The Best Biopics & Musical Films for 2021

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The Best Biopics & Musical Films for 2021

There's a huge array to look forward to from the film world and after the delays of 2020, the backlog is now ready to be released. Below, is a short list of the best biopics and musical films for 2021, a mix of mainstream and online, in order of their release date.

Stardust

OUT: Jan 15
Not to be confused with the Neil Gaiman fantasy, this Stardust is a biopic focused on David Bowie in the year or so before (and leading up to) Ziggy Stardust. Johnny Flynn will play a 24-year-old Bowie, with Gabriel Range directing from Christopher Bell's screenplay. Marc Maron plays Bowie's beleaguered American publicist Ron Oberman.

One Night In Miami...

OUT: Jan 15
A fictional account of a night in 1964, as four icons of sports, music, and activism gather to celebrate one of the biggest upsets in boxing history: Cassius Clay's defeat of heavy weight champion Sonny Liston. Eli Goree is the soon-to-be Muhammed Ali, with Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Leslie Odom Jr as Sam Cooke, and Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown. Soul co-director/co-writer Kemp Powers adapted the film from his own stage play, and it'll stream on Amazon Prime.

To Olivia

OUT: Feb 19
Biopic focused on the tempestuous marriage of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl. An adaptation of Stephen Michael Shearer's biography of Neal, titled An Unquiet Life, it stars Keeley Hawes and Hugh Bonneville as the central couple, with support from Conleth Hill and, in his final screen performance, the late Geoffrey Palmer. John Hay is the director.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

OUT: Feb 26
Jonathan Butterell helms an adaptation of his hit Brit musical. The based-on-a-true-story stage show centres on a teenager in Northern England (Sheffield in the story, Newcastle in real life) who is determined to attend his year 11 prom in drag, to the disapproval of the school.

The United States v Billie Holiday

OUT: March 12
Biopic following legendary soul singer Billie Holiday (Andra Day) during a difficult period of her career. Holiday was targeted during the 1940s by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), with whom she'd previously had a tumultuous affair. Partially based on Johann Hari's book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days Of The War On Drugs.

The Beatles plying live, on top of Apple Corps in London

The Beatles: Get Back sneak peek

OUT: August 27
Sticking with documentary following the success of They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson turns his attention to the final days of The Beatles. Get Back features never-before-seen footage of the band shot in 1969, with added material from their final live performance on top of the London Apple Corps offices. Ringo says it's a much truer portrait of the end of the Beatles than 1970's original Let It Be film.

Respect

OUT: October 8
Another musical biopic, in this case following Aretha Franklin's life from her early days singing in her father's church choir to her latterday status as civil rights activist and iconic soul superstar: the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Franklin personally chose Jennifer Hudson to play her.

West Side Story

OUT: December 10
Steven Spielberg's first musical adapts Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's classic stage show, itself an updated and relocated retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The feuding families become warring gangs the Jets and the Sharks. Can Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria's (Rachel Zegler) love cross that great divide?

For detailed listing of all upcoming releases go to:

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-movies-2021/

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04
May

Ariana May - ‘First Love’ Album Review

Ariana May’s first instrumental album is a delicate and stirring collection of piano excellence. Ariana May has been a vital Jeeni member for a while now and has developed an incredibly in-depth and fascinating showcase full of art-pop and remarkable talent. Recently, she has uploaded the entirety of her new instrumental album, ‘First Love’ on to Jeeni. Listen now via Ariana’s showcase available here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/arianamay/. As sweet and melodic her voice is, Ariana’s choice of expressing her compositions purely through her piano means that the structures are much more freeing and aren’t constricted to modern pop’s verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus forms. Her musicianship flows almost spontaneously; tempo decreases and increases as Ariana sees fit and phrases are fluid in length and timbre. The titles are excellent tonal suggestions as they act as a sort of starting point of picturing the imagery that Ariana clearly has in mind during both composing and performing these dramatic and theatrical pieces. Ariana May shows a real knack for cinematographic songwriting as it’s not difficult at all to imagine any one of these pieces as a perfect accompaniment for a location-setting scene in cinema. The final track, ‘Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow’ is exceptional, especially considering the tonal balance Ariana creates. A moody left hand mostly mumbles in a depressed, constant rotation of dark notes; meanwhile, the right is desperately trying to sound uplifting and optimistic through bright, ascending melodies and phrases. The two parts feel like two characters that are trying to influence the other to behave more like them at different moments of the piece, showing a vivid internal conflict, hence the ‘Sweet Sorrow’ in the title. The changes between these mindsets are sudden and frantic, a perfect representation of a troubled mind. What’s special about these types of projects is that a breakdown or analysis of these compositions could easily be miles from what Ariana had envisioned when writing it, but the freedom given to the listener with a vague title and complete absence of lyrics allows your imagination to fill in gaps and colour in the compositions with meaning and intention that makes most sense to you; it becomes personal. Throughout 'First Love', Ariana constantly shows an unprecedented level of emotion and control in her playing through her soft and poignant broken chords and melodies. Check out the entirety of this enchanting record on Jeeni: https://jeeni.com/showcase/arianamay/

