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Azealia Banks took a break from her usual strategy of issuing pop cultural hot takes on Sunday (March 16) when she took aim at Harry Potter author and anti-trans advocate J.K. Rowling. In a post on X, Banks reshared a post from a user commending Rowling’s against-the-odds rise to fame, listing out the author’s various […]
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Fans from all around the world can to tune-in to the Dropkick Murphys’ annual St. Patrick’s Day concert slated for Monday (March 17).
The concert event livestreams from Citizens House of Blues in Boston at 9 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET on Veeps.
Read on for details on how to stream on Veeps.
How to Watch Dropkick Murphys’ St. Patrick’s Day Concert
Veeps subscribers can stream Dropkick Murphys for $24.99. If you’re not subscribed, you can sign up for at $5.99 per month, or $60 per year. Veeps has a free subscription tier, while you can still purchase access to the livestream feed for the St. Patrick’s Day concert with a free subscription.
Owned by Live Nation Entertainment, Veeps All Access features hundreds of livestream concerts, a catalog of past shows, exclusive bonus interviews, discounts and other benefits. Learn more about Veeps All Access on the Veeps website.
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Dropkick Murphys: St. Patrick’s Day Concert
March 17 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT
Want to attend the Dropkick Murphys concert in person? There are still last-minute tickets available via Vivid Seats (get $20 off purchases of $200 and over with code BB30), StubHub and GameTime (score $20 off ticket orders of $150 and over with code SAVE20). Prices vary depending on the city and seats available.
Moreover, you can save $150 off when you spend $500 with promo code BILLBOARD150, or $300 off when you spend $1,000 with promo code BILLBOARD300 at TicketNetwork.com.
Meanwhile, those who want to watch internationally can access different the streaming service with a VPN, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
The Dropkick Murphys: St. Patrick’s Day Concert livestreams from Citizens House of Blues in Boston with a start time of 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. You can watch the entire event live for $24.99 on Veeps All Access.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Fans of Sadie Sink may know her best as Max Mayfield on Netflix’s Stranger Things or as the female lead in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film, but they will see a completely different side of her as the titular character in O’Dessa, a dystopian rock opera penned by PattiCake$ director Geremy Jasper.
The Searchlight Pictures film, which also stars Regina Hall, Murray Bartlett and Kelvin Harrison Jr., premiered at SXSW on March 8 and is available on Hulu starting Thursday (March 20).
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Jasper’s plot was ambitious in its breadth. “The original inspiration for the film was a sci-fi musical retelling of the Orpheus myth set in a world that combined the Dust Bowl of the ‘30s with a retro, futuristic, psychedelic sci-fi world,” he says.
In the featurette below, premiering exclusively on Billboard, Sink is a traveling troubadour in a wasteland communicating with her music, but runs afoul of a charismatic dictator, Plutonovich, played by Bartlett. Sink, Jasper and the other main actors also talk about the music in the film in the clip.
It was Sink’s performance in 2022’s The Whale that convinced Jasper to cast her. “Like the rest of the world I knew Sadie as Max, but when I saw her in The Whale, I was knocked out and convinced she could carry this film. Boy, did she,” he says.
Jasper, who has helmed such music videos as Selena Gomez & The Scene’s “Love You Like a Love Song” and Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” (2010 version) also directed the film and co-wrote the songs.
Coming from the world of music videos, Jasper says there was a learning curve when he segued into feature films. “The major skill I learned from making Patti was working with actors, which I had very little experience with,” he says. “It’s become my favorite part of the filmmaking process.”
The movie is billed as a rock opera, which Jasper defines as “the fuzzier, looser, dirtier cousin to the normal musical.” Previous rock operas through the decades left their mark on him. “My favorite is Diamond Dogs by David Bowie. He was trying to make that concept album a stage show and was obsessed with doing a film version. O’dessa is extremely influenced by it,” he says. “Also, The Wall by Pink Floyd and Jesus Christ Superstar are all-time classics.”
The cast album for O’Dessa is out now on Hollywood Records. “I couldn’t be more excited for people to hear Sadie sing these songs,” says Jasper.
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YG shut down Rolling Loud with one of the hardest performances of the weekend, mixing West Coast bangers with real talk.
The Compton rapper made a statement early, bringing out a Donald Trump impersonator who started spitting over-the-top MAGA nonsense like, “We’re going to build a beautiful wall, it will be solid gold.” The crowd was half-laughing, half-booing until YG cut the act short. Right in the middle of the fake Trump’s speech, YG kicked him off the stage, and just like that, the energy flipped.
