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      Dua Lipa Dominates Nominations at 2021 BRIT Awards

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      Instagram

      The ‘Don’t Start Now’ hitmaker, along with Arlo Parks and Celese, leads this year’s nominees of the upcoming BRIT Music Awards with a total of three nods each.

      Apr 1, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, and Celeste are among the acts leading all nominees for the 2021 BRIT Awards, scoring three mentions apiece.

      They join Young T & Bugsey and Joel Corry as the triple award threats, with Dua, Arlo, and Celeste all competing for Female Solo Artist and Album of the Year.

      This year’s ceremony will take place at London’s O2 Arena on 11 May, with performances by Dua Lipa and Griff confirmed.

      Parks has taken to Twitter to rave about her three nods, writing, “All I know is that I wouldn’t be here without my team, my family, every single person who’s played my tunes in their cars, bedrooms, kitchens & living rooms.”

      “I take none of this for granted I hope you know that. What a moment… all words are escaping me right now except for thank you. From sketchy demos on my £30 mic in my basement to the BRITs – dreams come true.”

      YUNGBLUD, who is up for Male Solo Artist, alongside Corry, J Hus, Headie One, and AJ Tracey, also posted on social media, writing, “I have watched the brits every year since i can remember. its what makes the British music scene so rock n roll. I would watch oasis and the artic monkeys cause trouble and i always wanted to be there and now to be nominated is mental (sic)!!!”

      The full list of 2021 BRIT Awards nominations is:

      Male Solo Artist:

      AJ Tracey
      Headie One
      J Hus
      Joel Corry
      Yungblud

      Female Solo Artist:

      Arlo Parks
      Celeste
      Dua Lipa
      Jessie Ware
      Lianne La Havas

      British Single:

        See also…

      220 Kid & Gracey – “Don’t Need Love”
      Aitch & AJ Tracey ft. Tae Keith – “Rain”
      Dua Lipa – “Physical”
      Harry Styles – “Watermelon Sugar”
      Headie One ft. AJ Tracey & Stormzy – “Ain’t It Different”
      Joel Corry ft. MNEK – “Head & Heart”
      Nathan Dawe ft. KSI – “Lighter”
      Regard & Raye – “Secrets”
      Simba ft. DTG – “Rover”
      Young T & Bugsey ft. Headie One – “Don’t Rush”

      British Group:

      Breakthrough Artist:

      Arlo Parks
      Bicep
      Celeste
      Joel Corry
      Young T & Bugsey

      International Group:

      International Female Solo Artist:

      International Male Solo Artist:

      Mastercard Album of the Year:

      Arlo Parks – “Collapsed In Sunbeams”
      Celeste – “Not Your Muse”
      Dua Lipa – “Future Nostalgia”
      J Hus – “Big Conspiracy”
      Jessie Ware – “What’s Your Pleasure”

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      FKA twigs Thanks Lil Nas X for Publicly Acknowledging Similarities Between Their Music Videos

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      Instagram

      The ‘Cellophane’ singer is grateful to the ‘Old Town Road’ hitmaker for admitting there are similarities between her music video and his newly released ‘Montero’ visual.

      Apr 1, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Lil Nas X has thanked FKA twigs for informing him of the similarities between his video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and the visual for her track “Cellophane”.

      Upon the release of Nas’s new video, fans were quick to point out the likenesses between the two videos, with some accusing him of ripping off Twigs’ concept.

      However, the “Old Town Road” star insisted in a post on Instagram on Tuesday (30March21) that he was “unaware” of the similarities between the two videos until he received a phone call from Twigs herself.

      “I want to show love to @fkatwigs & (Cellophane video director) @andrewthomashuang ! the cellophane visual is a masterpiece. i was not aware that the visual would serve as a major inspiration for those who worked on the effects of my video.”

        See also…

      “I want to say thank u to twigs for calling me and informing me about the similarities between the two videos, as i was not aware they were so close. was only excited for the video to come out. i understand how hard you worked to bring this visual to life. you deserve so much more love and praise.”

      Following his comment, Twigs was quick to praise him for his honesty about the situation, writing, “Thank you @lilnasx for our gentle honest conversations and for acknowledging the inspiration cellophane gave you and your creative team in creating your iconic video!”

      “I think what you have done is amazing and i fully support your expression and bravery in pushing culture forward for the queer community. legend status.”

