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While Dune: Part Two will be arriving in the spring instead of its initially scheduled November 2023 release date, the film is keeping fans on their toes with a brand new trailer released on Tuesday (Dec. 12). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Your blood comes from […]

The Voice sure does know how to go out with a bang! As the reality competition show draws to the close of its 24th season, the Emmy-winning program has announced its star-studded lineup for its finale episode, which is set to air on NBC’s Dec. 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
2024 Grammy nominees Jelly Roll and Tyla are set to take The Voice stage to commemorate the season 24 finale, alongside performances from Earth, Wind & Fire, AJR, Keith Urban and season 25 coaches Dan + Shay. The intergenerational genre-spanning lineup will play a collection of songs that combine major moments in their respective careers, the dominant songs and styles of 2023 and their latest releases.

Jelly Roll, a four-time 2023 Billboard Music Awards finalist, will perform his Grammy-nominated Lainey Wilson-assisted “Save Me,” the second single from his chart-topping album Whitsitt Chapel. Amapiano/Afropop star Tyla will perform “Water,” her breakout single, which recently hit the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 ahead of the release of her forthcoming debut studio album.

Music legends Earth, Wind & Fire will perform a career-spanning medley that previews the band’s upcoming Heart & Soul 2024 Tour, which they are co-headlining with Chicago. Another genre-fusing band, AJR, will perform a medley of its hit single “Bang!” and “Yes I’m a Mess,” which hit No. 28 on Rock Airplay this year.

Keith Urban, a four-time Grammy winner who previously served as a judge on American Idol and a coach on the Australian version of The Voice, will perform “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” his 2016 hit single which ranked at No. 9 on Billboard’s Decade-End U.S. Hot Country Songs (2010-2019). Another superstar country act, Dan + Shay, will grace the stage with a performance of “Bigger Houses,” the title track from their most recent LP.

In addition to these eye-popping guests, The Voice has even more performances in store for the season 24 finale. Season 22 winner Bryce Leatherwood will return to perform “The Finger,” a single from his forthcoming project. Furthermore, this season’s top 12 artists will band together for a special joint performance. In that spirit, this year’s coaching panel — Niall Horan, John Legend, Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani — will join forces for a bubbly rendition of “Let It Snow.”

This season marks the first in which none of the show’s original coaches — Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine and CeeLo Green — from the series’ inaugural season appear on the coaching panel. Shelton departed after last season, which saw One Direction alum Niall Horan emerge victorious.

This week (Dec. 11-12) marks the semifinals for season 24 of The Voice. On Monday (Dec. 11), the remaining contestants each performed a solo song before tackling a few Taylor Swift tunes as trios. The three highlighted T-Swift tracks were “Don’t Blame Me,” “Exile” and “Mean (Taylor’s Version).”

Tune in to NBC on Dec. 19 to see who wins season 24 of The Voice!

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. “It’s been a long time coming,” but Swifties can finally experience the Eras Tour movie at home when it drops onto […]

The Voice paid tribute to Taylor Swift on the Monday (Dec. 11) episode, which saw the remaining contestants teaming up in the live semifinals to perform covers of the pop superstar’s songs for a chance to stay in the competition. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The […]

The Masked Singer season 10 is heating up, and the judges are trying to narrow down on their guesses for the celebrities behind the mask.
The Group C finals are taking place on Wednesday night (Dec. 13), and in an exclusive clip shared to Billboard, the judges panel tries to figure out who the Anteater is. In the one-minute clip, both Robin Thicke and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg agree that the Anteater is a rock legend, but they varied on who exactly he might be.

While Thicke opted to guess Jackson Browne, McCarthy-Wahlberg suggested that maybe the singer behind the mask is Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

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During the Group C finals, the finalists are set to perform songs representing key moment in their life, including “Georgia on my Mind,” “I’m Going Down” and “Johnny B Goode.” Two celebrities will be unmasked leaving only one to move on to the season finale.

So far, the stars eliminated from this season’s competition include Sebastian Bach, Ginuwine, Ashley Parker Angel, Metta Sandiford-Artest, Luann de Lesseps, Tyler Posey, Billie Jean King, Michael Rapaport, Tom Sandoval, Anthony Anderson and Demi Lovato.

In addition to Anteater, the contestants still in the competition include Candelabra, Cow, Donut, Gazelle and Sea Queen.

Catch the full “Soundtrack to My Life” episode of The Masked Singer on Wednesday (Dec. 13) at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Watch the clip of McCarthy-Wahlberg and Thicke putting in their guesses for the Anteater below.

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Nicki Minaj is heading out on world tour in support of her new album, Pink Friday 2. The rap queen will embark on a global jaunt launching at the Rolling Loud festival in Oakland, Calif., on March 1, 2024.

