Briefs

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This article was published 30/01/2024 (993 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Irish songwriter Hozier

set to testify downtown

Hozier, the Irish singer-songwriter who made the song Take Me to Church a global sensation, will play the Canada Life Centre on Aug. 20.

Tickets go on sale Friday at noon at Ticketmaster. Prices were not announced.

Hozier, born Andrew John Hozier-Byrne in County Wicklow, Ireland, broke into the musical mainstream in 2013 with the Grammy-nominated song Take Me to Church. The track, which blends rock, folk, soul and blues, has been streamed more than two billion times on Spotify, placing it among the top-40 most played songs in the service’s history.

Hozier’s latest album, Unreal Unearth, came out in August 2023. An earlier announcement of concerts for North America, including an Aug. 17 date at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., sold out almost instantly.

Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Russell, who plays the Park Theatre on March 3, opens.

A Boogie Wit da Hoodie getting down in town

New York rapper A Boogie Wit da Hoodie will play the Canada Life Centre on Sept. 15.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster; however, presales start today. Prices were not announced.

A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s first three albums all reached top-10 status on the Billboard 200 chart, with his second release, Hoodie SZN, reaching No. 1.

The Winnipeg date is part of a 39-show run around the world in 2024 that coincides with the Feb. 9 release of Boogie’s new single P@E, which features Mariah the Scientist. Caribbean rapper Byron Messia, who lives in Saint Kitts and Nevis but was born in Jamaica, is the opening act.

Thief of ruby slippers gets no prison time

A dying thief who confessed to stealing ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz received no prison time when he was sentenced Monday.

Seventy-six-year-old Terry Jon Martin stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minn. Martin’s attorney says he had gone straight but wanted to pull off “one last score.”

The attorney says Martin gave into temptation after an old associate with connections to the mob persuaded him that the famous shoes were adorned with real rubies. They aren’t and instead are embellished with sequin and glass beads.

Both sides recommended Martin be sentenced to time served because he has only a few months to live.

Joni Mitchell to perform at the Grammy Awards

Joni Mitchell will perform at next week’s Grammy Awards, organizers announced Sunday, marking the beloved singer-songwriter’s first performance at music’s highest-profile awards show and her latest step in a public comeback after a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015.

Mitchell, 80, is nominated for best folk album at the Feb. 4 ceremony. Joni Mitchell at Newport is a live recording of a surprise gig she played at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival.

The singer’s first full concert since her aneurysm, the Newport set grew out of the “Joni Jams” Mitchell has held at her Bel-Air home in recent years with an assortment of friends and admirers. At Newport, she was joined by artists including Brandi Carlile, Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford and Allison Russell; among the dozen or so classics she performed were Big Yellow Taxi, Help Me and Both Sides Now.

MuchMusic doc pulled from Crave

A MuchMusic documentary that once came under scrutiny for using a deep catalogue of popular music has been pulled from its première date on Crave.

Representatives for Bell Media say a “scheduling change” was behind their decision to remove the full-length feature 299 Queen Street West from a planned streaming debut on Friday.

A version of the film that screened during a roadshow tour last year featured dozens of short musical performance clips, including those of a young Avril Lavigne, an acoustic serenade by Seal and one of Noel Gallagher singing outside the Toronto studio.

In October, filmmaker Sean Menard told The Canadian Press that major labels, including Universal Music Canada, were trying to stop the cross-country screening tour, saying he used unlicensed music from their artists in his film.

At the time, Universal said negotiations over licensing of its recorded music was underway and that no legal action was being pursued.

— staff/wire services