Music

02 Feb 2024

Taylor Swift’s Childhood ‘Grease’ Co-Star Shares Photos of Her Playing Sandy

Oh, those summer nights. Once upon a time, Taylor Swift starred in a childhood production of Grease, and now, the Danny Zuko to her Sandy Olsson is giving fans a peek at what she looked like onstage. 

Comedian-actor Tobin Mitnick shared a trio of throwback photos on Instagram Thursday (Feb. 1) featuring Swift dolled up as Olivia Newton-John’s iconic character from the 1978 musical. In one photo, the pop star – who was then about 11 years old – performs onstage in a frizzy ‘70s wig and black bodysuit next to Mitnick, who is wearing a black muscle tee and sporting a slick John Travolta hairdo. 

“Thank you mom for digging these pics of @taylorswift and I harmonizing like buttah on summer nights twenty five years ago out of storage,” he captioned the post. “June 2000.” 

“Also trav the note is an f-sharp if youre interested,” Mitnick quipped, shouting out Swift’s football star boyfriend, Travis Kelce. 

Swift has long been a fan of Grease, and even included a cover of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” on her demo CD in 2002. In 2016, she and Gigi Hadid watched Fox’s Grease: Live production featuring Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit in the starring roles – and the model even captured the “Anti-Hero” singer passionately belting along to “Hopelessly Devoted” on the couch.  

The throwback photos come just days ahead of the 2024 Grammys, where the 12-time winner is nominated in six categories including album, record and song of the year. Next week, she’ll resume her blockbuster Eras Tour with a slew of shows in Tokyo, after which fans are hopeful she’ll be able to fly back to the States in time to attend the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs will be facing off against the San Francisco 49ers.  

See photos from Swift’s Grease era below. 

02 Feb 2024

Here Are the Performers & Presenters for the 2024 Grammys & Pre-Telecast Ceremony

The 2024 Grammys are almost upon us, which will provide the answer to this year’s biggest Grammy-related question — and we don’t mean whether Taylor Swift will make history as the first artist to win album of the year four times. We mean: Can you make it through the whole thing?

The telecast is scheduled to run three and a half hours, from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET, but veteran Grammy watchers know that the day actually begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with what the Recording Academy rather grandly calls the Premiere Ceremony, but what you probably call the pre-telecast awards. More than 80 of the 94 Grammy categories are announced on that show, which will stream on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com.

If you manage to make it through both shows, that’s eight hours – assuming the telecast doesn’t run over (which it often does). So, it’s not only Music’s Biggest Night, it’s Music’s Longest Day and Night.

As always, the telecast will have something for everybody. Performers range from 20-year-old superstar Olivia Rodrigo to music legend Joni Mitchell, who is still adding to her considerable legacy at 80.

The show will be held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, where it has been held for 21 of the past 25 years. U2 is set to take the stage from Sphere just outside Las Vegas, where the band’s acclaimed U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere show is playing. It will be the first live broadcast from the venue.

Billy Joel will perform his just-released single “Turn the Lights Back On.”

Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman will team to perform “Fast Car,” which Combs revived last year. His version, a pop and country smash, is nominated for best country solo vocal performance. Chapman’s original version won 35 years ago for best pop vocal performance, female. Chapman performed the song to close the 1989 telecast.

Other expected collaborations are Burna Boy (with 21 Savage and Brandy) and Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile).

Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth consecutive year. He received a nod for best comedy album for I Wish You Would, and is vying to become only the second Grammy host to win a Grammy that same night. The first was Kenny Rogers, who won best country vocal performance, male for “The Gambler” in 1980, when he hosted the show for the first of two times.

It is unknown whether Taylor Swift will perform, though CBS has promoted the fact that she will be “in the building” to accept any awards she may win. Any additional performers will be added to this report as they are announced.

Songwriter Justin Tranter will host the Premiere Ceremony live from Peacock Theater, which is adjacent to Crypto. Tranter is nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical in recognition of their work with such artists as Miley Cyrus, Måneskin and Reneé Rapp. This is just the second year that that award has been presented and the first since the category was bumped up to the General Field, which also includes the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist.

