Music

05 Dec 2022

Kelly Clarkson Forecasts a Torrent of Testosterone With The Weather Girls Cover: Watch

Grab your umbrellas because while it may be December, Kelly Clarkson‘s forecast calls for the very best kind of rain. The pop star opened her talk show on Monday (Dec. 5) by blazing through “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls.

“Humidity is rising, barometer’s getting low/ According to all sources, the street’s the place to go/ ‘Cause tonight for the first time, just about half past 10/ For the first time in history, it’s gonna start raining men,” she sang before belting out the track’s famous refrain of “It’s raining men, hallelujah it’s raining men!”

Originally released as the lead single off The Weather Girls’ 1982 album Success, “It’s Raining Men” became a No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart — and bonafide gay anthem — that October. Also peaking at No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, the testosterone-soaked track eventually received a Grammy nomination in the now-defunct best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals category.

Since the start of December, Clarkson has invited both Dolly Parton and Jimmy Fallon to her studio to duet on, respectively, “9 to 5” and Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe.” Other recent Kellyoke picks by America’s original Idol include Lady Gaga’s Chromatica-era lead single “Stupid Love,” “Only Happy When It Rains” by Garbage, “Dream a Little Dream of Me” as recorded by Mama Cass with The Mamas and the Papas and more.

Plus, the erstwhile coach of The Voice and Ariana Grande also dropped a live recording of “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me,” their 2021 Christmas collab, just in time for the holiday season.

Watch Clarkson power through “It’s Raining Men” below.

05 Dec 2022

SZA Reveals ‘S.O.S’ Tracklist Featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott & More

SZA is just days away from unveiling her long-awaited new album, S.O.S, and the star added to the anticipation on Monday (Dec. 5) by dropping the star-studded tracklist.

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“Which version for back tracklist?” she tweeted alongside two separate creatives for the 23-track list, which is scribbled in white font on a photo of SZA laying on the ground, oiled up with her underwear on display. The upcoming album has a number of guest features including Don Toliver on “Used,” Phoebe Bridgers on “Ghost in the Machine,” Travis Scott on “Open Arms” and Ol’ Dirty Bastard on “Forgiveless.”

Over the weekend, the TDE singer-songwriter also debuted a new song, “Blind,” from the upcoming set while serving as the musical guest on the Keke Palmer-hosted Saturday Night Live. She also performed her recent viral single “Shirt,” which debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early November.

SZA recently covered Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue. In the cover story, she questioned her longevity in music and where she sees her career going forward. “I feel like music, in this capacity, I don’t see longevity,” SZA admitted. “I like to create, I like to write, I like to sing, and I like to share. But I don’t know if chasing after superstardom or whatever I’m supposed to be doing right now is sustainable for me or for anybody. I’mma take a good swing at it, and I’mma give ’em my absolute best.”

S.O.S follows the star’s 2017 debut, Ctrl, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and featured hits like “Love Galore,” “Broken Clocks” and “The Weekend.”

05 Dec 2022

Paramore Is Playing a One-Night Only Album Release Show at the Grand Ole Opry House

Paramore has tacked on a special date to its 2023 arena tour. On Monday (Dec. 5), bandmates Hayley Williams, Taylor York and Zac Farro announced an album release show in Nashville to celebrate the release of their sixth LP, This Is Why.

“Album Release Show. Nashville. Feb 6 2023,” the group tweeted along with a poster for the show, which revealed that it will take place at the Nashville’s historic Grand Ole Opry, and will include support from Louis Prince.

Fans hoping to secure tickets to attend the Nashville show will need to act fast. Presale signup via AXS’ Fair Ticketing system starts now and goes through Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 10 p.m. local time. Fans who have been granted presale access through email confirmation can purchase tickets before the general public, starting Thursday, Dec. 8, at 10 a.m. local time through 10 p.m. local time. Presale access does not guarantee tickets. General public onsale starts on Friday, Dec. 9, at 10 a.m. local time on paramore.net.