03
Sep

Interview with Opera Star Joy Tamayo, Inside Story at Jeeni

Kate Stewart’s Inside Story interview with the great opera soprano Joy Tamayo, star of Spring Street, global premiere on Jeeni.com Spring Street is an opera that was created by one of Jeeni’s biggest supporters Pete Wyer. How did he approach you to take part? With Pete we worked together back in 2019 for the Twilight Chorus, we performed this at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. But we weren’t actually introduced then. In 2020 January I wrote him an email, inviting him to an opera that I wrote which we turned into a film. He wrote me back and said “WOW! You guys are making something”, and so we started talking about projects and he sent me a song and he said, “a soprano is doing this, what do you think of it?” And that just started the ball rolling so to speak for this project. What did you think of the project once Pete described it to you? His music really excited me; the Twilight Chorus resonated with me well. And with this project when I first looked at the music, I thought it was beautiful that he found a way to commemorate his friends. This is something I love doing as well with my group, it’s storytelling and its wonderful music. So I immediately said yes, before he started giving me the music. And without even knowing the rest of the performers. You have been performing since around the age of three, what made you choose opera over other genres of music? I don’t think I chose opera, at three I was mostly singing with my dad, my parents really inculcated this love for music at such a young age. And I remember my dad would play the guitar and I would sing with him. So, this love for singing in particular I think brought me to the realisation that I love to do music. I got into the Philippines high school for the arts when I was 12 and it was just a normal progression from a love for music and focusing on opera. Because that was the type of music that the school was also teaching. In retrospect, I love other types of singing as well. And the pandemic has allowed me to explore other types of music. Also realising that you can just sing in your living room and have a setup, your microphone, your preamp and file-sharing as we did with Pete’s work, it was all online. So back to the question, I didn’t choose opera, I just thought music was wonderful. And I had an easy time expressing myself through music and opera. And now I’m exploring with singing and not really minding the boundaries and structures. I really love the discipline and rigour that comes with opera singing. So I still bring that with me even with other types of music that I’m exploring right now. You haven’t actually been able to meet many of the other cast members in person yet. So has it been strange working on a brand-new opera in a global pandemic? Yes, to say the least, New York being silent, for fourteen months or so, it’s been odd. I met Heday one of the performers this year, we did a video. But I was just going around with them, I didn’t have a big part in the video. But I was able to say Hi to Maren and Heday. It’s been strange but you make the best of the situation and it’s been really exciting and fun. So, Spring Street is based in Manhattan and you’re based in Brooklyn but as you said you are originally from the Philippines. So how did that relocation come about? I got a scholarship at Crane School of Music, in upstate New York and so followed the American dream and moved here. It’s been a wild ride! For us in the Philippines your always thinking of the next step and for me being offered a scholarship, exploring another country, and also making sure that I do my best at the particular genre that I was exploring at that time, which was opera, it felt like the best move for me at that point. So, I moved to upstate New York and then I ended up here in Brooklyn and it's where I’ve been since 2014. So, Joy as well as being an amazing singer your also an actress and I’ve seen clips of the opera and your facial expressions in Spring Street are well, full of Joy I guess. It looks like you had a lot of fun with it, did you enjoy taking part? Yes, that was super fun! I remember it was around probably the end of winter when we shot some of the videos, and as you can imagine we were stuck at home for the longest time. So to be able to go outside and shoot some videos, was really fun. And to leave the living room, you know most of the videos were shot in the living room. And I remember I would send some videos to Pete, and he would say “you know what we could use this for this part” just like a collaboration back and forth. Your performance in spring street is going to be streamed worldwide on Jeeni.com in a couple of months too, a far bigger audience that could fit in an opera house. How do you feel about that? It’s hard to wrap my head around that, I haven't really contemplated the meaning of that big of a project. Now everything is online, a cat video can have millions of views, more than for example the Mets latest opera. But it’s certainly exciting. With this pandemic it seems like all of us are doing things; making art, making music, building communities in the living room, so it’s about file sharing, “oh watch this” or “have you seen my latest video”. There’s so much stuff online so I’m very excited about doing a similar thing. To finish today, Joy you’re a soprano which means that you have the highest vocal range of all of the vocal types. So I don’t suppose you could give us a little tiny demonstration? Although it is early morning in New York, so she hasn’t had the chance to warm up Joy complies happily. “No pressure” she laughs and proceeds to demonstrate her amazing vocal skills. You can watch the Inside Story Interview with Joy Tamayo by clicking here: Joy Tamayo Inside Story Spring Street Opera Joy Tamayo will be performing in the exclusive world première of Spring Street and the full performance can be watched Saturday 24th July 2021 on https://jeeni.com/springstreet/ Inspired by life on Spring Street, Manhattan – setting the poetry of Steve Dalachinsky and Yuko Otomo to music by Pete Wyer – wildly eclectic like the street itself.

