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It’s Friday night in Las Vegas, and Voltaire, the intimate art deco-meets-Studio 54 new performance venue within the Venetian, has transformed into an extremely lit gay club. Beneath countless sparkling disco and glass balls, the crowd of 1,000 dances to the DJ’s mix of a who’s who of dance–pop — Jessie Ware, Spice Girls, ABBA, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s recently revived “Murder on the Dancefloor.” Intermittently, elastic-limbed burlesque artists enter to striptease, dance and execute feats of dazzling flexibility. This is Voltaire’s Belle de Nuit “preshow.” And it’s just the warmup to the main event.
“It’s almost time for Kylie Minooooogue!” the evening’s MC declares. “Yeah, that’s right — Mother is coming!”
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The screams become truly deafening when, roughly 10 minutes later, the curtain opens to reveal the diminutive 55-year-old Australian pop star clad entirely in metallic gold. She launches into “Your Disco Needs You,” a rousing track from her 2000 album, Light Years: “Let’s dance through all our fears, war is over for a bit,” she sings. “The whole world should be moving, do your part, cure a lonely heart!”
For the next 70 minutes, Minogue follows her own command, belting songs from her three decades-and-counting career that have united listeners with their infectious dance-pop melodies and lyrics that, whether ebullient or bittersweet, are always anchored by a deep, sincere sense of joy. She shimmies to her cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “The Loco-Motion,” one of her earliest hits from 1987 (and still her highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 entry, peaking at No. 3); she rises above the stage in a flowing red cape like some disco high priestess to sing her seductive current smash, and her biggest in the United States in more than 20 years, “Padam Padam.” She’s a consummate pop diva, stomping down the stage’s catwalk and striking poses — until each song ends. Then, she simply becomes Kylie: giggling, kicking up her stiletto heels in a happy dance and, at one point, speaking into her water bottle when she mistakes it for a microphone.
These two sides of Minogue — the glamorous, charismatic performer who has somehow also remained deeply relatable — have helped her to maintain a remarkably consistent yet organically evolving career amid the shifting waters of the music industry. “A feeling you get from Kylie’s music is that from an artistic point of view, she enjoys her place in pop culture. She doesn’t challenge it or try to run away from it — she looks to innovate herself and develop within that space,” says Stuart Price, the British electronic music producer who executive-produced Minogue’s pivotal 2010 album, Aphrodite. “And it’s infectious to see someone enjoying being themselves. There’s an openness there that creates a connection between Kylie and her fans.”
Richard Wilbraham dress, Magda Butrym jacket, Saint Laurent boots and David Yurman jewelry.
Austin Hargrave
Much of that core fan base feels connected to Minogue because they actually grew up with her. They met her as the feisty teenager Charlene on Australian soap opera Neighbours; followed her first era of pop stardom in the late ’80s as one of the flagship teen idols from the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) “hit factory” that also produced Rick Astley and Bananarama; watched her break out of that mold in the ’90s on British label Deconstruction, exploring more experimental dance-pop on 1997’s Impossible Princess; and embraced her evolution into global star in the 2000s, especially in the United States, with the release of 2001’s Fever, her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 (No. 3), which yielded “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” the song with a hypnotic “la-la-la” chorus that was a self-fulfilling prophecy and propelled it to No. 7 on the Hot 100.
Over all those years, Minogue has stayed both impressively prolific and commercially viable. Eleven of her albums — including her last nine studio releases dating back to Fever — reached the Billboard 200, and 10 appeared on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, including Disco, a highlight of the dance-pop renaissance of 2020 that went to No. 1 on the latter. She has notched seven Hot 100 and five Mainstream Top 40 Airplay hits. It helps, of course, that her songs tend to “help people to smile and forget their daily problems for a bit as only a good piece of dance-pop music can do,” as disco legend Gloria Gaynor puts it. (She joined Minogue for “Can’t Stop Writing Songs About You” on an expanded rerelease of Disco.) But her releases also always feel fresh, genuine and intentional. “Every time she delivers an album, to her it’s like the first,” says Jamie Nelson, senior vp of new recordings U.K. at BMG, Minogue’s label, who is also her longtime A&R executive. “There’s nothing lazy or dialed-in about it.”
Minogue has long been considered pop royalty in the United Kingdom (she’s about to receive the BRIT Awards’ Global Icon honor), Europe and Australia, where she’s the highest-selling female solo artist born in the country of all time; still, her U.S. audience has never quite reached that level. But she has remained popular — and at the front of pop culture consciousness — for long enough that while her older fans stateside remain loyal, younger ones continue to discover her. And that happened in a big way last June, when she released one very unusually titled single and experienced the kind of bona fide U.S. breakthrough that few artists manage in their mid-50s.
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“Padam Padam” — an onomatopoeia for the sound of a heartbeat — went viral on TikTok, with everyone from actress Suki Waterhouse to employees of the British art supply chain Hobbycraft making videos with it; to date, videos using “Padam Padam” have been viewed over 1.3 billion times on the platform. Simultaneously, “padam” became part of the pop lexicon, thanks in large part to Minogue’s LGBTQ+ fans who encouraged use of it as a noun, verb, exclamation or really any part of speech that called for it.
The song was such a runaway hit that, Minogue says, BMG delayed releasing Tension’s title track as a second single, “because ‘Padam’ just kept… Padaming.” With that momentum, Tension became her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 since 2010 (peaking at No. 21) and her second Top Dance/Electronic Albums No. 1. “Padam Padam,” which is now her second-most-streamed song in the United States after “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” became her first Mainstream Top 40 Airplay hit since 2004, her highest-peaking (No. 32) since 2003 and just garnered Minogue her second Grammy Award — the inaugural win in the new best pop dance recording category and her first since “Come Into My World” took home best dance recording two decades ago.
Now, with the Tension train still going strong (Xtension, an album of extended dance mixes, arrived in September) and her Vegas residency a coveted ticket, Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Icon is energized and determined to make the most of this moment. “I told someone at my label: It’s happening now. There’s no snoozing,” Minogue says firmly. “I am wildly inspired right now. I’m at a point in my life where I know it’s not eternal. I just want to maximize this brilliant wave. If you’re not out paddling for when that wave comes along, you’ve got no hope.” And, she promises, she paddles — constantly.
