city Columbia: Last News

John Mayer is enjoying a night out with friends!

As we head into the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, we’re adding to the excitement with a fantastic round-up of Manchester gigs planned for the summer and beyond.

Thania Garcia As a part of the largest partner class in ‘s (UTA) history , Mike “Mike G” Guirguis, Jbeau Lewis and Toni Wallace have been promoted to partner.Mike G represents a variety of artists across multiple genres, including Lil Wayne, the Kid Laroi, Romeo Santos, Burna Boy and more. Prior to UTA, he served as a talent manager for artists including Chris Brown, Akon, and Teyana Taylor, among others.Lewis handles and equally diverse roster, including Bad Bunny, Muse, Chance the Rapper, Karol G and Jason Derulo, among others.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony is in development on sci-fi movie Omega, which Mortal Kombat filmmaker Simon McQuoid is attached to direct.

Harry Styles' new album Harry’s House debuted in the top spot on the Billboard 200 after selling more than 521,500 album units in the U.S. in its debut week.The 28-year-old singer's new album, for the week ending May 26, had the highest-selling week to date in 2022; and since fellow Columbia Records artist Adele sold more than 839,000 units for the week ending November 25, 2021 for her album 30.The Grammy award-winning artist's previous solo two efforts - his self-titled 2017 album and the 2019 release Fine Line - also debuted at number one in their respective first weeks.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe original “Top Gun” is a study in Hollywood moviemaking of a certain era — an era captured in the pages of Variety as the movie was birthed starting in mid-1983 until its triumphant release by Paramount Pictures three years later.The movie came together during the period when Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were at the peak of their powers as red-hot producers of culture-shaking films such as 1983’s “Flashdance” and 1984’s “Beverly Hills Cop.” The film that the pair crafted with numerous screenwriters (more on that in the clips), director Tony Scott and veteran producer Bill Badalato launched Tom Cruise to a new level of stardom and created a legacy sturdy enough for Cruise, Bruckheimer and Paramount to leap back to the top of the box office nearly 40 years later with the long-delayed, made-for-movie-screens sequel “Top Gun: Maverick.”As demonstrated by the steady pace of news about “Top Gun,” Simpson and Bruckheimer had a ton of clout with Paramount and the industry at the time. They even were able to control the rights to the soundtrack for the film — something they learned from the success of “Flashdance” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” Simpson-Bruckheimer Prods.

Alfredo Morelos surprised his wife with a £55,000 Chevrolet as an early birthday present.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicThe saga of The Kid Laroi’s management continues. The Australian singer has re-signed with Scooter Braun for management, a month after deciding to exit Adam Leber’s Rebel Management, Variety has confirmed.Braun’s SB Projects roster includes Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Dan + Shay and Tori Kelly, among others.Laroi first signed with Braun in June 2021, then left three months later due to, what Billboard described as “significant problems” with the firm — namely that Braun himself was not involved enough in making career decisions.According to a source, Laroi and his mother, Sloane Howard, recently re-approached Braun and signed a management agreement about a week ago with the assurance that Braun will be directly involved in overseeing all aspects of the artist’s career. Braun then flew to Australia to see Kid Laroi at his May 26 show at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, the first of seven concerts in the area — and a sell-out with 42,000 tickets sold.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicSony Music Group (SMG) chairman Rob Stringer touted a strong fiscal year (for the period between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021) and revealed plans to expand the company’s Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program in a briefing to the company’s senior executives and investors delivered on May 25.Speaking from New York, Stringer hailed what he described as “all-time high financial results,” resulting in record numbers in revenue, profits and margins, going on five consecutive years.During that time, SMG’s global roster from its frontline labels — namely Columbia, RCA and Epic — increased by over 30% and its creative staff by more than 85%. The investment in talent, on both the artist and executive side, has yielded tangible results in the form of global successes like the Kid Laroi, Maneskin, Doja Cat and Lil Nas X, who got mentioned during the presentation.

Morton “Mort” Janklow, a so-called “super agent” whose roster of literary stars included Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Danielle Steele, Judith Krantz, Sidney Sheldon, Ted Turner and Barbara Walters, died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in Water Mill, New York. He was 91 and passed just days before his 92nd birthday.

Sofia Vergara is finally back on set! The star shared an exciting behind-the-scenes photo, sending fans into a frenzy with its unexpected location.ALSO: HELLO! launches Jubilee T-shirt collection to celebrate Queen Elizabeth in stylePosted to her Instagram Stories, she is seen taking a picture of her bright yellow phone, which appears on the rearview mirror of the vintage car she's in, the wood panels and retro control buttons being a dead giveaway.Beyond the car's window is what appears to be a car wash that the actress is passing through.WATCH: Sofia shares unbeliebale video of herself as a teenagerMORE: Sofia Vergara looks ethereal in fitted lacy gown in stunning wedding photosShe captioned the rare glimpse of her latest project with "Set life," revealing that what she is working on is titled Griselda.Griselda is a new mini series, still in the process of filming, though it's set to depict the life of Griselda Blanco, also known as the Black Widow, who was a Colombian drug lady of the Medellín Cartel.Sofia plays Griselda herself, portraying her life as a mother and going on to create one of the most profitable cartels in history. The behind-the-scenes glimpseThough the Modern Family star is sure to make an excellent portrayal of her, considering she is from Columbia herself, it's not exactly the role fans wanted to see her take on.MORE: Sofia Vergara wows in poolside photos and fans all notice the same thingMORE: Sofia Vergara models her own lingerie line in sizzling new photoAfter sharing a jaw-dropping swimsuit photo by the pool recently, while she was certainly showered with compliments, the comments section was flooded with fans insisting what a great Evelyn Hugo she would be.

