Pop
Page: 116
Rihanna is a Billie Eilish fan! In an interview with an 11-year-old journalist at her recent launch event for her new Fenty x Puma collection this week, RiRi was asked who her dream musical collaborator would be. “If I could only do a song with Billie Eilish. She’s so good,” she shared. New music has […]
The hottest composer in musical theater right now may well be one of its most veteran legends. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sweeping scores have ruled Broadway for decades, and lately his shows have seemed irrresistible to theater’s most inventive directors — from the sensational Cats: The Jellicle Ball (taking the literal felines out of the picture and transferring the story to the ballroom scene) in downtown Manhattan, to a high-octane new Starlight Express in a specially-designed London theater far from the West End, to, most prominently, Jamie Lloyd’s starkly minimalist SUNSET BLVD. on Broadway, starring former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger in a monumental performance that’s already won her an Olivier award.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
SUNSET recently opened at the St. James Theatre to largely rave reviews, and now Lloyd Webber is hoping an even wider audience will hear the show precisely as he imagined it when, on October 25, The Other Songs (the indie entertainment company founded by his sons Billy and Alastair Webber) releases SUNSET BLVD: The Album. In a departure from original Broadway cast recording tradition, the album was recorded entirely live at the Savoy Theater in London without, Lloyd Webber proudly notes, any technical audio “enhancements” — his effort for any listener to experience the production precisely as they would in the theater.
Trending on Billboard
Ahead of the album release, Lloyd Webber — whose new musical adaptation of film The Illusionist is in the works — spoke to Billboard about the recording process, his abiding love of vinyl, Scherzinger’s performance and much more.
So many people worldwide have been introduced not only to your work, but to musical theater itself, through recordings of your musicals. What do you see as your responsibility when you record your shows?
Well, every case is different, isn’t it, really? I mean, Jesus Christ Superstar over 50 years ago was recorded as an album because nobody wanted to produce it in the theater, so the only way we could get it heard was to record it. [Today] you have Lin-Manuel Miranda who has just done his new show with The Warriors, recording it first. There’s no rule at all. But when you’ve got a production which is as good as the current SUNSET BLVD., it was pretty obvious that we should record that in the theater. This is the first time that I’ve ever recorded [a cast album] in the theater, because I thought that this was such an extraordinary experience for an audience that we should just do it, warts and all.
So essentially, you recorded a live performance as it was?
It is recorded as it was performed. It was completely, completely live. We [recorded] five performances, but basically we took one which was the best. Nothing was done in post-production, other than mix it. I decided that I wanted to produce it like I did Jesus Christ Superstar years ago, as a kind of musical radio play, [where] there wouldn’t be anything other than what you heard if you were actually in the building itself. Because I’m very proud of the sound that we have on SUNSET BLVD. I’m the first person in theater history to have introduced a sound desk into a theater back with Jesus Christ Superstar, and sound, to me, is incredibly important.
Have certain advances in audio recording technology made this kind of album possible?
Absolutely, because the radio microphones now are so directional that they’re not picking up outside sounds, and so you don’t get lots of extraneous noise. One of the great things in the show that’s now becoming kind of famous — the walk-around [outside] in the beginning of the second act where [actor Tom Francis] goes out into the street — I mean, the sound is exactly the same as it would be in the theater. Fundamentally, when you’re making a recording of a piece of work, you really want it to be as authentic as you possibly can make it.
And this is exactly as it was in the theater. I’m very proud of the fact that we didn’t do any enhancement at all. I mean, a lot of people would talk about how you compress a vocal; I’ve never done that in my career. I’ve always felt that if you’re mixing a show, you ride the vocal rather than compress it, and on this album, there’s no compression at all. We recorded a little bit of atmosphere in the theater as it was happening, which meant that we didn’t have to put reverb or anything on any of the vocals, because I just felt that it was essential that we had a little bit of the feeling of the theater itself.
Knowing now that you can record a show in this way, is it something you would want to see applied more widely?
Certainly, there are some shows where I think it works probably better than others. Some of the cast albums that I’ve had over the years, which I haven’t necessarily produced [myself] of course, I find that some of them are great, but they don’t quite have that energy that happens when something is being done live and it’s with you. But at the same time, what you don’t necessarily want to have on a live album is masses of applause. The way I’ve written [SUNSET], applause points are kept to the minimum, because I always feel that what you really want to do is lead an audience through, and then allow them to applaud at certain points.
