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Ed Sheeran wrapped his six-city tour of India on Feb. 15 with more than 120,000 tickets sold, according to Indian entertainment platform BookMyShow. Sheeran played seven nights across the country as part of his + – = ÷ x Tour that is continuing on to China, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and more. The India […]
The members of U2 are making sure the people of Ukraine know that they still have their backs three years after Russia’s invasion.
On Monday (Feb. 24) — the same date Russia launched its full-fledged military operation on Ukraine in 2022, effectively sending the countries into a war that is still ongoing — Bono shared an emotional piano-accompanied reading of Taras Shevchenko’s “My Friendly Epistle” on the Irish rock band’s Instagram. “Break then your chains, in love unite,
nor seek in foreign lands the sight
of things not even found above,” the poem dictates. “Then, in your own house, you will see
true justice, strength and liberty!”
“All who believe in freedom and sense the jeopardy we Europeans now find ourselves in are not sleeping easily on this, the third anniversary of the invasion,” Bono wrote in his caption, revealing that he and The Edge had originally sent the musical reading to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy days after Russia first invaded three years ago.
“More to say about this and other bewilderments later,” added the “Mysterious Ways” musician.
Bono and his U2 bandmates have been vocal in their support of Ukraine throughout the country’s war against Russia, which began in February 2022 when the latter country’s president, Vladimir Putin, ordering multiple attacks on Ukraine’s major cities as part of a “special military operation.” In April that year, Irish rockers performed on a bill with Celine Dion, Katy Perry and more stars as part of a Stand Up for Ukraine relief show, a month after which Bono and Edge traveled to Kyiv to perform Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” in a metro station.
Last year, Bono also paid tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny — one of Putin’s most outspoken critics who died in Russian prison in February 2024 — during one of U2’s residency shows at Las Vegas’ The Sphere. “For these people, freedom is the most important word in the world,” the frontman told the crowd at the time. “So important that Ukrainians are fighting and dying for it, and so important that Alexey Navalny chose to give his up.”
As Ukraine enters a fourth year of fighting off Russia, its fate remains uncertain. Many Western leaders gathered in Kyiv Monday to observe the date and, in some cases, pledge more military aid to Zelenskyy’s efforts. However, President Donald Trump recently stirred up concern over the United States’ yearslong Biden-era alliance with Ukraine by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator,” while maintaining a cordial relationship with Putin amid Trump’s pushes for a peace settlement.
See U2’s tribute to Ukraine below.
Wu-Tang Clan has announced what’s being billed as the legendary Staten Island crew’s final tour. The Wu is plotting the Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber tour, which was announced on Monday (Feb. 24).
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The trek will invade arenas across North America starting on June 6 in Baltimore to kick off the 27-date tour. Run the Jewels is slated to provide support as an opening act.
There is no pre-sale for the AEG-produced tour, with general tickets going on sale at 10 a.m. local time on Feb. 28. VIP packages will also be available. A Wu-Tang queue is scheduled to open 30 minutes before tickets are on sale.
“Wu-Tang Clan has shown the world many chambers throughout our career; this tour is called The Final Chamber. This is a special moment for me and all my Wu brothers to run around the globe together one more time and spread the Wu swag, music, and culture,” RZA said in a statement.
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Wu-Tang Clan
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He continued: “Most importantly to touch our fans and those who have supported us throughout the years. On this tour we’re playing songs we’ve never played before to our audience and me and our production team have designed a Wu-Tang show unlike anything you’ve ever seen. And to top it off, we’ve got the amazing Run the Jewels on our side.”
Cities on deck include Tampa Bay, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York City and Toronto, and will wrap up in Philadelphia on July 18.
All nine living members of the Wu-Tang Clan will be participating in the final tour while Young Dirty Bastard will take his late father’s place (Ol’ Dirty Bastard passed away in 2004).
The final tour is being billed to contain a unique setlist of tracks that the Wu never performed in the past while also mixing in the classic hits from the group’s catalog. This marks the culmination of a five-year plan, per RZA.
In celebration of the tour announcement, Wu-Tang Clan is joining forces with Amazon Music to release a live EP with an exclusive vinyl as only 1500 were pressed.
