Ana Popovic

Photo: Ruben Tomas 

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Ana Popovic Releases "Lasting Kind Of Love" Video Featuring Keb' Mo'

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The video for the first single off her latest album shows Popovic's light, romantic side and features GRAMMY-winner Keb' Mo'
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Aug 10, 2018 - 12:43 pm

Blues-rock maven Ana Popovic shows off her guitar playing skills and carefree side in the video for her first single, "Lasting Kind Of Love," featuring GRAMMY-winner Keb'Mo' off her latest album.

In the video, the guitarist calls upon Mo' before she heads out in a car to an unknown destination. The song is about a no strings attached, temporary kind of love and is the first single from her upcoming album, Like It On Top.

We find that Popovic's trip takes her to the beach where she takes out her guitar and strums away. Mo' appears in separate shots singing back to her. The beachy vibes compliment the easy-going vibes of the song, which ultimately sends the message that it's okay to go with the flow when it comes to love, even if it ends in nothing serious.

Recorded in Nashville, the song features Mo', who also produced her new blues influenced album. Other features include Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Robben Ford. Like It On Top is part autobiographical, part statement aimed to empower women. Popovic, who is an influential and respected musician, felt strongly about covering desire and fantasy, getting out of an abusive marriage, feeling empowered doing a craft, and confronting macho attitudes. In all, the album explores ten different aspects of women's empowerment.

"'Being on top' is about achieving your own potential. Succeeding in juggling work, family, social life, expectations of the others, of the society, while pushing limits. Renewing yourself and inspiring others," Popovic said in a statement. "[The album] celebrates those women who take initiative, develop, inspire and motivate. It's about feeling good about yourself and what you do."

While her album is out Sept. 14, you can catch her on tour across the U.S. now. More info here. 

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Justin Tranter 

Photo: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

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Justin Tranter Wants To Elevate A New Generation Of Superstars With New Label

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The highly regarded songwriter, who earned a Song Of The Year GRAMMY nomination in 2017, has teamed up with A&R executive Katie Vinten and Warner Bros
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Dec 12, 2018 - 3:55 pm

GRAMMY-nominated songwriter Justin Tranter, co-writer of Halsey's "Bad At Love" and Justin Bieber's "Sorry," is teaming up with A&R executive Katie Vinten and Warner Bros. Records to form Facet Records, which aims to house the "next generation of superstars,” Warner Bros. has announced.

“Justin is a true visionary and one of the greatest songwriters in the game, with a remarkable ability to bring the best out of people," Warner Bros. Records Co-Chairman & CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck said in a statement. "Katie is a brilliant A&R person who has been the guiding force behind an incredible roster of chart-topping songwriters, Justin among them.”

Tranter is a highly regarded songwriter and has been widely recognized by the Recording Academy. In 2017, at the 60th GRAMMY Awards, Tranter earned a Song Of The Year GRAMMY nomination for Julia Michael's "Issues."

“I am beyond honored and excited to begin this next chapter with Warner Bros. Records,” Tranter said in statement. “It makes perfect sense to partner with my queen Katie Vinten on this label venture, since we built my songwriting career from the ground up."

Vinten and Tranter have worked with Warner Bros. on artists’ projects, including Selena Gomez, Gwen Stefani and Imagine Dragons. With the continuing collaboration Tranter hopes to "change other people’s lives as well."

Tranter told the GRAMMY Museum's "Required Listening" podcast that as a teen he was inspired by many female songwriters of the ‘90s era, including Courtney Love and Tori Amos.

He also spoke about his close relationship Julia Michaels. "Obviously, me and Julia have written an insane amount of songs together. At that point, when we wrote 'Issues,' we were already really close. To write something as raw and honest and bare your soul as 'Issues,' you kind of really need to know somebody."

READ: Songwriter Justin Tranter: Women Tell Awesome Stories | "Required Listening"

Tranter, an advocate for songwriters and the LGBT community, said he named the label ‘Facet’ "because the most precious stones deserve thought-out, passionate facets to make them really shine."

"Justin is a fierce champion for artists and their songwriting peers, takes risks, dares to be different and fights daily for the causes they believe in, both within and outside the scope of the music business," Bay-Schuck said.

With the new label, Tranter hopes to continue elevating voices.

"Once I got into pop songwriting, I was kind of just ready to help other people tell their stories. … I'm here to facilitate, and structure, and grow, and make things a little more fabulous and a little more urgent," he said.

Song Of The Year Nominations Roundup | 2019 GRAMMY Awards

Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Music Artists Are Some Of Google's Top Trending Searches: Find Out Who Made The Cut

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The trending queries are searches that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2018 as compared to 2017, according to the search engine
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Dec 12, 2018 - 12:28 pm

Google has released data on their most popular search trends of the year, and pop singer Demi Lovato, along with Mac Miller and "Bohemian Rhapsody," top some of the categories.

The Year In Search data is based on "searches that had a high spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2018 as compared to 2017," Google states.

Categories include "people," "songs" and "musicians and bands."

GRAMMY-nominated pop performer Demi Lovato topped the “people” list, which also included GRAMMY winner Eminem and GRAMMY nominees Ariana Grande, Rick Ross and Cardi B.

For "loss" searches, Mac Miller was a top trending person, while iconic 18-time GRAMMY winner Aretha Franklin, XXXTentacion and Avicii were in the top 10.

Lovato also was a top trending name for musicians and bands, along with Travis Scott, Meek Mill and Childish Gambino, who is on his final tour under the moniker.

