Music

26 Jan 2023

John Mayer Is Hitting the Road Solo for an Acoustic Tour: Here Are the Dates

John Mayer is headed on the road — this time, with a twist. On Thursday (Jan. 26), the singer-songwriter announced an 19-date solo arena tour across North America in 2023 that will consist of him leaning heavily on his acoustic guitar for the series of performances.

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The trek will see the “Daughters” singer travel across cities in the United States and Canada. The tour begins on March 11 at Newark’s Prudential Center, and will make stops in Boston, New York, Toronto, Atlanta, Chicago and more before concluding on April 14 in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum. Lizzy McAlpine and Alec Benjamin will support Mayer on the tour, alongside one more special guest who has yet to be announced.

Mayer spoke about what the tour means to him in an Instagram post that featured the trek’s official poster — a picture of him sitting on stool while holding an acoustic guitar.

“I began my career on stage with only a guitar and a microphone. A lot has changed since then, but I knew one day I’d feel it in my heart to do an entire run of shows on my own again, just like those early days,” he shared. “It took a couple of decades, but I feel it now. I’ll be playing old songs. Newer songs. Songs you haven’t heard yet that I’ll be road testing – all on acoustic, electric, and piano.”

As for the finer details, such as when fans can buy tickets, Mayer added: “Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, Feb. 3. at 9 a.m. local time. Presales start Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 9 a.m. local time and run through Thursday, Feb. 2, at 10 p.m. Sign up to access presale tickets now at johnmayer.com.” Tickets will be sold via seated.

See Mayer’s post and the concert dates for the tour, below.

Here are the tour dates:

Saturday, March 11 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
Monday, March 13 Boston, MA TD Garden
Wednesday, March 15 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Saturday, March 18 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
Monday, March 20 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
Wednesday, March 22 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
Friday, March 24 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
Saturday, March 25 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Monday, March 27 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
Wednesday, March 29 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center
Friday, March 31 Chicago, IL United Center
Saturday, April 1 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
Monday, April 3 Denver, CO Ball Arena
Wednesday, April 5 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center
Thursday, April 6 Palm Desert, CA Acrisure Arena
Saturday, April 8 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
Monday, April 10 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
Tuesday, April 11 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
Friday, April 14 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum

26 Jan 2023

Here’s Your First Look Inside J Balvin’s Futuristic VR Concert: Exclusive

Meta and iHeartRadio have partnered to bring to life “J Balvin Futurum: A VR Concert Experience,” Billboard can exclusively announce Thursday (Jan. 26).

Created specifically for VR, the 180-degree concert experience will offer state-of-the-art visuals and performances such as a custom-built lighted stage, seven backup dancers and J Balvin strapped to a 15-foot robotic arm that moves to the beat of the music. The Colombian artist will perform 17 of his biggest hits, including “La Canción,” I Like It” and “Mi Gente,” all of which hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

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“I’m always looking for new and innovative ways to expand access to art and the VR space is one with limitless opportunity,” said Balvin in a press statement. “The whole show has a futuristic vibe including some crazy robotics twice my size. It will be one of my wildest shows ever and I’m grateful to Meta and iHeart for the unique collaboration and the platform to explore my passion for technology in a way that allows my fans to experience my music together in a different way.”

Produced in partnership with iHeartRadio, the “J Balvin Futurum” show — which kicks off at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on Feb. 17 — is part of the iHeartRadio Concert Series in VR. Balvin joins previous performers such as John Legend, Carrie Underwood and Kim Petras.

To watch the VR concert, fans can subscribe to the event by clicking here. Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro users can watch in Horizon Venues by downloading the app.

26 Jan 2023

Grammy Voters Gave Black Women Their Flowers in 2023 Nods; Oscar Voters? Not So Much (Analysis)

When the nominations for the 2023 Oscars were announced on Tuesday (Jan. 24), just one Black woman was among the 10 women nominated in acting categories – Angela Bassett for best supporting actress for her role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Viola Davis in The Woman King and Danielle Deadwyler in Till were thought to have a strong chance of being nominated for best actress, but both were passed over – a fact that has stirred some controversy, such as this pointed commentary in The Los Angeles Times on Thursday (Jan. 26).

