39 minutes ago

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Tim McGraw will return to the road this summer as a solo headliner after two years co-headlining with his wife, Faith Hill.

The Live Your Voice outing begins May 9 in Tampa, Florida, and will feature support from Jason Aldean and Halfway to Hazard.

Before the tour, McGraw will play headlining dates at several festivals, including the Houston Livestock & Rodeo on March 3, his debut appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on April 27 and the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California, on May 4.

With about $150 million in ticket sales, McGraw and Hill's Soul2Soul II tour is the top-grossing two-year country tour ever.

Reuters/Billboard

47 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Britney Spears was removed from her home by Los Angeles police and rushed to a hospital early on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Spears, 26, was rushed into an ambulance from a side entrance of her Studio City home shortly after 1 a.m./ 4:00 a.m. EST, escorted by more than a dozen motorcycle officers, two police cruisers and two police helicopters, the Times reported, citing unidentified authorities.

She was taken to UCLA Medical Center after a call from her psychiatrist, the authorities told the newspaper.

Los Angeles police would not immediately confirm the report.

The pop star, whose personal life has veered out of control in the last 12 months, lost custody of sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, in October but had been allowed to see them three times a week in court-monitored visits.

Those visitation rights were stripped on January 4 after Spears refused to hand back the boys to ex-husband Kevin Federline and reportedly locked herself in a bathroom in a fit of hysterics. That episode ended with her being taken away on a stretcher and hospitalized for two days.

(Writing by Doina Chiacu, editing by Paul Casciato)

By KEITH ST. CLAIR, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears was taken from her house by ambulance early Thursday, police told The Associated Press.

A Los Angeles police officer, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the 26-year-old pop star was being taken to “get help” but did not give the ambulance’s desination.

On Jan. 3, police were called to her Studio City home when she refused to return her two young sons, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, to ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has custody.

Officers had paramedics haul Spears to a hospital for undisclosed reasons. She was released after a day and a half in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Police also went to the home Monday night after someone reported a swarm of paparazzi trespassing in the singer’s gated community. When officers arrived, they didn’t see anyone trespassing, police said, but citations were issued for several illegally parked cars.

Spears has been in a highly public downward spiral since filing for divorce from Federline in November 2006.

Her bizarre antics include shaving her head bald, attacking a car with an umbrella and bringing along a paparazzo pal on trips to a courthouse in her child custody case.

Natalie Finn Wed Jan 30, 1:53 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - One ticket to the Super Bowl: $2,000. Thirty seconds of advertising during the Super Bowl: $2.7 million. Five seconds' worth of Madonna in a Super Bowl ad: A heck of a lot more than that. 

Sources tell E! Online that the Material Girl was paid $10 million to appear in a commercial for Sunsilk hair-care products that will premiere during the in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants (most of whom do not make $10 million in an entire season). 

In the 30-second spot, old stock footage of Madonna, Shakira and Marilyn Monroe is woven together in a Warholian, pop art-inspired montage touting Sunsilk's new "Life Can't Wait" global campaign.  

"Make your hair happen," the ad urges, to the closing strains of Madonna's "Ray of Light." 

Shakira did herself a nice—although not as nice—turn, as well, collecting $2.5 million from Unilever, which opted to use its only Super Bowl buy to spotlight the Sunsilk brand. (For those who don't want to wait for the two-minute warning, the commercial can be previewed at lifecan'twait.com.) 

Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, had no comment on her client's reported payday.  

"I have not seen the commercial nor do I have any information on the financial part of the deal," she told E! News. 

Even if she did the work gratis, however, Madonna would still be the richest gal in the business. The Confessions on a Dance Floor artist banked $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007, according to Forbes.com's new list of the top 20 "Cash Queens of Music." 

In addition to her slice of her $260 million-grossing Confessions tour, Madonna had proceeds from album sales, merchandizing and license fees, clothing lines, fragrance deals and other endorsements to fall back on. 

A whole Super Bowl ad behind was Barbra Streisand, who came in at number two with $60 million. 

But although Madonna didn't have to do much to have her moment in the Sunsilk, she's been plenty busy recording her 11th studio album, the working title of which is Give It to Me, which is due out in April.  

Justin Timberlake, who's also making a Super Bowl showing in a Pepsi ad, and Timbaland were reportedly on their way to London last week to shoot the video for the album's first single, "4 Minutes to Save the World," which the duo wrote and produced.

—Additional reporting by Ken Baker

47 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co's Hannah Montana concert film dominated U.S. online movie ticket sales on Wednesday, a day ahead of its debut, despite opening in fewer than 1,000 theaters.

The 3D movie, which features a filmed concert by "Hannah Montana" singer-actress Miley Cyrus, opens on Thursday at midnight in 684 digital 3D theaters, a Disney spokeswoman said.

Fandango.com and MovieTickets.com, the top online ticket sellers, said "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" accounted for more than three-quarters of their ticket sales as of Wednesday morning.

