
Elizabeth Blair
Elizabeth Blair is a Peabody Award-winning senior producer/reporter on the Arts Desk of NPR News.
Blair produces, edits, and reports arts and cultural segments for NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In this position, she has reported on a range of topics from arts funding to the MeToo movement. She has profiled renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Mikhail Baryshnikov, explored how old women are represented in fairy tales, and reported the origins of the children's classic Curious George. Among her all-time favorite interviews are actors Octavia Spencer and Andy Serkis, comedians Bill Burr and Hari Kondabolu, the rapper K'Naan, and Cookie Monster (in character).
Blair has overseen several, large-scale series including The NPR 100, which explored landmark musical works of the 20th Century, and In Character, which probed the origins of iconic American fictional characters. Along with her colleagues on the Arts Desk and at NPR Music, Blair curated American Anthem, a major series exploring the origins of songs that uplift, rouse, and unite people around a common theme.
Blair's work has received several honors, including two Peabody Awards and a Gracie. She previously lived in Paris, France, where she co-produced Le Jazz Club From Paris with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the monthly magazine Postcard From Paris.
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Symphony orchestra audiences aren't known for their rowdiness, but the vice president and second lady Usha Vance were loudly booed by the crowd as they entered the Concert Hall on Thursday night.
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Folk musician Rhiannon Giddens said on social media that she has moved her May concert — originally scheduled for the Kennedy Center — to a different venue in Washington, D.C.
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The Grammy Award-winning artist and educator had shared an ALS diagnosis in 2022. She was best known for ballads such as "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
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For its 50th anniversary, Saturday Night Live has a weekend of live events starring cast members, musicians and celebrities.
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Redbone's hit cracked the Billboard Top 5 this month in 1974. It was a first for a band with all Native and Mexican American members — but the song itself had a quietly political message, too.
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The saxophonist best known for his work as part of the Grammy Award-winning Robert Glasper Experiment was 45.
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TikTok and Universal Music Group still haven't come to an agreement about artists' compensation and AI-generated recordings. Now TikTok must start removing songs from UMPG, Universal's publishing arm.
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At Disney's earnings call, CEO Bob Iger shared plans for a major investment in an Epic Games partnership. Also, a new Moana movie is heading to theaters, and Taylor Swift's concert film to Disney+.
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TikTok has removed all Universal Music Group music from its platform, according to a spokesperson for the company. UMG argues, among other things, that TikTok is not compensating its artists fairly.
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The Irish singer died on July 26, 2023, at the age of 56. A tribute concert for O'Connor and Irish artist Shane MacGowan is planned for March in New York.