Find all of the Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chapter tour dates below.
The Backstreet Boys are extending their upcoming residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere. On Monday morning (Feb. 24) the boys-to-man band announced the addition of shows on August 15, 16 and 17, bringing the total amount of announced residency gigs so far to 18.
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The band — AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough — are the first pop group booked to perform at the Sphere, with McLean telling Billboard last week that they are planning “one incredible experience” for the “Into The Millennium” run that Carter promised would giver fans “sensory overload.”
The Live Nation-produced run will find the group performing their entire career-peak 1999 Millennium album in full along with greatest hits and their new single, “Hey,” at the shows that will kick off on July 11. The gigs will continue throughout the rest of the month, with gigs on July 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 24, 26 and 27, followed by shows on August 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10.
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Tickets for the new dates will go on sale first through the BSB Fan Club pre-sale beginning Tuesday (Feb. 25) at 9 a.m. PT. Fans who previously signed up for the Artist Pre-Sale can access tickets for the three added dates beginning on Wednesday (Feb. 26) at 9 a.m. PT, followed by a general on-sale kicking off on Friday (Feb. 28) at 9 a.m. PT; click here for details.
BSB will make history as the first pop band to touch down in the futuristic arena that to date has hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company, the Eagles, EDM act Anyma and, later this spring, Kenny Chesney. “Die hard fans are going to get a great experience, a great nostalgic moment,” McLean told Billboard. “Even just playing the whole Millennium album, there’s some deep cuts in there that we were just discussing the other day,” Dorough added. “[We were] reminiscing about some of the songs like ‘The Perfect Fan’ and ‘No One Else Comes Close to You’ [and ‘Spanish’] Eyes,’ which are songs that the fans probably haven’t heard since the Millennium tour.”
The 25th anniversary celebration of the album that topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and has sold more than 24 million copies to date will coincide with the July 11 release of Millennium 2.0, a two-CD collection featuring a remastered version of the original, along with six demos from the sessions for the album, b-sides from international releases, six live tracks and the previously unheard track “Hey.”
Roberta Flack, the beloved, Grammy-winning 1970s R&B singer best known for such hits as “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly” died on Monday (Feb. 24) at 88. At press time a statement from Flack’s spokesperson revealed that she died peacefully, with no official cause of death available.
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“We are heartbroken that the glorious Roberta Flack passed away this morning, February 24, 2025,” read the statement. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family. Roberta broke boundaries and records. She was also a proud educator.”
A classically trained pianist from an early age, Flack received a music scholarship at 15 to attend Howard University and was soon discovered singing at Washington, D.C. nightclub Mr. Henry’s by jazz great Les McCann, which led to her signing with Atlantic Records. She scored her first break in 1971 when Clint Eastwood used her version of the moon-y ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in his directorial debut, Play Misty For Me.
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A master of the “quiet storm” style, Flack’s effortless, soothing vocals soon became a staple of R&B and pop radio, leading to a two-decade run of chart hits.
Flack was born Roberta Cleopatra Flack in Black Mountain, N.C. on Feb. 10, 1937 and raised in Arlington, Va. where her mother, Irene, played organ at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Church. She learned to play piano on a funky junkyard instrument her father — a jazz pianist himself — found and restored for her, on which she practiced Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, as well as Mozart’s Requiem.
After getting her public debut playing piano as an adolescent in the Lomax church, Flack studied piano at Howard, then moved on to a music educator program after being told that the racial barriers at that time for a Black classical concert pianist were too high for her to achieve her dream. Following her father’s death in 1959, Flack returned to North Carolina and took a job teaching music at a public school, later moving back to D.C., where she taught at several middle and high schools for a decade.
Flack released her debut LP, First Take, in 1969 which included her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which also helped the album reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; the song would win the Grammy for record of the year in 1972. She hit No. 1 again in 1973 with “Killing Me Softly,” from the album of the same name, with the song winning the 1974 Grammy for record of the year. It was later famously covered by the Fugees in 1996 on their second album, The Score.