The afternoon following the show in late January, Minogue is in her favorite sweats, sipping tea in the empty Voltaire space and looking surprisingly awake. She doesn’t go onstage each night until after 11, and a two-show weekend renders her “kind of the amoeba version of myself,” she admits, crumpling her tiny 5-foot frame up, amoeba-style. “I’ll have a momentary internal dialogue with myself like, ‘OK, try to go a bit cruise control tonight?’ But it doesn’t work.”
Autopilot has never been Minogue’s thing. When she started out with Stock Aitken Waterman, she found the hit factory’s way of doing things a natural fit — “It’s like working on a TV show: ‘Here’s the script, you know what to do, here’s some direction, do it’ ” — but once her four-year contract ended in 1992, “I was gone. I’m a curious person, and I wanted to do more.” She had observed how the trio of songwriters of SAW worked, seen the craft and diligence it took to create “that song” — but becoming one herself? “That took a bit of haggling,” she says. “It wasn’t easy to make that segue.”
Tony Ward Couture dress and David Yurman jewelry.
Austin Hargrave
Thanks to signing with Deconstruction, and particularly her second album with the label, 1997’s Impossible Princess, Minogue escaped the “normalness” of the SAW starlet image, Price recalls, and public perception of her started to shift to “Kylie the Artist.” When he met her around 2009 — a match made by her label at the time, Parlophone, where she had moved in 1999 — Price saw up close one way in which her soap opera training had benefited that artistry.
“She was able to so consistently deliver great performance after great performance,” he recalls — a skill, Minogue matter-of-factly told him, she supposed might come from the days when she would drive to set with a script she had just received and memorize her lines at traffic lights. “Her memory and recall is incredible, and it was the same when we were writing things together,” Price continues. “If she came up with a melody, it was just there — we could go eat a meal, then she’d bring it straight back up.”
“There’s probably a misconception out there that she’s not a traditional songwriter, but she’s phenomenal,” BMG’s Nelson says. “She’s got a belief that the song is God. She’ll really scrutinize her own music in comparison to outside songs, and anything that’s not up to scratch will get dismissed.” Minogue’s collaborators describe her as a fount of fully formed ideas. “The last three albums I’ve done with her, she has been coming up with whole ideas on her phone,” says Richard “Biff” Stannard, who co-wrote the 2002 hit “Love at First Sight” and, more recently, seven Tension tracks with Minogue. “She’s really confident to say, ‘I’ve got this melody that’s bugging me, I’ve got to get it out.’ It’s proper songwriter stuff.”
Oscar de la Renta dress and David Yurman jewelry.
Austin Hargrave
That said, Minogue has never been precious about accepting material from other writers — “Padam Padam” was co-written by Norwegian singer-songwriter Ina Wroldsen and producer Lostboy — and she relishes figuring out not just whether a song presented to her is a likely hit, but a hit for her. “Songs like ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ and ‘Padam,’ I can’t reply fast enough,” she says. “Not only is it an amazing song, but it and me… it’s like, ‘I can do this!’ If someone else performed ‘Padam’ it could’ve been great, but it would have been different.” Lately, she has been spending time in Los Angeles (her home base is Melbourne), working with two entirely new collaborators she won’t reveal quite yet, other than to say she has long wanted to work with them. “I was on cloud nine for like the next couple of days” after their most recent sessions, she says, grinning.
But since 2020, Minogue has also become a lot more independent in the studio: By necessity, amid pandemic isolation, she taught herself Logic and other essential tools of production. “It’s so liberating,” she says. “I’ve had a lot of uncomfortable moments [in the studio]. No one would have known because I just pretended my way through it. But to have my own mic and do it on my own time? It’s amazing. I could go for hours.”
Minogue’s manager, Polly Bhowmik of A&P Artist Management, says Minogue’s infatuation with studio tech has gone so far that “there is now very much ‘studio engineer Kylie’ as well as artist Kylie.” (Minogue has vocal engineering credits on much of Disco and Tension.) At Stannard’s suggestion, I ask about her personal mic collection (“She’s really geeky about microphones now”), and she quivers with excitement describing her current favorite. “It’s a Telefunken 251, and it’s beautiful,” she gushes. “It’s more to carry, but it’s like graduating to the big leagues.”
Her new studio skill set has been both empowering and freeing (she can now record herself and work on music from her Vegas hotel room, for instance), as well as impressive to her collaborators. “She’s actually useful in the studio!” exclaims singer-songwriter Sia, who co-executive-produced Minogue’s 2014 album, Kiss Me Once, and just released the duet bop “Dance Alone” with her. “She’s actually good at her job. And I would say she’s one of the most prolific idea generators of all the artists I’ve worked with.”
Richard Wilbraham dress, Magda Butrym jacket, Saint Laurent boots and David Yurman jewelry.
Austin Hargrave
It has also helped her to achieve more vocal precision. “She’s very forensic about getting her vocals exactly how she’s happy with, and this has given her that ability,” Stannard says. On Tension, the strikingly wide range of Minogue’s voice — she goes from a sultry purr to full belt to stratospheric whistle tones, and at one point even raps — is on full display. The confidence she now has in her voice took time, Minogue says, and voice lessons starting in 2001 taught her techniques that have helped her preserve and develop it.
“Maturing as a person and my voice maturing too, add to that these past two years of self-recording — [my process] is becoming more vacuum-sealed, and that’s so pleasing to me,” Minogue says. “And to accept that I don’t have that big voice, but being proud I have my voice, and really owning that? That has again taken a long time. But I can adapt and be many voices, just like my [visual] presentation. I’m chameleon-like,” she concludes, satisfied. “That is who I am.”
The morning after her “Padam Padam” Grammy win in early February, Minogue still seems to be wrapping her head around what happened.
“I don’t think I’ve touched down yet,” she admits over the phone. She wore a bright “Padam red” gown; she marveled at Miley Cyrus’ hair (“Amazing. She absolutely smashed it”); she sat with Karol G at the ceremony (“I don’t assume anyone knows who I am, but she’d been on my radar for the last year”); she finally met fellow Aussie Troye Sivan. She was embraced by fans new and old, including Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa, who invited Minogue to appear in her Studio 2054 pandemic-time livestream and, shortly after, featured on a remix of Minogue’s Disco track “Real Groove.”
