Music

30 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Blasts in at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart With Biggest Week for an Album in 7 Years

Taylor Swift achieves her 11th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Nov. 5) as Midnights arrives with the biggest week for any album in nearly seven years. The set launches with 1.578 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 27, according to Luminate. The last album to tally a larger week was the debut frame of Adele’s 25, when it bowed with 3.482 million units (Dec. 12, 2015-dated chart).

Midnights was released on Oct. 21 after being announced two months earlier by Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards (Aug. 28). No music from the album was released until the set dropped on Oct. 21, when she also issued the music video for Midnights’ first single, “Anti-Hero.” Midnights is Swift’s 10th full-length studio album and initially bowed as a 13-track standard release. Three hours after Midnights’ arrival, Swift released a deluxe version of the album (its “3am Edition”) with seven bonus tracks.

Swift now ties Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums among women. Swift is also the sixth act with more than 10 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 since the chart began regularly publishing on a weekly basis in 1956. She joins The Beatles (who lead with a record 19 No. 1s), Jay-Z (14), Drake, Bruce Springsteen and Streisand (each with 11).

Midnights is already the year’s top-selling album by overall sales through the year, and tallies the largest sales week for an album since her own reputation debuted in 2017, the third-largest streaming week ever for an album, and the biggest sales week for a vinyl album in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991).

Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200: albums from Arctic Monkeys, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Jeezy and DJ Drama debut.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Nov. 5, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Nov. 1). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Midnights’ 1.578 equivalent album units earned, album sales comprise 1.140 million, SEA units comprise 419,000 (equaling 549.26 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 20 total tracks) and TEA units comprise 19,000.

Third-Biggest Streaming Week Ever: Midnights logs the third-largest streaming week ever for an album, by total on-demand official streams. It also captures the biggest streaming week for a non-R&B/hip-hop album and any album by a woman. The Nos. 1 and 2 biggest streaming weeks were logged by the debut frames of Drake’s Scorpion (745.92 million) and Certified Lover Boy (743.67 million), respectively.

Previously, Swift’s biggest streaming week for an album was tallied by the first week of Red (Taylor’s Version), with 303.23 million in 2021.

2022’s Top-Selling Album: With 1.140 million sold, Midnights is easily 2022’s top-selling album already. Previously, 2022’s top-seller — adding up all sales generated through the year — was Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, with 633,000 copies sold through Oct. 27. (In terms of total equivalent album units, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is 2022’s biggest album, with 2.911 million units earned.)

Breaking down Midnights’ first-week sales of 1.140 million, physical sales comprise 980,000 (575,000 on vinyl, 395,000 on CD and 10,000 on cassette) and digital album downloads comprise 161,000.

Biggest Sales Week Since Swift’s Own reputation: The 1.140 million sales number for Midnights marks the largest sales week for any album since Swift’s own reputation debuted with 1.216 million copies sold (chart dated Dec. 2, 2017).

Swift Has Five Albums With Million-Plus Sales Weeks: Midnights is the 22nd album to sell at least 1 million copies in a single week since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. In total, there have been 24 instances — by 22 different albums — in which an album sold at least 1 million copies in a week. One of those albums, Adele’s 25, sold more than 1 million in three separate weeks. Swift is the only artist with five different albums to each sell at least 1 million copies in a single week in the Luminate era — Midnights, reputation, 1989, Red, and Speak Now.

Further, now with five, Swift remains the only act with at least three different albums that hit the million-sales weekly threshold. Three acts have a pair of albums that each managed a million-plus sales week: Backstreet Boys, Eminem and *NSYNC.

New Modern-Era Vinyl Sales Record: Midnights handily breaks the modern-era record for single-week vinyl album sales in the U.S. with 575,000 vinyl LPs sold. That’s the largest week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. It surges past the previous high, set earlier this year, when Harry’s House debuted with 182,000 vinyl copies (week ending May 26, 2021).

