State Champ Radio

by DJ Frosty

Current track

Title

Artist

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

12:00 am 12:00 pm

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

12:00 am 12:00 pm


Music

Page: 122

This week, Post Malone made his much-heralded country music debut with his collaborations-packed album F-1 Trillion–and then surprised fans with the release of F-1 Trillion: Long Bed, with an additional nine songs. Elsewhere, Brantley Gilbert teams with Justin Moore for a new track, while bluegrasser Bella White covers an Emmylou Harris classic.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.

Trending on Billboard

Post Malone, F-1 Trillion: Long Bed

[embedded content]

Post Malone’s country era officially arrived in full bloom on Friday (Aug. 16) via his new album F-1 Trillion. While his foray into the genre came with the help of one of the format’s biggest artists, Morgan Wallen, on “I Had Some Help,” the full F-1 Trillion project displays Post Malone’s undeniably deep-seated love for the genre, with an array of collaborations with Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Ernest, Hank Jr. and other genre stalwarts. Each of those collabs feels crafted toward the featured artist’s strengths (in the case of McGraw’s collab, it even ties in titles of some of McGraw’s lengthy list of hits). However, Post Malone also proves he can do country just fine without any star-studded collabs, such as on the tender ode to his daughter, “Yours.”

Later in the weekend he also surprised fans with nine additional, solo-recorded songs for the Long Bed edition, and in the process, offered up a slate of some of the overall album’s strongest, and delightfully country, material. This “no skips” string of songs includes the Western swing romps of “Who Needs You” and “Back to Texas” and flirty ’90s country of “Hey Mercedes.” “Two Hearts” looks at the reverberations that heartbreak has on an entire family, while he makes the case for a post-breakup, passion-filled reunion on “Ain’t How It Ends,” but acknowledges that “Hank and Johnny, Strait and Ronnie Dunn made all the rules.” Meanwhile, the somber “Killed a Man” is a clear-eyed look at viciously and suddenly putting his various vices behind him.

The extended version of F-1 Trillion cements Post Malone as an artist with a full-fledged sense of his musical vision and contributions to the genre — while the fiddle, steel guitar and ’90s country twang that fill this album suits this Texas native with aplomb.

Brantley Gilbert feat. Justin Moore, “Dirty Money”

[embedded content]

Georgia native Gilbert and Arkansas native Moore team up for this pride-fueled celebration of those who earn their “dirty money” straight from the ground, providing food for communities through raising and harvesting crops. Written by Gilbert with Josh Phillips, this track revs up with all the gritty churn of a combine, as a bed of industrial-scale, frothy guitars, sharp percussion and thudding bass carry the two artists’ intertwined, destinctive drawls.

“Dirty Money” serves as the opening song to Gilbert’s upcoming album, Tattoos, out Sept. 13.

Morgan Wade feat. Kesha, “Walked on Water”

[embedded content]

On her new album Obsessed, Wade offers her most detailed and unvarnished storytelling to date, particularly on her new song with veteran pop hitmaker Kesha. “Walked on Water” is a post-breakup realization of one’s own faults and delusions that led to the relational dissolution. “People like me/ We don’t do well at sea/ ‘Cause I thought I walked on water,” Wade sings, as her oil-and-sandpaper voice weaving together with Kesha’s on this tender piano ballad, a solo write from Wade.

Bella White, “Luxury Liner”

[embedded content]

Canadian-born White issued her debut album, Just Like Leaving, four years ago and since then has proven to be a prolific and essential new voice, thanks to songs including “Not to Blame.” Here, White covers the Gram Parsons-written, Emmylou Harris-recorded “Luxury Liner,” which was the title track to Harris 1976 album. White’s version retains the song’s frenetic instrumental urgency, particularly with razor-sharp fiddle and a steady percussion, while White’s voice interjects a hazy, twangy purity.

“Luxury Liner” is from White’s new five-song covers EP Fire for Silver, which also includes covers of Lucinda Williams’ “Concrete and Barbed Wire,” and Jeff Tweedy’s “Nobody Dies Anymore.”

