Music News

17 Nov 2022

Joji Scores First No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums Chart With ‘Smithereens’

Joji’s Smithereens becomes his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts, opening atop the surveys dated Nov. 19.

Smithereens bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned in the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The set’s streaming equivalent unit count of 40,000 is the best for any album on the chart since the debut week of Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak, which accumulated 65,000 units from streams (June 4).

Smithereens surpasses the No. 2 debut and peak of Joji’s Nectar on the Top Alternative Albums ranking dated Oct. 10, 2020.

Concurrently, Smithereens starts at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200, marking Joji’s third top five entry, following the aforementioned Nectar and 2018’s Ballads 1 (both No. 3 peaks).

Six cuts from Smithereens dot Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, led by “Die for You” at No. 4. The song earned 12.1 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads Nov. 4-10. The former count places the track at No. 2 on Alternative Streaming Songs (as well as No. 32 on the all-genre Streaming Songs list), while the latter generates a No. 18 showing on Alternative Digital Song Sales.

“Before the Day Is Over” follows on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs as the album’s other top 10, beginning at No. 10 with 5.1 million streams.

17 Nov 2022

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Public Ticket On-Sale Canceled ‘Due to Extraordinarily High Demands’

Those hoping to snag tickets for Taylor Swift‘s 2023 Eras Tour during Friday’s public on-sale got some bad news on Thursday (Nov. 17), when Ticketmaster announced that it has since been canceled.

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“Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” the ticketing service tweeted.

The cancellation is just the latest in a string of messy circumstances surrounding ticket sales for Swift’s highly anticipated tour. On Tuesday (Nov. 15), after an unprecedented number of fans went to Ticketmaster with presale codes in the hopes of buying tickets, Ticketmaster’s website experienced mass outages and extreme delays that caused some to wait for several hours in a virtual queue, just to walk away empty handed.

Ticketmaster then shared a statement shortly after 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, about three hours after the East Coast venue presales began, noting that the company wasn’t prepared for the “historically” large demand for tickets, and postponed presales for West Coast venues and Capitol One cardholders scheduled for later that same day.

The wild demand for Eras Tour tickets had been apparent even leading up to the ticket sale, leading the “All Too Well” pop star to add 25 additional shows to her 27 original dates in the past couple weeks. Swift hasn’t hit the road since 2018, when she toured in support of her album, Reputation. She had planned to go out again after dropping 2019’s Lover for a series of stadium shows she dubbed Lover Fest, but the gigs were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

17 Nov 2022

Phoebe Bridgers Drops ‘So Much Wine’ Holiday Cover Benefiting the Los Angeles LGBT Center

Happy holidays, Pharbz. Phoebe Bridgers has released her annual holiday song cover, this time performing The Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine” and donating proceeds to the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

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The 28-year-old musician recorded and produced the track with longtime collaborators Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Marshall Vore, Harrison Whitford and Sebastian Steinberg, with Andrew Bird credited for contributing vocals, violin and whistling. Normal People star Paul Mescal, Bridgers’ boyfriend and rumored fiancé, is also featured on the song, first released by The Handsome Family on their 2000 album In The Air.

“Listen to me, Butterfly,” Bridgers sings on the cover, her fluttering voice supported by a mellow choir of male voices. “There’s only so much wine you can drink in one life.”

Following suit with the style of artwork used for the Grammy nominee’s past holiday recordings, the “So Much Wine” cover art features two minimalistic ghosts painted onto a portrait of snowy mountains and white-dusted evergreen trees. The “Motion Sickness” singer first started her tradition of releasing a yearly festive single in 2017, when she covered “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

In the years since, Bridgers has dropped reimagined versions of Tom Waits’ “Day After Tomorrow,” Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “‘7 O’Clock News/ Silent Night” with Fiona Apple and The National‘s Matt Berninger, and McCarthy Trenching’s “Christmas Song” with Jackson Browne. Every year, proceeds from her covers benefit organizations that serve communities in need like the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which assists lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and people living with HIV with treating substance abuse, housing, legal assistance, healthcare and more.

