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A forthcoming compilation album will feature a collection of many of Avicii‘s biggest hits, along with a never before released song. Titled Avicii Forever, the compilation will be released on May 16 via Interscope Records. The compilation is a project by Interscope, the Avicii Estate and Pophouse, which acquired 75% of the late producer’s recording […]
Gospel Music Hall of Fame members Amy Grant, CeCe Winans and Michael W. Smith will help usher in the holiday season, with their Christmas Together tour launching Nov. 28 in Greensboro, N.C. The tour will make seven more stops in states including Georgia, Illinois, Virginia and Ohio, before wrapping Dec. 8 in St. Louis.
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Last year, Winans released the holiday set Joyful, Joyful: A Christmas Album, with her rendition of “Joy to the World” rising to No. 6 on Billboard‘s Hot Gospel Songs chart. Grant has released five studio Christmas albums, including 2016’s Tennessee Christmas. Her songs such as “Emmanuel,” “Breath of Heaven,” “My Grown Up Christmas List” and “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” have become holiday classics. Smith has also released a handful of holiday projects, including 2023’s Every Christmas. In 2013, his collaboration with Carrie Underwood on “All Is Well” reached No. 6 on the Hot Christian Songs chart.
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This isn’t the first time the three artists have performed together for a holiday tour; Grant and Smith have held Christmas tours for more than 30 years, with Winans joining them on their 1998 Christmas Tour.
“I’m so excited to be joining Michael and Amy for the Christmas Together tour,” Winans tells Billboard. “There’s nothing like coming together with friends to celebrate the true meaning of the season through music, worship and joy. I can’t wait to share these unforgettable nights with audiences across the country.”
“I look forward to every moment of Christmas Together with Michael and CeCe, the rehearsals, the travel, the concerts! We can’t wait to celebrate Christmas together and with all of you,” Grant tells Billboard.
“We all know, Christmas is hands down my favorite time of year, and getting to tour with Amy always makes it even more special — but this year, we’re taking it to the next level!” Smith adds. “We’re beyond excited to have our dear friend CeCe Winans join us. After so many years of touring together, adding CeCe’s incredible voice and spirit to the mix feels like the ultimate Christmas gift. To say that the three of us are thrilled about this tour is simply an understatement.”
See the full list of dates for the Christmas Together Tour below:
Christmas Together
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Justin Vernon has a new Bon Iver album to hawk, Sable, Fable. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to take the odd Taylor Swift question here and there. Which is why during a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week, the singer-songwriter waxed rhapsodic about accidentally being pulled into Swift’s pandemic orbit in the best way possible.
When Lowe asked Vernon what it was like to work with Swift, he praised the singer for the “courage” to reach out to The National’s Aaron Dessner to collaborate on her COVID-era Folklore album. On the cusp of quarantine, Vernon said he was about to go on an European tour with Bon Iver a month before lockdown when he tapped Desssner to fill in on guitar.
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The plan was for Dessner to play DJ and cue up demos of songs from his Big Red Machine side project — a long-running collaboration with Vernon — before the Bon Iver arena sets. The tour was quickly cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so like a lot of musicians at the time Dessner went on Instagram Live to play some unreleased music for fans and who happened to hear what he was laying down but Taylor Swift?
“All the glory goes to Taylor for hearing, as a songwriter, what music she wants to make,” Vernon said. “But those songs are Big Red Machine demos at their core and her genius was working with the genius of Aaron Dessner on making the strongest set of lyrics and songwriting that she’s ever had, really.”
As he sat back and watched the process unfold, Vernon said he was mesmerized seeing the global pop icon “enter our whole universe… of course there’s no one bigger and we all bowed down to her.” Vernon described a feeling of not being able to stop blinking as he realized the collaboration between the chart and stadium queen and their low-key indie side project made perfect sense.
“The love and community that Aaron had shown me over these years… Taylor was just stepping into it and flawlessly taking it,” Vernon said, adding that Dessner rang him up during the process and said that there was a track Swift wanted him to sing on. “I was like, ‘Taylor?’” Vernon said he asked as Dessner explained that Swift was writing to some of the Big Red Machine songs she’d heard.
“I was like, ‘Awesome! I’m not doing anything today!’ They sent it and I ended up adding a couple little bits,” Vernon said of the origin story of how he ended up with a co-writing credit — along with Swift, Dessner and the singer’s ex, actor Joe Alwyn (under the pseudonym William Bowery) — on the track. “I just sang it on an SM7 in my little makeshift studio… and it felt level to everything else. It’s an exceptional song and an exceptionally popular song for a good reason,” he said. “But it felt just so natural and I’m so thankful for that opportunity just to have worked with such an amazing artist.”
