The 42-year-old Mexican American recording artist and record producer has unveiled his very own series called Desde Abajo, which will be available on Amazon Music’s app and Twitch channel.
Focusing on culture and its influence on the music industry in Los Angeles, the series will include the Rancho Humilde founder interviewing special guests like Fuerza Regida, Snow Tha Product, AB Quintanilla, Deorro, among others.
The first episode is already out with new episodes airing at 9:00 p.m. ET every other Wednesday until October 12.
The annual Amazon Prime Day Show will feature a streaming music performance by the 37-year-old half-Mexican American singer/songwriter and actor, whose real name is Scott Mescudi.
The events will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video for 30 days starting June 17, with Amazon Prime Days set for June 21 and 22. The streaming is available to all without a Prime subscription needed.
The special will offer performance and storytelling, inspired by Paris, the Dunbar Hotel, and outer space.
“Working with Billie Eilish, H.E.R., and Kid Cudi to bring their music to life through these imaginative experiences has been incredible,” said Ryan Redington, VP of music industry at Amazon Music. “Watching these globally renowned artists create three shows from the depths of their imagination has been unlike anything we’ve ever done before. We’re thrilled to bring fans along with us to celebrate these three remarkable artists and Prime Day.”
“These iconic artists have not only broken new ground in music but are inspired storytellers, culture creators, and visionaries,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We’re thrilled to partner with Billie, H.E.R., and Cudi to bring these authentic and deeply personal specials to fans around the world as we celebrate Prime Day.”
Kid Cudi will depart earth to establish a new community on the moon in his performance. Featuring music from his album, Man on the Moon III, he collaborates with the International Space Orchestra, the world’s first orchestra composed of space scientists from NASA Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the International Space University as his backing band.
The Prime Day Show with Kid Cudi is produced by Fremantle, Wolf + Rothstein, Mad Solar, and Amazon Studios, and is directed by Sam Wrench. Ashley Edens served as executive producer, along with Chad Wolf, Fam Rothstein and Sam Wrench as co-executive producers. Runtime is approximately 25 minutes.
Beginning today, Amazon Music subscribers and Prime members can access the official Prime Day Show playlist here or by asking, “Alexa, play the Prime Day Show playlist,” to stream Billie Eilish, H.E.R., and Kid Cudi. The Prime Day Show will also be available to stream on Twitch, IMDb TV, and on Amazon devices including Fire TV, Echo Show, and Fire tablets on Prime Video.
Michelle Rodriguezis ready to battle monsters, solve puzzles and reap rewards…
The 42-year-old Puerto Rican & Dominican American actress will star alongside Chris Pine and Justice Smith in the film adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons, Hasbro’s popular game franchise from Wizards of the Coast.
Hasbro/eOne and Paramount are jointly producing and financing the film, with eOne distributing in the UK and Canada and Paramount in the rest of world.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley will direct and write the script based on a draft by Michael Gilio.
Plot details behind this latest take on the IP are being kept under wraps. Dungeons & Dragons is a leading fantasy entertainment franchise, fueled by the imagination of storytellers around the world. More than 40 million fans have interacted with or played D&D since it was first published 46 years ago, including via video games and livestream entertainment on Twitch and YouTube.
The 40-year-old half-Ecuadorian American Grammy-winning singer will take part in the ultimate Super Bowl LV after party.
Aguilera joins a roster of performers that includes Alicia Keys, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Luke Bryanand more.
The Verizon Big Concert for Small Business will start a multi-year commitment to provide 1 million small businesses with resources they need to succeed by 2030. Verizon will also donate $10 million to the non-profit organization Local Initiatives Support Corp (LISC), which has been financially supporting businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans can make a one-time donation of $10 to LISC by texting SMALLBIZ to 20222 as part of Verizon’s text-to-give campaign.
Additional performers include H.E.R.and Jazmine Sullivan, who will respectively sing “America the Beautiful” and the National Anthem (alongside Eric Church) during the CBS Kick-Off Showat 6:00 pm ET, as well as Miley Cyrus, who’s set to kick off the TikTok Tailgate pre-show at 2:30 p.m. ET on TikTok and CBS.
The Weeknd is the headline performer of the 2021 Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show. He recently unveiled an 18-song collection of his greatest hits called The Highlights before his highly anticipated performance, which fans can purchase here this Friday (February 5).
The Verizon Big Concert for Small Business will stream immediately after Super Bowl LV on Sunday, February 7 at 11:00 pm ET on Yahoo and Fios as well as Verizon’s Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok accounts.
The Latin boy band will be ringing in the new year with a performance on NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2021 program.
CNCO joins a roster of new additions to the lineup that includes Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Chloe x Halle, Jason Derulo, Kirstin Maldonado and her Pentatonixgroup mates.
Carson Daly will host NBC’s New Year’s Eve special live from Times Square in NYC. Amber Ruffin, the star of Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Showand writer for Late Night With Seth Meyers, and Stephen “tWitch” Boss, DJ and co-executive producer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, will join him as co-hosts.
