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Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart for the first time as the set jumps from No. 12 to No. 1 on the Aug. 24-dated list. The album sold 8,500 copies on vinyl in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 15, according to […]
Twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne was done making her way through Nashville’s Music Row system. She’d released her first album, Sunrise, a country project produced by Bob Montgomery and Billy Sherrill, in 1989. Her sophomore album, Tough All Over, spurred top 30 Country Airplay singles with the title track and “I’ll Lie Myself to Sleep.” Lynne began contributing writing on her fourth and fifth albums, but longed for creative freedom.
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Then, she made the career-shifting decision to move from Nashville to California, crafting her liberating 2000 project I Am Shelby Lynne which perhaps served as her true debut. The album marked her foray from country into soul and R&B, with her commanding vocal and writing perspectives shining through every track. I Am propelled her to win new artist of the year at the 2001 Grammys, and marked her first project to debut on the Billboard 200.
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This year sees the celebration of I Am Shelby Lynne’s silver anniversary, celebrated through the re-release of the project’s vinyl and digital versions. As her decampment from Nashville to California propelled her breakthrough those years ago, Lynne’s return to Music City two years ago has heralded her latest reinvention — as she also releases her ninth studio album, Consequences of the Crown, which arrived Aug. 16 via Monument Records. The album marks her first since 2021’s The Servant.
After living in California for the better part of three decades, Lynne relocated back to Nashville to live closer to her sister, fellow singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, and to her nephew.
“I just wanted to get back to the South after all that time,” Lynne tells Billboard, noting songwriting — not recording — was her primary goal. “My original plan was to scooch into Nashville real quiet and find me some folks to write some songs.”
But Nashville’s creative community ultimately had other plans. Her friend Waylon Payne offered to introduce her back into Nashville’s writing circles. The first person Payne brought over was Ashley Monroe. “We were instantly drawn to each other and actually wrote a couple of songs on the first day,” Lynne recalls.
From there, her community of collaborators kept expanding, with Monroe bringing her Pistol Annies cohorts Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert — and soon, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild was brought into the fold. It was Fairchild who set Consequences of the Crown into motion, first becoming Lynne’s manager and then encouraging her to record the album and landing Lynne a deal with Monument Records.
“She’s just an amazing woman,” Lynne shares. “Karen said, ‘Well, we need a new record from you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no. I think that part of my career… I think I’m done. I just want to write songs.’ But she made some calls and Katie McCartney at Monument [Records] said, ‘Let’s make a record.’ So here I am.”
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Lynne began those writing sessions last Spring, with the deal with Monument happening in August. When it came time to record the album, the all-woman creative collective naturally fell together: Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe and engineer Gena Johnson.
“We found ourselves in there together, and we just decided we’d go four ways on this thing,” Lynne says. “We met when the four of us could meet, because we found that we would never work without the four of us together, because it just didn’t feel right. The songs we were writing were good songs. I’d look around my living room and see these amazing, talented people. I felt loved and kind of taken in.”
The album’s pop-fused, yet stripped-back instrumentation, features Lynne not only on vocals, but on bass, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, and drums. Monroe played a range of instruments including keys, piano, organ and acoustic guitar, while Fairchild contributed percussion and background vocals, with Johnson also handling percussion and programming. Also on the project is Eleonore Denig on strings, while Lynne’s sister Moorer offers background vocals.
Monroe is a co-writer on all but one of the songs on the album, with Fairchild contributing to five of the songs. Other writer credits scattered throughout the project include Payne (“Keep the Light On”) and Presley (“Keep the Light On,” “Over and Over”), as well as Meg McRee, Carter Faith and Jedd Hughes.
In the process, Lynne found a camaraderie and safe space for free-flowing collaboration and emotional excavation. Music led the way in the studio, leaving room for unexpected twists and turns, spoken-word moments, vocal howls and sonic shifts. The new album also nods to the work of I Am Shelby Lynne, as “But I Ain’t” interpolates “Dreamsome” from that seminal album — another mark of that impulsive studio vibe.