So in SUNSET, there is no applause point at all until you get to the end of “With One Look” which is 35 minutes into the show, and Phantom of the Opera is exactly the same — I don’t allow anybody to applaud until the end of “The Music of the Night,” because I want people to concentrate on the music. You don’t want the whole thing to get derailed by, you know, masses of applause. I try and through-compose as much as I can. So I think the SUNSET album allowed us to do exactly what I was hoping for: if you listen to it, I hope it’s not like listening to a live album in one sense, where you’ve got lots of applause all the way through, because there are only very few moments, but it’s also very much like listening to it as you would have heard it in the theater — pure, I think, is the word I would like to use.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nicole Scherzinger and Jamie Lloyd.
Marc J Franklin
You posted a little behind the scenes video on Instagram of the vinyl-making process at Abbey Road Studios. Can you tell us a bit about that process?
Well, that’s not a difficult one for me to talk about. Because of course, when I started out, vinyl was everything, and I learned very early on that how an album was cut was absolutely vital to the sound. The louder the music is, the wider the groove has to be, so if you’re dealing with a show like — I mean, the most difficult vinyl cut I have ever had to do was the third side of Evita, which was basically 29 minutes and also contained “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” “Rainbow High” and a lot of the big bits, and I think we certainly did seven passes on the cut of that, because to compress that amount of sound into one side of an album was incredibly difficult. I would literally sit over the guy who was cutting the record and just say “we need to expand the groove here, and then we could contract it here,” because if the volume is not great at one point, you can then earn a bit of a right to expand the groove. It’s a very technical process.
Of course, I was incredibly cool 10 years ago, because my kids said, “Dad, you’ve got this fantastic vinyl collection, and you’ve got this incredible turntable, you’ve got turntables in all the houses.” And I said, absolutely, yes. “You’re so ahead of the curve, Dad!” Absolutely, absolutely. [Laughs.] There’s something extraordinary about vinyl. It always struck me that it was inevitable that vinyl would come back, and all I can say is the quality of the vinyl recording of [SUNSET] is just extraordinary.
What is your turntable of choice?
D’you know, I don’t know! But it’s the same one I’ve had for years and years and years and I’ve got them in all the houses. Apparently it’s incredibly wonderful. It sounds fine to me!
SUNSET is the latest of a few Andrew Lloyd Webber shows that’s gotten a true reimagining recently. Cats: The Jellice Ball recently was a sensation here in New York – I’m hoping it will see an extended life somehow…
We would love The Jellicle Ball to have a new home. I mean, obviously it can’t just be shoehorned into a Broadway theater. But there’s a very interesting thing that’s happening now. It seems to me that what’s opening up is the possibility, the inevitability, of the fact that people don’t necessarily want to go into Times Square — you know, the hassle and everything, and then it’s not all that nice there, necessarily. I think we’re seeing the possibility that people will go to see live entertainment and theater, really, where it’s happening, and not necessarily feel that they have to be made to go to some conventional theater, which I think is incredibly exciting.
It’s refreshing to see how you’re willing to give someone else’s new vision a chance with your work – it seems like you’re not terribly precious about creative control.
Yeah I mean, with The Jellicle Ball, I had a bit of a hand, and my music team was kind of over[seeing] what they were going to do with the music, which actually they got absolutely right, and so long as the music’s fine, then my work can breathe. You know, I don’t want somebody taking my music and altering it. With The Jellicle Ball, they kept the music and they kept the essence of what T. S. Eliot wrote, but gave it a new interpretation, a new production, and I think that’s thrilling. Why would I want to stop that? I’m excited whenever that happens.
Jamie Lloyd is doing a version of Evita in London this coming summer, and working with a director like Jamie, for me, is a wonderful thing, because he can talk from a different perspective than I do. The consequence of that with SUNSET BLVD., for example, is that we took the score a lot darker, in a lot more dangerous way than the original. But that is the joy. I’m a collaborator. The most important thing to remember about musical theater is it’s all about collaboration.
SUNSET BLVD.
Marc Brenner
When Jamie first spoke to you about his ideas for the show, how did he describe his concept to you?
Well, he didn’t, really. He just said that he was very keen to have Nicole Scherzinger star in it. And I said, well, if you get Nicole to agree to do it, I’m more than happy, because I’ve known Nicole for 15 years now, more actually. She did a wonderful performance of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” on a TV program, and I think many people thought, literally, she’s the most exciting performer, and I got her to do Cats in London. But the thing about Nicole is that she’s always had this other career, being on The Masked Singer and doing X Factor and all these things as a panelist. So when Jamie said that she’d love to do it, I said, well, if she’ll do it, it’ll be the best thing that ever happened. Get her on stage, and I’m with you.