Flack’s unprecedented back-to-back Grammy wins for record of the year feat wasn’t achieved again until U2 scored the same two-fer with “Beautiful Day” (2001) and “Walk On” (2002). Flack regularly recorded with fellow soul great Donny Hathaway, scoring duet hits on the Hot 100 with the singer on a covers of “You’ve Got a Friend” (1971, No. 29) and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (1971, No. 71), as well as “Where Is the Love” (1972, No. 5), “The Closer I Get To You” (1978, No. 2) and “You Are My Heaven” (1980, No. 47), among others.
She scored a total of 18 Hot 100 hits, and landed four albums in the top three on the Billboard 200 album charts, as well as more than two dozen charting hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Flack’s chart prominence began to fade by the mid-1980s, but she kept recording, releasing her most recent album in 2012 with the Beatles cover album Let It Be Roberta. Over the course of her career, Flack was nominated for 14 Grammys and won three.
Check out some of Flack’s most beloved hits below.
For years, record labels have lamented country radio’s pokey approach to single cycles. But at this year’s Country Radio Seminar (CRS), which started Feb. 19 and concluded Feb. 21, even radio programmers are frustrated with the approach.
“It shouldn’t take a year for a good song to get to No. 1,” Cumulus vp of country Travis Daily said during the “Why Can’t We Be Friends” panel on Feb. 19. “We, on my side, are like, ‘People get bored easy, so let’s slow it down.’ It’s dumb.”
Panelists used Cole Swindell’s “Forever to Me” as an example: The track reached the top 10 on the Country Airplay chart dated March 1 after 45 weeks (see On the Charts, page 4). It had all the hallmarks of a hit — an emotionally appealing release from one of country’s most consistent hit-makers — and yet stations had a difficult time committing to it. Meanwhile, digital streaming providers, based on the data from customer reaction, responded commensurately and ran it through their hit cycle. Thus, country radio — once the genre’s primary source of music discovery — seems slow, uncertain and sheepish next to more nimble competition.
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“[DSPs] had to come off of it because the audience wants fresh,” Warner Music Nashville senior vp of radio and streaming Kristen Williams said. “They want something new and they want it faster.”
As a result, Williams’ team is using a bifurcated marketing campaign for Swindell, pushing country radio toward the label’s goal of a No. 1 single with “Forever to Me” while talking with DSPs about the singer’s latest track, “Kill a Prayer.”
“This is actually more commonplace than not,” Williams said.
The conversation took place as the country industry again reevaluates its tactics and relationships at the annual seminar, founded as an event for broadcasters and labels that has expanded in recent years to include streaming-related panels. CRS hosts a series of educational panels daily with plenty of showcase opportunities available during label-sponsored lunches and nighttime performances. This year’s event has already featured performances by Brothers Osborne, Jelly Roll, Jordan Davis, Avery Anna, Old Dominion, Dylan Schneider and Brad Paisley, who apologized to programmers who had to wait in single-digit wind chill for entry into the Ryman Auditorium at the Universal Music Group Nashville lunch on Feb. 20.
“The temperature outside,” Paisley said sarcastically, “is what it’s like to play for you.”
The joke received an appreciative groan from the programmers in the audience, who have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Paisley since his introduction to radio in 1999. Country artists have typically gone on expensive radio tours for decades, performing for radio staff in conference rooms and forging a rapport that would hopefully lead to personal investment in the artists’ careers. But the relationship has changed with the maturation of the streaming business.
In an earlier time, country artists released three or four singles per year, and those that succeeded would peak on the chart in 12 to 18 weeks. Around the time that Paisley debuted, CRS attendees were encouraged to hang on to their hits longer, which slowed the number of singles and made it more difficult to establish careers.
With the growth of DSPs, artists are once again able to release more music and cycle through the hits quicker, creating stronger relationships with their consumers. Those expensive radio tours have mostly dried up — Cox Media/Houston director of operations Travis Moon estimated that KKBQ has had only four or five artists visit the station on a radio tour in the last year. Programmers seem to be recognizing that playing the same hits for longer periods may be a competitive disadvantage.
