Month: May 2023

Ed Sheeran‘s final album in his mathematics series, Subtract, is officially available to stream as of Friday (May 5).

Preceded by singles “Eyes Closed” and “Boat,” the album concludes a major chapter in Sheeran’s discography. Upon announcing the LP’s arrival, the British pop star revealed that its lyrical content and personal nature came as a result of personal tragedy in his life, namely his wife Cherry Seaborn developing a brain tumor while pregnant and his close friend Jamal Edwards passing away.

“I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air. As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life,” he wrote via Instagram on March 1.

He continued, “This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life. This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it. This is Subtract.”

The standard edition of the album contains a total of 14 tracks, whilst the CD and deluxe vinyl editions of the album contain 18 and 23 songs respectively.

Subtract also notably arrives less than 24 hours after Sheeran was found not liable of copying the chord structure of Marvin Gaye‘s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On” in his 2014 track, “Thinking Out Loud.”

Stream Subtract below.

Post Malone is slated to receive the Hal David Starlight Award at the 2023 Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner, which will be held Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.

SHOF Chairman Nile Rodgers said in a statement, “Over the last few years I have had the pleasure of watching Posty become one of the biggest artists in the world and he’s done it by writing phenomenal songs. Way before Post Malone was a superstar, he was a great songwriter, and this is his first step into the Songwriters Hall of Fame!”

According to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Hal David Starlight Award recipients are “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs.” The award is meant as a balance to the Johnny Mercer Award, which is a career capper for a legendary writer. Tim Rice is this year’s winner of the Johnny Mercer Award.

Post Malone is the third recipient of the Starlight Award who hails from the world of hip-hop, following Drake, the 2011 recipient, and Lil Nas X, who received the honor last year.

Post Malone, a Universal Music Publishing Group writer, has amassed 10 Grammy nominations – though he has yet to win. His nominations include three consecutive nods for record of the year, for “Rockstar” (featuring 21 Savage), “Sunflower” (a collab with Swae Lee) and “Circles.” The latter song was also nominated for song of the year – Post Malone’s only songwriting nod to date. Posty (real name: Austin Post) co-wrote that silky smash with Louis Bell, Adam Feeney, Kaan Gunesberk and Billy Walsh. He has also nabbed two album of the year nods for beerbongs & bentleys and Hollywood’s Bleeding.

“Rockstar,” “Sunflower” and “Circles” all reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as did “Psycho” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign). Both of the aforementioned albums had long runs at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Inductees at the 52nd Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner are Glen Ballard, Snoop Dogg, Gloria Estefan, Jeff Lynne, Teddy Riley and Liz Rose. (Sade Adu had to defer her induction due to a schedule change.)

Songwriters become eligible for SHOF induction 20 years after their first song gained wide exposure. None of the Starlight honorees (see complete list below) have yet been inducted, but many are expected to be as they reach that two-decade mark.

The Starlight Award is named in honor of Hal David, who teamed with Burt Bacharach to write dozens of pop hits from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s. Bacharach and David were elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and received the Johnny Mercer Award in 1996. Their 1965 classic, “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” received the organization’s Towering Song award in 2004. It was voted into the National Recording Registry this year.

Bacharach and David received a trustees award from the Recording Academy in 1997. In 2012, they became the first songwriting team to win the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

David was chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame from 2000-10, and served as chairman emeritus from 2010 until his death in 2012. He was awarded the organization’s first Visionary Leadership Award in 2011.

Tickets for the Songwriters Hall of Fame event begin at $2,000 each and are available through Buckley Hall Events, 914-579-1000, and SHOF@buckleyhallevents.com. Net proceeds from the event will go toward the Songwriters Hall of Fame programs. Songwriters Hall of Fame is a 501(c)3 organization. Contributions are fully tax-deductible as provided by law. The non-deductible portion of each ticket is $215.

Here’s a complete list of past winners of the Hal David Starlight Award.

The annual Broadway Bares burlesque charity event is back, and this year, New York’s finest stage actors and dancers are preparing to take audiences to Pleasure Park.

Every year, the music-filled event is staged twice on the same night, for one night only. And this year, with its Pleasure Park theme, ticket-holders are in for a thrill ride in a Broadway fantasy land. Watch a teaser trailer for the event below.

More than 190 dancers and special guests will take the stage for two performances at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday, June 18, at 9:30 p.m. and midnight. Ticket prices start at $75 and are available at broadwaycares.org/bares. The show is produced by and benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA).

