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UK Music Minds Matter Launches Music Mental Health Helpline

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New dedicated helpline will provide support to music industry professionals in need
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Dec 6, 2017 - 11:49 am

Music industry professionals in the U.K. now have a dedicated helpline for those struggling with their mental health.

MusiCares Sober Jam: A Safe Place For Musicians

The hotline, which is the brainchild of Help Musicians UK's Music Minds Matter campaign, will offer support to artists and management, tour crew and record label personnel who are in need of mental health support.

For musicians such as Nothing But Thieves guitarist Joe Langridge-Brown, the service will be much needed to combat the invisible nature of mental illness.

"If I'm being totally honest, at one point it looked like it was going to break up the band because we weren't coping mentally with what was going on around us," Langridge-Brown told BBC. "It's an invisible problem to a lot of people, so the more people can raise awareness and tell people it's OK to talk about it, the better really."

Music industry professionals needing help in the U.K. can call 0808 802 8008 free of charge, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Study Shows 70 Percent of Musicians Struggled With Anxiety Or Depression

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato

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Demi Lovato Brings Mental Health Front And Center During Tour

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The GRAMMY nominee is raising awareness for mental health while on tour through her CAST on Tour program, which kicked off Feb. 26 in San Diego
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Feb 27, 2018 - 2:24 pm

As she embarks on her Tell Me You Love Me tour in support of her 2017 album of the same name, Demi Lovato isn't just sharing her inspirational music with fans around the world, she's making a difference by raising awareness for mental health.

For the second consecutive tour, the GRAMMY nominee is again bringing along CAST on Tour, an initiative of the mental health advocacy organization CAST Foundation. She previously teamed with the recovery center during last year's co-headlining Future Now tour with Nick Jonas.

The pre-show sessions will allow Lovato and Mike Bayer, founder/CEO of CAST Centers and chairman of the CAST Foundation, to discuss mental health awareness while giving space to attendees to share their own personal experiences with mental illness.

The initiative kicked off Feb. 26 in San Diego, where Lovato invited student survivors of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., to attend the session. Lovato also brought the students — Julius Castillo, Mackenzie Marie Chapman, Samantha Megan Deitsch, Maia Hebron, Eden Hebron, and Sarah Stricker — onstage during her performance later in the evening, in addition to inviting the audience to donate toward mental health resources for the students impacted by the school shooting through a CAST Foundation text donation.

CAST on Tour will follow Lovato for 20 tour dates, including stops Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Philadelphia, among others, concluding on March 31 in Tampa, Fla. Lovato's world tour, with special guests DJ Khaled and Kehlani, will continue around the globe through June 27.

"Bringing CAST on Tour was very important to me because I want to be able to reach and inspire my fans. Tonight was our first night of the tour and it was incredibly special," Lovato said in a statement. "I was able to bring out and meet a few of the students that had to experience the shooting in Florida on the 14th. It was such an honor to meet them and hear their courageous stories. I want to make sure their voices are being heard and we can provide them with the mental health and post-trauma care they need."

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Sugarland

Sugarland

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Sugarland, Taylor Swift Release New Single "Babe"

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Take a listen to the country duo's latest breakup single with the 'Reputation' singer/songwriter
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 20, 2018 - 10:53 am

She may have gone all pop with her own releases, but Taylor Swift has proven once again her country roots still run deep.

On April 20, country duo Sugarland dropped their latest single titled "Babe." The classic breakup tune features Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles taking the lead vocally, with Swift layering in vocals on the chorus with a relatively simple accompaniment that lets their voices and lyrics shine.

Swift wrote "Babe" with Train frontman Pat Monahan in 2017 and then offered it to the GRAMMY-winning band to include on their upcoming album, Bigger, which is due out June 9. Bigger marks Sugarland's first album since 2010's The Incredible Machine. And while Sugarland typically write all their own tunes, they made an exception for "Babe."

"We've never put someone else's song on a Sugarland record, but we were immediately interested in 'Babe' the first time we heard it. This one really felt like it belonged so we saved it for the final afternoon of our recording session; a special time for us," Nettles said in a statement. "This collaboration is the perfect combination of mutual admiration for each other and mutual admiration for great songs. As artists, we really see the world through a similar lens."

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Beyoncé

Beyoncé

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Beyoncé's Coachella Performance Earns Highest YouTube Livestream Numbers

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We know Queen Bey brought down the house with her festival performance, now she has the numbers to prove it
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 19, 2018 - 11:12 am

#Beychella is the gift that keeps on giving.

Beyoncé was the first black woman in history to headline Coachella, and now she's racked up additional milestones for her stunning nearly two-hour set during weekend one of the popular California festival.

Beyond being the most tweeted about Coachella artist, Beyoncé's performance became the most-viewed Coachella performance and most viewed live music festival on YouTube ever, with 458,000 simultaneous global viewers tuning in to see her Coachella set.

Fans just couldn't stand to miss Queen Bey herself, along with a Destiny's Child 20th-anniversary reunion, performances with husband Jay-Z and sister Solange, and a marching band, 100 backup dancers and an astounding 26 songs in a row.

Unfortunately, the livestream was only available the day of Beyoncé's performance, and Coachella only streams the first weekend live. So if you missed the remote performance, you may be out of luck, though Variety speculates it could be available at a later date — for example, on Tidal.

Regardless, for those who are attending the second weekend of the festival, #Beychella take two is definitely on.

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Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande

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Ariana Grande Teases New Single "No Tears Left To Cry"

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After rumors earlier this month, it appears the "Dangerous Woman" is ready to release new music
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 19, 2018 - 10:42 am

We first got wind of potential new music from Ariana Grande earlier this month when Hits reported that a "source" revealed that the first song from her upcoming album would be released April 27. Luckily, it looks like we won't have to wait that long.

The "Dangerous Woman" singer/songwriter released a song snippet and what appears to be the cover art for a new single, "No Tears Left To Cry," via a series of social media posts along with the message, "Friday." In the song snippet, which doesn't give too much away, we hear about 20 seconds of a chorus effect. Cryptically, the text on all her posts is upside down and backward.

Variety reports that Grande has been collaborating on her upcoming album with Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Pharrell Williams. It's also "said to be deeply personal and inspired by her experiences over the past two years," which includes the devastating Manchester bombing that occurring during her performance in the U.K. in May 2017. Her latest will be her fourth LP, following 2016's GRAMMY-nominated Dangerous Woman.

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