As for the award itself: “It’s a big win for longevity — let’s put it that way,” Minogue says. It’s also concrete proof to both Minogue and her team that she has, as Sia puts it, “broken her glass ceiling” in the United States. “I’ve had this kind of to-and-fro thing with America,” Minogue reflects. “I was the ‘Loco-Motion’ girl for a long time, then I was the ‘la-la-la’ girl, and I guess I’m ‘Padam’ now. But now that we’ve got streaming, the algorithms will take you to discover more of my music.”
Kylie Minogue photographed on January 27, 2024 at Voltaire in Las Vegas. Tony Ward Couture dress, Christian Louboutin shoes and David Yurman jewelry.
Austin Hargrave
Nelson says BMG has seen “an uplift on the catalog” since the Vegas residency began in November (it runs through early May), but is careful to note that it’s the culmination of a gradual increase in listenership — beyond the devoted core fan base that already buys multiple vinyl and cassette versions of Minogue’s records — over the past few years. “We are firmly seeing a new audience embracing Kylie,” Bhowmik says, pointing out that 60% of “Padam Padam” and Tension streams have come from listeners under 35 and that her audience on TikTok has grown 43% since the song’s release.
And that expanded audience includes the U.S. market, where Minogue hasn’t done a major tour since 2011’s spectacular Aphrodite trek. Considering the momentum behind her now and the fact that the pandemic prevented her from touring Disco, the time seems ripe for a major Minogue tour hitting America — and indeed, UTA just signed her for representation in the United States and Canada. Bhowmik says that with “more opportunities and accolades than ever before,” there are plans for her to perform across the United States and internationally “in the not-too-distant future.”
It’s a rebirth for Minogue — but really just the latest of many she has had throughout her career. “It’s a continuation, not a comeback,” Price says. “Everything from [Tension], it’s just a short steppingstone away from every other hit she has had. They all sound like innovative pop records made in the year they were released that are ahead of their time. And what they all have in common is that Kylie fever.”
That ineffable Kylie essence is always present regardless of whether Minogue wrote on a song or not. It’s the fizzy effervescence that makes “Love at First Sight” a euphoric dance party starter. It’s the very adult, subtle magnetism that makes songs like “Hands” and “Tension” sexy rather than ridiculous. And above all, it’s the true joy — the kind that’s all the more meaningful because you’ve known sadness, too — that suffuses every moment of anthems like Aphrodite’s “All the Lovers,” Disco’s “Say Something” or Tension’s “Hold On to Now.”
“Joy can come from a dark place,” Minogue says. “But if someone’s able to feel that joy and they might not have felt it this morning? It’s a moment of release. I want the audience to feel…” She searches for the right word, waving her hands excitedly, and then just exclaims: “Feel! I’m a conduit for all the emotions.”
This story will appear in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Hi, everybody. My name is Karol G. I am from Medellín, Colombia. This is my first time at the Grammys, and this is my first time holding my own Grammy.”
To her tens of millions of fans and followers (68.2 million on Instagram alone) watching February’s Grammys telecast, that humble introduction from the winner of this year’s award for best música urbana album wasn’t surprising — Karol G’s openness and honesty, along with the personal nature of her music, are a big part of what has endeared her to so many. Still, the award felt a bit superfluous.
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At 33, Karol G just wrapped an extraordinary year in which she became the first woman (and second artist ever) to top the Billboard 200 with an all-Spanish-language album (Mañana Será Bonito, for which she won that Grammy); the top female Latin artist on Billboard’s year-end charts (behind only Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma); and the winner of album of the year at November’s Latin Grammys, as well as urban album of the year — the first woman to win the latter.
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Karol is also the first Latina (and still one of only a few women) to headline a global stadium tour and the highest-grossing Latin touring artist of 2023 by far: According to Billboard Boxscore, she grossed $155.3 million and sold 925,000 tickets from 20 shows, placing at No. 11 on Billboard’s all-genre year-end Top Tours chart. The only women who fared better on the list were Beyoncé and P!nk, who played 55 and 37 shows, respectively. (Taylor Swift did not report her 2023 touring numbers.)
And yet the artist born Carolina Giraldo still feels she has something to prove. “I’m certain many people still don’t know me and don’t know what I’ve done,” she says. So at the Grammys, “I wanted to make it clear, because I have so many projects planned, that I want them to know I’m working to accomplish far bigger things.”
And as Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Woman of the Year — the first artist who records only in Spanish to receive the honor — Karol says she’s even more motivated to maintain her stunning upward trajectory. “It’s so meaningful and inspiring to get an award that’s not only ‘woman of this or that category’ but ‘Woman of the Year.’ I feel a huge responsibility to make the year on par with the title,” she says. (Karol’s sister Jessica Giraldo, an attorney who co-manages her with Noah Assad and Raymond Acosta of Habibi Entertainment, is on Billboard’s Women in Music executive list this year.)
Karol’s journey to the top of the charts has been slow and steady over the past decade. But in 2022, it accelerated (and went beyond language barriers) with her $trip Love U.S. arena tour, which grossed $72.2 million and sold 424,000 tickets. That helped send Mañana Será Bonito to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 in February 2023, which, in turn, led to her first stadium tour and the release of a second album, Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season), which debuted at No. 3 in August.
Since the very beginning of 2024, Karol says she has “literally made music every day,” working with collaborators including longtime go-to producer Ovy on the Drums, who often meets up with her on the road and will be traveling with her during the Latin American leg of her tour. That kicked off Feb. 8 with the first of three sold-out dates at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca (80,000 seats per night, according to promoter OCESA). Karol will play 24 stadium dates in Latin America (most were already sold out at press time) before moving on to 16 arenas and stadiums in Europe, including three dates at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid.
“The fact that she headlined predominantly theaters in 2021, then arenas in 2022, then jumped to stadiums in 2023 is unprecedented for any genre,” Jbeau Lewis, Karol’s touring agent and partner at UTA, told Billboard last year. “It’s easy to talk about Karol as a leader in Latin music, but based on the success she has had, especially this year, she should be spoken about in the same breath as Taylor or Beyoncé.”
Balenciaga jacket, Intimissimi underwear, Replika Vintage shoes.
