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LONDON — Nearly three decades after Oasis‘ cultural and commercial peak, the Gallagher brothers — songwriter/guitarist Noel and singer Liam — are once again making headlines around the world, following the shock announcement that the long-warring siblings are to reunite for a series of huge outdoor shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland next year.
In the U.K., anticipation for the band’s comeback has been building since rumors began circulating several weeks ago that the feuding brothers had buried the hatchet after a 15-year war of words and were set to return. The group split up in 2009 when Noel quit before a show at French music festival Rock en Seine following an argument with Liam.
Oasis fans’ wildest dreams were realized on Tuesday (Aug. 27) with the announcement that the band will play a massive 14-date stadium tour of the U.K. and Ireland next summer, marketed as ‘Oasis Live ’25.’
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“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised,” Oasis bullishly said in a statement, prompting a feverish rush of news coverage in their home country and beyond that has reignited interest in the Britpop-era rock act.
Registration for the tour’s ticket pre-sale opened the same day. 48 hours later the group announced three extra concert dates due to “unprecedented demand.”
The additional gigs mean Oasis will now play five nights at London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium, five nights at Heaton Park in their home city of Manchester (80,000 cap.) and three shows at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh (67,000-cap.), as well as two performances at Dublin’s Croke Park (83,000-cap.) and two shows at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium (74,000-cap.).
With tickets expected to quickly sell out when they go on sale Saturday (Aug. 31), Oasis look set to perform to around 1.3 million people across the 17-show run, according to Billboard‘s calculations.
That puts the band’s live return at a similar level to Taylor Swift‘s recent U.K. and Ireland leg of her “Eras Tour,” which spanned 18 sold-out stadium shows, including eight nights at Wembley Stadium – a new record for a solo singer at the venue. The estimated total attendance for Swift’s U.K. shows was 1.2 million, not including her three shows at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
With tickets to Oasis’ live shows priced between £65.00 ($85.00) and £250.00 ($330.00), excluding fees, Billboard estimates that the tour — jointly promoted by Live Nation, SJM Concerts, MCD and DFC — could gross the band around £200 million ($262 million) on ticket sales alone (based on an average ticket price of £150.00). When VIP and premium packages, merchandise, sponsorship, performance rights and future filming revenues are factored in total earnings are likely to be at least double that amount, according to talent agent Jonathan Shalit, posting on X before the three extra concert dates were announced.
FINANCIAL WINDFALL
“It’s a once in a generation moment for a lot of music fans to experience an iconic rock band that has a very special place in many people’s hearts. It’s also going to be a really big economic moment for the country and music industry,” Tom Kiehl, chief executive of umbrella trade body UK Music, tells Billboard.
In 2023, 19.2 million “music tourists” — defined by UK Music as someone who travels outside of their hometown or city for a gig or visiting from overseas — attended live concerts and festivals in the United Kingdom, up 33% on the previous year, generating 8 billion pounds ($10.3 billion) for the country’s economy.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, says the frenzy of interest in Oasis’ return ensures it will create large revenues for hotels, taxis, bars, restaurants and pubs in cities where the band is performing “bringing a significant boost to the U.K. economy.”
The U.K. leg of Swift’s “Eras Tour” was estimated to have earned £1 billion ($1.3 billion) for the U.K. economy, according to analysis by Barclays bank, based on Swifties each spending a projected £848 ($1,100) on tickets, travel, accommodation, outfits and other expenses.
“While spending by Oasis fans might not reach those heady heights, they are unlikely to hold back from splashing the cash to celebrate the brothers’ return,” Streeter tells Billboard.
In Oasis’ home city of Manchester, the band’s five shows will earn the local economy over £15 million ($19.7 million), says Sacha Lord, the city’s nighttime economy advisor and founder of Parklife music festival.
WILL A RISING TIDE LIFT ALL BOATS?
