Fat Joe Partnering with Power to the Patients to Advocate for Price Transparency in Healthcare

Fat Joe is advocating for more transparency in healthcare…

53-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American rapper is teaming up with Jelly Roll, Wyclef Jean and Power to the Patients for an event in Washington, D.C. to advocate for a more affordable and equitable healthcare system through price transparency.

Fat JoeTaking place on Wedenesday, January 10 at Hamilton Live and with congressional leaders and government officials in attendance, the event see the artists “shed light on the injustices created by a healthcare system that hides its prices, stifling competition and evading accountability for overcharges and price gouging,” according to the announcement.

As part of the event, Fat Joe will serve as emcee while Jelly Roll and Wyclef Jean will perform.

“The U.S. healthcare system is America’s sickness,” said Fat Joe. “Healthcare price transparency isn’t a partisan or complicated issue. It’s common sense. The only people opposed to it are healthcare industry interests profiting by keeping patients in the dark. Price transparency can protect patients, families, employers, workers, even our own government from healthcare overcharging and pricing fraud as it does everywhere else in the economy. Clear prices allow consumers to choose affordable treatments without worrying that routine care will result in overcharges and even bankruptcy. Price transparency holds hospitals and insurance companies accountable, forcing them to compete and lowering costs, improving healthcare access, quality, and outcomes.”

Power to the Patients has played a key role in raising awareness on Capitol Hill about the urgent need to pass comprehensive healthcare price transparency legislation.

Last April, Fat Joe met with congressional leaders and the White House to advocate for the enforcement of price transparency rules that most hospitals around the country are disregarding.

And last September, he tapped Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, French Montana, Method Man and Chuck D to unveil a public service announcement with Power the Patients, demanding elected officials commit to price transparency to allow for more honest, affordable, and equitable healthcare across the country.

The musicians called out hospitals and insurance companies that continue to hide prices by posting “estimates” or “average prices” instead of dollars and cents and noted the deception leads to the “stifling of competition, overcharges, fear, debt, and devastation all over the country.”

As a result of the continued awareness campaign, momentum for healthcare price transparency legislation has accelerated with both chambers of Congress taking action to advance legislation.

Fat Joe will join Power to the Patients, affiliated organization Patient Rights Advocate, and employers from across the country in meetings with Congressional leaders urging them to seize the momentum and get healthcare price transparency legislation passed and sent to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Carlos Santana to Perform Alongside Rob Thomas at “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert”

There’s more than a walk in the (Central) park in Carlos Santana’s future…

Amid concern over the Delta coronavirus variant, a mega-concert in Central Park to celebrate New York City’s reopening will go forward as planned next month, with performers including the 74-year-old Mexican-American guitarist/musician.

Carlos Santana

Santana, considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, will perform alongside Rob Thomas. The pair teamed up in 1999 for Smooth“, a dynamic cha-cha stop-start number co-written and sung by Thomas of Matchbox Twenty and laced throughout with Santana’s guitar fills and runs. “Smooth” spent twelve weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming in the process the last No. 1 single of the 1990s.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined music industry legend Clive Davis, who is co-producing the concert, for a press conference to unveil the details of what de Blasio promised will be a “historic,” “blockbuster” event. Officially titled “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert,” the event is set for August 21 at 5:00 p.m., it will be broadcast live globally on CNN and 80% of tickets will be free.

While de Blasio initially proposed having vaccinated and unvaccinated sections, he said that attendees will be required to present proof of vaccination.

“New York City is back,” de Blasio said. “You can see it, you can feel it, and it’s time to celebrate on the Great Lawn.”

The lineup, which includes many New York natives, so far spans Jon BatisteAndrea Bocelli, Kane Brown, LL Cool J, Elvis Costello, Earth, Wind & Fire joined by Lucky Daye and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Cynthia Erivo, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Hudson, Wyclef Jean, Journey, The Killers, Gayle King, Don Lemon, Barry Manilow, The New York Philharmonic, Polo G, Carlos Santana joined by Rob Thomas, Paul Simon and Patti Smith duetting with Bruce Springsteen.

