90% of ‘7 Rings’ royalties to Rodgers and Hammerstein
Ariana Grande opens tour with tribute to late Jewish rapper Mac Miller.
By EMILY BURACK/ JTAGrande performs during Wango Tango concert at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles(photo credit: REUTERS)
90% of the songwriting royalties for the Ariane Grande hit song “7 Rings” are going to the estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, The New York Times reported this week. Grande’s track interpolates “My Favorite Things,” the The Sound of Music song written by the duo in 1959. Rodgers and Hammerstein died in 1979 and 1960, respectively.According to the Times, Grande’s label (Republic) and representatives brought “7 Rings” to Concord – the music company that’s owned Rodgers and Hammerstein’s catalog since 2017 – a few weeks before its January release. Concord received its requested 90% for the license without further negotiation.Grande opened a world tour with music by the late Jewish rapper Mac Miller, who dated the pop star for nearly two years before overdosing on alcohol and drugs last year.Grande started the tour for her blockbuster album Sweetener in an arena in Albany, New York on Monday. Some of Miller’s songs played in the stadium after the opening acts performed and before she took the stage, according to Vulture. (Headlining acts usually curate those pre-performance playlists.)Miller was 26 when he was found dead in his Los Angeles home on September 7. Grande, 25, dated Miller between August 2016 and April 2018.Fans were emotional as they took to Twitter to share that Miller’s music was played.On her hit song “thank u, next,” Grande sings a tribute to Miller: “Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcom / ’cause he was an angel.”The tracks “ghostin” and “imagine” on her new album also seem to be about Miller. Entertainment Weekly reported that Grande told fans during her soundcheck that performing those songs “would be too heavy for her,” and that she does not plan on performing them throughout the tour.Born Malcolm McCormick to a Christian father and Jewish mother in Pittsburgh, the tattooed rapper had a Star of David inked on his hand, and had talked about having a bar mitzvah and celebrating Jewish holidays growing up
