This Is Me … Now. And in her latest newsletter, the 53-year-old singer-actress opened up about one of the songs she wrote for the set, and revealed how it inspired her and husband Ben Affleck’s blended-family Christmas celebrations.

“I wrote a song called ‘Hummingbird’ for my new album. To me, hummingbirds are messengers of love,” Lopez explained in her On The JLo newsletter. “They’re very agile — can fly forward, backward, and up and down. They’re also the fastest bird but they always have time to stop, eat something sweet and smell the roses.”

“I identify with them, but more than anything, whenever I see one, I feel like it’s a sign from God that everything is going to be OK,” she added.

The Marry Me star, who said she’d spent recent weeks “hunkering down at home” after wrapping up her newest movie Atlas, went on to say that she likes to create a different theme for each holiday she celebrates.

“I decided this year that the hummingbird would be a perfect theme,” she continued. “I wanted to have a tree in the house that was a hummingbird tree, reminding us that everything done in love and with love will always be OK.”

“We have blended families, doubled the people, doubled the fun, doubled the love, doubled the presents and tripled the chaos!!” added Lopez, whose household includes Affleck (whom she married in July), his three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner — 17-year-old Violet, 13-year-old Seraphina and 10-year-old Samuel — and Lopez’s two children with ex-husband Marc Anthony, 14-year-old twins Max and Emme.

One of the ways the “Let’s Get Loud” singer and the Oscar winner celebrated the holidays this year was by hosting a star-studded Christmas party in L.A., at which Lopez wore a Gucci dress with green and gold “hummingbird” colors, she pointed out in her newsletter.

This Is Me … Now is expected next year, though its exact release date has not yet been revealed. Lopez first announced the album — a follow-up to her 2002 record This Is Me … Then — in a late November Instagram post. She also at that time unveiled the tracklist, which lists “Hummingbird” at No. 8.

See the album announcement below:

The Marley family has lost one of their loved ones. Joseph “Jo Mersa” Marley, the grandson of Bob Marley and son of Stephen Marley, has died at 31, a rep for Marley confirmed to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not announced.

His family has not yet issued a statement, though aunts Sharon and Cedella Marley both shared white squares on their Instagram feeds, prompting followers to extend their condolences in the comments.

Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness extended his love to the Marley family in a Dec. 27 tweet, writing, “My heartfelt sympathies to Joseph’s friends and associates and to the Reggae music fraternity and fans everywhere. His untimely passing at the young age of 31 y.o. is a huge loss to the music as we look to the next generation.” In a follow-up message, Holness added, “May he find Eternal Peace as we mourn his loss during this season of goodwill when we celebrate with family and friends our love for each other.”

Born in his family’s native Jamaica in 1992, Jo arrived in the United States and settled in Miami at the age of 11. He often performed with various members of his family, including his father Stephen and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, which consisted of his uncle Ziggy and aunts Sharon and Cedella.

Jo’ solo music endeavors include his debut EP Comfortable, which arrived in 2014. By 2016, he featured on “Revelation Party,” a track on his father’s album Revelation Part 2: The Fruit of Life. In 2021, the musician released a full album titled Eternal, which featured figures in reggae and dancehall including Busy Signal, Black-Am-I and Kabaka Pyramid.