In addition to “Exile” on the Folklore album, Vernon also pitched in on the title track to the companion Evermore pandemic album, while Swift lent a hand on the Big Red Machine single “Renegade” in 2021.
Watch Vernon talk about working with Swift below.
The Who have parted ways with drummer Zak Starkey after nearly three decades, following the band’s recent run of London shows.
In a statement to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the veteran group said: “The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.”
The gigs, which took place last month on March 18 and 20, were in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The Who’s frontman, Roger Daltrey, is a patron of the charity and until 2024 acted as curator for their annual gig series at the historic venue.
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Tensions came to a head when Daltrey complained onstage last month about Starkey’s performance. A report of the first performance via Metro suggested that the singer stopped several songs mid-performance, citing difficulty hearing the band over the drums.
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It also said that Daltrey paused their final song, “The Song Is Over,” and told the audience: “To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.”
Starkey appeared to pre-empt his dismissal over the weekend (Apr. 13), when he posted an all-caps message to his Instagram page that read, in part: “Heard today from inside source that Toger Daktrey [sic] lead singer and principal songwriter of the group unhappy with Zak the drummer’s performance at the Albert Hall a few weeks ago is bringing formal charges of overplaying and is literally going to Zak the drummer.”
Daltrey, 81, recently revealed during those Teenage Cancer Trust shows that “the joys of getting old mean you go deaf. I also now have got the joy of going blind.”
The decision wraps up a significant chapter in the legendary rockers’ history. Starkey joined the band during their 1996 Quadrophenia world tour. He was introduced to drumming by The Who’s original drummer, Keith Moon, a close family friend who gave him a drum kit for his eighth birthday. He went on to play major shows with the group, including the 2010 Super Bowl and the 2012 London Olympics. At press time spokespeople for Starkey and the Who had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional comment.
Starkey is the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey, and has also enjoyed a fruitful career outside of The Who, playing with Oasis, Johnny Marr, Paul Weller and Graham Coxon. He currently performs in the recently-formed supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos, also featuring Shaun Ryder and Bez of the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, and Andy Bell of Oasis and Ride.
Big things are coming from Lorde. The singer who disappears into the hedges like Homer Simpson when she is off-cycle peeked her head back out again on Tuesday (April 15) when she sent a three-minute audio message to fans via WhatsApp in which she teased that news is coming.
Describing the feeling of returning to the stage over the weekend at Coachella — where she hopped up for a surprise appearance on the “Girl So Confusing” remix during Charli XCX’s set — Lorde said she reveled in the golden hour glow. “I can feel all that I have shed to be able to be in this the way I am right now… I had this little taste. Fifteen seconds. I could feel it behind me,” she said of the feeling of walking to the main stage at dusk in Indio and thinking about all the Coachellas she’s been to over the past 12 years.
During her appearance at Coachella, Charli helped amp up the hype, shouting “Lorde summer 2025!”
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“I felt so real and so solid. I can just feel all that I have shed to be able to be in this the way I am right now. I was like, ‘It’s dusk, in the desert, enjoy it b–ch.’ I just wanted to say hi because everything is about to change,” Lorde said in the voice note. “These are the last moments where it’s just us. Which is crazy. But so right. I’m so ready.”
The singer signed off by thanking her fans for their patience and assuring them that she could feel their presence when she was on stage.
Lorde has been slowly teasing her next era over the past year, most recently with a snippet of an unreleased song on TikTok on April 9 in the first taste of her upcoming as-yet-untitled fourth album. In the brief clip, Lorde filmed herself walking through Washington Square Park in New York City as she listened to the track. “Since I was 17, I gave you everything/ Now we wake from a dream, well baby, what was that?/ What was that?” she sang over a mid-tempo dance beat and ethereal synths.
Last July, she shared a micro snippet of an unreleased song with the message “Will be back in touch,” followed the next month by confirmation from producer Jim-E Stack that they were working together via a photo of the singer staring intently at her laptop. That same month, she wiped all of her social accounts, amping up fan speculation that LP4 was on the way.
Her most recent album was 2021’s Solar Power, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Listen to Lorde’s message below.
Luke Bryan says he didn’t plan to spend his morning watching Katy Perry’s space flight — but like many, he got caught up in the moment.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, the American Idol judge recounted how he found himself unexpectedly tuning into Blue Origin’s historic NS-31 launch, which saw Perry take flight alongside an all-female crew that included Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King and Kerianne Flynn.
