What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of pop’s biggest stars? Well, they definitely took a hit, but for a lucky few, the money kept rolling in thanks to streaming royalties and physical sales of their music.
Taylor topped the chart based almost solely on sales of her albums folklore and evermore — physical and digital sales, plus streaming. Billboard notes that because Taylor owns her masters, she gets 46% of the money they generate, compared with the 33% a top artist usually earns.
Post Malone is number two on the list, just behind Taylor with $23.2 million. Unlike her, he actually had some touring income in the early part of 2020 that boosted his overall paycheck, which was added to his streaming sales for hits like “Circles.”
Celine Dion comes in at number three because, she was able to tour before the pandemic hit, raking in some $17 million. Royalties from her recordings and publishing made up the rest of her $17.5 million paycheck.
Billie Eilish was in the top five thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed, but she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.
Here’s how some other big stars did in terms of their U.S. paychecks:
11. The Weeknd, $10.4 million
19. BTS, $8.9 million
23. Ariana Grande, $7.5 million
31. Justin Bieber, $6.22 million
36. Ed Sheeran, $5.66 million
37. Halsey, $5.55 million
38. Harry Styles, $5.51 million
Globally, Taylor slides to number two, Billie rises to number three, and rock legends Queen are ranked number one.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are celebrating two weeks of wedded bliss.
The pop superstar shared a never-before-seen candid shot from her wedding ceremony to her country star husband, which took place on July 3. “Happy 2 week anniversary [Blake Shelton],” she wrote in the caption of her post.
The black-and-white image shows Blake and Gwen dressed up in their wedding outfits, standing together in the doorway of the chapel that Blake had built on the property of his Oklahoma ranch specifically for the couple’s wedding. Standing by them is Carson Daly, who officiated the wedding.
Per People, the superstar couple purposely kept their wedding intimate and focused on family. “They didn’t want a circus. In the end, they just wanted to have this moment with their loved ones,” one source explained.
In the days since the wedding, fans have learned the backstories behind a few of the details that the couple used to honor their family members. Gwen’s custom bridal train featured her name and Blake’s embroidered into it, plus the names of her three sons, Kingston, Apollo and Zuma.
She also tributed her parents — who were both present at the wedding — with a lavish, five-tier wedding cake based on the same one that they had at their own ceremony.
Blake and Gwen’s wedding came five years after the couple started dating. They originally met when they were both coaches on The Voice.
The Korean pop supergroup is calling on fans to show off their dance moves to their new song, “Permission to Dance,” for the first global dance challenge hosted on YouTube Shorts.
Throughout the video, the superstar group can be seen doing dance moves that incorporate the signs for “joy,” “dance” and “peace.”
Fans will have three weeks to submit their own 15-second video recreating the dance moves from the upbeat video, using the hashtags #PermissiontoDance and #Shorts. BTS will then pick their favorite clips to be featured in a Shorts compilation video.
The contest takes place from July 23 through August 14.
Co-written by Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance” has amassed more than 170 million views on YouTube. The track follows BTS’ current single, “Butter,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and set a Guinness World Record for becoming the most viewed YouTube music video in a 24-hour period.
What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of rock’s biggest stars? Well, they definitely took a hit, but the lucky few who managed to get some live dates in before the pandemic shut things down did well, as did sales and streaming of new releases and catalog reissues.
Among veteran artists, The Eagles were tops. They came in fourth on Billboard‘s ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2020 in the U.S., behind pop superstars Taylor Swift, Post Malone and Celine Dion. That’s because they were lucky enough to have played 10 shows before the pandemic hit, netting them about $11 million. The rest of their $16.3 million paycheck came from streaming radio and sales and streaming of recordings.
Queen rank number seven with earnings of $13.2 million, thanks to royalties from record sales, publishing and massive streaming numbers. In fact, their on-demand audio streams outranked every other veteran act on the list.
The Beatles ranked number eight with $12.9 million thanks to physical sales of their albums — most of which were pricey vinyl reissues — plus an impressive 1.8 billion streams, which Billboard says is rare for a rock band.
Just out of the top 10, AC/DC came in at #13 with $10.1 million, thanks to sales of its 2020 album Power Up, its back catalog and nearly 1.5 billion streams
Here’s how some other veteran acts ranked in terms of their U.S. paychecks:
18. Metallica, $9 million
20. Pink Floyd, $8.8 million
29. Fleetwood Mac, $6.6 million (thanks to that viral “Dreams” TikTok video)
33. KISS, $6 million
34. Rolling Stones, $5.96 million
39. Billy Joel, $5.49 million
40. Aerosmith, $5.35 million
Globally, though, Queen soar to number one in the rankings.
