bbnews
Page: 20
At Travis Scott’s Circus Maximus show in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 18, fans were treated to a massive surprise when The Weeknd, who also happened to be in the country, joined him on stage for four of their collaborative tracks.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Scott had teased the surprise during his first Sydney show on Oct. 17, telling the crowd, “I’m gonna see my friend tomorrow morning and see if he can get on the stage. I was trying to get him today.”
He then performed “CIRCUS MAXIMUS,” a track featuring The Weeknd, fueling the excitement for night two.
Trending on Billboard
Both artists also dropped cryptic videos from Sydney’s iconic Luna Park before the performance. The park’s enormous, illuminated face at its entrance bears an uncanny resemblance to the imagery from Scott’s ASTROWORLD—a carnival vibe that’s been a major part of his branding. Fans quickly caught on, adding to the buzz that something big was brewing.
True to his word, The Weeknd made his appearance on stage the following night (Oct. 18), performing alongside the rapper for an assortment of their numerous collaborations together, including, “CIRCUS MAXIMUS,” “Pray 4 Love,” “SKELETONS,” and “WAKE UP.”
The pair’s long-standing collaboration and chemistry were evident as they lit up the stage, much to the crowd’s delight. Scott introduced The Weeknd to the audience as “the greatest of all time.”
“This man right here gave me my first arena tour ever,” Scott told the audience of the Weeknd. “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be on this stage right now.”
Scott’s Circus Maximus Australian and New Zealand tour continues through Oct. 31, with a final show in Auckland, New Zealand. After wrapping up his tour Down Under, Scott and his Cactus Jack crew are set to take over Complexcon in Las Vegas on Nov. 17.
The rapper’s Circus Maximus tour continues to break records, following the global success of Utopia, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart, earning 496,000 album-equivalent units (including 252,000 in pure album sales) in its first week.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd is in Australia for his After Hours Til Dawn tour, with upcoming shows at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Oct. 22 and 23. This marks his first return to Australia since 2017, with fans eagerly awaiting his next album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, which has already teased singles like “Dancing in the Flames” and “Timeless.”
“I feel a strong pull to perform in Australia before moving on to the next chapter and want to make sure you all know I hadn’t forgotten about you,” The Weeknd said in a statement announcing his new Australian tour dates back in August. “When I return now, it will be the right time, and I promise it will be such a special experience. I can’t wait to see you all!”
Mike Dean, Chxrry22 and Sydney’s own Anna Lunoe are currently supporting The Weeknd on the four Australia dates.
Check out The Weeknd’s surprise performance with Travis Scott below.
Toni Cornell, daughter of late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, has publicly condemned TMZ for their coverage of One Direction star Liam Payne’s tragic death.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Payne, just 31, passed away after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 16. The Argentinian prosecutor’s office later confirmed that his death was caused by multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
In a scathing statement shared on her Instagram, Toni called out the website’s widely criticized decision to publish graphic photos of Payne’s hotel room and body following his passing.
Trending on Billboard
In her heartfelt post, Toni Cornell reflected on her own traumatic experience after losing her father in 2017. She noted how TMZ had also published graphic images of her father’s death, which deeply affected her as a 12-year-old.
“Having seen those photos, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience when graphic images of my father’s death were also published by TMZ,” she wrote.
“As a 12-year-old, I stumbled upon those pictures while scrolling through my iPad, and it was indescribably traumatising, and something I still carry with me to this day. TMZ still has not chosen to have the decency, seven years later, to remove those photos from the internet, and it is something I believe should be done.”
Though TMZ eventually removed the images of Payne after backlash, Toni stressed that their actions came far too late.
“While the images of Liam have since been taken down, it means nothing. They should never have been put up in the first place,” she continued. “It breaks my heart to think that his 7-year-old son, Bear, might one day come across them and suffer exactly as I did.”
Cornell, 52, died in May 2017. He was found dead in his Detroit hotel room following a Soundgarden show at the Fox Theatre earlier that night.
Toni isn’t the only one to call out the shocking move. Cheryl Cole, Liam Payne’s former partner and the mother of his son Bear, also slammed media coverage of his death as “abhorrent”.
Cole posted a message to Instagram Friday (Oct. 18) to “kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being.”
“Liam was not only a pop star and celebrity, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend and a father to our 7 year old son,” she wrote, sharing a black-and-white photo of Payne cuddling with a newborn Bear in bed. “A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again.”
“What is troubling my spirit the most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days,” the singer continued. “It is breaking my heart further that I cannot protect him from that in his future.”
Cole concluded, “Please give Liam the little dignity he has left in the wake of his death to rest in some peace at last.”
Cole and Payne dated for about two years before separating in 2018. In March 2017, they welcomed Bear.
The four surviving members of One Direction also issued a joint statement saying they were “completely devastated” by the death of their bandmate.