Muscadine Bloodline, “Good in This World”

[embedded content]

Since forming their duo in 2016, Muscadine Bloodline’s Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton have forged a reputation as two of country music’s liveliest entertainers, and a duo deadset on creating their career on their own terms, outside of the major label system. On their latest album, The Coastal Plain, released, Aug. 16 on Stancaster via Thirty Tigers, they further elevate their songcraft, particularly on the meticulously detailed album closer, “Good in this World.” The song hinges on the tale of a young man’s chance meeting with a Vietnam veteran at a gas station, as the veteran tells of relishing in (and intentionally making) many of his life’s simplest but best moments, from listening to “Brown Eyed Girl” to buying his loved one pearls. The conversation is a perspective-shifting one, leading the younger gentleman to make the most of his own moments, both present and future.

Suki Waterhouse‘s career came full circle Saturday (Aug. 17), when she opened for the Eras Tour in London after years of being a fan — and good friend — of Taylor Swift‘s. 
And the next day, the Daisy Jones and the Six alum reflected on the surreal experience, sharing a backstage photo she snapped with the 14-time Grammy winner on Instagram. “The last time I was at Wembley I was dancing my a– off at the Reputation tour!” Waterhouse wrote. “Never did I think the next time I’d be here would be opening for my favourite artist with my friends and family in the crowd 🥹” 

“Thank you @taylorswift for this once in a lifetime opportunity to perform in my beloved London and for the unwavering support in my own journey as an artist,” the English musician continued. “You are the world’s biggest and brightest star, I love you so much.” 

Trending on Billboard

Waterhouse also shared photos of her performing on the massive Wembley stage, plus a video of Swift talking to the crowd after the opener’s set. “I’ve been such a fan of her music for so long — she absolutely crushed it,” the “Anti-Hero” singer says, asking the tens of thousands of fans in the audience to “give it up” for her friend. 

At the end of her carousel of pictures, Waterhouse added a throwback photo of her wearing a T-shirt printed with Swift’s 1989 album cover. “My nervous system will never be the same after last night,” she concluded. “Someone go tell this girl on the last slide she just opened for ERAS BABY!!! ❤️” 

The “Good Looking” singer was one of five new artists added to the list of Wembley Eras Tour openers earlier this month, along with Sofia Isella and Holly Humberstone — who also performed over the weekend — as well as Maisie Peters and Raye, who will go on Aug. 19 and 20, respectively. Paramore has also been a mainstay on the European leg of Swift’s trek, taking the stage in between Waterhouse and the “Karma” artist Saturday. 

“Did you guys see Suki earlier?” frontwoman Hayley Williams asked during the band’s set, before introducing their Twilight soundtrack hit “Decode” with a nod to Waterhouse’s partner, Robert Pattinson, who starred in the vampy franchise years before welcoming a baby with the model in March.  

“I would like to dedicate this next song to Mr. Waterhouse,” she told the crowd. “This is the skin of a killer, Bella … This is for you, Robert.” 

Before this wildly unpredictable presidential campaign season even kicked off, technology experts issued dire warnings that doctored artificial intelligence images and videos could be used to manipulate voters. That appears to be the case with some seemingly manufactured images shared by three-time White House candidate Donald Trump on Sunday (Aug. 18) on his Truth Social account.
The twice impeached former one-term Republican president re-posted a series of images whose authenticity could not be verified and which appeared to show Taylor Swift fans, as well as the singer herself, throwing in with his campaign. One featured six squares filled with smiling Swifties wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shits with the message “Swifties Turning to Trump After ISIS Foiled Taylor Swift Concert,” a seeming reference to the recently foiled plot to attack Swift’s since-cancelled trio of concerts in Vienna after the discovery of a 19-year-old ISIS-radicalized man’s plan to cause a mass casualty event outside the singer’s Austrian shows.

In another image meant to mirror the iconic “I Want You For U.S. Army” recruiting poster, a user doctored up an image of Swift in a patriotic red, white and blue suit and star-spangled top hat with the message, “Taylor Wants You to Vote For Donald Trump.” The other two pictures featured more images of what are allegedly Swift fans in Trump-boosting gear.

