The Week in Light & Sound
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On The Campaign Trail - The estate of Sinéad O'Connor has asked Donald Trump to stop using her music at his political rallies. Last month, Trump played O'Connor's best-known song Nothing Compares 2 U at a campaign event in Maryland. The singer's estate told BBC News it was "no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted" by his use of her music.
A joint statement from O'Connor's estate and her longtime label Chrysalis Records said: "Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O'Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings. It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of Nothing Compares 2 U at his political rallies.
"It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone who she herself referred to as a 'biblical devil'."
Prize Draw - Glastonbury Festival has opened a ticket prize draw to raise money for charities supporting people affected by conflict. The prize draw comes after tickets for the Somerset festival sold out within an hour of being released in November. Twenty tickets are up for grabs and the prize draw is open until 12:00 on 28 March. Organisers say the money raised will be donated to the British Red Cross, Oxfam and War Child.
MTV Manchester - Manchester's new arena has been chosen as the venue for this year's MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs). The 23,500-capacity Co-op Live will be the UK's largest indoor entertainment venue when it opens in April. Some of the world's biggest music stars will appear there when the MTV awards ceremony takes place on 10 November. The MTV show has not been held in Manchester before and has not been staged in the UK for seven years.
"With music at the very heart of Manchester's rich creative heritage, this vibrant city - with the state-of-the-art Co-op Live - will guarantee a supercharged 2024 show," said Bruce Gillmer of MTV's parent company Paramount. Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig said the event would "deliver a huge boost for our local economy and result in significant commercial and wider benefits for the city".
Off The Strip - Adele has postponed all of next month's shows of her ongoing Las Vegas residency after announcing she is ill. The British singer said on social media that doctors told her to rest but did not reveal details of her illness. The announcement comes just over five months ahead of her 10-night run of stadium shows in Munich in August. In a statement, she said: "Sadly I have to take a beat and pause my Vegas residency." New dates for the 10 postponed shows are yet to be announced, but ticket-holders will be sent the information "asap".
Vinyl News - Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year's Record Store Day, on 20 April. Bush said it was a "great privilege" to support the initiative, which champions independent record shops and vinyl collectors across the UK. "Isn't it great to see how the resurgence in vinyl has taken the music industry by surprise?" she said. "It had decided to leave vinyl far behind, but it would seem that not everyone agrees! I love that! I know there are many, many artists who are just as excited to see the audience turning the tide."
Eurovision - Olly Alexander’s new single Dizzy is the UK's entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The Years & Years singer will perform the track at the annual competition in Malmo, Sweden, in May. Alexander has described the song as being "about feeling such an intense swell of emotion for someone they totally turn your world upside down and inside out…We took the feeling of dizziness and put that into the production, so there's a lot of undulating arpeggios, lilting harmonies and counter rhythms in the backing vocals."
(Jim Evans)
5 March 2024