Vijat Mohindra
Karol is acutely aware that as her global audience grows, the stakes for what she does next keep rising. “I started this year with a completely different mindset,” she says. “Although this may sound like a beauty queen reply, the place I’m at right now is one of huge responsibility, and it demands that I’m very aware of what surrounds me so I don’t make missteps.”
To prepare, she took some time off over the winter holidays — an effort toward “working enormously on my mental state, black belt level,” she says with a laugh. “I’m very clear about my plans, my vision of the future and the order in which I want to release [music] and express myself.”
For a Colombian who grew up in Medellín in the aftermath of cartel leader Pablo Escobar’s death, when the country was consumed by drug warfare, that sense of responsibility is especially personal and profound. “My father always told us: ‘We have an obligation to give back — not what’s left over but what’s right,’ ” she says. That idea inspired her in 2021 to launch the Con Cora foundation, which supports women in vulnerable situations through actions in education and the arts.
“When I take the stage in a stadium, one of the reasons I cry is because I know one day this will all be over; I’ll be home remembering the time I was No. 1,” she says. “That’s life. But what I will have is a school I built, or a project we launched [through the foundation]. Today, and in 10 years and in 50 years, lives will change thanks to something we built.”
In the meantime, even as she tours, Karol is putting out singles and remains “very open to experimenting with new sounds,” as is clear on “Contigo,” her recently released song with Tiësto. “I’m feeling very proud because I’m working. I’m really rising to the challenge, and I have to push forward, push forward,” she says. “I may be a very important Latin artist, but I still have the whole world ahead of me.”
This story will appear in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Singer-songwriter Maren Morris is among the 2024 Billboard Women in Music honorees, where she will be honored with the Visionary award.
Billboard takes a deep dive into Morris’ crossover chart successes that have make her a force on both the country and all-genre charts. Since her debut with “My Church” in 2016, Morris has fashioned a mesh of country, pop and R&B that has resonated with fans and propelled her to seeing 12 songs cross over onto the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, including a top five hit with her 2018 track “The Middle” with Zedd and Grey.
Meanwhile, she’s earned top milestones on the Hot Country Songs chart, too. Morris’s 2020 hit “The Bones” spent 19 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart, making it the second-longest running No. 1 on the chart by an unaccompanied solo woman in history. It also peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100.
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She’s also earned four No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, including “I Could Use a Love Song” and the Thomas Rhett duet “Craving You,” “Girl” and “The Bones.”
Her 2016 album Hero and 2019 album GIRL topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and her 2022 album Humble Quest debuted at No. 2 on the tally. GIRL also picked up the Country Music Association’s album of the year honor in 2019.
The 2024 Billboard Women in Music ceremony will be held March 6 at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, and will celebrate women who are making an impact across the music industry.
Other honorees include Billboard‘s Woman of the Year honoree Karol G, Hitmaker award honoree Ice Spice, Icon honoree Kylie Minogue, Powerhouse award winner Charli XCX, Impact honoree Young Miko, Rising Star honoree Victoria Monét, Group of the Year NewJeans, Breakthrough winner TEMS and the recipient of the new Global Force award, Luísa Sonza. The evening will be hosted by actor-producer Tracee Ellis Ross.
Billboard revealed the full slate of its 2024 Women in Music honorees, across the spectrum of music industry sectors, from record labels to publishing to touring on Feb. 29.
The 2024 MTV European Music Awards will return to the U.K. for the first time in seven years in the fall when the show touches down at the country’s newest venue on Nov. 10. The 30th anniversary edition of the EMAs will take place at Manchester’s brand-new Co-op Live — which will be the U.K.’s largest indoor arena when it opens in April — also marking the event’s first visit to that city.
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The show will be broadcast from the 23,500-capacity multi-purpose arena to more than 150 countries and air in a number of territories on Pluto TV and on-demand on Paramount+. “The MTV EMAs is one of the biggest global music celebrations, bringing together local and international artists to create iconic performances for fans around the world,” said Bruce Gillmer, president of music, music talent, programming & events, paramount, and chief content officer, music, Paramount+ in a statement. “With music at the very heart of Manchester’s rich creative heritage, this vibrant city – with the state-of-the-art Co-op Live – will guarantee a supercharged 2024 show.”
The northern English town that birthed such music legends as the Smiths, the Stone Roses, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, the Chemical Brothers and the Verve, among many others, is the perfect choice for this year’s event according to Manchester City Council leader Councillor Bev Craig.
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“As a city that is known the world over for our legendary music scene, MTV could not have picked a better place for this year’s EMAs,” Craig said in a statement. “With the expertise, experience and reputation we also have for delivering successful, world-class events, we’re confident Manchester will provide a superb platform for the best MTV EMAs yet, and look forward to welcoming MTV and the global music community to our city for what is set to be an epic celebration of music and artists. Manchester meets MTV – we can’t wait!”
At press time a host and musical lineup for the show had not yet been announced.
Last year’s EMAs were called off just two weeks before the show was set to take place in Paris due to what MTV called the “volatility of world events” in the wake of the brutal surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israel and the subsequent war. The network later released a list of winners on the planned show date, with Taylor Swift taking home three awards and Nicki Minaj, Måneskin and BTS’ Jung Kook all doubling-up on honors.
All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best original song will be performed live at the 2024 Oscars on March 10. Billie Eilish and Finneas will deliver “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, which is widely expected to win the award. This will mark the third time in five years that the brother-and-sister pair have performed on the Oscars. They performed “Yesterday” as the In Memoriam song on the 2020 Oscars and their nominated “No Time to Die” on the 2022 ceremony. It went on to win the award.
Becky G will perform “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, but won’t be joined by the song’s writer Diane Warren, who has accompanied the singer on two other of her other recent nominated songs, joining Laura Pausini on “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead and Sofia Carson on “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman.
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Mark Ronson will join Ryan Gosling to perform “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, which Ronson co-wrote with Andrew Wyatt. Ronson and Wyatt won five years ago for co-writing “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, but the song was performed by the film’s stars, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
Jon Batiste will perform “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.
Scott George and the Osage Singers will perform “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon, which George wrote.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner for the 2024 Oscars. Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan are also executive producers.
