Mandy Barnett gives a nod to one of her heroes, the great Billie Holiday, and explores her affection for the standards of the Great American songbook on her upcoming new album, Every Star Above, due out on May 7. An advance track from the album, “For All We Know,” is available now.

The project is a fitting tribute and interpretation of one of the most influential albums in history, Holiday’s Lady in Satin. Recorded with a 60-piece orchestra, Every Star Above delivers lush and sparkling selections from Holiday’s personally curated 1958 “Satin” track list, and Lady in Satin is given a song-for-song interpretation by Barnett, who puts a soulful country twist on the classic standards featured on the album.

Conceived by producer Fred Mollin (Johnny Mathis, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb) and arranged by the late jazz maestro Sammy Nestico (Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Michael Buble, Barbra Streisand) in what was his last work, the album features classics such as “For All We Know,” “The End of a Love Affair,” “I’m a Fool to Want You,” and “But Beautiful” reinvented with Barnett’s signature styling.

“Billie Holiday is among the artists I was introduced to as a young girl. And in my early twenties, Lady in Satin deeply affected me; it inspired me to become a torch singer,” says Barnett. “Holiday was a fearless trailblazer whose unique vocals and phrasing on the album drip with the weight of her experiences, like she’s lived the lyrics and felt the joys, the hardships, the love, and the loss—all of the ups-and-downs of life that great songs and great singers convey. Holiday revealed her heart and soul every time she sang, and she inspired me to do exactly that throughout my career.”

“Having the opportunity to make this album is a dream come true,” added Melody Place President, Mollin. “Mandy was the perfect singer to take this on. Sammy was the perfect arranger to make it beyond the dream.”

Every Star Above Track List:
But Beautiful
Glad To Be Unhappy
For Heaven’s Sake
I Get Along Without You Very Well
It’s Easy To Remember
The End Of A Love Affair
You Don’t Know What Love Is
I’m A Fool To Want You
You’ve Changed
For All We Know

Barrett Baber has signed a publishing deal with Sea Gayle Music.

Baber gained national recognition as a finalist on Season 9 of NBC’s The Voice, logging weekly top 10 iTunes performances and a No. 1 Billboard single with his reinvented cover of the country classic “I’d Love To Lay You Down.” He later released a full-length album A Room Full Of Fighters, which debuted in the top 10 on the iTunes Top 100 Album Charts.

Baber has also been writing with respected songwriters including Bobby Pinson, who immediately saw something special in Baber’s writing and knew something had to be done. “Barrett Baber lights up a room as a person and I’m excited to watch him do the same thing with his music for years to come,” Pinson said.

“Barrett’s writing ability along with his drive and passion made this a no brainer for us,” Sea Gayle Music’s Kim Wiggins adds. “We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with Bobby Pinson on this deal and look forward to sharing success together.”

“There are opportunities, and there are once in a lifetime opportunities,” said Baber. “It’s certainly not lost on me which one this is. I’m thrilled to have the chance to work closely with a legendary publishing company like Sea Gayle in partnership with an equally legendary songwriter in Bobby Pinson. I’m so excited and grateful for the chance to continue the development of my craft with the guidance of such a wonderful team of people, at a place that feels like home.”

ASCAP overcame the unprecedented hardships of the pandemic in 2020 to continue its record-breaking revenue streak, collecting more than $1.327 billion in revenues, a $53 million increase over 2019.

The PRO’s strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 helped to offset uncontrollable declines in other sectors, including a 30% decline in revenues from businesses that were hit the hardest during the last three quarters of 2020, such as live concerts and events, music venues, bars, clubs, restaurants, retail stores, hotels and more.

“2020 challenged all of us unlike any other year in modern history. It also defined ASCAP’s dedication to our members,” says ASCAP Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Matthews. “That meant strengthening our commitment to our mission to serve our songwriters, composers and music publishers by taking every step necessary to secure their livelihoods and careers. Inspired by our members each and every day, the ASCAP team proved that innovation, efficiency and progress really can be escalated in a crisis.”

2020 marked the sixth year of ASCAP’s strategic plan to transform its business and grow revenues. During the execution of the strategic plan from 2015 through 2020, ASCAP exceeded performance goals and drove ASCAP revenues to a 6% compound annual growth rate and ASCAP distributions to a 7% compound annual growth rate.

“I am so impressed by ASCAP and its extraordinary efforts in 2020,” says ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams. “The team worked extremely hard and under incredibly difficult circumstances to make up for revenues lost due to the pandemic and to deliver the financial security and support that music creators need to survive the crisis of our lifetime. Their work will have an impact for years to come and as an ASCAP member, I am deeply grateful. Together, we have met the demands of this challenging time period and we look to 2021 with greater hope and strength as a community.”