Fandango.com said "Hannah Montana" was the site's best-selling concert film ever, selling out more than 1,000 showings and accounting for 91 percent of sales as of Wednesday morning.

MovieTickets.com reports that the film ranked eighth on its all-time presale list and was tracking at nearly 90 percent of sales on Wednesday.

The Hannah Montana character, which originated on a Disney Channel television series of the same name, has proved phenomenally popular with "tween" girls who have turned out in droves to see Miley Cyrus and her father and co-star, Billy Ray Cyrus, perform in concert. (Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

courtesy of NME.com Wed Jan 30, 9:00 AM ET

Amy Winehouse's jailed husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has spoken out about the couple's descent into drug addiction.

Private letters from the singer's husband to his family have been published in News Of The World, as well as conversations with his "devoted" mother, Georgette Fielder-Civil.

Fielder-Civil admits he lives in fear of waking up and hearing his wife has died from a drug overdose, and says: "Every day I fear the prison chaplain is going to walk into my cell and break the news that Amy is dead."

Fielder-Civil also reveals that Winehouse is sometimes high on drugs when she comes to visit him in prison and regularly falls asleep during their meetings.

The 25 year-old warns his wife: "Quit smoking crack or you'll be dead in three months."

He also admits he and Winehouse were blowing $1,000 a day on heroin and cocaine before he got jailed–but reveals he has now cleaned up his act since being locked up.

Fielder-Civil now wants Winehouse to do the same and says: "I'm disappointed that Amy has been taking crack and I'm pleased she got caught, because at last she is going to get the help she deserves.

"I want Amy to grab this opportunity in rehab so we can have a marriage and future together. Because the way she's going I really fear I will come out of prison to no wife."

Fielder-Civil also details their the couple's problems with self-harm, before criticizing his father-in-law, Mitch Winehouse.

"I hate Amy's father, Mitch. My mother calls him the Fat Controller," he writes. "He is on Amy's payroll. What man takes money off his daughter? Mitch ought to be ashamed."

Fielder-Civil is on remand currently in London's Pentonville prison awaiting trial over allegations of GBH and trial fixing.

For more on Amy Winehouse, check out her NME.com page.

courtesy of NME.com Wed Jan 30, 9:00 AM ET

Arcade Fire, M.I.A., Justice, and LCD Soundsystem are among the 10 finalists named for the Shortlist Music Prize.

Also making the top 10 are Feist, Wilco, Spoon, Stars, Working For A Nuclear Free City, and Burial.

The Shortlist Prize is widely considered the American version of Britain's Mercury Prize and recognizes acts that have sold fewer than 500,000 albums in the States.

Klaxons, winner of the most recent Mercury Prize, had been nominated for this year's Shortlist, but did not make it into the final round.

This year’s panel of judges includes Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Ronnie Vannucci of the Killers.

The winner will be announced in February. Previous winners include TV On The Radio, Cat Power, Damien Rice, N.E.R.D., and Sigur Ros.

For more music news, check out NME.com.

51 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The soundtrack to "Juno" moves up from No. 2 to No. 1, becoming the Rhino label's first chart-topper on the Billboard 200.

The album's sales increased 13 percent, to 65,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the first film soundtrack to top the chart since last year's "Dreamgirls" and the first from an Academy Award best picture nominee since "Titanic" reached the summit on January 24, 1998.

Alicia Keys' "As I Am" (J) flip-flops with "Juno," dropping from the top spot to No. 2, with 60,000 (a 1 percent decrease). Natasha Bedingfield earns her best charting and sales week ever as her sophomore Epic album, "Pocketful of Sunshine," enters at No. 3 with 50,000. Her debut, 2005's "Unwritten," started and peaked at No. 26 with 34,000. Sales of the new project were aided by the single "Love Like This" featuring Sean Kingston, which recently moved into the top 20 of the Hot 100.

Mary J. Blige's Matriarch/Geffen album "Growing Pains" falls from No. 3 to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 45,000, a 12 percent sales slip. Descending one rung to No. 5, Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (TBD/ATO) moves 35,000 (a drop of 24 percent), while Taylor Swift's Big Machine debut holds tight at No. 6 for a second consecutive week, its 66th week on the chart, selling 35,000 with a 2 percent sales increase.

Teenage R&B star Chris Brown's Jive album "Exclusive" bumps up from No. 9 to No. 7 with an 8 percent sales boost to 32,000. Keyshia Cole's "Just Like You" (Confidential/Imani/Geffen) re-enters the top 10, jumping from 12th place to No. 8 with 31,000 (a 21 percent gain), while Garth Brooks' Pearl collection "The Ultimate Hits" also experiences a 21 percent sales swell to 30,000, climbing from No. 14 to No. 9. Miley Cyrus' Disney double-disc "Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus" clings to the No. 10 slot with a 9 percent sales increase to 30,000.