Rob Paine returns as co-executive producer, and Taryn Hurd returns as talent producer. Producers Sarah Levine Hall, Erin Irwin and Jennifer Sharron, music director Rickey Minor and lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz also rejoin the team.
The show’s production team also includes director Hamish Hamilton and production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley.
Artists from across the musical spectrum will perform in honor of Elton John and Bernie Taupin as they receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song on Wednesday, March 20. The lineup will include 2020 Gershwin Prize honoree Garth Brooks, plus Brandi Carlile, Annie Lennox, Metallica, 2024 Billboard Women in Music Visionary honoree […]
The producers of the 1984 Grammys knew they needed to book a performance by Michael Jackson, who in 1983-84 was hotter than anyone had been in pop music since The Beatles in 1964-65. The need was made even clearer when the Grammy nominations were announced in early January, and Jackson set a new record with 12 nods.
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There was just one problem: Jackson didn’t want to do it. As Ken Ehrlich, who was producing the show for the fifth year (of a remarkable 40-year run) put it in his 2007 book At the Grammys!, “Even after his record nominations, Michael hadn’t said yes to performing, and without him, it could be wildly embarrassing.”
In an attempt to stave off that embarrassment, Jackson’s manager arranged what Ehrlich called “a very quiet, discreet meeting at his home for us to talk about what we wanted to do. We sat, Michael barely talking, and when he did, directing his words to the manager, and I knew that we were up against it. No matter where we went, it wasn’t going to be satisfactory. I left very discouraged.”
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Ehrlich had allies who were trying to convince Jackson to do it. As Ehrlich wrote: “The people at Epic Records, Michael’s label, wanted him to perform. His father wanted him to perform. [His sister] Janet, with whom I was then working at [the TV series] Fame, talked to him about performing. But no matter what kind of pressure was applied, there was no budging Michael. He wasn’t going to do it. … Even Quincy Jones, a great friend of the Grammys, was unable to sway him, and we went into the Grammy show Michael-less.”
John Denver hosted the show that year, promising “a show so hot it’s going to pop if we don’t get right into it.” I was at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles that year covering the show for Billboard and remember it as a lively and entertaining show. A Jackson performance would have lifted the show even higher, but it did phenomenally well as it was. The show was seen by more than 51.67 million viewers – an all-time record for the Grammys that is unlikely to ever be broken.
Why was Jackson so resistant to performing on what was clearly shaping up to be his big night?
For one thing, he probably knew he didn’t need to perform to dominate the night. So, why take the risks that are in inherent in a live TV performance? (Taylor Swift may have made the same calculation when she declined to perform on this year’s ceremony.)
Also, Jackson may have been spooked by a widely reported accident that happened when he was filming a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine on Jan. 27. During a simulated concert, pyrotechnics accidentally set Jackson’s hair on fire, causing second-degree burns to his scalp.
In his book, Ehrlich suggested another reason: “And then we discovered that, as with other artists, he had felt mistreated in the past by the Grammy voting process, and this was his way of getting back.”
Jackson had indeed been underrecognized by Grammy voters. The Jackson 5 (and later The Jacksons) never won a Grammy. Jackson had never previously been nominated in a “Big Four” category – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist. Even the blockbuster Off the Wall was passed over for an album of the year nod. Jackson’s only Grammy victory to that point was a 1980 win for best R&B vocal performance, male for “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” So, he had a right to feel he hadn’t gotten his due from the Academy.
Jackson had also opted not to perform at the American Music Awards, which were also held at the Shrine (his home away from home that year) on Jan. 16. In his absence, Barry Manilow performed The J5’s “I’ll Be There.” Jackson had performed on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever special which was taped on March 25, 1983. That was the show where Jackson moonwalked publicly for the first time during “Billie Jean” – a performance that brought him a Primetime Emmy nomination.
Jackson, who was 25 at the time – and as it turned out, halfway through his life – could not have been hotter than he was in 1984. His every move made news. The way it is with Swift now, it was with MJ back then, and he didn’t have a high-profile romance fueling the publicity flames.
Though Jackson didn’t perform on Grammy night, there were many cutaways to him, as he sat in the front row, accompanied by his date for the night, actress Brooke Shields; Emmanuel Lewis, the 12-year-old star of the hit sitcom Webster; and the legendary Jones, who produced Thriller (with Jackson credited as co-producer of three tracks). Lewis’ presence was an unspoken reminder that Jackson had also been a child star, landing his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 at age 11, fronting The Jackson 5.
Jackson dressed regally, as if seeking to live up to his preferred appellation, the King of Pop. (Writing in Rolling Stone decades later, Andy Greene took a less respectful tone, saying he looked like “the captain of the disco navy.”)
Near the top of the show, Denver explained that the big buzzwords of the past year had been “videos, Boy George and Michael…” Denver didn’t even need to finish the sentence. Fans in the audience screamed out the star’s last name.
Jackson won a record eight Grammys in 1984, seven for his work on Thriller and one for narrating a children’s recording, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. That’s one more than Paul Simon had won in 1971, the year of the first live Grammy telecast.
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Jackson won five of the eight awards on the telecast – including two in categories that are rarely presented on-air – producer of the year, non-classical and best recording for children. He and Jones were co-winners in those two categories, and in two other categories that Jackson won on the air that night – album and record of the year. So, the two men, who were 25 years apart in age and looked very much like father and son, made a lot of trips up the stage together.
Without a Jackson performance to trumpet, the producers had to get creative. They booked performances by all five of the nominees for best pop female vocal performance. That smart decision gave the show a thematic element that Jackson was not part of, which helped to broaden the show’s focus. It helped that the nominees in that category that year were exceptionally strong and varied.
Donna Summer had the first performance of the night with her terrific hit “She Works Hard for the Money,” which she performed wearing a pink waitress outfit. (She wore a similar outfit on the album cover and single sleeve.) It was a big production number and got the show off to a rousing start.
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Performances by the other four nominees in the category were sprinkled throughout the show. Bonnie Tyler sang her thundering power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Linda Ronstadt, backed by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, crooned “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” the 1928 Gershwin tune that was a highlight of What’s New, her 1983 hit collection of standards. Sheena Easton sang her trendy “Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair).” Irene Cara performed “Flashdance…What a Feeling,” which was so good you could forgive it for borrowing so heavily from the Summer hit playbook.
