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Italy has been in the habit of sending male singers to the Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps it is because one of the most successful Eurovision songs of all time is Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu,” also known as “Volare,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958. (More recently, the co-ed, male-fronted rock band Måneskin won Eurovision for Italy in 2021, propelling them to the global stage and Billboard chart success.)
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Angelina Mango is the first female to compete for Italy since Francesca Michielin placed 16th in 2016 with “No Degree of Separation.” Mango has moved up in the bookmakers’ odds this week, with Italy now the third favorite to win the 2024 contest, behind Croatia and Switzerland. Billboard met up with her in Malmö, Sweden, host city to this year’s competition, to talk about her entry, her career and what’s next.
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What is your own personal history with Eurovision?
I always watched Eurovision with my mom when I was a child because she’s a fan. It was really [not my thing], I have to be honest. I’m not talking about taste or music. I’m talking about experience. It was a surprise when I won the Sanremo Festival and understood the possibilities to come here. [The winner of Italy’s annual Sanremo Festival has the option to represent the country at Eurovision.] I’m very young and I just started a music career, so everything is new. I’m trying to learn a lot from everything and everyone, because this is an experience that happens once in your life. I want to live it all and not forget anything.
As a child, do you remember seeing any particular Eurovision songs or artists that stood out for you?
I really loved MARO from Portugal [with “Saudade, Saudade” in 2022]. Obviously, Loreen with “Euphoria.” We would always watch the TV program and talk about music, because I lived in a house of musicians.
Your father Giuseppe, who went by Mango, had a very successful career, releasing over 20 albums in his lifetime.
My mom was also a professional musician and my brother. When I was two years old I learned how to communicate through music. Music is like a language. When I did pre-promotion for my Eurovision song “La Noia,” I heard other people sing it with different accents and it was spectacular for me, because it doesn’t matter which language you are speaking, it’s just energy. Music really unites people everywhere. Eurovision is an opportunity for people to share music. You can do it alone, but I want to share it and learn from others in different countries.
Along with Eurovision, the Sanremo Festival is one of the world’s best-known song competitions. Why did you decide to enter?
In Italy, Sanremo is like Christmas. Everyone waits for Santa. I wrote “La Noia” and then I thought this is a song that has no regrets. I can take it on the stage with everything in me. So it’s perfect for Sanremo, because Sanremo is a celebration of music and a mirror of what has happened with music in Italy. But I honestly didn’t think about winning, so that was a surprise.
The winner of Sanremo has the option to represent Italy in Eurovision. Was that a difficult choice to make?
I didn’t have to think about it a lot. For me, it was obviously a good choice.
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“La Noia” is a great pop song that sounds like a big hit. When did you write your first song?
I was five years old when I wrote my first song from the beginning to the end. The title was “I Fell in Love With Me” and I wrote it about myself, that I could be a woman without a man and without marriage. These were my thoughts at five.
Did you write the words and the music?
Yes, everything.
And you kept writing songs?
Yes. From that moment on, I couldn’t stop.
What inspired “La Noia”?
I wrote “La Noia” in the studio with Madame and Dardust [Dario Faini], a songwriter and a producer that I really love. I decided to talk about my life and my story. For me, it was very important to have a positive message. Dancing with a crown of thorns is something very important because everyone has a crown of thorns, something bad that has happened in your life, but we can always smile and we can always see positive things and this is something that I learned and I want to share with everyone, especially teenagers who listen to my music.
Is there an album on the way with “La Noia” on it?
I’m very proud of my album because I worked on it a lot. The title is Poké Melodrama. It is a reflection of my personality at this moment. It will be out May 31, and I can’t wait.
When you write songs, what comes first, the music or the lyrics?
It’s totally random. I can’t stop writing during the day. I always think about music. It’s difficult to explain. When I go to the studio, everything is ready in my mind. It’s strange, but it’s beautiful.
Aside from your parents, were there any musicians who inspired you when you growing up?
When I was six years old, I heard Woodstock for the first time and I learned about rock n’ roll. I went to see the Rolling Stones when I was 13. When I was in high school, I started listening to urban music, mostly from Italy..What have you learned about yourself from your Eurovision journey so far?
Today I’m more self-confident. I understand this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
What can you tell me about your upcoming tour?
It’s a long tour, beginning this summer. I’ll do some festivals with my band, both in and out of Italy. In October, we will do a club tour in Italy, and in November, a club tour in Europe. That’s a big thing for me because it’s the first time I have played music with my band since I was 13 years old. We grew up together and now we are in Malmö. It’s very strange, but it’s beautiful.
Mango will perform “La Noia” in the second semi-final of Eurovision 2024, although she will not be competing on Thursday (May 9). As one of the “Big Five” countries that contribute the most to the production budget, Italy is automatically qualified for the grand final. The second semi-final will be seen in the U.S. on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET on May 9. The grand final will air on May 11 at that same time.
There have been many famous brother acts in the history of rock n’ roll, from the Everly Brothers to the Bee Gees to the Jacksons. Sweden is sending a brother act to the Eurovision Song Contest this year, but Marcus & Martinus aren’t simply brothers — they are identical twins. They will open the grand final on Saturday (May 11) with an energetic performance of their hit single, “Unforgettable.”
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Billboard sat down with the 22-year-old siblings from Norway at their hotel in Malmö, Sweden, host city to this year’s pan-European competition.
As young as you are, you are seasoned veterans, with a career that dates back a decade. How did you get started in the music business?
