In response to United Kingdom’s stringent COVID lockdowns and their effects on live music, the “My Brown-Masked Girl singer Van Morrison and legendary music artist Eric Clapton will release an “anti-lockdown” song next month. This will support Morrison’s “Save Live Music” campaign and raise money for the people who can’t work.
“There are many of us who support Van and his endeavors to save live music; he is an inspiration,” Clapton said in a statement Friday. “We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover.”

Thus is the time of year when artist release Christmas songs. As each year more passes we get more and more, but like with everything else only a few stand out, and a small handful become classics. I do like Saint Djuni’s ‘Good To Be Home’. It’s fun, wintery, and Christmassy and will definitely work at the holiday gathering. The duo is made up of Clifford Goilo (Bakermat, Jeremy Renner & Bone Thugs N Harmony) & Rasmus Viberg (Next To Neon, MOMENT). Two friends met in 2 different countries (Estonia & France).

The award ceremonies are facing a sharp ratings decline year after year.

The Emmy Awards saw the lowest viewership of any Emmy ceremony in the Television Academy’s history. The show drew only 5.1 million total viewers, down 14% from last year’s event,

The 2020 American Music Awards on ABC scored 4.4 million viewers in its first hour and then dropped to 3.1 million as viewers tuned out and left for other options, mainly football. The AMA’s had a 45% drop from last year.
The show featured Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Katy Perry and Darius Rucker, Jennifer Lopez and Maluma.

The show which is produced by Dick Clark Productions stuck to the typical format – lip syncing, trapeze sets, and weird outfits worn by performers.
I don’t know, I won’t get into specifics. Talking about it would be as bland as the show. I think it needs a reboot. Maybe a different format that includes more artist interaction. People are immune to over the top performances. I’d rather see Dua Lipa talk for 3 minutes about art and creativity coupled with a 2 minute performance.

Justin Bieber is grateful that he received a Grammy nomination for best pop vocal album, but wanted to set some things straight.

He wrote a letter to the recording academy
“To the Grammys I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry. I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said I set out to make an R&B album. Changes was and is an R&B album,” he started. “It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me. I grew up admiring R&B music and wished to make a project that would embody that sound.
And……

“For this not to be put into that category feels weird considering from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style all the way down to the hip hop drums that were chosen it is undeniably, unmistakably an R&B Album! To be clear I absolutely love Pop music it just wasn’t what I set out to make this time around. My gratitude for feeling respected for my work remains and I am honored to be nominated either way.”

What happened The Weeknd and The Grammys? He tweeted “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans, the industry transparency”.

Notice how The Weeknd said the award ceremony remain corrupt, as if they’ve been corrupt and this isn’t the first.

According to some people, The Weeknd had two options – perform the Grammys or the Super Bowl and doing both costed him Grammy nominations.
Why would the Grammys work so hard to prevent The Weeknd from performing at the Super Bowl? Who knows. I’m sure there is inner turmoil among the party’s involved.

The latest backlash against the Grammys reminded Nicki Minaj when she got shafted. She said, “Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation,” the “Tusa” rapper, 37, tweeted. “They gave it to the white man Bon Iver. #PinkFriday.”
All in all, the folks inside the Grammys loves the press – the good, the bad, thumbs up, thumbs down. They’ll take anything they can get. Especially now that award ceremonies are facing a sharp viewership decline.