“Music is moving faster than ever, [while] the charts are going slower than ever,” said Sticks Media owner Todd Nixon during the Feb. 20 panel “Cycle of a Song” that focused on Tucker Wetmore’s “Wind Up Missin’ You.” “We just got to go faster on this record.”
Programmers have long believed that listeners prefer familiar music over new songs, though a Nuvoodoo study, “The Country Fan — Reviewing, Retaining, and Recruiting Your Listeners,” presented Feb. 20, suggested that overfamiliarity may be hurting radio more than new music. Commercial breaks are the top reason for tune-out, with 47% of the study’s respondents citing them as a factor. Three different kinds of repetition — playing songs too frequently, burnout and tracks appearing at the same time on successive days — were each cited as a problem by more than 40% of respondents. But only 34% of listeners said they turned off the station because they “don’t know” a song.
Therefore, feeding a healthy amount of new music, slotted in the right position on the playlist, may be one of the ways to counter the repetition issues.
“If you just take conventional wisdom constantly, you create narratives and biases in your own head and you’ll bore the audience to death,” Bonneville/Denver director of operations Brian Michel said during “Sound Off: What Is ‘Mainstream’ Country?” on Feb. 20.
Stations with minimal research of their own might consider watching Spotify’s Hot Country playlist, which features material that’s previously proved itself in other forums.
“You can trust that if something is in Hot Country, it is performing well with the mainstream country audience,” Spotify Nashville head of editorial Rachel Whitney said during the “Sound Off” panel. “Then use your own judgment about whether or not it matters to your audience.”
Even if country radio is considering a course correction, the medium remains a venerable institution, and the artists — all of whom grew up with it playing a significant role in their exposure to the music — continue to show their appreciation.
“You guys have changed my life in the last year,” Wetmore said during the “Cycle of a Song” panel. “Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
That’s one aspect of CRS that remains the same.
Ariel Camacho’s career was brief, but his legacy has touched and influenced every aspect of regional Mexican music today. In 2013, the Sinaloa-born artist rose to fame as one of the most promising Mexican music acts of his generation. At only 20 years old, Camacho redefined and globalized sierreño, a style popular in the Northern parts of Mexico. A gifted requinto player, Camacho delivered anthems like “Te Metiste,” “El Karma” and “Hablemos.”
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On Feb. 25, 2015, at 22 and on the brink of stardom, Camacho died in a car accident. The young singer not only became a legend, but he inspired acts like Natanael Cano, Jesús Ortiz Paz (Fuerza Regida), Nodal and Peso Pluma, who credit him for forging a path for a new generation of música mexicana artists.
His manager, Jaime González (Christian Nodal’s father), worked closely with Camacho for nearly three years. Below, González speaks with Billboard about Camacho’s humble beginnings, how Camacho dreamed of going global, and why the late artist continues to fuel the regional Mexican movement.
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It is an honor for me to talk about Ariel Camacho. Era mi bebé.
A friend told me about Ariel. He said there was this guy who sang at parties. He passed me his contact info, I called him and told him I was going to be in Los Mochis [Sinaloa] one day to produce an album. He came to see me and said, ‘I want you to listen to me to see if we can do something together.’ This was like in 2012.
Well, I heard it and it gave me chills, that’s when the whole story began. He was a person from the rancho, very simple, super humble. I remember that he arrived in those Sinaloa style guaraches, with his Levi’s pants, T-shirt, a baseball cap and his requinto (six-string guitar). He was with two other guys, and they sang for me a corrido and a [romantic] song and that was enough for me. I had never had anything like that happen to me before, there was something very special there. He trusted me and I trusted him.
I signed him and I was his manager from beginning to end. I told him that música sierreña and campirana is sung with a tejana and cowboy boots. But he wanted to wear those Ferragamo shoes that were in style and a little blazer. We almost had to force him to wear the tejana, and then he didn’t want to take it off.
Ariel Camacho and Jaime Gonzáelz
Courtesy of Jaime Gonzáelz
Ariel learned to play the guitar because his dad is a musician. His dad plays guitar and sings. He had a group in Sinaloa and he took Ariel with him from a very young age to the concerts. He sang with the church choir, and those were his early beginnings. He was an excellent performer, and had a lot of freshness. Ariel loved the guitar. He would get up with his guitar in his hand, and he had a repertoire of songs that would drive you crazy.