The Nashville concert date adds on to Paramore’s already-stacked list of shows for 2023. After performing a set on Feb. 9 for the Bud Light Music Music Fest, the band will head to South America for a series of dates in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and more in March, before going to the United Kingdom in April, and heading back to the United States for shows in May through August.

The tour will follow the Feb. 10 release of Paramore’s sixth studio album This Is Why, the band’s first LP in almost six years. The record’s lead single — which doubles as the title track — dropped in September.

The “This Is Why” era comes after Paramore took a nearly five-year hiatus from releasing music and performing. The trio made their official return to touring this fall with a run of intimate North American shows, their first circuit since 2017’s After Laughter Tour.

See Paramore’s album release show announcement below.

05 Dec 2022

Madison Square Garden Resets Year-End Venue Revenue Record Thanks to Shows by Harry Styles, Billy Joel

In the first full year of tracking since the pandemic, New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG) returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Venues (15,001+ capacity) chart. But more than that, MSG is the highest-grossing venue of any size or shape, eclipsing all stadiums, arenas, theaters and clubs. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Madison Square Garden hosted 124 shows during the tracking period, combining to $241.4 million and 1.8 million tickets.

For those following Billboard’s monthly Boxscore charts, MSG’s No. 1 finish shouldn’t be a huge surprise. The arena led the monthly venue chart in February, August and September, the last of which was a record-setter for the biggest one-month sum for a venue since the monthly rankings launched in early 2019. MSG’s 22 September shows raked in a combined $64.3 million.

MSG appeared on the 10-position chart for 10 of the year’s 12 months, only missing in January and March. Otherwise, including its three months at No. 1, it spent half of the year in the top three.

With 124 shows, MSG’s calendar was packed. Still, some heavy hitters can take some credit for its ultimate triumph. Harry Styles, No. 1 on the year-end Top Boxscores chart, led the charge with his mammoth 15-show residency. The shows collectively grossed $63.1 million and sold 277,000 tickets between Aug. 20 and Sept. 21, a key factor in the venue’s monthly wins.

And while they are regarded as individual engagements, Billy Joel’s ongoing residency continued with 11 shows during the tracking year – one show in each month except for January, during a largely dark period amid the Omicron wave. His shows combined to $29.6 million and 205,000 tickets sold. That means that Styles and Joel’s 26 shows accounted for $92.7 million, or 39% of the venue’s total annual gross.

Following Styles atop the heap, Phish ($8.8 million), Rage Against the Machine ($8.2 million), Elton John ($6.9 million) and Genesis ($5.3 million) round out MSG’s top five grossing concert engagements of the year with multi-show runs. Based on attendance, Styles leads Phish (76,000), Rage Against the Machine (71,000), John Mulaney (42,000) and Luke Combs (36,000).

MSG became the first venue to earn more than $200 million in a year when it closed out 2019 with $221.7 million. The arena reaches new heights three years later, but considering 2020 and 2021 were shortened due to COVID, its own record re-set is essentially immediate. The $241.4 million gross is the largest for any venue in a single year.

While Boxscore charts date back to the late ‘80s, year-end venue charts launched in 1999. In those 24 years, MSG has led the charge among venues with a capacity of 15,001 or more in 14 of those years. After starting at No. 6 in 1999, MSG was No. 1 for nine consecutive years from 2000-2008. It then floated around the top 10 while London’s O2 Arena assumed the throne from 2009-2016, falling one year short of MSG’s record ‘00s-era reign.

MSG regained the title for 2017-2020, slipped to No. 2 last year behind Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, and returns to the summit for 2022.

05 Dec 2022

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Jingles Back to No. 1 on Billboard Global 200 Chart

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” dashes from No. 5 to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200, adding a ninth total week atop the tally since the list launched in 2020.

Plus, Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” holds for an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart.

Meanwhile, holiday classics from Brenda Lee, Wham! and Bobby Helms resurge to the Global 200’s top 10.

The two global charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Billboard Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the U.S.

Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.

