Music News

23 Mar 2023

Pussy Riot to Receive the 2023 Woody Guthrie Prize

The Woody Guthrie Center announced on Thursday (March 23) that Pussy Riot will be honored with the 2023 Woody Guthrie Prize later this spring.

The ceremony is set to take place on May 6 as part of the Tulsa, Okla.-based center’s 10-year anniversary celebration. Pussy Riot members Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova will accept the award from the late folk music legend’s daughter, Nora Guthrie, inside Tulsa’s Cain Ballroom before they and their bandmates perform their latest multimedia show, titled Riot Days, for the first time in the U.S.

“It feels fitting to be awarded in the spirit of Woody, I think he would love Pussy Riot’s anti-fascist message,” Tolokonnikova told Billboard after the news was announced.

“As artists who, like Woody Guthrie, have the courage of their convictions, there are no
contemporary artists more worthy of this recognition than Pussy Riot,” added Woody Guthrie Center director Cady Shaw in a separate statement. “They have paid a very personal price for speaking their
minds on the most serious issues of our time, yet they continue to fight for justice and freedom.”

According to a release, the Woody Guthrie Prize is “given annually to an artist who best exemplifies Woody Guthrie’s spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance or other art forms and serving as a positive force for social change.” Over the last decade, the honor has also been bestowed upon the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Mavis Staples, John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Norman Lear and more.

Earlier this month, Tolokonnikova also helped raise nearly $7 million for relief efforts in Ukraine by partnering with UkraineDAO on an NFT of the besieged country’s flag in the midst of its ongoing war with Russia.

23 Mar 2023

Kelly Clarkson Rocks Out Her Way With Lenny Kravitz Cover: Watch

Kelly Clarkson just covered another artist’s hit song, but as per usual, she did it her way. On the Thursday (March 23) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the three-time Grammy winner and her band Y’all put their own special spin on “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” the 1993 smash that solidified Lenny Kravitz‘s place in music stardom.

The Thursday (March 23) performance came complete with all the hallmarks of Clarkson’s best Kellyoke performances, including flashing lights, epic solos and the “Stronger” singer’s own signature vocal power. She belted out one sky-high note after another throughout the song while her electric guitarist shredded sizzling riffs behind her.

“So tell me why we got to die/ And kill each other one by one/ We’ve got to hug and rub-a-dub/ We’ve got to dance and be in love,” Clarkson sang, her audience clapping along to the hardcore beat.
“Are you gonna go my way?/ And I got to, got to know/ Are you gonna go my way?”

Released in 1993 as the title track and lead single off Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way album, the rock anthem is one of the Hunger Games star’s best-known songs. It topped Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart the year it was released and picked up two Grammy nominations in 1994, earning nods for best rock song and best male rock performance. Meanwhile, the album reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200, at the time blowing away Kravitz’s previous chart peaks with Mama Said and Let Love Rule.

“It just did what it wanted to do,” the musician told Billboard in 2013, reflecting on the then 20-year-old record’s success. “It was an amazing time. I was touring the world and seeing the world for the first time that extensively, and my life was very, very free, very wild, a lot of craziness going on — a lot of emotions and a lot of feelings. But I had no idea that this record was going to catapult me into that next level, no idea at all. I was just really enjoying the creative process.”

Watch Kelly Clarkson rock out to Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” in the video above.

23 Mar 2023

MAMAMOO Unveils the Massive Venues for Group’s First U.S. Tour

MAMAMOO is officially going on its first ever U.S. tour! The K-pop girl group first shared news of its stateside trek — titled the MY CON U.S. Tour — on March 15, announcing the locations that they will performing at. The quartet — which consists of members Solar, Moonbyul, Whee In and Hwa Sa — followed up the news on Thursday (March 23) by unveiling the venues they’ll visit this spring.

As previously announced, the girls will be making stops in New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and more, with the tour kicking off on May 16 at the UBS Arena located at New York’s Belmont Park. The K-pop stars will exclusively perform in arenas for the entire duration of the tour, before wrapping on June 4 at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.

The MY CON tour — named after MAMAMOO’s latest EP, Mic On, released in November — marks the first time the quartet has performed in the United States since its 2019 appearance at the 2019 KCON Los Angeles festival. Tickets for the MY CON tour go on sale on at 10 a.m. local time on March 29 via Ticketmaster.