Midnights is also already 2022’s top-seller on vinyl year-to-date. Previously, the year’s top-seller on vinyl was Harry’s House, with 377,000 sold through the year.

Midnights’ 395,000 in CD sales is the largest sales week for an album on CD since reputation launched with 507,000 copies sold.

Midnights arrived after months of pre-release promotion and pre-orders — and its sales figure is bolstered by an array of available versions and variants of the album. It is available to purchase in a standard digital album (both clean and explicit); a deluxe digital album (clean and explicit, each with seven additional songs); an iTunes-exclusive version with a bonus spoken word track (clean and explicit); four standard CD editions (each with a different cover, both clean and explicit); four vinyl LP editions (each with a different cover and colored vinyl); and a cassette tape. Target is also selling an exclusive “Lavender” edition of the album on CD and colored-vinyl LP, with the CD boasting three bonus tracks.

Plus, in the weeks leading up to release, Swift’s webstore sold pre-orders of signed copies of the four standard CD albums and the four standard vinyl LPs. Midnights is also available in deluxe boxed set with a CD edition of the album and a Swift-branded T-shirt, exclusively for Capital One cardholders.

Some superfans may have also been enticed to purchase all four variants of the album on either CD or vinyl, as the back covers of the four albums fit together like a puzzle to display a clock face (a literal reference to Midnights!). Swift shared the news through her social media in mid-September, saying: “If you put all the back covers together, she’s a clock. It’s a clock… It makes a clock.” (Swift’s official webstore sells hardware to hold the four CDs or the four vinyl LPs together as a wall clock.) The idea of assembling multiple versions of an album’s back cover (or cover) together to reveal a larger complete image isn’t unique to Swift, as other acts (frequently in the K-pop world) have employed a similar marketing idea.

It’s not unusual for many artists to offer variants of an album, from multiple color vinyl editions to collectible CD packages and beyond. Swift herself has rolled out albums in a similar fashion in the past — she had four different Target-exclusive variants for Lover in 2015. In 2022, acts ranging from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ozzy Osbourne to BLACKPINK and Madonna have all leaned in to the practice of offering multiple iterations of a physical album where usually the only difference is in packaging or the color of a vinyl LP.

Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (110,000 equivalent album units; down 49%) after debuting atop the list a week earlier. Bad Bunny’s chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti drops out of the top two for the first time since its release, as the set moves 2-3 with 67,000 units (down 7%). When the album hit its 18th week in the top two, it became the first set to spend its first 18 weeks in the top two since the chart since August of 1963, when Billboard combined its separate stereo and mono album charts into one single album chart. (See more history on the Billboard 200, which began publishing as a regular, weekly fixture in March of 1956.)

Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album is a non-mover at No. 4 with 43,000 equivalent album units (down 4%) and The Weeknd’s The Highlights is stationary at No. 5 with 39,000 (down less than 1%).

Arctic Monkeys score their fourth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as The Car drives in at No. 6 in its first week. It earned 37,500 equivalent album units; of that sum, album sales comprise 28,500, SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 11.76 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s Ma’ I Got a Family starts at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that, SEA units comprise 36,500 (equaling 52.54 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). The new set is the 12 th top 10-charting effort for the prolific rapper, and his fifth top 10 in 2022 — the most of any act this year. He made his Billboard 200 debut in 2017 and got his first top 10 in 2018 with Until Death Call My Name. In total, his latest debut is the artist’s 25th charting effort.

Styles’ Harry’s House is a non-mover at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%).

Jeezy and DJ Drama’s Snofall starts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, marking the 11th top 10 for the former and the first for the latter. It bows with 31,000 equivalent album units earned. SEA units comprise 28,000 (equaling 38.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 2,500 and TEA units comprise 500.

Rounding out the new top 10 is Beyonce’s former No. 1 Renaissance, which falls 6-10 with 30,000 equivalent album units earned (down 10%).

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.