With Ariel, we innovated sierreño music by adding the tuba. In fact, we fought because he wanted to add bass and I wanted to add tuba to the sound. “No, I don’t like the tuba,” Ariel told me. I replied, “Give me a chance to let you hear the recording with tuba. And then we’ll take it out if you don’t like it.” I had a specific tuba player that I envisioned for the Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes del Rancho project. This tuba player, his name is Israel Meza, he was the producer of all of Julio Preciado’s albums, he worked with Joan Sebastian, he is a savage on the tuba. So, I hired him to help us record.
Ariel was worried about what people would say and if they were going to criticize him for incorporating tuba in sierreño. We recorded all the songs on the album with guitars, bass and vocals. And in another version, we added the tuba.
In the end, the one who decided whether it was tuba or bass was a guy who was selling tamales… We went out to the garage to discuss whether it was going to be with tuba or bass, and at that moment, a tamalero was passing by on a bicycle selling tamales and champurrado and listening to music on his little stereo. I remember that very well. I said to Ariel, “You know what? Neither you nor I are going to decide this. We’re going to buy tamales from the tamalero and ask him if he knows about music. If he knows about music, then he’s not going to decide either.” We shook hands. So we bought tamales, and we asked him if he knew about music. “What do you mean?,” the tamalero asked me. “I mean, do you know about notes, do, re, mi, fa, sol,”‘ I answered. “I don’t know anything about that, but I like music, and I know which song is good and which song is not good.”
Ah, perfect!
Ariel was like, “First play him the bass version.” And Ariel was selling the story like, “Doesn’t it sound so cool?” And then we played the version with tuba. When the two versions finished we asked him which one he liked better. “he second one, it’s better with the tuba,” he answered. We agreed, it’s with tuba. Special shout out to the tamalero, and I would like to thank him for that wise decision he made.
We started looking for his musicians to put the band together, and then we started recording songs. “El Rey de Corazones” was one of his first songs and it was a hit. That is to say, it was a very fast, fleeting career. He had a brutal talent and he was very young. He was one of those artists that came into the world and won you over. Whatever song we released, it was a hit. I had never worked with an artist as much as with Ariel Camacho — there was so much demand. I met him and after three months, we started working at an exaggerated pace in Mexico. It took him time to assimilate what was happening because he didn’t believe it. I remember that he dreamed a lot about earning money to build a house for his mother, a nice house, or to buy his first Cheyenne.
We lived through a lot of good and bad anecdotes — from not filling a venue to selling out out a venue. There are many videos of him crying at his concerts in Tijuana, Nogales, Hermosillo, Los Angeles, many places. When he finished, he would get off the stage and give me a hug of relief, of emotion. He thanked me and I thanked him for the opportunity.
Jaime Gonzáelz and Ariel Camacho
Courtesy of Jaime Gonzáelz
Even when he started earning money and so on, he was the same, he never changed. He was a family person, very cheerful, loving, loved to joke around. He was a kid who came out of the rancho, with a guitar on his back to look for his dream and he found it. I think that connects with this new generation, especially being very young like them. He has definitely been a reference for artists like Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano, Fuerza Regida. Besides the innovation, the idea of adding the tuba to sierreño — that had never happened. That’s what encouraged everyone to make their fusions. They’re adding trombone, charchetas, etc. It motivated young people to dare to start something new. And everything we are listening to now with guitars, includes a reference to Ariel Camacho.
Ariel was a very special person. He was like another son — because he slept at my house, he ate at my house, I was his producer, his manager, his psychologist. And I was his friend.
We talked about many things that were left unfinished, that we could not achieve obviously because of his death. I have not healed. It is still very hard for me to process what happened — I have many mixed feelings.
But I am grateful for the opportunity he gave me, and it was a beautiful experience. I am sure that if he were alive, we would be at another level right now, we would be global, we would have done a thousand things, because there were many plans. He wanted to sing with mariachi, to conquer all the countries, and it makes me angry that he died before his time — but, well, God is in charge.