Alongside the financial benefits, live execs hope that the explosion of interest in Oasis will strengthen support for the U.K.’s struggling grassroots music sector, where the band cut their teeth in the early 1990s, but has experienced a tide of small venue closures in the decades since.
According to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), just under 150 grassroots venues closed or stopped staging live music in the U.K. in 2023. Of the 15 venues that Oasis played on its first ever tour, nine are reported to have closed or are no longer putting on gigs.
To stop the wave of small venue closures, live execs are pushing for the British government to cut sales tax (VAT) on tickets for all grassroots music shows from 20% to the European average of between 5-7%. Doing so “will mean more shows and festivals, thriving venues of all sizes and [help] the next world class superstars off the U.K. talent production line,” says Jon Collins, CEO of U.K. music trade body LIVE.
“The Oasis reunion is a huge moment not just for fans, but for the live music industry too,” Andrew Foggin, global head of music at ticketing company DICE, tells Billboard. “These high profile, beloved artists serve as a catalyst to get people out more. They don’t just draw crowds to massive stadium events, but they also remind people what makes live music so special, creating benefits for the rest of the industry.”
As for the Gallaghers themselves, they stand to land a sizable royalty windfall even before a single ticket is sold. On the back of Tuesday’s reunion announcement, Oasis’ Spotify streams spiked 690% globally, says the streaming service, with some of the band’s lesser-known songs such as “Turn Up The Sun” and The Swamp Song” enjoying especially large spikes (450%-plus) in the U.K. The band has more than 24 million monthly listeners on Spotify with its most popular song, “Wonderwall,” having been streamed more than 2 billion times in total.
On TikTok, Oasis has seen a 101% increase in video views, creations and user engagement over the past seven days, with #OasisReunion having 109 million video views over the past two weeks, reports the platform. (Billboard understands that Sony Music owns the master rights to Oasis’ entire catalog, which it licenses back to the band’s label Big Brother Recordings, with the exception of 2008’s final album Dig Out Your Soul, which Sony doesn’t own).
“Oasis has always been popular on TikTok, and the news of the reunion has taken it to another level,” says Adam Read, TikTok’s U.K. and Ireland music programs manager. “Fans have celebrated in typically creative ways, whether it’s dressing up like Liam Gallagher waiting [for] the on sale or remixing classic Oasis tracks in unique TikTok videos. We’re excited to see how the community will continue to get creative with the band’s catalog on the platform.”
So far, the only live dates announced by Oasis are the 17 shows in the U.K. and Ireland, although the fact that the band is calling its 2025 outing a world tour suggests that international dates, including possible U.S. shows, will likely follow. It’s anticipated that additional U.K. shows could be announced if the initial ticket allocation sells out quickly, although the band has made it clear that it will not be playing next year’s Glastonbury festival, as previously rumored.
“Oasis were the last big band of the pre-digital era,” enthuses Kiehl. “There’s a legendary status attached to them and there’s a whole new generation of Oasis fans who have never seen them perform live, as well as all of their original fans from the Nineties, so their return is going to be a really big moment for the music industry and live music.”
With just a month and a half before the 2024 edition of ADE, organizers have announced a new slew of names for the 2024 program.
Joining the lineup for the annual dance music industry conference in Amsterdam are SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton, who will take part in a conversation with Dutch producer Mau P to talk about the producer’s success and the role SoundCloud has played in supporting him and other artists.
Representatives from Bandcamp are joining the program for a session that will focus on the company’s artist payment model, maximizing revenue in a challenging landscape and why fan engagement and diversified income streams are important for the success of artists.
Also new to the program is a conversation with German producer Ellen Allien and Dimitri Hegemann, the founder of the nightclub and record label Tresor Berlin, who will talk about the UNESCO cultural heritage designation of the Berlin techno scene. Talks from artists including Don Diablo and Laidback Luke, Smallgod, Jaguar, Miss Nine and OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and her manager Jasper ‘Djosa’ Cremers will also be featured at the event. Representatives from Warner Music, Hospital Records, Glastonbury, ID&T, Primary Talent, SiriusXM and more have all also been newly added to the program.
