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It was a break, not a breakup. But the way the screaming, flailing fans — ranging from teens to those teetering on the brink of middle age — at New York’s sold-out Beacon Theatre are reacting to frontwoman Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro ripping through their spiky new single, “This Is Why,” you’d think Paramore had just risen from the dead.
“It’s funny — everyone always thinks we’ve broken up,” Williams says. It’s a week before the Nov. 13, 2022, Beacon show, and the members of the trailblazing pop-punk band are seated on shabby vintage chairs in an old house in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park on a sunny afternoon. “It’s always like, ‘Will they or won’t they come back?’ ”
“Love to keep ’em guessing,” Farro quips.
“It surprises us every time,” adds York.
“At this point, I don’t understand how we’re still doing it,” Williams continues. “Because it just feels like against all odds every single time — which, honestly, I feel like we’re the most annoying band in the world because it’s always like, ‘Oh, we overcame this, and now we’re making this album.’ ”
Williams, 34; Farro, 32; and York, 33, met as kids with musical ambitions and Christian roots in Franklin, Tenn. Over the next two decades, as Paramore, they released five albums and survived internal band drama, from lineup changes to lawsuits, any of which could have sounded the death knell. But the group’s sixth album, This Is Why — a tight, post-punk juggernaut that zeroes in on pandemic-fueled anxieties, scheduled for release Feb. 10 — marks the first time the lineup has been consistent between two albums, as well as the end of its contract with Atlantic Records, the only label the band has ever known.
“It feels surreal,” York says.
Read the full Billboard cover story, written by Christine Werthman, here.
It’s always a big loss when the world loses a talented artist, and unfortunately, 2023 kicked off with several notable deaths in music. It began with Gangsta Boo, the pioneering Southern female rapper formerly of hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, who was found dead on New Year’s Day at age 43.
The next day, Alan Rankine of post-punk New Wave act The Associates, who also produced the Cocteau Twins and pursued his own solo music, died at age 64. Since then, we’ve also lost rock guitar legend Jeff Beck — who died at age 78 on Jan. 10 — and singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, who suffered cardiac arrest and died on Jan. 12 at age 54.
While their loved ones and fans around the globe mourn the loss of these artists, they will not be forgotten. Here, Billboard remembers the musicians who left us in 2023.
The 2023 Golden Globes took place on Tuesday (Jan. 10), and featured a host of musicians and actors stepping out to honor the past year’s achievements in film and television. Taking place at Los Angeles’ The Beverly Hilton, the industry’s biggest and brightest stars walked the red carpet and attended the show — and Billboard‘s star-studded afterparty — in style.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were among the guests to grace the Globes, appearing in matching black ensembles. The “Work” singer — whose song “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was nominated in the best original song in a motion picture — wore a fitted black column gown with velvet panels and larger sleeves, while the “Fashion Killa” rapper was in a classic black-and-white suit with satin lapels.
Selena Gomez was also among the musicians to grace the Globes. The Rare beauty founder stepped out on the red carpet with her 9-year-old sister Gracie Elliott Teefey in tow. The 30-year-old, who was nominated for best actress in a TV series comedy or musical nomination for her portrayal of Mabel Mora in the hit Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building.
The fun didn’t stop there. Billboard‘s Golden Globes afterparty saw stars mingling with each other. Wednesday‘s Jenna Ortega and Percy Hynes White looked stunning in black ensembles; Abbot Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson posed for photos alongside Pose‘s Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Jennifer Coolidge lit up the room with Heidi Klum, who brought husband Tom Kaulitz (of Tokio Hotel) as her date.
See the stars at the 2023 Golden Globes afterparty powered by Billboard below.
Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK and Frank Ocean were announced as headliners for the 2023 iteration of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The trio of acts are certainly history-making and, in the case of Ocean, long-anticipated, which makes it the perfect time to look back at Coachella’s many headliners throughout history.
Founded in 1999, the very first Coachella took place at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., with Beck, Tool and Rage Against the Machine topping the lineup. And for the next decade, the festival became a go-to destination for rock fans as the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Coldplay and The Cure delivered memorable headlining sets from the California desert.
By the early 2010s, hip-hop heavyweights had become synonymous with the festival, with Jay-Z and Kanye West each dominating a headlining slot in, respectively, 2010 and 2011. The following year brought together an all-star show for hip-hop heads led by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, who were joined by special guests Eminem, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar and a holograph of the late Tupac Shakur.
The tone of Coachella changed forever, though, in 2017 after Lady Gaga was named a headliner alongside Radiohead and Lamar. Mother Monster’s arrival to the Empire Polo Club attracted an entirely new type of festivalgoer, as Little Monsters flocked to the desert to witness a 90-minute spectacle that included hits across each of the superstar’s eras just months after she headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, as well as the debut of new song “The Cure” for the occasion.
The following spring, Beyoncé transformed Coachella into Beychella with a history-making set documented for her 2019 concert film Homecoming and its companion live album. In 2019, Ariana Grande took over for Arichella, even trotting out four-fifths of *NSYNC for a boy-band reunion years in the making. After being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, Coachella came roaring back to life in 2022 thanks to headliners Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Swedish House Mafia with The Weeknd.
Click through Billboard‘s gallery of past Coachella headliners below.
Beloved British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood died on Thursday (Dec. 29). She was 81 years old.
The style icon’s fashion house shared the news via Twitter, revealing that Westwood died “peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London.” The statement added, “The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better.”
The designer rose to prominence in the fashion world in the 1970s, thanks to her anti-establishment punk styles and controversial, androgynous designs. The new wave style icon was also a passionate activist, and frequently channeled issues like climate change into her runway looks.
Over the years, Westwood has been the go-to designer for a number of stars, who have turned to her funky, daring collections for their red carpet appearances, magazine covers and more.
