MUSIC NEWS: WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017
``DESPACITO'' - VENEZUELA
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee are not pleased that their song ``Despacito'' has been remixed as a jingle pushing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's attempt to rewrite his country's constitution. Instead of being a song about seduction, the remix has lines like, ``For the unity and peace of our country, the constituent assembly moves forward.'' Fonsi says his music is for everyone to enjoy, not for propaganda. Daddy Yankee tweets that illegally appropriating the song is nothing compared to Maduro's crimes. Maduro's push to rewrite the constitution has created an international outcry and a protest movement that has left at least 97 dead.
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JAY Z - ``4:44'' ON CASSETTE
You can't listen to Jay Z's ``4:44'' album on Spotify, but you can listen to it on cassette. Virgin E-M-I Records is offering the cassette version of the album in its online store for nine-dollars. If you pre-order it by Friday, you are entered to win tickets to see Jay Z from the side of the stage at V Festival in England next month. The album is streaming on most major services, but not Spotify.
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ALICE COOPER - ANDY WARHOL WORK
Among the items Alice Cooper has just laying around is a potentially valuable silkscreen of an electric chair done by Andy Warhol. Cooper's manager, Shep Gordon, tells the British newspaper The Guardian, that Cooper bought the silkscreen for 25-hundred dollars in 1972. Then it disappeared. Gordon says he recently had dinner with an art dealer who mentioned that a Warhol painting recently sold at auction, which prompted Gordon to ask Cooper about the silkscreen. Cooper's mother recalled it had been in storage, and Cooper found it rolled up in a tube among his props from past tours. It's uncertain how much the silkscreen is worth because Warhol didn't sign it, but a Warhol expert says he's 100 per cent certain it's authentic.
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BRETT ELDREDGE - BROOKS AND DUNN
Brett Eldredge purposely accepted a festival gig in New Orleans two weeks ago so he could see Brooks and Dunn on the same bill. Eldredge says he has tons of wigs on his bus, so he put one on so he could go into the crowd as a character he calls Buzz.
Why is he called Buzz? He has no idea. Eldredge says he probably wasn't that incognito because he was a tall guy in a wig, but he was still able to enjoy the show.
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FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE - BACKSTREET BOYS
Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line says they've had to step up their game since they went on tour with the Backstreet Boys. Hubbard calls the Backstreet Boys ``master entertainers.'' Hubbard says it's crazy to think that he and Brian Kelley grew up listening to ``Everybody (Backstreet's Back)'' and now they're performing it with the guys themselves. The two acts will make another appearance together beyond the tour: their ``C-M-T Crossroads'' episode will air August 30th.
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(The Associated Press)