Four of these songs had been top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. The exception was Ronstadt’s ballad, which was featured on an album that stunned the industry by spending five weeks at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 over the peak holiday sales period. The award went to Cara, who went on to win an Oscar for best original song on April 9 for co-writing the song.
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In an unfortunate development, the first three winners on the telecast were no-shows, because they were on tour, we were told – Sting for song of the year for “Every Breath You Take” (the only Big Three award Jackson didn’t win); The Police for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for Synchronicity; and Duran Duran for best video album for Duran Duran. (The fact that the latter category was presented on-air was a sign of the times. Two and a half years after MTV’s debut, video was driving the music business.)
Fortunately, Jackson and Jones were in the house to accept the fourth award of the night, producer of the year, non-classical, which was presented by Toto, the previous year’s winners in the category.
Jackson shared the spotlight on his five trips to the podium, calling up his sisters – Janet, then 17; La Toya, 27; and Rebbie, 33, as well as CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff (“the best president of any record company,” Jackson said of the man who strong-armed MTV into adding the “Billie Jean” video). In a poignant moment, Jackson remembered R&B pioneer Jackie Wilson, who had died five weeks earlier at age 49. “Jackie Wilson was a wonderful entertainer. He’s not with us anymore, but Jackie, where you are, I’d like to say I love you and thank you very much.”
The 1984 Grammy telecast was just the second to run three hours. CBS had bumped the Grammys from two to three hours the year before so they could have extra time to mark their 25th anniversary. The show has run three hours (or more) ever since.
The 1984 show marked the first time in 12 years that the Academy presented lifetime achievement awards. They had probably stopped because of severe time constraints on the telecast, but now that they had more airtime to fill, they were able to resume this tradition. The 1984 honorees were rock pioneer Chuck Berry, then 57, and, posthumously, jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker and Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini.
Berry, who had blazed a trail for Jackson and other Black superstars of the modern era, performed his 1955 classic “Maybelline,” after which George Thorogood and Stevie Ray Vaughan performed “Roll Over Beethoven,” before all three teamed for “Let It Rock.” In his performance, Berry did his famous duckwalk. How great would it have been to have the duckwalk and the moonwalk on the same show?
Herbie Hancock performed his instrumental hit “Rockit.” The performance replicated the acclaimed video, which was directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. As Ehrlich recounted in his book: “We located the original robots [that were featured in the video], worked on a system of making them work live (it had taken four days to tape the video) and it was far and away the performance of the show. The crowd loved it.” “Rockit” went on to receive a video of the year nod at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards later that year.
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Wynton Marsalis, 22, performed both jazz and classical numbers, underscoring his versality. He was the first person to perform songs nominated in two different genres on the telecast. Marsalis wound up winning for both best jazz instrumental performance, soloist and best classical performance – instrumental soloist or soloists (with orchestra).
The show cut away twice to London where Boy George of Culture Club and Joan Rivers provided comic relief. In their first segment, they read the rules (an awards-show custom that seems to have fallen by the wayside). Rivers offered a humorous explanation for reading the rules: “Every one of the nominees out there should know why they lost out to Michael Jackson.”
Rivers’ jokes were topical, at least, including a reference to a MJ/Paul McCartney song that had topped the Hot 100 for six weeks in December 1983 and January 1984. “I am thrilled to be on a music show because I know very little about music. I thought the song ‘Say Say Say’ was Mel Tillis trying to do the National Anthem.”
In their second spot, Culture Club was awarded best new artist (over Eurythmics, among others). The presenters were Cyndi Lauper, the previous year’s winner, and Rodney Dangerfield. Boy George’s acceptance speech was an instant classic: “Thank you, America, you’ve got taste, style and you know a good drag queen when you see one.”
Cross-dressing was a recurring theme on the show. Annie Lennox was dressed as Elvis, complete with sideburns, for Eurythmics’ performance of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” which had been a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100.
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Walter Charles, from the company of the Broadway smash La Cage Aux Folles, performed that show’s standout song, “I Am What I Am,” in full cross dress, joined by cast member Jamie Ross. The show’s stars Gene Barry and George Hearn did not make the trip to Los Angeles, a decision they may have regretted when they saw the ratings. La Cage went on to win the Tony for best musical on June 3.
Denver teamed with Floyd the Muppet (Jerry Nelson) of The Muppets to perform “Gone Fishin’” from their album Rocky Mountain Holiday, which was nominated for best recording for children (and lost to you-know-who).
Other performers on the telecast were Big Country (doing their pop/rock hit “In a Big Country”), The Oak Ridge Boys’ (the Hot Country Songs-topping “Love Song”), Phil Driscoll (the classic Christian hymn “Amazing Grace”) and Albertina Walker with the Pentecostal Community Choir (“Spread the Word”).
As is often the case with Grammy telecasts, the show honored the past, while looking to the future. Jones announced that year’s five inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame, including such immortal hits as Glenn Miller & His Orchestra’s “In the Mood” and Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”
The Academy’s then-president Mike Melvoin held up a vinyl LP and then a shiny silver object and announced “This is the new compact disc.” Despite Melvoin’s enthusiastic pitch, CDs didn’t surpass LP sales until 1987 and didn’t surpass cassette tapes to become the top medium for music until 1991. Melvoin also announced a trustees award for the late composer and conductor Béla Bartók.
The show was not glitch-free. As Ehrlich relates in his book, Summer’s limo had stalled blocks away from the Shrine. Summer, who was set to perform the opening number, got out of the limo and hot-footed it to the venue. “She ran into the house, winded, about two minutes before the hard wall rose on the number,” Ehrlich remembered. “But it was a big score.”
Mickey Rooney (another former child star), who co-presented the award for best cast show album, hammed it up to the point that director Walter C. Miller asked Ehrlich “to go out onstage and pull him off, anything we could do to end this embarrassing moment.” In his book Ehrlich wrote, “To this day I can’t tell you whether Mickey was a little hammered or he’s just that way.”
Classical clarinetist Richard Stolzman, who was set to present the classical awards, had been ill-served by the accountants working the show: “He opened the envelope to find it empty, and vamped … until one of the accountants rushed out onstage to give him the right envelope,” Ehrlich remembered.