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Martinus: We wanted always to be football players. That was our dream, and then we started singing together when we were 10 years old. By the age of 12 we had to choose. Should we be serious about music? Should we go all in as football players? Our dad said to us, “Music is fun but football is also very fun.” But music has worked out very well.
Marcus: When we were six, we started in a children’s choir and had a music teacher who made us fall in love with the music. She did an amazing job and three years later, when we were done in the children’s choir, we wanted to do more but we didn’t know how. Then an opportunity came in 2012 when we joined the competition for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and we won.
You’ve been in a lot of musical competitions. What are your thoughts about competing with other singers?
Marcus: When we did [Junior Eurovision] we didn’t have any pressure because we were kids and it was for fun and everyone loved everyone there. When we did The Masked Singer no one knew who was under the masks, so we didn’t have any pressure. But then Eurovision is something else. Here you are representing a country and people will have opinions, because they really want their country to win. We try not to read the comments but it’s difficult not to because they are everywhere.
Martinus: We are very competitive people. We play a lot of football, so it’s in our blood that we want to win all the time and we’re brothers as well, so we compete against each other in everything. So I think this year we are the most competitive people in the whole competition, but it’s nice because you’re very focused when you’re on the stage and are very ready. I think that’s just a good thing.
As devoted Eurovision fans know, many artists have represented countries that are not their homelands. Celine Dion from Canada sang for Switzerland; Gina G is from Australia but sang for the U.K.; and you are from Norway singing for Sweden.
Marcus: For us, it was a natural choice because we’ve been working a lot in Sweden the last few years and when the coronavirus came, we were thinking what our next step would be. We had been teen stars for awhile and we needed to get away from that. We’re 22 years old now. We don’t want to be locked in as teen stars forever, and that was very difficult for us in Norway, because they’ve known us since we were 10 years old. We felt like Norway never accepted that we wanted to go further than that. So we thought we should go to Sweden, where they found us later. We signed with Universal Music Sweden. They accepted that we wanted to go past [our teen years] and it feels very natural to represent Sweden because they have helped us through that journey.
When ABBA entered Eurovision, their goal was to break out beyond Sweden and become a global act. Is that one of your goals in the competition?
Martinus: That has been our goals for a very long time and when we joined Melodifestivalen [the Swedish heat to pick the artist and song that will go to Eurovision], that was also one of our goals. If we went to Eurovision, it would be a free ticket to Europe where you can visit a lot of countries. You get a lot of first impressions because people haven’t seen you before. It was a very nice opportunity for us when Eurovision came. We’ve been waiting for this moment and it’s very nice to get back out in Europe.
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What is the genesis of your Eurovision entry, “Unforgettable”?
Marcus: We wrote it from scratch, just like “Air” [the brothers’ entry in Melodifestivalen 2023]. We were inspired by “Air” because a lot of Eurovision fans really liked that song and said if it weren’t for Loreen [and her song “Tattoo”], it would have gone straight through [to Eurovision]. People said they really wanted us to try again. “Air” went well [placing second to Loreen] so we thought we should do something similar, but even more Eurovision. We wanted to make something rougher and tougher, but an upgrade from “Air.” As you know, we’ve been on a stage for 12 years. We want to show that experience on stage.
What is the dynamic of being a brother act?
Martinus: There’s a special bond between us. It’s something else when random people get together and start a band rather than being brothers, because we have this special connection and we know each other. I’m the person in the world that knows him best and the same with him with me, so we have that special connection when we are on the stage. We can feel each other’s energy and we can give each other energy and I think that’s the reason why we have gone so far in our career. We work very well together, even though we’re brothers and fight, but I think that is healthy. We’re brutally honest with each other, which also helps us to get better, because you can say, “You were awful today. What happened?” That helps us a lot and our very special connection helps us as artists as well.
Marcus and Martinus performed “Unforgettable” in semi-final 1 on Tuesday (May 7) but were not competing. As representatives of the host country, they are automatically qualified for the grand final, which will be live on Saturday (May 11). The four-hour show will be live on Peacock in the U.S., airing at 3 p.m. ET.
The brothers have toured Europe with Jason Derulo and will be back on the road starting May 30 with their We Are Not The Same Tour, with 26 dates extending until March 25, including a stop at London’s O2 Arena on March 5, 2025.
There are times when a performance gains power not only from who’s playing what music and how, but also from when and where it’s played. So it was with the Berlin Philharmonic’s 2024 Europakonzert, which took place on May 1 at the historic Tsinandali Estate in Georgia.
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As Georgians protested in the streets of the capital city of Tbilisi against a law that would regulate NGOs and foreign media companies in a way that many people there believe would benefit Russia – or at least follow its illiberal path — one of the most accomplished orchestras in Europe delivered a majestic performance of pieces by Schubert, Brahms and Beethoven, as if to culturally anchor the country in the heart of Europe.
The concert at the Tsinandali Estate was gorgeous – an afternoon show, performed outdoors on a sunny day, with birds chirping in the background. (Conductor Daniel Harding stepped in for Daniel Barenboim.) The prominent violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who comes from Georgia and is now an artist in residence at the Berlin Philharmonic, performed the solos in Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with power and exquisite sensitivity.