If keeping the same energy was a person, it would DEFINITELY be YG. As soon as the beat for “FDT” (F**k Donald Trump) dropped, the whole place went crazy. Even though the track came out in 2016, it still hits just as hard today, especially with Trump still making noise in politics. Fans were screaming every word, turning the whole set into a protest anthem moment.
YG didn’t just rap, he made a statement, proving he’s still one of the realest in the game when it comes to speaking on real issues. The Bompton rappers set wasn’t just about politics. YG made sure to rep for the West Coast heavy, running through classics from “My Krazy Life” like “BPT”, “Left, Right”, and “My N***a” Keeping it raw, showing love to his day-one fans while keeping the new generation tapped in. He also took time to touch on serious issues like police brutality, keeping that same energy he’s had since day one.
Check out some of the reactions to YG bringing out a Donald Trump look-alike during his Rolling Loud set.
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On Feb. 21, the Hip-Hop world was saddened to learn that the mother of the legendary Notorious B.I.G., Voletta Wallace, had passed away at the age of 78 years old.
Her funeral service was held Wednesday (March 12), at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York City almost 30 years after it held the service to lay her son, Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, to rest. Many of his Hip-Hop peers showed up to bid Ms. Wallace goodbye.
According to Rolling Stone, the guest list to attend the funeral was strict and limited, but quite a few of your favorite music stars from yesteryear made the service. The likes of Ma$e, Lil’ Cease, Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans were in attendance to pay their respects to the woman who birthed the greatest rapper of Hip-Hop’s golden era.
Other notable figures who attended Ms. Wallace’s funeral included Jay-Z’s mother, Gloria Carter, Diddy’s son, Christian Combs, and of course her grandchildren, T’yanna and Christopher Wallace.
It’s pretty cool to see a mini Junior Mafia reunion going all these decades later. Maybe they’ll work on some new music at some point. Just sayin’.
A public viewing was held for Voletta Wallace Tuesday (March 11), and fans were invited to pay their respects. “This will be an opportunity for all of us, together, to acknowledge and pay tribute to the matriarch who built her son’s memory into the legacy that stands today, allowing his iconic music and his legendary style to touch and inspire generations upon generations of music, hip hop and popular culture fans across the globe,” Voletta Wallace’s Instagram post read.
Rest In Power, Queen.
We hope you and your son spend eternity making up for the lost time you were robbed of here on Earth.
P.S. Tell Biggie the rap game is “meh” these days.
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. In 1993, Michael Jordan retired from the NBA for the first time. He traded in the basketball court for the baseball […]
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.
NBA legend, entrepreneur and DJ, Shaquille O’Neal is bringing the party with his new partnership and investment in BeatBox Beverages. The team up includes the launch of a new “shaqalicious” flavor Blueberry Lemonade. The beverage contains 11.1% alcohol-by-volume (ABV), delivering “big, full-court flavor and unforgettable fun.” It is also low in sugar, gluten-free and features resealable, eco-friendly packaging.
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Shaq discovered Beatbox while completing epic side missions as DJ Diesel touring the world and doing over “200 music festivals a year,” he tells Billboard. He described the drink as a “Capris Sun in a box” due to the brands incredibly fun mix of flavors, including orange blast, cherry limeade, peach punch, watermelon lemonade and more.
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“I never tasted anything that good. It was nice. So when I met with the team down in Austin, we had a great conversation and I told them, I would love to partner and help the company grow. I’ve always been about trying to create unforgettable experiences—whether it’s on the court, DJing, or through my business ventures. When I first came across BeatBox, I saw a brand with that same spirit of fun and boldness that’s really taking over the category.”
He continues, “When I partner with with young, new companies, I get in a basketball mode. Of course, we’re going to do business, but I want to help you win championships. I want the top spot. So for me, it’s just helping these guys grow.”
BeatBox is one of the fastest growing ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages on the market and gained national attention in 2014 after a receiving a record-breaking $1 million deal on Shark Tank by Mark Cuban. A decade later, the beverage company is now valued at over $200 million.
“We started this because of our love of going to music festivals,” says Brad Schultz, Co-Founder & CMO at BeatBox. “We thought, if the world could be more like a party and more like a music festival, we’d all be in a much better place.” Regarding the new partnership, he states, “There’s literally nobody more perfect, you know, Mark helping us get the business going, but Shaq is here to really help us take it to another level. From the start, he recognized that BeatBox is more than a drink – it’s a party movement. His passion for music, sports, entertainment and live events make this partnership a perfect fit.”
