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Harry Styles, Stevie Nicks and thousands of people at London’s BST Hyde Park gave the most touching birthday salute to the late Christine McVie Friday (July 12).
In honor of her friend — who would’ve turned 81 that day — the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman invited the “As It Was” pop star to join her on stage for an emotional duet of her 1975 masterpiece “Landslide.” “I asked Harry to do this,” she told the crowd at the festival. “It’s always heavy to ask someone to come and sing the song with you when you’re singing about your best friend that died so suddenly and so sadly.”
“What I want you to know is that Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl,” Nicks continued as Styles, wearing a songbird pin on his lapel, nodded solemnly. “She was from here. And she loved all of us. And today was her birthday.”
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The pair performed the ballad while making sustained eye contact, the “Edge of Seventeen” musician taking the lead as the One Direction alum sang harmony. “And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills,” their intertwining voices belted. “Well, the landslide will bring it down.”
The tribute comes over a year and a half after McVie died at the age of 71 in November 2022, having suffered a stroke with her secondary cause of death being listed as cancer. “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” wrote Fleetwood Mac in a joint statement at the time. “She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her.”
Nicks has been open about her grief since losing her bandmate, telling Vulture last fall that she doesn’t anticipate full-band activities continuing in McVie’s absence. “She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac,” she told the publication. “Christine was my best friend… Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
Styles also previously honored McVie on his own by singing “Songbird” at his December 2022 concert in Chile. He and Nicks have performed together several times in the past, including at his 2019 One Night Only show at Los Angeles’ The Forum.
Watch Styles and Nicks perform “Landslide” in McVie’s honor below.
SEVENTEEN singer/producer WOOZI has responded to a British news feature claiming that the K-pop group is using artificial intelligence when recording its music. WOOZI, who also co-writes the group’s songs, reportedly had thoughts after a BBC News story posted last week claimed that SEVENTEEN’s most recent single, “Maestro,” was an example of the group’s dive […]
BTS‘ Jin has seen and done some amazing things during his band’s rocket ride to global fame over the past decade. But when he was tapped to be South Korea’s official representative in the Paris 2024 Olympic torch relay the 31-year-old K-pop star was beside himself with excitement. Explore See latest videos, charts and news […]
Sabrina Carpenter is serving up another round of success with her hit “Espresso,” which has percolated its way back to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart.
This chart-topper sees Sabrina grinding out her own competition, as her other smash “Please Please Please” cools off to No. 2. This feat makes her the first artist since Ed Sheeran and Elton John to replace their own No. 1 hit, a milestone last achieved in December 2021.
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“Espresso” now enjoys its sixth non-consecutive week at the peak of the charts, steamed by a whopping 6.3 million streams.
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The song’s resurgence extends Sabrina’s record as the female artist to simultaneously hold the top two spots for the most consecutive weeks. She now matches Justin Bieber’s four-week streak, proving her flavor is anything but bitter.
Riding a wave of national pride, the iconic football anthem “Three Lions” by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner, and The Lightning Seeds has surged 53 places, re-entering the top 20 at No. 20.
This leap follows England’s semi-final victory over the Netherlands in Euro 2024, setting the stage for another chart climb with the team facing off against Spain in the final on Sunday, July 14.
Elsewhere, Belfast’s rising star Jordan Adetunji continues to impress, with “KEHLANI” reaching a new peak at No. 21. Chappell Roan’s energetic “HOT TO GO!” climbs to No. 24, while the collaborative hit “Kisses” by Bl3SS, CamrinWatsin, and bbyclose debuts strongly at No. 26.
The Kid LAROI maintains his upward trajectory, with “Nights Like This” now sitting at No. 28.
In a remarkable leap, the powerhouse collaboration of Eminem, Big Sean, and BabyTron sees “Tobey” rocket 49 spots to No. 29 amid the release of Eminem’s highly-anticipated new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
Rounding out the week’s notable entries, Quavo and Lana Del Rey’s genre-defying “Tough” makes its chart debut at No. 32, further propelling both artists’ impressive chart legacies.
Pest problems. Piano problems. Taylor Swift had to stop performing mid-song over a couple unexpected, but funny, incidents during her acoustic set in Milan, Italy, on Saturday and Sunday (July 13-14).
“Swallowed another one,” Swift dryly remarked to a loud, supportive audience Saturday night in Milan, accepting her fate when a bug flew into her mouth while on stage for the surprise song section at San Siro Stadium.
