Music News Headlines

ROME (Reuters) - Whenever crooner Tony Bennett returns to the land of his roots, he feels overwhelmed. "When I sing in Rome or anywhere in Italy, I get a complex," he said after performing for a sold-out hall at Rome's Parco della Musica. "I know too much history, too much about the magnificence of Italy, the place where …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Grammy-winning pop star Mariah Carey will join Fox television's "American Idol" singing contest as a judge next season as the highly rated show fights to regain its slumping audiences. Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting, told television critics on Monday in Los Angeles …

LONDON (Reuters) - Elton John has scored his first number one album in 22 years, an electronic reworking of his hit songs, while Florence and the Machine clung to top spot in the singles chart for a second week running, the Official UK Charts Company said on Sunday. John teamed up with Australian electronic duo Pnau for …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary British rockers the Who will hit the road for their first North American concert tour in four years, playing the entire rock opera "Quadrophenia" alongside other memorable hits, the band said on Wednesday. The road trip starts in Florida on November 1, and features founding members Roger …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kile Glover, the 11-year-old former stepson of Grammy-award winning R&B; star Usher, died on Saturday of injuries received in a boating accident more than two weeks ago. Glover died on Saturday morning, the Willie A. Watkins funeral home in Atlanta said. "We are handling the arrangements," an employee …

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Russian opera singer has pulled out of the Bayreuth opera festival over Nazi tattoos on his chest days before the start of the celebration of Richard Wagner's works that was once popular with Third Reich leaders. Evgeny Nikitin was meant to play the Flying Dutchman in Wagner's opera of the same name …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country music group Zac Brown Band scored its second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with "Uncaged," while rapper Frank Ocean notched the No. 2 spot with his debut, "Channel Orange." "Uncaged," the fourth studio album from the Grammy-winning Zac Brown Band, sold 234,000 copies …

(Reuters) - Rocker Pete Doherty, ex-frontman for British band Babyshambles and a close friend of the late Amy Winehouse, has been asked to leave a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Thailand because he was "not ready to stop using," the clinic said. "Pete was discharged today for therapeutic reasons," Alastair Mordey, …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new Bob Dylan studio album, "Tempest", will be released on September 11th to mark the 50th anniversary of the folk singer-songwriter's debut album, Columbia Records said on Tuesday. The album will feature 10 new and original songs and is the 35th studio set from Dylan, whose last album in 2009, "Together …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge a paparazzo with driving recklessly on a Los Angeles freeway to photograph pop star Justin Bieber in what could be the first use of a new anti-paparazzi law, an official said on Tuesday. The case stems from a July 6 incident that saw police cite Bieber for …

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Kitty Wells, the "Queen of Country Music" who opened the door to a host of female country music headliners, died on Monday at her home in Nashville of complications from a stroke. She was 92. Among those mourning her passing was Loretta Lynn, whose own rise to popularity came after Wells, who paved …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Get out your makeup and dust off those platform boots, KISS is hitting the road again with one of the summer's biggest concert tours, teaming up with fellow rock band Motley Crue and kicking off "The Tour" on July 20 in Virginia. The band, with its painted faces and pyrotechnics, was among the biggest …

LONDON (Reuters) - Jon Lord, keyboardist and co-founder of British rock group Deep Purple, has died in a London hospital aged 71, his official website said on Monday. "It is with deep sadness we announce the passing of Jon Lord, who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism today, Monday 16 July at the London Clinic, after a …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British folk band Mumford & Sons on Sunday said they will release their second album, "Babel," on September 25, calling the eagerly anticipated follow-up to "Sigh No More" a "natural progression" written on the road. "We love playing live, obviously, but it had also become an important part of our …

PARIS (Reuters) - France's far right National Front will sue Madonna after she screened footage of party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face at a concert in Paris on Saturday, a party official said. The video shown on a huge screen has already been used on other legs of the U.S. singer's tour and …

LONDON (Reuters) - An epic Bruce Springsteen concert in London's Hyde Park ended on Saturday with organisers pulling the plug with the singer and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney still on stage and playing at full throttle after more than three hours of music. Springsteen had danced and worked the crowd with the energy of a man …

OKEMAH, Oklahoma (Reuters) - For a man who has been dead since 1967, it has been a good year for folk singer Woody Guthrie, who would have turned 100 on Saturday. New books on Guthrie have been published, more Guthrie songs have been released and in the small Oklahoma town of Okemah, where he was born, nobody wants to burn …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rocker Steven Tyler on Thursday bowed out of his job as a judge on top-rated television singing contest "American Idol" for the coming season, saying he wants to dedicate himself to his band, Aerosmith. Tyler's departure comes as his fellow judge, Jennifer Lopez, also weighs whether to return to …

LONDON (Reuters) - Half a century after their first live gig on London's Oxford Street, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the rest of the Rolling Stones marked the band's 50th anniversary by launching a new book, a photographic exhibition and hinting about a tour. As part of the festivities guitarist Ronnie Wood told Reuters …

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Hank Williams, Jr. is a country singer, record executive and political pundit, and he wears all those hats on his new CD, "Old School, New Rules". He picks up on politics where he left off last year with some more fighting words for President Barack Obama. Williams calls himself "an executive hillbilly," …

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Kitty Wells, a singer dubbed the "Queen of Country Music," died on Monday at her Tennessee home, according to family members. She was 92. Wells, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died of complications from a stroke, her family said in a statement. Born Ellen Muriel Deason, Wells began her …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer Taylor Swift edged out teen heart-throb Justin Bieber as the highest-earning celebrity under 30, taking in $57 million, as women dominated the top spots on a list released by Forbes.com on Thursday. Bieber, who brought in an estimated $55 million, was the only male among the top five earners, …

LONDON (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones are set this week to reveal plans regarding upcoming live gigs, guitarist Ronnie Wood told Reuters in an exclusive interview on Thursday as part of celebrations marking the band's 50th anniversary. "What we do is live in hope and hopefully this week we'll unfold some plans," Wood said, …