One thing about Nicole is that once she’s committed to something, she is the most incredible company member and leader of any performer I know. And do you know what? I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam [Payne], from One Direction. On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day, and [that evening] the reviewers came in [to SUNSET], she’d just heard that he died. And the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean she is an amazing, amazing woman. She is without any question one of the finest performers I’ve ever worked with.
For so many people, her performance in SUNSET is a total revelation. But as you said, you’ve been a Nicole believer for over a decade now.
I’ve known that she’s one of a kind. I don’t think there’s any singer I know who can interpret and act through music in the way that she can. I mean, I’ve known some very, very great ones, but she’s absolutely extraordinary.
Certainly in terms of her beginnings in the music industry, it’s perhaps not what any of us would have expected!
No, but you’ve got to remember, people start, you know, somewhere where they have to get a job, don’t they? Look at Harry Styles.
When I walked out of the show, I wondered if we’ll see Nicole do more theater, or if this is a kind of lightning-in-a-bottle, once-in-a-lifetime role kind of thing. Have you two spoken about what comes after this for her?
I don’t know, you’d have to ask her that. But all I could say is, I would love to work with her again. It’s always got to be the right role, the right thing. And I think she’s completely made this role her own.
Pharrell Williams dropped the video for the title track to his animated biopic, Piece By Piece, on Thursday morning (Oct. 24). And like the Morgan Neville-directed film that’s in theaters now, the brightly colored, high-energy visual directed by Neville renders the singer/producer/rapper/fashionista in LEGO blocks, borrowing some scenes from the unique, blocky big screen trip […]
In 2024, the average merchandise campaign consists of 50 pieces of artwork that can easily be adapted for use on varied tour and direct-to-consumer items, says Matt Young, president of Bravado, Universal Music Group’s merch and brand management company. But for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS campaign, he says, “I think we’ve done at least 375 unique pieces of art.”Rodrigo’s singular vision for her first arena tour extended to the products sold at its kiosks. As the album rollout and tour details came together last year, the pop star coordinated with management, Bravado and label partners to ensure that each piece of merch “felt cohesive to the greater GUTS world,” says Michelle An, Interscope Geffen A&M president/head of creative strategy.
The number of items kept ballooning as Rodrigo leaned into the creative process, with a literally hands-on approach to identifying opportunities — from concocting mood boards to helping create color palettes to touching fabrics to ensure T-shirt quality. “This was Olivia saying, ‘I think this could be more. How do we do it?’ ” Young recalls.
Some highlights of Rodrigo’s GUTS merch line include unique jewelry (silver crescent moon rings and star necklaces, a nod to the tour’s set design), a butterfly design on tote bags and pool floats, an elastic bandage tin to store “vampire”-ready Band-Aids and, ahead of Netflix’s Oct. 29 release of her tour film, a set of five GUTS popcorn boxes, perfect for a premiere-night group hang. Along with the souvenirs that are now widely available at Rodrigo’s online shop, Young also points out that her various retail partners, ranging from global fashion chains to suburban Targets, also featured their own exclusive items: “The Zara in Europe has to have something different than the Hot Topic in the U.S.”
And just as Rodrigo ended each show sporting a tank top with a cheeky message customized for each city, every GUTS tour stop with multiple shows offered customized merch, including city-specific T-shirts and unique concert artwork designed in conjunction with local female artists. Rodrigo and Bravado approached the posters (shown below) as the ultimate collectible item — and once word got out about them early in the live run, fans started arriving to shows hours early to hit the merch booth.
“Is it logistically challenging? Sometimes, yes,” Young admits. “But it’s offset by the passion. You’re helping build a relationship with a fan in a way that they can’t really get anywhere else.”
This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.
After recently scoring with her hit collab with Rosalía, “New Woman,” BLACKPINK’s LISA has already set her sights on her next potential woman power duet. In a chat with Audacy about her solo ventures, the 27-year-old rapper/singer said there were a “lot” of artists she would like to team up with on her future solo […]
Jimmy Fallon is ready to ring in the most wonderful time of the year, and the Tonight Show host will accompany his upcoming festive album with a television special. Jimmy Fallon’s Holiday Seasoning Spectacular will feature a star-studded lineup of guest appearances, including Cara Delevingne, Dolly Parton, J.B. Smoove, Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, LL COOL […]
At most huge pop tours, there’s a moment when shrieking fans reach a true fever pitch — when the lights dim right before the show begins, or when the intro to the artist’s biggest hit kicks in, or during the break before the encore. All of those happened at Olivia Rodrigo’s first arena tour — but her favorite part of the show was when those eardrum-rattling cries were, in fact, mad as hell.