Producer of the year, non-classical was also bumped up to the General Field this year. Jack Antonoff is vying to become the first producer to take that award three years running since Babyface, who won it three in a row from 1996 to 1998.

Presenters on the main telecast include Samara Joy, last year’s surprise winner for best new artist, and Meryl Streep, who is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for Big Tree. If she wins, it will be her first Grammy, after seven nominations. Streep has won three Oscars and three Primetime Emmys.

Performers on the Premiere Ceremony will include Harvey Mason (not the CEO of the Recording Academy – that’s Harvey Mason Jr.). The elder Mason, a highly regarded drummer, amassed 10 Grammy nominations between 1975 and 2009.

The 66th annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 4, live on both coasts beginning at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+. The show will be produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy for the fourth consecutive year. Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins are executive producers.

The Premiere Ceremony will stream live that same day, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com. This year’s Premiere Ceremony is produced by Branden Chapman, Ruby Marchand, Chantel Sausedo, and Rex Supa on behalf of the Recording Academy. Greg V. Fera is executive producer and Cheche Alara is music producer and music director.

Main Telecast

Host

Trevor Noah

Performers

Burna Boy (with 21 Savage and Brandy)

Luke Combs (with Tracy Chapman)

Billie Eilish

Billy Joel

Dua Lipa

Joni Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile)

Olivia Rodrigo

Travis Scott

SZA

U2

Presenters

Christina Aguilera

Samara Joy

Lenny Kravitz

Maluma

Lionel Richie

Mark Ronson

Meryl Streep

Taylor Tomlinson

Oprah Winfrey

Premiere Ceremony (pre-telecast awards)

Host

Justin Tranter

Performers

Adam Blackstone       

Brandy Clark  

Bob James

Gaby Moreno 

Harvey Mason

J. Ivy, Larkin Poe, Pentatonix, Sheila E., Jordin Sparks (opening number)  

Kirk Franklin              

Laufey

Robert Glasper                       

Terrace Martin

Presenters

Carly Pearce

Jimmy Jam

Molly Tuttle

Natalia Lafourcade

Patti Austin

Rufus Wainwright

02 Feb 2024

‘Suerte’ ‘La Tortura’ & More: Which Shakira No. 1 Hit Is Your Favorite? Vote!

Happy birthday, Shakira! Billboard is celebrating the Colombian artist’s 47th birthday on Friday (Feb. 2) with her biggest hits on the Hot Latin Songs chart.

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Last year, Shak made a triumphant comeback to music with her first single of 2023, “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” The Bizarrap-assisted track became the Argentine producer’s first No. 1 hit on the tally, while Shak raked in her 12th (at the time), and her first No. 1 hit since 2016’s “Chantaje,” one of her many Maluma collaborations, which spent 11 weeks at top of the chart.

She later hit No. 1 with the unapologetic and empowering “TQG,” her first collaborative effort with Karol G; it crowned the chart for five weeks.

Of “Vol. 53’s” massive success, she previously expressed on Instagram: “What for me was a catharsis and a relief, I never thought that I would reach No. 1 globally at 45 years old and in [singing in] Spanish. I want to hug the millions of women who rise up against those who make us feel insignificant. Women who defend what they feel and think, and raise their hands when they disagree, even if others raise their eyebrows. They are my inspiration.” In the electro-pop tune, she belts witty punchlines directed to her ex-boyfriend and soccer star Piqué and his new girlfriend, Clara Chia Martí.

Shak’s first-ever No. 1 hit on the Hot Latin Songs chart arrived in 1998 with “Ciega, Sordomuda,” and she’s charted regularly ever since. Up to now, the sultry “La Tortura” (2005) with Alejandro Sanz has remained her longest-leading No. 1 title at 25 weeks. 

In honor of birthday, here are all of her 13 titles to crown the charts. Which one is your favorite? Vote below!