To honor the late fashion legend, we’ve compiled some of our favorite photos of musicians wearing Vivienne Westwood, from Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo and Halsey to Lady Gaga and Adele. See below.
Over the course of the past year, the music industry has lost some of its brightest behind-the-scenes stars: corporate executives, songwriters, managers, producers, engineers, lawyers, promoters, inventors and more.
Between them, these individuals penned hit songs (“Crazy for You,” “Elvira,” “My Whole World Is Falling Down,” “The Way We Were”); helped launch important careers (Metallica, Prince, Little Richard); masterminded iconic cultural events (Woodstock); founded enduring labels (Stax, Impulse!); built empires (Clear Channel); created and/or produced iconic Broadway musicals (Hair, Dear Evan Hansen); helped popularize burgeoning musical genres (hip-hop, alternative rock); and even changed the way people listened to music.
While they may not have enjoyed the high profile or public adoration of their artist counterparts, these individuals played just as important a role in keeping the business humming – or at least dissecting it, in fire-breathing fashion. Some worked in the industry across decades and eras; others passed on far too soon, but left their mark nonetheless. Some created new and important spaces for underrepresented voices; others paved the way for those who came after them. They have been remembered as dreamers, visionaries and jokesters, and described as “magnetic,” “legendary” and possessing “a rock and roll heart” by those who knew and loved them.
To celebrate those who have passed on, Billboard is highlighting these often-unsung movers and shakers, all of whom made a difference in the music industry in ways both large and small, across every aspect of the business.
Here are the behind-the-scenes players we lost in 2022.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup officially concluded Sunday (Dec. 18) when Argentina and France faced off for the esteemed soccer title. Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory in the game, which came to a close after the team beat France 4-2 following a penalty kick shootout. The World Cup also resulted in a series of thrilling performances from some of the world’s biggest musicians, which continued throughout the monthlong tournament.
The opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup took place Nov. 20 at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, and sent BTS ARMY into a tizzy, as Jung Kook appeared on the stage — notably without the rest of the K-pop septet to accompany him — to perform “Dreamers,” one of the many official songs that appear in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Official Soundtrack. During the performance of “Dreamers,” the BTS singer was joined by Fahad Al Kubaisi.
Latin music stars were also in attendance at the World Cup, notably Maluma and Ozuna. Maluma took the stage with Lebanese singer Mryiam Fare for their song “Tukoh Taka,” which also features Nicki Minaj and serves as one of the official FIFA Fan Festival songs. Ozuna took the stage alongside French-Congolese rapper Gims (in a mash-up performance including Davido and Aisha) to perform a live rendition of their track “Arbho” at the games’ closing ceremony.
See photos from all the musicians featured in this year’s FIFA World Cup below.
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is nearly wrapping up, with Croatia and Morocco facing off on Saturday (Dec. 17) for the third place title, and Argentina and France going head-to-head on Sunday (Dec. 18) for the championship.
As has been tradition for many years now, a select number of songs soundtrack the global soccer event, such as Ricky Martin‘s “Cup of Life,” the official song of the 1998 event held in France, and Shakira‘s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” for the 2010 World Cup in Africa. At times, the tracks also show up on the Billboard charts. “Waka Waka” peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated July 3, 2010, and Martin’s “Cup of Life” peaked at No. 45 on the Hot 100 in 1998.
This year, some of the tracks featured on the diverse official soundtrack are Trinidad Cardona, Davido and Aisha’s “Hayya Hayya (Better Together)” as well as Nicki Minaj, Maluma and Myriam Fares’ “Tukoh Taka,” which made history as the first FIFA World Cup song featuring English, Spanish and Arabic lyrics.
Below, we’ve compiled photos from the various World Cup official song performances throughout the years, stemming all the way back to 1994. See them below.
Another year in the books, and Billboard is looking back on some of its best photos throughout 2022.
Some of today’s biggest stars have posed for cover stories, magazine features, and Billboard events throughout the year, including Women in Music and Latin Music Week. We’ve seen jaw-dropping photos from musicians like Doja Cat, Sam Smith, Maluma, Bad Bunny, Machine Gun Kelly, Post Malone, Christina Aguilera, SZA, Shawn Mendes, Camilo, Young Thug and many more. From creative visions to powerful stances, each photo captures the artists as their most authentic self.
See below for our gallery of Billboard‘s best photos from 2022, featuring superstar artists, breathtaking locations and so much more.
When asked to describe how he felt hosting the 63rd annual Grammy Awards in March 2021, Trevor Noah has trouble choosing just one word — but he lands on “intrigued.”
It was his first time hosting, and a year of other big firsts, too: Ben Winston’s first year executive-producing the broadcast and the first time in the Grammys’ six-decade history that a pandemic had upended the show. At the Los Angeles Convention Center, guests of honor were masked and seated at socially distanced tables of two. Shrubbery and patio lights added warmth to the usually sterile space, as the limited in-person audience — almost exclusively nominees — offered much-quieter-than-usual applause for the global superstars who took home awards, like Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish.
Yet the night’s limitations also yielded other exciting firsts, like watching Harry Styles cheer and whistle for Eilish during her performance of “Everything I Wanted” and seeing Bad Bunny gyrate along to Dua Lipa’s “Levitating.” “Nobody knew what was happening, and yet everybody was trying to create a semblance of normalcy,” Noah recalls. “It felt cavernous. There’s no crowd. You would think it would be awkward — but it became less awkward. It became intimate.”
This year will be Noah’s third consecutive time hosting, and he says that experience, too, has made the monumental awards show feel closer to normal — so much so that he has updated his one-word descriptor of the gig from “intrigued” to “celebratory.”
Read the full cover story for Billboard’s Grammy Voter Guide here.