Listen to Phoebe Bridgers’ new cover of “So Much Wine” below.

17 Nov 2022

Kelly Clarkson Surprises ‘Emotional’ Dove Cameron With Platinum Award for ‘Boyfriend’

Dove Cameron visited Kelly Clarkson‘s talk show on Thursday (Nov. 17) to talk about her hit song “Boyfriend” and got quite the surprise from the American Idol champ in the process.

“(‘Boyfriend’) was such a huge part of me finding my own identity and embracing my queerness,” the Disney Channel alum told Clarkson during their interview. “And it makes me emotional every time I talk about it but, it was such a key to gate for me into stepping into myself wholly, in a way that I never knew if I was gonna be privileged enough to find those pieces of myself. And exist as that person, right?

“‘Cause that’s the fear,” she continued. “The fear is that you exist as yourself wholly and the world cracks open and everything ends, and all the lights go out. And when the song came out and I saw that people were emotionally connecting to it, I think I was really panicked for some reason, just ’cause I wasn’t expecting it. And then over time, it was like it melded into this gorgeous, like…something meaningful for me being something meaningful for others.”

After Cameron explained how she found the song’s success such a “beautiful surprise,” Clarkson revealed a surprise of her own, presenting the burgeoning pop star with the RIAA platinum certification for the track.

“I was so excited when we found out you were getting it, I was like, ‘I wanna give it to her!’” the host told a speechless and visibly emotional Cameron.

After a slow burn of nearly four months, “Boyfriend” ultimately peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 in June just in time for Pride, giving Cameron the first top 20 hit of her career. Additionally, the slinky single rose to No. 4 on the Radio Songs chart dated June 11.

Watch Cameron’s adorable reaction to Clarkson’s platinum surprise below.

17 Nov 2022

Gryffin’s ‘Alive’ Arrives at No. 3 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart

Gryffin debuts at No. 3 on Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Nov. 19) with Alive. The set starts with 5,000 equivalent album units earned in the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.

It’s Gryffin’s second top 10 and fourth chart entry, following Gravity (No. 1, 2019), Gravity, Pt. 1 (Remixes) (No. 20, 2019) and EP Gravity, Pt. 1 (No. 12, 2018).

On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, Gryffin (aka DJ/producer Dan Griffith) has amassed 33 total entries, including 10 from Alive. The new set has yielded Gryffin’s first Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10, “Woke Up in Love” (with Kygo and Calum Scott), which started at its No. 9 best in September and rebounds 28-18 this week.

New this frame from Alive is “Lose Your Love,” with Matt Maeson (912,000 U.S. streams). It’s the second straight week in which Gryffin has debuted a track at No. 20, after “Forever,” featuring Elley Duhe. “Lose” is singer Maeson’s second showing on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, following another DJ collab, “Heavenly Side,” with ILLENIUM (No. 12, July 2021).

Gryffin also scores on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, where his track with Olivia O’Brien, “Caught Up,” cruises 22-9. Gryffin’s fifth top 10 and O’Brien’s first, the team-up (which reached No. 12 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in May) is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, iHeartRadio’s Evolution network and iHeartRadio’s Pride Radio, among other supporters.

Not So ‘Bad’

Steve Lacy also lifts to his second Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 with “Bad Habit” (14-10). His “Live Without Your Love,” with Love Regenerator, hit No. 7 in 2020. (The chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)

As previously reported, “Bad Habit” concurrently crowns the all-format Radio Songs chart, as well as Pop Airplay.

Time for Tiësto

Returning to Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Tiësto bows at No. 8 with “10:35,” featuring Tate McRae. Tiësto’s eighth top 10 earned 3.5 million domestic streams in the tracking week. Tiësto has added three of his top 10s this year, as “10:35” follows “Hot in It,” with Charli XCX (No. 10, July), and “The Motto,” with Ava Max (No. 2, March).

“10:35” is McRae’s second top 10 on the tally, after “You,” with Regard and Troye Sivan, reigned for eight weeks in June-August 2021.