“When we play ‘all-american bitch,’ ” Rodrigo tells Billboard, “there’s a part at the end of the song where I ask the audience to think about something that pisses them off and then tell them to scream about it when the lights go off.” On the opener to her 2023 album, GUTS, Rodrigo juxtaposes folksy, facetious calm in the verses with enraged pop-punk in the refrain as she lays out society’s double standards for young women before unleashing a piercing wail. For nearly a hundred nights this year, the singer-songwriter has closed her main set by adding her own scream to an arena already full of them. “It’s definitely cathartic for me,” she says, “and I hope it is for the audience as well.”
The same could be said of the entire GUTS tour, where Rodrigo’s fans worldwide found the space to release their pent-up energy, as well as their excitement about one of the decade’s biggest new superstars. After bursting into the spotlight in 2021 with her debut album, Sour, and its No. 1 smashes “drivers license” and “good 4 u,” the former Disney+ TV star won the Grammy Award for best new artist in 2022 and quickly ascended to pop’s A-list. Yet the 2022 tour supporting Sour primarily played theaters, had to navigate lingering COVID-19 concerns and catered to a limited number of international markets, as Rodrigo, then 19, found her sea legs as a live performer.
Trending on Billboard
Two years later, the rock-fueled GUTS became another commercial triumph: Lead single “vampire” also topped the Billboard Hot 100, and the album scored one of 2023’s 10 biggest debut weeks. And this time, Rodrigo was prepared for arena audiences. The GUTS tour featured more than double the number of dates as her Sour trek while traveling to four continents (South America will become the fifth in March 2025) and grossed $186.6 million, according to Billboard Boxscore — even with its 1.4 million tickets sold at an average price of $128.81, in line with price-conscious acts like Coldplay and P!nk, and less than that of several major pop arena shows.
As for the show itself, “I actually made GUTS with the concert in mind,” Rodrigo says. “It’s so much fun to play songs that are more driving and heavy. I had a great time performing that aspect of the show every night.” Here’s how it all went down.
In her dressing room backstage.
Sami Drasin
‘She Knew Exactly What It Was That She Wanted’
As GUTS came together, so did plans for an accompanying tour that amplified every aspect of Rodrigo’s previous live run — bigger venues, more countries — all guided by a more defined point of view from the superstar at its center.
Aleen Keshishian (co-manager, Lighthouse Management + Media founder/CEO): Olivia had creative tour ideas when she was still writing GUTS, even before we had signed a deal with Live Nation or hired anyone for the tour. She already had visual references, voice notes, images.
Zack Morgenroth (co-manager, Lighthouse Management + Media partner): That gave us a lot of time to plan, and put together the right team, and get the show right.
Jason Danter (tour production manager): I connected with Zack and Aleen in March 2023; at that point, I was deep into getting the Beyoncé [Renaissance] tour up and running. I met Olivia when she came to the Beyoncé show at SoFi Stadium [in Inglewood, Calif.].
Tarik Mikou (creative director, Moment Factory): We’ve been working with Olivia for a while — we did her first live TV performance [on Saturday Night Live] and did the Sour tour, so I was really happy to get a call back for the GUTS tour.
Melissa Garcia (choreographer): They called me in for the Sour tour, and Olivia and I really meshed. A trusting environment [and] being able to have back-and-forth conversations is so important, especially when it comes to movement and putting artists in vulnerable situations.
Jared Braverman (senior vp of touring, Live Nation): It was very clear from initial conversations that the goal of this tour was to be global — to get to markets that Olivia had never been to and continue to grow by not just focusing on major cities. [Olivia] is massive everywhere. That’s a challenging thing to navigate — making time and space for all of these markets.
Morgenroth: The Sour tour was her first time out on the road and was a huge underplay, given the success of the album.
Dave Tamaroff (partner, WME): Her last tour could have been in arenas, based on everything she had going on.
Michelle An (president/head of creative strategy, Interscope Geffen A&M): There were a lot of conversations about [arenas] on the last tour, and ultimately, Olivia was the final decision-maker — she felt like she needed to do the theater run to get to know the fans in a more intimate way.
Sami Drasin
Morgenroth: There was so much demand from fans this time around that Live Nation said to us that arenas now felt like an underplay — we probably could have done stadiums everywhere. That being said, there was so much preparation for an arena tour: choosing each venue, making sure we had a good cadence for her. We tended to do only four shows in a week and never three shows in a row.