This group joins already announced participants including Empire president Tina Davis, Spotify’s head of music for Sub-Saharan Africa Phiona Okumu, Grimes’ manager Daouda Leonard, Believe’s global head of music Romain Vivien and TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson. Previously announced speakers include Timbaland, Martin Garrix, Laurent Garnier, music executive Grace Ladoja and representatives from fabric London, Armada Music, WME and UTA.
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Additional programming includes Australia House, an initiative from Sounds Australia, an organization that helps Australian artists develop their careers abroad. For the duration of ADE, Australia House will take over the city’s Box Sociaal cafe to host execs from around the world for morning coffee, lunch and dinner and to present events by Australian artists on Oct. 16-17.
ADE 2024 will take place at locations throughout Amsterdam and again be divided into Lab and Pro programming, with Lab content tailored for people trying to get into or just starting out in the industry and Pro programming designed for established managers, label execs, artists, streamers, marketers, promoters and more.
The conference also offers consumer-facing events, with last year’s musical offerings happening in more than 200 venues around the city.
Attending Burning Man is an investment. There’s the $575-plus needed for a ticket; more for the flight or long drive to Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert, where the event takes place each August. There’s the money for food, outfits, a bike and the many other supplies needed to survive in the barren setting. Most attendees take time off from work, including a few days on the back end to get home and recover. It’s hot, dusty and often mentally, emotionally and physically draining. A lot of people love it; others say they’d never go, and some simply don’t have the resources to make it happen.
But while the Burning Man Project’s famous mothership event is happening this week (Aug. 26-Sept. 2), another 85 official global Burning Man events, called “Regionals,” have long offered people around the world a chance to Burn more locally. In 2023, 93,000 people attended these global Regionals. There’s Kentucky’s Singe City; Michigan’s Lakes of Fire; and events in Arkansas, Utah, Virginia and approximately 70 other U.S. sites. The biggest Regional, AfrikaBurn, draws roughly 10,000 to Cape Town, South Africa every April. Taiwan’s Turtle Burn launched in 2019. Each July, roughly 400 people gather in the Romanian forest for RoBurn.
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Burning Man 2024 has made headlines for not selling out for the first time in years, with tickets usually very difficult to get. (Sources close to the event estimate that roughly 10,000 tickets went unsold this year, bringing the attendance number down to approximately 70,000.) But while many Burners say the extreme heat of 2022 — when daytime temperatures reached 106 degrees — and the headline-making rain of 2023 are reasons many veteran Burners are taking this year off, Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell also points to the generally soft festival market, and to the Regionals.
“The goal has always been to decentralize this, because Black Rock City was never going to have the capacity,” Goodell says. “And with travel challenges, the cost, the heat — it isn’t for everybody. But when I meet people that tell me, ‘Are you f–king kidding me?’ [in regard to going to Black Rock City], I’m like, ‘Well, where do you live?’”
Goodell and Burning Man Project — the San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that produces Burning Man and supports the global Burning Man community — has been directing Burners to Regionals since 2007, when the first official offshoot launched. Regionals had been germinating since 1997, when representatives for Pershing County, where Burning Man is held, sent organizers a huge bill for county services at the end of the event. Groups of Burners offered to fundraise, including one based in Austin, Texas. The internet had just come online, so Goodell created austin@burningman.com to help facilitate the fundraiser, and the first Regional group was born.
“Then I did New York, Canada and Seattle,” she says. “The internet allowed people to leave Burning Man and say, ‘Where are the other Burners?’”
As it turned out, with the global Burning Man network growing in tandem with the growth of the main event, they were everywhere. Soon, groups of Burners were meeting up across the country, placing glowsticks on bar tables to identify themselves and, in doing so, living out the Burner philosophy that it’s not just an event, but a culture that can exist anywhere.