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      Listening to Music in the Desert at Dawn

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      Terry Tempest Williams, an author and environmental activist, on bird song, Keith Jarrett and slowing down.For a series of conversations about music with nonmusicians, I am swapping songs: exchanging pieces with my interlocutors to spark ideas about how their areas of expertise might relate to organized sound.Terry Tempest Williams is an author and environmental activist whose work celebrates the red-rock deserts of Utah, where she calls home. Her most recent book, “Erosion: Essays of Undoing,” describes the personal and political repercussions of the depredation of public lands.For our chat, I chose the “Abyss of the Birds” section from Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” She picked “First (Solo Voice)” from Keith Jarrett’s “Invocations.” These are edited excerpts from the interview.In your book “When Women Were Birds,” you describe childhood memories of your grandmother creating candlelit listening parties, where she would play records for you and your brother. They included classical music, but also field recordings of bird song.That’s why I picked the clarinet solo from Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” first performed in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941; it has stretches of desolate, sustained long notes alongside transcriptions of bird song.I hear it as breath. I knew the story before I knew the music, and I was struck by how, in the presence of war, you could have two minds: one watching out for the enemy and one listening for the call of a blackbird or a mockingbird. And when I first heard it, I was just devastated by the beauty.That first note appears to come out of nowhere and then builds through the power of one breath. Especially now, in the time of coronavirus, as a country we can’t breathe. We can’t breathe because of the virus. We can’t breathe because of politics, because of the Black and brown bodies that are being killed on the streets. And here, there is that one opening breath, and at the beginning, it feels like melancholy, it feels like a lament. But then as it progresses, there is that building of the silence to voice that becomes a lighter voice, the voice of birds, a fluttering and flourishing.The clarinet sets vibrations in motion so subtly that by the time we notice them as sound, they’ve already wormed their way into us.It also felt like light. I had heard that the piece was created at dawn, so this morning, I took my music outside and sat in the desert. As light spread, against that building of voice, it felt like the music mirrored the dawn itself. And I was absolutely stunned by the birds that were drawn in. The robins were the first ones. At moments, I couldn’t tell: Was that a fluttering from Messiaen or a fluttering from the robins? Then starlings came in, and it was almost like they were trying to copy the music, and then the desert mourning doves came in. And then the larks took over.Sitting in this grove of junipers, I thought about Messiaen and his musicians creating this music in a time of such confinement — and that is the power of community.Messiaen was a Catholic who believed in eternity as something both comforting and terrifying. As someone who fights for the preservation of wilderness, to what extent do you also have to think of time outside of how it is measured by humans?I was a child in 1962, when my grandmother read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” We were in her garden putting seeds in bird feeders. And she said, “Terry, can you imagine a world without bird song?” It was a terrifying thought. Birds allow us to be present in the moment, but they also link me to a time before the human record and to what will be as we live our own apocalypse in terms of climate collapse. So they’re an arrow pointing in both directions.Messiaen said, “It is in a spirit of no confidence in myself, or I mean in the human race, that I have taken bird songs as a model.” And he goes on to talk about the “sovereign freedom” of birds.That is a beautiful paradox I hear in his music. Birds are the ultimate symbol of freedom. They are also the symbol of presence. They hold their past, and we pray that they will carry the earth into the future. Here he was a devout Catholic, and yet he sought his spiritual source not from God but from God’s creation.The classic instrument to represent a bird would be the flute, but here it’s brought down a few octaves. It’s mediated, or translated.He slows their song down so we can really hear. And birds feel like they are the mediators between us and heaven. I also think that since birds travel within the realm of air, to choose a clarinet, a single reed instrument that requires breath, is such a beautiful manifestation.I was really touched by the piece you chose. While the Messiaen exists in this pure darkness with no echo coming back, Keith Jarrett’s saxophone solo plays with the acoustics of the German abbey where it was recorded, a man-made space designed for transcendence.The two pieces feel interlinked. They’re both single-reed, solo voices. One is highly composed, the other born of improvisation. And both of them felt like invocations. With Keith Jarrett’s solo, it was the echo that moved me most. This energetic vibration that I feel especially attuned to now as we are a year into a pandemic that we first thought was a pause and we now know is a place. The echoes we feel in our isolation, our own solo voices.Jarrett invites us to ask how well can we live with uncertainty. He offers us a path of improvisation, and the echo turns it into a call and response.At the heart of improvisation is listening. Jarrett is listening to the echoes, to the spaces in between his notes. You can almost hear him wondering: What happens if I push this note through the resonance trail of the last one, like concentric smoke rings? Can I smudge the difference between the note I play in this moment and the residue that’s still lingering from the previous one?It’s in the listening that you open up creative space. I was astonished by a passage about two minutes and 50 seconds in, where the music builds to this fullness. For a while, I lost all track of time.That’s where he stays on one note and bends the pitch. It develops these microtonal inflections that no longer belong to Western music. He allows the note to wilt and revive. He seems to be exploring the spaces in between notes.If someone were to say, “Tell me where you live, what do you experience,” I would point to this piece. It is this spaciousness. It is the echo of wall against wall in the narrow confines of these red-rock canyons.Both of these pieces are filled with memory. How do we access that? For me the bridge is silence and stillness.As harrowing and as grief-filled as this pandemic has been, it has brought us to this place of slowing down and listening. And that has been part of the blessing. If we are going to survive, that is what is required. More

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      APRA Music Awards 2021 Unveils Kevin Parker, Guy Sebastian and Amy Shark Among Its Nominees

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      WENN/Instagram/Sakura/Adriana M. Barraza

      The three musicians will be battling it out for the Song of the Year honor, while Dua Lipa is up against Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi, The Weeknd and Maroon 5 for Most Performed International Work.