“When I’m on the mic and I’m hearing the music, letting things happen, it just kind of fell down because it was so real and we had to keep it,” Lynne says.
The album opens with “Truth We Know,” which Lynne calls “a sketch of words that I had written down right in the middle of my heart breaking.” Songs including “Shattered,” “Consequences” and “Over and Over” offer up the nuanced process of navigating a breakup and the work of healing and moving on.
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“It was a little bit devastating for me, and I was in a sad kind of a way,” Lynne says. “These songs are little chapters of the pain I was going through when I was breaking up with somebody, and I compare it to all of my crappy relationships, but they can fit in through all of the broken hearts that we’ve had.”
The Nashville Lynne has returned to has both changed and stayed the same. It’s notable that in that time, the Nashville country music scene has moved from the height of the “bro country” era dominated by hip-hop-inflected country songs recorded by white males, and the spark of “Tomatogate” that continues to see women artists fighting for a precious few slots on male-dominated mainstream country radio. Currently, traditional-leaning artists including Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson are making waves, while as country audiences take to streaming, Americana and folk-oriented artists such as Zach Bryan, The Red Clay Strays, Tyler Childers and Allison Russell are surging, and Shaboozey’s genre-blending anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is dominating.
“Of course, Nashville’s grown into this huge city, so that’s different,” Lynne says of the changes she’s seen in Music City. “But the good old boy network still runs — it’s just another set of boys. So that exists.
However, Lynne, who is gay, also acknowledges that Nashville has changed in other important ways: “How can I put it? Queers have come in and we just f—king run everything. And so, Nashville has had to embrace all of the changes — and look at this eclectic group of people we have, like Allison Russell, Fancy Haygood… people that are saying, ‘I’m doing this.’
“I’m proud of musicians just taking over and saying, ‘F—k you. This is who I am. I’m country. Kiss my a–,’” she continues. “I don’t think genre really matters anymore, because everybody’s doing exactly whatever in the hell they want to do, musically. I love the variety, and the mixed bag of what country music truly is — I don’t listen to mainstream music much, but I guess they’re Americana artists.”
Consequences also serves as a potent reminder of Lynne’s own trailblazing, genre-blending ways, as she melded different styles long before it was the “in” thing to do — though she’s quick to recognize that fearless spirit in others, such as Beyoncé. Lynne is a fan of Beyoncé’s country-influenced Cowboy Carter, a project she calls “well done and brilliant. I couldn’t wait until it came out because I love her and I said, ‘This is not just a country album, but it’s an album for the country.’ It’s an uplifting, creative experience.”
Ahead, Lynne has select shows, including what is sure to be a homecoming of sorts at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 26. But for now, she’s celebrating the creative community that has formed around her, as she’s open to exploration on her next ventures.
“I’m still kind of blown away that everything happened the way it did, because it’s just proof that you don’t need to plan everything — just get out of the way,” she says.
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Suki Waterhouse‘s career came full circle Saturday (Aug. 17), when she opened for the Eras Tour in London after years of being a fan — and good friend — of Taylor Swift‘s.
And the next day, the Daisy Jones and the Six alum reflected on the surreal experience, sharing a backstage photo she snapped with the 14-time Grammy winner on Instagram. “The last time I was at Wembley I was dancing my a– off at the Reputation tour!” Waterhouse wrote. “Never did I think the next time I’d be here would be opening for my favourite artist with my friends and family in the crowd 🥹”
“Thank you @taylorswift for this once in a lifetime opportunity to perform in my beloved London and for the unwavering support in my own journey as an artist,” the English musician continued. “You are the world’s biggest and brightest star, I love you so much.”
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Waterhouse also shared photos of her performing on the massive Wembley stage, plus a video of Swift talking to the crowd after the opener’s set. “I’ve been such a fan of her music for so long — she absolutely crushed it,” the “Anti-Hero” singer says, asking the tens of thousands of fans in the audience to “give it up” for her friend.