The pop icon — no stranger to an unfortunate run-in with a bug on an international tour that’s made its way to many an outdoor stadium — wasn’t surprised. “I knew it would happen ’cause there’s so many bugs here tonight,” she told the crowd, pausing for a moment and then explaining the protocol: “I just need to cough a little bit.”
She was sitting at the piano, playing a rather sad and angry Red-era mashup of “I Almost Do” and “The Moment I Knew,” when the insect intruder interfered with her art.
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That mashup on the keys on Saturday followed “The 1″/“Wonderland” on acoustic guitar. (“I’ve never done this in the acoustic section before,” Swift revealed of “The 1,” the opener of Folklore. The song used to be on the main Eras Tour set list, but lost its place when Swift reworked the long-running show to include selections from her newest album, the 31-track collection The Tortured Poets Department, the reigning No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
On Sunday, Swift’s acoustic guitar surprise was a mashup of “Mr. Perfectly Fine” and “Red”; her piano surprise Sunday night was “Getaway Car” with “Out of the Woods,” but she didn’t get very far with that one before noticing something was not quite right with her piano.
“You know what, we finally broke it. We have finally broken this thing,” quipped Swift while someone from her tech crew swiftly helped fix the issue with the Eras instrument.
The star still had trouble closing its top, but celebrated once she got it shut: “I did it!” she squealed, and with a grin got back to performing, starting the song again: “No, nothing good starts in a getaway car.”
In planned surprises from Milan that also had fans talking over the weekend, Swift debuted three Eras Tour costumes: new dresses for her Fearless and Tortured Poets eras of the concert on Saturday, and a new gown for the show’s Speak Now moment on Sunday.
For Fearless, she took the stage in a new, shimmering black-and-gold number (pictured at the top of this article, and in motion in the short concert video below) that was a fun fit for such a big sing-along part of show. The look also calls back to the aesthetic of Swift’s Reputation, fans noticed, feeling a bit Gatsby in design while also reminding Swifties of this bodysuit from the Reputation Tour.
Swift’s new Tortured Poets costume, seen in the image below, is of the same design as her previous one — but with new lyrics written around its skirt. Instead of words from the album’s title track, the updated version of the white Vivienne Westwood dress features lyrics from Swift’s rage-filled “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” “You should be,” it reminds those watching.
And on Sunday, Swift performed “Enchanted,” the one Speak Now song that has a permanent place in the Eras set, in a new ballgown in a color that can best be described as Speak Now purple. Check out a fan’s collage of Swift’s sparkly Speak Now gown collection from The Eras Tour.
See highlights from Swift’s weekend in Milan with the surprise song performance clips embedded below. Next up on the hitmaker’s Europe itinerary, she’ll get to visit Germany, bringing the summer Eras Tour to the cities of Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg and Munich.
Katy Perry appears to be responding to criticism over her new “Woman’s World” music video.
On Saturday (July 13), the 39-year-old pop superstar shared a behind-the-scenes clip from the video shoot, explaining her intentions for the seemingly female-empowering visual.
“YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! EVEN SATIRE!” Perry captioned the Instagram post.
Following its release on Thursday, some reviews suggested the “Woman’s World” video was a dated attempt at writing a feminist anthem. The visual finds Perry dressed as a pin-up girl and working on a construction site before being hit by an anvil.
Perhaps adding fuel to the fire, the track was co-produced by Dr. Luke, who was accused of sexual misconduct by Kesha. (In 2023, the singer and hitmaker settled their bitter, nine-year legal battle before it was scheduled to go to trial.)
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In her response clip, which seemed to anticipate the forthcoming backlash, the singer is surrounded by dancers on set at the video shoot as she explains the thinking behind it.
“We’re kind of just having fun being a bit sarcastic with it, it’s very slapstick, and very on the nose,” Perry says of the first half of the video, which features half-naked dancers, Perry chugging Whiskey, and her entourage pretending to relieve themselves in urinals.
“With this set, it’s like, ‘We’re not about the male gaze but we really are about the male gaze,’ and we’re really overplaying it and on the nose because I’m about to get smashed, which is like a reset, a reset for me, and a reset for my idea of feminine divine, and it’s a whole different world we go to after this.”
Perry concluded her response, stating, “We wanted to open this video making it look like a super high gloss pop star video, and that’s what it is.”
“Woman’s World” marks Perry’s first proper release since 2020’s Smile, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The song serves as the lead track to her upcoming, long-awaited dance-pop album, 143, which is code for “I love you.” The project arrives on Sept. 20.
Watch Perry’s reaction to criticism over her “Woman’s World” video on Instagram below.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department captures a 12th consecutive and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated July 20) — beating 1989 and Fearless (each with 11 weeks at No. 1) as her longest-leading No. 1 album.