See the full U.S. tour dates, alongside the newly announced venues, below:

  • May 16 – UBS Arena at Belmont Park — New York, N.Y.
  • May 18 – CGF Bank Arena — Baltimore, Md.
  • May 20 – State Farm Arena — Atlanta, Ga.
  • May 22 – Bridgestone Arena — Nashville, Tenn.
  • May 24 – Dickies Arena — Fort Worth, Texas
  • May 27 – Wintrust Arena — Chicago, Ill.
  • May 31 – Desert Diamond Arena — Glendale, Ariz.
  • June 2 – Oakland Arena — Oakland, Calif.
  • June 4 – Kia Forum — Los Angeles, Calif.

23 Mar 2023

Lizzo Preps for Jury Duty & Is Promptly Released: ‘I Wonder Why’

Lizzo may be “100% that b—h,” but she still has to do jury duty. The 34-year-old musician recently revealed in a pair of hilarious TikToks that she was summoned to perform her civic responsibilities in court, but was ultimately dismissed from serving as a juror before the case commenced.

In the first of her recent TikToks, the “Truth Hurts” singer documented her getting-ready process for jury duty, which she confessed she definitely wasn’t looking forward to. “I’m actually really stressed about it,” Lizzo said while doing her skincare routine. “I’ve just heard of people getting really gruesome cases. I have a really sensitive mind, I don’t like hearing or seeing that. I will cry.”

After picking out a dress for the day, she described her look as “giving law-abiding citizen.” She ended up changing her outfit, though, instead choosing to rep some of her own Yitty clothing in the courtroom.

“Just fulfilling my civil duty,” she captioned the video, which quickly filled up with amused comments.

“I would drop dead if I walked into jury duty and Lizzo was there,” wrote on fan, while another joked, “Your Honor she’s slaying.”

The process, however, ended up being for naught. The Grammy winner was quickly dismissed from the selection process. “I GOT RELEASED FROM JURY DUTY YALL I WONDER WHY THO,” she captioned a second video, which featured a photo of Lizzo posing in front of the jury assembly room.

As one commenter pointed out, the star probably got let off the hook simply because celebrities sometimes “get dismissed because they’ll be a ‘distraction’ to the trial.” For instance, Madonna was sent home from jury duty after just two hours for that reason, a court spokesperson said at the time.

See Lizzo’s TikToks about her brief stint as a potential juror below:

23 Mar 2023

Chris Martin Says He’ll Have What Bruce Springsteen Is Having For Dinner: Nothing

Forget Ozempic, or the Hollywood 48-hour miracle diet. If you really want to get superstar fit, Coldplay singer Chris Martin suggests you do what he does: listen to The Boss. In his case that’s 73-year-old miracle of biology Bruce Springsteen, from whom Martin has learned a very important diet tip.

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“I actually don’t have dinner anymore,” Martin told Conan O’Brien on this week’s episode of the former late night host’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend when O’Brien asked what important lessons the singer has learned from meeting, and breaking bread, with so many of his rock idols. “I stop eating at 4 [p.m.] and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen.”

O’Brien, in his best Springsteen grunt, joked, “what happened? You were having lunch with him and he said, ‘after this NO MORE! That’s it!’”

Martin explained that he got to share a mid-day meal at home with Bruce and wife/bandmate Patti Scialfa the day after Coldplay performed in Philadelphia earlier this year, which is where the rock icon known for his age-defying stamina during sometimes three-plus-hour concerts dropped a few pearls of diet wisdom on his young charge.

“I was on a really strict diet anyway,” Martin continued. “But I was like, ‘Bruce looks even more in shape than me’ and Patti said he’s only eating one meal a day. I was like, ‘Well, there we go. That’s my next challenge.’” They both had jokes about what that one meal is, with O’Brien suggesting it was an 8-foot-long sub sandwich and Martin matching his punchline by revealing that it’s an entire buffalo.

“And then you see it’s this giant vat of beef chili,” O’Brien chuckled. “The chef came out and said, ‘today we have flank of buffalo with a steroid sauce,’” Martin quipped.

Martin will keep burning those calories on Coldplay’s massive Music of the Spheres world tour, wrapping up the current South American leg with a run of shows at Estadio Nilton Santos Engenhao in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on March 25, 26 and 28 before moving on to another European swing that will run from May 17 through July 19. A final North American string of dates in September wraps with an Oct. 1 gig at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.

Watch Martin’s interview with O’Brien below.