30 Oct 2022

Kanye West Rejected by Skechers in Hilarious ‘Saturday Night Live’ Ad Spoof: Watch

Kanye West‘s unwanted visit to the Skechers headquarters got the Saturday Night Live treatment on Oct. 29.

In the hilarious three-minute spoof, titled “Skechers Commercial,” executives and store managers from the shoe company take a hard stance against the rapper and fashion mogul’s recent anti-Semitic comments, while also revealing a hint of flattery that West — who now goes by Ye — even approached the brand.

“Like the rest of the country, we were appalled by Kanye’s horrific comments, and we vowed to never work with him in any capacity,” says SNL‘s Cecily Strong, portraying a Skechers marketing director. “But can we also point out, of all the companies he could of approached and been rejected by, he chose Skechers.”

The sketch also took a jab at Adidas for the apparel company’s delayed reaction in officially cutting ties with Ye. “It took Adidas so many days to decide not to work with him, I mean he walked in and we were like ‘Bye. Buh-bye. Door!’” Strong’s character says.

SNL cast member Bowen Yang, who plays Skechers’ director of global business, reaffirms that the shoe company would never partner with Ye, but imagines what a potential collaboration could look like.

“Sure, Kanye and Skechers would have been a perfect partnership, he’s always been a disruptor in the fashion industry,” Yang says. “What would you even call a Kanye-Skechers shoe anyway, the Skeezy?”

Ye was unceremoniously escorted out of the Skechers office in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on Oct. 26 after showing up uninvited.

“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West,” the company said in a statement. “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech. The company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.”

Numerous other brands and companies have also distanced themselves from Ye following his anti-Semitic remarks, including Balenciaga, Gap, Foot Locker and TJ Maxx.

Watch SNL‘s “Skechers Commercial” sketch below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.

30 Oct 2022

Jack Harlow Brings Disco Vibes to ‘SNL’ With Performances of ‘Lil Secret’ & ‘First Class’: Watch

Jack Harlow performed songs from his latest album while pulling double duty as host and musical guest during Saturday Night Live on Oct. 29.

In between his comical sketches, the Louisville rapper delivered three tracks from his sophomore album, Come Home the Kids Miss You, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in May.

For his first song, with an introduction from Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, Jack brought some major 1970s disco vibes for a split performance of “Lil Secret” and “First Class,” the latter of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year. Dressed in a cream-colored jacket and matching turtleneck, the 24-year-old rapper slid smoothly across the multi-colored checkered dance floor with a shiny disco ball hanging above and surrounded by dancers.

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Harlow returned later in the Halloween-themed episode, this time with an introduction by SNL cast member Cecily Strong, for a laid-back performance “State Fair,” appearing alone onstage amid a colorful array of neon lights and donning a simple light green hoodie with black vest.

Jack followed fellow hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion, who also recently pulled double duty as host and musical guest on SNL. While it marked his first hosting run, the artist performed on SNL last year and appeared in a bit about NFTs that parodied Eminem’s “Without Me.” Earlier this month, Harlow also got some late-night TV practice by co-hosting The Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon.

Watch Harlow’s SNL performances below, and see the full episode on Hulu here. The streaming service is currently offering a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for here. The show is also live streamed on Peacock.

30 Oct 2022

ENHYPEN, PSY, Jessi, G-Dragon & More South Korean Artists React to Deadly Crowd Surge in Seoul

The South Korean music community is mourning the loss of more than 150 people who died during a crowd surge in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood on Saturday (Oct. 30).

ENHYPEN, PSY, Jessi, G-Dragon and many others took to social media over Halloween weekend to offer their condolences to the families and loved ones of those impacted by the tragic event, which left dozens other injured.

“My heart is heavy with the sad news from Korea,” K-pop group ENHYPEN tweeted on Saturday. “We pray for the well-being of the deceased, and we also offer our condolences to the bereaved families and acquaintances who have lost loved ones.”

