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By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor
On April 27, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Young dismissed a lawsuit brought by one of two men alleging that the late music legend Michael Jackson sexually abused them. The man, Wade Robson, was featured in the contested and controversial documentary, “Leaving Neverland.”
Michale Jackson’s nephew, Taj Jackson, 47, has led the family against the allegations regarding his late uncle. Judge Young’s decision held that MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, Michael Jackson’s estate, cannot be held financially liable and have “no legal ability” in the regarding allegations made by accuser Wade Robson. Michael Jackson died in 2009 at 51.
“Both Wade Robson and James Safecuck’s cases have been separately thrown out of court again and again. Facts and Evidence ACTUALLY MATTER in court. When will the media finally look into these 2 men and all their provable lies? Lies Run Sprints But The Truth Runs Marathons,” Taj Jackson wrote on social media after news of the latest dismissal broke on April 26.
Robeson sued in 2013 and Michael Jackson’s estate requested a motion to dismiss, which has now been granted. Family members of Michael Jackson have long fought against the allegations which were featured in the controversial and widely contested documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
The suit was brought in 2013 by Wade Robson and alleged abuse by Michael Jackson in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In October 2020, the judge dismissed a by James Safechuck, the second accuser featured in HBO’s “Leaving Neverland.” In 2005, Michael Jackson was acquitted in Santa Barbara County Superior Court of various allegations against him. The Jackson estate sued HBO over the documentary and the parties are now in private arbitration to resolve the matter.
In 2017, the Robson and Safechuck suits had been previously dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. But a new law in California extended the time accusers could bring legal action. In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of abusing 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, which Jackson denied. Chandler’s case was settled out of court for $23 million with no charges were filed after a criminal investigation displayed a lack of evidence or testimony from Chandler.
In 1996, Michael Jackson paid an out-of-court settlement to the mother of Jason Francia for over $2 million though in 1993, Francia told police that Michael Jackson never molested him. Several actors who knew Michael Jackson as children defended him against the allegations including Aaron Carter, Macaulay Culkin, Corey Feldman and Joey Fatone of NSYNC.
Jonathan Steinsapir, the attorney for the Jackson estate, reacted saying, “Wade Robson has spent the last 8 years pursuing frivolous claims in different lawsuits against Michael Jackson’s estate and companies associated with it. Yet a judge has once again ruled that Robson’s claims have no merit whatsoever.”
“Leaving Neverland,” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 to widespread controversy. Michael Jackson’s brothers Tito, Jermaine and Marlon, along with thousands of fans, defined the production as one-sided that ignored any evidence or truth verifying that Michael Jackson was innocent.
“Let’s cut the BS, wrote Tito Jackson’s son Taj Jackson on twitter on February 28, “Over 30 YEARS to present one SINGLE piece of real evidence or fact against Michael Jackson. The FBI, Santa Barbara AND Los Angeles County Law enforcement, wiretaps, raids, a demoralizing trial, a biased media, a 4-hour hit piece, a one-hour special. NOTHING!”
Fans online reacted with the hashtag #MichaelJacksonWasFramed as news of the latest dismissal against Jackson’s accusers spread.
Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at [email protected] and on twitter at @LVBurke
Long-Running Skylight Music Theatre KidsWrites Program
Turns Student Writing Into Professional Music Theatre Songs
Pandemic Year Inspires KidsWrites 2020-21: Time Capsule
Free Virtual Performances begin May 3, 2021
Milwaukee, Wis. (April 15, 2021) — For 21 years, Skylight Music Theatre teaching artists have led writing workshops for students in grades 3-8, inspiring them to create lyrics and dialogue based on a theme in a program called KidsWrites. Selected pieces of writing are turned into music theatre songs by professional composers, and then performed by professional artists in a touring show. The pandemic inspired the current KidsWrites theme: Time Capsule, in which students wrote about their thoughts and feelings related to this challenging year. This year KidsWrites was completely virtual. The final show will stream online at Skylight’s website from May 3 through June 13, 2021. Tickets are free, but contributions are appreciated.
KidsWrites normally traveled in-person to MPS and other schools, reaching about 42 classrooms. This year the virtual workshop impacted almost 2,000 students in 58 classrooms from 14 area schools. The online format allowed participation to increase 38%.