02 Feb 2024

Friday Music Guide: New Music From Billy Joel, Don Toliver, TWICE and More

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

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This week, Billy Joel makes his grand return, Don Toliver gets into psych-rock and TWICE keep the energy high. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

The first new Billy Joel single in decades arrives with uneven mix of anticipation and expectation — after all, the fact that “Turn the Lights Back On” exists at all marks a breathlessly exciting new development for a legendary artist, regardless of its quality. What a lovely discovery, then, that “Turn the Lights Back On” is both gorgeously rendered and a deeply felt personal check-in from Joel, who sounds like the same soulful storyteller he’s always been: “I’m late, but I’m here right now,” he sings, “though I used to be romantic, I forgot somehow.” For both decades-long fans and a new generation of listeners, “Turn the Lights Back On” stands tall as a meaningful new moment.

Although Don Toliver’s 2023 album Love Sick included guests like Justin Bieber, Future, Lil Durk and his partner Kali Uchis, new single “Bandit” features Tame Impala in sample form, as the 2020 track “One More Hour” turns into the backbone of a widescreen chest-thumping to kick off the new year. Toliver has never sounded more confident as he does spitting rhymes and hitting his falsetto over the stadium-rock guitar squeals, and “Bandit” becomes the rare sample-heavy track to both stand on its own merits and accentuate the high points of its source material.

As we enter February, New Year’s fitness resolutions may have started to fall by the wayside — but here comes K-pop titans TWICE to motivate you anew with their propulsive, dizzyingly fun new single. “I Got You,” the latest track from upcoming mini-album WITH YOU-th, builds upon the success of the group’s previous English-language singles by highlighting the collective’s melodic strengths and doubling down on the snappiest parts of the synth-pop production, creating a flash point that could cross over to U.S. platforms in a big way.

Next week is showtime for Usher, with new album Coming Home due out next Friday (Feb. 9) and a little performance called the Super Bowl halftime show two days later, but before his latest full-length and the biggest performance of his career are unveiled, the suave, sumptuous new track “Ruin” serves as a final preview of what sounds like a return to form. Rising Nigerian artist Pheelz lends a nifty assist over the dimly lit, Afrobeat-adjacent rhythms, but “Ruin” demonstrates Ursh pushing himself as a veteran artist, all while his silky-smooth appeal hasn’t dulled one bit.

“Straight Line” was “born of wanting to break out of routine and feeling like somewhere along the line, life lost some color and excitement,” Keith Urban explains in a press release; indeed, the first track released from Urban’s next studio album takes the country veteran’s time-honored formula and injects some adrenaline, with a driving tempo and some choice wooooooo-hoo’s in the post-chorus. While “Straight Line” will no doubt soundtrack some boisterous sing-alongs during Urban’s next tour, the song also bodes well for the follow-up to 2020’s The Speed of Now Part 1.

New music from Burial — one of the most influential and enigmatic producers of the 21st century — is always a gift, considering how sporadic his releases have been over the past decade, but “Dreamfear/Boy Sent From Above” feels particularly special, as a 25-minute double single that’s at once mysterious and intoxicating. Longtime Untrue fans will gravitate towards the ghostly vocals and shuffling beats, but proponents of Burial’s more abstract recent work should embrace the sprawl here, too.

02 Feb 2024

Calvin Harris & Kid Cudi to Headline FanDuel x Spotify Super Bowl Party

FanDuel is teaming up with Spotify this year for its annual Super Bowl party, with Calvin Harris and Kid Cudi announced as the headliners, Billboard can exclusively announce.

The 2024 FanDuel Super Bowl Party Powered by Spotify — which will be held at LIV inside the Strip’s newest resort, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, on Friday night, Feb. 9 — is the company’s third annual Super Bowl event and will feature a live recording of The Ringer Gambling Show podcast with hosts John “JJ” Jastremski, Raheem Palmer and “Cousin Sal” Iacono.

Last month, Calvin Harris broke the record for the most No. 1s in the 20-year history of Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, as his Eliza Rose collaboration “Body Moving” rose to the top of the ranking dated Jan. 13. He earned his 14th Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart-topper, breaking out of a tie with David Guetta. On Jan. 12, Kid Cudi released his ninth studio album, Insano, which features collabs with Travis Scott, ASAP Rocky, Lil Yachty, Pharrell Williams, the late XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne and Young Thug. The project debuted at No. 4 on the Top Rap Albums chart dated Jan. 27.