The new blueberry lemonade flavor and its packaging reflects on the playful nature of both the brand and the former NBA star’s larger-than-life personality. The product features playful doodles of lemons, lightning bolts, blueberries, and a DJ turntable, paying homage to Shaq’s music moniker, DJ Diesel.
BeatBox Blueberry Lemonade Drink
Shaq may be known as the powerhouse center in the NBA, but he’s no stranger to the music industry. He’s released music with many of hip-hop’s greats, including Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious B.I.G. and more. He’s dropped a hilarious Shannon Sharpe diss track and has been DJing the biggest music festivals around the globe since 2015.
He fell in love with festivals after attending one years ago and being exhilarated by the “million freaking people out there, and those people jumping up and down. I got the adrenaline back.” He continues, “I’ve been DJ my whole life, scratching mix and doing a lot. So when I step over into the festival world, I had a choice to make. You want to go mainstream right now, or do you want to start from the bottom like everybody. I’m gonna start from the bottom like everybody else.”
Since then, Shaq has performed at major festivals like Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, Lollapalooza, and Electric Forest, and he also launched his own festival series, Shaq’s Fun House and Shaq’s Bass All-Stars.
“For me, it’s like, if you ever get to this point and people pay to watch you perform, make sure you give them a show. It’s the motto for me. We’re going to party, we’re going to have a good time, we’re going to make sure everyone is safe and everything’s going to be done correctly. It’s like a game seven, and I try to make people smile.”
Shaq’s new Blueberry Lemonade BeatBox flavor is out now and available at Total Wine and other select retailers and grocers. It will be sold in a single 500-ml size, as well as in the new lemonade variety pack with two other new flavors in the Lemonade lime, Watermelon Lemonade and Lemon Squeeze. Shop some fan-favorite flavors below.
BeatBox Blueberry Lemonade Drink
BeatBox Fruit Punch drink
BeatBox Blueberry drink
BeatBox 6 Flavor Variety Pack
With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we’re happy to inform you that you are in luck — because some of your favorite queer artists have some new songs for you to blast all weekend long. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ+ artists.
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From Chappell Roan’s long-awaited return to Lil Nas X’s latest pop-rap jam, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
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Chappell Roan, “The Giver”
Service tops everywhere, you’re welcome. After debuting the track four months ago via a live performance on Saturday Night Live, the fast-rising pop superstar finally delivered fans a studio version of “The Giver,” her cheeky, excellent new country-inspired song. Swapping out her synths for fiddles and banjos, Roan gives her prospective lovers a guided tour of exactly what she could do for them, all while flaunting some of her career-best vocals over the top of a raucous country track. Roan is right about one thing for sure, especially when it putting together A+ songs: she gets the job done.
Lil Nas X, “HOTBOX”
In a particularly wild move, Lil Nas X decided to release not one, not two, but five singles this week, each dropping on a different day. And while there are plenty in that bunch to talk about, none goes quite as hard at “HOTBOX,” the rapper’s bawdy, rambunctious new offering that sees Lil Nas well and truly entering his new era with a splash. Over glittering R&B guitars and a killer beat, Lil Nas raps his way in and out of a romantic situation, all while asserting that he’s still got plenty more to offer his day one fans.
Lucy Dacus, “Talk”
After spending her last few singles sharing all the love, Lucy Dacus is ready to change gears a little bit. “Guess,” the latest track off Dacus’ forthcoming new album Forever Is a Feeling, takes the lyrical gymnastics of songs like “Ankles” and “Best Guess” and turns them into cutting examinations of a relationship hurtling towards its inevitable end. Droning guitar lines and a relentless drum beat slowly ratchets up the tension as Dacus brings this brutal post-mortem to its climax: “Do I make you nervous or bored?” she sings on the chorus. “Or did I drink you to thе last drop?”
Anitta, “Larissa”
Over the course of her career, Brazilian pop superstar Anitta has made it a habit to sing from a bossed-up point of view. Now, on her latest single “Larissa” (direct from her new Netflix documentary), Anitta is exploring what it means to strip that persona away. Gone are the loud, audacious production swings she normally takes, now replaced by simple melodies and a simple drum beat, as she lets her defenses down and sings a fragile, tender love song that is well worth your time.
Royal & the Serpent, “Death Do Us Part”
On her latest single “Death Do Us Part,” Royal & the Serpent is done toying with her sound — she’s found it, and she’s not letting it go. Throughout this ominous track, Ryan Santiago’s voice shrouds itself in multiple layers od distortion as she sings about the kind of love that you hold as tightly as you can, all while the soundscape behind her gradually grows from a simple, acoustic setup to a delirious gltich-rock anthem. “Wherever you take me, I’ll die in your arms,” she sings. “We’ll turn into daises, yeah, we’ll turn into stars.”