“I was doing my morning walk around the farm, which turns into checking Instagram and stuff,” Bryan explained. “I saw where she was posting on her Instagram that it was happening at 8:30 Central and totally got roped into the moment.”
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The country star said he ended up watching the full livestream. “They’re in the Rivian, they’re heading to the capsule, and I’m sitting there walking and it roped me in,” he said. “Because when you have a friend — I mean, let’s face it — it could blow up. So I wanted it to not do that.”
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Bryan previously sent Perry a supportive text when she announced her participation, writing, “Good luck, wow, that’s crazy you’re getting to do that.”
While Perry has now officially been declared an astronaut after the successful launch, Bryan isn’t sure he’d follow in her footsteps just yet. When Kimmel asked if he’d want to go to space, Bryan laughed, “I probably would do it just because — I mean, you gotta take that chance.”
Kimmel pushed back: “No, you don’t. You don’t have to take that chance.”
Bryan agreed the decision would take “a delicate negotiation” with his family, adding, “I think I would get a resounding no.”
The two joked about potential country-themed space tracks, including “Chicken Jockey” and “Bass Fisherman in Space.”
Later in the interview, Bryan also discussed season 23 of American Idol, praising Jelly Roll’s role as artist-in-residence. “When you hear Jelly Roll’s story — the fact that he was 35 before he ever really started singing — what he’s been able to do since then is amazing,” he said. “He really develops a great connection [with contestants].”
Carrie Underwood has also joined the panel this season. “What she’s added to the show has been really, really special,” Bryan added.
Meanwhile, Bryan is preparing for two tours this year: his annual Farm Tour, which will head to California for the first time, and the Country Song Came On Tour. “When you pull out there and see 15,000 to 20,000 people come to a real working farm, it’s pretty magical,” he said. “It’s become something really important to me and my family.”
And yes — he confirmed he does own a helicopter, on Blake Shelton’s advice.
Just a week after revealing that their forthcoming album will be taking an orchestral lean, prolific Australian collective King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have officially detailed their 27th album.
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Set for release on June 13 via the band’s own (p)doom Records, new album Phantom Island is slated to be a stylistic change for the genre-defying rockers, with the ten-track album seeing them utilize orchestral arrangements for the first time.
Inspired by a meeting with members of Los Angeles Philharmonic while backstage at the Hollywood Bowl in June 2023, the sessions for King Gizzard’s 2024 album Flight b741 yielded an additional batch of tracks that needed “more time and space and thought” and additional “energy and colour,” guitarist and vocalist Stu Mackenzie claimed.
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With the LA Philharmonic in mind, Mackenzie reached out to friend, British historical keyboardist, conductor and arranger Chad Kelly, who brings a “wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements,” according to Mackenzie. “We come from such different worlds – he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he’s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.”
Kelly’s influence can be seen in lead single “Deadstick,” which pairs elaborate orchestrations and funky musicianship with a sprawling clip directed by Guy Tyzack.
King Gizzard formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2010 and swiftly became one of the country’s most prolific groups, with both 2017 and 2022 seeing the band release five albums within the span of a year.
Despite their extensive output, the band have not yet topped the charts in their homeland (though they would hit No. 2 on four separate occasions). In the U.S., the band peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 with 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, while their voracious fanbase has also seen the majority of their releases chart on the Top Album Sales chart.
In January, King Gizzard were also listed on the lineup for the 2025 edition of Bonnaroo, performing three sets over three days as part of the inaugural ‘Roo Residency. This Residency coincides with the release of Phantom Island on June 13, and will be followed by a series of U.S. tour dates where the band will be joined by a different 29-piece orchestra in each city.
Their U.S. run will also feature a standalone “Rock ‘n Roll Show” in New York on Aug. 2, and will wrap in Colorado later that month with the band’s own three-day Field of Vision festival.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 2025 U.S. Tour Dates
June 13-15 – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, TNJuly 28 – TD Pavilion At The Mann, Philadelphia, PA (w/ Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia)July 30 – Westville Music Bowl, New Haven, CT (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s)Aug. 1 – Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, NY (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s)Aug. 2 – Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, NYAug. 4 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (w/ National Symphony Orchestra)Aug. 6 – Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL (w/ Chicago Philharmonic)Aug. 8 – Ford Amphitheater, Colorado Springs, CO (w/ Colorado Symphony)Aug. 10 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA (w/ Hollywood Bowl Orchestra)Aug. 11 – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego, CA (w/ San Diego Symphony Orchestra)Aug. 15-17 – Field of Vision at Meadow Creek, Buena Vista, CO
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief has announced a new live album, with the forthcoming record capturing shows on her 2024 solo tour.