Carey’s ‘Christmas’ Sleighs Competition on Global 200

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” blasts 5-1 on the Billboard Global 200, with 64.5 million streams (up 47%) and 8,000 sold (up 62%) worldwide in the Nov. 25-Dec. 1 tracking week. The 1994 modern holiday classic adds a ninth week at No. 1, after it topped the chart for four weeks each in the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons. Notably, the song leads a week earlier this year, on the chart dated Dec. 10, than in the past two years, as it first hit No. 1 on the Dec. 19, 2020, survey and returned to the top of the chart dated Dec. 18, 2021.

Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” keeps at No. 2 on the Global 200, following four weeks at No. 1 beginning in October, and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” drops to No. 3 after four weeks at the summit starting in November.

Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” originally released in 1958, bounds 19-4 on the Global 200, after reaching No. 3 in each of the past two holiday seasons, and Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” from 1984, jumps 21-5, after rising to No. 2 over the holidays the past two years. The latter also leaps 27-9 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, where it has likewise peaked at No. 2.

Elsewhere in the Global 200’s top 10, Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” from 1957, roars 23-8, after hitting No. 4 in both the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons.

Smith & Petras Continue Atop Global Excl. U.S.

Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” adds an eighth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, with 51 million streams (down 3%) and 5,000 downloads sold (down 10%) in territories outside the U.S. Nov. 25-Dec. 1.

Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” holds at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S., after two weeks at No. 1 beginning in November, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” soars 16-3, with 37.4 million streams (up 53%) and 3,000 sold (up 67%) outside the U.S. The modern carol topped the chart for a week in the 2020 holiday season and for three weeks over last year’s holidays.

David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” slips 3-4 on Global Excl. U.S., after hitting No. 2, and Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” holds at No. 5 after reaching No. 4.

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Dec. 10, 2022) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 6). For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard‘s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

05 Dec 2022

Howard Stern Calls Out ‘Self Hating’ Kanye West After Hitler Praise

Following Kanye West‘s appearance on Alex Jones’ InfoWars talk show last week, where he praised and admitted that he loves Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, Howard Stern is joining the long list of celebrities who are speaking out against the rapper — as it’s hardly the first time in recent months that Ye has spread antisemitic hate speech using his platform. 

During his SiriusXM radio show on Monday (Dec. 5), Stern shared that West’s antisemitism made the alt-right conspiracy theorist Jones appear like “a bleeding heart liberal.” He added, “Alex Jones kept trying to throw him a life preserver and Kanye would just slap it away. It was pretty f—ing crazy.”

“I guess he doesn’t know he is Black,” Stern expressed. “He doesn’t understand what Hitler thought of Jews, Black people. [He] thought they were all inferior. He wanted to sterilize Black people. […] For a Black man to be running around saying he loves Hitler, what happened to this guy? What in his life led him to this mental illness?”

Stern also noted a “psychological theory” that he has about West. “I’m sure I’m not the only one that thinks that maybe he hates being Black so much. He’s so self hating,” the radio host then explained. “He wants to wear a hood and pretend he’s a white man. A white man in the Nazi party. In a weird way despises being Black and wants to be accepted by Nazis.”

Listen to Howard Stern’s full SiriusXM episode here.

05 Dec 2022

Milo Yiannopoulos Departs Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign in ‘Mutual‘ Decision

Milo Yiannopoulos is no longer onboard Kanye West‘s presidential campaign, the far-right political personality confirmed in a Sunday (Dec. 4) statement to The Daily Beast.

“Ye and I have come to the mutual conclusion that I should step away from his political team,” said Yiannopoulos, who previously worked as an intern for Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. “I will continue to pray for Ye and all his endeavors.”

Billboard has reached out to Yiannopoulos for comment.

The split comes just a couple weeks after after Kanye — who now goes by — confirmed his intent to run for president in 2024 following his failed White House bid in 2020. Yiannopoulos’ involvement in the campaign was also announced at this time, with the rapper introducing him to paparazzi as someone who was “working on the campaign.” 

A few days after Ye confirmed that Yiannopoulos was part of his political team, the Yeezy founder was spotted dining in Mar-A-Lago with former President Donald Trump and another far-right commentator, Nick Fuentes. Fuentes has become known for his extreme antisemitic and white nationalist views, making him an unsurprising companion for Ye, who’s been repeatedly making antisemitic comments as of late.