Tamaroff: We were surgical in our approach to the routing.
Morgenroth: Olivia cares so deeply about the fan experience, and that was also so key in the pricing of the tickets, which could have been priced for so much more. Everything, from having the Silver Star program — where fans could get a limited number of tickets everywhere around the arena for something like $20 — to looking at the landscape of touring artists and trying to price our tickets somewhere in the middle of them, was very intentional.
Keshishian: [Silver Star] was something that Coldplay had first done with Live Nation. Jared Braverman suggested it and Olivia loved it.
Braverman: [Pricing] takes a level of restraint, where you look at what you can do versus what you should do. You’ve got a young audience that’s very connected to Olivia, and we wanted to make this tour accessible for them.
Keshishian: We spent a lot of money on this tour, [but] we were incredibly judicious, going over every single line item in the budget to make sure we were spending money on the things that mattered to Olivia.
Garcia: Olivia is the captain of the ship — right from the very beginning, she knew exactly what it was that she wanted.
Mikou: We had like, 15 meetings, in Zoom and in person. She had reference boards on Pinterest. She would show us an image and be like, “I would love something like that in the show,” and give us these leads.
An: We definitely wanted fans to get to know the album. It wasn’t straight from the album release [in September 2023] into the tour [which began in February 2024].
Heather Picchiottino (costume designer): Olivia’s songwriting progression from Sour to GUTS felt very raw and up-front, so we wove punk rock through [the tour’s production].
Olivia Rodrigo: I tried to make the concert feel like my own spin on a rock show. My dream was for people to jump and scream and be all sweaty by the end.
Mikou: When you get to the dress rehearsals and start seeing the ideas pushed forward — we knew we had something special with this show.
The band.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
‘It’s So Much Bigger in Every Way’
When the GUTS tour kicked off at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif., on Feb. 23, Rodrigo unveiled a multi-act, visually striking stage show with dancing, wailing guitars and even a giant, suspended crescent moon for her to sit on while circling the audience.
Daisy Spencer (touring guitarist): We rehearsed so much leading up to the kickoff. We were so ready and eager to finally perform the show in front of people who were hearing it for the first time.
Garcia: Instead of reaching a few thousand people, she was in a much larger environment — which puts a lot more pressure on her.
Keshishian: There’s no comparison between theaters and arenas, in terms of prep.
Spencer: It’s so much bigger in every way. The energy on the Sour tour was palpable, like we were beginning something very exciting and everyone in the room could feel it. But I couldn’t have ever imagined what the GUTS tour would be like.
Rodrigo: An arena feels wildly different than a theater to me.
Garcia: One of the big notes that I would say [to Olivia] was “Invite the audience in”: Open your chest up, allow them in. And she absolutely did that. Between the Sour tour and this tour, she is absolutely way more comfortable in her skin.
Picchiottino: Olivia had so many iconic looks on the Sour tour, and some of the detailing in them were bows or little ruffles or tulle fabric. We really contrasted that with GUTS, with references to punk rock through clean, ’90s, minimal silhouettes, made out of fabrics that were metal mesh jewelry as opposed to a tissue fabric.
Mikou: We worked on creating four acts in the show. We start really strong with an energetic vibe, but we also go into her vocal range early on with “vampire” and “drivers license.” And then in the second act, we embark on a visual journey with dancers.
The dancers.
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: In terms of choreography, she didn’t want it to feel like a traditional pop show where the dancers can sometimes overpower the music. I think the dancers are only in six numbers.
Danter: It’s primarily a younger audience that wants to see her and hear her, so it doesn’t have to be overly complicated visually.
Garcia: We wanted to create a visceral reaction from her fans, and for Olivia, a rock approach was extremely important, so she wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to use dancers. We came up with utilizing the dancers in a very unique way to match her creative intention.
Mikou: And then in the third act, she’s flying on the moon.
Keshishian: From the very first conversation we had with her, she said, “I’d love to fly on a moon over my audience.”
Mikou: We had about 60 stars all around to create this immersive vibe in the arena, and the moon was on a 260-foot linear flying track and was a light box as well.
Garcia: Riding around the venue on the moon — that was another way for her to feel like she really gave every single person her time.
Mikou: That act has these big visual moments, but it’s also really simple and elegant at times, like “making the bed,” where’s she rising alone on a lift, surrounded by fans and their iPhone lights.
