Ariana Grande Asks Entertainment Labels to Add Therapy Sessions to Contracts
After being raised in the limelight, Ariana Grande asked music, TV, and film labels to offer mental health resources for young performers, along with requesting they offer weekly therapy sessions. Grande, who starred in Nickelodeon's Victorious and spinoff series Sam & Cat, opened up about navigating fame as a teen and introducing contractual health resources to Marc Maron in a podcast episode released Monday.
'It's so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make it a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that's going to change your life in that way, on that scale,' Grande said. 'You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.'
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Grande, who starred on the children's network and released her debut album, Yours Truly, in the early 2010s, also talked about how audiences critiqued her relationships, body image, and her team: 'There was just no limit.'
'I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me, and it's just a crazy piece of the puzzle,' Grande told Maron. 'It's something you work so hard to try and understand, and it will never make sense to me.
Grande's comments follow Chappell Roan's call-to-action for record labels earlier this month. Roan raised her healthcare concerns in the music industry as she accepted the Best New Artist Grammy, asking labels to offer a livable wage and healthcare, particularly to developing artists. The pop princess was dropped by Atlantic Records in summer 2020 and later signed with her producer Daniel Nigro's Amusement Records, following the release of her debut album.
'If my label would have prioritized artists' health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to,' Roan said. 'So record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?'
Since her Grammys appearance, Roan has donated $25,000 to Backline, a nonprofit that provides mental health and wellness resources to musicians. Charli XCX and Noah Kahan have pledged to match Roan's donation. Grande added that labels know how a young star's life will change and have the obligation to protect them.
'When these people are cast in these life-changing roles, or when they get that record deal, when they get that moment, that should be non-negotiable in the contract,' Grande told Maron. 'Because to be an artist, you are a vulnerable person with your heart on your sleeve.'
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Grammys EP Ben Winston on the risks of producing live TV: ‘I always never know quite why we do it'
If you've enjoyed a live TV music special in recent years, chances are Ben Winston produced it. Since signing off The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2023, which he executive produced, he's more than had his hands full with his company Fulwell Entertainment, bringing a slew of music specials to the screen — with Dua Lipa, Elton John, and Brandi Carlile this year alone — along with Carpool Karaoke Christmas, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, The Kardashians, to name a few. More from GoldDerby 'Ballerina' stumbles at the box office while 'Lilo & Stitch' surfs to another $32.5M Brian Tyree Henry on how 'Dope Thief' let him 'reclaim' his name: 'I was just Paper Boi to people,' and now 'I became Brian again' Emmy experts debate Comedy Series race: 'Hacks' will compete against 'a bunch of new kids on the block' He also took on his own Mission: Impossible when he orchestrated Tom Cruise's jump off the stadium roof as part of the Olympic torch handoff from Paris to L.A. as part of the closing ceremony. And then there was this year's Grammy Awards — held in the wake of the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles. Here, Winston opens up to Gold Derby about his life as a producer: Yes, he still gets nervous before going live; no, he doesn't want to tackle the Oscars — and as for the 2028 Olympics, he's waiting for the phone to ring. Gold Derby: Do you miss the late-night days? Ben Winston: Oh, I miss it so much. But it's given us the opportunity to do other things, and we never wanted to overstay our welcome. We never wanted to be irrelevant. We always wanted to be in the zeitgeist. So I think that we left the stage at the right time, as much as I miss it. What does it take for content to break through these days? I think really compelling storytelling is always the way. Whether we're making an episode of The Kardashians or whether we're launching the LA28 games, I think it's about how do you make something that surprises and delights and gets people talking. I think in this environment where there is so much out there that it's hard to find your audience, I think if we can do something, whether that be Benson Boone and Doechii at the Grammys or whether it be Tom Cruise jumping off a plane or jumping off the roof at the Paris Stadium or whether it be Kim and Kourtney going to India for an episode of The Kardashians, if we can create real big moments of content that get people talking and discussing and sharing, then I think we're winning. But it's harder and harder. So when a project lands on your desk like the Grammys or the Olympics, how do you approach it? I think, 'What's the idea? What do I want to say?' The biggest one I would say of this last year would have been the LA28 special. Because usually the handover is kind of a nothing moment in a closing ceremony. I remember in London, I was at the closing ceremony. I think the next Olympics was Brazil. It was just some Brazilian dancers and a musician. So when I sat down with Casey Wasserman and the LA28 team, literally two years before we did it, it was like, what can we do for ten minutes in the closing ceremony that really grabs attention and makes a statement about L.A.? I was really keen to do something big that embraced the Hollywood of L.A., that embraced music because I think music is a huge part of the culture here. I wanted to show off the city because, yes, we don't have the Eiffel Tower and the Seine and the Notre