The month of September opened
with the announcement of the nominations for the 51st Annual CMA
Awards with Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert leading with five nods each
competing against each other in 3 categories: Music Video of the Year, Single
of the Year and Song of the Year. Little Big Town is close behind with four
nods which also helps Taylor Swift garner a nomination at the awards in three
years after her transition from County to Pop for her songwriter credits for
Better Man. The awards will take place on 08 November hosted by Brad Paisley
and Carrie Underwood.
The coveted Mercury Prize 2017
was awarded to Sampha’s Process. His win is quite significant as he battled for
this award against the short listed fan favorites Ed Sheeran and Stormzy as
well as 9 other nominees including Blossoms, J Hus, Kate Tempest and The xx. Actor
Idris Elba gave Sampha his £25,000 prize at a ceremony with performances from
the shortlisted artists at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.
The Latin Recording Academy
has decided to bestow Lifetime Achievement Awards on the Macarena hit makers
Los Del Rio along with Lucecita Benitez, Ilan Chester, Victor Heredia,
Guadalupe Pineda, Cuco Valoy and Joao Bosco as a prelude to the 2017 Latin
Grammy Awards which will be held in November.
The Corrs announced their much
awaited comeback through their seventh studio album Jupiter Calling which shall
be preceded with a show at the Royal Albert Hall. The Corrs are not the only
ones who had returned to the studio, as Shania Twain announced her fifth studio
album Now 14 years after her last album.
Linkin Park announced that a
special show in honor of their former member Chester Bennington titled Linkin
Park and friends will be held in October to celebrate the life of the 41 year
lead vocalist of the band who committed suicide earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Demi Lovato was
named a Global Citizen Ambassador at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival. She
along with the fund will expansion of a Save the Children pilot program,
Healing and Education through the Arts, to violence scarred youth living in
Iraq’s Kirkuk and Salah al Din areas.
The latest victims of
copyright law suit are Taylor Swift and Mark Ronson. The songwriters behind
3LW’s Playas Gon’ Play Sean Hall and Nathan Butler has sued the female
superstar over her hit Shake It Off. This may be a tough one for the
songwriters to win as the Copyright Act does not protect short phrases
including catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans or short advertising
expressions. Ronson was sued by Lastrada Entertainment Company Ltd, the music
publishing house that holds the copyright for Zapp’s More Bounce to the Ounce,
which claims that most parts of the 2015 year-end no.1 was copied from Zapp’s
1980 classic. Lastrada is seeking damages of up to USD 150,000 per
infringement, a permanent injunction against profiting from the alleged
infringement and a jury trial on the matter.
Avril Lavigne has been named
the most dangerous person online. Cybersecurity firm McAfee said that Lavigne
is the most likely celebrity to land users on websites that carry viruses or
malware. Bruno Mars was second on the list followed by Carly Rae Jepsen, Zayn
Malik and Celine Dion.
Moving onto chart news, in the
US, Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber’s Despacito continued
its reign at the top accumulating 16 weeks at the top and tying the record of
Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s One Sweet Day for the most number of weeks spent
at No.1 in the US. Despacito could have broken this record by spending a 17th
week at the top if not for the ascension of Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made
Me Do, which soared to the top of the charts with huge sales in its second
week. It remained at the top for the remainder of the month. During the month
Liam Payne featuring Quavo’s Strip That Down, Yo Gotti featuring Nicki Minaj’s
Rake It Up and Logic featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid’s 1-800-273-8255 all
entered the top 10.
In the UK, Taylor Swift’s Look
What You Made Me Do started off the month at the top which effectively ended
the reign of Dua Lipa’s New Rules. Swift was dethroned in the third week by Sam
Smith’s Too Good at Goodbyes which ruled for the next two weeks of the month.
During the month Demi Lovato’s Sorry Not Sorry, Zayn & Sia’s Dusk Till Dawn
and Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug’s Havana all entered the top 10.
Other songs which became popular
during the month were:
1. Taylor
Swift – …Ready for it?
2. Post
Malone ft. 21 Savage – Rockstar
3. Avicii
ft. Rita Ora – Lonely together
4. Macklemore
ft. Kesha – Good old days
5. Mabel
ft. Kojo Funds – Finders keepers
6. Maroon
5 ft. SZA – What lovers do
7. Khalid
– Young, dumb & broke
Till the next beat...
At Ease!!!