Black women fared much better in the marquee categories in the 2023 Grammy nominations, which were announced on Nov. 15. Three Black women were among the 10 lead artists nominated for album of the year, widely viewed as the most prestigious Grammy Award – Beyoncé for Renaissance, Lizzo for Special and Mary J. Blige for the deluxe edition of Good Morning Gorgeous.

Beyoncé is regarded as the front-winner to win in that category, after having lost in her three previous bids. I Am…Sasha Fierce lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless; Beyoncé to Beck’s Morning Phase; and Lemonade to Adele’s 25.

Oscar and Grammy voters have not always been generous to Black women. Only one Black woman has won the Oscar for best actress – Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball (2001). Amazingly, you have to go back even further than that to find the last Black woman to win the Grammy for album of the year as a lead artist. It hasn’t happened since Lauryn Hill took the 1998 prize for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Black women have fared far better at the Oscars in supporting roles than in lead roles, with nine Black actresses winning best supporting actress – Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (1939), Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (1990), Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (2006), Mo’nique in Precious (2009), Octavia Spencer in The Help (2011), Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave (2013), Davis in Fences (2016), Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and Ariana DeBose in West Side Story (2021).

It’s worth noting that Davis played the female lead in Fences. She had won the Tony for best lead actress in a play for the same role in 2010, but agreed to be slotted in the supporting category at the Oscars to boost her chances of winning. (The lead actress winner that year was Emma Stone – Davis’ former costar in The Help – for the blockbuster La La Land.)

If Beyoncé wins album of the year, she’ll become the fourth Black woman to take that award as a lead artist. Natalie Cole was the first for Unforgettable With Love, a tribute to her late father Nat King Cole (1991), followed by Whitney Houston two years later for The Bodyguard soundtrack and then Hill five years after that.

The perception of disrespect for Black women in this year’s best actress nominations will probably work to Bassett’s advantage in the voting. She is seen as the front-runner to win best supporting actress, 29 years after she was nominated for best actress for playing Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It. She would become the 10th Black woman to win best supporting actress; the eighth in the past two decades.

The way that Black women can fairly easily win Oscars in the supporting category, but have a hard time winning in the lead category, is analogous to a situation at the Grammys, where Black women (and men, for that matter) do very well in terms of numbers of overall awards, but less well in the vaunted Big Four categories.

Beyoncé is one of only three artists in Grammy history to amass 28 or more Grammys, but just one of those awards has come in a Big Four category – her 2009 song of the year win for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

At this year’s Grammys, she is likely to tie or surpass Sir Georg Solti for the most wins by anyone in Grammy history. (The late classical conductor won 31 awards.) While that statistic is likely to grab the headlines, her expected win for album of the year – the biggest of the Big Four categories – may be even more significant.

26 Jan 2023

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Returns to No. 1 on Boxscore Report With Nearly $51M Gross

Another December Boxscore report, another triumph for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Since Billboard launched its monthly touring recap in February 2019, TSO has made a habit of topping each December’s Top Tours chart, cranking up its annual seasonal routing to the max. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Trans-Siberian Orchestra grossed $50.9 million and sold 691,000 tickets over 71 shows in the 31-day period.

Peaking at four shows per day, TSO employs two ensembles. One travels the eastern half of the U.S. and the other covers the western half, each playing matinee and primetime concerts in some markets.

The band hit a high point on Dec. 23, with two shows at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio ($1.7 million) and two at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. ($1.9 million), totaling $3.6 million in one day from four concerts. It was one of five days in December that it grossed more than $3 million.

TSO’s entire 2022 haul generated $66.5 million in gross revenues from 914,000 tickets sold – with 77% of that sum coming from December dates alone. That’s the second-highest grossing tour in the band’s history, narrowly missing 2019’s pre-pandemic $66.8 million. Still, this was its biggest December yet, at $50.9 million, eclipsing 2019’s $46.8 million.

In 2021, TSO played 98 shows – equal to 2022’s run – but the Omicron wave slowed ticket sales, dipping to $42 million in December, and $54.6 million for the entire run.