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The next night, the orchestra performed the same show at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater – not far from where some of the protests took place – followed by considerable applause and the unfurling of a couple of European Union flags. It was hard to miss the symbolism – not nationalism but something more open-hearted. The politics never overshadowed the music, which was powerful in its own right, but it was clear how much the music, and the idea of Europe, meant to the Georgian audience. Sometimes concerts are the continuation of policy by other means.
Georgia sits a crossroads between Europe and Asia – always geographically and now politically as well. Culturally, the country has always faced West – it’s mostly Eastern Orthodox, and it was part of the Soviet Union before it gained independence. In December, under the current government, Georgia officially received candidate status to join the European Union, which the majority of people there seem to favor and would place the country firmly in the West. And although the overlap of the Europakonzert and the debate about the proposed law is just coincidental, it seemed to hint at two possible paths forward for the country: A kind of international optimism or a narrower nationalism.
The Tsinandali Estate, which was leased from the government and renovated by the Silk Road Group, a Georgian company, has its own particularly European cultural history. The estate, which fell into disrepair during the Soviet era, is identified with Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, a Georgian aristocrat, who used it in the 1800s to bring to Georgia European-style wine, formal gardens and classical music. Silk Road, which has restored the estate to its former glory with an eye toward historic preservation, now operates two hotels there, as well as nearby vineyard and a fall classical music festival that features young performers from across the Caucasus region. This, too, is profoundly optimistic.
“We thought, ‘How can we bring life to’” the estate, says George Ramishvili, the Silk Road Group’s founder and chairman. “And we chose classical music because it’s related to history.”
Europakonzert
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Years ago, Ramishvili connected with the Berlin Philharmonic through Batiashvili, and they started discussing brining the annual Europakonzert to Georgia. “It’s the perfect music but also the message for peace – we’re both about a united Europe,” Ramishvili says. “Europe is Georgia and Georgia is Europe.”
Everything about the concerts brought that idea home. At both shows, the audience seemed to be mostly middle-class Georgians, probably a few years older and a bit more fortunate than most of the protesters, who skewed younger. But they both want more engagement with a Europe that has put aside its conflicts. The European Union has its share of problems, but it represents a more compelling vision of the future than anything coming out of Russia.
None of this hung over the concerts, though. The annual Europakonzert, which is usually but not always performed in an EU member state, is symbolic, for a variety of reasons, including where it happens and the role of Berlin, which has become the cultural capital of Europe. But anyone who didn’t understand the politics, or simply wanted to forget them, would have found the shows just as compelling without that context. At Tsinandali, the stone walls of the amphitheater seemed to magnify the sound, as birdsong broke through the quiet parts of Schubert’s The Magic Harp. Batiashvili brought a richness of tonal color to Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, especially in the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater, where Harding brought out the orchestra’s power.
Music diplomacy has been a tradition since at least the 1950s, when the U.S. State Department arranged for “Jazz Ambassadors,” most famously Louis Armstrong, to tour the world. Musicians seldom solve international disagreements, and it’s not their job to do so, but shows like this bring countries closer together in a way that shows what they have to offer one another. These two shows made a powerful case for both the value of the European idea and its potential for expansion.
Europakonzert
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Nutsa Buzaladze received raves from the American Idol judges when she competed last year on season 21 of the long-running television talent series. Eliminated from the top 12 on April 30, 2023, the singer from the nation of Georgia didn’t sit still. This week she will perform on another televised song contest when she represents her country in the Eurovision Song Contest, which normally reaches a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions.
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One year after interviewing Nutsa in Hollywood during her time on Idol, Billboard sat down with her again, this time in Malmö, Sweden, to talk about her life since then and what will be the biggest moment of her career so far.
When we talked last year in California, I suggested you sing for Georgia in Eurovision, and here you are. What have the last 12 months been like for you?
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First of all, American Idol was the biggest thing I’ve done in my life. They gave me an open door to new opportunities. Like Lionel [Richie] said to me, “It doesn’t matter what number, you’re a star.” American Idol was a starter for my international career. Being on Idol makes your life much easier because people look at you and say you’re the real deal. I have an agent in America and he had me perform the National Anthem at a Lakers game and a Dodgers game. I had an amazing summer living in Miami and was in the Hamptons for a weekend when a producer [with Georgia’s national broadcaster] called and said, “Nutsa, we are thinking of having you represent your country at Eurovision. When are you coming to Georgia?”
So you said yes to Eurovision?
I told them I only had one condition: I’m going to be involved with every little detail. And they said, “Yes, for sure. We want you to be at your best. We want you to sing the song that you love to sing.” So I had the freedom to be myself and not someone that they want me to be and that is the greatest thing they’ve done for me. And it’s coming from the director of the broadcast.
You’re singing “Firefighter” as the Georgian entry. Who found the song?
We had an open call. We received amazing songs, and we listened to all 300 of them. We had three favorites, and we chose one that I feel very confident in. “Firefighter” was from Darko Dimitrov, a Macedonian producer who has a lot of experience in Eurovision. The writer of the lyrics was Ada Skitka from Estonia. I really loved the song, but only the chorus. I flew from Miami to Macedonia, and we spent three days in the studio finishing the song. It was a very creative process.
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What does representing Georgia in Eurovision mean to you?
I have loved my country ever since I was a very little girl. Because of my country’s history and our people, I want to make them proud. I want to show the world how great Georgia is and how many talented people we have. We are a very small nation and that makes me more motivated to put Georgia on the map everywhere I can. Because especially in America, they think that Georgia is a state.
You competed on Idol and now you’re competing again in Eurovision. What are your thoughts about the competition?