Presale tickets for the Pink Friday 2 World Tour go on sale on Tuesday (Dec. 12). Citi cardmembers will get presale access to tickets starting on Tuesday at 9 a.m. local time until Thursday, Dec. 14 at 9 a.m. local time, per Live Nation.

General onsale starts on Friday, Dec. 15, at 9 a.m. local time.

VIP packages and experiences will be available including premium tickets and access to the Gag City Headquarters — Minaj’s VIP lounge featuring special pop-up activations, exclusive merch and more.

Citi cardmembers get access to presale through the Citi Entertainment program. To purchase presale tickets on Citientertainment.com, navigate to the calendar and click the desired show date. A six-digit code will be required to purchase presale tickets.

The Pink Friday 2 World Tour will cover 30 U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, New Orleans, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, two shows in New York (Barclays and Madison Square Garden) and J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, N.C., on April 7.

After the U.S., the tour will head overseas to the U.K., France, Germany and The Netherlands. Presale tickets for the U.K. and Europe are on sale now, including tickets for shows in Paris, London and Amsterdam. General onsale will be available starting Dec. 15. Tickets are priced at approximately €76.20 but prices may vary depending on the city.

Fans can also check ticket sites such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek and Viagogo for tour tickets as they become available. The cheapest tickets that we’ve seen start at $72.50 at Ticketmaster (presale) and $80-$150 at StubHub and Vivid Seats.

Minaj is also scheduled to perform at the 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball in Atlanta on Dec. 14. Get tickets here.

12/12/2023

Running the gamut of genres, themes and release strategies, LGBTQ+ artists couldn’t be pinned down throughout this chaotic year.

12/12/2023

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Def Leppard won’t be “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” this summer. Instead, they’ve announced another tour with the legendary Journey. The two bands will be putting on a joint tour starting July 6 that will travel across North America — and you won’t want to miss out on scoring cheap tickets.

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The “Love Bites” band may have just wrapped up their joint tour with Motley Crue, but they’re ready to hit the road again with a 23-city trek that’ll have ’80s rock fans excited to sing top hits by them and Journey as well as songs from their 12th studio album, Diamond Star Halos. The tour will begin in St. Louis, Mo., and hit cities including Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and more before wrapping in Denver on Sept. 8.

Def Leppard announced the joint tour on Instagram on Thursday (Dec. 7) with a video montage revealing official openers that include Steve Miller Band, Heart and Cheap Trick, which will vary by city.

“JUST ANNOUNCED!!! Def Leppard and @journeyofficial are teaming up to rock 2024 with @stevemillerband, @heartofficial, and @cheaptrick!” the captions read.

The official fan presale happens on Tuesday (Dec. 12), but Citi cardholders have the opportunity to participate in a member-exclusive presale beginning Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. local time. General tickets will go on sale on Friday (Dec. 15) at 10 a.m. local time through Ticketmaster. Prices for tickets will range from $49 to $549.

If you miss the presale and general onsale, you may be able to score ticket through resale retailers including Vivid Seats, StubHub and Seat Geek. Plus, you can score $10 off a purchase of $250+ on Seat Geek when you use the code BILLBOARD10 (valid on first purchases only).

Google released its list of the biggest trending searches of 2023 and when it comes to music, Jason Aldean‘s controversial “Try That in a Small Town” led the list of search inquiries for songs, with Aldean also hitting No. 1 as the top trending musician.

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In a year when Taylor Swift and Beyoncé were perpetually in the news thanks to their massive tours and the live concert films, the high placement for Aldean was not totally surprising given the weeks of attention he got for “Small Town,” which was  pulled from CMT and labeled by some detractors as being pro-gun, pro-violence and akin to a “modern lynching song” after the release of the track’s video.

The visual found Aldean performing the song in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, the site of the 1927 lynching and hanging of 18-year-old Henry Choate over allegations that he sexually assaulted a white girl, as well as the spot of a 1946 race riot in which two Black men were killed. Aldean rejected detractors’ claims about the song whose video featured images of an American flag burning, protesters clashing with police, looters breaking a display case and thieves robbing a convenience store; the video was later seemingly edited to remove images of a Black Lives Matter protest following the backlash.

Right behind Aldean was buzzy rapper Ice Spice, followed by “Rich Men North of Richmond” country singer Oliver Anthony, Peso Pluma, Joe Jonas, Sam Smith, The 1975’s Matty Healy, Kellie Pickler, Kim Petras and Sexxy Red.

Google’s data shows the top trending searches in the U.S., referring to trending queries as searches that had a major spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2023 versus 2022, which is why despite being a near-ubiquitous search term who has a consistently high search interest, TIME‘s Person of the Year Swift (and Beyoncé) didn’t top the ranking for musicians; click here for Gizmodo‘s explanation.