In all, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has grossed $734.1 million and sold 14.1 million tickets over 1,789 shows. The modestly priced (and mostly U.S.-based) family show hovers around the top 20 grossing acts in Boxscore history, but is within the top 10 according to tickets sold, slightly less than Coldplay’s 14.6 million, but moving past Bon Jovi’s 13.3 million.

With its annual trip to the summit, TSO’s third monthly Boxscore win puts the act in rare company. Since the launch of Top Tours in February 2019, only Elton John (six) and Bad Bunny (four) have spent more time at No. 1, while The Rolling Stones match with three months of its own. Considering John and Bad Bunny dominated the previous four months, it hasn’t been since July that an act scored its first Top Tours victory, when Coldplay ruled with $66.7 million.

And while John, the Stones and Coldplay have each disappeared for now, Bad Bunny remains a factor on the December charts, at No. 3 on Top Tours and at No. 1 on Top Boxscores. He crowns the latter chart with his two shows at Estadio BBVA in Monterrey, Mexico. That double-header earned $17.1 million on Dec. 3-4, pushing World’s Hottest Tour to a final gross of $314.1 million.

In December, Billboard named Bad Bunny the top touring act of 2022 based on the combined activity of the spring’s El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo and World’s Hottest Tour, accumulating $373.5 million in the tracking period of Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022. But with additional grosses in November and December, he finished the year with $434.9 million, the biggest calendar-year gross for an artist in Boxscore history.

In between TSO and Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee finished the year at No. 2 on Top Tours, hitting a new peak after spending October and November at No. 3. His December haul began with three shows at Mexico City’s Foro Sol (after playing two shows at the venue in November) and stretched through a final American run, ending with two shows at Miami’s FTX Arena.

Over 15 shows, he earned $37.5 million, pushing his farewell tour’s total to $197.8 million. That makes it the second-biggest tour by a Spanish-speaking act, following, who else, Bad Bunny and his own fall ’22 tour.

Daddy Yankee follows Bad Bunny, again, by hitting No. 2 on Top Boxscores with those three Foro Sol shows. The entire five-night run grossed $23.6 million, split between $9.8 million on Nov. 29-30, and $13.8 million on Dec. 2-4.

Among the highest grossing venues of the month, a combination of holiday-themed concerts and sporting events make it the No. 1 on the ranking among venues with a capacity of 15,001+. In most months, the venue atop that chart is also the No. 1 venue among rooms of any size, given the high capacity. But, just as TSO annually shoots to No. 1, December’s crown is virtually reserved for New York’s 5,900-cap Radio City Music Hall.

Home of the Christmas Spectacular starring The Radio City Rockettes, RCMH grossed $76.7 million across 130 shows (averaging more than four performances per day), trampling the arena’s $22 million take. In all, between Nov. 18 and Jan. 2, the Rockettes show brought in $96.9 million and sold 945,000 tickets. If counted as a musical touring act, it would quite easily rule the Top Tours and Top Boxscores charts.

Though not a touring act per se, there are two Jingle Ball appearances on Top Boxscores, another seasonal regular. Of six reported Jingle Ball events, totaling $8.7 million, highlights are New York’s show at Madison Square Garden ($3.5 million; 18,178 tickets) and London’s two-night event at the O2 Arena ($2.5 million; 27,080 tickets).

26 Jan 2023

Fall Out Boy Bust Out Live Debut of New Singles at Surprise Hometown Club Show

For a band that spent most of last year playing stadiums around the world, Fall Out Boy scaled way down on Wednesday night (Jan. 25) for a super-rare club show at Chicago’s legendary 1,100-capacity Metro. The hits-heavy set featured a pair of singles from the band’s upcoming eighth studio album, So Much (For) Stardust (March 24) beginning with the live public debut of “Love From the Other Side” and, later in the set, “Heartbreak Feels So Good.”

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Performing as a trio in the absence of guitarist Joe Trohman — who last week announced that he was taking an indefinite mental health hiatus — fan-posted videos from the gig showed singer Patrick Stump pulling double-duty on lead vocals and electric guitar alongside bassist Pete Wentz and drummer Andy Hurley in their first full headline show since Trohman’s leave-taking.