Since 2021, FanDuel has been the exclusive sports betting partner of Spotify sports and pop culture podcast network The Ringer. This Super Bowl party further cements the two companies’ partnership, which expanded in 2023 to encompass content produced for FanDuel TV, including the shows Beyond the Arc with Kevin O’Connor and Through The Ringer with Tate Frazier.

The event comes just two days before Super Bowl LVIII at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (Feb. 11), where the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the San Francisco 49ers for the championship. It was announced in September that Usher would headline the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show. Usher also announced that his ninth album, Coming Home, will arrive on Super Bowl Sunday. This set marks his first new album since 2016’s Hard II Love, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.

If you’re in Sin City for the week, check out our full guide to this year’s Super Bowl parties ahead of the Big Game here.

02 Feb 2024

Nikki Haley Is Confused By the Right-Wing Freak-Out Over Taylor Swift: ‘I Don’t Know What the Obsession Is’

As MAGA Nation continues to have a four-alarm meltdown about a conspiracy theory claiming the upcoming Super Bowl is rigged in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs as part of an elaborate psyop involving Taylor Swift, Nikki Haley says everyone needs to calm down.

The former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is the only candidate still challenging one-term former president Donald Trump for the GOP’s presidential nomination and during a chat with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday (Feb. 1) Haley said she was confounded by the right wing’s latest phantom menace.

“I’m not going to lie. I don’t know what the obsession is,” Haley said of the barrage of outlandish stories on conservative media outlets such as Fox News, OAN and Newsmax wildly speculating that Swift is somehow colluding with the NFL and the White House to turn the Feb. 11 Super Bowl into a glorified Pres. Biden endorsement-fest.

“Taylor Swift is allowed to have a boyfriend. Taylor Swift is a good artist. I have taken my daughter to Taylor Swift concerts before,” Haley said. “To have a conspiracy theory of all of this is bizarre. Nobody knows who she’s going to endorse, but I can’t believe that that’s overtaken our national politics.”

Swift, for the record, has not endorsed anyone in the upcoming election, though she did throw her support behind Biden in the 2020 election in which he beat Trump. To boot, the singer may or may not even make it to Super Bowl LVIII to see boyfriend KC tight end Travis Kelce take on the San Francisco 49ers because she has an Eras Tour gig in Japan the night before.

That has not stopped wildly unfounded speculation from at least one former GOP presidential candidate and avid Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy. The Ohio businessman recently tweeted out a suggestion that “there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” in seeming reference to the elaborate QAnon-like theory that Swift will steal the spotlight at the most-watched TV event of the year by announcing her support for Biden during the big game.

As is her wont, Haley tried to pivot from MAGA madness to the issues she’s trying to promote in what most political pundits believe is a lost cause effort to wrest the nomination from twice-impeached Trump. “I mean, right now, you have got 60 percent of American families living paycheck to paycheck. We’ve got a border that’s out of control. We have got wars happening around the world,” Haley said. “The last thing I really think we need to be worried about is who Taylor Swift is dating and what conspiracy theory is going to have her endorsing a person for president.”

Haley isn’t the only one throwing cold water on the right’s bizarre obsession. NBA great Charles Barkley slammed those complaining that Swift has “ruined” football. “You’re just a loser,” Sir Charles told CNN this week, while The View host Whoopi Goldberg asked “why is she triggering everybody? They are freaking out.”

Watch video of Haley talking Swift (at the 5:00 minute mark) here.

02 Feb 2024

Sara Bareilles Returns to Broadway With ‘The Interestings’

As more and more artists from the pop world add writing a Broadway musical to their career-goal lists, Sara Bareilles stands out as one of the brightest success stories from that group.

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Waitress — the musical adaptation of Adrienne Shelly’s beloved independent film, featuring music and lyrics by Bareilles — was an unequivocal Broadway hit, running for nearly four years after an opening in April 2016.

That year, Bareilles’ score earned her two Tony nominations (out of a total four for the show), and she went on to perform the lead role of Jenna for three different stints. The production played London’s West End as well as internationally, garnered a Grammy nomination for its original Broadway cast recording, and yielded both a standalone Bareilles album (What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress, released on Epic Records between the show’s off-Broadway and Broadway runs) and a film of the stage show (which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023).

Sara Bareilles performs during the curtain call for Broadway's

Sara Bareilles performs during the curtain call for Broadway’s “Waitress” at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre on March 31, 2017 in New York City. 