23 Mar 2023

Future Primitive Announces Los Angeles Summer Series Featuring L.A. Debut of DJ Tennis & Carlita’s Astra Club & More

While Los Angeles has most recently been experiencing a rain-soaked winter and spring, the heat of summer is officially on the horizon with the announcement of Future Primitive’s annual summer series.

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The Los Angeles dance event producer will host a crew of house and techno greats in locations around the city this summer, starting with Guy Gerbers’ Rumors event — which launched nine years ago in Ibiza — at Gin Ling Square in Chinatown on May 6.

That show will be followed by Lee Burridge‘s All Day I Dream in downtown’s Pershing Square on May 20, with this L.A. stop being part of a global 2023 tour that includes shows in Brazil, Dubai, Switzerland, Canada, Ibiza and more.

This same location will host Jamie Jones‘ Paradise In the Park on June 3-4, with that longstanding event — launched at Ibiza’s famous DC10 in 2012 — expanding to two days for the first time in its six-year history.

Finally, the Future Primitive team will return to Chinatown for the debut performance from Astra Club, the white-hot duo composed of DJ Tennis and Carlita at Gin Ling Square.

Full lineups for each of these shows will be announced in the coming months.

Future Primitive is a Los Angeles-based independent promoter that’s become the West Coast partner for a flurry of European brands and artists. The company is focused on bringing the hottest parties and players from the global dance circuit to the City of Angels, placing them in urban setting that have been transformed into dazzling outdoor clubs.

summer series

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23 Mar 2023

Selena Gomez Celebrates ‘Lose You to Love Me’ Reaching 1 Billion Spotify Streams

She needed to lose you to gain streams — one billion, to be exact. Selena Gomez has surpassed a billion Spotify listens for her blockbuster 2019 track “Lose You to Love Me,” a milestone she celebrated on Instagram Wednesday (March 22).

The streaming service announced the news on social media, tweeting, “All the love for
@selenagomez ❤️ Congratulations for 1 Billion streams on Lose You to Love Me #BillionsClub.”

Spotify also posted about the landmark on Instagram, which the “Calm Down” singer re-shared on her Story. “Grateful,” she wrote, adding a heart emoji.

“Lose You to Love Me” isn’t the first song Gomez has landed in Spotify’s billion streams club, but it is her first solo effort to reach the mark. Previous entries include collaborations on “It Ain’t Me” with Kygo, “Wolves” with Marshmello and “Taki Taki” with DJ Snake, Ozuna and Cardi B.

Released as the lead single off the Only Murders in the Building star’s third studio album, Rare, “Lose You to Love Me” marked Gomez’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a streaming powerhouse from the very beginning, becoming the singer’s first song to top the Streaming Songs chart shortly after its release.

“When I wrote the song ‘Lose You to Love Me,’ I was kind of a mess,” she told Billboard in early 2020. “It was really difficult for me. And by the time we shot the music video at the end of the year, it had a completely different meaning, and it was so freeing. It was actually fun for me – I think, because I let it go, it actually meant that I let it go within myself as well. And I couldn’t have asked for a better way to close a chapter in my life.”

Join a billion other listeners in streaming Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me” below:

23 Mar 2023

BLACKPINK Playing 2023 BST Hyde Park Summer Festival With Sabrina Carpenter, The Rose & More

BLACKPINK will have some serious back-up when they take the stage at the BST Hyde Park concert series in London this summer. The official poster for the K-pop group’s headlining slot on July 2 in London revealed that they’ll share the stage with “Nonsense” singer Sabrina Carpenter, as well as South Korean indie rockers The Rose and up-and-coming English pop singers Caity Baser and Mae Stephens.

The poster for the event revealed on Thursday (March 23) promised “many more” support act to be announced.

The massive summer series has already announced a a special edition of P!nk’s Summer Carnival outing with Gwen Stefani (and more guests to be announced soon) on June 24 and 25, a June 30 show with Guns N’ Roses (and special guests to be announced), beloved British boy band Take That with The Script and Sugarbabes on July 1, Billy Joel and Daryl Hall on July 7 and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band on July 6 and 8.

BLACKPINK’s members have been making plenty of news outside the group lately, with Jisoo teasing her upcoming solo album, ME, with a second teaser in which the singer poses in a black crop top and billowing skirt and gazes intently at the camera until the title of the album and its release date pop up in red text. Earlier this week, Rosé shared some footage of her and bandmate Jennie enjoying Harry Styles’ Love n Tour stop at Seoul’s KSPO Dome and singing along to Harry’s “As It Was” before grabbing some snaps with Styles backstage after the show.