Dame, but we do have beautiful beaches. We have really iconic symbols, whether it be the Griffith Park Observatory or the Hollywood Sign. But more than that, what I had to think about with L.A. was the theme. What is the Olympics? The Olympics is a thing that people from all over the world go to, and they try and achieve their dreams there. And Los Angeles is a city where people from all over the world come to, and they try and achieve their dreams here. Linking all of those things together suddenly got me thinking. I'd worked with Tom Cruise quite a bit over The Late Late Show days. We've done lots of sketches with James [Corden], whether it would him being Pumbaa and Timon in Lion King or jumping out of a plane or flying those Top Gun planes with James, and I've gotten to know Tom well. And I had this idea that maybe he jumps off the roof, shocks everybody, grabs the flag, and then takes that flag out of the stadium and drives from Paris to his airplane, jumps out of the airplane, lands in Hollywood and takes over the sign. And then we showcase some real sporting icons of L.A. who then take that flag and land at the beach, and then we just do a huge beach concert. I love how you start with a really small idea. Gotta think big! It was difficult to do. But it was such a fun, bold, ambitious idea. And everyone was in. So in the end, it became a one-hour special that encompassed all of those ideas that was a real celebration of L.A. What was beautiful about it for L.A. and for me is that the next day of the closing ceremony, the image that was around the globe was Dre and Snoop in front of the LA28 sign and Tom jumping off the roof. So we'd achieved our goal of announcing and launching LA28 in a really great way. So going back to the other question, how do you get attention? That is a great example where I think unscripted television really gripped the world and made an impact. You had to have been worried about pulling all of that off. What was your biggest concern? There were so many. The fact that the biggest movie star in the world is standing on a roof and about to jump off it, that is always a concern. We lost our beach with about four weeks to go, for various reasons. And then it's just all those elements coming together. I was really excited when NBC loved the idea so much that they gave us a special for it, though that meant that what was a 16 minute idea that was live could then become like an hour's special with more music and more Tom could breathe a little bit more in prime time. But that was a very nerve wracking on the day because although it was pre-taped it was live in the ceremony. That was the most nervous I think I've ever been, of anything I've done. You still get nervous? Live television is always nerve-wracking. I always never quite know why we do it. As it gets towards 5 p.m. on Grammy Sunday, I have this sort of sick feeling in my stomach where I'm always like, why on earth did I agree to do this again? We only have six weeks to make that show because the nominations come out around Thanksgiving. Nobody will do anything before they're nominated. You can't even pick up the phone to ask them. And this year with the fires, most of our team were evacuated. Some of our team lost their homes. And suddenly, we were making a show for Feb. 2 with all of that going on as well. The way I always think about it is you're climbing this mountain, you get to the top of that mountain at 5 on Grammy Sunday, and you jump off. And you just hope the parachute opens and you have a really nice flight. But you also know that it's live television. Anything could happen, and you could smack your head on the way down. Luckily, I think this year was probably the show I'm most proud of. Why is that? Because I think that the fact that we were making it around the time of the fires, the fact that there were murmurs of people saying you shouldn't be doing the Grammys a month after the fires have broken out, the fact that I had a real passion to do it and was really feeling that we could actually do something really beautiful for the city of L.A. I worked out that 6,000 people earn a living in some way from the Grammys happening. Now that doesn't mean I employ 6,000 people. That means florists or local car companies or staging companies or removal vans or venue security — 6,000 people earn a living from the Grammys, and they live in Los Angeles. And the worst thing you could possibly say to 6,000 people is because of our concern for you right now, we're not going to employ you at the Grammys. I just thought it was such a ridiculous mentality. I was very passionate as an LA guy that we wanted the show to happen, but I also felt like we could do good. We raised nearly $30 million that night. What changes did you make to the show to address the fires? Every ad break, we gave a commercial to a local business. It was a local florist, and we had Doja Cat doing a commercial for them. Or we had Charlie Puth at the local karate den that got burned down or Avril Lavigne at the skate park in the Palisades. And I just thought it was a really lovely idea of showcasing local businesses who had lost so much in the fires and partnering them with a Grammys artist. And then there was also the question of who starts the show. I was having a conversation with Brandi Carlisle, and we were talking about the song 'I Love L.A.' And interestingly, I was playing that in my car as I was driving from my hotel into the office, because I was evacuated. I thought, well, actually, that's a really beautiful way of starting the show, but then who plays it? And then Brandi said to me, do you know the band Dawes? They lost their homes and their studio in the fires. Allowing them to open the Grammys with a supergroup of artists, John Legend and Brittany Howard and all these incredible artists, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley — that could be an amazing way to open the show. Everything from the way we reacted to the fires all the way to featuring the best new artists for the time in the history of the Grammys. We didn't stop the