EXCLUSIVE: Charles Finch (Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love) is as English as they come, but Hollywood runs through his veins. Having written movies, produced a few, directed three; managed movie stars and built brands, and published high-end cultural magazines, he decided “smack in the middle of Covid, in my late fifties,” that he wanted to go back to making movies.

Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) has signed on to star alongside Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney in S.J. Clarkson’s Sony film Madame Web, based on the Marvel comics by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr.

Travis Barker has just married Kourtney Kardashian during their glamorous wedding in Italy.

Kanye West – now legally known as Ye – and XXXTentacion‘s ‘True Love’ collaboration is getting a proper release later this week.Up until now, the lead track from West’s recent ‘Donda 2’ album was only available on the rapper and producer’s Stem Player, which he launched to host his 11th studio album back in February.However, the track is now getting a full release on Friday (May 27) via Columbia Records to coincide with the release of new documentary Look at Me: XXXTentacion, which will be released on Hulu in the US on May 26. A UK release date has yet to be announced.Set to land on all streaming platforms, ‘True Love’ will also feature on XXXTentacion’s ‘Look at Me: The Album’, which is yet to get a release date.The cover art for the single was designed by West and features handwritten notes from XXXTentacion, which come from a journal discovered by the late rapper’s mother.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKanye West’s long-promised “Donda 2” album has apparently taken a step closer to reality, as Columbia Records announced a collaboration with the late XXXTentacion called “True Love” — which appears in the new “Look at Me: XXXTentacion” documentary, which airs on Hulu beginning Thursday, May 26, and on the accompanying album, “Look at Me: The Album,” due on Friday.“True Love,” officially billed to Ye & XXXTentacion, will see its official release via Columbia Records at the standard drop time of 12 a.m. ET Friday / 9 p.m.

The Velvet Underground, has died at the age of 83.Dolph’s death was confirmed in a statement issued on Friday (May 20) by Planetary Group, who said that he had passed away on May 11 in New Haven, Connecticut after a battle with cancer (via Consequence).Dolph first encountered the Velvet Underground while working as a sales executive for Columbia Records in 1966, and he set about arranging the recording sessions which yielded the majority of the songs which featured on the band’s classic 1967 album ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’.Those April 1966 sessions took place at Scepter Records Studios in Manhattan, New York City, which Dolph organised and co-financed.“I was not the producer in any sense that Quincy Jones is a producer,” Dolph later recalled about the sessions in an interview for Richie Unterberger’s White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day. “The only thing I would say is because they were doing it on my money – and we had limited time resources fiscally, ’cause we were always bumping up against commitments that Scepter had in the studio – that I kept the thing on the rails.“And it’s also quite highly probable to say if they had made the same record, and I had not even been anywhere near it, it would have been ultimately played out the same way.

Frank Grillo is set to star in Liam O’Donnell’s horror-thriller Merciless, which Sentient Pictures International is shopping here in Cannes this week. The company also has announced that Columbian actor Juan Pablo Raba (Peppermint, Narcos) has been tapped to lead Antonio Negret’s new action thriller Sombra.

Shirley Ju The Kid Laroi’s “Stay,” his monster hit with Justin Bieber, is creeping up on 1 billion on-demand streams, per data from Luminate, with its official music video racking 546 million views on YouTube and counting. To say that Laroi has officially arrived would be an understatement.At only 18 years old, the Australian singer-songwriter has accomplished what many musicians aspire to inin a lifetime: signed to Columbia Records, whose roster includes Adele, Bruce Springsteen and Harry Styles, he’s been nominated for a Grammy, performed on “Saturday Night Live” (alongside Miley Cyrus for his breakout hit, “Without You”) and collaborated with his idol, the late Juice WRLD.Laroi’s most recent release, “Thousand Miles,” written about his current girlfriend before they started dating, made another big splash when it debuted in April, thanks in large part to a TikTok promoting the record, which featured images of Laroi’s former manager Scooter Braun, implying that Braun was a “mistake.” (Braun was in on the hoax, he later revealed; and Laroi has since parted with his most recent representative, Adam Leber.) Variety spoke with Laroi in Culver City, Calif., where he was performing virtually for Kid Cudi’s Encore app.

After posting a video of himself dancing to his own single on TikTok, Junior Andre's debut song has already gone viral despite the 16-year-old's track being unreleased. It seems he's set to follow in his dad's footsteps by heading into the music industry and he's already gathered a huge fan base despite only revealing a tiny bit of his song, titled Slide.

Police in Bilbao, Spain — a port city on the country’s northern coast — have recently arrested a man in connection to the deaths of eight gay men in 2021.According to information from Spanish News Today, from September through October 2021, 25-year-old Nelson David from Columbia allegedly used Grindr to meet with victims. Once inside their homes, David drugged his victims with “liquid ecstasy” (otherwise known as GHB) and “left them to die.”Initially, none of these deaths were treated as suspicious, but in October 2021, the family of one of the victims came forward and stated that a large sum of money had been taken from his bank account after his death. Pink News reported that—even though the victim had already been cremated—Bilbao law enforcement officials were able to detect “traces of the date rape drug GHB in his system.”Authorities were able to identify David as the suspect after a survivor came forward and stated that someone he met off the dating app attempted to strangle him.