Concerts
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This year, the Fourth of July won’t just feature fireworks — the sky will also be lit up with dozens of music’s biggest stars.
As revealed exclusively to Billboard on Tuesday (June 18), The Kid LAROI, Bebe Rexha, The Killers and more will perform on CNN’s The Fourth in America special, airing at 7 p.m. ET across the network’s channels on July 4. Celebrating the 248th anniversary of the country’s independence, its lineup will also include Goo Goo Dolls, Kane Brown, T-Pain, Bleachers, Keith Urban, Ashanti, Chris Young, Yellowcard, Ben Platt, Boys Like Girls, REO Speedwagon and En Vogue, as well as an ensemble performance by The United States Air Force Band.
Plus, coast-to-coast firework displays will air live from cities across the U.S. throughout the special, including shows held in Boston, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Las Vegas, Nashville, Niagara Falls, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Diego, Seward, Alaska and Washington, D.C. CNN anchors Dana Bash and Boris Sanchez are onboard to serve as the night’s hosts from D.C., alongside correspondents Victor Blackwell and Sara Sidner from San Diego.
The show will follow last year’s special, which was led by Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Post Malone and Demi Lovato. Brad Paisley, Coi Leray, Ludacris, The All-American Rejects, Darius Rucker, Duran Duran, Flo Rida, Leon Bridges, Sheryl Crow, Smash Mouth and The Plain White T’s also rang in the 2023 festivities, which similarly featured live firework shows from around the U.S. and a demonstration from the Air Force Band.
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Hulaween, the four-day music and camping festival renowned for its fusion of jam bands and dance acts, has revealed its 2024 lineup, Billboard can exclusively announce. In its 11th year, the independently operated event returns to Live Oak, Florida, from October 24-27.
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Leading this year’s extensive lineup are: The String Cheese Incident, Black Pumas, Sublime, Chase & Status, Chris Lake, Tash Sultana, Liquid Stranger, Of the Trees, Nora en Pure, Greensky Bluegrass, Tipper and CloZee, among others. The roster also boasts a diverse array of supporting acts such as Cory Wong, LP Giobbi, Cassian, Zingara, and G Jones. Additional performances will include Daily Bread, Lettuce, Zingara, J. Worra, Walker & Royce, and many more.
A highlight of this year’s program is the newly formed The Bobby Weir Incident, featuring Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead/ Dead & Company teaming up with Hulaween’s host band The String Cheese Incident. Scheduled for a three-hour, two-set performance, this first-time collaboration draws inspiration from the recent success of Dead & Co.’s ongoing run of shows at Sphere in Las Vegas.
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This year marks a pivotal one for Hulaween under the new co-ownership of festival magnates and Billboard Latin Power Players, Chris Den Uijl and Aaron Ampudia, with founding partner Michael Berg. Den Uijl and Ampudia, known for co-founding Baja Beach Fest in Rosarito, Mexico, Sueños in Chicago, and Mexico City’s Coca Cola Flow Festival, and more, all under their La Familia franchise, will bring a wealth of experience to Hulaween’s future.
“As a co-founder of the festival, the opportunity to reacquire Hulaween and continue its storied legacy is an incredible full-circle moment after over a decade of commitment and service to the Hulaween journey,” Berg tells Billboard. “Our goal to keep the dream alive is in the greatest possible hands with my friends and partners, Chris and Aaron, alongside the well-curated and longtime all-star team that produces Hulaween.”
With over 90 acts scheduled to perform, this year’s festival is poised to maintain its reputation as “arguably the greatest in the world for multi-genre lineups, experiential art, and a passionate community whose fans live for both,” adds Berg.
The festival’s new ownership trio — Den Uijl, Ampudia and Berg — not only oversee Hulaween but also helm other music events such as North Coast Music Festival and Rose on the River in Chicago.
See the full line-up for Hulaween 2024 below:
The 44th edition of the annual A Capitol Fourth event is returning to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol this Fourth of July, and the star-studded performance lineup was revealed on Tuesday (June 18). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Smokey Robinson, Fantasia, Darren Criss, Sheila […]
Stevie Nicks will no longer play at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday night “due to illness,” according to a statement on the venue’s social media. “Due to illness, the Stevie Nicks concerts on Tuesday, June 18 in Grand Rapids has been postponed to September 24,” the statement reads. “Customers should hold […]
At the intersection of 615 Day 2023 and Juneteenth Weekend lies the inaugural Blavity House Party. Holsted by Blavity Media Group, the new festival took over Nashville, Tennessee, on June 14 and 15, treating locals and travelers alike to two nights of fiery performances in celebration of Juneteenth and Black Music Month.