music. It just went one after the other after the other after the other. And I love the way we did that in that Trevor went in the audience. He walked through and he introduced each one of them, and you just thought he was going to throw to the package. And he says, oh, let's take a look at the music from these best new artists. And then Benson Boone gets out his microphone and the suit rips off, and that started that was the trigger, and then all the other artists run to their corners, Shaboozey and Doechii and Raye, bringing down the house. And so that was a really lovely moment that was technically incredibly hard. Hamish Hamilton did an amazing job directing that, but staging it where the music never stopped. I love the idea of music never stopping. You also had the added pressure as the first award show back to make it OK for there to be award shows again. Whether it be the commercials for the local businesses, whether it be the fire department presenting the Grammy award for album of the year to Beyoncé, whether it be Dawes opening, which I thought was really powerful. We love this show, and we love music, and we love television. Yes, the fires were brutal for all of us, but they actually made us they made us sharpen our lens. They made us go, OK. How do we make this OK, and how do we pay tribute this city, and how do we make a love letter to this city? And in a way, I think it was an advantage going first because everyone could follow our lead. You've done so many kinds of live TV. What's on your wish list? What do you still want to do? We've been really lucky. We've done a few really wonderful music specials. I love working with artists. I love the challenge of live television. There's a big thing happening in three years in this city, so hopefully, I'll be a little bit involved in that. I'm not after doing more award shows. I really like the one that I make. I love the Grammys. I'm proud of the Grammys. It's become part of me. I don't have a burning desire to suddenly start running other award shows. So no Oscars for you? Nope. Definitely not. I think Raj [Kapoor] does a great job on that, and that's one for him, not me. We're developing a reality show right now in Calabasas, to partner with our Kardashian show, and I'm really enjoying the casting process of that. I'm looking at doing a kids' show with a streaming platform right now, which I've never done before, but it could be quite impactful. As a dad of a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, if you'd asked me 10 years ago about a kids' show, I'd be like, what are you on about? (Laughs.) I think about what could I be doing at the World Cup next year? I love working with Trevor Noah — what is the next form of variety show that we could do together? I'm really excited about the opportunities that we have over here at Fulwell, and just really want to make things that I'm proud of and I love and I'm passionate about. So what do you have up your sleeve for the 2028 Olympics in LA? I don't know right now, because nothing's been announced. But if I had the opportunity of being involved in LA28, I would love that. I think it's going to be a phenomenal Olympics, and I'd be honored to be involved. I hope they call me! Best of GoldDerby Marlon Wayans on laughing through tragedy in 'Good Grief' and why social media has made comedy 'toxic' Minha Kim 'confronted all new emotions that I had never anticipated' in Season 2 of 'Pachinko' 'Étoile': Exclusive 4-part conversation with creators, star Luke Kirby, cinematographer, and choreographer Click here to read the full article.
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Eric Church Defends Bruce Springsteen After President Trump Remarks, Says Political Parties Are ‘Total Bulls–t'
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Eric Church Reflects on Being Dragged Into Taylor Swift's ‘Shake It Off' Lawsuit: ‘How Did This Even Happen?'
Eric Church looked back on his unexpected involvement in the lawsuit over Taylor Swift's hit single 'Shake It Off' in a new interview. Back in 2017, the superstar got hit with allegations of copyright infringement by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, the songwriters behind 3LW's 2001 single 'Playas Gon' Play.' More from Billboard Taylor Swift's Five-Year Legal Battle Over 'Shake It Off,' Explained Olivia Rodrigo Brings Out David Byrne for Scorching 'Burning Down the House' (And Does Some of His Dance Moves) at Gov Ball Mariah the Scientist's Governors Ball Set Canceled Last Minute 'Due to Unforeseen Circumstances' 'In her deposition, when [talking about the line] 'players gonna play, haters gonna hate,' she says, 'The first time I heard that phrase was in Eric Church's song 'The Outsiders,'' the country singer explained in a sit-down with Rolling Stone published Friday (June 6). 'She was saying she never heard it on [the 3LW song], which is what they were suing her for. And two weeks later, I got served by the people that were suing her!' According to Church, getting slapped with his own legal papers prompted him to reach out to Swift via text. 'I was like, 'Hey, thanks. Next time, let's just skip that part?'' he said. 'And she sent me a text: 'I'm sorry. It's the truth, though. That's when I heard that phrase.'' 'It's since been settled,' Church added of his own involvement. However, the 'Hands of Time' singer concluded in the interview that the whole experience still had him wondering, ''How did this even happen?'' Since an agreement to drop the 'Shake It Off' lawsuit was reached between Swift, Hall and Butler in late 2022, Church has released his eighth studio album, 2025's Evangeline vs. the Machine, which he'll be promoting this fall with his upcoming Free the Machine Tour. More recently, Church also collaborated with Morgan Wallen on I'm the Problem album cut 'Number 3 and Number 7,' and in the same Rolling Stone interview, defended Bruce Springsteen after the namesake of his hit 2011 single 'Springsteen' criticized President Trump and his administration during a concert. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