Keshishian: And then you have these beautiful acoustic moments where she’s just with Daisy [who’s playing] guitar at the edge of the thrust, and it’s just about the lyrics and her voice.
Spencer: That was all Olivia’s idea, and I feel so honored to sit next to her while we all have a giant group therapy session together on “happier” and “favorite crime.” I’m almost on the verge of tears when we finish that section because it’s such a beautiful feeling to hear everyone singing along with us.
Mikou: We ended with the punk-rock vibe in the fourth act, exploding everything at the end with the full band and fire on the screens.
Picchiottino: I think my favorite moment is the start of act four, when the chaos comes into the show. Olivia enters in this red romper in this foil fabric, and with the color of the lighting, it just signals this incredible energy.
Mikou: My personal favorite moment is probably “obsessed.” She gets on the plexiglass and starts to look at her audience, but with the camera below [the stage, feeding into the arena screens], it’s just such a strong image. That’s Olivia 2.0: so rock’n’roll, so much guitar, so much attitude.
Danter: Olivia turned 21 a couple of days before opening night, and as somebody with such short touring experience, she’s very, very professional.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: She gets to the venue every single day six hours early. She practices the piano, she does vocal warmups, she does cardio. She does her sound check before literally every show, even on multiple nights in the same venue, which very few artists do.
Danter: Most artists don’t get that discipline until they’ve got a number of tours under their belt. But by [the opener in] Palm Springs, we were all like, “We’ve got nothing to worry about here.”
Rodrigo: The first dozen shows or so, it was a big adjustment for me, energywise. I had to really learn how to look up and take in the space. You definitely perform differently when you’re performing to that many people.
Danter: And now she’s an arena headliner, and it’s as if she’s been doing it for a long, long time.
‘These Gatherings Have Become Like a Ritual’
As Rodrigo traveled North America in early spring, Europe before summer, North America (again) in July and August, and Asia in early fall, fans around the world learned about the tour’s unofficial dress code, viral moments, philanthropic goals — and the superstar-in-waiting who opened its first leg.
Keshishian: Tour support is something that we talked about very early on. The Sour tour had Gracie Abrams opening, and then Chappell Roan opened in San Francisco on the last Sour date in North America.
Remi Wolf (opener, GUTS European leg): I was told that Olivia very carefully curated the openers for the show, so it was a major deal when we got the original call.
Keshishian: Olivia has this incredible knowledge of and reverence for female artists, in particular people who paved the way for her, like Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow and Bikini Kill. Her mom introduced her to a lot of these artists, including The Breeders. I went with her to see them play at the Wiltern [in October 2023] and was so excited to meet Kim and Kelley [Deal] backstage, and they agreed to open for her in New York and L.A.
Kim Deal (singer-guitarist, The Breeders): [Olivia] has talked about how, you know, “The Breeders broke my mind — there was pre-‘Cannonball’ and there was post-‘Cannonball.’ ” And I think she likes loud guitars — in this day and age! She finds loud guitars exciting and wants to be around them.
Sami Drasin
Tamaroff: She did four shows [with The Breeders] in New York and six in Los Angeles, and she really could have done a dozen more, based on demand.
Morgenroth: [The openers] are, in part, a tribute to Olivia’s ear. She’s known Chappell for a while. She’s always thought she was an incredible artist.
Rodrigo: Having her on the first leg of the GUTS tour was so much fun. I’m inspired by her so much as an artist, but she’s also been such a good friend to me over the years and she really helped me through some of the more stressful parts of the tour.
Braverman: We all knew what a talented artist and great performer [Chappell] is and hoped that fans would be as excited as we all were for her to be joining on these shows. The initial response was positive, but it wasn’t until the tour got underway that we started to see a shift that literally grew more each and every show.
Keshishian: Chappell was a surprise guest in L.A. [in August, after opening for the tour in February and March]. People asked us if we were going to have guest performers at all six shows in L.A., and we didn’t feel that we needed surprises just for the sake of it. But having Chappell come back and seeing her perform in front of Olivia’s audience after all this time, after so much had happened [in her own career]? It was really fun.
Rodrigo: It’s been incredible to watch her get the recognition she so rightfully deserves. She’s just further proof that being unapologetically yourself always pays off.
Morgenroth: From the moment people arrived at the show, we wanted them to have a great experience, and that’s everything from the merch, where things were customized for each city, to activations outside on the [concourse] and outside of the venue, like the interactive tour bus that we put together with Interscope and partners like American Express.
