Music
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Sabrina Carpenter, fresh off the North American leg of her first-ever arena tour, is now accustomed to playing 20,000-seat concert halls. But at NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C., the short and sweet pop star finally found a venue that’s just her size. On a Monday in early December, Billboard was on hand to watch Carpenter […]
The Viña del Mar International Song Festival announced on Friday (Dec. 20) that Incubus and The Cult are the final two acts to complete its lineup for 2025. Both rock bands will make their first appearance at the Chilean festival on Feb. 27.
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“Viña’s Festival should always have a lineup in which everyone feels represented,” said the Mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, in a press release. “By confirming these important rock bands, we are catching up with various generations who grew up with this style of music, a longing they constantly expressed to me.”
Formed in 1991 in Calabasas, Calif., Incubus is an alternative rock and nu metal band that also combines elements of heavy metal, hip-hop, funk and grunge. It is known for hits such as “Stellar,” “Adolescents” and “Drive,” the latter of which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the Billboard 200, the band has placed 11 albums, seven of them in the top 10 and one, Light Grenades, at No. 1. Comprised of Brandon Boyd (vocals), Mike Einziger (guitar, piano, backing vocals), José Pasillas (drums), Chris Kilmore (keyboards) and Nicole Row (bass), the band has sold more than 23 million records worldwide and has received dozens of multi-Platinum and Platinum certifications.
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Meanwhile, English band The Cult emerged in 1983 and since then, has positioned itself as a major exponent of gothic post-punk with singles such as”She Sells Sanctuary,” “Love Removal Machine,” “Spiritwalker” and “Rain,” among others. The band’s 11th album, Under the Midnight Sun, was released in 2022, marking its return after several years away from the recording studios.
In its 64th annual edition, the festival will take place from Sunday, Feb. 23, to Friday, Feb. 28, at the Quinta Vergara in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, Chile.
Incubus and The Cult join a lineup of musical stars performing at the world’s largest Latin festival, headlined by Marc Anthony, Myriam Hernández, Morat, Carlos Vives, Duki, Bacilos, Ha*Ash, Sebastián Yatra, Carín León, Eladio Carrión and Kidd Voodoo
Produced for the first time by Megamedia and Bizarro Live Entertainment, the Viña del Mar Festival will be broadcast on Mega and Mega Go. It will also be available on the Disney+ platform throughout Latin America, and globally on the Billboard website with specials and exclusive content.
12/20/2024
As the old saying goes, “it’s not where you start. It’s where you finish.”
12/20/2024
Ben Stiller would drive all night for SZA. In fact, in the new visual for the singer’s track “Drive,” which dropped on Friday morning (Dec. 20), the Nutcrackers star looks entranced as he lip-synchs along to the song while barreling down a dark road in his SUV.
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In the Bradley J. Calder-directed clip, Stiller enthusiastically sings the moody ballad’s lyrics about hitting the road to clear your head while trying to not get too in your head about everything that’s going on. “I been up ’til up midnight, drivin’ to nowhere/ Bumpin’ a slow song, can’t get my head clear/ I been up ’til sunrise, headed to nowhere/ Hopin’ that someone’s missin’ me somewhere,” SZA sings over gently plucked acoustic guitar.
After worrying that she’s balled so hard she’s hit her peak, SZA brags about all the exes who still want to hit her up and how she has no time to waste on haters. And while he’s hitting those lines, Stiller closes his eyes and begins to drift to sleep before waking up with a renewed energy that inspires him to lean out of the window and rip doughnuts in the middle of the street. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the midnight ghost ride is similar to a lip-synching cameo Stiller had in Jack Johnson’s “Taylor” video in 2003 — only this time around, the actor’s hands are wrapped around a steering wheel instead of a guitar.
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Things then get super weird as Stiller drives off and SZA pops up in the woods dressed as a sexy alien insect as the second half of the song turns into a slow-grind R&B jam and the singer crawls her way across the marsh. The costume is similar to one in the teased artwork for SZA’s long-awaited deluxe edition of her blockbuster SOS album, Lana, which is due out on Friday, as well as her Hot Ones look from September.
SZA first revealed the Lana title during a show in New York in September 2023, during which she told the audience that the deluxe version of SOS would be like “a whole ‘nother album … It’s seven to 10 songs, and it’ll be out this fall.” Then in a November British Vogue interview, she described Lana and the SOS deluxe as two entirely different albums.