      Mar 31, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Tame Impala star Kevin Parker, Guy Sebastian and Amy Shark are preparing to battle it out for the Song of the Year honor at the 2021 APRA Awards.

      “Lost It Yesterday” has earned Parker a nod, while Sebastian’s “Standing with You” and Shark’s “Everybody Rise” have also received recognition in the top category, alongside Tim Minchin’s “Carry You” and Midnight Oil’s “Gadigal Land”.

      The peer-voted award is one of the highest honors given to Australian songwriters.

      “Everybody Rise” and “Let Me Drink” will additionally go up against Tones And I’s “Never Seen the Rain”, Jessica Mauboy’s “Selfish” and “Break My Heart” by Dua Lipa for Most Performed Pop Work, as “Lost in Yesterday” competes for Most Performed Alternative Work.

      Included in the Most Performed Rock Work shortlist are Wolfmother’s “Chase the Feeling”, Cold Chisel’s “Getting the Band Back Together” and Spacey Jane’s “Good for You”, with Martin Garrix and Dean Lewis’ “Used to Love” facing off with Joel Corry and MNEK’s “Head & Heart”, and “Rushing Back” by Flume featuring Vera Blue in the dance category.

      The hip-hop/rap contenders include Day1’s “Boss, I’m Good?” by Hilltop Hoods and ONEFOUR’s “In the Beginning”, while Becca Hatch’s “2560”, “Rain” by The Teskey Brothers and Milan Ring’s “Say to Me” are in the running for the R&B/Soul accolade.

      Meanwhile, The Kid LAROI, Mallrat, Miieha, Thelma Plum and Lime Cordiale are up for Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year, and Dua Lipa picks up another mention for Most Performed International Work for “Don’t Start Now”, which faces stiff competition from “Adore You” by Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi’s “Before You Go”, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and “Memories” by Maroon 5.

      The 2021 APRA Awards, organized by officials at the Australasian Performing Right Association, will take place in-person in Sydney on April 28, when the late Helen Reddy will be honored with the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music.

      The list of 2021 APRA Music Awards nominees is below.

      Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year:

      Missy Higgins, “Carry You” (Writer: Tim Minchin; Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Amy Shark, “Everybody Rise” (Writers: Amy Shark / Joel Little; Publishers: Mushroom Music / Sony Music Publishing)
      Midnight Oil, feat. Dan Sultan, Joel Davison, Kaleena Briggs & Bunna Lawrie “Gadigal Land”, Writers: Joel Davison / Rob Hirst / Bunna Lawrie, Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Universal Music Publishing)
      Tame Impala, “Lost in Yesterday” (Writer: Kevin Parker; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Guy Sebastian, “Standing with You” (Writers: Guy Sebastian / Jamie Hartman / Greg Holden; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / Mushroom Music obo Reservoir / Warner Chappell Music)

        See also…

      Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year:

      Charlton Howard pka The Kid LAROI (Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Grace Shaw pka Mallrat (Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Dew Process)
      Miiesha Young pka Miiesha (Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Louis and Oli Leimbach (Lime Cordiale) (Publishers: Universal Music Publishing obo Chugg Music)
      Thelma Plum (Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)

      Most Performed Australian Work:

      Dua Lipa, “Break My Heart” (Writers: Andrew Farriss / Michael Hutchence / Dua Lipa / Jordan Johnson / Stefan Johnson / Ali Tamposi / Andrew Watt; Publishers: Warner Chappell Music / Universal Music Publishing / BMG Rights Management / Mushroom Music obo Reservoir / Kobalt Music Publishing)
      The Rubens, “Live in Life” (Writers:Scott Baldwin / Elliott Margin / Sam Margin / Zaac Margin / William Zeglis; Publishers: Mushroom Music obo Ivy League Music)
      Tones And I, “Never Seen the Rain” (Writer: Toni Watson; Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Flume ft. Vera Blue, “Rushing Back” (Writers: Harley Streten / Celia Pavey / Eric Dubowsky / Sophie Cates; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Future Classic / Universal Music Publishing / Kobalt Music Publishing / Sony Music Publishing)
      Martin Garrix & Dean Lewis, “Used to Love” (Writers: Dean Lewis / Martijn Garritsen / Kristoffer Fogelmark / Albin Nedler; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing / Universal Music Publishing)

      Most Performed Alternative Work:

      The Rubens, “Live in Life” (Writers: Scott Baldwin / Elliott Margin / Sam Margin / Zaac Margin / William Zeglis; Publishers: Mushroom Music obo Ivy League Music)
      Tame Impala, “Lost in Yesterday” (Writer: Kevin Parker; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Lime Cordiale, “Robbery” (Writers: Louis Leimbach / Oli Leimbach / Shane Abrahams / Daniel Choder / Jonathan Pakfar; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing obo Chugg Music / Downtown Music / Kobalt Music Publishing)
      DMA’s, “Silver” (Writers: Matt Mason / Tommy O’Dell / Johnny Took / Thomas Crandles / Joel Flyger / Liam Hoskins; Publishers: Mushroom Music / Sony Music Publishing)
      Birds of Tokyo, “Two of Us” (Writers: Ian Berney / Ian Kenny / Glenn Sarangapany / Adam Spark / Adam Weston; Publisher: Mushroom Music)