An: As we continued putting out singles and videos from the album [before the tour], fans got a better idea of what to wear and how to style themselves, and then they all connected by the time the tour came.
Keshishian: It became a really fun night for fans to get dressed up in creative outfits that Olivia inspired.
Garcia: Olivia has created a very unique vocabulary, and I think that’s why songs like “love is embarrassing” became so large on social media, with people trying to learn the dance from the show.
Keshishian: Her “love is embarrassing” dance went viral, and all these kids were doing the dance with the little “L” on the forehead.
Morgenroth: There was this viral TikTok trend, “Am I Too Old To Be Here?,” that would be used at the shows because there were so many people of different ages attending. And then we have this “Dad Idea, Right?” moment, where the kids get a kick out of how many dads are enjoying the show.
Keshishian: In every city, she wore a different tank top [during the encore] that had these cheeky jokes about the city, like “Phuket, It’s Fine” in Bangkok or “Bad Idea, Innit?” in London.
Picchiottino: That was Olivia’s idea: “How fun would it be to have a new slogan for each city and make each show feel special?”
An: I think for the Livies, these gatherings have become like a ritual. They can scream at the top of their lungs about what’s bothering them and be a little more alternative or punk, but at the same time be feminine and girlie. You just see everything that Olivia stands for being celebrated.
Fans turn out in their GUTS best.
Sami Drasin
Sami Drasin
Keshishian: Before the tour began, it was important to Olivia to add a charitable component and do something that would have a lasting impact after the tour was over. That became the Fund 4 Good, and it was focused on what is important to her, which is helping women and girls. We vetted each organization in every country that Olivia toured in, and we wanted to have a very localized impact because obviously women in different countries have different needs.
Rodrigo: Being on tour [so soon] after Roe v. Wade got overturned made activism very important — especially considering I performed in many states that currently have abortion bans in place, I wanted to do everything I could to support organizations in each territory that are doing essential work in providing access to health care and other human rights.
Morgenroth: We’ve tied it beyond the tour already — she did an Erewhon smoothie, and all of the proceeds from her side were given to the fund. This is something that is going to be part of everything from here on out.
Keshishian: Olivia performed in the Philippines for the first time in October — which was a dream of hers, as a Filipino American — and she wanted to do it as a gift, so all net proceeds will go to a local charity [women’s health care organization Jhpiego] through the Fund 4 Good.
Rodrigo: Through the fund, I’ve met lots of incredible people who are making such positive changes in the world, and I’ve learned so much. I look forward to learning more and continuing to champion causes I care about.
‘She’s Revealing Another Side of Herself’
As Rodrigo wrapped the GUTS 2024 run and prepares for the Oct. 29 release of its Netflix tour film, she has snapped into focus as a new-school arena rock performer with a fastidious streak.
Danter: When you get to rehearsals and everything starts to fall into place, a lot of artists and managers go, “OK, this is the show.” As we got closer to opening night, we were still getting notes from Olivia, Zack and Aleen. It’s that search for perfection, which is refreshing.
Garcia: There was that younger vibe about her on the Sour tour, a little sillier, and on the GUTS tour, she definitely is thinking more and every detail matters more, no matter how microscopic.
Picchiottino: I’ve really enjoyed the process of refining and refining, being so specific about the tour visuals. I think I have over 60 sketches on my iPad, for five looks.
An: You could really feel that she was more confident this go-round because she understood how things worked and knew what conversations to have. She was the boss of this.
Mikou: The evolution from the last tour, it’s almost like she’s revealing another side of herself.
Sami Drasin
Braverman: In a lot of ways, it’s like a throwback rock show. I don’t think a lot of these fans had experienced anything like that.
Keshishian: Most of the band was on the Sour tour, and every member is female or nonbinary. So for all these people watching, to see them rocking out in an arena, I think it’s really powerful.
Deal: She’s very respectful of the younger members of her audience — she knows they’re there, she’s very sweet with them, and she does not talk down to them at all. There are some cusswords and there are some loud guitars, and she expects them to be where she is. And I thought that was very cool.
Keshishian: Regarding the film, there are tens of millions of people that did not get tickets to this show, and we wanted to make sure that all of Olivia’s fans had the ability to see it. So we set up 22 cameras for the last two L.A. shows, and we chose Netflix to be our partner because they have the largest global reach.
Tamaroff: Watching her prove who she is as a global superstar… she’s one of the most talented singer-songwriters on the planet already, but being able to showcase her talent as a performer, hearing people say that this was one of the best nights of their lives, that’s why we all do what we do.