The result was 1,650 pieces of student writing on topics such as how it feels to stay far apart from loved ones; wearing a mask and trying to eat and drink; the toilet paper shortage; a tribute to essential workers; a letter to the President; and a reflection on a Black Lives Matter protest.
Skylight’s Education Manager and teaching artists selected 44 pieces of writing, some of which were put to music by professional composers. Professional performers then rehearsed, performed and recorded the pieces for the KidsWrites 2020-21: Time Capsule show.
Historic Year Creates Inspired Student Writing
“This has been an unprecedented year,” said Education Manager Amanda Marquardt, who directed the show. “The Time Capsule theme encourages students to record and preserve their own history regarding current events, including the pandemic, racial injustice, and politics.”
Marquardt added, “Though these topics may be challenging, the writing workshops have been crafted in a way that encourages students to find the hope and beauty in the world around them. Children need their voices to be heard and the space to express and process their feelings.”
The Power of Words and Music
Kermit McClendon, a 5th grade teacher at Golda Meir School, has seen first-hand the power of putting words to music as a teaching tool. McClendon has been working with the KidsWrites program for six years.
“My students loved the KidsWrites performance and couldn’t wait to begin writing their own plays, songs, and poems about the life of a student in the year 2020. I loved watching their imagination come to life each week and seeing the increase in engagement and confidence,” he said.
“KidsWrites shows students the possibilities the arts offer. During this virtual school time with things being so uncharted, I truly believe that having arts programs like KidsWrites has allowed our students to maintain some sense of normalcy, as well as an outlet,” added McClendon. “KidsWrites is such a benefit to every student showing them the joys of writing as well as inspiring students to become an author, screenwriter, songwriter, or actor.”
“That kind of success has allowed the KidsWrites program to flourish and inspire students for over two decades,” said Skylight Music Theatre Artistic Director Michael Unger. “It not only encourages storytelling, but strengthens skills such as writing, spelling, and self-expression. Most importantly, it becomes a real-life demonstration of how words and music can combine to create emotion, inspiration, and entertainment.”
KidsWrites Founder Joins Skylight Guest Performers
Ray Jivoff, former Skylight Music Theatre Artistic Director, started the KidsWrites program in 2000 as part of Skylight’s education program, Enlighten, to bring the arts into MPS elementary schools. Over the years the program expanded to include middle and high schools throughout the greater Milwaukee area. For this 21stanniversary production, Jivoff will be back as one of the featured guest performers in the cast of KidsWrites: Time Capsule. He will be joined by a core ensemble of local professional actors including Chris Adams, Ryan Cappleman, Ashley Rodriguez, Kate Sarner, and Kevin James Sievert.
K.F. Jacques, a hip-hop opera bass-baritone is also a special guest. Working with Milwaukee Opera Theatre (MOT) Producing Artistic Director Jill Anna Ponasik, Jacques performed and composed the title song “Time Capsule,” with words by 5th grader Jaden Bernal. Ponasik suggested Chicago-based Jacques after seeing him in a virtual production by ten independent opera companies from across the country, including MOT.
Additional special guests include choreographer and Pink Umbrella teaching artist Molly Kiefer; and The Heinrich Family, a family singing group led by Milwaukee Public Schools music teacher Meaghan Heinrich.
Professional Composers Lend Talents to KidsWrites Success
The combination of professional performers who bring students’ writing to life, and professional composers who put the words to music has created a powerful collaboration.
“It is always thrilling for the students whose stories are selected to see the transformation of their words on a page into a song,” said Marquardt.
Professional composers creating compositions for Time Capsule include Christie Chiles Twillie, who music directed Skylight’s productions of Five Guys Named Moe, Newsies, The Gospel at Colonus and From Skylight
with Love: A Concert for Unity. Additional composers include Marc Chan, Meaghan Heinrich, K.F. Jacques, Katie Madison, Ryan Rosmann, Brett Ryback, and Kat Sherrell. Music director for Time Capsule is Ryan Cappleman. Audio and video production by Ryan Rosmann/Hi Five Studio.
Performance Information
KidsWrites 2020-21: Time Capsule will be available virtually for students, families and the public on Skylight’s website at www.skylightmusictheatre.org/timecapsule from Monday, May 3 through Sunday, June 13, 2021. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. Contributions to support Skylight and its education programming are appreciated. Skylight’s education program, called Enlighten, served over 14,000 Milwaukee Public School (MPS) children annually before the pandemic.