PSY also shared a thoughtful note on his Instagram Story. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who have been affected by the tragic accident in Itaewon,” the “Gangnam Style” rapper wrote. “We send out deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones and wish for a speedy recovery to those who were injured.”

Officials haven’t yet determined what caused the Halloween festivities disaster that left dozens killed and injured, The New York Times reports. South Korean president Yoon Sukyeol has since declared a period of national mourning through Saturday (Nov. 5).

Following the incident, the Korean pop industry also announced cancellations of scheduled events and postponements of upcoming music releases. The list of names includes large record label and management companies like SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and HYBE, along with popular artists including BTS, Tomorrow X Together and Stray Kids.

Holland was among other South Korean acts to share their thoughts on social media.

“I express my deepest condolences and condolences for the disaster that happened in Itaewon that I love and mean a lot,” the singer wrote against an all-black screen on Instagram. “Condolences to the many who have lost loved ones and friends.”

Meanwhile, G-Dragon and 2AM’s Jo Kwon both asked fans to “Pray for Itaewon” in separate Instagram Story posts, while Dynamic Duo’s Gaeko and Balming Tiger also expressed their condolences.

30 Oct 2022

K-Pop Events, New Music Releases Canceled & Postponed in Light of Seoul Halloween Stampede

Multiple K-pop-related events and new music releases have been canceled or postponed following a national tragedy in South Korea where more than 150 people, so far, have lost their lives in a crowd crush at Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood during Halloween weekend.

The New York Times reports that officials do not know what caused the disaster that’s left dozens killed and injured. South Korean president Yoon Sukyeol declared a period of national mourning following the incident through Saturday, Nov. 5.

Since the tragedy, the Korean-pop industry has announced several cancelations of scheduled events and postponements of upcoming music releases.

Artists including BTS, Roy Kim, fromis_9, Oh My Girl, Tomorrow X Together, Stray Kids, Park Jihoon, The Boyz, Yuju, DKZ, Wonho, ENHYPEN, StayC, aespa, P1Harmony, CRAVITY, EPEX, Kwon Eunbi, Kep1er and more have announced postponements or cancelations of planned content like TV appearances, fan events, live streams, video premieres, streaming parties, photo reveals and more. Many of it was related to Halloween.

The 2022 Busan One Asia Festival concert set for Oct. 30 and scheduled to include artists like Brave Girls, Golden Child, MAMAMOO, Pentagon, (G)I-DLE, AB6IX, WEi and LE SSERAFIM has been canceled.

SM Entertainment — the K-pop label and management home to artists like Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet, NCT and aespa — deleted all announcements regarding its “SMTOWN WONDERLAND 2022” Halloween party that was planned for Oct. 30 and would have featured a live stream and red carpet event to feature its artists in costume.

New music releases by K-pop stars have been postponed including: the new EP Loner by Yong Junhyung (originally set for a 6 p.m. local time release in Korea on Oct. 30); a new single “Stay With Me” by girl group IRRIS and new music from girl group CRAXY (both originally set for a 12 a.m. local time release in Korea on Oct. 31); the new EP titled Last Scene by Chen of boy band EXO (originally set for a 6 p.m. release in Korea on Oct. 31); the full-length album Villain : The End from boy band DRIPPIN (set for a 6 p.m. release in Korea on Nov. 1); the new cover EP by Jeong Eunji of girl group Apink (set for a 6 p.m. release in Korea on Nov. 2); the new EP titled Overload by K-pop-rock band Xdinary Heroes (set for a 6 p.m. release in Korea on Nov. 4).

Weekly live K-pop music program Inkigayo, which airs on South Korea’s public SBS channel, announced it has canceled its Oct. 30 broadcast. The Show, which airs on cable channel SBS M, also announced it has canceled its upcoming Nov. 1 broadcast.

YG Entertainment — the K-pop label and management home to artists like BIGBANG, WINNER, AKMU, BLACKPINK and TREASURE — shared that they have decided to temporarily postpone the promotion schedule and content release dates for their artists.

