Events in Music
- May 7 "Is There Life after High School?" opens at Barrymore Theatre, NYC; runs for 12 performances
Music Premiere
May 9 Arthur Kopit's musical "Nine" premieres in NYC
Radio History
May 10 WABC radio (NYC) plays its last record - John Lennon's "Imagine" - and switches to all-talk format
- May 16 "Barnum" closes at St James Theater NYC after 854 performances
- May 16 "Is There Life After High School?" closes at Barrymore after 12 performances
- May 27 Musical "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?", after successful runs in Chicago and Philadelphia, opens at Alvin Theatre, NYC; runs for 5 performances
- May 29 "I Know What Boys Like" by The Waitresses hits #62
- May 30 Musical "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?", after successful runs in Chicago and Philadelphia, closes at Alvin Theatre, NYC, after 5 performances
- May 31 "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC for 63 performances
Birthdays in Music
- May 1 Ambrose Akinmusire, American avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer (The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint), born in Oakland, California
- May 1 Justė Janulytė, Lithuanian contemporary classical composer (Observation Of Clouds; The Color of Water), born in Vilnius, Lithuania
- May 2 Lorie [Laure Pester], French singer, born in Le Plessis-Bouchard, Île-de-France
- May 4 Hector King, Mexican singer and songwriter, born in Culiacán, Mexico
- May 8 Anthony Roth Costanzo, American operatic countertenor (Akhnaten), actor, and educator, born in Durham, North Carolina
Cory Monteith (1982-2013)
May 11 Canadian actor and singer (Glee; Monte Carlo), born in Calgary, Alberta
- May 13 Drew Holcomb, American singer-songwriter, and bandleader (Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors), born in Memphis, Tennesee
- May 15 Jessica Sutta, American dancer, singer and actress (The Pussycat Dolls)
- May 21 Tay Zonday [Adam Bahner], American singer-songwriter ("Chocolate Rain"), and YouTube personality, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- May 23 Malene Mortensen, Danish jazz and pop singer
- May 23 Tristan Prettyman, American singer-songwriter, born in Del Mar, California
- May 25 Rasheeda [Buckner-Frost], American hiphop singer, born in Decatur, Illinois
- May 29 Joanne Borgella, American plus-sized model and singer, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2014)
Deaths in Music
- May 1 William Primrose, Scottish violist (Method for Violin & Viola), dies at 77
- May 5 Cal Tjader, American Latin jazz musician, dies at 56
- May 11 Piet van Egmond, Dutch organist and conductor (Netherlands Chamber Orchestra), dies at 70
- May 12 Humphrey Searle, British composer and musicologist (Twentieth Century Counterpoint; The Music of Franz Liszt), dies at 66
- May 13 Gara Garayev [Kara Karayev], Soviet-Azerbaijani composer (Seven Beauties), dies at 64
- May 13 Renzo Rossellini, Italian composer, dies at 74
- May 26 Nanny Larsén-Todsen, Swedish opera singer, dies at 97
Country Singers
Jazz Musicians
Opera Singers
Pop Stars
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