Thanks to KidsWrites Sponsors
KidsWrites 2020-21: Time Capsule is supported in part by a grant from the Milwaukee Arts Board and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin. Other support provided by:
Helen Daniels Bader Fund: A Bader Philanthropy
Herzfeld Foundation
Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Gerda A. Debelak Fund, George H. and Virgilee F. Krueck Fund
Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust
United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) Bright Minds, presented by BMO Harris Bank
About Skylight Music Theatre
Skylight Music Theatre marks its 61st season in 2020-2021. Skylight’s mission since 1959: To bring the full spectrum of music theatre works to a wide and diverse audience in celebration of the musical and theatrical arts and their reflection of the human condition. Skylight brings fresh approaches or interesting twists to music theatre works, creating meaningful connections, not only between the characters on stage but with the audience as well. Skylight’s home is the beautiful 350-seat Cabot Theatre, modeled after an 18th century French opera house.
“This important book… uncovers an inseparable portion of our nation’s history.” President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin
NEW YORK, N.Y. — In the village of Tilamado, in the heart of the hill country, once lived a community of Ethiopian Jews who, for some 1,500 years kept their faith and traditions alive despite their exile far from the Holy Land. On night in 1984 they left their huts and started walking home. They were some of the 16,000 Ethiopian Jews who migrated to Israel as part of “Operation Moses,” a plan to bring these exiled children of Israel out of a country hostile to their religion and back to the homeland of their faith. Today, one of those who made that journey is ready to tell their story, a story of faith, race and inheritance that will echo the world over.
In From Africa to Zion (Yedioth Ahronoth Group, May 18 2021), Danny Adeno Abebe shares the story of his 500-mile journey from the country of his birth through Sudan and into Israel, where he faced prejudice and outright racism on his way to becoming the country’s first Ethiopian-born journalist. To make aliyah – to exercise their “right of return” to Israel – the Jews of Tilamado had to endure the horrors of thirst, starvation, disease, smugglers, cruel border agents and worse. But such was the strength of their attachment to the Jewish homeland in their hearts that they persevered, and like the Jews of the Scriptures walked out of the desert to their deliverance in Israel.
But in the Promised Land, they found promises denied. Instead of being integrated into the society of their fellow Jews, the new arrivals from Ethiopia received cold and callous treatment from the civil and religious authorities:
Despite the odds, Danny did serve with Israeli Army radio and then became a popular national journalist, the first in that profession in Israel to be born in Ethiopia. But that success came with costs, and amid struggles over his own personal identity. In From Africa to Zion, readers will learn:
The treatment of Ethiopian Jews is a chapter in Israeli history that, for many years and many reasons, has never been fully told. As the world faces a reckoning on race and national identity, their story provides lessons and moving commentary on our shared humanity. From Africa to Zion is the story of how one man faced that reckoning within himself. Today, Danny dedicates his work to helping his fellow Ethiopian Jews gain greater acceptance in their own spiritual home, and works with the Philos Project to help educate Christians worldwide about his fellow Israelis and issues in the Middle East. In many ways, his long journey from Ethiopia has never ended.
COMEDIAN & BUSINESS WOMAN
“FUNNY LADY SONYA D” PARTNERS WITH
HYATT PLACE MILWAUKEE – DOWNTOWN
_
“Getting Comedians Back On Stages. Helping Hotels Recover Revenue”
For more than 24 years, national Comedian and CEO of StandUp And Laugh, ”FunnyLady Sonya D”, has toured the country with various celebrity comedians. She has been involved in various comedy and production projects, including her own comedy club, a marketing & advertising company and now producing her own TV Show for Netflix.
During a recent stay at the Hyatt Place Hotel and realizing Professional Artists of ALL disciplines are not returning to any “Major Stage, Concert Venue or Theater, until Fall of 2021 (so they say) and while businesses are re-opening, but yet still struggling due to the fact more clientele is needed, is what brought “FunnyLady Sonya D” and her Production, to Downtown Milwaukee.
After an amazing lunch and brainstorm pow-wow with Hyatt Place Downtown Milwaukee, Director of Sales and Marketing…
… who loved the idea of bringing laughter back to Milwaukee – the stage was set for the first Friday of every month
Tickets are $40-$70 per pair for May 7th Show at 9pm
Scheduled shows are the first Friday of every month!