Roaring in at No. 12, Cat Power's "Jukebox" moved 29,000 units, a career high in terms of both chart position and sales. The Matador set follows 2006's "The Greatest," which bowed at No. 34 with 23,000.

Other debuts this week include the Disney compilation "Radio Disney: Jams 10" at No. 18 with 21,000, country newcomer Chuck Wicks' "Starting Now" (RCA) at No. 24 with 20,000, Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers' "Brighter Than Creation's Dark" (New West) at No. 36 with 16,000, Brushfire/Universal artist Matt Costa's "Unfamiliar Faces" at No. 59 with 11,000 and singer-songwriter and "One Tree Hill" star Kate Voegele's re-release of "Don't Look Away" (MySpace Records) at No. 63 with 10,000.

Sales this week total 7.3 million units, up 4.7 percent from last week. At 30.6 million units, this year's sales total is down 10.3 percent from the year-earlier sum.

Reuters/Billboard

By RONALD BLUM, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Anna Netrebko and Joyce DiDonato will each be a queen at the Metropolitan Opera — but the company can’t find anyone to wear a third crown.

Venturing into new territory, the Met plans to stage the first two operas of Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy: “Anna Bolena” and “Maria Stuarda.”

Netrebko, opera’s sex symbol, will star as Anne Boleyn on the opening night of the 2011-12 season, Met general manager Peter Gelb said. DiDonato is in discussions with the Met to sing Mary Queen of Scots in 2012-13.

The Met has no current plans to stage “Roberto Devereaux.”

“The problem is casting,” Gelb said of that opera’s lead soprano role, Queen Elizabeth I. “There’s no singer around today who can sing it.”

Gelb had discussed with Netrebko having her perform all three queens, but Netrebko decided she would commit to only one at this time.

“I am very excited to be taking on Donizetti’s `Anna Bolena,’” Netrebko said in a statement. “Fortunately, it’s far enough in the future that I’ll have time to learn it really well — the mad scene is even greater than the one in `Lucia di Lammermoor,’ and the tragedy is awesome. But I don’t get to die in this one: The opera ends just before she gets beheaded!”

The Met, which has favored Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Strauss, has taken a long time to get around to the queens. “Anna Bolena” premiered at Milan’s Teatro Carcano in December 1830 starring Giuditta Pasta, and “Maria Stuarda” opened at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala five years later with Maria Malibran in the title role.

Singers who take on these parts in recent years usually are compared with Beverly Sills, who recorded the roles from 1969-72 and sang the Three Queens at the New York City Opera in the 1970s.

DiDonato, a mezzo-soprano, said she will use the version sung by Janet Baker with the English National Opera in the early 1980s. It has Maria as a mezzo and Elisabetta as a soprano — an arrangement used for Malibran’s performances.

“People know they’re not going to hear a high interpolated E-flat,” DiDonato said. “Hopefully, I’m establishing myself in the bel canto tradition. It’s going to be different, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Conductor Patrick Summers approached DiDonato, last year’s winner of the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award, about “Maria Stuarda.”

“I had sung Elisabetta in Geneva a couple of years ago and really, really took to this idea of big bel canto, understanding that I wasn’t ready for a complete steady diet of it yet, but knowing that this was a direction that I’d be going in,” DiDonato said. “I think the preparation that I’ve been doing and will continue to do in my career with the Handel and the Rossini and the Mozart, in a way I feel like it’s leading to this kind of project.”

The Met has staged only seven of Donizetti’s approximately 65 operas: “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “La Favorita,” “Don Pasquale,” “La Fille du Regiment,” “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “Lucrezia Borgia” and “Linda di Chamounix,” making its last Donizetti addition in 1934.

___

On the Net:

http://www.metopera.org

37 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna is still the material girl, earning $72 million in a recent 12-month period to top a Forbes.com list of female singers whom the financial Web site dubbed "Cash Queens of Music."

Madonna, who rose to recording superstardom in the 1980s as the "Material Girl" after her hit song of that name, beat out Barbra Streisand, who was No. 2 with annual earnings of $60 million, and Celine Dion at $45 million, according to Forbes.com.

The Web site tracked earnings in the period from June 2006 to June 2007 and said it examined concert ticket sales, merchandise revenue, album sales and earnings from ancillary products such as clothing, perfumes and endorsements.

Rounding out the top five were Colombian singing sensation Shakira at No. 4 with $38 million and R&B singer Beyonce with $27 million.

Country music stars also did well, with Faith Hill landing in the No. 8 slot with $19 million and the Dixie Chicks at No. 9 with $18 million.

Then there was Britney Spears. For all her troubles in the past year — a stint in rehab and a bitter custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline, among them — the pop star still made No. 14 on the list, earning $8 million from royalties on old songs and sales of her perfume, Curious. Her latest album, "Blackout," was released late in 2007 after the period covered by the Forbes.com survey.

Late last year, Madonna ended her long relationship with Warner Music Group Corp and reached a recording deal with concert promoter Live Nation Inc.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)