But then earlier this month, SZA confirmed that Lana is the title of the SOS deluxe album, and teased the tracklist. SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums charts following its 2022 release, shattering the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album by a woman at the time with 404.6 million official on-demand streams for the album’s songs, according to Luminate.
SZA will embark on the Grand National stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar beginning in April.
Watch the “Drive” video above.
12/20/2024
A look at chart highlights, by the numbers, from January through December.
12/20/2024
12/20/2024
Modern holiday chestnuts by veterans of the long-running TV talent competition.
12/20/2024
12/20/2024
These artists made an instant impact with memorable debut full-length projects.
12/20/2024
Argentina and Uruguay are two nations with deep-rooted connections to cumbia. Throughout history, artists of the genre have emerged from both sides of the Río de la Plata, becoming the soundtrack of daily life for millions of families in both countries. This past year, that cultural legacy was further strengthened by Valentino Merlo and The […]
Prince, The Clash and Frankie Valli are among the artists who were selected to receive lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy in 2025. The awards will be presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony on Feb. 1 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
The event, always one of the most memorable and musical of Grammy Week, will also honor the recipients of trustees awards (which go to non-performers) and a Technical Grammy Award recipient.
The other lifetime achievement award recipients are Frankie Beverly, Dr. Bobby Jones, Taj Mahal and Roxanne Shante. The trustees award recipients are Erroll Garner, Glyn Johns and Tania León. Dr. Leo Beranek is the Technical Grammy Award honoree.
Several of the awards will be presented posthumously. R&B singer Beverly just died three months ago; Prince and Dr. Beranek both died in 2016; Joe Strummer of The Clash died in 2002; and Garner, the composer of the pop standard “Misty,” died in 1977.
Several of this year’s recipients have already received major honors. Prince was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, received a lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards in 2010, and was honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in July (he had been voted in while he was alive, but scheduling the presentation proved difficult).
Valli was voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Four Seasons) in 1990, followed by The Clash in 2003 and producer Glyn Johns in 2012. Maze featuring Frankie Beverly received a lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards in 2012. León received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2022.
“It’s an amazing privilege to honor this eclectic group of music icons during the year’s biggest week in music,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy said in a statement. “Each of this year’s Special Merit Award recipients has left an indelible mark on music, from paving the way for others to innovation that forever has changed the trajectory of the musical landscape. We can’t wait to celebrate this group and their achievements in February.”
Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented to performers who have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.
Trustees Awards are presented to individuals who have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.
Technical Grammy Awards are presented to individuals, companies, organizations or institutions who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
Here’s a complete list of the 2025 Special Merit Award recipients.
Frankie Beverly (Lifetime Achievement Award)
It was a busy year for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and it looks like 2025 will be just as jam-packed. According to a press release recapping the Boss’ 2024, next year will find the 75-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend extending his global tour with the band, as well as celebrating some milestones and dusting off unheard gems from the archives.
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“Upcoming releases in 2025 will include a look back at Springsteen’s storied recoding career, featuring never-before-heard material,” read the release, which did not specify when the songs are from or what format they will be released in. In 1998, Springsteen dropped the hefty four-disc box set Tracks, which featured 66 songs, mostly never-before-released, as well as b-sides, demos and alternate versions of previously released material.
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It also noted that Springsteen will “continue his involvement” in the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, in which The Bear star Jeremy Allen White will portray a young Bruce.
Next year will include a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s landmark 1975 album Born To Run, which helped turn Bruce into a rock legend thanks to such beloved classics as the title track, “Thunder Road,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Backstreets” and “Jungleland,” among others.
Other anniversaries that will be marked in 2025 include the 45th anniversary of 1980’s double-album masterpiece The River, as well as the 30th anniversary of the Grammy-winning acoustic folk rock album The Ghost of Tom Joad and the 20th of 2005’s Devils & Dust.
The E Street Band will keep on keepin’ on next spring when they kick off a spring/summer run of European dates, which will kick-off with the first of three show at the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester, U.K. on May 14 and include stops in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Spain before winding down on July 3 in Milan, Italy at San Siro Stadium.