HYBE — the label and management home to artists like BTS, Tomorrow X Together, SEVENTEEN, Zico, and NewJeans — postponed its 2022 “HYBE BRIEFING WITH THE COMMUNITY” scheduled for 10 a.m. local time in Korea on Nov. 4.

30 Oct 2022

D.H. Peligro, Dead Kennedys Drummer, Dies at 63

D.H. Peligro, the drummer for influential punk band Dead Kennedys who also was a drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a short period of time, had died. He was 63.

The band confirmed the news of Peligro’s passing on their official social media accounts Saturday night (Oct. 29), noting that he died the day before in his Los Angeles home following an accidental fall.

“Dead Kennedys’ drummer D.H. Peligro (Darren Henley) passed away in his Los Angeles home yesterday, October 28th,” Dead Kennedys wrote in a statement on Instagram. “Police on the scene stated that he died from trauma to the head caused by an accidental fall. Arrangements are pending and will be announced in the coming days. We ask that you respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time. Thank you for your thoughts and words of comfort.”

“My dear friend, my brother I miss you so much,” Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea wrote on Instagram upon hearing of his death. Peligro had played with the band briefly, in 1988, and has three writing credits on RHCP’s Mother’s Milk album.

Flea’s tribute said: “I’m devastated today, a river of tears, but all my life I will treasure every second. The first time I saw you play with the DK’s in ‘81 you blew my mind. The power, the soul, the recklessness. You became my beloved friend, so many times of every kind. We had so much fun, so much joy, having each other’s backs. I love you with all my heart. You are the truest rocker, and a crucial part of rhcp history. D H P in the place to be, you live forever in our hearts, you wild man, you bringer of joy, you giant hearted man. I will always honor you. Rest In Peace and freedom from all that restrained you.”

Peligro, born Darren Henley in 1959, joined Dead Kennedys in 1981 and first appeared on the band’s In God We Trust, Inc. EP that year. The St. Louis native who moved to San Francisco recorded on the band’s pre-breakup studio albums Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982), Frankenchrist (1985) and Bedtime for Democracy (1986), plus the compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (1987).

Dead Kennedys reunited (without original vocalist Jello Biafra) in 2001, with Peligro returning on drums alongside other original band members East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride.

In a 2018 interview with LA Weekly, he spoke of the racism he faced touring in a punk rock band over the years. “You go down South, you go across the Midwest, then people were thinking that it was music for white people, or I was the janitor or security or something,” Peligro said. “You got to experience the racism firsthand, because everybody wasn’t as open-minded as they were in San Francisco. It’s a bit more open and accepted today, but there’s still pockets of people who want to use punk rock to create hate music. That angers me to no end.”

At the time, he said he was working on a script for a series based on his 2013 memoir, Dreadnaught: King of Afropunk. “It’s about all the stuff you don’t hear about from African-American punk rockers,” he told the publication.

29 Oct 2022

Bono Tells Taylor Swift He’s a ‘Swiftie’ on ‘Graham Norton Show’

Will Taylor Swift and Bono collaborate on a song someday?

Graham Norton brought up the idea of the stars working together when they both appeared on the same episode of The Graham Norton Show in the U.K. on Friday (Oct. 28). Bono was promoting his new book, Surrender, while Swift was invited to the show to speak about her new album, Midnights.

“Have you worked together?” Norton asked the pair.

“Not yet,” Swift replied, but added: “We’re gonna talk about it later.”

Swift might have been teasing the audience — but based on the U2 frontman’s enthusiasm for her work, the potential idea might not be completely out of the question.

“I’m a Swiftie,” Bono announced. Touched by that statement, Swift put her hand to her heart.

“He’s so nice he sent me roses when I played in Dublin,” Swift said. “He doesn’t want to take credit … He’s a truly great person. He’s just that great and thoughtful, just the best there is.”