As was the case during a pair of previous promotional appearances, the group got some assistance from longtime guitar tech Ben Young, who on Wednesday night played six-string off to Stump’s right side near the stage wings on songs including “Calm Before the Storm,” a track from the Chicago-bred group’s 2003 debut EP, Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, which they hadn’t played live since 2007.

According to a report from local rock station Q101 (which sponsored the show), the 19-song, career-spanning set included other way-back favorites, including “Grand Theft Autumn,” “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago” and “Saturday” from the group’s their 2003 debut full-length, Take This to Your Grave, as well as such beloved hits as “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down,” “Uma Thurman,” “Dance, Dance,” “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up).”

Though no tour dates have been announced yet for the band’s Stardust era, for now, the source said Young will be “filling in and providing support” for any additional promotional appearances and any yet-to-be-determined future tour dates. Young, frontman for the band Knifes, has also been a guitar tech for Alkaline Trio, Linkin Park and Deftones in the past.

Trohman plays on the new album but will not participate in promotion around the project. The guitarist has been with the band since its early 2000s formation in the suburbs of Chicago, alongside singer Stump, Wentz and Hurley. In an Instagram post last he said, “Without divulging all the details, I must disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years. So, to avoid fading away and never returning, I will be taking a break from work which regrettably includes stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell.” Trohman promised that he will “absolutely” be back with the group at some point.

Check out some video and pictures from the show and the set list (via Q101) below.

fall out boy playing calm before the storm tonight for the first time in 10 years!! patrick’s vocals are absolutely INCREDIBLE here pic.twitter.com/g0AL1dDOGQ

— patrick stump vocals (@truantzwave) January 26, 2023

fall out boy — Fall Out Boy perform on Jan. 25, 2023.

Elliot Ingham

Fall Out Boy Jan. 25 Metro set list:

“Love From the Other Side” (Public Live Debut)
“The Phoenix”
“Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down”
“Uma Thurman”
“Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes”
“Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”
“American Beauty/American Psycho”
“Dance, Dance”
“Hum Hallelujah”
“A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More ‘Touch Me’”
“This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”
“Calm Before the Storm” (First Performance since 2007)
“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
“Heartbreak Feels So Good” (Live Debut)
“Chicago Is So Two Years Ago”
“Thriller”
“Thnks fr th Mmrs”
“Centuries”
“Saturday”

26 Jan 2023

Taylor Swift Announces ‘Lavender Haze’ Music Video: ‘Meet Me At Midnight …’

Taylor Swift is dropping the “Lavender Haze” music video at last. In a surprise post on her social media accounts Thursday morning (Jan. 26), the 33-year-old pop star finally announced the highly anticipated visual for the first song on the Midnights tracklist … and yes, it’s premiering at 12 a.m. sharp.

“Meet me at midnight…,” Swift captioned the posts. “…for the Lavender Haze music video premiere (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)”

The 11-time Grammy winner also shared a short, 9-second video teaser for the project, in which she sits up in bed, wearing an oversized T-shirt, with her partner sleeping beside her. As the opening bars to “Lavendar Haze” play, thick, purple fog rolls into the room.

“FINALLY,” several fans individually replied to the “All Too Well” singer’s announcement.

A countdown for the premiere is already up on Swift’s YouTube channel, featuring a still from the video of the singer-songwriter bathing in creamy purple water, hair soaked and lips painted a dark violet.

Swifties have been waiting for the “Lavender Haze” music video for about three months now, ever since the “Bejeweled” music video premiered in late October. Swift shared the Cinderella-inspired “Bejeweled” visual just two weeks after dropping the first Midnights music video, which was for the album’s No. 1 lead single, “Anti-Hero.”

One could even argue that Swifties have been waiting for this one since before Midnights even came out, as Swift actually shared a teaser video for all of the album’s music videos during Thursday Night Football, mere hours before Midnights hit streaming services Oct. 21.

“Those projects are the Midnights Music Movies, the music videos that I made for this album to sort of explore visually the world of this record,” she said at the time. “I love storytelling, I love songwriting, I love writing videos, I love directing them … I’m really proud of what we made and I really hope you like them. We worked with some amazing actors.”