Colombian superstar J Balvin shined at the 2024 Latin Billboard Music Awards, where he not only delivered an emotional speech upon being honored with the special Spirit of Hope Award — which he got from his colleague and fellow countryman Maluma — but also delivered one of the night’s most spectacular performances with an explosive salsa music finale.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Balvin, recognized for his philanthropic efforts through his Vibra En Alta Foundation, spoke emotionally as he accepted the award, created in honor of the late Selena Quintanilla to highlight stars who have dedicated extraordinary time and efforts to civic, community, and humanitarian purposes beyond their artistic achievements.
“I’ve always liked to help my people quietly, because those are the awards that one carries forever,” he said. “These awards come and go, but the awards of the soul, helping a friend, serving others, those are the ones that are most worthwhile.”
Trending on Billboard
Amid screams from fans, who chanted “Balvin, Balvin!”, he dedicated the award to his life partner, Valentina, his son Río, his friends and his fans for their constant support.
“At the Vibra En Alta Foundation, that’s really what we do, look for ways to help elevate the aspirations and dreams of others, children, single mothers, people who have suffered from abuse — we always want to help them raise their vibes so that they can find their way,” he added. “Now that I am a family man, I am getting involved in a job that is quite complex which is [the fight against] child trafficking. It’s something very few talk about, and I’ve been told to be very careful, but I prefer to die for our children and our families rather than stay silent.”
Balvin, dressed in a two-piece white suit and sneakers, received the trophy from Maluma, whom he mentioned in his recent Billboard cover story as a colleague he turned to for advice during tough times, becoming good friend. “Today we are celebrating an artist who with his music has taken our culture around the world,” said Maluma as he presented the award amid cheers from the audience. “Jose is a great representative not only of our country, Colombia, but of our genre, a man that gives without expecting anything in return.”
J Balvin during the Billboard Latin Music Awards 2024 show at Mediapro Studio on October 17, 2024 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Christopher Polk
Moments ealier, Balvin transported viewers to an Amazon jungle to perform onstage his hit “Cosa de Locos” accompanied by an energetic group of dancers. The song, part of his latest album Rayo, is a fast and forceful reggaeton combined with futuristic synthesizer rhythms, but for the Latin Billboard Music Awards, the star brought a surprising arrangement that ended with a salsa rhythm, igniting the audience at the Mediapro Studio in Miami Beach, Florida.
Balvin also headlined the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week, sitting down on Wednesday (Oct. 16) for a Superstar Q&A in which he reflected on the industry and his career.
With his Spirit of Hope Award, the artist joins a list of previous honorees including Carlos Santana, Carlos Vives, Daddy Yankee, El General, Emmanuel, Gloria Estefan, Juanes, Juan Luis Guerra, Karol G, Los Tigres del Norte, Luis Fonsi, Maná, Marc Anthony, Ricardo Montaner, Ricky Martin, Shakira, Soraya, Olga Tañón, and Willy Chirino.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards 2024 also featured performances by J Balvin, Grupo Niche, Pepe Aguilar, Gloria Trevi, Maria Becerra, Xavi, Chencho Corleone, Prince Royce, Gabito Ballesteros, Proyecto Uno, and more.
To keep up with more performances, special awards, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the awards night, visit Billboard.com.
A post-Bangles (the first time) Susanna Hoffs already had one solo album, When You’re a Boy, behind her and was starting to conceive her second when she got a call from David Baerwald, Dan Schwartz and some of the other musicians involved in Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club — and began a long path to The Lost Record, a collection of those songs and their subsequent recordings that comes out Oct. 18 on Baroque Folks Records.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“They were just reaching out to me; I went to David Kitay’s studio and we kind of created our own version of something along the lines of what they had done with Tuesday Night Music Club,” Hoffs recalls for Billboard via Zoom. “It was, like, meeting together weekly. We would sit around, working on songs. There was one day when Joni Mitchell showed up; I have a recording of David Baerwald, me and Joni singing ‘Love Potion No. 9.’ She really loved that song.”
That’s not one of the 10 tracks on The Lost Record, but it would actually be another few years before Hoffs actually recorded those songs — during 1999, in the garage of her home on Blythe Avenue in west Los Angeles, where she was living with husband Jay Roach and their two young children. “Dan Schwartz reached out to me and said, ‘You want to make some music? Should we continue where we left off from the David Baerwald sessions?’” recalls Hoffs, who had reunited with the Bangles a year prior to record “Get the Girl” for Roach’s film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. She would tour with the group in 2000, but at the time of The Lost Record sessions considered herself in “a non-Bangles chapter.”