Every year on his death anniversary, we do an event at his grave. We always put up a stage, we make carne asada, birria, bring seafood and beer. Almost always a lot of people get together, and all the artists who want to come, come. Natanael has been there to sing for him, many artists have been there, and obviously Los Plebes del Rancho, who continue his legacy.
Ariel Camacho may be physically dead, but he is alive, his music and his legacy live on.
Big Machine Records has signed to its roster duo Something Out West, featuring actor/musician Chet Hanks and musician Drew Arthur. The duo’s debut song for the label, “Leaving Hollywood,” is set to release Feb. 28, while Something Out West is currently working on a project with producer Julian Raymond. Big Machine Records’ roster also includes Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce, Midland, Rascal Flatts, Jackson Dean and more.
The duo formed after Hanks and Arthur were roommates in California while each was setting out on a journey toward sobriety. The friendship evolved into musical collaboration and songwriting sessions. In 2018, Hanks and Arthur recorded under the name FTRZ, releasing the song “Models.” Eventually, they made their way to Nashville to continue writing and recording.
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Hanks previously told US Weekly the upcoming new music is based off of “a lot of meaningful life experiences and heartbreak and all that good stuff.”
“Drew and Chet are building a one of a kind sound and story with Something Out West, powered by their undeniable energy and creative connection,” Big Machine Label Group chairman & CEO Scott Borchetta said in a statement. “We’re thrilled for them to join the Big Machine Records family and for the world to experience this fresh, dynamic duo.”
“Upon the first moment meeting Chet and Drew, I was immediately struck with their creative spirit and artistic vision,” added Kris Lamb, evp/general manager of Big Machine Records. “Something Out West know exactly who they are, and Big Machine Records is thrilled to fuel their journey.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Big Machine and Scott Borchetta,” Hanks said in a statement. “The support they’ve shown for ‘Leaving Hollywood’ and the rest of the music has been incredible. Drew and I have been making music together for a long time, and we feel really proud to have a home at Big Machine for this upcoming project.”
“I wrote ‘Leaving Hollywood’ five years ago, but it feels like the timing and the way we’re releasing it were always meant to be,” Arthur added. “We’re excited for people to hear what we’ve been working on.”
Women lead the way on this week’s crop of new songs. Carly Pearce returns with “No Rain,” while Hailey Whitters teams with bluegrass luminary Molly Tuttle for “Prodigal Daughter.” Avery Anna, known for her collaboration with Sam Barber on “Indigo,” issues a new song, “Mr. Predictable.”
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Meanwhile, HARDY and Nate Smith team up for a hilarious-yet-pointed new track sure to relate with scores of people who have buddies in less than stellar relationships, on “Nobody Likes Your Girlfriend.”
Check all these and more of the best new country songs of the week below.
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Carly Pearce, “No Rain”
Carly Pearce previews her upcoming deluxe album Hummingbird: No Rain, No Flowers (out March 14) with this gentle, optimistic outing. Swaths of strings and acoustics elevate this soft-focus, hopeful track, with Pearce singing about how times of despair often dovetail with mountaintop moments. Pearce’s warm, earthy vocal tones highlight the song’s graceful melody. “If you never feel fear/ you’ll never need faith,” she sings, urging listeners to hold on during days of struggle. Since launching her career, Pearce has always managed to sound both timely and timeless, and this song floats in gingerly like a much-needed balm for society’s trying times.
Hailey Whitters feat. Molly Tuttle, “Prodigal Daughter”
Hailey Whitters’s latest release interweaves defiant, stomping country with bluegrass leanings, as she welcomes Molly Tuttle on vocal harmonies and guitar. Together, they sing a coming-of-age story about a young woman enticed by a new love. “She did a devil’s dance to a fiddle in a holler,” they sing, joined by a dazzling mesh of instrumental work from bluegrassers Stuart Duncan, Justin Moses and Bryan Sutton in addition to reigning CMA musician of the year Charlie Worsham.