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Now, Bareilles — who’s been warmly embraced by the wider theater community, and racked up another Tony nomination last year for her portrayal of The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods — is making her return to Broadway.

She’s writing the music and lyrics for The Interestings, an adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel by Meg Wolitzer with a book by Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl.

The plot of Wolitzer’s novel revolves around character Jules Jacobson and her friends from an exclusive childhood arts camp (the titular Interestings, as they call themselves) who grow up to find varying degrees of success and satisfaction or disillusionment with where a creative life has led them.

When it came out in 2013, the Times called it “warm, all-American, and acutely perceptive about the motivations of its characters,” likening it to modern Great American Novels and praising Wolitzer’s “inclusive vision and generous sweep.” With its complex, layered female protagonist and diverse cast of characters, as well as the knotty themes it explores — ranging from what qualifies as success to whether being extraordinary is the only path to it — the book seems rich material for musical adaptation, and it’s easy to see why it appealed to Bareilles, whose Waitress balanced the buoyant with the bittersweet.

The Interestings is being produced by Matt Ross, and is currently in development; additional creative team and production details will be announced in the coming months.

02 Feb 2024

Louis Tomlinson Superfan Jokes They’re (Technically) Man and Wife Now After She Snagged a Very Special Autograph

Let this be a lesson to Louis Tomlinson: be careful what you sign. During the former One Direction singer’s show last month on his Faith in the Future world tour date in Jakarta, Tomlinson was signing some items for fans and apparently one of the slips of paper he was handed was an official document.

In a TikTok video, the fan said she went to the show as a single woman, “but I got back there as a married woman because,” she said as she showed off a document featuring her picture next to Tomlinson’s on what appeared to be an official document. “He signed a marriage certificate… of me and him,” she said in disbelief.

“I’m a married woman. I’m married to Louis Tomlinson,” she said with a smile. “I’m his lawfully wedded wife.” The fan said she did not go to the post-concert meet-and-greet, but a friend did and asked Tomlinson is he plans to return to Jakarta. “And he answered, ‘If my wife wants to!’ After he signed this! ‘IF MY WIFE WANTS TO!’ I’M HIS WIFE! Are you kidding me?”

The whole thing was just for fun, of course, but woman shared another video in which Tomlinson (who is heard, but not seen in full) asks, “what’s this some kind of declaration of marriage, is it?” as he’s handed a document that looked like a version of the Republic of Indonesia marriage certificate. “It’s official, is that right?” he adds laughing. As she assures him it is, Tomlinson says, “yeah, right right” and asks where he needs to sign. When she implores him to come visit more often, dutiful fake husband Tomlinson responds, “well I have to, yeah, if my wife wants me to, I have to.”

It was all fun and games, of course — according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Indonesia, a marriage in the country requires a religious ceremony by two parties of the same religion — so, alas, Tomlinson will continue on his world tour without his phony bride, touching down at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney tonight (Feb. 2).

Watch the TikTok below.

02 Feb 2024

Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler Sells Guitar Collection at Auction

An impressive collection of Mark Knopfler’s guitars and amps went under the hammer this week, raking in more than £8.8 million ($11 million) – a chunk of which goes to charity.

The Dire Straits frontman offloaded 120 instruments, auctioned Wednesday (Jan. 31) at Christie’s in London.

That gear was accumulated across a 50-year career, and was led by the sale of the northern Englishman’s 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard, which changed hands for £693,000 ($884,000), a new world auction record for the model, the BBC reports.

Some of the bids blew estimates out of the water. Knopfler’s 1988 Pensa-Suhr MK-1, which he played at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, in June 1988, went for £504,000 ($643,000), well up on its £8,000 ($10,000) estimate.

And his Red Schecter Telecaster, one of his “longest serving and most heavily toured instruments,” which Knopfler used on the Dire Straits hit from 1985 “Walk Of Life,” collected £415,800 ($530,000); the six-string had an estimate of just £6,000 ($7,600).

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Registered bidders and buyers for the auction chimed in from 61 countries. The total (including buyer’s premium) came in at £8,840,160, with a least a quarter of proceeds flowing equally to charities the British Red Cross, Tusk, and Brave Hearts of the North East.