Stand Up and Laugh” in Partnership with Hyatt Place Downtown and their sister properties, have found a way to “safely” bring out the Community and get Comedians back on Mics & Stages all while recovering lost revenue from food and beverage. A Cash Bar and Appetizers will be available before and during the show!
“We Laugh, Eat and Drink. In that order”!
The small social distanced comedy events, featuring comedians seen on HBO, Comedy Central, BET, etc…
is sure to attract more customers.
Adding the excitement of “Filming a TV Pilot for Netflix”
At Hyatt Place Downtown and their Sister Properties,
is sure to add the icing to the cake!
New York, NY April 26, 2021 – Jasmine Davis currently stars in Showtime’s critically-acclaimed original series, “The Chi.” The series unveils its fourth season on May 23 at 9 PM ET/PT. She is available for press interviews in May and June.
Davis’ character, Imani, is a beautiful, gentle and stable presence amid the chaos around her. She is the loyal girlfriend of Trig (played by actor Luke James), and she is there by his side to help him right to some long-festering wrongs. Jasmine Davis is also the show’s first transgender character.
Created and executive produced by Emmy® winner Lena Waithe (Twenties, Boomerang) and executive produced by Academy Award®, Emmy and Golden Globe® winner Common (Selma), THE CHI is a timely coming-of-age story centering on a group of residents on the South Side of Chicago who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption. Season three was up nearly 30% in viewership over season two across platforms. Season four cast includes Jacob Latimore (Like a Boss), Alex Hibbert (Moonlight), Yolonda Ross (Treme), Shamon Brown Jr., Michael V. Epps and Birgundi Baker, along with Luke James and Curtiss Cook, who have been upped to series regulars in season four. Kandi Burruss and La La Anthony are set to return as guest stars, along with Tabitha Brown (Princess of the Row) and Chicago native Jason Weaver (Smart Guy, ATL).
THE CHI is currently in production on 10 episodes in Chicago. In addition to Waithe and Common, Aaron Kaplan (A Million Little Things, The Neighborhood), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Derek Dudley and Shelby Stone of Freedom Road Productions, Rishi Rajani, president of Hillman Grad Productions, and showrunner Justin Hillian serve as executive producers for season four. Produced entirely in its namesake city, THE CHI is produced by 20th Television.
About BET
BET, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIACA, VIAC), is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African American audience. The primary BET channel is in 125 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, sub-Saharan Africa and France. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions including BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET HER, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the African-American Woman; BET Music Networks – BET Jams, BET Soul and BET Gospel; BET Home Entertainment; BET Live, BET’s growing festival business; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET around the globe.
“McCoo and Davis have returned to the charts with a renewed sense of purpose.” – Salon.com
April 19, 2021 –New York, NY — Pop Culture Icons, multiple Grammy Award-winners and multi-platinum selling artists Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. released today the official music video to their single “blackbird” (Album Mix) from their highly anticipated first studio album in three decades,Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons (EE1/BMG), due April 30. The official music video is a poignant tribute to the blackbirds whose lives ended tragically by violence, and those who sacrificed their all in the name of social justice.
A version of the video will be available exclusively for radio station websites and their related media, featuring the R&B Mix of the song, by acclaimed R&B producer Mike City and overall Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons media and activism programming producer, Nic Mendoza. The blackbird Experiential Project is currently in development. McCoo and Davis also released “Ticket to Ride,” another single from the upcoming album, which honors civil rights icons Rosa Parks and her husband, Raymond Parks. “Ticket To Ride” is available to download as an Instant Grat track with a pre-order of the album and streamable on all streaming services including, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, deezer and Amazon Music.
Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons is available now for pre-order
https://mccoodavis.lnk.to/Blackbird
Since it became available for presale, Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons has hit the top spot on both the iTunes R&B preorder and Barnes & Noble all bestselling music charts. “Ticket to Ride” is currently receiving wide success on Blues and Southern Soul radio nationwide, including attaining the #9 spot on the Soul of the Shoals radio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, considered the birthplace of Soul music.
Marilyn & Billy with Producer Nic Mendoza, Co-Producer Tim Sonnefeld
and featured award-winning vocalist Natalie Hanna Mendoza
Marilyn & Billy pray and battle for every blackbird.