At press time spokespeople for Swift and Trump had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the post, which also featured Trump’s enthusiastic response to the alleged endorsement, “I accept!” According to The Daily Beast, the Swiftie images were first posted to X on Friday and Saturday by a couple of popular right-wing accounts, including one that reportedly mixed the doctored AI images with a real one of a blonde woman wearing a “Swifties For Trump” shirt at a rally. The Sunday Times noted that one of the 25 Truth Social posts featuring the faked images that read “The Swifties for Trump movement is real!” was labelled “satire,” calling into question whether Trump, 78, realized that he was re-posting computer-generated pictures.

Swift has yet to endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential race between convicted felon Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose nomination will be celebrated this week in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Harris was swapped in for President Joe Biden last month and since her sudden elevation to the top spot on the ticket polls have shown the once dead-even race that Trump — now the oldest candidate to ever run for the White House — was winning in several key battleground states shifting slightly in Harris’ favor.

The singer eschewed political endorsements for most of her career, but following Trump’s election in 2016 she endorsed two Democratic candidates in midterm elections in her home state of Tennessee as well as endorsing Biden in 2020. She also took aim at the former Apprentice host during the George Floyd protests in 2020, lambasting Trump’s response to the unrest after earlier saying she was “completely blindsided” by his 2016 victory over former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’???” Swift wrote in reference to a comment from Trump that many took as a veiled threat to protesters who flooded the streets around the nation following the killing of unarmed 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly 10 minutes. “We will vote you out in November.”

Trump, who the Washington Post reported in 2021 had made nearly 31,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency — a rate of 21 claims per day — recently claimed that photos of a massive Harris/Walz rally in Detroit were AI-generated, a falsehood that was quickly disproven by photos and videos taken by reporters and attendees on the ground.

Check out the AI Taylor Swift images below.

Lol, Trump posted a collage of AI generated Taylor Swift fans wearing ‘Swifities for Trump’ T-shits, and wrote “I accept!” as if this were real.I mean…..this is uniquely pathetic, even for Trump. pic.twitter.com/GUVXQLqzYo— Peter Henlein (@SwissWatchGuy) August 18, 2024

Cardi B has been teasing her highly anticipated sophomore album for more than a year. After marking the sixth anniversary of her 2018 full-length debut LP, Invasion of Privacy, in April by teasing that she was prepping something “so different from what everyone is expecting” for her second studio album, the “Bongos” MC has sent […]

Just one week before the planned kick-off of a headlining U.S. tour with Fear Factory, Twizted and Black Satellite, hard rockers Coal Chamber were forced to postpone the outing following singer Dez Fafara’s emergency hospitalization over the weekend.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The 58-year-old vocalist apologized to fans in a lengthy statement about having to press pause on the Fiend of the Fans tour — scheduled to launch on Friday (August 23) in Las Vegas and run through a Sept. 29 show in Denver — but said a recent unspecified health crisis forced his hand.

“With a heavy heart, let me tell you a story about life taking a turn, I’m writing to you from my bed. I’ve been running 6 miles daily, I’ve been rehearsing two hours daily in my home studio and excited to hit the road, I’m excited to get on a bus with my brothers and sister and my crew. I’ d never felt better and as you all know, I fought back hard after long haul COVID tried to kill me,” Fafara wrote in the post.

Trending on Billboard

“Saturday morning I woke up and I was coming up my stairs. I saw flashes in my eyes. I passed out and my wife revived me. My vitals were through the roof, and I was sheet white and vomiting, and the whole world was spinning,” he continued. “[My wife] Anahstasia called 911. I ended up in the back of an ambulance and did nine hours in the ER testing all my vitals including taking X-rays of my heart and lungs. My doctor has advised me to get a cat scan, and until further testing, I am on bedrest and must postpone the Tour. Our agent sprung into action to rebook this tour for March 2025, and until we can figure out what the f–k medically is happening.”

Fafara said the tour is now scheduled to hit the road in March 2025 under the same name. “This tour postponement is surreal, I was looking forward to playing with my band and connecting with fans, friends and family on the road,” Fafara wrote. “I want to take a moment to thank everybody for their outpouring of love and outpouring of calls and texts checking on me. It seems like the word spread and the whole industry has been ringing my phone since Sunday; musicians, agents and managers and I really really appreciate it.”

As of now, the re-routed outing will begin with a March 5 show at the Summit in Denver and run through an April 18 gig at the Myth Live in Maplewood, MN.