Argentina’s Fuego Astral
Courtesy of Ignacio Roizman
Ignacio Roizman has traveled to Black Rock City from his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina many times over the years. Wanting to help bring Burner culture back home, he co-organized Argentina’s Regional, Fuego Austral, in 2016, when two groups of Argentinian Burners who’d been gathering for meetups joined forces to put on a multi-day campout.
“It’s very expensive to get from Argentina to the U.S.; you need a visa, you need the supplies,” Roizman says. “It’s basically an economic and logistical challenge.”
The most recent edition of Fuego Austral, in February, brought roughly 1,000 people to a swath of verdant farmland four hours outside of Buenos Aires. Like in Black Rock City, there was art, music and the ritualistic burning of a man made from wood. (In the past, Israel’s Midburn has set fire to both a man and a woman.)
“The biggest difference between Regionals and Black Rock City,” Roizman continues, “is the intimacy you can create in a space where you have 1,000 people instead of 80,000. By the end of the week, everybody knows each other.” Most Fuego Austral attendees have never been to Black Rock City, although Burners from countries like Brazil, Israel and the U.S. have flown in to attend.
Representees from The Org (as Burning Man Project is called in Burner parlance) advise Regionals on how to organize, with a few primary requirements. One is that events start small, with Goodell saying that even 1,000 people is too big for an inaugural year. Organizers need to have gone to Black Rock City at least once. Like Black Rock City, Regionals must allow children.
“We have a team that decides if the intention is in the right direction and if the people are skilled enough to do it,” says Goodell. “We’ve taken permission away when events looked more like a rave.”
Aspiring Regionals must also abide by Burning Man’s 10 Principles, the social guidelines for existing at a Burning Man event; these rules were in fact created in 2004 as a response to the Regionals. When the Regional network was taking shape in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Goodell put groups on an email thread with late Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey, who answered their questions. Over time, the Principles — which include radical self-reliance and leaving no trace — developed as, Goodell says, “a direct response as to what kind of guidelines would help facilitate a Burning Man event.”
“One of the first questions was, ‘Why can’t we do vending? We want to be a Burning Man event, but we want to sell hot dogs or whatever,’” Goodell recalls. Harvey’s response spurred a discussion that ultimately created the “gifting” and “decommodification” Principles, the latter of which states that “our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising.”
The Org also offers practical support, helping Regionals write press releases or find an attorney if legal advice is needed. They step in if a death happens at a Regional (which has happened a handful of times over the years), provide advice on creating a business entity like an LLC and, Goodell says, “sometimes go in to help with drama.
“Different cultures deal with different problems differently,” she adds. “The folks in Sweden, for instance, lean towards more socialist solutions when making decisions. Parts of the United States might be more hierarchical.”
Argentina’s Fuego Astral
Courtesy of Ignacio Roizman
In a more obvious way, most Regionals look very different than Black Rock City, which is famous for its barren environment. For many, this singular landscape is what makes Burning Man Burning Man.
“We’ve asked ourselves that a lot,” Goodell says of whether the intensity of the desert defines the event. “When I first joined the organization, I asked Larry, ‘Why the Black Rock Desert?’ He said it was a practical thing; that when you’re in nature and forced to reflect on yourself and your role in nature, you can see how small you are. Plus [the environment] makes you band with others for your own survival.”
The philosophy here is thus that Burning Man is not defined by being caked with a layer of dust, but being in the middle of nowhere. (To wit, Spain’s Regional, which takes place in the Monegros Desert, is called Nowhere.)
“Through the evolution of the Regionals, we’ve discovered you really should be as remote as you can, but it can be green rolling hills,” Goodell says. ‘You should not be walking to a store or gas station. To me, that’s more important than the weather being hard.”
A Las Vegas Regional she attended was visible from the road, which, she says, “was a negative.” Miami’s Love Burn, which takes place on the city’s Virginia Key, also has “a lot of challenges” given that attendees can Uber there and stay for a day. Goodell says these shorter experiences are “just not as transformative” as a multi-night event.