The star-studded lineup also includes AJR, Goo Goo Dolls, Kylie Minogue, Busta Rhymes with Anderson .Paak, Bebe Rexhawith Doja Cat, and Sting with Shirazee.
NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2021 will air on Thursday, December 31, at 10:00-11:00 pm and 11:30 pm-12:30 am. ET on NBC.
Fat Joe’s got hart… And, he’s ready to share it with the world.
The 50-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American rapper, whose real name Joseph Antonio Cartagena, will take part in the MDA Kevin Hart Kids Telethon, the upcoming two-hour special hosted by Hart that reimagines the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual variety show fundraiser.
Fat Joe joins a lineup of talent additions that includes Don Cheadle, Common, Cindy Crawford, Whitney Cummings, Stephen Curry, Zachary Levi and Kelly Rowland.
The special, which will benefit the MDA and Help From the Hart Charity, streams live on Saturday from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET on Hart’s LOL Network and its digital platforms YouTube and Pluto TV, as well as on TikTok, Triller and Twitch.
SiriusXM will air an encore of the show on its Laugh Out Loud Radio channel on October 26 at 4:00 pm ET and again the next day at 10:00 am ET.
The telethon will feature entertainment, comedy, musical performances and MDA’s Let’s Play For a Cure gaming elements, a gaming stream hosted by Zedd running simultaneously. A Telethon Showcase to celebrate the members of the neuromuscular community and hosted by Nancy O’Dell and Jann Carl will follow the two-hour main show. It will stream on the MDA’s Facebook page.
As a warmup, an MDA-hosted online auction on CharityBuzz featuring items from Serena Williams, Curry and others launches Friday at mda.org/telethon.
The latest talent additions to the lineup join previously announced guests including Garcelle Beauvais, Aloe Blacc, Jack Black, Usain Bolt, Bryan Cranston, Adam Devine, Josh Gad, Liz Gillies, Aldis Hodge, Edwin Hodge, Michael B. Jordan, DJ Khaled, Daniel Levy, Loni Love, Leslie Mann, Jillian Mercado, Robin Thicke, Gabrielle Union Wade and John David Washington.
Becky G is bringing in some big guns to talk politics and more…
The 23-year-old Mexican American singer/rapper’s new voting-themed episode of her En La Salamultimedia podcast features Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and actress America Ferrera.
The candid conversation, which went live Tuesday (October 6) exclusively on Amazon Musicwith corresponding video on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel, touches on a wide range of topics including Harris’ experience as California’s attorney general, the importance of voting on November 3 and 2Pac.
“This is one of the biggest moments in my entire career,” Becky G says in the episode’s trailer. She also speaks with Ferrera about She Se Puede, the new nonprofit the actress and activist founded to pursue social justice and support civic engagement for Latinas. The episode will also be dedicated to the Latino Community Foundation, a nonprofit working to increasing political participation of the Latinx community in California.
Becky G is confirmed to speak at this year’s virtual Latin Music Week. The hitmaker will join Jorge and Hernán Hernández from the iconic norteño group Los Tigres del Norte to discuss the role artists currently play in engaging Latino voters who for the first time in a presidential election are the nation’s largest racial minority among eligible voters this year with a record 31.6 million Latinos eligible to vote. They will also chat about the immigrant experience as seen by two generations of Mexican-American artists. To reserve a spot and receive updates, RSVP here.
Amazon Music is putting a big focus on Latin music with the launch of “Amazon Music LAT!N,” featuring the 19-year-old Mexican singer in a new editorial video series, Género101,
The Latin music brand features a broad umbrella that includes over 100 new and revamped playlists, an emerging artist program, merchandise, video and multiple catalog programs among many other initiatives.
Using the tagline “La Musica que nos conecta” — a reference to the fact that Latinos come from many countries and cultures but are connected by music and language — the LAT!N hub, which includes music in Spanish and Portuguese, will live within Amazon at amazon.com/latinmusic.
It seeks to establish Amazon as a major player in Latin music streaming and content, as well as retail.
“The big differentiator [with other streaming services] is the ability to work cross functionally with the other Amazon verticals and services like Twitch and Prime Video,” explains Rocío Guerrero, who assumed the newly created position of global head of Latin music at Amazon in January.
“We can do things 360. It’s unparalleled and it will live within the Amazon.com ecosystem.”
Prior to Guerrero’s arrival, Amazon Music had been relatively perfunctory with its approach to Latin music, offering playlists and a big catalog but little else. Latin content was hardly ever marketed The launch of LAT!N marks a major investment and commitment to the music.
“What they want is to expand with even more audiences and fans and engage them with Latin music,” Guerrero says. A major thrust is positioning Amazon as a destination that focuses not only on reggaetón and urban music, which dominate the major Latin playlists around the world, but on all genres of Latin music, aiming for Amazon’s “broader” — as Guerrero calls it — audience, including older listeners.
“For instance, genres like bachata, salsa and Regional Mexican are big in Amazon Music,” she says. “We have a spotlight now. And we can shine a light on all the genres of Latin music.”