The glitches and Jackson’s decision not to perform were forgotten when the ratings came in.
Will the Grammys ever reach such a vast audience again? It’s highly unlikely. The only Grammy telecast that got anywhere close to the 51.67 million who tuned in in 1984 was the 2012 telecast, which attracted 39.9 million viewers. There were two main draws that year – a red-hot Adele, who won six awards, and Whitney Houston, who had died the previous afternoon. Viewers wanted to see how the Grammys would handle something they couldn’t possibly have foreseen.
Rewatching the 1984 telecast 40 years later, I was struck by how much the Grammys have changed. Back then, the show still attempted to cover all genres on the telecast, including jazz, classical and gospel. It still attempted to give on-air recognition to the winners of pre-telecast awards, something that became more difficult as the number of categories ballooned. There were 67 categories in 1984. There were 94 this year. And the show was not as fast-paced. Clip packages, showing the nominees in each category, went on much on much longer than they do now.
I was also struck by how many of the night’s biggest stars are no longer with us – Jackson, Denver, Summer and Cara, as well as Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albertina Walker and Walter Charles. I guess 40 years is a long time, though in some ways it seems like yesterday.
So, was Jackson right to decline to perform on the biggest night of his career? That’s impossible to answer, but here’s what Ehrlich wrote in his book, which was published two years before Jackson’s death: “To this day I wonder whether the show that he saw up on the stage that night made him feel as through he had missed the boat by not performing. On the other hand, he was to perform a few years later and give one of his greatest-ever television performances, so perhaps he was right in spurning the 1984 show since the Academy had done the same to him in previous years.”
Indeed, Jackson performed two songs – “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Man in the Mirror” – on the 1988 Grammy telecast, which was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York. His performance that night will always stand as Exhibit A to anyone who wants proof of his artistry and command when he was at the peak of his powers.
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As the five members of NewJeans file gracefully down the stairs at their Billboard photo shoot in Seoul, they greet me with bright smiles and genuine greetings of “Nice to meet you.” Just a few days prior, the exploding K-pop girl group won artist of the year and song of the year at both the Melon Music Awards and MAMA Awards, two of South Korea’s most prestigious music prizes — and just two of the roughly 10 awards shows they attended and performed at in the country this past December and early January. Yet despite the hectic schedule of winter awards season there, they exude warmth and enthusiasm.
That infectious energy has endeared the women of NewJeans — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, who range in age from 16 to 19 — to fans both in South Korea and worldwide. Since debuting in July 2022, NewJeans has swiftly ascended to the top of the K-pop pantheon. Six of its eight released singles have reached No. 1 or No. 2 on South Korea’s dominant streaming measure, the Circle Digital Chart. The act has made inroads on several Billboard charts as well, including three top 10 hits on the Global 200 and four on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, five entries on the Billboard Hot 100 and six top 10s on World Digital Song Sales (the highest-reaching was “Super Shy,” peaking at No. 2 last July). The group’s songs have gained 931.6 million official U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate.
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Along the way, NewJeans has smashed expectations in K-pop, helping lead a new era of female influence in a genre long dominated by male groups. While it was once accepted industry wisdom that only boy bands could build a core fandom and widespread commercial success (selling both albums and concert tickets), NewJeans is part of a girl-group generation that has done both, shifting the paradigm of what achievement entails for young female groups. And NewJeans has done so under the guidance of an equally innovative leader: It’s the first act to debut under ADOR (All Doors One Room), led by founder and CEO Min Hee Jin, the rare woman leading a K-pop label and management company.
About a decade ago — when this writer started working in K-pop as a producer — it sounded very differently. Record labels emphasized melody, dynamic vocal range and cohesive track arrangements, while dance performance was simply considered support for a song. Over time, the music trended toward bombastic anthems well-suited to choreography, and so-called “easy listening” songs (those preferred by the South Korean general public, who of late have not been K-pop’s core audience) tended to get lost. But NewJeans has proved that strong performances and easy listening need not be mutually exclusive. And as Billboard’s Women in Music Group of the Year says in person in Seoul, the act is just getting started.
Danielle
Ssam Kim
Haerin
Ssam Kim
How did it feel to win artist of the year and song of the year at the Melon Music Awards and MAMA Awards?
Hanni: It was really surreal to win such big awards. Honestly, for us, when it comes to these types of awards shows, we are just excited to be there. Just to be invited is an honor. We never expected [to win]. We really are just thankful for everyone who has put in a lot of hard work toward our content and music and all the people that really enjoyed it, so I think it just makes it more fun.
Danielle: I agree with Hanni. There are so many people that put in so much effort and hard work into what we do, and we are just so honored that so many people are enjoying it just as much as we are enjoying it. Sharing that happiness and positive energy through our music is such an honor in itself.
You have a small discography but so many big songs like “Ditto,” which won song of the year at the Melon and MAMA awards. Which did you expect to become as big as they did?
Danielle: When our CEO has a new song and she’s prepared to make a new album, she gets us all in her studio and we listen to all the songs together. I remember the first time we heard the songs for our album Get Up, we were just blown away. Because we truly were just like, “This is so us! This is so NewJeans.” When I first heard “Ditto,” I felt a connection to it — I guess I felt if people hear this, I want them to feel they’re healed in some way. So to know that people out there are receiving somewhat of a positive energy, it’s really amazing. Every time we release new music, we wonder if people are going to enjoy it just as much as we do. To see people out there jamming to our songs, it puts a really big smile on our faces.
Hanni
Ssam Kim
From left: NewJeans’ Minji, Danielle, Haerin, Hanni and Hyein photographed on December 4, 2023 at Seongbuk Songjae in Seoul.
Ssam Kim
Traditionally, men have run the K-pop industry, and ADOR was notably founded by a woman. What was it like training under a CEO who has that shared perspective?
Danielle: I can’t imagine what it would be like if it wasn’t for our CEO, Min Hee Jin. We are so close to her, and we feel such a strong connection to her. After a conversation with her, we’d just be inspired and learn so much. When we go overseas and stuff, she’d take us out shopping and we’d have dinner together, and we’d spend hours and hours laughing and talking about what happened and how we’ve been and telling stories.