“I better have a drink,” a bashful Bono said.

Before launching into conversation about their respective new projects — as well as those of fellow guests actor Eddie Redmayne and athlete Alex Scott — Norton also broke the ice by sharing photos of some from their earliest live performances, including Swift playing for a very niche Nashville crowd when she was 14.

“This was a big deal for me,” the “Anti-Hero” singer said, looking at the snapshot. “I was 14 and it was an event called the Nashville Rubber Duck Race, and it is exactly how it sounds. They would put rubber ducks in the river and see who won, and I was the official entertainment.”

“That was the whole crowd,” she said of the three people in the picture.

Swift also spoke about the concept behind Midights, re-recording her earlier albums, making a short film based on “All Too Well” and a miserable audition/screen test she once had with Redmayne. And although she revealed absolutely nothing about her next tour, she did say one would happen “soon-ish.”

See the moment Bono shared his Swiftie status — and Swift’s reaction — in a fan-shared clip of the show below.

29 Oct 2022

Duran Duran Teases 2023 Tour at ‘A Hollywood High’ Concert Film Premiere in L.A.

Members of Duran Duran teased a 2023 tour, saying they would return to the U.S. and Europe, and lead singer Simon Le Bon revealed his favorite U.S. venue of all time.

In an onstage chat at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Thursday (Oct. 27), before premiering their docu-concert film, A Hollywood High, the British new wave legends — Le Bon, keyboard player Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor — confirmed they will be back on the road next year.

“We are going to be touring again next year,” John Taylor said. “Nothing is confirmed yet, but we will be coming back to the Los Angeles area. We are going to be in Europe, we are going to be in the U.K.”

Roger Taylor added that the band will hit “all the cities that we didn’t do in the U.S.”

Duran Duran has kept up a busy touring schedule in 2022, playing 35 dates including Midsummer at Skansen near Stockholm and Sommerstemning Lillestrøm near Olso and headliner performances at Tuscany’s famed La Prima Estate Festival near Lido di Camaiore and a special one-night engagement at Caledonian Stadium in Inverness, Scotland. 

The band spent August touring U.S. arenas, including a stop at Madison Square Garden in New York on Aug. 25, and an epic three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl for the release of their fifteenth studio album, Future Past.

The band is slated to perform a Halloween show on Monday at the Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theatre but would not reveal their costumes — though they did rule out dressing as Santa Claus (Rhodes), an M&M (John Taylor) or a jelly fish (Le Bon). Rhodes said his recent trip to a costume store left him “quite cross” because it was dominated with Christmas wear. “All the fabulous creatures were gone,” Rhodes said. 

Responding to an audience member question, Rhodes said the band may also release their next album, Reportage, in 2023. “It needs a little work, but it’s possible,” he said.

On Thursday, Duran Duran celebrated Le Bon’s birthday (which is also his father’s) with the movie premiere audience — which sang happy birthday to him before the 75-minute film screened in Dolby Vision-Atomos. The film delves into the band’s early history and connection with Los Angeles to set up a performance earlier this year on the rooftop of the Aster, a private members club in Hollywood. While the group performs at sunset a drone captures sweeping shots in the background of the Hollywood sign and the Capitol Building, which at one point during the show was lit up in the yellow and light blue of Ukraine’s flag in a show of support for the nation’s effort to repel an invading Russia.

The band confirmed that in its four-decade history it had never performed a show on a rooftop, but that it made more sense during pandemic. “We kind of had to be talked into it,” John Taylor said, noting that the band initially planned to perform on a flatbed truck driving along Sunset Boulevard to promote their three-date Los Angeles swing. But that “started getting problematic,” Taylor said. “There was a point where there was a slope. And we were like, ‘How are we going to keep the drums on this?’”