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
Vice President JD Vance was greeted with a loud round of boos when attendees spotted him at a performance of Stavinsky’s Petrushka at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night (March 13). Video of the incident appeared to show other attendees expressing their displeasure with the veep as he took a seat in a box next to wife Usha Vance and sipped on a beverage before the start of the performance.
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Seemingly not reacting to the nearly 30 seconds of boo birds, Vance was seen waving and smiling during the VP’s first appearance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since Donald Trump appointed himself chairman of the Kennedy Center and controversially filled its board with MAGAloyalist last month.
According to the New York Times, the concert started nearly 20 minutes late because of added security measures related to the VP’s attendance. The Trump takeover of the Kennedy Center leadership featured a purge of the previously bipartisan board, with appointments that included other Trump loyalists appointees, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Fox News host Laura Ingraham and attorney general Pam Bondi.
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After the Trump purge of the board at the Center, the backlash from performers and former supporters was swift. Among those resigning from the Center were Ben Folds, soprano Renée Fleming and producer Shonda Rhimes, with actress Issa Rae, singers Rhiannon Giddens and Peter Wolf and a production of Hamilton all calling off previously scheduled performances in protest.
J. Geils Band singer Wolf said he’d decided to pull his planned March 21 stop at the Center due to the “egregious firing of staff by the new administration,” while Gidden explained her decision by saying, “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board.”
In addition, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington cancelled a planned Pride Month performance and Philly band Low Cut Connie canceled a booked February show.
Posting about the board putsch on his social media feed last month, Trump promised that the new bookings at the Center would be free of “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” In his first term as president, Trump broke with precedent by not attending the annual Kennedy Center Honors, something all previous presidents had done since the honors program began in 1978, with the exception of a few cases when they were called away by urgent events.
At the time of the board re-shuffle, Trump — who has never attended a show at the Kennedy Center in either one of his terms to date — added, “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
In addition to the board shake-up, like many parts of the government, the Center scrubbed its site of any references to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. To date, nearly two dozen performances have been cancelled or postponed at the Center.
Thursday’s boos were not the first time this week that Vance has faced a hostile audience. While visiting his Cincinnati home last weekend, the Ohio-bred VP was greeted with protesters outside his $1.4 million East Walnut Hills home, where a group of pro-Ukrainian demonstrators waved signs reading “JD Vance: Ukraine’s kids aer way more scared than yours” and “JD Vance: Have you no shame?”
The protest came in the wake of a tense Oval Office meeting last month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Vance berated the wartime Ukrainian leader for what he perceived as a lack of gratitude for U.S. support in the unprovoked war against his country launched by Russia in 2022.
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Ticketmaster is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a rare discount offer to some of the biggest concerts of the year.
For a limited time, music fans can take advantage of Ticketmaster’s 2-for-1 deal to get two tickets for the price of one at participating shows. The promotion includes tickets to artists like Kim Gordon, Halsey, AWOLNATION, Tobe Nwigwe, Lucius, Tennis (with special guest Alice Phoebe Lou) and more. We spotted tickets starting from just $20 with the discount.
It’s not just concerts either — the Ticketmaster St. Patrick’s Day deal includes a buy one, get one free offer for Ricky Gervais’ “Mortality” comedy tour, the “Club Chris Tour” with Chris Olsen and Ryan Trainor, and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Alyssa Edwards’ “Crowned Tour.”
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The best deal is for the upcoming “Outlaw Festival,” featuring Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Billy Strings and others. Taking place May 16 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, this is the 10th annual Outlaw Music Festival Tour, which showcases a rotating lineup of artists spanning country, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, folk and rock. The 2025 Outlaw Festival tickets start from just $59 with the 2-for-1 sale.
There’s no promo code needed to claim the discount but you will need to use this link. The new Ticketmaster offer runs until Wednesday, March 19 at 10 p.m.
Ticketmaster rarely holds sales so this is a promotion you’ll want to take advantage off while it’s still live. Tickets are moving quickly so we recommend adding your preferred seats to your cart before the shows sell out. Live Nation has held a summer concert offer the last two years for $25 all-in tickets, but the company has yet to announce if it’s bringing the promotion back for 2025.
For more ticket deals, check out ShopBillboard’s roundup of best cheap ticketing sites online.