Just last week, Ye praised Hitler and said he loved Nazis.  “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” he told Alex Jones on InfoWars Thursday (Dec. 1). “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”

The interview and his continued hate speech sparked outrage on social media. President Joe Biden also spoke out after Jones’ chat with Ye, condemning antisemitism and Holocaust denialism in a strongly worded statement on Twitter. “I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure,” the president wrote. “And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”

05 Dec 2022

From the Top, Touring Looks Better Than Ever

Was 2022 the worst “best year ever?” By some measures, the concert business had its most successful year. From Nov. 1, 2021, to Oct. 31, 2022, the top 10 tours grossed a combined $2.2 billion in ticket sales, according to Billboard Boxscore, 36% more than they did in 2019, the previous full year of touring, and more than four times the $519 million they took in during the pandemic-limited 2021.

Some of this growth follows an existing trend. Since 2013, the live business has grown steadily between 5% and 10% a year, thanks to international expansion and an increasing number of megatours. In 2013, eight acts took in over $100 million at the box office — Bon Jovi, P!nk, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones and the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson show.

But the business also experienced a sharp uptick this year, driven by a combination of pent-up demand, a number of big tours and inflation. Sixteen tours crossed the $100 million mark, and the number of concert tickets sold in the first three quarters of 2022 was up 37% over 2019, according to Live Nation’s most recent quarterly report.

The bad news, however, is twofold: More work for fewer employees in the wake of pandemic layoffs, plus rising costs for staffing, production and travel, threaten to erode profits. “We are working harder than ever just to try and make sure we don’t lose any ground,” says Jim Cressman, founder and owner of Canadian independent promoter Invictus Entertainment.

Cressman and Live Nation executives say that fans also seem to be changing their concertgoing habits by waiting longer to buy tickets. About 30% of tickets for this year’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago were purchased five days or fewer before the event, according to Live Nation. It’s a concerning trend for promoters and tour organizers who have become accustomed to scaling event costs up and down based on projections from early sales. Fans are also getting wise to the fact that ticket prices, especially on the secondary market, tend to drop over time.

The names of the top 10 tours won’t surprise anyone who follows the industry. No. 1 is Bad Bunny, who did two tours during this time frame: El Último Tour del Mundo, which ran from February to April and grossed $116 million, and World’s Hottest Tour, which brought in $246 million from August to the end of the Billboard Boxscore touring year; it will run until Dec. 10. The tour dates within this time frame, as well as isolated hometown shows in Puerto Rico, grossed a combined $373.5 million, the third-highest year-end total in Boxscore history after Ed Sheeran’s $429.5 million in 2018 and The Rolling Stones’ $425 million in 2006.

This is the first year that each tour in the top 10 grossed over $100 million and the top five each took in more than $200 million. Some of that is due to higher ticket prices: Bad Bunny tickets cost an average of $201, while tickets to Sheeran’s No. 1 2019 ÷ (Divide) shows cost an average of $86; the average ticket price of a top 10 tour was $130.76, up from $114.29 in 2019. Some of that growth comes from inflation, of course, while some is from a shift to higher ticket prices in order to capture revenue that once went to the secondary market. “The spending levels are really the same,” says Live Nation Global Touring chairman Arthur Fogel. “It’s just that artists are capturing more of it than ever before.”

Farther down the Top Tours chart, the growth also stays consistent. The top 40 tours grossed a total of $4.6 billion, up from a total of $3.5 billion in 2019, a difference of 32%

The New Scorecard

This year, Billboard Boxscore created a new chart to rank tours by number of tickets sold, not just revenue, although that information had already been included. And although promoters were concerned earlier in 2022 that touring market oversaturation would mean concerts drew fewer fans, the chart actually shows the opposite — major concerts attracted larger audiences without cannibalizing other shows. In 2022, a combined 17.1 million people saw the top 10 attended tours, up 21% from a combined 2019 attendance of 14.1 million. This year also marked the first time that 19 of the top 20 attended tours drew over 900,000 fans.