      Most Performed Blues & Roots Work:

      Ash Grunwald ft. The Teskey Brothers, “Aint My Problem” (Writer: Ash Grunwald; Publisher: Mushroom Music)
      Dope Lemon, “Give Me Honey” (Writer: Angus Stone; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Busby Marou, “Over Drinking Over You” (Writers: Thomas Busby / Jeremy Marou / Ivy Adara / Jon Hume / Lindsey Jackson; Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Kobalt Music Publishing / Native Tongue Music Publishing)
      Tash Sultana, “Pretty Lady” (Writers: Tash Sultana / Matt Corby / Dann Hume; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Tash Sultana / Sony Music Publishing)
      Ziggy Alberts, “Together” (Writer: Ziggy Alberts; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Alberts & Co Music)

      Most Performed Country Work:

      Casey Barnes, “A Little More” (Writers: Casey Barnes / Michael Delorenzis / Michael Paynter; Publisher: Mushroom Music)
      Morgan Evans, “Diamonds” (Writers: Morgan Evans / Evan Bogart / Chris de Stefano; Publishers: Warner Chappell Music / Kobalt Music Publishing / Sony Music Publishing)
      Brad Cox, “Give Me Tonight” (Writers: Brad Cox / Joseph Mungovan; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      The McClymonts, “I Got This” (Writers: Brooke McClymont / Mollie McClymont / Samantha McClymont / Andy Mak; Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Native Tongue Music Publishing)
      Melanie Dyer, “Memphis T-Shirt” (Writers: Melanie Dyer / Emma-Lee / Karen Kosowski; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)

      Most Performed Dance Work:

      PNAU ft. Ollie Gabriel, “All of Us” (Writers: Nick Littlemore / Sam Littlemore / Peter Mayes / Oli Gabriel; Publisher: Universal Music Publishing)
      Joel Corry & MNEK, “Head & Heart” (Writers: Jonathan Courtidis / Neav Applebaum / Joel Corry / Daniel Dare / Robert Harvey / MNEK / Kasif Siddiqui / Lewis Thompson; Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Universal Music Publishing / Mushroom Music obo Minds on Fire / Warner Chappell Music / Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Flume ft. Vera Blue, “Rushing Back” (Writers: Harley Streten / Celia Pavey / Eric Dubowsky / Sophie Cates; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Future Classic / Universal Music Publishing / Kobalt Music Publishing / Sony Music Publishing)
      Dom Dolla, “San Frandisco” (Writer: Dominic Matheson; Publishers: Sweat It Out Publishing administered by Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Martin Garrix & Dean Lewis, “Used to Love” (Writers: Dean Lewis / Martijn Garritsen / Kristoffer Fogelmark / Albin Nedler; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing / Universal Music Publishing)

      Most Performed Hip Hop / Rap Work:

      Day1, “Boss” (Writers: Bailey Rawiri / Tuhi Montell)
      No Money Enterprise, “German” (Writers: Semisi Alosio / Vaha’i Finau / Junior Leaupepe / Schneider Leaupepe)
      Hilltop Hoods, “I’m Good?” (Writers: Barry Francis (DJ Debris) / Matthew Lambert (Suffa) / Daniel Smith (Pressure) / Paul Bartlett / John Bartlett; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      ONEFOUR, “In the Beginning” (Writers: Spencer Magalogo / Jerome Misa / Pio Misa / Salec Su’a; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Youngn Lipz, “Misunderstood” (Writer: Filipo Faaoloii)

      Most Performed R&B / Soul Work:

      Becca Hatch, “2560” (Writers: Becca Hatch / Maribelle Anes / Jamie Muscat / Willie Tafa / Solo Tohi; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing / Universal Music Publishing)
      Winston Surfshirt, “Nobodylikeyou” (Writers: Jack Hambling / Lachlan McAllister / Brett Ramson; Publisher: BMG Rights Management)
      The Teskey Brothers, “Rain” (Writers: Josh Teskey / Sam Teskey / Liam Gough / Brendan Love; Publisher: Mushroom Music)
      Milan Ring, “Say to Me” (Writers: Milan Ring / Blessed Joe-Andah; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / BMG Rights Management)
      Miiesha, “Twisting Words” (Writers: Miiesha Young / Stephen Collins / Mohamed Komba; Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Mushroom Music)

      Most Performed Pop Work:

      Dua Lipa, “Break My Heart” (Writers: Andrew Farriss / Michael Hutchence / Dua Lipa / Jordan Johnson / Stefan Johnson / Ali Tamposi / Andrew Watt; Publishers: Warner Chappell Music / Universal Music Publishing / BMG Rights Management / Mushroom Music obo Reservoir / Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Amy Shark, “Everybody Rise” (Writers: Amy Shark / Joel Little; Publishers: Mushroom Music / Sony Music Publishing)
      Guy Sebastian, “Let Me Drink” (Writers: Guy Sebastian / M-Phazes / Olubowale Akintimehin; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music)
      Tones And I, “Never Seen the Rain” (Writer: Toni Watson; Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Jessica Mauboy, “Selfish” (Writers: Jessica Mauboy / Antonio Egizii / Isabella Kearney-Nurse / David Musumeci; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / Sony Music Publishing)