Concurrently, “10:35” starts on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 6) and Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (No. 8). The track is from Tiësto’s album Drive, due Feb. 24, 2023.

17 Nov 2022

Maren Morris Campaigns to ‘Make DJ Gay Again’ Following Candace Cameron Bure’s Anti-LGBTQ Comments

If dunking on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is a skill, then Maren Morris is an expert at this point.

The country star posted a comment on Instagram on Tuesday calling out actress Candace Cameron Bure for her recent comments on “traditional marriage” and queer characters. Writing under a post from LGBTQ influencer Matt Bernstein, Morris said “Make DJ Gay Again,” a reference to Bure’s most famous role as DJ Tanner on Full House and the 2016 reboot, Fuller House.

Morris is far from the only star to call the actress out — JoJo Siwa posted an Instagram on Tuesday calling Bure’s comments “rude and hurtful,” and GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis issued a damning statement saying it was “irresponsible and hurtful for Candace Cameron Bure to use tradition as a guise for exclusion.”

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The backlash came after Bure gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal regarding her departure from Hallmark, her new executive role at conservative network Great American Family, and what fans could expect from the Christmas movies she is set to star in there. When asked whether or not the network would include LGBTQ couples in their projects, Bure said they would “keep traditional marriage at the core.”

Since the backlash, Bure published a statement via her Instagram, where she said that it “breaks my heart that anyone would ever think I intentionally would want to offend and hurt anyone.” The actress also attempted to shift blame toward media coverage of her comments, saying that media companies were “seeking to divide us, even around a subject as comforting and merry as Christmas movies.”

Stopping short of an apology and never directly addressing the community she offended, Bure instead insisted that she “loves” everyone. “To the members of the media responsible for using this opportunity to fan flames of conflict and hate, I have a simple message: I love you anyway,” she wrote. “To those who hate what I value and who are attacking me online: I love you. To those who have tried to assassinate my character: I love you.”

Naturally, the star’s statement wasn’t sufficient for many in the community. Out singer-songwriter Wrabel commented on Bure’s post, saying that he didn’t buy her claim to love. “love is not typing ‘i love you.’ love is action. love supports. love listens. tries to understand,” he wrote. “if jesus was here today he’d be flipping tables at that network.”

This isn’t the first time that Morris has weighed in on LGBTQ issues this year. Following some openly transphobic comments from Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany, Morris joined fellow country star Cassadee Pope in calling her out, dubbing Brittany “Insurrection Barbie” in a tweet. When Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson called Morris a “lunatic” and a “fake country music singer” for her comments, the “Middle” singer created t-shirts that read “lunatic country music person,” and later donated over $100,000 worth of proceeds to GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program and Trans Lifeline.

Check out Morris’s comment here, as well as Bure’s official statement below:

17 Nov 2022

Joe Jonas Says He’ll ‘Get In Line’ on Ticketmaster To Buy Taylor Swift Tour Tickets For Wife Sophie Turner

It’s been nearly 15 years since Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas dated, but she’ll be in his life “Forever & Always.” That’s because the DNCE frontman’s wife, actress Sophie Turner, is a certified Swiftie, meaning he’ll likely soon be waiting in line on Ticketmaster for Eras Tour tickets with the rest of the world — at least, that’s what he told E! News at the Wednesday (Nov. 15) premiere for his Korean war drama Devotion.

When asked if he planned on securing seats at one of Swift’s 52 North American shows scheduled in 2023 for Turner, Jonas replied: “That’s a great idea, is that still an option? She would love that.”

Then, upon learning that Ticketmaster had experienced major technical difficulties during its Eras Tour presale that same day, the JoBro seemed impressed. “Wow,” he said, smiling just a little awkwardly at the mention of his superstar ex, whom he dated for a few months in 2008. “That’s to be expected. I’ll get in line now.”

“Even Mr. Perfectly Fine has to suffer in the queue,” E! captioned the video of the chat. “Taylor Swift, help Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner out.”