“As a born, bred and true New Yorker, I well know how resilient we are and how New York always comes back,” Davis said. “I cannot think of a more appropriate way to celebrate this than an unforgettable concert in the most special venue in the world: the Great Lawn at Central Park. My team, along with our partners at Live Nation, has been hard at work for weeks curating what I submit to you will be a once-in a lifetime event […] It will celebrate a spectacular range of musical genres, styles and eras while including some of the most iconic artists in the history of modern music.”

Davis, who was raised in Brooklyn, is co-producing alongside Live Nation. Restauranteur Danny Meyer, the recently-appointed chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation board of directors, is also involved, as is Universal Hip-Hop Museum executive director Rocky Bucano.

“We’re so honored to be part of this event,” added Live Nation regional president Geoff Gordon. “I too have goosebumps after hearing that, even though we’ve been involved in lining this up. Live music has the unique ability to bring us all together, which is really what we’re doing. There’s nothing like a live music experience.”

Tickets for the concert go on sale on Monday, August 2 at 10:00 a.m. EST on the new NYC Homecoming Week website, and the Great Lawn has a capacity of 60,000. The 20% of tickets not designated as free are VIP tickets available for purchase. De Blasio said that event workers will be checking for proof of vaccination as attendees enter, with more details to come. Asked by a reporter whether the vaccination requirement means the concert is for attendees aged 12 and over only, de Blasio said, “right now, that’s a fair assumption.”

The event will cap off a reopening celebration dubbed NYC Homecoming Week, during which the City of New York will host concerts in each of the five boroughs starting August 14, leading up to the Great Lawn spectacle on the 21st. The lead-up concerts will be held Aug. 16 at Orchard Beach in The Bronx; Aug. 17 at Richmond County Bank Park in Staten Island; Aug. 19 at Brooklyn Army Terminal in Brooklyn; and Aug. 20 at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens.

Cabello Reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs Chart with “Bad Things”

It’s a special first for Camila Cabello

The 19-year-old Cuban American singer and former Fifth Harmony member and Machine Gun Kelly have reached the summit on BillboardPop Songs radio airplay chart with “Bad Things.”

Camila Cabello

Cabello and Machine Gun Kelley’s collaboration climbs 2-1 on the list dated February 18.

Cabello reigns in her second visit as a soloist. A year ago, she reached No. 10 with Shawn Mendes on I Know What You Did Last Summer.

As a member of Fifth Harmony (from 2012 until this past December), Cabello charted seven Pop Songs entries, including “Work From Home” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign), which led for two weeks in June 2016.

Cabello, thus, joins an elite troop of artists who’ve topped Pop Songs (which launched in 1992) both as a soloist and as part of a group.

Here’s Cabello’s fellow group-to-solo successes below.

Justin Timberlake (eight Pop Songs No. 1s) / *NSYNC (two)
Beyonce (six) and Kelly Rowland (one) / Destiny’s Child (two)
Adam Levine (two) / Maroon 5 (nine)
Gwen Stefani (two) / No Doubt (three)
Fergie (one) / The Black Eyed Peas (three)
Wyclef Jean (one) / Fugees (one)
Nate Ruess (one) / fun. (one)
Rob Thomas (one) / matchbox twenty (one)

Also for “Bad Things” on Pop Songs: It reigns more than 17 years after the song that originally provided its chorus hit No. 8 on the chart: Fastball‘s “Out of My Head.”

Shakira’s “Chantaje,” feat. Maluma, Matches the Run of “Hips Don’t Lie” on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs Chart

Shakira is still blackmailing her way to the top of the charts…

The 39-year-old Colombian superstar rules the roost on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart (dated January 21) for an eighth (nonconsecutive) week with “Chantaje,” featuring Maluma, matching the amount of weeks she spent atop the chart with her 2006 smash “Hips Don’t Lie,” featuring Wyclef Jean.

Shakira

Both tracks are now tied for her second-longest command of the chart; the Colombian star’s “La Tortura,” featuring Alejandro Sanz, spent 25 weeks at the top beginning in June 2005.

