Month: December 2020

Last week, Amy won 2x ARIA Awards; ‘Best Australian Live Act’ and ‘Best Pop Release’ for ‘Everybody Rise’.

Platinum accredited ‘Everybody Rise’ is nearing 20 million streams globally and spent 12 weeks in the top 10 Australian airplay chart.

‘Cry Forever’ – written and recorded between the US, UK, New Zealand and Shark’s home studio on the Gold Coast, her exceptional songwriting is on full display here, co-producing with A-List producers: Dann Hume (ARIA 2018 & 2019 Producer Of The year), M-Phazes (Ruel, Eminem), Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift), Jamie Hartman (Lewis Capaldi, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man), Dan Wilson (Adele, Leon Bridges) and Sammy Witte (Harry Styles, King Princess).

After bursting on to the global music scene in 2016, her 5 x Platinum single ‘Adore’ put her on the map as one of Australia’s most formidable emerging songwriters. This was followed by 4 x Platinum and number one Australian Airplay Chart hit, ‘I Said Hi’ and the 2019 2 x platinum single ‘Mess Her Up’. Shark’s debut/breakthrough #1 ARIA album and Platinum-certified LOVE MONSTER was recognised in 2018 with four ARIA awards (Album of the Year, Best Female Artist, Best Pop Release, Best Producer [Dann Hume]) and was nominated for another five. LOVE MONSTER went on to become the highest selling album by an Australian artist for 2018.

My Gift is the first-ever Christmas album from seven-time GRAMMY Award winner and five-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Carrie Underwood

“I’ve always wanted to make a Christmas album and it’s been a long time coming,” says Underwood. “I knew this would be my next music project after wrapping my tour last year, and I think it’s turned out to be the perfect time for an album like this, in this period of such personal and spiritual reflection. For me, it’s more important than ever to focus on the true meaning of Christmas in a project like this. Even though it has been a tough year for all of us, sometimes I feel like the greatest realizations can be inspired by the most difficult times, and make us more grateful for the things we do have and for what truly matters.”

On My Gift, Underwood welcomes a stellar list of musical collaborators, led by GRAMMY Award-winning producer, mixer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Greg Wells, who produced and arranged the album and has written and produced some of the best-selling and highest charting tracks of the past 15 years for such artists as Adele, Celine Dion, Keith Urban, and P!nk, as well as the worldwide smash The Greatest Showman soundtrack. My Gift features a world-class orchestra, led by the pre-eminent arranger, composer, and conductor David Campbell, whose many credits include iconic recordings by artists including Linda Ronstadt, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Josh Groban, and his son Beck. My Gift is mixed by 14-time GRAMMY Award winning mixer, Serban Ghenea.

Although Underwood has previously recorded several Christmas songs which have become instant classics, a full-length holiday album has been highly-anticipated by her fans. My Gift features a combination of beloved traditional favourites celebrating the spiritual nature of the holiday, as well as several originals. Two of the new original songs are written by Underwood, frequent collaborator Brett James (‘Jesus, Take the Wheel’, ‘Something In The Water’), and her Cry Pretty co-producer, David Garcia. In addition to a very special appearance by Underwood’s 5-year-old son, Isaiah Fisher, on the holiday classic that inspired the album title, ‘Little Drummer Boy’, My Gift also features her first collaboration with GRAMMY®, Emmy, Oscar, and Tony Award-winner John Legend, on the original track, ‘Hallelujah’, written by Legend and Toby Gad.

‘Oh Santa’ the new single from Mariah Carey, the queen of Christmas, featuring Ariana Grande and Jenifer Hudson.

The holidays will officially arrive with an epic production titled “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special,” set to debut globally today Friday, December 4, on Apple TV+.

Carey has invited a special lineup of guest superstars including Tiffany Haddish, Billy Eichner, Ariana Grande,
Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Jermaine Dupri, Misty Copeland and Mykal-Michelle Harris, all to take part in this one-of-a-kind holiday event. Extra special appearances are also made by Carey’s twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
Faced with a holiday cheer crisis, the North Pole knows there’s only one person who can save the day: Santa’s great friend, Mariah Carey. Combining musical performances, dynamic dancing and ground breaking animation, the undisputed
Queen of Christmas jumps into action to create a holiday spectacular to make the whole world merry.
The soundtrack single “Oh Santa!,” co-written by and featuring Carey performing with Ariana Grande and Jennifer
Hudson, was released today alongside the official video. Watch the video here.