See Taylor Swift’s “Lavender Haze” music video announcement below:

26 Jan 2023

Harv Launches Solo Career: Pop Producer Details Inspiring Debut Single ’Losses’

Harv has envisioned this day for years. The producer-songwriter — known for his work with artists like Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Normani — is launching a solo career with his debut single, “Losses,” he exclusively reveals to Billboard.

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Due out Friday (Jan. 27) through Range Music Partners, “Losses,” featuring Kyle, is the culmination of a long-held belief and patient pursuit. “You don’t care about the losses / Losses, yeah, the losses / You say you got too many options,” Kyle sings on the ethereal, silky single. And as Kyle dissects a love lost, Harv commands the bass and drums — he has done this forever, long before he became Bieber’s bassist in 2009, but the camera angle has shifted.

“I don’t want to get too far away from letting the world know that I’m actually a musician,” the artist born Bernard Harvey tells Billboard. “I want the 12-year-old kid that wants to play bass to look at ‘Losses’ like, ‘Oh, that’s what I want to do.’”

Growing up in Kansas City, Kansas, Harv relentlessly practiced the bass, cello and piano — fueled at home by his mother, a pianist and minister of music at Corinthian Baptist Church, as well as by “old-school heroes” like Prince and Rick James. Harv vividly recalls attending a Destiny’s Child concert at 15 years old, but not because of Beyoncé. “It’s me and my brother versus 20,000 girls screaming for Destiny’s Child, who are amazing, but me and my brother were locked in on the band,” he recalls. “Every time the bass player did something, I was just like, ‘Whoa.’”

Harv proclaimed at his high school lunch table that he’d one day play in front of 90,000 people, and then slowly stacked his wins, from a music technology scholarship for Alabama State University to his first major placement on Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade” once he’d moved to Atlanta, where he was introduced to Bieber in 2009. Since then, Harv has toured the world several times over with Bieber and We The Band — “If you want to be the best, you gotta put yourself around the best,” he says of his arena-ready bass work — while gradually transitioning to producing and songwriting.

After contributing to a handful of Bieber album tracks, as well as to songs by artists like Omarion and Sevyn Streeter, Harv’s co-production credit on Bieber’s Grammy-nominated No. 1 smash “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, felt like a final puzzle piece in 2021. “I control what I want to do with my music now, as opposed to coming out prematurely and not having the respect or the legs,” he says. “It’s the perfect time right now.”

In early 2022, an unassuming six-hour studio session with Kyle led to “Losses.” That night, Harv played the track for his wife, Felisha, and two months later, he selected it as his debut single. “When you listen to ‘Losses,’ immediately, you think [of] a relationship where you may give more than you’re receiving,” he says. “It’s not reciprocated, and the person doesn’t care about you losing, but it can be anything in life. Musicians go through a lot. We put our all in, and [in] this music business, sometimes it doesn’t give you the same thing that you put into it.”

He plans to take the same organic approach to his solo career moving forward, in order to identify which sessions will generate the best songs without placing unnecessary pressure on results. “You can have a few good songs, but I want to have a long career,” says Harv. “I want to be 50 and have people look at me how they look at Quincy Jones. Like, ‘Oh, he’s one of those guys. He’s not just here for a summer.’ No, I’m here for the long haul.”

26 Jan 2023

Margo Price Invites You To Get Mellow With Her Line of ‘Margo Grass’ CBD Joints and Flower

Margo Price is not shy about her taste for the sticky icky. So it makes perfect sense that the singer has teamed up with the cannabis brand Dad Grass to announce a new line of Mom Grass products that officially drop today (Jan. 26). Timed to coincide with Price’s mind-expanding new album, Strays, the joint-project features pre-rolled CBD joints and tins of flower, as well as a limited-edition run of merch that leans into the psychedelic vibe of the album, which mixes country, rock and songs inspired by magic mushroom adventures.

The run includes handmade, limited-edition “Margo Grass” embroidered hats and small batch natural indigo tie-dyed shirts to compliment the federally legal Mom Grass flower and joints made with CBG. According to a release, the products feature low-dose organic hemp packed with CBG, which contains less than 0.3% THC, which won’t get you Snoop-level high and is federally legal to have delivered to your home.