During a world crisis that directly affected revenues for many companies that license music, ASCAP grew royalties for its songwriter, composer and publisher members by $29 million, or 2.5%, for a total of $1.213 billion available for distributions. Domestic distributions from ASCAP-licensed and administered performances hit $891 million, an increase of $22 million, and foreign distributions totaled $322 million.

Due to the demands and difficulties of 2020 the ASCAP team met and transcended these issues, shining a brighter spotlight on its members and providing them with more resources to help weather the challenges of the time:

• ASCAP mobilized to deliver COVID relief through a major donation to MusiCares earmarked for its songwriters in need; fought for governmental COVID relief for music creators on the federal and state level; and launched Music Unites Us, a website to provide information on COVID resources for music creators.
• ASCAP rallied for racial and social justice through its Fight for Change resources page, by raising money for Color of Change and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, by establishing an annual internship program for HBCU students, by advocating for federal and state police reform bills, and through its ASCAP Citizen “GET OUT THE VOTE” campaign.
• ASCAP innovated toward greater transparency with the launch of SONGVIEW, a comprehensive data platform developed in partnership with BMI, which for the first time, enables ASCAP and BMI to display more detailed, authoritative and consistent copyright ownership data for performing rights for more than 20 million songs in their combined repertories.
• ASCAP adapted all of its major award shows, events and educational programs to virtual platforms, with participation from some of the world’s biggest music creators such as Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Diplo, DaBaby, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. The ASCAP Experience: Home Edition (formerly the ASCAP Expo) drew more than 10,000 registrants from 120 countries and featured conversations with award-winning music creators such as FINNEAS, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Shaggy, Michael R. Jackson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Hans Zimmer and more.
• ASCAP elected over 58,000 new members in 2020 and is now home to over 800,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, from the most successful names in music to those at the early stages of their careers.

In a study released by USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, data shows that significant progress has not been made for inclusion for women in music. Underrepresented racial and ethnic groups have seen an uptick in inclusion.

The report assessed gender and race/ethnicity of artists, songwriters, and producers across the 900 most popular songs from 2012 to 2020, based on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Chart. Grammy nominations were also evaluated by gender and race/ethnicity across five categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, and Producer of the Year.

The study was conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Marc Choueiti, Karla Hernandez and Kevin Yao. Read the full report here.

Below are some of the key findings:

According to the study, 173 artists appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart in 2020. Of those, 79.8% were men and 20.2% were women, making 2020 not meaningfully different than the percentage of female artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart in recent years. The highest percentage of women artists represented on the chart was in 2016, when 28.1% of artists were women.

Women artists were most prevalent in the pop genre (32%) over the last nine years, and least prevalent in hip-hop/rap (12.3%), where 7.1 men charted for every one woman artist.

The top-performing artist of the last nine years was Drake, with 41 songs. On the women’s list, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna prevailed with 21 songs each. Ten of the top 13 artists of the past nine years are from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.

Of 173 artists in 2020, 59% were underrepresented and 41% were white. 2020 was the fourth consecutive year where the percentage of underrepresented artists increased. Underrepresented artists were most likely to appear on the charts in the genres of R&B/soul (92.1%), hip-hop/rap (87.3%), and pop (36.3%).

Songwriters:

Of the total of 449 songwriters that were credited in 2020, 87.1% were men and 12.9% were women. Across all nine years, 12.6% of songwriters were women, a ratio of seven male songwriters to every one female songwriter.

According to the study, women songwriters were most likely to work on dance/electronic songs (20.5%) and pop (18.7%) music, and least likely to work in hip-hop/rap (6.3%), R&B (9.1%) or country (10.6%).

Producers:

Of the 198 producers credited in 2020, 98% were men and 2% were women. Across a six-year sample (2012, 2015, 2017, and 2018-2020), a total of 1,291 producers were credited. Of these, 97.4% of producers were men and 2.6% were women. This is a ratio of 38 men to every one woman producer.

Out of the 33 women credited as a producer across the six years studied, nine were women of color. Only one woman of color was credited as a producer in 2020—Mariah Carey received a producing credit for “All I Want for Christmas is You,” a song first released in 1994.

Grammy Nominations: 2013 to 2021:

Of the 1,359 individuals that were nominated for a Grammy Award between 2013 and 2021, 13.4% were women and 86.6% were men. This is a ratio of 6.5 men nominated for every one woman nominee.

Women were most likely to be nominated for the Best New Artist award, followed by Song of the Year. Across nine years, roughly 10% or less of the nominees for Record of the Year or Album of the Year have been women. Only one woman has been nominated for Producer of the Year across the entire sample.

From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of women Grammy nominees increased significantly and reached a nine-year high as 28.1% of nominees were women. There were nearly four times as many women nominated for a Grammy Award in 2021 in the five major categories evaluated as there were in 2013.