      Most Performed Rock Work:

      Wolfmother ft. Chris Cester, “Chase the Feeling” (Writers: Andrew Stockdale / Chris Cester / Jason Hill; Publishers: BMG Rights Management / Universal/MCA Music Publishing)
      Cold Chisel, “Getting the Band Back Together” (Writer: Don Walker; Publisher: Sony Music Publishing)
      Spacey Jane, “Good for You” (Writers: Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu / Caleb Harper / Kieran Lama / Peppa Lane; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Dew Process)
      Hockey Dad, “I Missed Out” (Writers: Will Fleming / Zach Stephenson; Publisher: BMG Rights Management)
      The Amity Affliction, “Soak Me in Bleach” (Writers: Joel Birch / Ahren Stringer / Daniel Brown / Joseph Longobardi; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing / Native Tongue Music Publishing)

      Most Performed International Work:

      Harry Styles, “Adore You” (Writers: Harry Styles / Amy Allen / Thomas Hull / Tyler Johnson; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / Kobalt Music Publishing / Native Tongue Music Publishing)
      Lewis Capaldi, “Before You Go” (Writers: Lewis Capaldi / Thomas Barnes / Peter Kelleher / Benjamin Kohn / Philip Plested; Publishers: BMG Rights Management / Sony Music Publishing)
      The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights” (Writers: Abel Tesfaye / Ahmad Balshe / Oscar Holter / Max Martin / Jason Quenneville; Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music / Universal/MCA Music Publishing)
      Dua Lipa, “Don’t Start Now” (Writers: Dua Lipa / Caroline Ailin / Ian Kirkpatrick / Emily Schwartz; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing / BMG Rights Management / Warner Chappell Music / Kobalt Music Publishing)
      Maroon 5, “Memories” (Writers: Adam Levine / Jonathan Bellion / Vincent Ford / Jacob Hindlin / ordan Johnson / Stefan Johnson / Michael Pollack; Publishers: Universal/MCA Music Publishing / BMG Right Management / Kobalt Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music)

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      Casting a ‘Follies’ of the Future, With Beyoncé and Ben Platt

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      In the 50 years since the musical’s debut, revivals and concerts have served its great songs to great stars. Who’d be our Broadway babies 25 years from now?“Follies” is every musical theater nerd’s favorite casting puzzle. It needs names that evoke nostalgia for the showbiz past but also skilled triple-threats who match the characters — and one another. Below, a look at performers who originated the six major roles, and a selection of those who followed over the last 50 years. Plus: Our dream cast for the 2046 revival, when “Follies” will be 75 and the nostalgia will be for today.Benjamin StoneDistinguished. Wealthy. Unfaithful. Depressed.From left: John McMartin, Victor Garber and Benjamin Walker.From left: Associated Press, Sara Krulwich/The New York Times and Richard Perry/The New York TimesOf all the original stars of “Follies,” only John McMartin came without nostalgic baggage. He was a theater actor first — and that’s how Ben, a philanthropist and retired politician, has been cast ever since.For the 2007 Encores! production, the four-time Tony nominee Victor Garber was Ben to Donna Murphy’s Phyllis. The pair looked perfect together, like a president and first lady.For the 75th anniversary revival, Benjamin Walker, who has played Andrew Jackson onstage and Abraham Lincoln (vampire killer) on film, seems just right.Buddy PlummerManic. Sweaty. Unfaithful. Depressed.From left: Gene Nelson, Mandy Patinkin and Ben Platt.Associated Press, Sara Krulwich/The New York Times, Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesA former Hollywood hoofer — he played Will Parker in the movie of “Oklahoma!” — Gene Nelson was dead-on casting for the salesman unfortunate enough to be in love with his wife.When the New York Philharmonic produced a concert version for a gala in 1985, Mandy Patinkin took the role — and shook it for all it was worth.Sure, he’s already got his mitts on the “Merrily We Roll Along” movie, but wasn’t “Dear Evan Hansen” a de facto audition for Ben Platt to play this walking nervous breakdown, too?Phyllis Rogers StoneElegant. Icy. Unfaithful. Angry.From left: Alexis Smith, Diana Rigg and Beyoncé.From left: Associated Press, Andrea Mohin/The New York Times and Kevin Winter, via Getty Images for The Recording AcademyBy 1971, Alexis Smith was long retired from Hollywood, where her aloof, glamorous aura made her a star of the 1940s. That persona (and timeline) made her perfect for Phyllis.Who better than Diana Rigg, that former Avenger, to take the role of a brilliantly imperious wife for the 1987 London premiere?Lucy is juicy. Jessie is dressy. Or so Phyllis sings, describing her two contrasting halves. Beyoncé is all that, and more. Case closed.Sally Durant PlummerFrilly. Romantic. Faithful. Nuts.From left: Dorothy Collins, Bernadette Peters and Ruthie Ann Miles.From left: Associated Press, Sara Krulwich/The New York Times and Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesIn the 1950s, Dorothy Collins was a lovely B-list songbird on “Your Hit Parade.” In 1971, she still had the voice — and despite a big smile, the acting chops to make Sally dark.Bernadette Peters took the role in the 2011 Broadway revival, stripping away Sally’s social skin and turning darkness into madness.Ruthie Ann Miles won a Tony Award for her impassioned rendition of “Something Wonderful” in “The King and I.” Sally’s “Losing My Mind” is another ode to longing worthy of her heart-melting voice.Hattie WalkerIndomitable. Leather-Lunged. Ancient. Ageless.From left: Ethel Shutta, Elaine Stritch and Bernadette Peters.From left: Martha Swope, via The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Sara Krulwich/The New York Times and Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe former radio star Ethel Shutta was 74 when she originated the role — and debuted its great song “Broadway Baby”; her own Broadway debut was in 1922.For the 1985 concert, no one was going to get between Hattie and Elaine Stritch, who sang “Broadway Baby” for most of the next 30 years.In 2046, Bernadette Peters will be 98 — and look 48. Having already played Sally in the 2011 revival, she’ll be perfect for a role she has never played except in real life.Carlotta CampionBruised. Tough. Hilarious. Still Here.From left: Yvonne De Carlo, Carol Burnett and Justin Vivian Bond.From left: Associated Press, Sara Krulwich/The New York Times, Deidre Schoo for The New York TimesYvonne De Carlo, the best known member of the original cast, portrayed the former B-list star who sings “I’m Still Here.”For the same 1985 concert, Carol Burnett — a bigger star than any of the “Follies” characters — was a curveball Carlotta. But no one could sell the setup for her big number better: “It was supposed to be a sad song, but it kept getting laughs.”How much Carlotta was there in Kiki DuRayne of “Kiki & Herb” fame? More than a splash. In 2046 it’ll be time for her creator, the cabaret chanteuse Justin Vivian Bond, to drink up, close the bar — and bring down the house. More