“Before we say anything, we have to acknowledge Questlove and the impact his genius is having on our career and lives. For his movie, Summer of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which of course, took the two biggest prizes at Sundance, and now is coming out from Searchlight and Hulu. Everything Questlove is doing is incredible. Questlove unlocked the vaults of our history and let sunshine in on our music from the past, and us today. Questlove knew we were working on Blackbird: Lennon McCartney Icons, and that combination gave us a whole new Renaissance … even with kids who had heard our older songs, but didn’t know our names. You know what? It’s funny … they’re starting to know us now! It’s ironic too, because our Producer, Nic Mendoza, was with Questlove at the Santa Barbara Bowl at a concert ten years ago, and the picture of them together … Nic is just barely out of his teens, if that! We thank Questlove, EE1, BMG and our Producer, Nic Mendoza, for giving us a platform at this age, to use our artistry as part of the activism we’ve always practiced,” say McCoo and Davis.
“Blackbird, fly … even when the bodies of our babies are shot down or choked to death … their spirits continue to fight to equality. Those of us that are still here in the nest of life will continue this peaceful war for justice. Over the front of the Supreme Court, is carved in marble: Equality For All. Our question is, do we have it? Since we don’t, when do we get it? Just the two of us have been waiting over 70 years. It’s time … past time, for us to turn this around and realize that Civil Rights are Human Rights. When we began working on Blackbird, we were deeply concerned about what was happening in our country. It felt as though we were moving backwards, versus marching to progress. When we began singing as individual artists, and during our Original 5th Dimension days, we were in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement. We lived through the usual indignities … an 8’ x 8’ cross burner on our lawn … police pulling a gun on Billy thinking he was robbing a home we owned … we had the memories of Emmett Till … the assassinations of Dr. King … Malcolm X … and so many other people … but today, we are particularly heartbroken and focused on our blackbirds being slaughtered and shot, so that our babies cannot return to the nest of home. During the Chauvin Trial, over the horror of what happened to George Floyd … while that’s going on, a few blocks away, a 20-year-old father named Daunte Wright is shot by a policewoman with 26 years of experience, who says she don’t know her gun from her taser. Shocked.”
“Today, we see video of a 13-year-old baby blackbird, Adam Toledo, shot while running away from “peace” officers? How and what can we say to these families? We have a grown son, Steven, so we fear this reality. Only God and action can help us now. We must never forget that Blackbird was written following the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama being bombed … which killed four babies, Cynthia, Addie Mae, Carole and Carol Denise. The song, and the entire album, is about Civil Rights, which are human rights. We needed to use our art as activism and let everyone know: we can all be blackbirds for each other, and wage a peaceful war for every human being to be treated with fairness, dignity, and the right to live without a daily fear of harassment and even death. Blackbird is an expression of the reality we are living today. Look at what’s happening this very week. The killings continue. When a blackbird leaves our mother’s nest, one day, it will not return. In 2021, mothers throughout our country live in the fear that our blackbirds may prematurely not be able to return to the nest of home, because of bigotry and violence… Blackbird, is dedicated to the life and humanity of every blackbird, whether living now or lost in battle,” adds the couple, who in their sixty-plus-year career of performing have broken countless racial and cultural barriers. Culturally known as The First Couple of Pop & Soul, Marilyn & Billy are credited in the media as “the originators of the blueprint followed by Jay Z and Beyoncé for a blend of talent, romance, marriage, and commerce.” Their variety television series on CBS was a first for a Black couple.
On releasing “Ticket To Ride” ahead of Mother’s Day, says the couple, “Ticket To Ride is our tribute to the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks. One thing people have to realize is that Mrs. Parks was arrested December 1st, 1955, because she refused to give up her seat to a White man. There were seats in what was called the colored section … for you young people, that was a little phrase that was used about us before we figured out that Black and African American would be a whole lot better. Mrs. Parks was not the first person to be arrested for this. That happened to a young girl who was only 15 years old! That baby’s name was Claudette Colvin. This crisis made Mrs. Parks and Dr. King famous all over the country and parts of the world.”
“Mrs. Parks was a seamstress who did secretarial work for the NAACP, so she got dressed knowing when she bought her ticket that day, that she was going to go to jail, because she had told Dr. King that she was not going to give up her seat. She said, “I’m just tired of this. It has to stop.” Mrs. Parks was taking her life into her hands. There was no way of knowing, once she went to that jail, if she would come out alive. Especially in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. She didn’t care that she was going to jail, when she bought her ticket on that bus! What was keeping her down, was segregation … the klan … the scourge of racism,” says Marilyn McCoo.