Fafara ended his note with an uplifting message about resilience and an promise to keep fans in the loop on developments. “Kiss your loved ones, no one is promised tomorrow. I’ll fight my way back to be with you all onstage you can be sure of that as well I’ll keep you all updated on my socials as to what’s going on,” the singer said. “Apologies if this news causes you to rearrange your schedules to attend the concert with us and I want to say thank you in advance. We are all truly in the dark and I’m looking forward to finding out what’s going on. HAIL.”

See Fafara’s post and the rescheduled tour dates below.

Are you ready for “One More Time”… one more time? Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker sent fans’ heart racing over the weekend when he teased new music from the punk-pop trio in a post on X in which he promised that fresh tracks are almost ready to go. After tweeting “Who’s ready for One More Time […]

Attending your first Taylor Swift show is always a big deal. But for Nobel Peace Prize winner and girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai, seeing an Eras Tour show in London over the weekend was a milestone for much deeper reasons.
The 27-year-old Pakistani activist who has been a vocal advocate for human rights and the education of women and girls for more than a decade posted a moving story on Instagram on Saturday (August 17) describing the emotions she was feeling while attending the show with her husband and some of her oldest friends.

“One of my favorite memories from Swat Valley is a field trip I took in middle school with my best friend, Moniba (second photo, on the left). Giggling, we went to a waterfall hidden away in a lush green mountain. We were so excited because we were finally allowed to go to school again and could be outdoors with our friends, laughing and singing together,” wrote Yousafzai, who grew up in Pakistan under repressive Taliban rule that included bans on music and television, as well as a bar on girls going to school.

Trending on Billboard

“Having lived through a time where music and art were banned, music felt like a gift,” she continued. “Moniba and I found the highest rock we could, climbed on top of it and announced to all of our classmates and teachers we were going to perform our new favourite song called ‘LOVE STORY.’ We sang with all of our heart, taking in the joy we felt every second. That’s where my Swiftie journey began. It feels magical that my first-ever proper concert would be to see @TaylorSwift, singing along to every song surrounded by friends.”

Yousafzai, 27, whose story became international news when she and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in Oct. 2012 in an assassination attempt, used her post to once again spotlight the repressive nature of Taliban rule and the disturbing backsliding on human rights that she said has occurred over the past few years.

“Three years ago, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. Once again, music no longer plays on the streets, and girls and women are barred from school, work and public life,” Yousafzai said. “In Swat, music made my friends and me feel confident and free. And one day I hope we will live in a world where every girl will be able to enjoy music and live out her wildest dreams. 💖”

In addition to a photo with her husband, Asser Malik, with the packed Wembley Stadium in the background, Yousafzai’s photo roll included the snap with her childhood best friend, another of her making a hand heart and pics of her crew’s friendship bracelets.

Swift is in the midst of a five-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium, with two more shows slated for Monday (August 19) and Tuesday night (August 20). The shows took place after Swift was forced to cancel a planned string of three shows in Vienna due to a terror plot aimed at attacking fans gathered outside the stadium. Two Austrian teenagers have been arrested in the case and a third was detained for questioning.

Check out Malala’s post below.

The Weeknd is set to return to Australia in October 2024, bringing his After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour Down Under after initially postponing and then cancelling his 2023 dates.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The Australian and New Zealand leg was originally planned as one of the final stretches of his world tour before those dates were shelved.

The Canadian R&B superstar, born Abel Tesfaye, will kick off the 2024 leg on Oct. 5 at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, with a second show on Oct. 6, before heading to Sydney for back-to-back performances at Accor Stadium on Oct. 22 and 23.

Trending on Billboard

These will be The Weeknd’s first stadium shows in Australia and his first visit since 2017. Special guests Mike Dean and Chxrry22, along with Australian DJ and vocalist, Anna Lunoe, will join him on all 2024 Australian dates.

However, fans in Brisbane and New Zealand, who were included in the cancelled 2023 tour, will be disappointed to learn that these locations are not part of the 2024 itinerary.

According to a statement from the tour’s press release: “Due to schedule and logistical constraints, the ‘After Hours ‘Til Dawn’ tour will not be making its way to New Zealand or Brisbane in 2024 and there will be no further cities added.”

