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Dave Grohl made a surprise appearance during weekend two of Coachella 2025.
On Saturday (April 19), the Foo Fighters frontman took the stage with his guitar to join Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for powerful orchestral renditions of Foos songs “The Sky Is a Neighborhood” and “Everlong” at the Outdoor Theatre of the Indio, Calif., music festival.
The occasion marked Grohl’s first time performing Foo Fighters tracks since revealing last fall that he had fathered a child outside his marriage.
“I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness,” the musician shared in a September 2024 Instagram post.
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In the months since, Grohl has returned to the stage for several high-profile appearances, including performances with former Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear — joined by guest vocalists — at the FireAid LA Benefit Concert in January and the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert in February.
Grohl wasn’t the only surprise during Saturday’s star-studded Coachella set. Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba opposite Ariana Grande’s Glinda in the live-action adaptation of the Broadway musical, also appeared to perform what is believed to be “Brick by Brick,” a ballad from her forthcoming sophomore album, I Forgive You, according to Rolling Stone.
Erivo followed up with a soulful rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.” “Hello Coachella, nice to see you. Would you like a little Prince?” she asked the crowd, who erupted in cheers. “OK, Prince for you then.”
Other guest performers included Natasha Bedingfield, who sang her 2004 hit “Unwritten,” as well as Laufey and Argentine duo Paco Amoroso and Ca7riel.
Dudamel and the LA Phil made their Coachella debut during weekend one on April 12, with an eclectic lineup of special guests including Becky G and LL Cool J. This appearance marks a historic moment for the orchestra, as it’s their first time performing at the festival. The 2025–2026 season will also be Dudamel’s final year as music and artistic director of the LA Phil.
Weekend two of Coachella wraps up Sunday with performances by Post Malone, Travis Scott, Megan Thee Stallion, JENNIE, Zedd, Kraftwerk, and more.
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Play Company / 2K
Play Company and 2K are partnering to give NBA 2K players another way to take on each other and back up all the trash-talking using a new dedicated tournament system.
The new, groundbreaking multi-year partnership announced last week allows NBA 2K players to win monetary prizes through online tournaments, giving them the ability to truly put their money where their mouth is, if they are as skilled in NBA 2K as they claim to be.
The new tournament system, called Play NBA 2K, will be integrated within The Play Company’s flagship product, Play OS. The deal also makes Play OS the official tournament platform for the game. It will introduce a dedicated menu button in the NBA 2K25 Play Now section for eligible players, allowing them to learn how to gain access to NBA 2K tournaments.
Through Play NBA 2K, players can participate in free-to-enter tournaments and entry-fee-based tournaments, providing NBA 2K fans with even more opportunities to compete in the basketball video game.
“Unlocking the ability for NBA 2K players to earn real cash prizes through competitive play marks a major milestone for us and the industry. We’re incredibly grateful to the team at 2K for helping make this transformative partnership a reality,” said The Play Company CEO, Brandon Pitts.
“2K’s partnership with The Play Company will further expand the ways that we are trying to build engagement and connect with our players,” said 2 K’s head of lifestyle and content marketing Ronnie “Ronnie 2K” Singh. “For us the deal with The Play Company serves as yet another way to quench the thirst of our competitive 2K community,” Singh said.
The service will go live with Play Now and MyTEAM tournaments. Additional tournament formats will be rolling out in the months ahead. Gamers can join Tournaments by downloading the Play OS mobile app on iOS or visiting this website.
NBA 2K Continues To Find Ways To Keep Players Engaged
NBA 2K remains at the forefront, allowing its players to enhance their gameplay experience and earn money. There the NBA 2K League that partners with the NBA, allowing those who are exceptionally good at the game to make a living playing 2K and be treated like actual athletes and there was the players only tournament that took place during the pandemic featuring some the league’s biggest stars who are also good at NBA 2K.
We are intrigued to see how successful this new partnership will be.
Kendrick Lamar & SZA – who are currently sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the eighth week with their “Luther” collab from the former’s GNX album – kicked off the most anticipated tour of 2025 in Minneapolis on Saturday (April 19) night at the U.S. Bank Stadium. The Grand National Tour’s start saw the […]
The year’s most anticipated tour has arrived. On Saturday (April 19), Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s co-headlining Grand National Tour opened in Minneapolis at the U.S. Bank Stadium. Not every artist has the benefit of kicking off a tour while occupying the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, but the TDE tandem are not […]
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Fans from all around the world can tune in to SweetWater 420 Fest, as part of National Live Music Day, slated for Sunday (April 20).
The musical festival — which features performances by Emily Wolfe, The Ries Brothers, Sierra Hull, Sammy Rae & Friends and Lawrence — livestreams from Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 p.m. PT.
Read on for details on how to stream on Nugs.net.
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Nugs.net accountholders can stream SweetWater 420 Fest for free. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for free. However, the streamer has paid subscription tiers starting at $12.99 per month, or $129.99 per year, for the basic subscription.
The streaming service features hundreds of livestream concerts, a catalog of past shows — including by Bruce Springsteen, Billy Strings, Pearl Jam, Jack White, Phish and other — exclusive bonus interviews, discounts and other benefits. Learn more about Nugs.net here.
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National Live Music Day: SweetWater 420 Fest
Want to attend SweetWater 420 Fest in person? There are still last-minute tickets available via Vivid Seats (get $20 off purchases of $200 and over with code BB30), StubHub and GameTime (score $20 off ticket orders of $150 and over with code SAVE20). Prices vary depending on the city and seats available.
Moreover, you can get $150 off when you spend $500 with promo code BILLBOARD150, or $300 off when you spend $1,000 with promo code BILLBOARD300 at TicketNetwork.com.
