WASHINGTON − Musicians are asking on bended knee for AM and FM radio stations to start paying for the rights to play their music. The celebrated ’90s R&B group Boyz II Men were on Capitol Hill Thursday asking Congress to make it happen.
The group, known for their slow jams and heartfelt ballads, met with lawmakers on Valentines Day eve to deliver a letter signed by more than 300 artists calling for swift passage of the American Music Fairness Act. The legislation would require that terrestrial stations not only pay royalties to music publishers and songwriters, as is currently required, but performers as well.
Among the letters’ signers are top music industry names like Céline Dion, James Taylor and Jelly Roll, according to NBC News, as well as Mariah Carey, who collaborated with Boyz II Men on the 1995 single “One Sweet Day.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he “truly enjoyed hosting” Boyz II Men Thursday, posting a photo together with the now-trio.
“Since the band’s formation in 1985, these guys have sold over 60 million albums and created a large part of the soundtrack of our lives,” Johnson said in his post. “Nathan Morris, Wanyá Morris and Shawn Stockman have still got it!”
Morris, Morris (no relation) and Stockman are three of the four original members of the band, formed in the late 1980s by a group of high school friends in Philadelphia. Bass singer Michael McCary left the then-quartet in 2003 due to health issues. He was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
