Classic Hits

To mark her daughter Mercy‘s 18th birthday, Madonna got 20,000 people sing to her. Of course, it helped that she was onstage at New York City’s Madison Square Garden at the time.

Mercy has been joining Madonna onstage each night during her Celebration tour to play piano as Madonna sings “Bad Girl.” On January 22, People reports that Madonna led the entire arena in singing “Happy Birthday” to Mercy and then added, “Stand up, stand up beautiful girl. Look at this queen! That’s what a beautiful queen looks like!” 

On Instagram, Madonna posted a lengthy tribute to her second oldest daughter, writing, “You were always the quiet one. The gentle one. The Shy and Stoic one. While All of my other children were clamoring for attention, you were Hiding under your hoodie — never wanting to draw attention to yourself.”

She went on to describe Mercy as “always Humble and Kind. Always the first one to say thank you. To clear the table after dinner! To Come and Hug me and say how much you appreciate something. And Always the most Responsable [sic].”

Madonna added, “Beautiful Mercy James. I am really astounded by the woman you have become. Poised and radiant. Skilled and Soulful. A True artist. … To hear you play … every night in my show with such confidence is such a thrill … nothing gives me greater pleasure than to watch you grow. You really are A wonder.”

She ended by joking, “Even though we both hate shellfish the world is your Oyster !! She is waiting for you to devour it. To eat it whole!!! To Slay it!!”

In addition to Mercy, Madonna is mother to Lourdes, Rocco, David and twins Stella and Estere.

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Bob Dylan is returning to the road this spring. The 82-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just announced a spring leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. 

The tour kicks off March 1 with a two-night stand in Ft. Lauderdale, one of five Florida cities on this leg. It also stops in Athens, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, before wrapping March 18 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, January 26. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

Dylan launched his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour in November 2021. The trek supports his album of the same name, which he released in June 2020.

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On This Day, January 23,1976…

David Bowie released his 10th studio album, Station to Station, which introduced a new persona, the Thin White Duke.

The follow up to 1975’s Young Americans, Station To Station, co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, saw the rocker being influenced by electronic dance music as well as a genre of German experimental rock known as krautrock.

Station to Station peaked at #3 on the Billboard album chart and at the time was Bowie’s highest-charting album in the U.S.

The lead single, “Golden Years,” spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #10. The tune would later be used for the soundtrack to the 2001 movie A Knight’s Tale.

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The late Robbie Robertson has been recognized with his first-ever Oscar nomination for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. 

Robertson, who passed away in August, has been posthumously nominated in the Original Score category, where he’ll compete with scores for the films American Fiction, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Oppenheimer and Poor Things. 

Robertson’s score has already been recognized with nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. In both cases, he lost to Oppenheimer’s Ludwig Göransson. The score also received a nomination for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Film Awards.

Also earning an Oscar nod in the Best Animated Short Film category is WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, which, as the title gives away, was inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s classic holiday tune “Happy Christmas (War Is Over).” 

One musician who seems to have gotten snubbed from this year’s nominations is Lenny Kravitz, whose Rustin song “Road to Freedom” was on the shortlist for an Original Song nod but was left out of the category. The song had previously been nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, but lost both times.

Songs that did make the Best Original Song category this year include the Barbie tunes “What Was I Made For?,” from Billie Eilish and brother FINNEAS, and “I’m Just Ken,” which features guitarists Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen, plus songs from American Symphony, Flamin’ Hot and Killers of the Flower Moon. 

The 96th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air live on ABC Sunday, March 10.

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Some never-before-seen video footage of The Beatles can be yours if you’re willing to dip into your wallet.

An original 8mm reel featuring black-and-white footage of the band is now available through RR Auction. The reel features a little over three minutes of footage taken while the band was shooting their 1965 film Help!

According to Hot Press, the footage was found by Dublin-based illustrator Thomas Emmet Mullins after he set up an eBay alert for “Beatles 8mm.”

When he got his first alert, the listing featured some stills from the video. He says, “[I]t was clear it was unseen footage of what is arguably the most documented band in modern history,” noting he believes it was taken by either a crew member on the film or someone else who had access to the set.