I don’t really think of it as a competition, to be honest. I do it for my career and I do it to become better and to have more experience, because all my life I wanted to have a career where you can go everywhere and sing everywhere. Not only in my country, but everywhere. I think big competitions give you the possibilities to be heard by millions and millions of people and that’s the main reason I’m doing it. I don’t like to compete with anybody. The only person I’m competing with always is myself, because I always want to do something bigger and better.
What was the main lesson you learned during your run on American Idol?
On American Idol, I realized that I had done hard work before, but Idol is the hardest work. I pushed myself to the limits. When I was in my hotel room, I cried because I was so exhausted from the emotions. By the time we were doing the live shows, it was better. I became friends with the contestants and then I became friends with the crew.
What are your plans for your career after Eurovision?
My new single is coming out on May 12. I shot a music video before flying to Malmö. The song is called “Mother’s Day” and I’m releasing it on Mother’s Day. It’s about my mom and she is in the music video with me. I’m sure a lot of people are going to cry because I love my mother very much and I wanted to have a song about her.
What else lies ahead?
There is other news I haven’t told anybody, so I’ve saved it for Billboard. I’ve been invited to audition for Broadway on May 11 [the same day as Eurovision]. So I need to go to New York as soon as possible for that.
Can you tell me for what show?
I don’t think they want me to. It’s a modern musical. The character that they want me to play is very near to who I am in real life and the voice of that character in the songs is my style.
Nutsa Buzaladze will sing “Firefighter” in the first semi-final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday (May 7) in Malmö, Sweden. The live broadcast can be seen in the U.S. on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET. If “Firefighter” is one of 10 songs from the 15 semi-final entries that qualifies for the grand final, she will perform the song again on Saturday (May 11). That four-hour show will be seen on Peacock, also at 3 p.m. ET.
At last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Graham Norton identified him as “Mr. Eurovision” and said he just calls him “the boss.” While almost everyone on the production team for the Eurovision Song Contest does their work behind the cameras, the European Broadcasting Union’s executive supervisor Martin Österdahl is visible every year on the live broadcast. When it comes time to reveal the votes of the participating countries, the hosts turn to Österdahl to confirm that the votes of the juries and the public are checked and that there is a verified result. He then tells the hosts that they are “good to go.”
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Before he was named executive supervisor in 2020, Österdahl was executive producer of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and 2016, both produced by Sveriges Television (SVT) following Sweden’s victories in 2012 and 2015. He has also produced past versions of Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s televised national final to select the country’s entry for the annual Eurovision competition.
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To find out what to watch for in the 2024 contest airing next week, Billboard talked to Österdahl via Zoom to get a preview of this year’s 68th edition of the popular pan-European event.
How are things in Malmö with just a few days to go before the two semi-finals and grand final of the 2024 contest?
The rehearsals are going really well. All the delegations are here now. I wish the world could see what the atmosphere is like. People are hugging, high-fiving. It’s great to be together again and great to be getting the job done.
What are five things we should be looking out for this year?
The first thing is that for the first time ever, we are finally going to see the Big Five and the host country perform full-length performances on stage [in the semi-finals], which is great. We’ve never done that before, as you know. It will give more entertainment to the viewers and more value to the fans, so I think that’s a great change.
In recent history, the Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom – the five countries that contribute the most to the production budget) don’t have to compete in the semi-finals to qualify for the grand final, so we would only see snippets in the two semi-finals. Why was this change made?
We’re very much about the even playing field and we have felt from time to time that the Big Five perhaps had a disadvantage. We’ve looked at ways to correct that. The Big Five have been doing much better recently, but still we feel the time is right to make this change now. And it has to do with [the second thing to watch out for].
That is to increase the engagement in this show. For an entertainment show in Europe, we have a lot of young viewers. We’re quadrupling the channel average when it comes to reach and the youth segments, which is fantastic, but the voting system is quite old fashioned with SMS [texting] and televoting and also the fact you had to wait for two hours before you can cast your vote. So we’re trying out this new thing this year where you can vote in the grand final from the very top of the show. If you see something that you like, you can cast your vote, which is something that is more in line with the behavior of young people today, who are used to interacting straightaway with the shows.
We introduced the rest-of-the-world vote last year and we’re increasing the window for that to be 24 hours before the show, so that people in Asia and in South America don’t have to sit up and watch this live on Central European Time. We get votes from 180 countries around the world in the show, so we want to embrace that love for Eurovision in other parts of the world.
How did that rest-of-the-world vote work last year?
Very well. We do a show called the Junior Eurovision Song Contest as well and we’ve had an online voting platform for that. We did a show in Warsaw a couple of years ago during the darkest days of the pandemic, so we couldn’t have the delegations on site. There were pre-recorded performances from the different countries. And then we had a studio in Warsaw where I sat with the presenters and the interval acts and Polish TV did a great job with that.
But when we saw the online voting come in, it was a real eye-opener for me, because there were 12 participating countries as opposed to 40 in Eurovision and it’s a kid show. We saw the votes coming in from 180 countries around the world on this European kids’ show. It was amazing, so I thought, “We need to tap into this.” My expectations are high when it comes to the engagement here.
Does the fact that U.S. viewers can watch live on Peacock greatly increase the number of people watching?
Yes, the engagement from the U.S. is great. The United States is the second biggest ticket buyer [for the live shows]. If you forget about [host country] Sweden, the biggest country of ticket buyers is the U.K. followed by the U.S. Amazing, right? We have ticket buyers from 89 countries coming to Malmö.