Also, the Teenage Cancer Trust collects the total £403,200 raised from Knopfler’s 2021 Gibson Les Paul “gold top” guitar – signed by a slew of rock stars, including the late Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and Slash.

“I hope they all get played,” he told BBC News of his guitar collection back in November, “I don’t think they do too well living in a case all their lives.”

Knopfler is widely recognized by his peers as one of the finest to ever play the electric guitar, his solo on “Sultans of Swing” essential listening for any guitarist keen to take the next step. Indeed, Knopfler slides in at No. 27 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

With Dire Straits’ fifth studio album, 1985’s Brothers In Arms, the English band landed one of the biggest hits of the decade — or any decade. The LP, which featured the Billboard Hot 100 leader “Money For Nothing,” reigned over the Official U.K. Albums Chart for 14 weeks, and led the Billboard 200 for nine weeks.

The LP shifted an estimated 30 million copies worldwide, and won two Grammys (best music video, short form for the title track, and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Money For Nothing”).

Dire Straits’ fanbase spread the globe. Their 1986 tour of Australia in support of Brothers In Arms sold 950,000 tickets, a record that stood for decades, until Ed Sheeran’s 2018 Divide tour pushed past the 1 million ticket milestone.

Though dormant since 1992, the group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Knopfler didn’t attend the ceremony in Cleveland.

Though Knopfler is now separated from many of his prized instruments, he’s not done with making music. His forthcoming 10th solo studio album, One Deep River, is slated for released on April 12.

02 Feb 2024

Noah Kahan Lands First No. 1 In Australia With ‘Stick Season’

As the calendar flips over to February, Australia finds itself in stick season.

Noah Kahan earns his first No. 1 single in Australia as “Stick Season” (via Universal) climbs 2-1 on the ARIA Chart, published Friday, Feb. 2. “Stick Season” gets there in its 15th week on the tally.

Last month, Kahan completed his We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour, which included dates across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth — his first Australia trek since 2019. According to reps from Universal Music Australia, Kahan performed to more than 50,000 people on the jaunt, produced by Live Nation, and made his breakfast TV debut on Channel 7’s free-to-air Sunrise, for an in-studio performance of the hit single.

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Kahan has more to come. Next Friday, Feb. 9 sees the release of Stick Season (Forever), the “final pieces” of his release strategy, says a UMG rep, following the rollout of the Stick Season album in 2022 and, in late July 2023, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever).

It’s mid-summer in Australia, another scorcher where heatwaves or storms are the forecast for any given day. The hottest months here never pass without an edition of Triple J’s Hottest 100 poll, which was counted down last week, and saw Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” (RCA/Sony) crowned the winner.

A string of entries in the Hottest 100 enjoy bumps on the ARIA Chart, led by “Paint The Town Red,” up 10-6.

Also, Aussie EDM producer Dom Dolla’s flashes the cash with “Saving Up” (Sony), which vaults 44-11 on the ARIA Chart. “Saving Up” came in at No. 3 on the triple j poll, which raked in 2,355,870 votes. That result is easily Dom’s highest-charting single in Australia, eclipsing the No. 32 best for “Rhyme Dust.” After blasting in at No. 4 on the Hottest 100 poll, “Rhyme Dust” reenters the ARIA Chart this week at No. 41.

G Flip had a record-breaking result as seven of their songs appeared on the Hottest 100. Less than a week later, G Flip’s former No. 1 LP Drummer (Future Classic/Universal) returns at No. 42.

There’s no moving Taylor Swift from the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, as Taylor’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (via Universal) holds at No. 1 for a 13th non-consecutive week. If it logs one more week at No. 1, the latest Taylor’s Version would tie with Midnights as her longest reigning album in Australia, at 14 weeks.

According to ARIA, Swift chalks up 55 total number of weeks at No. 1 across 12 albums, starting with Speak Now in 2010.

The top debut on the albums tally is the Smile’s Wall Of Eyes (XL/Inertia), new at No. 7. It’s the second album from the Radiohead side project, following 2022’s A Light For Attracting Attention, which peaked at No. 15 on the ARIA Chart.