This decision has sparked backlash on social media, with fans expressing frustration over their shows being dropped from the 2024 run.

One commenter noted on Reddit, “Not sure what logistical circumstances they’re trying to blame for not coming to Brisbane or even NZ. Suncorp Stadium literally has no event booked in October other than the Travis Scott show at the end of the month.” Another added, “Apparently it’s more logical to fly to Australia, fly back to the USA, fly back to Australia and then fly back again.”

Before announcing the 2024 Australian dates, The Weeknd performed numerous sold-out shows across the United States as part of the After Hours Til Dawn tour.

The U.S. leg included notable performances at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he fans with a setlist featuring hits from After Hours and Dawn FM.

In a statement about the upcoming shows in Australia this October, The Weeknd said, “I feel a strong pull to perform in Australia before moving on to the next chapter and want to make sure you all know I hadn’t forgotten about you. When I return now, it will be the right time, and I promise it will be such a special experience. I can’t wait to see you all!”

For 2023 ticket holders, a special ‘Past Purchaser Presale‘ will be available, offering the first opportunity to secure tickets for the upcoming Australian tour dates.

The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn tour has been a global success, with over 60 sold-out stadium dates and more than 3 million attendees across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Latin America. The tour has also broken attendance records, including a two-night run at London Stadium that drew 160,000 fans.

In other recent news, earlier this month it was revealed The Weeknd will return to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood on Sept. 5 with The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy, an immersive haunted house experience featuring music by The Weeknd and Mike Dean.

It follows the success of his 2022 After Hours Nightmare attraction, inspired by his Billboard 200-topping album After Hours.

The Weeknd After Hours Til Dawn 2024 Australia Tour Dates:

Oct. 5 – Marvel Stadium, MelbourneOct. 6 – Marvel Stadium, MelbourneOct. 22 – Accor Stadium, SydneyOct. 23 – Accor Stadium, Sydney

Playing a second show in the same city is usually a guarantee for special moments from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
And that was certainly the case on Sunday night as the New Jersey rock icon and his heart-stoppin’, house-rockin’, booty-shakin’ – you know the drill – ensemble played the second night of its latest North American tour leg at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Following up on its Thursday (Aug. 15) performance, Springsteen and company, 18 members strong, played with its usual earth-quaking exuberance, delivering 29 songs over the course of three hours and 10 minutes, making some significant changes to the set, tossing in a warm memorial to a fallen colleague and welcoming a guest to the proceedings.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The group was nicely rested after a nearly three-week break following its spring/summer European trek but still sharp and hot from being on the road since February of 2023 – with, of course, one notable break.

Trending on Billboard

The Pittsburgh shows kicked off a kind of make-up leg for the E Streeters, coming back for shows that were postponed in the spring and fall of 2023 due to illnesses, including a peptic ulcer that Springsteen described as “a mother***er” at the opening show.

On Sunday, before closing with the solo acoustic “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” he told the capacity PPG crowd, “I hope we didn’t inconvenience with you too much with our postponements. It’s just great to be back here. You’re just a fabulous audience for us. Thank you so much.”

The Pittsburgh stand was a rare two-nighter in North American arenas for Springsteen on this tour, though he’ll do the same in Philadelphia on Aug. 21 and 23 and Toronto on Nov. 3 and 6.

This leg wraps up Nov. 22 in Vancouver, while some European make-up dates are slated for next May, June and July – with enough space between them to fuel anticipation for more shows to be added. And E Streeter Steven Van Zandt only stoked those hopes when he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette before the shows that,” Just between you and me….I don’t see any end in sight. We’re better than ever; you’re gonna see what I mean this week. These five-year farewell tours people are doing are really hilarious. We’re not gonna start our first farewell tour for another 10 years.”

And if Springsteen and crew can keep delivering magic moments like this, who would want to see them stop any time through…

Shakin’ It UpAfter some fans criticized the first leg of the tour for its unusually similar set lists, Springsteen has loosened things up – particularly during the European dates.

That spirit was reflected during night two in Pittsburgh, which featured nine different selections, including seven of the night’s first nine songs. The night opened with a pair of Darkness on the Edge of Town songs. – “Candy’s Room” and “Adam Raised a Cain,” and later the title song.