Hosted by Zack Fox, Bridget Kelly and Mani Millss, Blavity House Party boasted a slew of performers across the myriad genres of the Black diaspora, including Monica, Rick Ross, K. Michelle, Dru Hill, Uncle Waffles, Blxst, Ryan Leslie, Leon Thomas, Big Freedia, Freeway, Lil’ Mo, Travis Porter, Reyna Roberts, Nesta, Domani and more. In addition to the two performance stages (one outside and one inside Music City’s storied Municipal Auditorium), the patio hosted a bevy of local Black-owned businesses for festivalgoers to support.
The festival’s opening day got off to a semi-sanctified start with a rousing performance from Sainted Trap Choir. With a tight choreography and tighter arrangements, the choir ripped through a medley that combined both secular and pop hits, including Travis Porter’s “Make It Rain,” Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama,” Tyla’s “Water” and Kirk Franklin’s “Melodies from Heaven.” Big Freedia kept the energy high with a NOLA-exalting bounce set that featured endless twerking and racy fellatio demonstrations from her backup dancers, while Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Leon Thomas enraptured the audience with his honeyed vocals and impressive guitar skills.
Despite strong performances from day one’s performers, the meager audience turnout was impossible to ignore. As the day went on, the floor started to fill up, with legendary R&B group Dru Hill drawing the most passionate crowd of the night. Celebrating more than 25 years of hits, Sisqó led his fellow group members in impressive renditions of timeless hits like “Tell Me” and “In My Bed,” flaunting the power of their live vocals and pristine harmonies. With their set, Dru Hill was able to capture lightning in a bottle and truly make Blavity House Party feel like a must-see festival. Nonetheless, that energy quickly dissipated as the crowd waited anxiously for Lil Wayne — who was scheduled as the night’s headliner — just for the “A Milli” rapper to ghost the festival, providing no reason for his absence.
In an effort to make up for the last-minute disappointment of day one, Blavity House Party packed on several additional performers for the festival’s second day, including Lil Scrappy, Rick Ross and Tennessee native K. Michelle. Standout performers from day two included outlaw country princess Reyna Roberts — who put on a blazing show to match her red-hot hair — and hip-hop trio Travis Porter, who have provided a timeless soundtrack to Black house parties for nearly 15 years and counting. Lil Scrappy, something of a musical forefather to Travis Porter, also lit up the auditorium with lively performances of ’00s classics such as “Head Bussa” and “Neva Eva.”
Clearly an eleventh-hour addition, K. Michelle breezed through a six-minute set that included renditions of “Can’t Raise a Man” and “V.S.O.P.” Curiously, the chart-topping R&B star did not perform any of her country songs, though she did confirm that her long-awaited country album is still on the way. Headliner Monica took fans down memory lane with a set that spurred mass sing-alongs to some of her most beloved tracks, such as “So Gone” and “Before You Walk Out of My Life.”
Once again, the show threatened to fly off the rails near the end of the night. Rick Ross’ music was shockingly cut short about six songs into his set. After requesting his DJ drop the next track, silence ensued. The DJ continued to press buttons to figure out the situation, but within the next seven minutes, Ricky Rozay had given away a bottle of Belaire champagne, threw on his backpack, and exited the stage for good, making for a sudden and unforgettable end to the inaugural Blavity House Party.
Here are the six best moments from Blavity House Party 2024.
Leon Thomas Mounts Swoonworthy Set
Stevie Nicks had to cancel her concert Saturday night (June 15) at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania, because of “illness in the band,” according to a brief statement shared on the singer’s official social media accounts.
“Regrettably, due to illness in the band, tonight’s performance is being postponed. Please hold on to your tickets. A new date will be announced soon,” said the update, originally posted by the stadium at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The update was later added to Nicks’ stories on Instagram and Facebook, and shared on her page on X (formerly Twitter).
Billboard reached out to Nicks’ representatives for comment on Sunday. At press time, no further details or updates have been provided.
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The rock icon and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac, 76, was expected to take the stage Saturday night at the latest stop on her ongoing Live in Concert Tour across the U.S.