Meanwhile, “Chantaje,” which translates to blackmail in English, jumps 65-51 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, reaching a new peak in its eighth charting week. Apart from “Tortura,” which peaked at No. 23, “Chantaje” marks Shakira’s best Hot 100 showing for a Spanish-language song that doesn’t have an accompanying English version.

A gain in streaming for the song supports its rank on both charts. The track logged 6.1 million streams during the week ending January 5, according to Nielsen Music, an 18 percent increase. It concurrently debuts at No. 47 on the Streaming Songs chart, which ranks weekly U.S. streaming data across all genres, marking Shakira’s fourth time on the four-year-old chart, and the first with a Spanish-language song.

Of the song’s total domestic weekly streams, 62 percent stem from YouTube, where its official video has reached 395 million global views to date. Meanwhile, “Chantaje” spends a fourth week at No. 1 on the Latin Digital Song Sales chart, despite a 4 percent dip in sales (to 5,000 downloads; most titles dropped in sales in the tracking week, following Christmas-week shopping the week before).

For nine years (2005-14), “La Tortura” held the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs. It wasn’t until Enrique Iglesias‘ global hit “Bailando,” featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona, ran up 41 frames at No. 1 (through February 2015), dethroning “Hips Don’t Lie.” Since then, Nicky Jam and Iglesias also surpassed the reign of “Hips,” when their collaborative “El Perdon” tallied 30 weeks at No. 1 in March-October 2015.

Shakira is currently working on her 11th studio album, her first full-length Spanish release since 2010’s Sale el Sol.

Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary Atop Billboard’s Latin Digital Songs Chart

Shakira’s hips don’t lie, but they’re still top notch…

News of the 10th anniversary of the 39-year-old Colombian superstar’s former No. 1 Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart hit “Hips Don’t Lie,” featuring Wyclef Jean, helped the song vault 12-1 on the Latin Digital Songs chart.

Shakira

The song registered 5,000 downloads, up 264 percent.

“Hips Don’t Lie” spends its 15th week at the top of the latter chart, and first since 2014.

Since the inception of the chart in 2010, “Hips Don’t Lie” hasn’t fallen out of the top 20.

The song remains Shakira and Wyclef Jean’s only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it crowned the chart for 2 weeks in 2006.

The National Museum of American History to Memorialize Cruz

It’s been nearly 10 years since Celia Cruz passed away… But she’s remained one of the most influential artists in Latin music… And, now she’ll be memorialized in our nation’s capital.

The legendary Cuban-American singer—known as the “Queen of Salsa” —will be the subject of a new biographical portrait by Robert Weingarten, a noted photographic artist, at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Celia Cruz

As part of the museum’s “Frame an Iconic American” contest, officials selected five iconic American figures who represented a different set of ideas. And after more than 11,000 votes cast, Cruz’s story of immigration, music and entertainment resonated with a clear majority of the voters.

“The comments on our contest pages hint at some of the challenges museum staff face when thinking about how we collect, preserve and present history” says Shannon Perich, curator of the upcoming Pushing Boundaries: Portraits by Robert Weingarten exhibition. “Which stories do we tell and why? For some commenters, local allegiances were most important. For some, having a personal connection was the deciding factor. Others wrestled with the various ways in which we recognize the many kinds of contributions our heroes make to our society. This dynamic dialogue is important and we thank you for sharing your points of view with us.”

Celia Cruz

Cruz, who passed away in July 2003 at the age of 77, recorded more than 80 albums and songs, many of which went gold or platinum, during a professional career that spanned more than 60 years. Cruz, who became known around the world for her piercing and powerful voice and larger-than-life personality and stage costumes, won five Grammy Awards and received various other honors for her contributions to Latin music. She collaborated with Gloria Estefan, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Rivera, David Byrne, Wyclef Jean and many other musical legends.

Celia Cruz

To learn more about Cruz, read a special tribute on the American History Museum’s blog or visit the museum’s online exhibition, ¡Azúcar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz.

Cruz beat Audie Murphy, Alice PaulSamuel Morse and Frederick Douglass for the honor. Weingarten’s finished portrait of Cruz will be displayed at the Smithsonian this fall.