The year’s most buzzed-about movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer (combined as Barbenheimer by fans) came out on top, followed by the controversial anti-trafficking movie Sound of Freedom and Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Creed III, John Wick: Chapter 4, Five Nights at Freddy’s and Cocaine Bear. The No. 1 trending actor was Jeremy Renner, who suffered serious injuries in a snowplow incident in January.

Jamie Foxx, who was sidelined most of this year after an unexplained “medical complication” in April, was just behind Renner, followed by disgraced That 70’s Show actor Danny Masterson, comedian Matt Rife, Pedro Pascal, Jonathan Majors, Sophie Turner, Russell Brand, Ke Huy Quan and Josh Hutcherson.

The trending people list had Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin at No. 1 following his scary on-field cardiac incident during a Cincinnati Bengals game in January, followed by Renner and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, likely due to his romance with Taylor Swift; Kelce was also among the top five most-searched athletes.

The TV tally featured mostly Netflix projects, including its originals Ginny & Georgia, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Wednesday, That 90’s Show, Kaleidoscope, Beef and The Fall of the House of Usher. Other shows that got in the mix included Daisy Jones & the Six (No. 4) and The Weeknd’s one-and-done HBO series The Idol (No. 9).

Late Friends star Matthew Perry was No. 1 on searches for celebrity deaths, followed by Tina Turner, Jerry Springer, Jimmy Buffett and Sinead O’Connor, with Lisa Marie Presley coming in at No. 8. The news headlines that we searched the most were those related to the war between Israel and Hamas, followed by the sinking of the Titanic tourist submarine, Hurricanes Hilary, Idalia and Lee, as well as a mass shootings in Maine and Nashville, the Maui wildfire, the Idaho college campus murder trail and the Canadian wildfires.

Seeing the list of stars we’ve lost in the calendar year is always a shock. But there’s something comforting about British artist Chris Barker’s annual visual homage to stars who’ve left this mortal coil, which this year includes yet another unfathomable tally of beloved singers, actors, public figures and personalities. 
As always, Barker organizes the faces using the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover as the template, with this year’s model featuring Pogues singer Shane MacGowan front-and-center above the bass drum, flanked by Tina Turner and Sinead O’Connor. Just a few spots down, Tony Bennett smiles next to British guitar great Jeff Beck, with beloved comedian/actor Pee Wee Herman copping a squat in the foreground. 

In a statement to Billboard about his eighth go-round, Barker — who has frequently pledged to make each year his last — says that after cramming all his work into November in the past, this year he began compiling his list in September because he knew this year would be jam-packed with subjects. 

“This is the most overwhelming number of huge significant losses I remember in the eight years doing this since 2016. The front two or three rows are all really recognizable legends. It’s a bit much to be honest,” Barker says of the list that includes the above mentioned, as well as beloved British actor Barry “Dame Edna” Humphries, Raquel Welch, Friends star Matthew Perry, CSNY singer David Crosby, composer Burt Bacharach, De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove and Calypso singer/civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. 

Barker said he was glad that Pogues and Smiths fans were sharing the image of MacGowan and Smiths bassist Andy Rourke. He pointed out some other small touches he was happy to include were late artist Jamie Reid’s Sex Pistols flag under Herman’s feet, replacing the flag more earnestly commemorating  Queen Elizabeth II in last year’s montage. “I also quite like the way I’ve used Steve Mackey from Pulp’s actual cardboard cutout from the Different Class album cover,” he says. 

“I know it’s a very sad topic, it’s a very strange hobby and I really don’t know how I’ve ended up as this weird custodian of international grief, but people do really seem to like it so I’m kind of stuck with it now!” Barker says. 

Among the other faces in the crowd are: actors Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Michael Gambon (Harry Potter), Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Angus Cloud (Euphoria), Suzanne Somers, Richard Belzer, Gina Lollarigida, Jerry Springer and game show host Bob Barker, singers/musicians Sixto Rodriguez, Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Jimmy Buffett, Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra), Tom Verlaine (Television), Robbie Robertson (The Band), Steve Mackey (Pulp), Tim Bachman (BTO), John Gosling (The Kinks), Fred White (EW&F), Lisa Marie Presley, Randy Meisner (Eagles), Anita Pointer (Pointer Sisters), Astrud Gilberto, Dwight Twilley, Van Conner (Screaming Trees), Jane Birkin, The 45 King, Gary Wright, Paul Cattermole (S-Club 7), Gary Young (Pavement), Denny Laine (Wings) and Smash Mouth’s Steve Harwell. 

In keeping with Barker’s comprehensive determination to keep the image as up-to-date as possible, the most recent iteration features two images of Hollywood icons we lost just last week, Love Story star Ryan O’Neal and legendary sitcom producer/writer Norman Lear (Good Times).

Check out the image and the key for the 2023 edition below.