Music News Headlines

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Lady Gaga is fighting back against PETA, after the animal-rights organization blasted her for seeming to wear fur. While acknowledging that she respects the animal rights movement, the "Poker Face" singer lays into the more militant factions of the movement, accusing them of waging "violent, …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country-pop singer Taylor Swift has shot to the top of iTunes in 25 countries with her new single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and is poised for a record digital sales debut on next week's Billboard chart. Billboard said on Wednesday that the infectiously catchy song was already among …

(Reuters) - Country singer Carrie Underwood said on Wednesday she is going "Unplugged" for the VH1 music series and will share the story of her rise to fame from "American Idol" to five-time Grammy winner for the TV show "Behind the Music." Underwood, 29, told VH1's morning show "Big Morning Buzz Live" that she would record …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Five years after becoming the youngest female to win "American Idol," Jordin Sparks restarts her career in a new movie role that the 22-year-old sees as remarkably close to her own life singing her way to fame. Just like her real-life parents, Sparks' onscreen mother Whitney Houston cheered and coached …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Robert Wayne Birch, a backup musician and bass player for Elton John, was found dead in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday of an apparent suicide resulting from a gunshot wound to the head, officials said. Los Angeles County Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter said Birch's body was found after 1 a.m. …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The "Now That's What I Call Music!" franchise's 43rd collection of current popular Top 40 radio singles topped the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, staving off new entries from newcomer R&B; artist Elle Varner and country singer Colt Ford. The "Now! 43" collection, which features hit singles …

CROPREDY, England (Reuters) - What better way for the founding fathers of British folk-rock to celebrate 45 years as a band than with an intimate gathering of 20,000 friends and family? Fairport Convention's annual festival, held in the Oxfordshire village of Cropredy over three days last week, has been a fixture for fans …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - TVNotas, a Spanish-language magazine focused on celebrity gossip, broke copyright law when it published the photos of a singer's secret wedding in Las Vegas, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Maya Magazines, the publisher …

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - MTV on Wednesday launched the public beta for Artists.MTV, a new online hub for musicians to connect with their fans through interviews, music and social media. The site - designed to be a newer, upgraded version of Myspace with pages for artists famous and unknown - was first announced by the network …

(Reuters) - Video hasn't yet killed the radio star after all, although YouTube has taken over as the place where most teens listen to music, according to a report released on Tuesday. Nielsen's Music 360 report found that radio is still the place where most people (48 percent) discover new music, compared to just 7 percent …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jennifer Lopez has signed with Creative Artists Agency. The singer and actress left her longtime agent at UTA and joined CAA Monday. Lopez made the decision as she decided "to focus more time on film projects, her music and other ventures," her publicist said in a statement. Lopez, who recently …

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Julia Child is famous for her voice - but not her singing voice. That makes her a perfect candidate for auto-tuning. The cooking icon is the third PBS personality to be remixed for a series of auto-tuned songs designed to make you look at the network in an entirely new way. She follows Mr. Rogers …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Spike Lee's Michael Jackson documentary "Bad 25," Walter Salles' "On the Road" and Brian De Palma's "Passion" have been added to the lineup at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Tuesday. New films by Harmony Korine, Lee Daniels, Susanne Bier and Pablo Trapero have also …

SEOUL (Reuters) - A chubby, rapping singer with slicked-back hair and a tacky suit is the latest musical sensation to burst upon the world from South Korea, via a YouTube music video that has been seen by over 20 million people in under a month. In a nation famed for the pretty-boy but often bland bands of K-Pop, nobody …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - John Williams, Howard Shore and Alexandre Desplat are among the composers nominated for the 2012 International Soundtrack Awards, which will be handed out on October 20 in Ghent, Belgium. Williams, Shore and Desplat were nominated in the Film Composer of the Year and Best Original Score of the …

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - PETA is really letting the fur fly over Lady Gaga's wardrobe. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals senior vice president Dan Mathews penned a scathing open letter to the "Poker Face" singer Monday, accusing the chanteuse of backing down from her anti-fur stance by sporting animal pelts …

LONDON (Reuters) - Pop singer Rihanna has returned to the top of Britain's album rankings with her album "Talk That Talk" after a run of 38 weeks in the Top 40, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday. It is only the second week the album has been in the number one spot as it nears 1 million British sales. The recording …

LONDON (Reuters) - Pop will take the podium when London bids farewell to the Olympics on Sunday, with a closing ceremony starring the Spice Girls, Annie Lennox, One Direction and a peculiarly British sense of humor. Undeterred by criticism that the opening ceremony two weeks ago was too British for the rest of the world …

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin used an obscene Twitter post to attack Madonna on Friday after the pop star called for the release of three women who face prison over an irreverent performance in Moscow's main cathedral. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, a nationalist politician …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Canadian memorabilia dealer who worked with Michael Jackson's mother on a tribute book, and whose websites used the singer's image and music, violated copyrights held by Jackson's estate, a judge ruled on Friday. A federal judge in Los Angeles granted an injunction blocking entrepreneur Howard …

(Reuters) - The ex-husband of Amy Winehouse is on life support in a British hospital after an apparent drink and drug binge just over a year after the untimely death of the "Rehab" singer, Britain's Sun newspaper reported on Thursday. Blake Fielder-Civil, 30, who was married to Winehouse for about two years until 2009 and …

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Country music singer Billy Gilman has started handing out the first pairs of shoes funded by his all-star charity single "The Choice," but says he wants to give away 500,000 worldwide before he's done. "The kids looked like they had won the lottery," Gilman, 24, said, after handing out shoes …

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bloc Party may have won over fans worldwide with their trademark London sound, but the band is determined not to be branded as just another British rock band on the U.S. music scene. Lead singer Kele Okereke, whose thick London accent is what makes Bloc Party's sound so rooted in Britain, told Reuters, …