But Regional organizers do find ways to build in challenges. Fuego Astral requires attendees to be dropped off at the front gate and then walk across the sprawling site to get to their camp, which makes it so, Roizman says, people “have experienced that sense of overcoming a challenge.”
But while Black Rock City is remote, given that tens of thousands of people arrive there and build a bustling and often very noisy city, it’s not an ideal setting for those who prefer country life.
“Black Rock City has a culture that’s sometimes very urban,” Goodell says. “A lot of people will tell you they’d rather go to Michigan’s Lake of Fire that has 2,500 people instead of 80,000, because they live rural.”
A young Burning Man staffer recently attended Lake of Fire, which happens in Rothbury, Michigan, to help The Org figure out why young people aren’t going to Black Rock City in high numbers. “She feels like the cost is one of the reasons,” says Goodell, who teared up when seeing photos of lights reflecting on a lake at Lakes of Fire in a way that reminded her of Black Rock City. “You don’t have to go to Black Rock City to be touched, create new community, collaborate on art and be together.”
Goodell says for her it’s especially satisfying to see Regionals develop in places like the former Eastern Bloc, where creativity has often been stifled by socio-political circumstances. She says while the Russian and Ukrainian groups are both currently “a bit stunted” because of the war, people from these countries are in attendance this week at Black Rock City. Israel’s Midburn, the second largest Regional after South Africa, typically brings 10,000 people to the desert, but scaled down to about 1,500 this year due to the war. The Thai and South Korean Regionals are produced largely by expats, although Goodell says that “we really would prefer locals produce the Burning Man culture and not the traveling expats.”
The goal with the Regionals is simply to keep growing them. This past April, the European Leadership Summit Gathering happened in Talinn, Estonia and brought 30 staffers and 200 Burners from Europe and beyond together for panels and networking. Estonian Burner and Summit attendee Pille Heido says the experience provided the education and inspiration to “make sure people don’t just focus on that one event in the desert in August, which is great, but make sure there’s other things you can do outside of it as well.”
Goodell says additional funding for Burning Man Project would help spur the Regionals network, with South America and Asia being regions “that could use more encouragement.”
But where this money will come from is, she says, “the 10-million-dollar question.” While Burning Man Project raised $8 million in 2023 through ticket sales and philanthropy, “We’re absolutely at a point where we’re going to need to have a conversation about the longer-term method.” Goodell says a donation model “is the next bridge. Someone who doesn’t go to Back Rock City might still give $250.”
But while that evolution of that issue is yet to be seen, Goodell says Black Rock City being down in population this year is, in a way, a sign of health. “We’re proud of the fact that people are like, ‘I went to my Regional this year, so I’m taking a year or two off.”
Warner Music Japan has appointed Dr. Kenji Kitatani to the resurrected role of chairman of the label division, effective immediately. Dr. Kitatani will work closely with WMJ’s longtime president and CEO, Kazuyuki “Kaz” Kobayashi, to boost the company’s presence in the globe’s No. 2 music market. Dr. Kitatani currently holds the title of chairman of […]
A 26-year-old man has turned himself into police, saying he was responsible for the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary, German authorities announced Sunday (Aug. 25).
Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack.”
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement said.
Federal prosecutors said they were investigating on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken later Sunday from the police station in Solingen to make a first appearance before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.
The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.
On Saturday (Aug. 24), the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
The claim couldn’t be independently verified. Only a small number of claims on the site have turned out to be completely baseless, said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London. However “ISIS’ strategy for a number of years has been to claim attacks which are merely ‘inspired’, in other words, in which the link between organization and attacker is merely ideological.”
Friday’s attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.
“Warum?” asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears. Why?
Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.
“Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.
Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.
The attack comes amid debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thueringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four more people injured.
The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.
Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
Three people were killed and at least four were seriously wounded in a knife attack on Friday at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, police said.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30 p.m. to an unknown perpetrator having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said that the perpetrator was on the run, and that they so far had only very thin information on the assailant.
One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.” He said many people had been wounded by “a knifeman.”
At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post that “this evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter covering the festival, as saying that “the atmosphere is spooky.” She said a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and she saw festivalgoers weeping.
The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches), which is allowed now.
This story was originally published by the Associated Press.
AP Dhillon’s new major label deal is off to a good start.
The Punjabi-Canadian artist’s first single on Republic Records, released “in alliance with” Universal Music Canada, has debuted at No. 53 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.
“Old Money” is a catchy and replayable mix song with lyrics that translate to something reminiscent of post-breakthrough Drake: “Every girl wants to know how I’m doing / ever since they realized my worth.”
But what elevates the song into full blockbuster is its music video, which reunites two major movie stars for a cinematic homage to the ’90s action films from India that Dhillon grew up watching. Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt star in the video alongside Dhillon and his longtime collaborator Shinda Kahlon in an epic and bloody short film complete with car-chases and gunfights (it ends with the message, “Say no to violence”).
Dhillon isn’t the only star from India making moves on the Canadian Hot 100. “Big Dawgs” from Hanumankind and Kalmi moves into the top 10 this week, hitting No. 9 at the same time it also hits No. 9 on the Global 200 and No. 8 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart. Punjabi-Canadian artist Karan Aujla‘s debut Bollywood soundtrack single “Tauba Tauba” also holds on the Canadian Hot 100 at No. 81. The Punjabi Wave is in full force.
Trending on Billboard
Head here for a full breakdown of this week’s Canadian Hot 100. – Richard Trapunski
Charlotte Cardin, Jully Black and More to Perform at Billboard Canada Women in Music 2024
Billboard Canada Women in Music is loading up with talent for the Sept. 7 celebration in Toronto.
Guest of honour Alanis Morissette will appear at the event alongside other stars including Jessie Reyez, and they’ll be joined by some big live performances.
Montreal singer-songwriter Charlotte Cardin will take a rare break from her world tour during a breakthrough year with charting hits from “Confetti” to “99 Nights” and performances at the NBA All-Star game and for Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden.
Jully Black is planning a special cover for the event. The celebrated R&B/soul artist, who has collaborated with artists like Nas and Kardinal Offisshall, has been repping Canada for decades, and is now being embraced by new generations of fans.
Breakout pop singer LU KALA will accept her Rising Star award at the ceremony, and she’ll also grace the stage for a performance of her empowering pop hits. Acclaimed Toronto hip-hop artist Haviah Mighty will co-host the Billboard Canada Women in Music event and also bring the energy in a performance of her own.
A pair of fast-rising singers will also get a spotlight. Juno-winning Montreal artist Rêve has hit the Billboard charts a number of times with her infectious dance-pop hits, and was also named Billboard’s Dance Artist of the Month. Soulful Plains Cree and Salish singer Tia Wood released her first single, “Dirt Roads,” just two months ago, but already has a dedicated audience of fans who’ve been following her on her popular TikTok account.
Tickets to attend Billboard Canada Women in Music are available for purchase here.
Former Just For Laughs Executive Christine Melko Ross Joins Live Entertainment Company Outback Presents
A former executive at Just For Laughs is taking her expertise to another major live entertainment promoter.
Christine Melko Ross will be the new senior vp of global operations at Nashville-based Outback Presents, taking charge of expanding the company’s Canadian footprint.
Melko Ross was with Just for Laughs (JFL) for 23 years, before the Montreal comedy company filed for creditor protection earlier this year to avoid bankruptcy and laid off the majority of its staff. At JFL, Melko Ross helped launch the Toronto edition of the Just for Laughs festival, built up the company’s touring division, and was integral to its flagship Montreal festival’s operations.