Guerrero came to Amazon from Warner Music Latin, but previously spent years overseeing U.S. Latin content in Spotify. Since joining Amazon in late 2019 she has expanded the Latin music global team, hiring Ana Martinez as label relations and Cristina Martin to head marketing for Latin music global and retaining Amaya Mendizabal as senior music curator.
After planning for the first half of the year, the official LAT!N kickoff features an original, acoustic version of Maluma’s global hit “Hawái.” It will be followed by exclusive weekly releases of new renditions by Karol G, Christian Nodal and Romeo Santos during Hispanic Heritage Month, with more planned moving forward.
At the same time, a catalog program called “Raices” will kick off with a spotlight on Marc Anthony that includes a mini documentary shot in his home, and will highlight Latin catalog content on a monthly basis. Likewise, an emerging artist program, “Rompe,” which is similar to Amazon’s “Breakthrough” program in the U.K., will highlight a local emerging artist every month, beginning with Colombia’s Las Villa and Interscope artist Nobeat.
New content will go beyond music to include five new editorial video series, available in English and Spanish. The first, Género101, will highlight different sub-genres of Latin music, beginning with an episode on corridos tumbaos explained by Natanael Cano. An Alexa component is also in development that will allow listeners to ask their virtual assistant questions and get replies in different artists’ voices.
The core of LAT!N, of course, will continue to be playlists — now expanded to 100 — including Latin global hits playlist Platino (formerly titled Fuego Latino), new music playlist Hoy, and a Clásicos playlist that features classics for each genre. Says Guerrero: “We cannot commit to just one audience only.”
The 34-year-old half-Mexican American R&B singer and Grammy winner will perform during Black Power Live, a digital benefit taking place on Saturday, June 27th, on Twitch.
The event will be hosted by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and feature a mix of musical performances and conversations with black artists and organizers, including the half-black “Adore You” singer, Doja Cat and Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes.
Black Power Live is meant to be “a celebration of the incredible work done by organizers and activists around the world and will be a chance to reflect, regroup and talk about next steps.”
The musical lineup for Black Power Live will feature jazz star Terrace Martin debuting a new piece, “Racism on Trial,” featuring Kamasi Washington, Denzel Curry, Robert Glasper, Alex Isley and others.
Additional performers include Ne-Yo, Aloe Blacc, HO99O9 with Travis Barker, Vagabon, Jessie Reyez, Serpentwithfeet and Twin Shadow.
Along with the music, Black Power Live will feature interviews and discussions with a mix of artists and activists including Parkland survivor Emma González, Dear White People creator Justin Simien and author and filmmaker Dream Hampton.
The event will begin at 5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET and end at 12:00 am PT/3:00 am ET.
Money raised will benefit the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, Trap Heals, Transgender Law Center, Sankofa and Black Men Build.
A complete lineup, and registration for the event, is available here.
Ariana DeBose is helping homeless and trafficked youth…
The 29-year-old half-Afro-Puerto Rican actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre and on So You Think You Can Dance, will take part in a virtual concert event to benefit the Covenant House charity for homeless and trafficked youth.
DeBose joins a 50-plus roster of stars who’ll perform or appear for the May 18 fundraiser that includes Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Jon Bon Jovi, Rachel Brosnahan, Stephen Colbert, Martin Short, Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick, Stephanie J. Block, Tony Shalhoub, Charlie Day, Chris O’Dowd, Zachary Leviand Zachary Quinto.
A Night of Covenant House Stars, to be held on Monday, May 18 at 8:00 pm ET on the Broadway on Demand streaming platform, will be co-hosted by six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald and 60 Minutes orrespondent John Dickerson, both members of the Covenant House Board of Directors.
The event is designed to support Covenant House, the international, mostly privately funded charity providing housing, food and healthcare to children and youth facing homelessness, and the front-line staff working during the COVID-19crisis.
“This virus does not get the last word,” said Covenant House President & CEO Kevin Ryan. “This amazing group of stars uniting in love to help us care for kids is proof positive of that.”
Other stars slated to appear include Robin Thicke, Deborah Cox, Quentin Earl Darrington, Darius de Haas, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Eden Espinosa, Jordan Fisher, Stephanie Hsu,Randy Jackson, Capathia Jenkins, Jeremy Jordan, Ramona Keller, Alex Newell, Karen Olivo, Dawn O’Porter, Laura Osnes, Benj Pasek, Jodi Picoult, Shereen Pimentel, Andrew Rannells, Keala Settle, Jake David Smith, Will Swenson, Bobby Conte Thornton, Ana Villafane, Frank Wildhorn, and the Broadway Inspirational Voices choir.
Event proceeds will benefit Covenant House’s work across 31 cities, in six countries.
The May 18 fundraiser will mark the launch of the Broadway on Demand platform (the company had previously announced a May 17 program). Viewers can watch the Covenant House event free of charge.
In addition to Broadway on Demand, A Night of Covenant House Starscan be streamed on iHeartRadio Broadway, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and Stars in the House.