And what is the third thing we should watch out for?
Celebration. We have so much to celebrate this year. Sweden has taken the number one position now alongside Ireland with seven wins in history. Loreen is only the second ever female artist to win twice and she and Johnny Logan are the only artists to have won twice, so we’re celebrating that. And of course, it’s 50 years since ABBA won with “Waterloo” and we’re going to celebrate all these things in the show, so that’s another one to look out for.
How exactly are we going to celebrate “Waterloo” and ABBA in the show?
There’s an easy reply to that. Tune into the show and you’ll see.
I didn’t think you were going to give that one away. And the fourth thing to watch out for?
Number four, you should look out for the new hit phenomena. When I started working on Eurovision a long time ago, we used to refer to the classics like Celine Dion and ABBA when it came to who had the international global hits from this show, but that’s not the case anymore. We churn out international hits every year and you’ve probably seen the success of Duncan Laurence, Rosa Linn and Måneskin. That’s a really exciting trend with modern day Eurovision and I think it’s going to continue. It’s a really strong field this year.
Alright, you’ve given us four things to watch out for. What is the fifth?
Number five is that we’re going to have a really exciting climax to this show. The Eurovision Song Contest voting sequence is arguably one of the longest, but also one of the most nail-biting sequences of any show on TV and I think this year we don’t really have one standout favorite. We’ve got a couple who are talked about a lot but not that one standout. So I think it’s going to be exciting this year and I think it’s going to lead to a really exciting climax.
Speaking of the voting sequence, do you track the ratings on different parts of the show, and if so, how does this part of the contest do?
Normally the voting sequence is the most viewed part of the show.
In the past, some years were runaways and we knew who the winner was going to be long before the final vote was cast. Other years we didn’t know until the last moments.
When Loreen first won in Baku [in 2012], everyone knew 35 minutes before the show ended that she was going to win, because you could do the math. But we still had to go around all of these countries and listen to their 12 and 10 and eight points. It seemed this show deserved a better climax, so that’s when we made that change [to report the juries votes first and add in the public voting at the very end] and now it’s all down to the very last delivery of points.
One last question. As an EBU official, how would you describe your interaction with the production team, which is from the host broadcaster.
My job covers a lot of different areas, but when it comes to the production, this is a co-production between 37 different national broadcasters in Europe and beyond and as such it needs a central coordinator or supervisor for the whole thing and that’s me. That means I have final say in all questions, including all of the show content. I work very closely with the producers every year. My main mission is to transfer knowledge and best practice. Of course, this year it’s special, because the knowledge is already here and it’s my old team. We work together really well.
Viewers in the U.S. can watch the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest live on Peacock (and on demand). The first semi-final will air on Tuesday, May 7 at 3 p.m. ET. The second semi-final will air at the same time on Thursday, May 9. The grand final will also air at the same time, on Saturday, May 11.
On Saturday night (April 27), Vancouver witnessed Diljit Dosanjh make history. The artist kicked off his Dil-Luminati tour with a sold-out stadium show at BC Place to a crowd of 54,000 people — making it the largest ever Punjabi music concert outside of India.
The show leaned into its historic accomplishment, with an ominous voice preceding Diljit Dosanjh’s entry, “Remember, firsts are always special and what you witness here will never be repeated.”
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In over two decades in the music and film industry, Dosanjh has solidified himself as a global star. Last year, he was the first Indian-born Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella and has recently made strides for international music amassing hundreds of millions of streams on collaborative tracks with Sia, Saweetie and Camilo respectively. More recently, Dosanjh is fresh off the critical acclaim of his performance of the titular Amar Singh Chamkila, a Bollywood biopic about the life and death of the controversial Punjabi singer who was killed at the height of his fame in 1988.
With anticipation palpable in the air, Dosanjh delivered a high-powered 27-song set with charisma and an undeniable star-power that easily captivated the record-breaking audience. It was an unabashed celebration of Punjabi music and culture.
The artist has a deep connection to Vancouver. Several of his popular Punjabi films that accelerated his career like Jatt and Juliet and Honsla Rakh were filmed across Greater Vancouver, making this moment that much more special for fans who have been longtime supporters far before his recent international successes.
“Now, Punjabis have made it to stadiums,” Dosanjh said. “The next generation won’t be able to say that this has never happened before. Now for generations to come, our kids can dream even bigger.”
During his performance of “Vibe,” the singer scooped up a young fan from the crowd who was dressed in signature Diljit Dosanjh attire, inviting him to dance with him. As the boy, understandably intimidated by the size of the crowd in front him, got more comfortable, he broke into dance himself. It was his hopes for the next generation coming to life right in front of him — a child who can now literally see himself on stage performing for a stadium of fans.
Dosanjh’s tour continues with arena dates in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Los Angeles and more, and another stadium date at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on July 13. – Jeevan Sangha
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Rising Canadian Stars Chani Nattan and Owen Riegling Make International Moves
Punjabi powerhouse lyricist Chani Nattan is the next signing to Warner Music Canada and Warner Music India’s joint venture, 91 North Records. Nattan will join fellow Punjabi-Canadian artists Karan Aujla, Jonita Gandhi and AR Paisley on the label, which was created to support South Asian artists.