At the end of her carousel of pictures, Waterhouse added a throwback photo of her wearing a T-shirt printed with Swift’s 1989 album cover. “My nervous system will never be the same after last night,” she concluded. “Someone go tell this girl on the last slide she just opened for ERAS BABY!!! ❤️”
The “Good Looking” singer was one of five new artists added to the list of Wembley Eras Tour openers earlier this month, along with Sofia Isella and Holly Humberstone — who also performed over the weekend — as well as Maisie Peters and Raye, who will go on Aug. 19 and 20, respectively. Paramore has also been a mainstay on the European leg of Swift’s trek, taking the stage in between Waterhouse and the “Karma” artist Saturday.
“Did you guys see Suki earlier?” frontwoman Hayley Williams asked during the band’s set, before introducing their Twilight soundtrack hit “Decode” with a nod to Waterhouse’s partner, Robert Pattinson, who starred in the vampy franchise years before welcoming a baby with the model in March.
“I would like to dedicate this next song to Mr. Waterhouse,” she told the crowd. “This is the skin of a killer, Bella … This is for you, Robert.”
Since releasing her hit album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess back in September, Chappell Roan has seen a lot of rise and almost no fall. Now, she’s ready to talk about everything that comes with that.
For Interview Magazine‘s new cover story, Roan sat down with Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang to get real about her rapid ascent in the modern pop space — one that has seen seven of her songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 while her album recently hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
While Roan maintains that she’s glad to see people finally recognizing the hard work she puts in, she can’t help but feel confounded by what’s happened. “This is really weird and really hard,” she explained to Yang. “In the past, honestly, eight weeks, my entire life has changed.”
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With the charts reflecting a lot of Roan’s success, the singer took a moment during the interview to explain her complicated feelings about how that chart success has translated into her career. “I’ve never given a f–k about the charts or being on the radio, but it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before. I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, b—h,’” she said. “My career doesn’t mean anything more now that I have a charting album and song. If anything, I’m just like, ‘F–k you guys for not seeing what actually matters.’ A chart is so fleeting. Everyone leaves the charts.”
Part of what’s made the transition so difficult, she explained, has been watching the conversation around her music become “automatically political because I’m gay.” Looking back at her Governors Ball performance — where Roan spoke out about trans rights and why she declined an invitation from the White House to perform during Pride — Roan said she was inherently nervous to speak so openly about queer issues.
“Gov Ball was really hard. It was hard to be like, ‘I’m going to say something that a lot of my family is going to be like, ‘Wow, you crossed the line,’” she explained. “It’s emotional because I believe what I said, and what’s sad is that me believing in who I am, and what I stand for, rubs against a lot of my home.”
But Roan also knows that reaching the level of success she has means she now has a significant amount of creative control over the work she does. “I’m just very lucky that I have the leverage to say no and yes,” she told Yang. “I mean, it’s awesome knowing that I have a job … I’ve never been guaranteed money before. That’s the difference. I’ve always been a writer, but I didn’t start making money to pay my rent until last year.”
That leverage means that Roan gets to have a significant hand in how she decides to release her music. With fans wondering when she’ll release new songs — such as her unreleased track “Subway” that she debuted live at Gov Ball — Roan says she knows what release strategy will work best for her career.
“My career has worked because I’ve done it my way, and I’ve not compromised morals and time,” she said. “I have not succumbed to the pressure. Like, ‘B—h! I’m not doing a brand deal if it doesn’t feel right. I don’t care how much you’re paying me.’ That’s why I can sleep at night.”
Before this wildly unpredictable presidential campaign season even kicked off, technology experts issued dire warnings that doctored artificial intelligence images and videos could be used to manipulate voters. That appears to be the case with some seemingly manufactured images shared by three-time White House candidate Donald Trump on Sunday (Aug. 18) on his Truth Social account.
The twice impeached former one-term Republican president re-posted a series of images whose authenticity could not be verified and which appeared to show Taylor Swift fans, as well as the singer herself, throwing in with his campaign. One featured six squares filled with smiling Swifties wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shits with the message “Swifties Turning to Trump After ISIS Foiled Taylor Swift Concert,” a seeming reference to the recently foiled plot to attack Swift’s since-cancelled trio of concerts in Vienna after the discovery of a 19-year-old ISIS-radicalized man’s plan to cause a mass casualty event outside the singer’s Austrian shows.