Nicks’ performance was postponed just hours before showtime.
In posts on social media, fans reported the show was canceled around the time doors were set to open, when they were already in line to enter the concert grounds. A video posted by a concertgoer in the comments of the announcement indicated soundcheck happened Saturday afternoon.
As of Sunday (June 16), Nicks’ published schedule has her performing on June 18 in Grand Rapids and June 21 in Chicago. What follows is a short break in her itinerary until July 3, when she’s set to jet to Europe for a gig in Dublin, Ireland. U.K. dates come next (Glasgow, Manchester and London), then stops in Antwerp, Belgium, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Last weekend Billboard saw Nicks and her touring band put on a lively show at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, with a 15-song setlist spanning solo hits and classics from Fleetwood Mac’s discography, complemented with plenty of career anecdotes told between songs. “My stories are starting to become as long as the show,” the star joked during her June 9 performance.
After opening with Bella Donna‘s “Outside the Rain” and playing the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Dreams,” from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Nicks was in good spirits, telling the cheering crowd, “We’re very glad to be here. We got to fly in on a helicopter. It was truly magnificent.”
Taylor Swift was in storytelling mode with two surprise song mashups in Liverpool, England, Saturday night (June 15).
At the third of three shows at the city’s Anfield Stadium, Swift got creative with her acoustic set, weaving together crime mysteries for one mashup, and telling the story of an affair from the Red era with the other.
“This is what it all really comes down to, for me, in the show,” said Swift, strumming her guitar. “It’s just the most amount of, like, ‘Don’t mess this up. Don’t mess this up,’ ’cause it’s also my favorite part of the show.”
“This one, I’m gonna,” she started telling the crowd, but her voice trailed off. After pausing for a few seconds, Swift announced, “I’m gonna call this ‘The Murder Mashup.’”
She gave Liverpool the live debut of “Carolina,” the haunting song she wrote for the soundtrack of the 2022 film adaptation of Delia Owens’ murder mystery Where the Crawdads Sing — playing it alongside parts of Evermore‘s “No Body, No Crime.”
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“Carolina creeks running through my veins/ Lost I was born, lonesome I came/ Lonesome I’ll always stay/ Carolina knows why for years I roam/ Free as these birds, light as whispers/ Carolina knows,” Swift sang, continuing with the film ballad up until “there are places I will never, ever go/ And things that only Carolina will ever know.”
And then, to shrieks from around the stadium, she switched over to “He did it,” bringing “No Body, No Crime” (originally recorded with Haim) into what is now officially known as “The Murder Mashup.”
Following that pairing, the songstress softly begin playing “The Manuscript,” the contemplative closer of her 31-song The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology album, at her piano.
“She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years, everything had been above board,” sang Swift, recalling a “torrid affair” with an older man in her younger years, of which she quietly reflects on in the Tortured Poets track. “She wasn’t sure.”
Swift then connected 2024’s “The Manuscript” to the bridge from 2012’s “Red”: “Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes/ Tell myself it’s time now, gotta let go/ But moving on from him is impossible/ When I still see it all in my head/ In burning red … Loving him was red.”
“The story isn’t mine anymore,” the closing line of “The Manuscript,” ended the piano number.
Watch clips from both of Swift’s surprise song mashups below. Stay up-to-date with her entire list of Eras Tour surprise songs here. The tour resumes in Cardiff on Tuesday, June 18, and then arrives for in London for the weekend on Friday, June 21.
Luke Combs dropped his new album Fathers & Sons on Friday, and that same night — appropriately, on Father’s Day Weekend — he was in front of 70,000-some fans at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to celebrate his love of family… and his love of beer too.
Ahead of performing a string of love songs written about his wife of four years Nicole, Combs said fans often ask him why he records so many romantic ballads.
“I still sing beer-drinking songs too. I still like beer-drinking songs,” Combs said to wild applause. “But I love my wife. I love my kids. And if it wasn’t for her, I’d be about five No. 1s short of where I am right now. So these next couple of songs are about her.” (For the record, Combs has scored 17 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, so apparently he’d be down to a dozen without those love songs.)