Meanwhile, those who want to watch internationally can access the streaming service with a VPN, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
As part of National Live Music Day, SweetWater 420 Fest livestreams from Atlanta with a start time of 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT. You can watch the entire event live for free on Nugs.net.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Lana Del Rey‘s newest release, the lullaby-like “Bluebird” just released on Friday (April 18), is a song that’s been years in the making. The ballad first came to her while she held a little bird in her hands, shaken up after the small creature had crashed into her window.
The singer shared the story behind the delicate “Bluebird” in an impromptu video filmed on her way to rehearsal on Friday.
“I started humming this chorus to myself, with the words and the melody, a long time ago when I had been seeing someone for a very long time — and we hadn’t seen each other for a while, and he called,” Lana said in the clip uploaded on Instagram. “And he asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I was kind of excited, but I didn’t think it was a very good idea.”
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Still, she said yes and began to get ready to meet him. She was startled by what happened next.
“All of a sudden a bird smacked in the double-pane window doors of my bedroom,” Lana recalled.
“I was shocked, and I opened the little door and I saw this little, I think it was a little sparrow, little swallow, right there, and I just was so emotional — because you know when you just know that something is meant for you?” she said. “Like sometimes I feel like nature has its own way of communicating with you, especially in extremely severe situations — not in a sacrificial way, just in a way just for you to know.”
Lana continued, “I just wanted to hold it. I was so hoping that it would be OK. I remember before I could even think, I just sat, knelt there, and I just sang, ‘Little bird, little bird, fly away for both of us.’ I was just kind of tearing up for myself and for the bird.”
As the story goes, the little bird did “eventually kind of stumble away,” and did fly away, according to Lana, who didn’t follow suit; she went on that walk anyway.
“That is not the first time that I have had something happen where a bird has been a little bit of a message for me,” she shared.
On the introspective “Bluebird,” she sings: “For your thoughts are small, they can’t keep you from leavin’/ As the wake of my past crashes in/ I hear the door slam, but the window’s wide open/ We both shouldn’t be dealing with him/ Find a way to fly/ Find a way to fly/ Just shoot for the sun ’til I can finally run/ Find a way to fly.”
“Bluebird” is the second song to be released ahead of her upcoming 10th studio album, the first being “Henry, Come On.” The record, once said to have country roots and called Lasso, and then known as The Right One Will Stay, is presently untitled and without a firm release date. Though it was expected just weeks from now, last week Lana casually broke the news to fans that May is no longer looking likely for the follow-up to 2023’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd: “You know it’s not going to come on time, right?”
She’ll be performing at this year’s Stagecoach, the annual country music festival held in Indio, California, the weekend after Coachella. She’s billed as having “a very special country set” by the fest.
See her talk about the origin of “Bluebird” below.
Megan Thee Stallion‘s “Whenever” is arriving in less than a week. The rapper just announced the new song title, along with its scheduled release date of April 25. The reveal came Saturday (April 19) on Meg’s social media accounts, where she posted movie poster-style art — featuring the promo “It’s whatever b—-, it’s whenever h–!” […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. While raging in the desert at Coachella, Travis Scott just dropped a new WWE collection ahead of WrestleMania 41. Dubbed the […]
Zak Starkey is officially back in The Who.
On Saturday (April 19), the band’s legendary guitarist Pete Townshend took to social media to announce that Starkey — Ringo Starr’s son and the iconic group’s drummer for nearly three decades — had been reinstated after what he described as “communication issues.”
“News Flash! Who Backs Zak! He’s not being asked to step down from The Who,” Townshend wrote on The Who’s Instagram account. “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.”
The announcement comes just days after Starkey addressed rumors of his firing, reportedly sparked by singer Roger Daltrey’s dissatisfaction with Starkey’s performance during a Teenage Cancer Trust benefit show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in late March.
Townshend elaborated on the situation in his post, saying, “Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line up and he has readily agreed. I take responsibility for some of the confusion. Our TCT shows at the Royal Albert Hall were a little tricky for me. I thought that four and a half weeks would be enough time to recover completely from having a complete knee replacement. (Why did I ever think I could land on my knees?) Wrong!”
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He continued, “Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the centre of the stage is always the most difficult to work with. Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologised. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer. We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
Townshend also addressed speculation that Daltrey’s solo drummer, Scott Devours, might replace Starkey in The Who.
“As for Roger, fans can enjoy his forthcoming solo shows with his fabulous drummer, Scott Devours, who it was rumoured might replace Zak in The Who and has always been supportive of the band,” Townshend wrote. “I owe Scott an apology for not crushing that rumour before it spread. He has been hurt by this. I promise to buy him a very long drink and give him a hug.”
Starkey later shared Townshend’s post on his own Instagram, adding, “V grateful to be a part of the who family Thanks Roger and Pete xx. Repost from @officialthewho.”
The Who’s Royal Albert Hall charity shows on March 18 and 20 became a flashpoint after Metro reported that Daltrey grew frustrated during the set and halted several songs, citing issues hearing the band over Starkey’s drumming.
In an April 16 statement to People, Starkey pushed back, expressing surprise that anyone would have a problem with his performance.
“After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night,” the drummer said. “But what can you do?” He also revealed that he had suffered a “serious medical emergency” in January, involving blood clots in his right calf. “This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running,” Starkey noted.
Starkey has been a central figure in The Who’s live lineup since 1996, when he joined the band for their reunion tour, performing their 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia in its entirety.
Lady Gaga didn’t let a technical hiccup put a damper on her Coachella 2025 performance. During her headlining set on the second weekend of the Indio, Calif., festival on Friday (April 18), the 39-year-old pop icon’s microphone began to cut out during just the second song of her set, “Abracadabra.” But ever the professional, Gaga […]