In Canada, Outback isn’t as high-profile as a comedy brand, but the company placed No. 6 on Billboard‘s year-end Box Score promoters list for 2023 and is handling upcoming tours from comedians like Shane Gillis, Bill Burr and Jim Gaffigan.
Melko Ross tells Billboard Canada she’s excited to help Outback grow its presence in Canada, and not just in major markets like Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.
“Canadians love to laugh so we want to make sure that they’re entertained from coast to coast,” she says. “There’s lots of opportunity to do things in smaller places.” She highlights cities like Victoria and Regina and emphasizes that the Maritimes are often overlooked by touring acts.
“They’re great audiences — Halifax has five universities in it. That’s a growing market.”
It’s a tricky time for the live performance industry. Many festivals and venues, JFL amongst them, are facing existential threats from a combination of factors: lost revenue during the pandemic, rising overhead costs, and audiences that are slow to get back in their seats.
But Melko Ross says comedy fans have been coming to shows in droves.
“I think it’s gonna continue growing,” she adds. “I do think that that’s one area of the arts that has been very strong.”
JFL itself was revived in a smaller form this summer when Quebec comedy company ComediHa! acquired its assets. The new owner put on a renamed edition of the festival featuring Dane Cook and Bassem Youssef.
“It’s a brand that many of us hold dear to our heart, so hopefully the spirit of that remains,” Melko Ross says of JFL. – Rosie Long Decter
As summer turns to fall, festival lineups for early 2025 are starting to drop. One of the first out the gate is Costa Rica’s Ocaso Festival, which on Thursday (Aug. 22) announced a 2025 lineup featuring house maestro Chris Lake, globetrotting idols The Martinez Brothers and Brazilian phenom Vintage Culture, along with Space Miami resident […]
LONDON — The U.K. competition regulator has closed its investigations into Apple’s App store and Google’s Play Store on the grounds of shifting “administrative priorities” as it prepares to rollout stronger enforcement powers over tech companies.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into Apple in 2021 following complaints from developers over the way that the California-based tech giant operates its app store.
For many years, developers and app makers have complained about Apple’s restrictions to outside developers and the up-to-30% fee it charges them on all purchases made through its app store.
Two of the company’s biggest critics have been Spotify and Fortnite developer Epic Games with the latter taking its fight against Apple through the U.S. courts (Epic eventually lost the case, but in the process a California ordered Apple to make changes to how its store operates, including allowing links to outside platforms and third-party services).
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The CMA opened a separate investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct by Google in relation to its own app store in June 2022.
Both of those probes have now been dropped, the competition watchdog announced Wednesday (Aug. 21), pending reforms to U.K. competition and consumer protection laws, which are due to come into force later this year under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA).
The act, which was passed by the previous government administration in May, grants the CMA new and expanded powers over how large digital companies operate in the United Kingdom, including the ability to directly impose fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover for firms found to be breaching consumer protection and competition laws.
“Once the new pro-competition digital markets regime comes into force, we’ll be able to consider applying those new powers to concerns we have already identified through our existing work,” said Will Hayter, executive director for digital markets at the CMA, in a statement.
The CMA said that should Apple or Google each or both be designated as having “strategic market status” – a categorization that requires global turnover of more than £25 billion or U.K. turnover of more than £1 billion — it will be able to use its new powers to investigate the companies “more holistically” than it could under its now-closed probes.
The regulator said it expects to launch three to four investigations into companies with strategic market status (SMS) within the first year of its new powers coming into force. If the CMA finds businesses are using their status to gain an unfair competitive advantage, it says it will take “targeted and proportionate action” to address their behavior.
The CMA also said that it has rejected new commitments from Google that would have given app developers the choice of using alternative payment options to Google Play’s billing system, under proposals known as “Developer Only Billing” and “User Choice Billing.” Those proposals failed to “address its competition concerns effectively,” said the CMA.
In response, a spokesperson for Google said the company has actively engaged with the regulator throughout their investigation and has “made a number of significant commitments to further broaden the billing options available to developers through Google Play.”