Combs dedicated the newest song he performed, “The Man He Sees in Me,” to his two young sons: Tex, who was born on Father’s Day 2022 and turns 2 next week, and 10-month-old Beau. It’s the lead single from his new album, and it captures Combs’ drive to be a great dad while understanding that his kids will grow up and realize he’s not Superman (“One day between him leaving home and driving on my knee/ Maybe I’ll finally be the man he sees in me”). While the song was only released on June 6, he’s been playing it since April on his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour.
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Ahead of the song, he talked about the release of his 12-track new album Fathers & Sons. “Thank you for listening to it,” he humbly told the crowd, wearing a Los Angeles Chargers hat on the home field of both the NFL’s Chargers and Rams. “If you listened to it, thank you. If you haven’t, I hope that you do.”
But just like he said onstage, there was plenty of time for beer-drinking songs too.
The final two tracks before his encore really drove that home, starting with Combs’ 2019 Brooks & Dunn collab “1, 2 Many.” More than halfway through the song, Combs was joined by actor Luke Wilson and Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler to shotgun a beer onstage. (Well, at least one of the Lukes shotgunned a beer; Wilson took a few generous swigs before chucking his Miller Lite can into the crowd.) And next up was arguably Combs’ biggest party-starter of a song: one of those 17 Country Airplay No. 1s, 2019’s “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
Combs returns to SoFi Stadium for night 2 on Saturday (June 15). On Friday, he was joined by The Avett Brothers, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hailey Whitters and The Wilder Blue as opening acts, and he’ll have a full new slate of openers on Saturday night: Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker and Colby Acuff.
Watch the Wilson and Butler moment below, along with a little taste of “1, 2 Many.”
At 76 years old, Stevie Nicks — who breezily brought up her age a few times on stage Sunday night (June 9) — maintains the distinct, strong vocal performance for which she’s become iconic. She carries it through a showtime of about two hours, with a 15-song set and several stories spanning her fascinating journey in rock ‘n’ roll.
Nicks brought her headlining tour to the Mohegan Sun Arena, a well-designed, 10,000-seat venue in southeastern Connecticut that’s within the Mohegan Sun casino/entertainment complex owned by the Mohegan Tribe.
She has plenty to play, and so much to say — and with the life experience she’s had as an entertainer for so many years, rightly so. On Sunday Nicks was a lively conversationalist, letting her sense of humor shine while telling the crowd about her early days with Fleetwood Mac in the 1970s, how her debut solo album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1981, and what’s currently on her mind in 2024.
Who wouldn’t want to hear what Stevie Nicks has to say? This January it’ll be 50 years since the 1975 lineup of Fleetwood Mac (with Nicks) came to be, a musical ride that followed humble beginnings alongside eventual Mac co-star Lindsey Buckingham with the Buckingham Nicks project, and preceded the ascent of her solo career.
Nicks’ concert at Mohegan Sun Arena featured setlist staples like “Dreams,” “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Stand Back,” “Leather and Lace,” “Rhiannon,” “Gypsy” and an encore of “Landslide,” a beautiful tribute to late best friend and bandmate Christine McVie. Mixed in with the chart-toppers were the singer-songwriter’s stories, almost like mini lessons on the history of Nicks’ path.
During a quick restroom break my husband overheard someone making small-talk wisecracks at the urinal: “She talks a lot, huh?” I grew up with a parent who’d listen to Fleetwood Mac albums on repeat. I could listen to her voice telling stories 100 times over and still find it soothing. We didn’t find the bathroom joke funny, but it was amusing timing.
As though she could sense what someone, somewhere, was saying, a charming Nicks was actually on stage poking fun at herself: “I’m trying, I’m making a big effort to shorten down my stories. My stories are starting to become as long as the show,” she quipped at the start of a 13-minute introduction to her performance of 1982 single “Gypsy.”
“Every time I do it, I mess up,” she said. “I take a part off, it’s impossible to understand where I’ve stopped and where I should start up again. I’m only sharing this with you because it’s part of the fun of being my age.”
“I’m so old … What’s everybody gonna say to me? ‘Stop! You can’t do this anymore!’ I’ll say, ‘OK. Fine. I’ll just go home and be alone in a rocking chair with my dog Lily,” Nicks said with a grin.
Below, see five of the best moments from Stevie Nicks’ concert at Mohegan Sun Arena. Nicks is currently on tour through June 21 in North America, then heading to Europe in July. See the full tour date list on her official website.
Stevie Arrives in Style for Her Show
06/10/2024
The weekend was packed with performances of new songs, killer costumes and more.
06/10/2024