Carter Faith, “If I Had Never Lost My Mind”
Faith debuted this song last week during the UMG Nashville showcase at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium as part of the annual Country Radio Seminar. Commanding, dramatic and deeply introspective, “If I Had Never Lost My Mind” is a post-breakup, emotional postmortem as she ruminates over what aspects could have changed and whether they could have halted the romantic bustup from happening. “I couldn’t stop it and you couldn’t take it/ I gave you my heart and I forced you to break it,” Faith sings as the song builds in intensity towards its final chorus, surging into a superb musical showcase for one of Faith’s most powerful, dramatic vocal renderings to date.
Ashley Cooke feat. Joe Jonas, “All I Forgot”
At last week’s New Faces of Country Music Showcase during the annual Country Radio Seminar, Cooke gave the audience of country radio programmers a surprise when she invited Joe Jonas to perform their new duet “All I Forgot.” The pop-tilted, radio-ready track finds the two contemplating how sometimes the emotional connection between two people is so stout that even copious amounts of top-shelf liquor fail to drown it. “I just killed a bottle and all that I forgot/ Was I was moving on,” they sing. Vocally, they prove they can match each other note for note.
Avery Anna, “Mr. Predictable”
Avery Anna recently saw her Sam Barber collaboration “Indigo” reach No. 48 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. On her latest, she proves that while she’s known for moody pop-tinged ballads, she can also handle a churning rocker just fine, too. She’s hurt by a lover’s betrayal, but more hurt that her suspicions of his disloyal nature were proven right from the beginning. Lyrically, she goes for the jugular on lines such as “I tried to trust an untrustablе, cynical, typical, self-centered man,” as the song builds from a pensive, sparse piano track to a rock-seared, scathing indictment.
Nate Smith and HARDY, “Nobody Likes Your Girlfriend”
Country music hitmakers Nate Smith (“World on Fire”) and HARDY (“Truck Bed”) team up for this slice of cut-to-the-bone, friend-to-friend honesty, wrapped in a country-rock package. Smith and HARDY offer up a perspective of friends directly laying out the facts that a buddy’s new girlfriend is far from beloved by his circle of family and friends and they have the reasons why: she’s mean-spirited, she hates the bands he likes, she puts her boyfriend down in front of his friends, and is likely cheating on him. “Everyone you love hates seeing you with her,” they sing. To the point and punchy, this is sure to be a hit addition to their setlists. The hilarious video for the song, featuring Kevin James, Sophia La Corte and Amanda Mertz, further drives home the song’s message.
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After decades of having a “clean shaven” policy for their players, the New York Yankees are finally getting with the times (kinda) and allowing their baseball superstars to grow beards and look like manly men when taking the field going forward.
According to Daily Mail, New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner announced Friday (Feb. 21) that he was reversing George Steinbrenner’s age-old policy of having his players hit the field with no mustache or beard, which in turn alienated many star free agents over the years who love their facial hair as much as they love their money. Though Steinbrenner made it clear that said bears would have to be well-groomed, at least Yankees players and potential free agents now have the option of growing their designer stubbles when playing for the Bronx Bombers.
Per Daily Mail:
The full statement reads: ‘In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees — spanning several eras — to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback.
‘These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward.
‘It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.’
Well, that only took four decades.
Naturally, fans were overjoyed with the rule change as many free agents have balked at signing with the Yankees based off the rule alone while others have joined the Yankees and shaven off their signature facial hair to look, well, kind of corny. Just sayin’.
In recent years, the policy had been described as outdated by many of its critics, and players who have left the franchise have repeatedly criticized it.
Among the most vocal critics were Andrew McCutchen and Clint Frazier, while some other players from around the league have even claimed they would not join the Yankees purely because of the ruling.
With the LA Dodgers building a super-duper squad out in Los Angeles and Juan Soto famously choosing the Mets over the Yankees, it looks like Hal Steinbrenner is taking no chances on missing out on any potential superstar free agent going forward and has taken the first step in ensuring that they can offer their potential target the most simplest of enjoyments, a full grown and well-groomed beard.
If Cashman can get the team an excellent world-renowned barber to park his talents at Yankees Stadium, it might be a wrap for the rest of the league going forward. Who wouldn’t wanna sign with the Bronx Bombers?
What do y’all think about the Yankees move on having players rock beards? Let us know in the comments section below.