Born and raised in Surrey, B.C., Nattan has already broken through to Punjabi music audiences around the world. In 2021, Nattan teamed up with Inderpal Moga and released “Daku” — a heady Punjabi hip-hop track that has garnered 247 million views on YouTube, and became one of the most streamed songs on Spotify India. With Sukha and Punjabi singer Gurlez Akhtar, Nattan’s “8 Asle” sparked a viral TikTok dance trend and charted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
Nattan marks the signing with the release of his new song “Facetime,” alongside frequent collaborator Inderpal Moga and iconic Punjabi singer Miss Pooja.
Nattan uses a traditional Punjabi duet style, typically consisting of a playful back and forth between a quarreling couple. “Facetime” blends those old-school Punjabi vibes with the hip-hop elements that he is so heavily influenced by, Nattan tells Billboard Canada.
“The beats are different but the heart and soul of it maintains the sound of Punjab and its concepts,” he says. “It’s about honouring our roots while embracing the evolution of our music.”
Meanwhile, Canadian-based management and production company Workshop Music Group has announced a new partnership with talent representation company The Familie to co-manage rising young country singer-songwriter Owen Riegling. The Familie’s client roster includes Machine Gun Kelly and Avril Lavigne and it recently launched a country music division.
Now boasting over 50M global streams for his songs, Riegling won the 2022 Emerging Artists Showcase at the CanCountry mega-fest Boots & Hearts, then signed his record deal with Universal Music Canada. Last year he was selected for Apple Music’s UpNext Program and is now part of Spotify’s Hot Country Artists To Watch and Amazon Canada’s Breakthrough Artists to Watch 2024. – Jeevan Sanha & Kerry Doole
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Toronto Chinese Restaurant Gets a Boost from Kendrick Lamar’s Namedrop
Toronto caught a few strays in Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” the first of two diss tracks aimed at hometown star Drake. While listing all the things he hates about Drizzy, Kendrick takes a moment to slip into an exaggerated Toronto accent complete with local slang and a surprising reference to a popular late-night Chinatown restaurant: “I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie,” he raps.
CityNews spoke to New Ho King owner Johnny Lu for a TV segment. Playing him the track, they get his live reaction to the nametrack: “I see, Kendrick’s a good guy. Oh my God!” he says.
CityNews also caught up with residents who are fans of Kendrick who made trips just to give the fried rice dish a try. “I came all the way from Markham just to see this fried rice,” one says. “Kendrick Lamar, man. You gotta pay respect to K. Dot, man. Ever since he dropped the diss track I was like, ‘I gotta visit this place.’”
The reference may have had a darker meaning than just fried rice, with some fans believing it was a sly reference to Drake’s 2009 armed robbery. Toronto rapper Sizzlac, who was rumoured to be part of the robbery, once filmed a music video at New Ho King, which may be how the restaurant hit Kendrick’s radar. But New Ho King is reaping the rewards. Since the track dropped, New Ho King has been showered with five-star reviews on Google and Yelp. – Richard Trapunski
Last Week In Canada: Cowboy Junkies Write to U.S. Senators
More than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the latter nation will once again send one of their best recording acts to the Eurovision Song Contest to represent their beleaguered nation on the world stage. Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil will sing “Teresa & Maria,” a song about the strength, courage and resilience of Ukrainian women at the 68th pan-European competition, which will be held on May 11 in Malmö, Sweden.
Alyona Alyona (real name: Aliona Olehivna Savranenko) and Jerry Heil (real name: Yana Oleksandrivna Shemaieva) were both solo artists before they became a duo. “We knew each other before creating music in common because our market is smaller than America,” Heil explains. “So every artist knows each other, but we started being productive when the big invasion started. I was a refugee [in Sweden at first] and Alyona was volunteering in Ukraine for several months. I kept asking her music producer, ‘Where’s Alyona? Is she coming? Why is she putting herself in danger?” Finally, she came to Europe to generate some donations with concerts. We started doing that together and working on an album which included eight songs. People started texting us, ‘Go to Eurovision.’ At first we said, ‘Ha-ha, of course,’ and here we are.”
“People in Ukraine wanted this,” says Alyona. “So we decided to unite and remind European audiences how united they were in the beginning over the big invasion.” Heil adds, “It’s really important for us because we want people to know that there’s not only war going on in Ukraine. We want you to feel empathy for Ukraine, to feel that we are equal, to feel that we are the same people as you are and to know our culture and to listen to our music. If you don’t know what the music of a country sounds like, you don’t know the face of the nation. You don’t feel anything for them, and we want you to feel something for us because our culture goes so deep in history, and it can bring so many new things to the world. We want you to see it and hear it. And our song has a mission.
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“We talk about people who live maybe not perfect lives and make some mistakes, but in the end, they make kindness. If you unite kindness and love, you can win the war. You can change the world. You can leave something for the children and the children of the children. It’s important,” Alyona says.
Of their Eurovision entry, “Teresa and Maria,” Heil explains that “[Ukrainian] women hold on their shoulders such a heavy world and they still manage to be divas. But we are all born as human beings, so we make mistakes, but in the end, you are defined by your actions.”
In addition to performing at Eurovision, Heil and Alyona have another mission – to raise money for the Velykokostromska School; In July 2023, a Russian missile destroyed its gymnasium and forced closure of the school. Through the government foundation United24, Alyona and Heil have a goal of raising 10 million hryvnia (over $250,000) to rebuild the facility and allow 250 children to return to school.