Previous special guests at the show have included such notable stage and music stars as Kristin Chenoweth, Ariana DeBose, Adam Lambert, Cyndi Lauper, Pentatonix’s Kirstin Maldonado and Vanessa Williams. Special guests for Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park will be announced closer to the show date (while some could remain a surprise until showtime).

Since the show’s launch in 1992, Broadway Bares has generated more than $21 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Last year’s edition raised $1.9 million.

Broadway Bares: Pleasure Park will be directed by Laya Barak and co-directed by Kellen Stancil. Jonathan Lee is associate director. Executive producers are creator and two-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell and longtime Bares director and performer Nick Kenkel. (In June, Mitchell will receive the 2023 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award in recognition of his outstanding dedication and contributions to BC/EFA and for more than three decades of volunteer service through the arts.

Broadway Bares is one of many charitable events produced by BC/EFA each year. Among BC/EFA’s other fundraisers: Broadway Bets (coming up on May 22), Fire Island Dance Festival (July 14-16), Broadway Barks, Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction, Broadway Run, Easter Bonnet Competition, Broadway Backwards, Red Bucket Follies and Hudson Valley Dance Festival. According to BC/EFA, the organization helps people across the country to receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance. Since 1988, BC/EFA has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people living with HIV/AIDS, struggling with COVID-19 and facing other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. BC/EFA is the single largest financial supporter of the essential social service programs at the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Artis. BC/EFA also awards grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

P!nk has never been one to shy away from discussing her relationship with her husband, Carey Hart — in her music or otherwise. And thankfully, Hart doesn’t seem to be fazed by it, as he revealed during his Thursday (May 4) appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

During P!nk’s recent appearance on the talk show earlier in the week, Clarkson asked about Hart’s thoughts on her songwriting. “You have to take in Carey’s amount of feelings he can handle and how much he is actually thinking about the words I’m saying or listening at all. I think he’s fine,” P!nk told the host. “There’s one on the new album … it was a hard day. I played it for him, because that’s fair. He should know what’s being said about him in the world. And he just started giggling and he’s like, ‘Well, you’re welcome.’”

P!nk was correct in her assumption, as Hart told Clarkson that he tends to be unflinching when it comes to his wife’s music.

“We’ve been together for 21 years. I have very thick skin, so very little affects me, and I don’t know exactly what day she’s talking about specifically. It was probably just the temperature,” the former professional motocross racer joked with Clarkson on Thursday.

P!nk’s most recent album, Trustfall, was released in February. The set earned the pop star her ninth top 10 album on the Billboard 200, as it peaked at No. 2 on the all-genre albums chart.

Watch Hart talk about being referenced in P!nk’s music in the video above.

BTS member Suga, who performs solo material under the alias Agust D, achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart as D-Day opens in the top slot of the list dated May 6. The project starts with 140,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 27, according to Luminate.

Album sales contribute most of D-Day’s first-week activity, with 122,000 copies sold. The six-figure haul makes D-Day the best-selling album of the week across all-genres. Streaming activity comprises 12,500 units (equaling 17.9 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), while the remaining 5,500 are from track-equivalent units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of D-Day was issued in collectible CD packages (seven total, including exclusives for Target, Walmart and the Weverse webstore) each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (in this case, photo cards). It was also available as a standard digital download album, as well as three alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through the artist’s official webstore. Of D-Day’s first-week sales, 90% were CDs, while the remaining 10% were digital album downloads. The set was not available in any other retail format (such as vinyl or cassette).

D-Day gives Agust D a first champ on Top Rap Albums upon his second visit to the list. The 10-track D-2 mixtape debuted and peaked at No. 9 in June 2020. Elsewhere, D-Day enters at No. 1 on the World Albums chart and at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200, behind only Morgan Wallen’s now eight-week champ, One Thing at a Time.

In addition to a first rap No. 1, Agust D also claims his first top 10 solo hit on the Hot Rap Songs chart as “Haegeum” begins at No. 9. The track sold 32,000 copies in the tracking week, with 23,000 of that from digital retailers; the latter figure allows for a No. 1 launch on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart and gives Agust D his fourth career champ there. “Haegeum” was also the week’s most-streamed D-Day track, with 4.6 million clicks. As Suga, the rapper first made the Hot Rap Songs’ top 10 with “Girl of My Dreams,” a collaboration with Juice WRLD, in December 2021.