Google says that its fees are the lowest charged by major app stores with 99% of developers qualifying for a service fee of 15% or less. The company says that in 2022 its Android app business generated almost £10 billion in revenue for British developers and supported over 457,000 jobs in the U.K. Apple did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Billboard.
The CMA’s warning that it will continue to closely monitor the tech sector over competition concerns and may reopen further inquiries in the not-too-distant future comes as regulators and politicians around the world look at ways to curb the dominance of tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta.
In March, the European Commissioned fined Apple 1.8 billion euro ($1.95 billion) for breaking competition laws and unfairly favoring its own music streaming service over rivals including Spotify. [Apple appealed in May.]
The company has also been forced to make a number to how its App store operates in the 27-member EU trading bloc as a result of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which officially came into force in 2022, although companies had until March this year to comply with its terms.
The Digital Markets Act requires tech companies trading within the EU region to open up their services and platforms to other businesses and allow them to operate more freely.
For music streaming services like Spotify that means it is now able to list pricing information inside its app for European users – an update that is “something as obvious as it is overdue,” the company said in a blog post earlier this month. Freemium Spotify users looking to upgrade can also see special introductory offers and the pricing once a promotion ends.
While Spotify has welcomed the gradual loosening of restrictions, it says its long-running battle with Apple isn’t over and continues to criticize the company for preventing EU iOS users from purchasing subscriptions in-app because of what it describes as “illegal and predatory taxes Apple continues to demand, despite the [European] Commission’s ruling.”
Luísa Sonza has been announced as one of the attractions for the historic first regular-season NFL game that will take place in Brazil. She will perform the Brazilian National Anthem. Other confirmed acts include Anitta, who will perform during the halftime show. Zeeba (who is American, with Brazilian parents) will sing the U.S. National Anthem, while DJ Carola will present a set before the game begins. The event will take place on Sept. 6 at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo.
In a conversation with Billboard Brazil, Luísa described the moment as an opportunity to increase the projection of her name and career outside her country. “This is a very important exposure. But above all, representing my country to the world is the greatest honor I can have as an artist,” she said.
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The National Anthem moment precedes the start of the match, and for Sonza, it’s a time that generates a lot of anticipation for the audience. “It’s always emotional because it’s about our roots, our homeland. Being able to represent that to the world will be an honor.” Read the exclusive interview below.
How did the invitation to sing the National Anthem at the NFL event in São Paulo come about?
The invitation came through Kley Tarcitano, an artistic director who currently works in the United States and collaborates with the NFL, along with Maria Garcia, who works with the NFL and the halftime show in the U.S. and worldwide. I said yes right away! The NFL is a global event, and I was very happy to be invited to their first game in Brazil. Singing the National Anthem is always a unique moment, especially at an event of this magnitude. Representing my country is incredible.
Can you give more details about what you’re preparing for your performance?
The performance of the National Anthem always comes with great expectations. I’ve been singing since I was a child, and I always sing along with all the other Brazilians during important moments in our history, at games, and in celebrations. The anthem is always emotional because it brings our roots, our homeland, and being able to represent that to the world will be an honor.
In the United States, there is a strong connection between pop music and sports, particularly with American football. How do you see this playing in Brazil?
I believe entertainment and sports always succeed together. I’ve always followed the Super Bowl finals, the incredible shows that happen every year, and I’m very happy to be part of this moment here in Brazil.
Regarding the audience here in Brazil, do you think being part of this historic NFL event could also introduce you to a new audience?
It always adds value. Being able to perform and sing for new audiences is important for all artists. Music is very vast in Brazil, and having this kind of representation is relevant for any artist’s career.
Do you believe that this performance could also bring international exposure to your career? Is that an important point for you?
Yes. I’ve already been more present abroad, and this is a very important exposure. But above all, representing my country to the world is the greatest honor I can have as an artist. I’m very happy with the invitation.