Reuters - Musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber is to compose Britain's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest next year in a bid to improve the country's recent miserable record in the competition.
AP - The contract to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was on Manfred Honeck's desk when he got another offer: to be music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Reuters - Sony has delayed sales of "LittleBigPlanet," one of its most widely anticipated videogames, by at least one week in the United States, after finding potentially offensive background music in the game.
AP - Guitarist George Benson had a chance to reconnect with his jazz roots when he was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its 2009 Jazz Masters. But it was another newly minted Jazz Master, Belgian-born Toots Thielemans, who provided the most moving moment at the NEA's annual ceremony to present the nation's highest jazz honor.
AP - Dee Dee Warwick, a soul singer who won recognition for both her solo work and her performances with her older sister Dionne Warwick, has died. She was 63.
Reuters - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, a blind Aboriginal man hailed as the greatest voice Australia has ever recorded, carried the night at the country's top music awards, despite most awards going to a 17-year-old schoolgirl. -- read full article
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:05:01 GMT - Yahoo! News: Music News
AP - Lil Wayne was named lyricist of the year and Russell Simmons was honored as a hip-hop icon at this year's BET Hip-Hop Awards taped on Saturday in Atlanta.