The companion soundtrack to the special is full of brand new interpretations, and will also include Snoop Dogg and Jermaine Dupri as additional musical guests, in addition to a new version of “Sleigh Ride.” The soundtrack is available today exclusively on Apple Music, and all other platforms on December 11.

Through these tough times with Covid-19, Larry Cann has dug deep to deliver an original song that gives the listener hope and a realisation we are all in this together. ‘Country Cries’ is a personal picture of rural life and those that are struggling in their different walks of life, with some sadly taking their own. This track reaches into the hearts of our rural blokes and encourages them to ask for help in their struggles.

Larry Cann is known for his life as a rodeo man and living the cowboy life, but he also has always had strong rural roots. Growing up in the country on the Western Darling Downs of Queensland and these days living in the South Burnett just down the road, Larry has a passion for country music. This is fueled by a life rich in experience, from the farm in Chinchilla Queensland, to competing across North America.

From rodeo to radio and back again, Larry has been fortunate to be able to work continuously within the industries that he loves. He has worked as a competitor in rodeo, to a ring announcer, and in radio has been lucky to have been on-air for more than fifteen years with programming, marketing and announcing. Larry’s weeks are filled with helping others promote, and run their events professionally. From rodeos, AgQuip shows, field days, to music festivals … It’s all part of his life.

Desire. Danger. Elegance. Glamour. Passion is a disarming twist in the rapidly evolving story of artist Gretta Ray: the first rhythmically propulsive, sensually loaded taste of a new chapter for the Australian songstress.

“This is a different kind of song for me,” says the velvet-voiced singer-songwriter from Melbourne. “Conceptually it’s not narrative-driven like a lot of my other songs. Passion is essentially a love song, but people have heard romantic music from me before. I feel like this is definitely turned up a notch.”

From the first dramatically echoing piano chords, the heat of Passion is physical. An almost martial drum beats an off-kilter time signature as the song strides into new terrain with the cool self-assurance and sophisticated pop sensibility of an artist whose time has come.

At just 18, Gretta famously won Triple J Unearthed High and the prestigious Vanda & Young Songwriting Award for her high-rotation hit, Drive. Two EPs, Elsewhere (2016) and Here and Now (2018) have taken her from Falls and Splendour to her first shows in the UK and USA opening for artists such as Mumford & Sons, Gang of Youths, Lianne La Havas and James Bay. Now, at 22, her story truly begins.

“I think Passion is a good way of indicating that there is a different sound around the corner,” she says. “We’ve made a pop record, but in a way that’s unique and authentic to me. It’s been a really fun challenge for me as a writer. It’s been a time of experimentation and new experiences. I think we’ve definitely gone deeper.”

“We” includes Passion co-writer Kyran Daniel (G Flip) and producer Robby De Sa (MAY-A, The Veronicas, Busby Marou), two of the new collaborators helping her realise the creative visions that have driven her so far, so fast. Add to that director Kyle Caulfield, whose stunning video for Passion reveals a new dimension to Gretta’s presence as a performer.

“It’s everything I’ve wanted to do in a video since I was nine years old,” she laughs. ” It was shot at the Labassa mansion in Melbourne; everything’s antique and precious, a lot of the furniture is draped in sheets which makes the perfect look for the video. I’m really excited that this is the first thing people are going to see because It alludes to all that’s to come”

“I’m a pretty passionate person in general,” she says. “In my romantic relationships, yes, but I’m also incredibly passionate about my job. And in terms of making this record, I was able to dive headfirst into my craft in a way that I never had before. So these lyrics about passion being all I’ve ever known, that is definitely me in my music.”

I’m an independent songwriter from Melbourne – Australia, composing songs since my early childhood. I travelled a lot in my life even moving between continents. My influences in music are The Beatles, Rolling Stones, CCR and Kinks. Leaving My Hometown, my fifth single, is a rock song with hermetical lyrics. There are images of me reflecting on a mirror, lapses of life fragments, like flashes, with obsessive thoughts about leaving, but with no particular reason for that except for the lack of love and the need of a change. It’s like jumping from one memory to another, in different times, as I kept leaving each place with the same uncontrollable impulse to open other doors and hold other hands, like an infinite loop and no satisfaction or happiness for that.