The top 10 tours also represent one of the youngest lists in recent years, with an average headliner age of 49.3, as opposed to 51.2 in 2019 and 54.6 in 2021. The oldest act was The Rolling Stones — Mick Jagger and Keith Richards will both be 79 by the end of the year, and Ron Wood is 75. The youngest acts were Harry Styles and Bad Bunny, both of whom turned 28 this year.

As in years past, Live Nation dominated the business, exclusively promoting half of the top 20 — which grossed a combined $1.5 billion — as well as Bad Bunny’s stadium shows, in collaboration with Cárdenas Marketing Network, and some shows for My Chemical Romance and Paul McCartney. AEG Presents follows with a handful of global tours, including Elton John, that combined accounted for $843 million. CMN powered Bad Bunny at No. 1 and Daddy Yankee at No. 13, while Mercury Concerts led the Latin American dates for Guns N’ Roses. Sheeran, at No. 3, was promoted by a mix of buyers throughout Europe.

On the agency front, the leader is Creative Artists Agency, with eight acts in the top 20: Styles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, the Eagles, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber and My Chemical Romance. Wasserman Music had four clients in the top 20 — Sheeran, Coldplay, Kenny Chesney and Billie Eilish — while UTA had two: Bad Bunny and Guns N’ Roses.

Three of the top tours — John, McCartney and The Rolling Stones — have global touring deals with AEG but don’t have a traditional booking agency deal. WME had only one artist in the top 20 with Daddy Yankee. So did the Neal Agency, started in February by Austin Neal, son of longtime WME agent Kevin Neal. Austin formed the agency to represent Morgan Wallen, who took a hiatus from touring after his use of a racial slur was caught on video in 2021. Wallen grossed $128 million in 2022 from 66 shows.

05 Dec 2022

Alison Wonderland Launches FMU Records: ‘I Don’t Want Artists to Feel Like a Statistic; I Want Them to Feel Like Humans’

New year; new vision.

As 2023 draws closer, Alex Sholler — known to many as the mega-successful producer/singer/songwriter/instrumentalist/party-starter Alison Wonderland — is revving up the engines of her latest venture: FMU Records.

With the label, Sholler intends to spotlight left of center electronic music made by up-and-coming artists along with her own Dark Electronic genre currently coming into greater focus via her Whyte Fang project.

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This Thursday (December 8), FMU Records will drop its debut release, “I Surrender.” A collaboration between Argentinean producer Dabow and South African artist Jon Casey, the track is a play-it-loud tapestry of percussion punctuated with trap bass and wavy synths that serves as a mood setter for FMU.

With the label, Sholler hopes to use her global platform to give shine to rising stars and provide a place where artists can release music without bowing to the kinds of craven, algorithm-based marketing strategies many begrudgingly endure.

“For FMU, we are just going to push good music,” she tells Billboard. “Artists won’t have to do TikToks to ensure their tracks do well. I just want to get cool, good music out there.”

Distribution for FMU is being handled via Ingrooves, while Alison Wonderland music will continue to be handled by EMI/AUS — which released Alison Wonderland’s three studio albums, including 2022’s Loner, which hit No. 3 on Dance/Electronics albums this past May.

But early 2023 sees Sholler putting her focus outside of Alison Wonderland, with FMU Records set to drop the debut album from her Whyte Fang project this spring. After spending six years on the backburner while Sholler took over the scene as Alison Wonderland, the project soft-launched earlier this year with a trio of singles — “Girl,” “333” and “TIDES” — that showcased a hypnotic, hard-edged sound well-suited for late nights in dark clubs.

Dropping March 31, 2023, the Whyte Fang album will include that trio of previously released singles and come in tandem with a warehouse launch party happening in New York earlier that month. The event will feature a Whyte Fang performance, which Sholler calls “not just a musical, but a whole artistic experience where the lighting, visuals, set, and live listening experience is all very cohesive.

“I’m just excited for people to see what’s going on in my mind,” she adds, “and [I’m excited] that I have complete creative control over it.” 