Check out the poster for BLACKPINK’s BST Hyde Park show below.

23 Mar 2023

KISS Biopic Chronicling Band’s Early Years Coming to Netflix in 2024

KISS may be winding down their touring years, but that doesn’t mean you’ve seen the last of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Not by a long-shot. The long-running greasepaint rockers will revisit their early years in an upcoming biopic slated to hit Netflix in 2024 according to longtime manager Doc McGhee.

McGhee discussed the project recently on The Rock Experience With Mike Brunn show, revealing, “It’s a biopic about the first four years of KISS. We’re just starting it now. We’ve already sold it, it’s already done, we have a director, McG. That’s moving along and that’ll come in ’24.” It appeared that McGhee was referring to Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle director and veteran music video helmer McG, who most recently worked with Jennifer Garner on the Netflix body swap comedy Family Leave; at press time a spokesperson for McG had not returned Billboard‘s request for confirmation on his role in the film.

Singer and co-founder Paul Stanley had earlier let the cat out of the bag in April 2021, when he tweeted out a link to a Deadline story with details on the project. That story revealed that the doc, Shout It Out Loud, will be directed by Joachim Rønning, whose credits include Kon-Tiki and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and will be written by Ole Sanders. At press time no information was available on casting for the film.

Stanley and bassist/singer and fellow co-founder Gene Simmons are cooperating on the project, which will chronicle their more than half-century friendship and the formation of the group in Queens, New York in the early 1970s with former founding members drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley.

Simmons and Stanley recently confirmed what they said are their final run of concerts ever, two shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden slated for Dec. 1 and 2. Ahead of the back-to-back nights at the iconic New York City venue, KISS will play 17 other shows across the U.S. and Canada as part of its End of the Road World Tour, including stops in Los Angeles, Seattle, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Baltimore.

In the interview with Brunn, McGhee said that while the Gene and Paul era of KISS is ending later this year, he doesn’t see it as the end of the brand, which he compared to the Marvel universe. “Will there be other forms of KISS maybe in the future after I’m gone and after they’re gone?” he teased. “I don’t see that KISS goes away,” he added, suggesting that the brand could continue in different forms into the future and that a deal to potentially sell their likenesses isn’t out of the question.

Check out the McGhee interview below.

23 Mar 2023

Saliva Guitarist Wayne Swinny Dead at 59

Wayne Swinny, guitarist and co-founder of hard rockers Saliva has died at 59 after suffering a brain hemorrhage while on tour with the group. The news was confirmed by the band in a Facebook post on Wednesday (March 22) in which they wrote, “It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our brother Wayne Swinny. Wayne passed away this afternoon from a Spontaneous brain hemorrhage while we were out on tour. Details for the funeral arrangements will be announced shortly. Wayne will be missed by all those who knew him.”

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The post was accompanied by a black and white picture of Swimmy on stage wearing one of his signature black cowboy hats while strumming his guitar.

Swinny’s death was announced just hours after the band reported that he’d been hospitalized. “Our dear brother Wayne Swinny was discovered Tuesday morning in medical distress and paramedics were called,” read an earlier FB post. “He was transported to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a Spontaneous Hemorrhage in his brain. He is currently in the ICU as we await further news.”

Saliva was formed in Memphis in 1996 by singer Josey Scott, bassist Dave Novotny, drummer Todd Poole and guitarists Swinny and Chris D’Abaldo. Their Island Records debut, Every Six Seconds, was released in 2001 and spawned the thundering hits “Click Click Boom” and “Your Disease.” They followed up with 2002’s Back Into Your System and 2004’s Survival of the Sickest. Singer Scott left he group in 2011 and was replaced by Bobby Amaru; the group’s most recent album was 2018’s 10 Lives.

In a statement to TMZ, singer Amaru said, “I’m not even sure what to think or how to feel right now. My heart aches for Wayne’s family, his friends, and anyone who had the joy of being around him. My heart aches for his daughter Nikki. He loved that little girl so much … He would go out of his way to make sure you had a good time. I’m grateful that I got to share almost 12 years of my life with Wayne on the stage and most importantly off the stage.”

Amaru referred to Swinny — the only remaining original member of the group — as the older brother he never had in his statement. “I learned so much from him and we had a f—ing blast together!,” he said. “I will cherish it all for the rest of my life! God Bless you Wayne. I know we’ll meet again!!”

Saliva is in the midst of a U.S. tour, with the next scheduled date on March 29 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Check out the band’s tribute to Swinny below.