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The Tortured Poets Department earned 163,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending July 11 (up 43% — its first gain in seven weeks), according to Luminate. The album debuted atop the chart dated May 4 and has yet to yield the No. 1 slot.
The Tortured Poets Department surpasses Whitney Houston’s 1987 album Whitney to become the only album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks at No. 1. The latter spent all 11 of its weeks atop the list from its debut frame (June 27, 1987-dated chart).
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Only two other albums have spent at least their first 12 weeks at No. 1: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (first 12 weeks at No. 1, of its total 19 weeks at No. 1 in 2023-24) and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (first 13 weeks at No. 1, of its total 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1976). (For context, today it’s common for albums to debut at No. 1. However, before 1991, when the Billboard 200 began utilizing Luminate’s electronically monitored tracking information, only six albums debuted at No. 1, including Whitney and Songs in the Key of Life.)
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart, Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene soars 17-2 in its first full tracking week. The previous week’s list captured the tracking week of June 28-July 4, and Bryan’s album was released on Thursday, July 4. (Albums are typically released on Friday each week, which is the first day of the chart’s tracking week.)
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 July 20, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 16. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Prior to Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, the last album by a woman to spend at least 12 total weeks at No. 1 was Adele’s 21, which earned 24 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2011-12. (Overall, the last album to spend at least 12 total weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which logged 19 total weeks at No. 1 in 2023-24, of which its first 12 were consecutive from its debut week.)
The last album by a woman with at least 12 consecutive weeks at No. 1 was the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which strung together 13 straight weeks at No. 1 (of its total 20 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list) from December 1992 to March 1993.
Swift adds her 81st career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 No. 1 albums. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 163,000 units earned in the week ending July 11, album sales comprise 90,000 (up 154%, making it the top-selling album of the week, and No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a sixth non-consecutive week), SEA units comprise 72,000 (down 7%, equaling 94.83 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe album’s 31 songs; it falls 1-2 on the Top Streaming Albums chart after 11 weeks in a row at No. 1) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 7%).
Of Swift’s overall album sales for the week, CD sales comprise 67,000 (up 127%), digital album download sales comprise 19,000 (up 1,266%) and vinyl sales comprise 4,000 (down 10%).
The Tortured Poets Department’s overall weekly increase was bolstered in part by sales generated from Swift’s official webstore, which restocked seven earlier-released CD variants of the album (including a signed edition). The restocked items were available to purchase for a few hours on Sunday, June 7, and shipped shortly afterwards. In addition, Swift released three new digital album download variants of the album on Thursday, July 11, sold exclusively in her webstore for $4.99 each, and were only available to purchase that day. Each contained the original standard 16-song album tracklist, along with one bonus live acoustic track, recorded during her The Eras Tour stop in Stockholm (“Guilty as Sin?,” “How Did It End?” or “Peter”).
The Tortured Poets Department also got a boost in the latest chart’s tracking week thanks to activity generated by the July 8 release of two versions of the album’s lead single, the Post Malone-featuring “Fortnight,” to streaming services and digital retailers: a Cults remix and an acoustic rendition. (The latter was previously available only as a bonus track on a limited-edition CD version of Poets.)
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene rises 17-2 in its second week on the Billboard 200, following its first full tracking week of activity. The set earned 137,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 11 (up 363% from its first day). The previous week’s list captured the tracking week of June 28-July 4, and Bryan’s album was released on Thursday, July 4. The set premiered on the previous week’s list with 32,000 units from first day of release. (Albums are typically released on Friday each week, which is the first day of the chart’s tracking week.)
Of The Great American Bar Scene’s second chart-week units, SEA units comprise 127,500 (up 390%, equaling 163.87 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 19 tracks; it jumps 18-1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 8,500 (up 66%, it was only available to purchase as a digital download album) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 113%). The album will be released on CD and vinyl on Oct. 11.
The album was preceded by a pair of Billboard Hot 100-charting songs: “Pink Skies” (peaking at No. 6 in June) and “Purple Gas,” with Noeline Hofmann (No. 70).
The Great American Bar Scene marks the fourth top 10-charting effort for Bryan on the Billboard 200, following Boys of Faith (No. 8, October 2023) his-self titled set (No. 1, two weeks, September 2023) and American Heartbreak (No. 5, June 2022).
Morgan Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time falls 2-3 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%); Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is a non-mover at No. 4 with 58,000 (down 8%); and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is stationary at No. 5 with 54,000 (down 10%).
Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album holds at No. 6 (40,000; down 8%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season rises 9-7 (38,000; down 3%); Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going is a non-mover at No. 8 (36,000; down 10%); and Megan Thee Stallion’s Megan falls 3-9 in its second week (32,000; down 50%).
Closing out the top 10 is a second Zach Bryan title, as his self-titled No. 1 rises 12-10 with nearly 32,000 equivalent album units (down 12%). It’s the second time Bryan has placed two titles in the top 10. He first did it on the Oct. 7, 2023-dated chart, when his self-titled set fell 3-5 in its fifth week, while his Boys of Faith project bowed at No. 8.
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.
Coldplay premiered a new song for some lucky fans in Italy.
The British band, led by charismatic frontman Chris Martin, debuted the unreleased track “Good Feelings” during its concert at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Friday (July 12).
“We fell in love in the summer/I remember baby, we felt the sun shine through/And we were born for each other,” Martin sings on the upbeat tune. “All the good feelings, for one another/As we danced to the radio.”
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Coldplay fans have been familiar with “Good Feelings” for a couple years now. A Max Martin-produced version of the song was rumored to have been intended for the band’s 2021 album, Music of the Spheres, as a collaboration with the Chainsmokers, according to Rolling Stone.
The new rendition of “Good Feelings” will likely appear on Coldplay’s forthcoming tenth album, Moon Music, featuring vocals by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr.
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In June, Coldplay shared the new Martin-produced single “Feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which will appear on Moon Music. On it, Martin sings: “It feels like I’m falling in love/ You’re throwing me a lifeline/ Oh, not for the first time/ I know I’m not alone.”
Moon Music is scheduled for release on Oct. 4. Martin has been teasing the new set for more than a year. In January 2023, he told the Toronto City News that the band was nearing completion of what he then promised was the second LP in the Music of the Spheres series. He remarked “that won’t come out for a bit,” though he teased that the band “might” start rolling out some of the new songs live that year.
Coldplay’s current global tour is in support of Spheres, launching on March 18, 2022, in Costa Rica. The years-long trek is currently slated to wrap up with the second of two shows at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, on Nov. 16.
Watch Coldplay debut “Good Feelings” in Rome here.
ENHYPEN is fresh off the release of their sophomore full-length album, Romance: Untold, and to celebrate, they sat down with Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly to discuss their growth as artists on this project. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “First off, our lead single is titled ‘XO (Only […]
Two weeks from now Billy Joel will wrap up one of the most legendary residencies in music history. The Long Island native will play his 150th and final show at Madison Square Garden on July 25 when he plays the last note of a run that officially kicked off in January 2014 and has had the “Piano Man” playing the historic venue once a month on his way to setting the record for the most lifetime MSG performances by any artist.
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Joel, 75, sat down with Willie Giest for an interview slated to air on Sunday TODAY (July 14) in which the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer opens up about his feelings on the eve of the anticipated finale. “Well, I’m kind of sad that it’s ending,” Joel says of the series that has sold more than 1.6 million tickets to date. “You know, 10 years in Madison Square Garden is beyond my dreams as a musician. We were the house band for 10 years at the Garden, which I think is the best performance venue in the world.”
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And Joel would know, since he’s been pounding the white and blacks on his baby grand all around the world for more than five decades. “I’ve played all kinds of stadiums, arenas, coliseums, theaters, the Garden is the best sound,” he says of the 19,500-capacity arena. “And it’s in New York, which is usually a crazy audience and they make a lot of noise and we have fun.”
Now, to be clear, Joel says that the end of the run doesn’t mean he’ll never play MSG again, just that this seemingly unbeatable record string of shows is reaching its natural end. Plus, Joel says, 150 feels like a “good round number” to bow out on. When he kicked the residency off more than a decade ago, Joel tells Geist he never imagined it would last this long, assuming there would be a peak and then a slow eventual decline.
“But that hasn’t happened, they’re buying more tickets recently than they were at the beginning,” he says of the sold-out shows, noting that he could have easily kept going, but that after a decade he felt like it was “all right already.”
With Geist noting that Stub Hub says the final show is one of the hottest tickets in town this summer, he wondered if Joel is having second thoughts about hanging it up. “Yeah, a lot of second thoughts,” Joel says. “It’s kind of sad because we could have kept going but I didn’t want to outstay my welcome.”
Joel — who released his first new pop song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On” in February — has a stadium gig in Denver on Friday night (July 12) before his final MSG curtain call, followed by stadium shows in the UK, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Las Vegas that will keep him busy through November.
Check out a preview of the interview here and watch the full chat on Sunday Today on Sunday.