The description of the footage says it was shot near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England, which means it was likely shot between May 3, 1965, and May 5, 1965, which is when they were filming in the area.

The clip give fans a peek at John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their “natural jovial state,” and shows them interacting with the cast and crew. At one point you can even see Lennon “clowning around” with the film’s director, Richard Lester.

The 8mm reel is currently part of RR Auction’s Remarkable Rarities auction, with the sale set to run through February 22. It is estimated to sell for over $10,000.

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Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar appears in a new episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, and in a preview of the episode Sammy discovers that Hagar really isn’t his last name. 

In the clip, the rocker is informed by host Henry Louis Gates Jr. that DNA testing shows he doesn’t match with any men with the last name Hagar.

“Get out of here. This is nutty as anything I’ve ever imagined,” he says in the clip, before being informed that his biological last name is actually Belcher and that he matches with 27 men with that surname. 

“What a trip,” he says.

Sammy’s episode of Finding Your Roots debuts Tuesday, January 23, at 8 p.m.

Sammy Belcher, we mean Hagar, is gearing up to hit the road this summer on his The Best of All Worlds Tour, where he’ll be joined by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Joe Satriani. The tour kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at redrocker.com.

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We are about to learn a whole lot more about Bon Jovi.

The band’s history is set be revisited in the new docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, which has just been acquired by Hulu. 

All past and present members of the band provided their full cooperation for the four-part series, which will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the 40-year history of the New Jersey band and its frontman, Jon Bon Jovi. It will feature personal videos, early unreleased demos, never-before-seen photos and more.

According to the series description, Thank You, Good Night will delve into the band’s “triumphs and setbacks, greatest hits, biggest disappointments and most public moments of friction.”

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, directed by Gotham Chopra, debuts Friday, April 26, on Hulu.

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Jon Bon Jovi is set to be honored next month as the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year, and it looks like the occasion may include a Bon Jovi reunion. 

Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman reports that former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora will be on hand to help Jon celebrate his big night, although there’s no word on whether he’ll be performing.

Sambora left Bon Jovi in 2013. If the MusiCares gala does include a reunion performance it will be their first performance together since 2018, when all of Bon Jovi performed at their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year gala is set to take place Friday, February 2, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, two nights before the Grammy Awards. A star-studded lineup of musicians is expected to perform Jon’s songs at the event, but so far there’s been no official announcement regarding the lineup.

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Meat Loaf’s wife and daughter paid tribute to him on Saturday, which was the second anniversary of his death. 

The rocker’s wife, Deborah Aday, took to Facebook to share a tribute to her husband, posting a photo of him and their dog with the note: “Missing my beautiful husband!”

Meat Loaf’s daughter Pearl Aday also shared a message for her late father on Instagram, sharing a boomerang of her and her dad. In her note, she wrote, “One second live smile. I love you, Dad. I wish we were allowed more time.”

She added, “We miss you and we love you.”

Meat Loaf, whose real name was Marvin Lee Aday, died January 20, 2022, at the age of 74.

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Rick Wakeman is ready to say goodbye to the road. The legendary Yes keyboardist just announced dates for what he says will be his final solo tour.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is promising fans a brand new show, which will have him performing highlights from his career with Yes and his solo work. He also plans to debut a brand new 30-minute instrumental piece, Yessonata, which turns themes and melodies from Yes’ music into a sonata. 

“I always planned to stop touring by my 77th birthday,” Wakeman, who turns 75 on May 18, shares, “but there is so much to fit in before then that I’m having to make plans now and so my final one-man shows will have to cease by that date.”

He adds, “I have thoroughly enjoyed performing the various one-man shows, but it’s time to call it a day. I intend to throw in the best of what I have done in the past, plus a few new surprises on the way, and possibly even the odd guest joining me on the odd occasion.”

The first leg of the tour is set to kick off March 19 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and wrap March 29 in Albany, New York. Ticket information and a complete list of dates can be found at rwcc.com.

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