OWN has released a preview clip for Oprah Winfrey‘s new primetime special OWN Spotlight: Oprah and Jennifer Hudson.
Centering on Hudson’s upcoming portray of Aretha Franklin in Respect, the special will air Tuesday, July 20 at 10 pm ET. on OWN. It will then be made available on Discovery+ the following day. In addition to discussing her new role as the legendary singer, J-Hud will share the impact that the church had on her life and perform the classic gospel song Amazing Grace.
In related news, ahead of Respect‘s highly anticipated release August 13, Fandango is giving moviegoers early access screenings starting August 8. Fans who attend will also view Becoming: Aretha, a Rotten Tomatoes Original Pre-Show program. A limited number of tickets are now on sale on Fandango.com.
Meanwhile, Jerrod Carmichael has been added to Alicia Vikander‘s upcoming HBO series Irma Vep, Variety reports. He joins Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Fala Chen, and Devon Ross who were also announced. The limited series follows Vikander as Mira, an American movie star “disillusioned by her career and a recent breakup” who takes a role in Irma Vep — a remake of the French silent film classic, Les Vampires. Carmichael stars as Eamonn, Mira’s ex-boyfriend who’s in Paris for a film. A release date for Irma Vep has not been announced.
Finally, Starz has tapped The Book of Eli co-director Albert Hughes to direct the first and third episodes of the three-installment event series The Continental, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Based on the hit John Wick action movies starring Keanu Reeves, the series is set 40 years before the events of the Wick films. It will center on a young man named Winston, who becomes the character played by Ian McShane in the Wick franchise.
(CHICAGO) — Following another violent weekend in Chicago in which 56 people were shot, 11 fatally, the Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown announced a new strategy to combat gun violence.
Brown said the department will create a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city.
“The point of this investigations team — which is new and unique, and a first in its class — is to get the gun before it hits the streets at the trafficking level,” Brown said at a news conference Monday. “These third parties need to hear me loud and clear: We’re coming for you, and we’re going to try to charge you with the highest charge we can, if not in the federal system, then at the state attorney’s office.”
The new strategy comes amid an 11% increase in shootings in Chicago this year over the same time period as last year.
Aiming his words at those who purchase illegal guns used in crimes, he said, “Do not buy guns for violent people is our message, or you will pay the price for them by doing what we hope to be serious time.”
“Whatever they’re paying you to go buy these guns … it’s blood money,” Brown said. “Blood is on your hands, and we’re coming for you.”
He said the new gun investigations team will work closely with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as state and federal prosecutors in an attempt to demolish any gun pipelines into the city and bring purveyors of illegal firearms to justice.
Brown said one of the major focuses of the team, which the department began assembling in the spring, will be to trace every illegal gun seized in Chicago to the person who sold the weapons to the perpetrators or those who bought the guns on their behalf.
He said the federal government will also being sending a firearms strike force to the city as early as this week to help curb the flow of illegal firearms.
The superintendent also announced that a 24-hour gun trafficking tipline is being established and will be supported by a $1 million fund allocated by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to “give Chicago residents a voice to remove these tools for violence from the streets of Chicago.” He said “significant payouts” will be made for tips that lead to arrests, indictments and convictions of gun traffickers and others that deal in illegal firearms.
“Someone in this community knows who that is, and we want to incentivize you coming forward anonymously,” Brown said. “We want to incentivize you to help the police department protect your community by giving these people up.”
Brown began the news conference by saying that over the weekend, Chicago police officers seized 113 illegal guns and that, so far this year, a total of 6,629 illegal firearms have been taken off the streets — a 26% increase from 2020.
“Every gun recovery is a potential deadly force encounter, and every gun recovery is a potential saved life,” Brown said.
The superintendent added that 3,264 people have been arrested this year on gun charges.
He also announced arrests in two homicides. In one, a 17-year-old juvenile and an 18-year-old man were arrested in the slaying of a 73-year-old Vietnam vet during a July 14 carjacking. In the other, a 31-year-old suspect was arrested in the fatal execution-style shooting of a man on July 17.
But Brown said seizing illegal guns and solving homicides has clearly not been enough to stem the tide of gun violence overwhelming the city, noting the number of shootings that occurred over the weekend.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said one of the shootings occurred on Saturday night at a graduation party in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side and left six people injured, including four children.
