Here are a few music news bits making the rounds this weekend…
- The all-star 25th anniversary “We Are the World” remake, aptly titled “We Are the World 25,” finally hit the Internet after dominating music news headlines for at least the past week. Watch the music video, featuring Kanye West, Barbra Streisand, the Jonas Brothers, Bono, Zac Brown, Miley Cyrus, Jeff Bridges, Rashida Jones (whose famous father, Quincy Jones, produced the track, as he did with the original), and many more of the most popular artists around today, thataway. The song is available for purchase on iTunes, as well, with all proceeds going to the Haitian relief effort.
- Leonard Cohen may be getting tired of all the “Hallelujah” covers of late, but fellow Canadian singer/songwriter k.d. lang is making headlines for her brilliantly inspired cover of Cohen’s classic tune at the opening ceremony to the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Now Lang is offering her studio version of “Hallelujah”, last night’s performance, and her previous live take at the Juno Awards as an EP on iTunes. Meanwhile, fellow Canuck Rufus Wainwright has retired his version.
- Speaking of Canada, Wilco is launching their tour of the country tonight with a free show at Vancouver’s David Lam Park. Band members have been doing quite a few interviews recently, as well, including this one with Kelowna in which Jeff Tweedy revealed that the late Jay Bennett’s lawsuit against his former band is still being pursued, despite Bennett’s tragic death last year. “I really can’t say much about it other than it’s a breach of contract lawsuit where there was no contract,” the Wilco frontman said.
- Finally, our buddy yvynyl pointed us to a perfect Valentine’s Day/music/science story about Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan falling in love while curating the Voyager Golden Record. Read about Sagan and Druyan’s “Ultimate Mix Tape” here.