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      ‘Follies’ Was My First Broadway Show. 50 Years Later, I Remember It All.

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      On a thrilling trip to New York, a 16-year-old budding critic learned that the insistent optimism of musical theater was a beautiful lie.At long last, I was exactly where I had yearned to be for most of my young life. I had arrived in the holy land, which for me was a show palace in New York City, the world capital of my childhood fantasies. My very first Broadway musical, a form of entertainment I regarded as a religion, was about to begin.Then the lights went down in the cavernous Winter Garden Theater. It got dark, which I had expected. It stayed dark, which I hadn’t. The stage was flooded in shadow, and you had to squint to make out the people on it. Some were tall, spectral beauties from another era in glittering headdresses, and others were as ordinary as my parents, dressed up for a night out. None of them looked happy.The grand orchestral music seemed to be eroding as I listened, like some magnificent sand castle dissolving in the tide, as sweet notes slid into sourness. This was definitely not “Hello, Dolly!” or “Bye Bye Birdie” or “Funny Girl,” whose sunny, exclamation-pointed melodies I knew by heart from the original cast recordings.I didn’t know what had hit me. I certainly didn’t know that it would keep hitting me, in sharp and unexpected fragments of recollection, for the next 50 years.It was the spring of 1971. The show was“Follies,” a title that turned out to refer to both bygone Ziegfeld-style spectacles and the delusions of its main characters. It had a score by a rising composer named Stephen Sondheim and was directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett, names that didn’t mean much to me then. The cast included Yvonne De Carlo, Gene Nelson and the divine Alexis Smith, whom I knew from old movies on television.A ghostly showgirl in the original production of “Follies.”Martha Swope, Billy Rose Theatre Division/The New York Public LibrarySince the show was still in previews, there had been no reviews to cue my expectations. And word of mouth hadn’t reached Winston-Salem, N.C., where I was a 16-year-old public high school student.My parents had finally succumbed to my pleas to be taken to Manhattan, where my older sister lived. We were all side-by-side in orchestra seats, and I could feel my mom and dad basking in my excitement.That excitement was tinged with a thrill of illicit betrayal. Yes, “Follies” was undeniably a big Broadway musical, staged with an opulence that would be unthinkable today. But this tale of two unhappy couples, stalked by the ghosts of their younger selves during a showbiz reunion in the ruins of a once stately theater, was telling me that the optimistic promises of the musical comedies I had been weaned on were lies.In a cover story that came out a month later — its pictures would adorn my bedroom walls, along with posters of Humphrey Bogart and Vanessa Redgrave, until I left for college — Time magazine enthusiastically (and accurately) described “Follies” as anti-nostalgic, a modern corrective to the cheery, escapist camp of hit revivals like “No, No Nanette.”Time’s assessment was the opposite of that of the New York Times critics Clive Barnes and Walter Kerr, who didn’t like “Follies” at all. The plot, they wrote, was hackneyed and formulaic. As for the songs, with their homages to styles of showbiz past, Barnes called them a “non-hit parade of pastiche.”I couldn’t disagree about James Goldman’s book, which felt like a rehash of the best sellers about middle-aged disenchantment I borrowed from my parents. (I already suspected that my future was in criticism.) But the songs stuck with me, along with piercing images of aging performers clinging to a waning spotlight. And I had a vague sense that I would be destined to forever recall this odd and majestic show “like a movie in my head that plays and plays,” to borrow from its script.In some ways, “Follies” was a perfect match to my adolescent self. My parents had always encouraged me to understand that old people hadn’t always been old, to look for the layers of what they had been. (I was fascinated by the culture of my grandparents’ generation, which meant that references to Brenda Frazier and “Abie’s Irish Rose” didn’t go over my head.)And part of what I found so affecting about musicals were the differences between their exalted forms and the often ordinary lives they portrayed. (I would restage classic musicals in my head with my friends and family in the leading roles; it made me cry happily.)What I didn’t get then — and couldn’t have as a teenager — was how the music was the very sound of memory. It was the cleverness of Sondheim’s lyrics that attracted me in my youth. I loved quoting their sophisticated rhymes.But the older I got, and the more I listened, the more I appreciated the complexity of the pastiche songs, like “The Story of Lucy and Jessie,” “Broadway Baby” and the torchy “Losing My Mind” (which I confess to having sung, drunk, in a piano bar). These aren’t just facile imitations from another era; they’re inflected with the echoes and distortions of all the years that have passed since. As a memory musical, I came to realize, “Follies” approaches Proustian dimensions.When I hear anything from “Follies” now — or see a new production (I’ve written about seven incarnations for The New York Times) — it’s with the memory of watching that first cast of characters remembering. Every time what I’m listening to sounds deeper and richer, and sadder and funnier. And I recall, with a tightening of my chest, that 16-year-old boy staring at the stage in rapture and bewilderment. More