The launch of this label was described in a press release as “one of the most important steps” in your career thus far. Does that feel true for you and if so, why?

Yes, this does feel true to me. I have always felt like I should take advantage of my reach as an established artist and give up-and-coming artists a chance to use my platform and keep control of their music — it’s something I feel very passionate about now.

I think that currently, artists feel a lot of pressure to be content creators, marketing managers, and promoters. I don’t want artists to feel like a statistic, I want them to feel like humans. I’m finding it hard to navigate myself in this world, with the pressure of only looking at numbers rather than the music. I just want to throw cool parties and hope things grow organically. I want to use my platform to give these young artists exposure. 

My understanding is also that the label is intended to give you yourself more freedom. What does that mean to you? What will it look like in practice?

My Alison project is not able to be signed to FMU Records, but Whyte Fang is, so I’m able to really do what I want, without the opinion of teams of people. I guess I also have the freedom to sign whatever track I want, which is really exciting.

Do you feel like you haven’t had as much freedom as you would have liked in prior label relationships?

I 100% didn’t have as much freedom in past relationships, but I don’t think anyone does with big record labels. Don’t get me wrong, I have always had the freedom to release the music I wanted, but in terms of getting marketing budgets or singles supported you have to play ball with what the label wants to spend money on. Things like being told to do TikToks for my songs to get more budget makes me sad; it feels sterile and not the type of creative I am, and I’m sick of it. It’s archaic.  

What’s the tone for FMU? Is there one song that sort of sums up your ethos?

I’m all about people being open-minded. Dark Electronic music is really what comes to mind; it’s what I gravitate towards and with this label, I’m really going to be able to showcase that. I used to run warehouse parties, and I really find the dark, minimalistic vibe very appealing.

Will FMU release future Alison Wonderland projects and if so, where does that put your relationship with EMI/AUS?

For the record, EMI/AUS have always been incredibly supportive and always has let me do what I want. I love that team, they support this [new project], and they are aware of this. I love the people that work there, and they have done an incredible job. They have always given me freedom and fought for me — they are the rare exception of people in this industry who are decent and care about the artist, and I mean that with all my heart. There should never be any negativity toward that team. I love them.  My previous comments are about the larger record label machine, not about any particular individuals.

Tell me about the Whyte Fang album and why 2023 is the right time to release it? 

Because I’m f–king ready! I’ve been bursting at the seams, and I’m going to go so hard. I’m putting my heart and soul into this album. I feel like so much of the experimental music I make is overshadowed by what my record label has picked to put into the forefront, and I need a home for that, because I really gravitate towards those beats.

05 Dec 2022

Lizzo, Lil Nas X & Machine Gun Kelly Lead Lineup for Mad Cool Festival 2023

Mad Cool Festival announced its 2023 lineup on Monday (Dec. 5) with headliners including Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly and more.

The three artists will hit the stage in Madrid on the festival’s opening day, July 6, along with Robbie WIlliams, while Sigur Rós, The 1975, Franz Ferdinand, Rina Sawayama and Paolo Nutini help round out the Thursday roster.

Headliners for the following two days include Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, Sam Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Liam Gallagher and The Prodigy, with one slot each on Friday, July 7 and Saturday, July 8 yet to be announced. Additional artists across the second and third days of the festival will include the likes of Rüfü Du Sol, Jacob Collier, Angel Olsen, The Driver Era, Jamie XX, Years & Years, Sylvan Esso and more. Honey Dijon, The Blessed Madonna, Anfisa Letyago are among the DJs slated to take over The Loop for non-stop dance sets on each day.

Three-day passes for the fest go on sale to the general public on Dec. 15 with single day tickets available for purchase starting Dec. 29. A presale for each by Santander SmartBank will begin three days prior on, respectively, Dec. 12 and 26.

Last year’s fifth anniversary of the Spain-based event brought Metallica, Imagine Dragons, Twenty One Pilots, Muse, Kings of Leon and Pixies to the capital city after two years of the festival being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Check out the entire Mad Cool Festival 2023 roster below.