Also this week: more on Bad Bunny's historic Super Bowl performance, country festival Boots and Hearts expands in more ways than one, Deadmau5 slams AI deepfake and more.
Without a doubt, the biggest story of the week was Bad Bunny's halftime show at The Superbowl. It overshadowed the lacklustre game (the Seattle Seahawks won) and earned rave reviews from around the globe, even if POTUS was not a fan.
Read these stories and more in this week's roundup of music biz headlines of the week from Canada and beyond.
Under the deal, which covers solo and collaborative albums, 12 of the star Canadian producer and artist's catalogue titles have become available via streaming partners, including his gold-selling 1989 solo debut Acadie. – Kerry Doole, Billboard Canada
Making their country music festival debut, the sibling trio will headline the three-day Burl's Creek, Ontario music fest alongside The Chicks and Rascal Flatts. – Heather Taylor-Singh, Billboard Canada
Tyler Joe Miller, Brock Phillips and Thelma & James will also perform alongside headliners Russell Dickerson and Shaboozey at the country fest’s first-ever Western Canada edition in Edmonton. – Heather Taylor-Singh, Billboard Canada
The singer-songwriter saw his career resurge in his 70s. Now, he and his wife need one more miracle: to survive and make music in spite of his dementia. – Josh O'Kane, Globe and Mail
On his new album 1783, Dartmouth-based musician Aquakultre (a.k.a. Lance Sampson) uses a dizzying array of culturally and geographically relevant musical styles to write a multifaceted history of Black Nova Scotia. That sort of far-ranging consideration of the past and present conditions of a group of people is uncommon in pop music. – Matt Horseman, Globe and Mail
The Canadian music icon revealed a 10-track list on Spotify, which includes hits from Rihanna, Metallica, James Blunt and more. – Heather Taylor-Singh, Billboard Canada
He is amicable and chatty and an enthusiastic interviewee who occasionally comes across like a motivational speaker. But when Morvan talks about the scandal and lost years that followed, there is a bitterness that creeps in. – Eric Volmers,Calgary Herald
Davie Studios’ live jam series has grown from a research project into a vital platform for Black musicians, offering fair pay and a sense of community. – Savannah Ridley, Toronto Star
In Vancouver, Firehall Arts Centre’s House of Folk: A Lost Canadian Folk Show is a new play about the emergence of Canada’s folk music scene that’s set in coffeehouses across the country. – Nathan Caddell, Georgia Straight
With the national theatrical release of Dallas Smith-starring Soul’s Road, Joel Stewart has breached the world of directing narrative features in the gentle, feel-good story of a musician who got too close to the fire, presently trying to make amends for everyone he burned on the way down. – Fish Griwkowsky, Edmonton Journal
Clients of Casey Wasserman's namesake agency, including Chappell Roan, have begun defecting after his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell came to light. – Chris Eggertsen, Billboard
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance required 9,852 theatrical pyrotechnics, nearly 400 costumed extras, and a lot of ingenuity. And yes, that was a real couple featured in the wedding. –Angela Watercutter,Wired
The Games officially started at Milan’s San Siro Stadium on Friday (Feb. 6), with a show that included performances of Mariah Carey, Laura Pausini, and Andrea Bocelli. – Billboard Italy
E-40 turned NFL Honors into a hyphy detour, firing off Bay Area slang that helped shape a generation as actor Tiffany Haddish and Carolina Panthers rookie Tetairoa McMillan danced from their seats and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce nodded along to the beat. – Associated Press
'Paul McCartney: Man on the Run," a chronicle of Macca's rebirth after the Fab Four's split will hit theaters for one night only on Feb. 19. – Gil Kaufman, Billboard
The performance by pop star Mariah Carey at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony was the talk of the town — but it also raised a few questions. – Associated Press