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      Is the Music Over at Mills College?

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      A hotbed of experimental sound for nearly a century, this school in Oakland, Calif., is preparing to close its doors.Even the concert hall at Mills College is different.Looming at the back of the stage is a huge, bright mural of a forest opening onto a deep blue lake. The ceiling is painted in geometric patterns and vivid colors. Frescos of Gregorian chant scores flank the stage.We are not in sedate, monochromatic Carnegie Hall. No, Littlefield Concert Hall at Mills, in Oakland, Calif., is a vibrant, even eccentric place, where it is clear from the surroundings that music outside the mainstream is not simply tolerated, but celebrated.“There was a real atmosphere of comfort and support for whatever it is that you wanted to do,” the composer David Rosenboom, who led the music program at Mills in the 1980s, said in an interview.Now that program and the electronics-focused Center for Contemporary Music, together among the most distinguished havens for experimental work in America over the past century, are facing possible closure. On March 17 the college, founded in 1852, announced that ongoing financial problems, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, would mean the end of its history as a degree-granting institution made up of an undergraduate women’s college and several coeducational graduate programs.Pending approval by its board of trustees, the school’s final degrees are likely to be conferred in 2023. The statement announcing the proposed closure alluded to plans for a “Mills Institute” on the 135-acre campus, but the focus of such an institute — and whether it would include the arts — is unclear.For composers and musicians, the potential loss of the Mills program has come as a startling blow, even if the college’s finances have been shaky for years. “I long feared this might be the worst-case scenario, but I am still devastated by the news,” said the harpist and composer Zeena Parkins, who teaches there.The pianist Dave Brubeck, who studied at Mills, performing there in 1988.Ariel Thomas, via Mills CollegeIt has been an astonishing run. The school’s faculty over the years has been practically an index of maverick artists, including Darius Milhaud, at Mills for three decades beginning during World War II; Luciano Berio, who came at Milhaud’s invitation; Lou Harrison, who built an American version of the Indonesian gamelan percussion orchestra; the “deep listening” pioneer Pauline Oliveros; Robert Ashley, an innovator in opera; Terry Riley, a progenitor of Minimalism; the influential composer and improviser Anthony Braxton; James Fei, a saxophonist and clarinetist who works with electronic sounds; and Maggi Payne, a longtime director of the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills’s laboratory for electronic work since the 1960s, when Oliveros was its first leader.Among the alumni are Dave Brubeck, Steve Reich, John Bischoff, William Winant and Laetitia Sonami; several former students ended up returning to teach after graduating.“What Mills College had was unique,” said Riley, who taught there from 1971 to 1981. “I have never in my travels encountered another institution like it.”Mills’s defining feature was its sense of community. Despite all the famous names involved, the overriding impression was that music is not created by lone geniuses, but by people working together.Fred Frith, whose career has included avant-garde rock and idiosyncratic improvisations and who retired from Mills in 2018 after many years there, said, “Music is essentially a collaborative activity, and if I’m going to teach improvisation or composition without real hands-on involvement, then we’re all going to miss out on something.”In the first half of the 20th century, when composers like John Cage became associated with the school, Mills developed a reputation for nonconformity. Performances ran the gamut from traditional instruments to obscure electronics to vacuum cleaners, clock coils and other found objects. Riley recounted an early performance of “In C,” his open-ended classic from 1964, at which the audience was dancing in the aisles. Laetitia Sonami recalled taking singing lessons with the master Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, guru to Riley and others.At that time, the program was practically public access. “In the 1970s, Mills was still like a community group,” said the composer Chris Brown, a former director of the Center for Contemporary Music. “It still had the idea that community members could come and use the studios.”Robert Ashley, a guiding presence from 1969 to 1981, helped foster that spirit. Though the radically open sensibility faded as the years went by, Mills maintained a commitment to access through frequent performances in and around Oakland, many of them free.The composer Robert Ashley in 1970. Through the ’70s Ashley was a guiding presence at Mills.Tom F. Walters, via Mills College“One of the amazing things about Mills is the rich musical community that it creates through the entire Bay Area,” said the composer Sarah Davachi, who graduated in 2012.As the personal computer revolution was taking hold in the nearby Silicon Valley, experiments with home-brew electronics and microcomputers, like those of David Behrman, were common at Mills, where technology had long been at home through the Center for Contemporary Music. Serendipitous moments abounded: As a student in the ’70s, John Bischoff remembers running into David Tudor, renowned as a collaborator with John Cage, in the hallway and being asked to assist with recording Tudor’s work “Microphone.” William Winant said he found an original instrument built by the composer and inveterate inventor Harry Partch hidden under the stage in the concert hall.