Particularly welcome, meanwhile, were a riotous, revival-flavored “Spirit in the Night,” with Springsteen and saxophonist Jake Clemons mugging at the front of the stage, and “If I Was a Priest,” in only its sixth performance of the tour. “Death to My Hometown,” meanwhile, was an astute nod to the Steel City’s rust belt history and renaissance. “I’m on Fire” was another surprise late-show inclusion, but seemingly came at the expense of “Rosalita,” which has been a staple of the encores.

Speaking Of Which…Springsteen and the band did not walk off after “Thunder Road,” choosing instead to go straight into the usual encore lineup of “Born to Run,” “Glory Days” (note the high school baseball layer friend now throws a “spitball” rather than a “speedball”), “Dancing in the Dark” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” before…

A Special GuestPittsburgh rocker and longtime Springsteen friend Joe Grushecky was in the house on Sunday with his family and then on the stage with the E Street Band during an encore rendition of the Isley Brothers’ “Twist & Shout,” playing acoustic guitar and singing backing vocals into the same microphone as Van Zandt and bassist Garry Tallent.

During part of the song’s schtick Springsteen told the crowd it looked “a little bushed” and ready to go home.

He asked Grushecky, “Is this the way a Pittsburgh crowd looks when they’re wiped out, or when they’re ready to rock their asses off all night?,” to which the Iron City’s own houserocker replied, “I don’t think they’re ready to go home yet. I think they’re ready to rock!”

Among their many collaborations Springsteen produced Grushecky and his band the Houserocker’s 1995 album American Babylon and made a guest appearance on Grushecky’s 2006 solo album, A Good Life.

A Moving TributeAfter posting a social media message addressing the Aug. 9 passing of journalist and author Charles Cross – co-founder of the Backstreets fan magazine, Springsteen dedicated that song to him, telling the crowd that, “This is for a friend of ours, Charles Cross, the founder of Backstreets magazine and his great writing and his influence and his help in communicating between our band and our fans will be sorely missed. This is for Charles.”

Springsteen held his guitar high above his head, towards the heavens, in salute.

Party FavorsSpringsteen was in a giving mood, materially as well as musically, on Sunday. He played his closing harmonica solo during “The Promised Land” directly to a young fan sitting on her father’s shoulders near the front of the stage, then gave her the harp.

He handed two other harmonicas to fans after “She’s the One” and “Thunder Road” and distributed a selection of guitar picks towards the end of “Darlington County.”

E Street Guitar ArmySpringsteen, per usual, handled most of the guitar solos during the show, but also tossed the ball to the able axemen who flanked him on stage. Van Zandt scorched some earth at the end of “If I Was the Priest,” while Nils Lofgren tore it up with epic six-string excursions during “Youngstown” and “Because the Night.”

Out in the SeatsSpringsteen made one sojourn into the crowd on Sunday, walking to a platform near the middle of the house during “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, where he pressed flesh and accepted a drink while performing the song.

It also served as a tribute to departed E Street members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, with footage of both shown on the video screens.

We Are But MortalSpringsteen has been doing it since the beginning of the tour, but his speech before “Last Man Standing” – about the death of his longtime friend and ’60s bandmate George Theiss and being, literally, the last surviving member still alive from the Castiles – was still moving and inspiring, even tear-jerking: “As you get older, death brings with it a certain sort of clarity. Its lasting gift to us is an expanded vision of living this life, every day…And the grief, the grief that we feel when our loved ones leave us, it’s just the price that we pay for having loved well. “

By the NumbersFor those counting, the Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums were the most represented with five songs each, followed by Born in the U.S.A. and Letter to You with four each.

In all Springsteen played songs from 11 of his 21 albums, including his cover of the Commodores’ “Nightshift” from the most recent, 2022’s Only the Strong Survive.

Beabadoobee has reached a dizzying new high in her career after securing her first-ever U.K. Official No. 1 album with This Is How Tomorrow Moves. The Filipino-British artist, known offstage as Beatrice Laus, saw her third studio album debut at the top of the U.K. Official Albums Chart, published Friday, Aug. 16, marking a major […]