In another image meant to mirror the iconic “I Want You For U.S. Army” recruiting poster, a user doctored up an image of Swift in a patriotic red, white and blue suit and star-spangled top hat with the message, “Taylor Wants You to Vote For Donald Trump.” The other two pictures featured more images of what are allegedly Swift fans in Trump-boosting gear.
At press time spokespeople for Swift and Trump had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the post, which also featured Trump’s enthusiastic response to the alleged endorsement, “I accept!” According to The Daily Beast, the Swiftie images were first posted to X on Friday and Saturday by a couple of popular right-wing accounts, including one that reportedly mixed the doctored AI images with a real one of a blonde woman wearing a “Swifties For Trump” shirt at a rally. The Sunday Times noted that one of the 25 Truth Social posts featuring the faked images that read “The Swifties for Trump movement is real!” was labelled “satire,” calling into question whether Trump, 78, realized that he was re-posting computer-generated pictures.
Swift has yet to endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential race between convicted felon Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose nomination will be celebrated this week in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Harris was swapped in for President Joe Biden last month and since her sudden elevation to the top spot on the ticket polls have shown the once dead-even race that Trump — now the oldest candidate to ever run for the White House — was winning in several key battleground states shifting slightly in Harris’ favor.
The singer eschewed political endorsements for most of her career, but following Trump’s election in 2016 she endorsed two Democratic candidates in midterm elections in her home state of Tennessee as well as endorsing Biden in 2020. She also took aim at the former Apprentice host during the George Floyd protests in 2020, lambasting Trump’s response to the unrest after earlier saying she was “completely blindsided” by his 2016 victory over former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’???” Swift wrote in reference to a comment from Trump that many took as a veiled threat to protesters who flooded the streets around the nation following the killing of unarmed 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly 10 minutes. “We will vote you out in November.”
Trump, who the Washington Post reported in 2021 had made nearly 31,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency — a rate of 21 claims per day — recently claimed that photos of a massive Harris/Walz rally in Detroit were AI-generated, a falsehood that was quickly disproven by photos and videos taken by reporters and attendees on the ground.
Check out the AI Taylor Swift images below.
Lol, Trump posted a collage of AI generated Taylor Swift fans wearing ‘Swifities for Trump’ T-shits, and wrote “I accept!” as if this were real.I mean…..this is uniquely pathetic, even for Trump. pic.twitter.com/GUVXQLqzYo— Peter Henlein (@SwissWatchGuy) August 18, 2024
Attending your first Taylor Swift show is always a big deal. But for Nobel Peace Prize winner and girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai, seeing an Eras Tour show in London over the weekend was a milestone for much deeper reasons.
The 27-year-old Pakistani activist who has been a vocal advocate for human rights and the education of women and girls for more than a decade posted a moving story on Instagram on Saturday (August 17) describing the emotions she was feeling while attending the show with her husband and some of her oldest friends.
“One of my favorite memories from Swat Valley is a field trip I took in middle school with my best friend, Moniba (second photo, on the left). Giggling, we went to a waterfall hidden away in a lush green mountain. We were so excited because we were finally allowed to go to school again and could be outdoors with our friends, laughing and singing together,” wrote Yousafzai, who grew up in Pakistan under repressive Taliban rule that included bans on music and television, as well as a bar on girls going to school.
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“Having lived through a time where music and art were banned, music felt like a gift,” she continued. “Moniba and I found the highest rock we could, climbed on top of it and announced to all of our classmates and teachers we were going to perform our new favourite song called ‘LOVE STORY.’ We sang with all of our heart, taking in the joy we felt every second. That’s where my Swiftie journey began. It feels magical that my first-ever proper concert would be to see @TaylorSwift, singing along to every song surrounded by friends.”
