June 14, 2003 "Bring Me To Life," the debut single from Evanescence, hits #1 in the UK and stays for four weeks. The song peaks at #5 in America.
June 12, 2003 Little Richard, Van Morrison, Queen, and Phil Collins are inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
June 10, 2003 Following a four-year hiatus, Fountains of Wayne reunite in order to release Welcome Interstate Managers. The album spawns the hit single "Stacy's Mom."
June 10, 2003 The Luther Vandross album Dance With My Father is released two months after the singer suffered a debilitating stroke. The album goes to #1 in America and the title track wins the Grammy Award for Song of the Year, but Vandross dies on July 1, 2005.
June 8, 2003 Billy Joel wins a Tony Award for the orchestration of his Broadway musical Movin' Out.
June 4, 2003 A grandfather who set up his own pirate radio station in Wakefield, Yorkshire, is under investigation by local broadcasting authorities. The man known as Ricky Rock had erected a 32-foot transmitter in his garden and had been playing hits by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley. Ricky said he set the station up because "talent-less boy bands and dance music" featured on local stations did not cater to the tastes of his generation.
May 31, 2003 50 Cent's second single, "21 Questions," tops the chart for the first of four weeks. Featuring Nate Dogg on the chorus, the song explores 50's romantic side, as he asks a girl if she would be there for him through thick and thin.
May 30, 2003 English record producer Mickie Most, who issued hits from The Animals, Herman's Hermits, and Hot Chocolate on his RAK Records label, dies of peritoneal mesothelioma at age 64.
May 21, 2003 Ruben Studdard wins Season 2 of American Idol, beating out Clay Aiken.
May 20, 2003 South Carolina's parole board pardons James Brown of all past offenses committed in the state, even the felonies, spurring James to spontaneously sing "God Bless America" at the conclusion of the hearing.
May 20, 2003 Lynyrd Skynyrd release Vicious Cycle, their twelfth studio album. It's the last to feature work by bassist Leon Wilkeson, who passed away during recording. Kid Rock appears on the album in a remake of "Gimme Back My Bullets."
May 19, 2003 JoJo Siwa is born Joelle Siwa in Omaha, Nebraska. After starring in reality dance shows, she launches her music career at 13 and becomes a social media star, huge with tweens and teenagers. In 2024 she moves away from G-rated music with saucier songs for her now-older audience.
May 17, 2003 June Carter Cash's funeral is held in her hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Among the 2000 mourners are Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, The Oak Ridge Boys, Sheryl Crow - and her husband, Johnny Cash.
May 15, 2003 t.A.T.u.'s manager Ivan Shapovalov is arrested for disturbing the peace after staging a video shoot in Moscow's Red Square for the duo's song "Show Me Love." Playing up the act's image as teenage lesbian lovers, Shapovalov had arranged for about 200 young girls to dress like t.A.T.u. and kiss each other, which causes a disturbance. By the end of the year, t.A.T.u. will abandon the ruse and admit that they only acted like lovers for the sake of scandalous publicity.
May 10, 2003 Madonna's album American Life debuts at #1 but far underperforms her previous albums, as fans don't warm up to it (her rap in the title track is a low point). She rebounds with her next one, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
May 2, 2003 Dixie Chicks appear naked on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly, with slogans such "Traitors," "Hero," "Boycott," "Saddam's Angels" and "Proud Americans" printed across their bodies. The slogans represent the mixed reaction Dixie Chicks received following singer Natalie Maines' anti-George W. Bush comments.More
April 30, 2003 1960s soul icon Earl King is buried in his hometown of New Orleans with an authentic jazz funeral. Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton send their condolences.
April 29, 2003 The movie Only The Strong Survive (with many R&B legends, including Jerry Butler) premieres in New York.
April 28, 2003 Apple launches the iTunes store, the first widely successful legal music download app, thanks to the emergence of the iPod, which lets people take their music with them. At first, the service is available only to Mac users, with the music files encoded in Apple's proprietary format (AAC) restricting where they can be played.More
April 27, 2003 Iggy Pop reunites with The Stooges for the first time in 30 years to close out the Coachella festival. In 2010, the Stooges enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
April 24, 2003 The Fox TV network airs the 2-hour special The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See. The show contains footage of Michael Jackson's home movies, and is the superstar's rebuttal to the documentary Living with Michael Jackson, which aired in February on ABC. In that one, Jackson talks about sharing his bed with children.
April 22, 2003 Songwriter Felice Bryant dies of cancer at age 77 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Known for a string of hits with co-writer husband Boudleaux Bryant, including The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bye Bye Love."
April 17, 2003 Blues musician Earl King, composer of the standards "I Hear You Knocking" and "One Night," dies at age 69 of diabetes-related complications.
April 10, 2003 Country singer Noel Fox (of The Oak Ridge Boys) dies at age 63, days after suffering a massive stroke.
April 2, 2003 Soul singer Edwin Starr dies at age 61 of a heart attack while taking a bath at his home near Nottingham, England. Known for his 1970 #1 hit "War," Starr moved from America to England in 1983 and remained a popular performer there until his death.
March 31, 2003 The Roots release Phrenology three years after their highly successful fourth album, Things Fall Apart. An ambitious work that pushes the boundaries of hip-hop, Phrenology also contains a hit: the Cody ChesnuTT collaboration "The Seed (2.0)."
March 30, 2003 Duncan Sheik portrays Bobby Darin and sings "Beyond The Sea" on the "Where The Boys Are" episode of NBC's American Dreams.
March 25, 2003 Linkin Park release Meteora, the follow-up to their smash debut, Hybrid Theory. The nu-metal album features the hit singles "Numb" and "Breaking The Habit."
March 21, 2003 Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry divorces his first wife, model Lucy Helmore, after 21 years, on grounds of adultery.
March 20, 2003 On the day the Iraq war begins, Bruce Springsteen opens his Melbourne, Australia, show with a quiet, acoustic version of his hit "Born In The U.S.A." and follows it, pointedly, with a cover of Edwin Starr's "War."
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