Garcia: With age comes a little bit more pressure, and I think it’s coming from herself: to be better, to figure out the next challenge for herself, to see where she can break through next. She just keeps growing.
Rodrigo: I wanted to make sure that I could still connect with the audience, even in a venue as big as an arena.
Rodrigo will be honored as 2024 Touring Artist of the Year at the Billboard Live Music Summit & Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 14.
This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Clairo apologized to her Canadian fans on Wednesday night (Oct. 23) after informing them that she has been advised to push back three planned shows in Toronto due to exhaustion. “Hi everyone, I’m really sorry to inform you that I will be postponing the next 3 Toronto shows,” she wrote on X about the gigs […]
Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey is gearing up for her annual Christmas Time tour with a new Apple Music exclusive Christmas Time Tour set list playlist featuring a mix of her holiday classics and some of the singer’s most beloved non jingle-jangle hits.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The 20-song roster kicks off with the “Magical Christmas Mix” of “Sugar Plum Fairy,” followed by “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/ Gloria (In Excelsis Deo),” “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “Christmas Time Is in the Air Again,” “Oh Santa!” (feat. Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson) and “Sleigh Ride,” among others.
MC also slipped in a few favorites, including “Emotions,” “Hero,” “It’s Like That,” “Fantasy,” “Always Be My Baby” and “We Belong Together,” ending, of course, with Carey’s titanic holiday No. 1 standard, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
Trending on Billboard
In an accompanying essay, Carey told Apple Music that the touring show’s over-the-top atmosphere will be “festive, celebratory, joyous, happy, jolly, jovial,” though she added that there will also be some reflection in the mix as well. “There will also be poignant moments, because there’s a variety of moods in my songs and at the holidays,” she said.
And while Carey has reminded us that it’s not time yet to bust out the tinsel, the 20-date tour celebrating of the 30th anniversary of her 1994 hit album Merry Christmas will kick off on Nov. 6 in Highland, CA, with stops in Los Angeles, Atlanta, D.C. and Boston before wrapping up on Dec. 17 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Arena.
Click here to listen to Carey’s Christmas Time Set List.
Zayn Malik has rescheduled his Stairway to the Sky tour after previously postponing the U.S. dates of the outing following the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne. Zayn will now pick up the dates beginning with a Jan. 21 show at the Anthem in Washington, D.C., followed by two gigs at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, as well as dates in Los Angeles and Las Vegas before winding down with a Feb. 3 concert at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The U.S. leg of what was to be Malik’s first-ever headlining tour — in support of his fourth solo album, Room Under the Stairs — was originally scheduled to take place in October and November of this year. But on Saturday, the “Pillowtalk” singer told fans that he was delaying the U.S. run that was originally scheduled to launch on Wednesday (Oct. 23) in San Francisco.
Trending on Billboard
“Given the heartbreaking loss experienced this week, I’ve made the decision to postpone the US leg of the STAIRWAY TO THE SKY Tour,” Malik wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The dates are being rescheduled for January and I’ll post them as soon as it’s all set in the next few days. Your tickets will remain valid for the new dates. Love you all and thank you for your understanding.”
Malik is still slated to hit the road in the U.K. next month, kicking off with a pair of shows on Nov. 20-21 at the O2 Academy Edinburgh, followed by stops in Leeds, Manchester, London, Wolverhampton and Newcastle Upon Tyne.
The postponement of the U.S. dates came after Payne’s death in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Oct. 16 at age 31 following a fall from the balcony of his hotel room. An initial toxicology report found that Payne had a number of drugs in his body at the time of death, including a recreational drug referred to as “pink cocaine,” a mixture that often contains ketamine combined with MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, opioids and/or psychoactive substances.
Payne had openly discussed his struggles with addiction in the past. In May 2023, he celebrated 100 days of sobriety. “I feel really, really good, and support from the fans and everything has been really, really good. So, I’m super happy,” he said at the time. The loss has hit Directioners and fellow artists hard, perhaps none so much as Payne’s former bandmates in 1D, who issued both a group statement, as well as their own individual comments about their late brother in song.
“I can’t help but think selfishly that there was so many more conversations for us to have in our lives,” Malik wrote in his remembrance alongside a photo of himself laying in Payne’s lap when the two were world-beating teenager pop stars. “I never got to thank you for supporting me through some of the most difficult times in my life. When I was missing home as a 17 yr old kid you would always be there with a positive outlook and reassuring smile and let me know you were my friend and I was loved.”
Click here to see Zayn’s full run of rescheduled U.S. dates.