“It felt like utopia: an environment where students are encouraged, and given the support they need, to pursue any and all ideas that came to mind, free from the stifling pressures of capitalism,” said Seth Horvitz, an electronic composer who records under the name Rrose.Students built their own instruments and sound installations, exhilarated by the freedom to do what they wanted. “We commandeered every square inch of the music studio and surrounding areas,” said the composer Ben Bracken, “putting up rogue installations in the courtyards, hallways and hidden rooms, inviting friends to perform in inflatable bubbles, screening Kenneth Anger films in the amphitheater with live studio accompaniments, Moog studio late nights that bled into morning.”“What Mills College had was unique,” said Terry Riley, who taught there from 1971 to 1981. “I have never in my travels encountered another institution like it.”Diane Gilkerson, via Mills CollegeBut pressures on institutions of higher education around the country, which have intensified in recent decades, did not spare Mills. In 2017, as a cost-cutting measure, it began laying off some tenured faculty. The celebrated composer and multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell learned his contract was not being renewed — news that was met with an outcry from the experimental music community. (Mitchell’s contract was eventually extended, but he chose to retire.) In 2019, the college sold a rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio at auction for just under $10 million, and a Mozart manuscript for an undisclosed sum. But the losses continued — and then came the pandemic.Many musicians said they were concerned about the fate of Mills’s archives. Maggi Payne said it includes over 2,000 tapes of performances, lectures and interviews, along with scores, letters and synthesizers — and hundreds of percussion instruments owned by Lou Harrison.David Bernstein, the current chair of the music department, said the archives would be protected. “We have been working on this project for quite some time,” he said. “And yes, there are instruments at Mills of significant historical importance. We are very concerned about their fate. Most of all, they should not be stored but used by students interested in exploring new sounds and different musical cultures. And they should also be played by virtuoso performers, as they are now.”But if Mills’s future is unclear, Roscoe Mitchell said, its legacy is not. It will live on “much longer than you and I,” he said.“It’s history,” Mitchell said. “It’s not going to go away.” More

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      Willie Nelson Sings 'I'll Be Seeing You' to Encourage People to Get Vaccinated for COVID-19

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      WENN/Nikki Nelson

      Collaborating with Ad Council and COVID Collaborative for the public safety campaign, the country icon hopes that people will be as confident as him when taking their coronavirus shot.

      Mar 30, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Willie Nelson has re-recorded Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain’s Broadway standard “I’ll Be Seeing You” for a new Ad Council and COVID Collaborative public safety campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated.

      The country icon included the 1930s tune on his 1994 studio album, “Healing Hands of Time”, and now he’s revisiting the song from the musical “Right This Way” to serve as the soundtrack for a new ad featuring a montage of unforgettable sports moments and crowd reactions, reminding viewers what the world was like before the COVID lockdown.

      In the background, Nelson sings, “I’ll be seeing you… In all the old familiar places…That this heart of mine embraces… All day through.” He continues, “In that small cafe… The park across the way… The children’s carousel… The chestnut trees… The wishin’ well…”

        See also…

      In order to bring sporting events and other aspects of everyday life before coronavirus pandemic back as quickly as possible, a simple message to urge people in getting their COVID-19 shot when it’s their turn flashed across the screen at the end of the clip. “The COVID-19 vaccines are here. We’ll see you soon,” it read.

      “I’m happy to be part of this new campaign with the Ad Council, COVID Collaborative and these sports organizations to empower millions more to get the answers they need and feel confident in getting vaccinated, like I did,” Nelson says in a statement.

      Willie, 87, got his dose of the vaccine in January and posed for a series of pictures in his car at a drive-through site. “Getting your COVID vaccine is Willie cool!” he said at the time.

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