Trending on Billboard
“I told Dan, ‘Yeah, but can we do it in my garage. I have a new baby and I’m kind of staying at home right now.’ He said, ‘Yeah,’ and we had all these great people — Jim Keltner, Dan, Brian MacLeod, all these people. It was a true garage band situation, which I loved. The Bangles were formed in the garage of my childhood home, so I’ve had a lifetime of recording in garages.”
The Lost Record hardly sounds slapdash however. The songs — including the psychedelic-flavored “Under a Cloud,” which surfaced the Bangles recorded for its 2011 album Sweetheart of the Sun — is dominated by nuanced singer-songwriter fare such as “I Don’t Know Why,” “Grateful,” “November Rain,” “As It Falls Apart” and “Who Will She Be,” and orchestrated pieces like “I’ll Always Love You (The Anti-Heartbreak Song),” “I Will Take Care of You” and “Life on the Inside,” the latter a co-write with Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go’s.
“I grew up in the Bangles but the Go-Go’s had come before that and they had really inspired me, the idea of an all-girl band,” Hoffs notes. “So to write with Charlotte and Jane was really special. It was just a very creative time. I was reaching out to all the people that I’d known and loved during the ’80s into the ’90s. It was like a friend group, a creative friend group.”
Lyrically, Hoffs acknowledges that The Lost Album‘s songs found her grappling with “this sort of identity crisis. I was a mom and married to a filmmaker and living this so-called grownup-life and finding myself at a crossroads, like, ‘How do I juggle all this stuff?’ and trying to figure out how to ‘Do it all.’” The deceptively uptempo “Living Alone With You” in particular was inspired by how, with Roach’s filmmaking career taking off, the couple “were like ships crossing in the night.”
“It was such a reflective time, a really emotional time,” she remembers. “I think when your emotions are right up at the surface like that it’s a great time to write songs.”
Hoffs does not remember why The Lost Record became, well lost. “I think it became a little bit fraught,” she says. “There was some discourse between some of the personalities, I think, and maybe it was because the Bangles wanted to get back together and I felt that I had to park this, somehow, for the greater good. It was so long ago. It was just, like the stars were not aligning or something, and I had to shelve it.
“But I’ve always loved these sessions. I had such a fondness for the material and for these recordings because they were so honest and sort of basic and stripped down. It was so much the spirit of creativity in that garage. I’m so glad it’s coming out, finally.”
Hoffs is hoping to play some of the songs live; she mentions the possibility of returning to playing regularly at the Largo nightclub, as she’s done in the past. She has other project in motion, too, including a Bangles documentary and second book to follow-up her 2023 novel This Bird Has Flown, which Universal has optioned for a film adaptation. And Hoffs is working on a new album of her own to follow last year’s The Deep End, which she says will combine new songs with re-recordings of Bangles favorites accompanied by New York’s YMusic string ensemble and should be out next year.
“I’m bounding around, doing music and my next book and whatever,” Hoff says. “I live for art, and art and music has always driven me. I think when I put my mind to something and have such a passion for it, I can’t stop myself. I’m so grateful I’ve had that ability in my life.”
Will Shaboozey be able to lock in his 14th week at No. 1? Tetris Kelly:This is the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for the week dated Oct. 19. Back in the top 10 is Benson Boone, “Please Please Please” rises to nine and Teddy is locked at eight. “Taste” is up to No. 7, as […]
Sabrina Carpenter does it again, as Short n’ Sweet holds at No. 1 for the sixth non-consecutive week on Australia’s chart. With that feat, Carpenter breaks the tie with Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft for the album with the longest reign on the ARIA Chart in […]
Nora Fatehi, a multicultural artist fluent in English, Hindi, French, and Moroccan Arabic, discusses her unique blend of music styles and dancing. She recounts her journey from Toronto to Bollywood, her collaboration with Jason Derulo and CK, plans for a 2025 tour and more! Nora Fatehi: Hi, I’m Nora Fatehi, and you’re watching Billboard News. […]
In celebrating the authenticity of all Hispanic and Latina communities, Billboard and Ulta Beauty are highlighting the joy and beauty behind some of their Hispanic and Latina owned and founded brands, including Julissa Prado (Rizos Curls) and Casandra Morales Thurswell (KITSCH). Narrator: Makeup, hair products and more. Ulta Beauty is celebrating Hispanic and Latina owned […]
Billboard takes a trip down memory lane to revisit some of the most memorable moments of previous Latin Music Week highlights. Tetris Kelly: Since 1990, Billboard Latin Music Week has been the key location for all of Latin music’s heavy-hitters to meet, but it’s also where they get to dance and soak in some massive […]
J. Cole just dropped “Port Antonio” where he addresses his role in the Drake and Kendrick beef. Keep watching to see the breakdown of the song. Tetris Kelly: J. Cole dropped a new song on his Instagram titled “Port Antonio,” where he addresses the battle that broke off between the big three. Produced by DZL, […]