“I have battled insomnia, menstrual cramps, migraines, back pain, depression, hangovers, writer’s block and boredom with cannabis that’s high in CBG, and I want to help remove the stigma around this beautiful plant,” Price said in a statement.

Among the items in the collection are the Mom Grass x Margo Price special edition pack in 5 or 10-joint versions with pre-rolls in a trippy sleeve designed in collaboration with the singer that nods to the mushroom jumpsuit she wears on the album’s cover and lyrics from her song “Been to the Mountain.”

The Price collection is the follow up to last year’s George Harrison-inspired “All Things Must Grass” collection honoring the late Beatles’ iconic 1970 triple-LP solo album.

Check out some of the products below.

26 Jan 2023

Ozzy Osbourne Is the Co-Worker From Hell in Preview of Super Bowl LVII Commercial

Imagine hanging in the office break room with the Prince of Darkness. Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne gets dressed up for work in a dress shirt, tie and an office-appropriate amount of eyeliner in the 15-second preview of his upcoming Super Bowl LVII commercial for workplace finance/HR software company Workday in which the Blizzard of Oz tries to fit in with his fellow desk jockeys.

In the clip, Ozzy plays the fresh face in the typing pool who doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the worker bees. “Who’s the new guy,” asks his cubicle mate, as the woman at the desk next to him whispers, “I don’t know, but he’s supposed to be some kind of rock star.”

Cue Ozzy spinning around in his chair looking sweetly menacing, what with his tattoos, handful of rings, long hair and raccoon eyes. “Which one of you wants a piercing?,” he asks sweetly as the guy across from him points to their co-worker. “On Sunday, February 12th, the corporate world will be rocked,” the screen reads at the end of the clip. According to Variety, the full one-minute ad from the first-time Super Bowl advertiser Workday slated to air in the third quarter will also feature Joan Jett and Gary Clark Jr.

The description of the preview reads, “Where are the rock stars in your organization? Look around—they might be sitting right next to you. Join Ozzy as he gets ready to rock the corporate world on football’s biggest stage.” This year’s Super Bowl will take place on Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Check out the preview of Ozzy’s Super Bowl ad below.

26 Jan 2023

Archie Roach Posthumously Recognized In Australia Day Honors

Archie Roach, the legendary Indigenous Australian artist whose song “Took the Children Away” was recognized with a Human Rights Medal, has been posthumously awarded in the Australia Day honors.

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Roach is appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for his service to the performing arts and to Indigenous rights and reconciliation, officials announced on Jan. 26 — Australia’s national day.

The Gunditjmara (Kirrae Whurrong/Djab Wurrung), Bundjalung senior elder, songman, prolific storyteller and First Nations champion contributed some of this country’s finest works, across a 30-year-plus career, spanning eight albums.

Few songs can touch quite like Roach’s 1991 song “Took The Children Away,” a heartbreaking tale of the enforced separation of First Nations children from their families.

The song received an international Human Rights Achievement Award, the first time that the honor had been bestowed on a songwriter.

Roach, or Uncle Arch as he was lovingly known, was celebrated on numerous occasions during his lifetime. He was made a Member of The Order of Australia (AM) (in 2015), and received the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music (in 2017).

The songsmith was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2020, marking the 30th anniversary of the release of Charcoal Lane, his debut full length album which carried “Took The Children Away.” The song is now preserved in the National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia.

Throughout his life, he dedicated himself to supporting others. In 2014, he founded The Archie Roach Foundation which established to “nurture meaningful and potentially life changing opportunities” for young First Nation artists.

When he died July 30, 2022 after a long illness, at the age of 66, prime minister Anthony Albanese led tributes.

Though Roach has left us, his music continues to resonate. At the 2022 ARIA Awards, Roach posthumously won best independent release for “One Song,” the final song he wrote.

“One Song” is one of 20 contenders for the coveted song of the year at the 2023 APRA Music Awards, set for April 27 at Sydney’s ICC.

See the complete Australia Day Honours List here.

1 … 2,923 2,924 2,925 2,926 2,927 2,928 2,929 … 3,260

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