23
Mar

Wendy King - Five Ways a Budding Guitarist Can Get Noticed

The music industry is on a roll. A report by the World Economic Forum highlights how global music revenues have risen by 20% since 2021, largely due to a surge in streaming which accounts for 65% of the industry's revenues. Over the previous year, streaming revenues rose by 24.3% and reached £14.1 billion, showcasing the impact of digitalisation.Despite the significant growth of the music industry, the sector remains notoriously difficult to enter. Our previous post on "The Hardships of Getting a Job in the Music Industry" visits how it can be tricky to get noticed in the music industry, especially with its unfair demand for work experience. While internship and work placement can be a great way to gain valuable experience, it's essential that young talent makes an effort to get recognised and recruited for these opportunities. In this article, we visit how budding musicians— specifically guitarists— can get noticed.Establish an online presence We all know that streaming and digitalisation have become a key part of the music industry— making it a great opportunity for budding guitarists to perform and showcase their talent. There are many ways to establish an online process, primarily through social media. To ease some self-marketing processes, consider signing up for a service connecting you and a global audience. Our platform Jeeni is a multi-channel service that allows artists and performers to showcase their talent, keep 100% of earnings, and have full creative rights. Through online opportunities, you can expand your reach and visibility as a guitarist.Add in guitar effects While you don't need special gear to get started, investing in a guitar rig and effects allows you to not only practice with equipment important in your career later on but enables you to change up your songs and how you present them. Many guitarists rely on Electro-Harmonix analogue delays, which have helped produce modern music's most sought-after and oft-imitated sounds. The Electro-Harmonix Memory Toy is suitable for those just developing their rig, as it's a simple board with three knobs but still provides clean tones. This device allows you to add subtle delay effects that still elevate your tunes.Try busking or street performing Many famous guitarists like Glen Hansard and Passenger (Michael Rosenberg) started as buskers before making it big. If you want to try your hand at busking, having an amp is necessary to get your tunes heard by people. Roland amps are well-known for their portable PA systems, making them convenient for playing on the go. The Roland Cube Street II is suited for street performances as it's battery-powered, as well as having an angled back for floor placement. This amp enables electric and acoustic players to amplify their music, allowing you to build confidence and showcase your talent to the public.Collaborate with other indie musicians For those looking to reach more music fans, it's essential to collaborate with other musicians. However, it's important to be mindful of their music style— you're more likely to retain an audience if your music aligns with theirs. If you've followed our earlier tips and already established yourself to a small audience, you can bring bigger value to others, opening the opportunity to work with more prominent artists. Check out the Jeeni channels to spot potential collaborators.Keep making and performing music Although it may seem straightforward to keep making and performing music, many tend to ignore the need to simply put yourself out there to help you get noticed by someone who likes your approach. Aside from exposure, being able to perform constantly can help you practice and identify areas of improvement— allowing you to master your talent fully.There are plenty of opportunities to learn and expand your reach as a guitarist. For more guitar-related insights and songs, make sure to visit our Guitar channel to inspire your work. Written by Wendy King for jeeni.com

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