Popular song trends were "Bohemian Rhapsody" (not surprising as the highly anticipated Queen biopic with the same name was released in November), Childish Gambino's "This Is America," Drake's "God's Plan" and "In My Feelings" and Ariana Grande's "thank u, next."\

"To calculate 'trending topics,' Google uses an algorithm that compares the percentage increase in searches for a specific term over a specified time period," a representative told the Recording Academy.

"Google also implements a minimum threshold to limit queries with very small search volume from appearing on this list. For example, without a minimum threshold, a query searched for once in 2017 and ten times in 2018 will show up as having a 1000% increase over 2017 which, while mathematically accurate, is not indicative of a significant trend.

Google studied an aggregation of trillions of searches (or queries) that people searched on Google this year. Google used data from Google Trends and filtered out spam and repeat queries to build lists that best reflect the spirit of 2018."

For a full list of top trending topics and more categories, go here.  

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Tegan And Sara

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"Answering Complicated Questions With Simple Answers": Tegan And Sara Recount Music & Identity

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Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Dec 11, 2018 - 4:14 pm

"In my final years of high school, I recognized that there was a passion. Music was so interesting to us, the culture of music was very interesting to us," Sara from Tegan and Sara told the Recording Academy in 2014 about a time way before they saw success as indie artists. "We just didn’t know anybody that made music for a living."

Mar 24, 2014 – 5:20 pm

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The sisters are now releasing a memoir titled High School that will recount the beginning of their music career, but also their upbringing, including their parents' divorce, growing up during the '90s rave and grunge culture and their experiences with their sexuality.

The GRAMMY-nominated twin singer/songwriters and musicians from Calgary, Alberta, Canada have become not only one of the most successful and well-known duos in the indie pop scene—selling over one million records and releasing eight studio albums—but also icons in the LGBT community as both have been open about their queer identity.

"How did you start your band? When did you know that you were gay? What were you like before Tegan and Sara? We have spent twenty years answering those complicated questions with simple answers,” said Tegan and Sara in statement. “Writing High School gives us the opportunity to tell the intricate stories that shaped our relationship as sisters, musicians, and queer girls.”

The memoir will be written as alternating chapters from both Tegan and Sara's perspectives and will cover love, drugs, music and friendship during the years that shaped them the most.

The two artists began playing music during a time where indie artists didn’t have the internet as a platform to share. Post high school, Sara remembers not knowing music could be a career. She reminisced with the Recording Academy:

"We were graduating in 1998, so this is very pre-internet, kind of days for us. I didn't even really realize that there were bands, like indie rock bands or whatever, making a living, so it really only started to happen maybe when I was in my early 20s, maybe 23, 24, 25 that I started to think, 'Oh my God, like, this is our career, like we're actually doing this, we don't have to go get another job now.' So, we sorta fell into it and I don't think there was as much pre-meditation as people have these days."

The book is scheduled to be released in Fall 2019. Their ninth studio album will begin to be recorded in 2019 also.

Selena's Life And Musical Journey Gets Scripted Series

Selena

Photo: Pam Francis/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

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Selena's Life And Musical Journey Gets Scripted Series

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No premiere date or further information has been announced
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Dec 11, 2018 - 12:12 pm

Selena famously won music lovers’ hearts and respect for a very simple reason: She was unabashedly herself: a Mexican-American young woman chasing her dream amidst two cultures. Now the iconic Tex-Mex/techno cumbia singer is getting a scripted Netflix series about her life story and how she surpassed  cultures and categories to bring her talent to the world.

May 15, 2017 – 1:50 am

Selena Wins Best Mexican-American Album

The series, described as a "coming-of-age" story, will be executive produced by Selena's sister, Suzette Quintanilla, and her father, Abraham Quintanilla, along with entertainment content production company's Jaime Davila, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Moises Zamora (American Crime) will write the script.

No premiere date or further information has been announced.

Selena rose to fame in the Spanish-language music market singing Tejano music and taking on cumbia, norteño and mariachi music. She released four successful Spanish-language albums, but ultimately, crossing over to American audiences was always the goal, music executive Jose Behar told the Recording Academy.

Behar signed Selena to EMI Latin.

"The whole thing with the Selena signing was … back then female artists didn't sell in the Tejano music market," Behar explained. "There wasn't one female artist that ever really sold or had any substantial success in Tejano music."

"But I never really signed her as a Tejano artist. I thought she was my Gloria Estefan. That was truly the emphasis on signing her," he continued. "We signed her with the vision of crossing her over, never really thinking we're going to have that huge success on the Latin side. It was always, always, always about the crossover."

Selena was born in Texas to a tight-knit Mexican-American family. Throughout her career, her family played a major role in her music. Her brother A.B. Quintanilla, now in his own group, the Kumbia All Stars, and her sister Suzette were both musicians in her band. Her father, Abraham, was her manager, portrayed as an over-protective and at times controlling in the 1997 Selena film with Jennifer Lopez. 

When Selena won Best Mexican-American Album for Live at the 36th GRAMMY Awards, she made it clear how much her family meant to her and her success.

"I’d like to thank my band, Los Dinos, my father Abraham, my brother who's the producer of my music and also my sister. Thank you for all the support ..."

Selena's Netflix series will dive into her familial relationships.

"Selena will always have a lasting place in music history, and we feel great responsibility to do justice to her memory. With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family, and the impact she has had on all of our lives, Selena's sister, Suzette Quintanilla, said in a statement. "We are excited to partner with Campanario and Netflix to give fans a never-before-seen glimpse at our story and highlight why Selena will remain a legend for generations to come."

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