Any Swiftie who endured several hours in the Ticketmaster queue would agree that some extra help would have been very appreciated. So many millions of fans trafficked through the company’s website on the day of the presale, it experienced mass outages and extreme delays that left many fans unable to buy any tickets at all.

A few hours into the day, Ticketmaster even posted a statement announcing the postponement of a couple of the remaining Eras Tour presales, caused by a “historically unprecedented” demand for tickets.

Hopefully, Jonas can pull some strings to get in the door at one of the “All Too Well” singer’s highly anticipated shows. It was only a few months ago that Turner gushed over Swift’s 1989, calling the 2014 record “literally one of my favorite albums of all time.”

And when Swift dropped the previously unreleased “Mr. Perfectly Fine” — a 15-year-old song widely believed to be written about Joe — the Game of Thrones actress again shared her praise. “It’s not NOT a bop,” Turner joked about the track, to which Swift responded: “Forever bending the knee for the [queen] of the north.”

Watch Joe Jonas talk about getting tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour below:

17 Nov 2022

Kelly Clarkson Drops Boozy New Merch Just in Time for the Holidays

When Christmas comes around…again! Kelly Clarkson unveiled her latest round of holiday merch on Wednesday (Nov. 16), complete with a festive bundle perfect for all your booze-related needs.

“My signature engraved wine tumbler is back in stock, y’all… and now it’s bundled with my engraved wine opener!” she wrote on Twitter followed by a string of drink emojis including a popped champagne bottle and clinking flutes.

The singer’s new batch of Christmas goodies also includes a cranberry red t-shirt emblazoned with “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” — the title of her duet with Ariana Grande, which the pair recorded for 2021’s When Christmas Comes Again… while working together on Season 21 of The Voice. (They also performed the horn-infused bop live during Clarkson’s NBC holiday special last Christmas season.)

Speaking of the original American Idol winner’s second Christmas album, the studio set just picked up a 2023 Grammy nod for best traditional pop vocal album earlier this week, bringing the pop star’s total to 16 career nominations and three wins.

On The Kelly Clarkson Show — which has officially been renewed through 2025 — the talk show host has recently run through an impressively diverse string of “Kellyoke” picks, including “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by Mama Cass with The Mamas & the Papas, Florence + the Machine’s Twilight: Eclipse cut “Heavy in Your Arms,” the original version of “Lady Marmalade” by LaBelle, Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Z.Z. Hill’s “Someone Else Is Steppin’ In” and more.

Get a look at Clarkson’s new wine-ready holiday merch and apparel below.

17 Nov 2022

Live Nation Chairman Apologizes to Taylor Swift Fans For Ticket Meltdown: ‘We Are Working Hard on This’

Liberty Media CEO and Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei appeared on CNBC on Thursday morning (Nov. 17) to discuss the issues with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program that resulted in frustrated Taylor Swift fans queuing up for hours in an effort to score pre-sale tickets to the singer’s anticipated Eras Tour.

Taylor Swift

Ticketmaster Postpones Sales For Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ Tour Due to ‘Historically Unprecedented…

“I apologize to all our fans. We are working hard on this,” Maffei told Squawk on the Street on Thursday morning (Nov. 17) about the company’s efforts to straighten out the situation that caused fan (and parent) consternation from coast-to-coast. “Building capacity for peak demand is something we attempt to do, but this exceeded every expectation.”

Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation — with Liberty holding a 30% ownership stake in the ticketing giant — has come under intense scrutiny this week for after the company’s website experienced mass outages and extreme delays that forced some to wait for hours in the virtual line, or just walk away empty-handed.

“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly. Its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved & they need to be reigned in. Break them up,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday after the Swift tickets meltdown. Maffie told Squawk on the Street that the Live Nations team is “sympathetic that the long wait times and fans who couldn’t get what they wanted… reality is it’s a function of the massive demand that Taylor Swift has.”

Maffei explained that the pre-sale was supposed to be opened to 1.5 million Verified Swift fans for Tuesday’s on-sale, but instead 14 million Swifties attempted to log-in, including, he added, bots that were not supposed to be able to join the line. Despite the challenges and breakdowns, he said TM sold 2 million on Tuesday, a gaudy number that Maffei said could have filled 900 stadiums.

