Music

Kit Harington, BTS Will Make Their Saturday Night Live Debuts. Saturday Night Live is getting ready to give viewers a very good spring with several newcomers to the Studio 8H stage, including BTS and Kit Harington. The long-running late-night sketch show returns March 30 with Killing Eve star Sandra Oh and musical guest Tame Impala. This will be the first time for both on the show. Killing Eve returns on Sunday, April 7 and Tame Impala is prepping for the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Then, ahead of the Game of Thrones premiere, Harington will make his hosting debut on Saturday, April 6. He'll be joined by Sara Bareilles who is also taking the stage for the first time. Bareilles' new album Amidst the Chaos is due out April 5. Waitress, the stage musical she wrote the music and lyrics for, is still running on Broadway and just opened in London's West End. Meanwhile, Emma Stone will take over hosting duties for the fourth time on Saturday, April 13 with BTS as the musical guest. This will be BTS's first time as musical guest. The band's newest album, Map of the Soul: Persona, comes out April 12 ahead of the upcoming Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. Stone is working with Omaze for a number of charity causes. Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays, 11:35 p.m. on NBC. (Eonline)

Raz B says he's going to tough it out on the B2K reunion tour, despite fearing for his own safety ... and feeling less than appreciated by his group mates. We got Raz in Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon -- ahead of B2K's show Thursday in Rochester, NY -- and the singer tells us he's no longer throwing in the towel, despite shocking fans by announcing he was quitting ... just a few days into the highly anticipated tour. Something or someone changed his mind -- Raz says he's gonna continue touring with Omarion, Lil Fizz and J Boog ... but he still has a few demands, like beefing up his personal security. As you know ... Raz ranted Tuesday night on IG, telling fans he was quitting and laying blame on the group's former manager, Chris Stokes, who Raz has accused of sexual abuse. Translation: Chris is the reason Raz doesn't feel safe on tour. The good news for B2K fans ... Raz says the group is getting along better now, and the tour is in full effect. (TMZ)

Diana Ross was bizarrely poked by a belligerent fan -- and given the middle finger -- during her surprise midnight concert at the opening of Ian Schrager's Edition hotel in Times Square on Monday night. A male fan pushed his way through the crowd for a spot close to the stage to watch Ross perform in the hotel's Paradise Club. When Ross hit the stage, the seemingly tipsy dude proceeded to poke and try to push the icon, 74, from the front row, as she sang hits like "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out." Ross grew irritated and attempted to slap the guy's hand away and scold him with her finger, which only instigated him to repeatedly "flip the bird" at her. The disrespectful lout even grabbed at Ross' fabulous tulle boa before security rushed to escort him out of the venue. Also at the packed party were top models Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne and Hailey Bieber, who appeared at the hotel's Terrace Restaurant -- and we hear their appearances came with a hefty payout. "They were each paid a significant amount," a source told Page Six, saying $250,000 each. But insiders said that the fees for some of the models actually went all the way up to $2 million. Disco pioneers Nile Rodgers and Chic also played the over-the-top opening for a crowd that included Andy Cohen, Joan Smalls, Harry Brant and Ellen von Unwerth, who danced on a banquette. Schrager, who legendarily created Studio 54 with Steve Rubell, told us after the bash: "Everything seems to have come full circle," pointing out that Ross played his famed club's final night and "serenaded us for a goodbye party." "Then we jump forward all these years, and she does the first night .?.?. Too bad Steve wasn't around to enjoy it." Rubell died in 1989. Suki Waterhouse also sang at the party for scenesters including Theodora Richards, Peter Brant Jr., Jean Pigozzi, Maxwell Osborne, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Claudine De Niro, Andrew Warren, Mia Moretti and Jason Binn. (Page Six)

Labels Sparring Over Rapper Lil Nas X As 'Old Town Road' Rakes In Streams: Exclusive. Some labels are prepared to offer Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X a seven-figure deal, as his country-trap song "Old Town Road" rakes in streams, sources told Billboard. The moody track about a lonesome cowboy, which interpolates Nine Inch Nails' 2008 song "34 Ghosts IV," was released in early December. It has since topped more than 11.5 million streams on Spotify, and its music video -- which features footage from the Western video game Red Dead Redemption -- has generated close to 5 million views. "Old Town Road" hits the Hot 100 this week, landing at No. 83. It also debuts on Hot Country Songs at No. 19 (on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop, it enters at No. 36), and has a co-sign from Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley. Like many quick-rising hip-hop hits in 2019, this one also involves memes and a viral social media challenge. TikTok users have turned the track's "I got the horses in the back" lyric into a video meme where users transform into cowboys as the country-flavored chorus plays in the background. Even sports coverage site Bleacher Report got in on the meme-making back in December. Lil Nas X self-released his first project, Naserati, last year. Last month, he released his latest single, the guitar-tinged, mellow "BANZUP,'" which has 132,000 plays to date. A spokesperson for Lil Nas X could not be reached for comment at press time. (Billboard)