“A lot of schools were destroyed, but we are working with this particular one,” says Heil. “It was historical and very beautiful,” adds Alyona, “but they destroyed more than 450 schools and education buildings.” “You have to rebuild the past to build the future,” says Heil. Alyona and Heil are offering a prize to one lucky donor. “One person will win a Zoom meeting with us and we can talk with you, we can even sing for you, whatever you want us to do, but something normal!” Heil explains. “You can make a small donation, like $10,” adds Alyona.
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Meanwhile, the two women are promoting their song and appearance at Eurovision while missiles are hitting targets in Ukraine. “The war is a part of our song,” says Heil. “We cannot separate that. The song was created under attack and under alarm. Sometimes we feel like the war is nothing because it has become a part of our lives. But subconsciously we’re always stressed. And leaving the country feels more stressful than coming back here.”
If Alyona and Heil are triumphant in Malmö, this will be Ukraine’s fourth Eurovision victory. In 2004, Ruslana brought the trophy home for the first time with “Wild Dances.” Jamala won in 2016 with “1944,” a song about the deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union. And in 2022, just months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kalush Orchestra won with “Stefania,” a song about a Ukrainian mother that became a war anthem.
Additionally, if Alyona and Heil do win, music director Tanu Muino, born in Odesa, Ukraine, will have played a part. Having previously worked on videos for Harry Styles (“As It Was”) and Lil Nas X (“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”), Muino is directing the duo’s stage performance.
“You can imagine what we felt when we realized we were going to work with her,” says Heil. “She is immensely talented and what she does is so significant for us because she’s not only a talented Ukrainian who started working in Hollywood, but she did something which no one in the music industry did before her and we feel so proud of her.” “She’s a part of our culture,” adds Alyona. “So it’s a union of Ukrainian divas.”
The grand final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest will livestream in the U.S. on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET on May 11.
Mario Olvera Acevedo, an event promoter specializing in Regional Mexican music, has died at the hands of unknown assailants in a direct attack that occurred in the early morning hours on Saturday (April 27).
According to a statement issued by the Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana (or Secretariat of Public Safety) of the Government of San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, police officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of gunshots.
Paramedics from the Municipal Civil Protection confirmed that Olvera, age 42, no longer had vital signs when he was found. They proceeded to cordon off the area while awaiting forensic experts from the State Attorney General’s Office.
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Initial investigations indicate that it was a “presumed direct attack.” According to the press release from Seguridad Ciudadana, after “a motorist hit the rear of the truck of the deceased to force him to get out and shoot him, at that moment a third person on a motorcycle arrived and both subjects fled in the direction of Periférico Ecológico, where they finally abandoned the vehicle.” The authorities are still looking for the perpetrators.
The death of Olvera shocked the world of Regional Mexican music. For more than two decades, Olvera was a promoter of events in the states of Tlaxcala and Puebla with his company, Ranch Music Sinaloa, and countless artists and managers had working relationships and friendships with him.
Over the weekend, misinformation circulating in several media outlets about Olvera’s relationship with big stars of the genre suggested he acted as their representative and was a direct part of their teams, neither of which is true.
Last Wednesday (April 23), Olvera attended a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, of the ADEEM (Association of Entertainment Entrepreneurs in Mexico), of which he was once a member of the board of directors.
Multiple artists took to social media to express their condolences, including Los Tucanes de Tijuana, El Flaco Elizalde and El Yaki. The latter artist said he was close to Olvera and considered him an older brother, though the two were not biologically related.
“This is how I say goodbye to you my brother! Because I know you would have liked me to share it… and I do it from my heart,” wrote El Yaki on Instagram below a photo of the two together. “You taught me some really bitchin’ things and opened my eyes to something that today little by little I’m still building […] Fly high compa!”
In Puebla, Olvera was also known for his activities in the restaurant business. At the time of his death, he owned three establishments: Humo Gris, Ostería Humo and Puerto Marisco.
On Monday (April 29), Olvera’s body will be buried at the Valle de Los Angeles Funeral Home in Puebla.
Major artists are speaking out about the state of concert ticketing.
“The current system is broken,” reads a new letter signed by over 250 artists, including Billie Eilish, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Cyndi Lauper, Lorde and more. The letter, dubbed “Fix The Tix,” addresses pervasive issues in the ticketing industry, like fake tickets, misleading marketing strategies and unclear pricing.
Addressed to Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz, the respective Chair and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, the letter calls on the legislators to support the Fans First Act. The Act would take a series of steps to make ticketing more transparent for consumers, including banning “deceptive marketing tactics,” which lure fans into “paying more for tickets that may never get them into a show.”
“Predatory resellers have gone unregulated while siphoning money from the live entertainment ecosystem for their sole benefit,” the letter reads. “As artists and members of the music community, we rely on touring for our livelihood, and we value music fans above all else. We are joining together to say that the current system is broken.”
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Though the letter addresses American lawmakers, ticket resale practices are not limited to the U.S., and several Canadian acts have signed in support of letter’s aims, including Blue Rodeo, The Sadies, Cowboy Junkies, Suzie Ungerleider and Alvvays’ Alec O’Hanley.
“Marking tickets up is indicative of yet another layer in a broken system,” Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spear, who releases music as Le Ren and signed on to the letter, tells Billboard Canada. “It’s hard enough making money with streaming services taking revenue away from artists. Markups create an invisible hand that both gatekeeps the audience and pockets money that should be going to the labour of the musicians and crew.”