In a blog post, TM said that more than 3.5 million people pre-registered through Verified Fan for the Swift shows, the largest registration in the program’s history. It further explained that historically “around 40% of invited fans actually show up and buy tickets,” so working with Swift’s team around 1.5 million were invited to participate in the sale, with the remaining 2 million Verified Fans put on a waiting list.

Maffei also noted that the show is not promoted by LN — but by rival AEG Live and Messina Touring Group — so, “though AOC [a common nickname for Ocasio-Cortez] may not like every element of our business, AEG, our competitor who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because we are, in reality, the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world. Even our competitors want to come on our platform.”

Ticketmaster shared a statement shortly after 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, about three hours after the East Coast venue presales began. It said that the company wasn’t prepared for the “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets, and postponed presales for West Coast venues and Capitol One cardholders scheduled for later that same day. Swift has announced 52 dates so far for the stadium tour that will mark her first major outing in five years.

AOC wasn’t the only member of congress to weigh in on the debacle. Connecticut Sen. Ricard Blumenthal tweeted, “Taylor Swift’s tour sale is a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly. I’ve long urged DOJ to investigate the state of competition in the ticketing industry. Consumers deserve better than this anti-hero behavior.” In addition, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar agreed, writing on Wednesday, “What is going on with Ticketmaster is an example of why we need strong antitrust enforcement! Monopolies wreak havoc on consumers and our economy. When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”

Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment, rolling together the nation’s largest concert promoter and ticketing agency. The move that was drew intense scrutiny at the time and in the wake of the Swift pre-sale fiasco, Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti said on Wednesday that his office will once again be looking into the company.

“There are no allegations at this time about any misconduct, but as the Attorney General, it’s my job to ensure that the consumer protection laws and antitrust laws in Tennessee are being honored,” Skrmetti told reporters, according to WJHL. Skrmetti said there have been “a number of complaints” lodged with his office about the pre-sale and that his team planned to look into the “severe” lack of customer support in what is the latest probe into possible antitrust allegations involving TM and LN conducted by Tennessee authorities.

Watch Maffei’s interview below.

17 Nov 2022

Watch Idina Menzel & James Marsden’s Adorable, Spontaneous ‘Aladdin’ Duet

Idina Menzel and James Marsden sang together on The Late Late Show with James Corden Wednesday night (Nov. 16), and you could definitely say it was shining, shimmering, splendid. Two days ahead of the premiere of their new film Disenchanted — sequel to 2007’s beloved Enchanted — the pair put their interview with James Corden on pause to perform a spontaneous duet of “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Aladdin.

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The impromptu musical moment started after Marsden shared how he and costar Amy Adams are both “super fans” of Menzel and recalled how they would frequently plead with the Frozen actress to sing with them on set. “He’s just a real pain in the ass, though,” Menzel joked. “Amy Adams too, they were always singing and dancing even when they’d said cut. You just behaved horribly!”

“In the makeup trailer, we’d go to Idina and say, ‘Hey, will you sing a song with me?’” Marsden added.

Then, recreating what those between-takes makeup trailer sing-alongs looked like, he dove right into Aladdin’s opening lines of “A Whole New World” — staring hopefully at Menzel the entire time so that she would indulge him in singing Princess Jasmine’s part in the song.

“A whole new world,” she obliged once it came to her turn, prompting loud cheers from the audience.

And, ever the professional, the Wicked Broadway star added a harmony over the final lines of the song. “Let me share this whole new world with you,” the two sang, staring into each other’s eyes.

Prior to his adorable duet with Menzel, the 27 Dresses actor had also shown off his musical impression of John Legend. “All of me, loves all of you,” Marsden sang, nailing Legend’s rich vibrato in his Hot 100 No. 1 “All Of Me.” “All your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections.”

Watch Idina Menzel and James Marsden sing on The Late Late Show below.