“There are many names that are on the Blackbird Lennon McCartney Icons album cover, and there is a reference to “Unknown” … as in, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. It’s ironic that although the first man killed in the American Revolutionary War, Crispus Atticus, was a Black man … we just assume that whoever’s in that tomb is a White man. When Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, the central character is named Atticus, in honor of Crispus Atticus. This is a tribute to all those that we don’t know. Now, Rosa Parks we thank God that we do know, however, her husband, Raymond Parks, is one of the great unknown heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Imagine his terror when his wife was arrested … as a Black woman in segregated Alabama, 1955. So, when Marilyn and I sang “Ticket To Ride” … I’ve done some acting on stage, and my music comes from the heart … every lyric was true to the actual story. When I sing, ‘She said that being with me was keeping her down,’ that ‘She could never be free, when I was around,’ I was thinking about the Klan, and people like George Wallace, the then Governor of Alabama who famously said ‘Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!’ So I’m really singing the song from two perspectives … first the segregationists, and the ad lib is my personal tribute to Raymond Parks, who along with Dr. King, is one of the fathers of freedom … a true blackbird!” says Billy Davis Jr.
Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons marks Marilyn & Billy’s first album with Encore Endeavor 1 (EE1), a subsidiary of kathy ireland® Worldwide (kiWW®), which has a multi-recording agreement with music giant, BMG. This project also marks kiWW’s second collaboration with BMG – the first made music history, after Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable skyrocketed to Billboard’s top spot on the album chart.
Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons tracklisting
1.Got To Get You Into My Life (feat. Yancyy)
2.The Fool On The Hill (feat. Natalie Hanna Mendoza)
3.Blackbird
4.Yesterday
5.Ticket To Ride
6.The Long and Winding Road
7.Silly Love Songs
8.Help!
9.(Just Like) Starting Over (feat. James Gadson)
10.And I Love Her
“Blackbird” Official Music Video Credits:
Blackbird Principal Vocals by: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Directed by: Jon Carrasco
Digital Art by: Brittany Duncan & Jon Carrasco
Produced by: Nic Mendoza
Public Relations: Rona Menashe
“Blackbird”:
Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Principal Vocals by: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Executive Producers: Kathleen Marie Ireland, Jon Carrasco, Stephen Roseberry & Steve Rosenblum
Producer: Nic Mendoza
Co-Producer & Lead Engineer: Tim Sonnefeld
Worldwide Creative Director: Jon Carrasco
Recording Package Artistry & Illustrations by: Brittany Duncan & Jon Carrasco
Vocals Recorded at: Redstar Studios in Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by: Kevorkian Mastering, Inc.
℗© 2021 Encore Endeavor 1 LLC under exclusive license to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
“Blackbird” (Mike City R&B Mix):
Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Principal Vocals by: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Executive Producers: Kathleen Marie Ireland, Jon Carrasco, Stephen Roseberry & Steve Rosenblum
Producers: Mike City & Nic Mendoza
Co-Producer & Lead Engineer: Tim Sonnefeld
Worldwide Creative Director: Jon Carrasco
Recording Package Artistry & Illustrations by: Brittany Duncan & Jon Carrasco
R&B Mix Recorded at: Unsung Studio in Los Angeles, CA
Vocals Recorded at: Redstar Studios in Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by: Kevorkian Mastering, Inc.
℗© 2021 Encore Endeavor 1 LLC under exclusive license to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
“Ticket To Ride”:
Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Principal Vocals by: Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Executive Producers: Kathleen Marie Ireland, Jon Carrasco, Stephen Roseberry & Steve Rosenblum
Producer: Nic Mendoza
Co-Producer & Lead Engineer: Tim Sonnefeld
Worldwide Creative Director: Jon Carrasco
Recording Package Artistry & Illustrations by: Brittany Duncan & Jon Carrasco
Recorded at: Redstar Studios in Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by: Kevorkian Mastering, Inc.
℗© 2021 Encore Endeavor 1 LLC under exclusive license to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
Connect with Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Instagram: @mccoodavis
Twitter: @mccoodavis
Facebook: facebook.com/McCooDavis/