Ryan Leslie is not your typical musician. An artist with a business mind and a deep entrepreneurial drive, his career approach has been anything but traditional. Leslie's newest venture, however, is one of the most rewarding to date: he has teamed up with Live From The Republic, an organization which is launching an annual concert series that donates a portion of the proceeds back to the host nation. In the early stages of their partnership, LFTR offered Ryan the opportunity to travel to West Africa to meet the First Lady of Ivory Coast. Upon his return, he made it his mission to perform for the children that he met through her nonprofit foundation. Now, LFTR and Ryan are organizing his concert in Ivory Coast for the spring of 2014. They have already sold tour merchandise via an Indiegogo campaign and hosted a benefit concert in Washington DC to raise funds. Furthermore, with the help of a charitable donation from Coca Cola in the Ivory Coast, they have managed to raise enough money to be able to deliver one million dollars worth of medical supplies to Ivorian hospitals when Ryan performs there this spring.
Jay Z News
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, the Broadway spectacular that defied odds and expectations to conquer New York, is moving to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. After more than three historic years on Broadway, the show play its final performance at the Foxwoods Theatre on January 4, 2014. Now according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Casino executive Steve Wynn is currently in meetings to host the production.
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark, the Broadway spectacular that defied odds and expectations to conquer New York, is moving to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. After more than three historic years on Broadway, the show play its final performance at the Foxwoods Theatre on January 4, 2014. In a recent interview with Billboard, producer Michael Cohl chatted about the big transfer.
The New Royales have a background as interesting as the music they create together. The band will release Freedom's For The Brave: The Mixtape on January 14th- an album of covers featuring some of their various influences, including tracks by Depeche Mode, The Zombies, Jefferson Airplane & more.
The Other Ball, a brand new annual event to raise funds to protect children from adversity and exploitation in the developing world to transcend the machine, lift the spirit and honor the power of music to create global social change. The Black Keys will perform, and Jeff Bhasker will act as Musical Director for A$AP Rocky, Mikky Ekko, Lykke Li and Miguel. The event is set for tonight, December 10th at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.
The ASCAP Foundation will honor Tony Award-winning lyricist and director of Annie Martin Charnin with the first-ever ASCAP Foundation George M. Cohan Award at their 18th annual Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, December 11th, 2013. The invitation-only event, hosted by ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams, will be held at the Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Nominations for the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced tonight by The Recording Academy and reflected one of the most diverse years for the best and brightest in music.
Jay Z tops the nominations with nine; Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Justin Timberlake, and Pharrell Williams each garner seven nods; Drake and mastering engineer Bob Ludwig are up for five awards.
Bored with the societal norms on what a DJ should look and sound like, three players in NYC are working hard to cultivate a change of scenery for the future of electronic music. Based in Brooklyn and born in Boulder, CO, SAVOY is the electronic live hybrid that can easily be compared to a rock band as much as a DJ group. This winter, the trio will return to the road for theGET LAZER'D tour presented by Live Nation and House of Blues Entertainment. Tickets are on sale now at:http://www.ticketmaster.com/Savoy-tickets/artist/778744
GLEE stars Kevin McHale and Harry Shum Jr. are teaming with Omaze.com to raise money for the non-profit The Invisible Children.
According to Deadline, Ora has signed on to make her feature film debut as Mia, Christian Grey's adopted sister.
WWD reported that Shawn “Jay Z” Carter has met with Barneys New York to give his input on an internal advisory council that will be formed around the issue of racial profiling. Jay Z also helped create new guidelines for the way the retailer interacts with the New York Police Department.
A wonderland of sparkling lights, child-sized diversions and spirited entertainment brightens the twilight of the year at Seattle Center Winterfest, Nov. 29 - Dec. 31. Visit Seattle Center Armory, all dressed for the season, and you'll discover new viewing points for Winter Train & Village, fresh food and drink offered at local Armory merchants and inspiring student showcases. The Winterfest Ice Rink returns, along with Saturday ice sculpting and lively weekend performances.
21-time Grammy Award-winner (and 52-time Grammy nominee) Kanye West will return to the road this fall for The Yeezus Tour. He will play Madison Square Garden in New York, NY tonight, November 23.
Columbia Records is proud to announce that it has entered into a partnership with Multi-Platinum GRAMMY Award winning recording artist T.I. and his label Grand Hustle to release his highly anticipated new studio album.
Seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician John Mayer has announced that he will take part in a Tumblr “Dashboard Confessions” Q&A on Friday November 22 at 7pm ET. Mayer is the first artist to take part in the new Tumblr series, with the live interview taking place on his Tumblr blog (Jhnmyr.tumblr.com) and also reblogged on music.tumblr.com. Users can ask questions starting today and watch the interview unfold through their dashboards on Friday when John logs in and posts answers to submitted questions. Each piece of the Q&A is rebloggable and can travel through the dashboards of the 150M+ blogs on Tumblr.
The highlight of Contessa Gallery's Art Miami booth will be David Datuna's Jay-Z / Picasso: Opposition of Imaginations. Two portraits, Picasso and Jay-Z, represent the contact of the conceptions of two diverse artistic periods. This opposition creates an energetic, mental, philosophical, and emotional perspective on art's evolution. The two portraits together serve as a collective image, with Picasso embodying and conceptualizing the energy, fundamentalism, and expression of the 20 th century, and Jay-Z's fragmented portrait representing modern art as an experimental puzzle.
In yesterday's New York Post, Michael Cohl, the producer of Broadway's SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK opened up to Michael Riedel about the recent news that the show will be closing down in January.
SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark, the Broadway spectacular that defied odds and expectations to conquer New York, is moving to Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. After more than three historic years on Broadway, the show play its final performance at the Foxwoods Theatre on January 4, 2014. Additional information on the upcoming Las Vegas production will be announced in the weeks to come. SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark is currently the 16th highest grossing Broadway production of all time, having taken in more than $200 million at the box office. The show has been seen by approximately two million fans, and will have played 1,268 performances by the time it takes its final bow at the Foxwoods Theatre.
Barneys New York has cancelled Wednesday's event to kick off 'New York Holiday,' their collaboration with Jay Z, WWD reported. The event was supposed to be a fundraiser for the Shawn Carter Foundation.