“This was a group that had gotten together previously to celebrate a graduation party, and it was very successful, a really good group of kids and individuals and no issues,” Deenihan said. “So they decided since they had a successful gathering the first time, then ‘why can’t we do this again?'”
He said that during the party, a vehicle drove up, and two gunmen opened fire on the group mingling outside.
“There was no motive as to anybody in this group was involved in any criminal activity,” Deenihan said.
No arrests were made in what Deenihan described as a mass shooting.
Brown said police in Chicago and across the nation are seeing a surge in drive-by shootings rivaling a level not seen since the 1980s and 1990s.
He said that while the new gun investigations team will be “relentless” in its effort to intercept illegal firearms before they are used on the streets, he added they will need held from the community and “a lot of luck.”
“It’s always better to be lucky than good, but we’re going to be very good at this,” he said. “If we are successful, and I believe we will be, it will save untold lives getting these guns out of the hands of people in the first place instead of waiting until after they use the gun or after we make an arrest and recover the gun. We’ll be on the front end of this to get the traffickers.”
(NEW YORK) — Ciara is a superstar singer, mom, wife and all-around mogul, and her latest venture, Dare to Roam, feels right on time.
Just ahead of back-to-school shopping, the “Level Up” singer has introduced a new line of accessories that are ideal for children and adults.
Dare to Roam launches Aug. 11 and includes stylish, functional backpacks, lunch boxes and pouches.
Ciara was inspired to create the brand after spending lots of time at home and wanting to transform the way we commute, travel and get back into the world post-pandemic.
The collection features EPA-registered antimicrobial texture, which serves as an added layer of protection against harmful bacteria — suppressing the growth of mold, mildew, fungi and bacteria.
The antimicrobial shield also helps to eliminate discoloration, odors and overall deterioration, which allows for each accessory to require less washing and be more sustainably used.
“I’m excited to share a cool new project I’ve been working on to help you rebuild your confidence as you Dare To Roam,” said Ciara in a statement Monday as she shared the collection on Instagram.
Dare to Roam came to life in partnership with NYC-based creative agency Harper + Scott with style, utility and protection top of mind, and the agency’s CEO Michael Scott Cohen mentioned in a statement that Dare to Roam was created based on Ciara’s vision.
Prices range from $42 to $98, and with every purchase, 3% of profits will go toward the Why Not You Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to education, children’s health, fighting poverty and empowering youth to lead with a “why not you” attitude.
What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of rock’s biggest stars? Well, they definitely took a hit, but the lucky few who managed to get some live dates in before the pandemic shut things down did well. Streaming of new releases and catalog reissues also helped.
Billie Eilish is the highest-ranking rock act on Billboard‘s list of the highest-paid musicians of 2020, thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed. However, she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.
Queen came in at number seven with earnings of $13.2 million, thanks to some 2020 tour dates, plus royalties from record sales, publishing and massive streaming numbers. In fact, their on-demand audio streams outranked every other veteran act on the list. Globally, Queen soared to number one in the rankings.
Just out of the top 10, AC/DC came in at #13 with $10.1 million, thanks to sales of its 2020 album Power Up, its back catalog and nearly 1.5 billion streams. Metallica came in at #18 with $9 million, mostly thanks to the sales of their August 2020 live album S&M2 and their digitally remastered catalog.
Also in Billboard‘s Top 40: The Lumineers, who managed to play 20 shows in 2020 and earned $6.8 million; Tool, coming in with $6.17 million thanks to nine shows they did in 2020 prior to the pandemic; KISS with $6 million thanks to their 20 live dates, and Aerosmith, who earned $5.35 million thanks to streaming and the shows they played as part of their Las Vegas residency before COVID cut them off.
The list shows just how much rock bands depend on touring revenue; as Billboard notes, the top earners collectively took home $387 million in 2020. By comparison, in 2019, the top earners raked in $969 million.
(ATLANTA) — For the first time in 20 years, the Senate Rules Committee held a field hearing on Monday, this time in Atlanta to discuss voting rights as Democrats push for federal reform in the wake of sweeping legislation in Georgia — and in GOP-led legislatures across the country — which Democrats argue will make it harder for voters to cast their ballots.
“It is no coincidence that this assault on the freedom to vote is happening just after the 2020 election, when nearly 160 million Americans cast a ballot — more than ever before — in the middle of a pandemic, in an election that the Trump Department of Homeland Security Declared the most secure in history,” Committee Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said as she opened the hearing.