The Fans First Act would require ticket sellers to display the full price of a ticket from the outset of a purchase, tackling hidden fees that often catch consumers by surprise at the end of a transaction. – Rosie Long Decter
YouTube Aims to Support Canadian Artists In the Age of AI
Like many major labels and streaming companies, YouTube has a major presence in Canada. For artists and content creators, it provides access to an audience that stretches beyond borders.
“When you think about YouTube, the beauty for all artists and Canadian artists is the global reach,” says Vivien Lewit, Global Head of Artists at YouTube, in an interview with Billboard Canada, after a recent trip to Halifax for the Juno Awards. “There are over two billion really logged in viewers that watch music videos each month on YouTube. The exposure is enormous.”
With the Online Streaming Act becoming law, digital distributors and media will soon face updated government regulation and possible new forms of Canadian Content requirements. YouTube and its parent company Google have been critical of the act ever since it was introduced as Bill C-11. But much of the company’s criticism revolved around user-created content, which has since been clarified as immune from certain forms of regulation. YouTube maintains an ongoing partnership with record labels in Canada led by Canadian Head of Music Partnerships, Gabriel Obadia.
YouTube has a number of marketing and support initiatives and programs, and Lewit says they make sure to promote Canadian artists as part of all of them. Those include features like Artist on the Rise and Fifty Deep, a grant program to support Black artists. This year, Francophone Quebec rapper Lost was a participant.
YouTube Shorts has also been a big driver of the Punjabi Wave, including the B.C.-based Karan Aujla his collaborator Ikky. Together, they made YouTube’s list of most-watched music videos in Canada in 2023, and Aujla has 1.66 billion global plays in the last year. Numbers like those are hard to ignore, and those, along with streaming tallies, proved the potential of Punjabi music well before the Canadian music industry started to support it.
“It’s fascinating because I hear about the fast-growing popularity of Punjabi music in Canada from both our teams in India and our teams in Canada,” Lewit says.
In Canada, those YouTube numbers will now be recognized by Music Canada’s Gold/Platinum Singles Program. So, as in the U.S. since 2020, an artist with high stream counts on YouTube (or other Digital Service Providers like Apple Music) could earn a gold or platinum record.
Read more here about how YouTube is working with Canadian labels on another potential thread and opportunity: generative AI. – Richard Trapunski
Last Week In Canada: AP Dhillon’s Early Exit From Coachella
The troubled launch of Co-op Live, the United Kingdom’s biggest entertainment arena, has hit further difficulties with GM Gary Roden resigning from his role just a few days ahead of the venue’s already delayed opening.
Roden’s exit was announced late Thursday evening (April 25) U.K. time by Jessica Koravos, president of Oak View Group (OVG) International. “Gary Roden has decided to resign,” said Koravos in a statement. She went on to thank the outgoing exec for “his help bringing the UK’s newest arena to live entertainment fans” and wished him “the best for the future.”
Replacing Roden in the position of interim GM is Rebecca Kane Burton, who ran the U.K.’s highest-grossing venue, London’s The O2 arena, from 2012 to 2016 before serving as CEO of LW Theatres. Burton takes over at Co-op Live with immediate effect, said Koravos.
The change of leadership at Co-op Live follows a tumultuous week at the 23,500-capacity venue, which was originally due to open on Tuesday (April 23) with the first of two consecutive shows by British comedian Peter Kay.
Those plans were postponed after a heavily publicized preview show at the Manchester arena 48 hours prior, headlined by Rick Astley, which saw Co-op Live cut capacity, resulting in large numbers of fans’ tickets being canceled on short notice as the venue was not ready.
Two days later, Co-op Live announced that Kay’s opening shows were being rescheduled to Monday (April 29) and Tuesday (April 30) to give operators “the extra time we need to continue testing” the building’s infrastructure and power supply, according to a venue spokesperson.
At the time of publication, representatives of Co-op Live had not responded to inquiries from Billboard asking if the two Kay shows were still going ahead next week — or if a 10,000-capacity test concert by The Black Keys scheduled for Saturday (April 27) was still taking place.
Koravos’ statement doesn’t mention either upcoming event and simply says, “We are focused on opening Co-op Live.”
Set to be the United Kingdom’s biggest and most sustainable arena, Co-op Live is the first major project outside the United States from Oak View Group (OVG), the Denver-headquartered global management and development giant co-founded in 2015 by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff. (Harry Styles, who grew up in the small Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel, around 30 miles outside of Manchester, is an investor in the project and advised on aspects of the venue’s design).
Prior to his sudden and unexpected exit on Thursday, Roden had sparked ire from U.K. trade body The Music Venue Trust for comments he made in an interview with the BBC in which he reportedly said that some small grassroots venues were “poorly run” and that calls for a £1 ticket levy from every arena ticket to support pubs and clubs was “too simplistic.”
Referencing those comments, Koravos said that “neither Co-op Live nor Oak View Group share the sentiment expressed by former Co-op Live General Manager Gary Roden regarding the grassroots industry.”
Koravos went on to say that the venue remains “committed to grassroots music in Manchester and beyond” and will donate over £1 million a year to good causes via the Co-op Foundation.
“Oak View Group and Co-op Live remain happy to meet with grassroots organisations once the venue is fully operational,” Koravos’ statement concludes.
Artists confirmed to perform at the venue this year include the Eagles, Take That, Liam Gallagher, Olivia Rodrigo, Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi, Slipknot, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, Noah Kahan and Megan Thee Stallion.