Duran Duran said that the rooftop gig wasn’t intended initially to be turned into a film. “We document a lot of what we do, and it generally just goes into the archive and nobody every sees it,” John Taylor said. The show “was essentially a showcase to launch the American tour. And the fact that we didn’t know we were making a movie, you get an authenticity that you wouldn’t get if we knew we were making a film.”

Roger Taylor said that co-director Gavin Elder “kind of snuck up on us with this film. He didn’t’ really tell us he was making a movie … and [as a result] it’s very real.”

The film hits theaters in the U.S. and around the world on Nov. 3.

While the rooftop was a new special memory for the band, when asked by an audience member what was their favorite U.S. venue of all time, Le Bon enthusiastically endorsed Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. “You go there, and you look at it and it looks like some ancient alien, space-faring race had just dumped this spaceship there a million years ago,” he said, “and we turned it into a music venue.”

Additional Reporting by Dave Brooks

29 Oct 2022

Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs Medley of ‘Encanto’ Songs for First Time on ‘Tonight Show’: Watch

Lin-Manuel Miranda performed songs from Disney’s Encanto for the first time during his visit to The Tonight Show on Friday (Oct. 28).

Host Jimmy Fallon opened the musical segment by rattling off the impressive accomplishments of the hit animated film’s mega-successful soundtrack, including nine nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 the Billboard 200 and the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” spending five weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.

“You wrote like eight of these songs on the soundtrack,” Fallon excitedly pointed out before asking Miranda if he had ever performed the tracks live. “I never have,” the Hamilton creator replied.

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From there, Miranda and Fallon quickly changed into caterpillar costumes — a nod to “Dos Oruguitas,” which was nominated for best original song at the 2022 Oscars — and performed a medley of songs from Encanto. The nearly six-minute performance also found the pair donning fake muscles for “Surface Pressure,” goofing around on tiny accordions for “The Family Madrigal,” and swirling alongside a group of dancers for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

“All these songs were written by this guy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, by the way,” Fallon announced to the audience as the duo concluded the megahit.

In addition to the Encanto medley, Miranda also sat down with Fallon to discuss a number of topics, ranging from taking his 4-year-old son to see Hamilton for the first time to the the Encanto cast’s upcoming back-to-back shows at the Hollywood Bowl on Nov. 11-12.

Watch Miranda and Fallon’s Encanto medley below.

29 Oct 2022

BTS’ Jin Performs ’The Astronaut’ Live for First Time With Coldplay at Buenos Aires Concert: Watch

BTS‘ Jin delivered the debut live performance of his new solo single “The Astronaut” alongside Coldplay at the band’s concert in Argentina on Friday (Oct. 28).

Big Hit Music recently confirmed on BTS’ Weverse page that the K-pop star would appear during Chris Martin and Co.’s Music of the Spheres tour stop at Buenos Aires’ River Plate stadium. Friday’s sold-out show, which arrived just hours after “The Astronaut” dropped on streaming services, was broadcast live across 3,5000 movie theaters in more than 80 countries.

Co-written by Jin and Coldplay, “The Astronaut” reveals the stadium-sized rock sound that the British band is known for as a perfect bed for Jin’s steady, soothing vocals. Prior to the single’s live debut, Coldplay’s Martin shared the story of the track’s origins with the roaring South American crowd.

“About six months ago, one of [BTS’] members called me up and he said, ‘I have to leave the band in December for two years to join the army in Korea, because that’s the rules there,” Martin said from behind his piano. “And he said, ‘I need a song that says goodbye to everybody for a little while, and tells them that I love them. …So I said, ‘Okay, we’ll do a song together.’ Instead of being worried about it, I feel so excited about it, so grateful for this relationship that we have with BTS. Then this song arrived and I was said, ‘This is one of our best songs — let’s give it to this gentleman.’”

BTS previously collaborated with Coldplay on the single “My Universe” for the latter’s 2021 album, Music of the Spheres. The track debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first Hot 100 No. 1 by two groups each sporting lead billing on a song.

Watch Jin’s performance of “The Astronaut” with Coldplay below.