Witnesses included Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and state lawmakers and voters who would be affected by the law — which, in part, adds a voter ID requirement and results in fewer drop boxes available in the Atlanta-area.
Those testifying focused their ire on Senate Bill 202 (SB 202), a Georgia state bill passed in March that shortens the periods between elections and runoffs, bans early voting on holidays, and makes it a crime for someone who is not an election worker to give food or drinks to anyone waiting in line.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the hearing in a statement as it kicked off Monday, deeming it all “phony hysteria.”
“This silly stunt is based on the same lie as all the Democrats’ phony hysteria from Georgia to Texas to Washington D.C. and beyond — their efforts to pretend that moderate, mainstream state voting laws with more generous early voting provisions than blue states like New York are some kind of evil assault on our democracy,” the GOP leader said.
But Warnock testified Georgia was “ground zero” for GOP efforts to suppress the vote.
“What we did in Georgia this last election, in terms of turnout, should have been celebrated, by everyone, regardless of political party. But instead it was attacked by craven politicians, who are more committed to the maintenance of their own power than they are to the strengthening and maintaining of our democracy,” Warnock said.
Citing restrictions in Georgia’s new law, particularly how it would prohibit non-poll workers from handing out water and would let people challenge others’ votes, Warnock called for federal voting right protections and emphasized the urgency of those efforts: “We Americans live in a great house that democracy built. Right now, that house is on fire.”
Georgia State Rep. Billy Mitchell also argued SB 202 was moved overly quickly through the Georgia legislature to the governor’s desk.
No Republicans were present at the hearing, but Republicans from Georgia — including Gov. Brian Kemp — criticized the event in a call with reporters later on Monday morning.
“Today’s hearing is just the latest attempt by the Democrats to ignore the catastrophe up in Washington, DC and also to really change the narrative that couldn’t get the federal takeover of elections in S1 [the For the People Act voting rights bill] passed through the Senate or the Congress,” Kemp said.
Klobuchar said that Republicans were invited to join; Kemp said that he was in a hearing about crime during the voting hearing, and that he does not believe Klobuchar’s hearing was fair.
The hearing comes as Senate Democrats put pressure on their colleagues across the aisle to move forward in unison on the stalled For the People Act, an expansive package that would transform federal elections, voting and congressional redistricting, which passed the House in March.
A more measured proposal with some Republican support named for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., which would restore pieces of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, has also failed to advance through Congress.
Democrats argue lawmakers must act with more urgency on voting legislation also in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court deciding last month to uphold voting restrictions in Arizona that Democrats and voting advocates have called discriminatory on the basis of race.
Monday’s hearing also comes at a busy time in Washington.
Both chambers of Congress were back in session Monday as Democrats in the Texas State Legislature took harbor in the capital for a second week in order to prevent Republicans in Austin from taking up the proposals in a special legislative session. While they had planned to push voting rights legislation on the hill, five members have tested positive for COVID-19.
And just days after Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty was arrested along with other activists in a display of civil disobedience on Capitol Hill, the “Women’s Moral Monday March on Washington” rally, organized by the Women’s March and Poor People Campaign, added their voices with a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court Monday.
The group demanded that Congress take action on issues such as ending the filibuster and expanding voting rights.
Sixteen states have enacted 28 laws that would restrict voting access, out of hundreds that have been introduced throughout the country, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey and Trish Turner contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly a year and a half after the pandemic forced Canada and the United States to close their borders, fully vaccinated Americans will have their chance to visit the Great White North.
The Canadian government announced Monday that fully vaccinated U.S. residents will be allowed to visit the country starting Aug. 9. Those travelers won’t be subject to quarantine upon entry, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.
In March 2020, the Canadian government banned travel between the two countries, with a few exceptions, because of rising COVID-19 cases around the world. Patty Hajdu, the Canadian minister of health, said the declining cases in the country and rising vaccinations among residents gave the government a strong foundation to allow international visitors.
“Canadians have worked hard and sacrificed for each other, and because of that work, we can take these next steps safely,” she said in a statement.
Americans who wish to travel to the country must be 14 days out of their second shot, according to the new rules. They must also submit their vaccination documentation and other information on the ArriveCAN website or app in order to get approval of entry.
A negative COVID-19 test is also required prior to entry.
If the health trends continue to progress favorably, the Canadian government will allow fully vaccinated travelers from other nations to visit the country.
For the last 16 months, the Canadian government has only allowed Americans to enter under certain conditions, such as if they had immediate family, were international students or worked in the country.