Set for release on Thursday, April 24 via 4AD and Remote Control, Live at Revolution Hall is a 43-track collection of songs recorded across three days in June 2024. Largely capturing performances at Portland’s eponymous Revolution Hall, the record features fan favorites, deep cuts and unreleased gems from Lenker’s prolific catalog. One of these unreleased tracks, “Happiness,” has been shared to preview the forthcoming live album.
Backed by pianist Nick Hakim and violinist Josefin Runsteen, the album was recorded by engineer Andrew Sarlo, who has been a longtime producer of Lenker and Big Thief.
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“This live album is another generous offering from Adrianne,” Sarlo said in a statement. “Performing a myriad of songs; some new, some rare, some favorites, and beyond in front of an audience and behind the scenes.
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“Clocking in around 120 minutes featuring songs & vignettes recorded exclusively on reel to reel and cassette tape, there was an attempt to create a different spin on what a live album could be,” he added. “Recorded over the span of 3-days while on the Bright Future tour, we put friendship at the focal point making this a loving memento from one friend to another.”
Lenker’s 2024 tour saw her performing throughout North America, Europe, and the U.K. in support of her latest solo album, Bright Future. Hitting No. 5 on the Heatseekers Albums chart, the record also garnered Lenker her first Grammy nomination as a solo artist, in the best folk album category.
Lenker will return to the live stage later this year when Big Thief performs a series of live dates throughout September and October. The band haven’t released a new record since 2022’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, which became their best charting release to date with a peak of No. 31 on the Billboard 200.
In July 2024, the group announced the departure of bassist Max Oleartchik, citing “interpersonal reasons” for his exit. “It’s a big change for us and the four of us ask for your trust, respect, and care as we grow into the next chapter of our lives,” the band wrote in a statement at the time.
In February, Big Thief also unveiled a new L.A. wildfires benefit EP, with Passional Relations collecting some of their “favorite unreleased songs” to aid relief for those impacted by the fires in Los Angeles.
When Post Malone released F-1 Trillion last year, he conquered yet another genre with the country collab album. And it looks like he’s going back to that well on his next project. On the new Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are joined by Billboard deputy editor Lyndsey Havens to discuss Post’s Sunday headlining set […]
Wink Martindale, who had success as a DJ, radio personality, game show host and TV producer, died in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday (April 15). He was 91.
Martindale was best-known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988 and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
He also had a short-lived career as a recording artist. His spoken-word hit “Deck of Cards” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song had been a No. 2 hit for “T” Texas Tyler in 1948 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Retail Folk Records chart, a forerunner to Hot Country Songs.
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Martindale landed just one other Hot 100 hit, “Black Land Farmer,” which reached No. 85 in 1961.
The future broadcaster was born Winston Conrad Martindale in Jackson, Tennessee. He began his career as a DJ at age 17 at WPLI in Jackson, earning $25 a week. After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson’s only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while attending college at Memphis State University.
In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He was a regular presence on Los Angeles radio into the 1990s. He had lengthy stays at KGIL (AM) from 1968 to 1971, KKGO-FM/KJQI and Gene Autry‘s KMPC (now KSPN-AM) from 1971 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1987, a brief stint on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993 to 1994.
Martindale’s first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a children’s series. While at that station, Martindale became the host of the TV show Teenage Dance Party, where Elvis Presley (who would become a friend) made an appearance in June 1956.
Martindale’s first game-show hosting job was What’s This Song?, which he hosted for NBC (credited as “Win Martindale”) in 1964-65. In 1970-71, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, Words and Music, again on NBC.
While Martindale’s greatest claim to fame is as a game-show host, he periodically returned to music programming. Martin filled in as guest host for Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in October 1975.
In the 2000s, Martindale had a daily three-hour show on the syndicated Music of Your Life format. In 2012, Martindale hosted the nationally-syndicated The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.
On June 6, 2021, Martindale began hosting the syndicated The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a two-hour weekend review of music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The production was created by Martindale, producer/engineer Peter Jay Gould of The Intervale Group, and writer/producer Gary Theroux.
Martindale was one of the hosts featured in the 2002 NBC special Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, alongside four other game show mainstays – Bob Eubanks, Jim Lange, Ben Stein, and Peter Marshall.
Martindale’s last program was the GSN original series Instant Recall, which premiered on March 4, 2010.
On June 2, 2006, Martindale received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – site of the first Academy Awards ceremony. On Oct. 13, 2007, Martindale was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Martindale married Madelyn Leech in 1954, with whom he had four children; the couple divorced in 1972. He married his second wife, Sandy (née Ferra), on Aug. 2, 1975.