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians Play Tight, Career-Spanning Set at SXSW. There was something appropriate about Bohemians starting their South By Southwest set Wednesday night with "Tell Me" and it's refrain about "waiting so long for this happy day." The 55-minute show at St. David's Historic Sanctuary was actually the group's first appearance at SXSW in its 35-year history despite the fact it hails from Dallas and certainly played a circuit with other groups who were habitual performers at the festival. "It's a funny thing," lead guitarist Kenny Withrow told Billboard after Wednesday's show, noting that New Bohemians were signed out of its home town to a major label record deal, producing a double-platinum debut 1988's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars  and a smash hit in "What I Am." "When our record came out on Geffen, nobody really knew what was going to happen," Withrow added. "We kind of went from playing clubs to being on Saturday Night Live, so there was no in-between where the unsigned band thing used to happen at South By. We were lucky; We stayed home and somebody came and signed us." Nobody in the band, however, even made mention of the St. David's show's notoriety. Instead it was a solid set of 10 tightly delivered songs, including "Superhero" and the Caribbean-flavored "Singing in the Shower" from Rocket, New Bohemians' first new studio album in 12 years. Brickell, who played guitar on a couple of songs, smiled throughout the show, which also tapped older favorites such as "Buffalo Ghost," "Stranger Things" and "Nothing" and finished with a muscular conjoined trio of "Spanish Style Guitar" into a slinky "What I Am" and an extended version of "What Makes You Happy," with a couple of members breaking out horns during the funky vamp. New Bohemians' SXSW run continues Thursday with a Sun Radio live session and interview and wraps Saturday with another show at the Hotel San Jose. "I'm looking forward to the rest," Withrow noted on Wednesday. I'm always looking to play more shows." (Billboard)

Unheard Michael Hutchence Recordings Set For New INXS 'Mystify' Documentary, Soundtrack. Two previously unheard Michael Hutchence recordings are set to appear on the soundtrack to Mystify, a new full-length documentary film which traces the life and career of the late INXS frontman. Mystify, which takes its name from the fifth and final single from INXS's hit 1987 album, Kick, will premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in April, and is helmed by Richard Lowenstein, who directed more than a dozen of the band's early music videos, including "Burn for You" (1984), "What You Need" (1985), "Listen Like Thieves" (1986), "Need You Tonight"/"Mediate" (1987) and "Never Tear Us Apart" (1988). Its accompanying soundtrack will "showcase the musical talents of Michael's song writing and velvet lyrics," reads a statement issued Thursday by the Aussie new wave band's label home, Petrol Records. It will "weave recently discovered, and never-before heard, covers performed by Michael, with the much loved INXS classics that led the evolution of the music industry so many years ago," the message continues. The release date, tracklist and artwork for the soundtrack has yet to be revealed. On making the announcement, Chris Murphy, chairman and founder of Petrol Records, and creative director and global strategist for INXS explains: "Their legacy is growing every day, and a new generation of fans from around the world are discovering INXS through streaming. We are entering an exciting period of rediscovery of their legacy and a reassessment of their place in music history." News of a fresh documentary project and soundtrack follows the 20th anniversary of Hutchence's untimely death, on Nov. 22, 1997, aged 37. Though INXS has welcomed a string of singers into the band over the past two decades, the classic lineup remains unbeatable. A two-part Australia-made docuseries, Never Tear Us Apart, from 2014, breathed new life into the group's career and saw INXS' catalogue return to the top of the charts in their homeland, breaking records along the way. Murphy adds: "There will be many insights revealed about Michael's life and his music, which will create interesting conversations. Movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born remind us of the extraordinary contributions that are made to popular culture when movies and music are creatively intertwined, and I am proud to say Mystify will be another great example." It's a busy time for Murphy and Petrol as the veteran entrepreneur continues his work on the INXS X Building, a gallery of the band's memorabilia in northern New South Wales. The initiative, according to Petrol, will also be an incubator for new talent, start-ups and established businesses within the arts and technology sectors. Last year, Giles Martin came on board as creative director, a new role that handed creative reins to the British-born producer, composer and arranger on all audio aspects of INXS' plans, including musicals and movies and the reissue of their studio albums. Those LPs will be repackaged, remixed and expanded for release through Universal Music Group (UMG) in partnership with Petrol Records. (Billboard)

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