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Music News: Bjork announces 'most elaborate stage concert yet'

A promotional image for Bjork's 'Cornucopia.'
A promotional image for Bjork's 'Cornucopia.'Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones, via Bjork on Facebook
  Play Now [11:18]

by Jay Gabler

November 13, 2018

Above, listen to an episode of The Current's daily Music News podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up for a daily Music News e-mail and join our Facebook group.


Music fans are psyched about some big live show announcements.

Robyn has announced a North American tour supporting her wildly-anticipated new album Honey. The 11-date tour begins Feb. 23 in Los Angeles and wraps up on March 14 in Toronto. How high is anticipation for this tour? A previously-announced show at Madison Square Garden on March 8 is already sold out. (Rolling Stone)

Carlos Santana is also heading off on tour, this one commemorating both the 50th anniversary of Woodstock and the 20th anniversary of his album Supernatural, the all-time best-selling album by a Hispanic artist. Before and after next spring's tour, the 71-year-old guitar legend will plant down at Las Vegas for a pair of residencies. (Rolling Stone)

And Björk has announced her "most elaborate stage concert yet." The concert, titled Cornucopia, will mark the opening of The Shed, a major new art space launching this spring in New York City. In an Instagram post, Björk wrote, "This winter I will prepare my most elaborate stage concert yet, where the acoustic and digital will shake hands, encouraged by a bespoke team of collaborators."

How ambitious is this show? It has its own stage director: John Tiffany (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). (Billboard)

In other Björk news, a New York Times profile of Chris Lyons, the guy who designed the fake Freddie Mercury teeth for the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, points out that he also designed a giant Björk mouth for her 2015 "Mouth Mantra" video.

Leonard Cohen exhibit coming to New York

A museum exhibit about the life and music of Leonard Cohen is coming to New York. Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, which premiered in Montreal, will fill two floors of the Jewish Museum when it opens in April before heading to Copenhagen and then San Francisco.

As the New York Times reports, "the multimedia exhibition features commissioned works by international artists and pays tribute to Cohen's music, poetry and lyrics."

All-star Chris Cornell tribute announced

A tribute concert honoring Chris Cornell will feature performances by Metallica, Foo Fighters, and Ryan Adams — plus members of Cornell's bands Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave. The Los Angeles concert, which will take place on Jan. 16, will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel with proceeds going to charity.

In a statement, Cornell's widow Vicky said, "We are honored to have all these amazing artists and friends come together to pay tribute to and show their love and appreciation for Chris, his music and the mark he's left on the world." (Pitchfork)

Xtina gets shut down by bar band she tries to sing with

When Christina Aguilera asked to sing with a reggae bar band in New Orleans, the band took a pass. Fan-shot video shows Aguilera politely accepting the decision of band leader Claude Bryant not to hand her the mic, then walk-dancing away as the band starts covering Dawn Penn's "No, No, No."

Aguilera told the story at her New Orleans concert the next night. "It's okay," she said she was thinking. "You're just not feeling me."

Bryant later told a local radio station he just didn't recognize her. "I'm sorry, Christina," he said, "I didn't recognize her because she had a cap over here head and over her eyes. She was in a jersey. She didn't introduce herself to me." (Billboard)

Did Kanye West and Kid Cudi steal Lorde's stage design?

Lorde has accused Kanye West and Kid Cudi of stealing her floating-box stage design. In an Instagram story, Lorde compared photos of the hip-hop duo's Camp Flog Gnaw festival set to photos of her own set from her 2017 tour. In both cases, the artists were performing in floating rectangular boxes. Lorde wrote in her story, "Don't steal -- not from women or anyone else -- not in 2018 or ever."

The designer of Lorde's set, Es Devlin, has also worked with West, but says she did not design the West/Cudi set. On Instagram, sharing an image of a similar box she designed for a 2007 opera production, Devlin wrote, "I worked with Lorde on the design for her Coachella performance : I admire both and see no imitation at work here: I think the more interesting point is that both artists, responding to our dis-jointed times, are being drawn to this gesture of the fragile floating room: the world un-moored from gravity : where the rules of civilisation and identity as we have known them may soon no longer apply." (Spin)

Today's viral video: Céline Dion gets arrested

No, Canada's most famous diva did not actually get arrested. But, the cuffs are slapped on Céline Dion in a new ad for Célinununu, her gender-neutral children's clothing line. In the ad, Dion's offense is to break into a nursery to blow a sort of fairy dust that turns all the babies' pink and blue onesies into black-and-white designs with stars and the words "new order." Now, the question is: will she actually get arrested for infringing on that post-punk band's trademark? (Billboard)


Songs sampled in podcast
Jahzzar: "Comedie" (CC BY 4.0)
BoxCat Games: "Against the Wall" (CC BY 3.0)
Dawn Penn: "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)"
Lorde: "Green Light"
Santana feat. Rob Thomas: "Smooth"
Björk: "Mouth Mantra"
Célinununu advertisement