Hyein: She is very consistent. She’s always wondering about us and worrying about us. She’s very friendly and reaches out [to us] first, which helps us feel really comfortable around her. She gives us advice like a mother would. She’s not just a great CEO but a great human being in general.
Historically, core fandoms have been harder for women to achieve in K-pop. But in the last few years that has completely changed, and NewJeans is at the forefront of that. Why do you think you’ve been able to capture that?
Minji: It may have to do with the fact that the K-pop market became a lot bigger. That’s one of the reasons why we started with so much attention and love from the general public. We never really set a specific [goal], but rather aimed to put on a performance that we love with songs that we love. I think this probably helped our fans love us from early on.
Haerin: I agree with Minji. I think it’s also because there are so many channels we can use to communicate with our fans and the public.
Hyein
Ssam Kim
Minji
Ssam Kim
I think NewJeans has changed how music sounds in K-pop, with a trend toward returning to easy listening music. Do you agree?
Danielle: Music itself is always changing. But before we debuted, our CEO told us that she wanted to do something new, something fresh and different. But with that, she wanted it to be, no matter who you are, no matter what age or gender, you can listen to it and enjoy it. So I think with that came the easy listening music. We didn’t really think, “Oh, we’re going to change music, that’s crazy.” (All laugh.) We just wanted to try something new and fun.
You’ve accomplished so much in a short time. Where do you want to go from here?
Haerin: I want our songs to move people. My goal is not only to have songs that are emotional but also to share the emotions with people onstage and through our music.
Minji: I have similar thoughts to Haerin, but I want our music to be remembered for a long time. For example, I want people to think of last winter when they hear “Ditto.”
Danielle: Besides music and performing, I just want to become someone who stays true to myself and is always open-hearted and open-minded and modest and tries really hard because there are so many things I want to do and so many places I want to go. I want to experience a lot and learn a lot and just enjoy the time being with the [NewJeans] members.
This story will appear in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
RAYE — who set a new record last month for the most Brit Awards nominations by an artist in any one year — is this year’s recipient of the Brit Award for songwriter of the year. The Brits will be held Saturday at 8.30 p.m. local time at The O2 arena in London. The show will broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX in the U.K. and will stream globally on YouTube.
The winner of the songwriter of the year award, which was introduced in 2022, is determined by a panel of expert judges. The two previous winners are Ed Sheeran and Kid Harpoon, which makes RAYE the first woman to receive the honor. The Brits added this category one year before the Grammys added songwriter of the year, non-classical. To date, no woman has won in that Grammy category.
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RAYE’s “Escapism” (featuring 070 Shake) reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2023 and logged 23 weeks on the chart.
RAYE is set to also perform on this year’s Brits, along with Becky Hill together with Chase & Status, Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Jungle, Kylie Minogue, Rema and Tate McRae. Lipa opened this year’s Grammys on Feb. 4 with a performance of “Training Season” and “Houdini.” The Brits will be hosted by Clara Amfo, Maya Jama and Roman Kemp.
RAYE is the fourth Brits winner to be announced ahead of the show.
Chase & Status are this year’s producer of the year winners. The electronic music duo, consisting of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), is also nominated for group of the year. They have produced not only their own releases, but the works of such other acts as Becky Hill, Paloma Faith, Rihanna, Rita Ora and Tinie Tempah. Chase & Status are the fourth multi-person production team to win producer of the year, following Stock Aitken Waterman (1988); Chris Potter, The Verve & Youth (1998); and Alan Moulder & Flood (2014).
Minogue will be presented with the Brits’ Global Icon award. Taylor Swift won that award three years ago.
The Last Dinner Party are the winners of the Brits Rising Star award.
The Brit Awards 2024 with Mastercard – the show’s official name – will take place Saturday, March 2, broadcast live from 8:30 p.m. local time on ITV1, STV, ITVX and STV Player.
Yinka Bokinni and Jack Saunders will present The Brits’ Red Carpet for ITV2 and The Brits’ Aftershow for ITVX.
Perry Farrell is of two minds regarding the second Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination for Jane’s Addiction.
“I would like the world to view Jane’s in the same light as the greats, but that’s as far as it goes,” he tells Billboard in the midst of the Horns, Thorns en Halos Farewell Tour by Porno For Pyros, his other band with Jane’s drummer Stephen Perkins. “I don’t really get off on trophies. I’ve always kind of felt like I’m on my own island. It’s nice of them to consider me, (but) I’m not so sure I belong there.”
A vanguard of the alternative rock scene, Jane’s Addiction was previously nominated for the Rock Hall in 2017. The on-and-off group’s fourth and most recent studio album, The Great Escape Artist, was released during 2011, and it’s released two live albums since, in 2013 and 2017. A non-album single, “Another Soulmate,” came out in 2013. The group toured during 2022 and 2023 with original bassist Eric Avery back in the lineup but not guitarist Dave Navarro, who was struggling with effects from long COVID. The group has reportedly been in the studio working on new material as well.
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Asked if he wants people to vote for him, Farrell, a co-creator of Lollapalooza, responded, “That’s up to you. If you’re gonna do it, check off Cher’s box, too.” He also voiced support for an eventual induction for the MC5, which has been nominated six times. Jane’s currently ranks 12th in the fan voting for the Rock Hall. Public votes can be cast via vote.rockhall.com.
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Rock Hall concerns are currently taking a back seat while Farrell and Perkins criss-cross the country with Porno For Pyros — including original guitarist Peter DiStefano but with Mike Watt subbing for Martyn LeNoble.
“We are just playing elegant, gnarly, unpredictable punk-jazz,” Farrell says of the shows, which are mixing songs from the band’s two studio albums with the recently released “Agua” and “Little ME” and occasional covers. “We’re getting the job done by spreading a good message. I think we’re getting to spread a message that I think the world sorely needs right now — not tomorrow. When we go out and play Porno, I feel like we’re able to relate and inspire people through music. It’s the nicest experience that can happen to you.”
Farrell adds that despite the tour’s name this may not be the last we see of Porno For Pyros. “It really depends on what goes down,” he says. “If we all enjoy each other’s, not just company but each other’s musicianship, how we are playing on stage…. That’s the most important thing. I see Porno as a project. I have projects that I do in my life. Porno’s a very important one. I would never say never.”