Yousafzai, 27, whose story became international news when she and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in Oct. 2012 in an assassination attempt, used her post to once again spotlight the repressive nature of Taliban rule and the disturbing backsliding on human rights that she said has occurred over the past few years.
“Three years ago, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. Once again, music no longer plays on the streets, and girls and women are barred from school, work and public life,” Yousafzai said. “In Swat, music made my friends and me feel confident and free. And one day I hope we will live in a world where every girl will be able to enjoy music and live out her wildest dreams. 💖”
In addition to a photo with her husband, Asser Malik, with the packed Wembley Stadium in the background, Yousafzai’s photo roll included the snap with her childhood best friend, another of her making a hand heart and pics of her crew’s friendship bracelets.
Swift is in the midst of a five-night run at London’s Wembley Stadium, with two more shows slated for Monday (August 19) and Tuesday night (August 20). The shows took place after Swift was forced to cancel a planned string of three shows in Vienna due to a terror plot aimed at attacking fans gathered outside the stadium. Two Austrian teenagers have been arrested in the case and a third was detained for questioning.
Check out Malala’s post below.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department reaches a 15th week atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 24) — tying Carole King’s Tapestry for the third-most weeks at No. 1 among albums by women. The latter spent 15 frames at No. 1 in 1971. Only Adele’s 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12) and the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (20 weeks in 1992-93) have more weeks at No. 1 among women.
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Tortured Poets earned 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 15 (down 40%), according to Luminate.
Meanwhile, in a quiet top 10 (where no albums debut for the second time in three weeks), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess hits a new peak for the third week in a row, as it climbs 3-2 with 72,000 units (up 13%), a new weekly high, by units, for the set.
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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 Aug. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 20. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 85,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 15, SEA units comprise 57,000 (down 1%, equaling 74.77 on-demand official streams of the set’s widely available deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 28,000 (down 67%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 5%). On the Top Streaming Albums chart, Poets falls 2-3 and on the Top Album Sales chart, it clocks an eighth week at No. 1.
With Tortured Poets — Swift’s longest-leading album on the Billboard 200 — she adds her 84th 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.)
In the tracking week of Aug. 9-15, news continued to emerge from the foiled terror attack on Swift’s cancelled Eras Tour dates in Vienna. The three Vienna dates (Aug. 8-10) were nixed on Aug. 7 and were the first cancelled shows of the tour, which began on March 17, 2023. On Aug. 15, the tour continued on to its scheduled five-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium (Aug. 15-17, 19-20), for The Eras Tour’s final shows in Europe.
During the last day (Aug. 15) of the chart’s tracking week, Swift introduced one all-new digital album variant of Poets on her official webstore, which was available for six hours and sold for $4.99. The set included the standard album’s 16 songs, plus one exclusive bonus track, “The Prophecy (Long Story Short – Live From Lyon),” recorded during The Eras Tour on June 2.
Also on Aug. 15, for only six hours, Swift’s webstore restocked a $4.99 digital album variant that was available briefly the previous tracking week — it contained the standard album’s 16 songs plus a live version of “thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London),” recorded on June 22 during her The Eras Tour. In the previous tracking week, the same digital album variant was sold in Swift’s webstore, but with one slight difference — the stylization of the letters in the title of bonus live song. It was initially stylized as “thanK you aIMee” (mirroring the studio version on the Poets album), and then on Aug. 15, its stylization changed to “thank You aimEe.” The capitalization of the specific letters in the title — KIM and YE — could reference Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband (and longtime Swift foe), Ye, formerly Kanye West.
In the tracking week ending Aug. 15, Tortured Poets sold nearly 10,000 in digital album downloads across all variants through all sellers (including her webstore, the iTunes Store and others). Even if Poets had not sold a single digital album in the latest tracking week, it still would have been No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The No. 2 title, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, trails Poets by 13,000 units.
As for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, the album reaches a new peak for a third week in a row, as it steps 3-2 with 72,000 equivalent album units earned (its best week by units earned; up 13%). In the last 10 weeks, the album has steadily inched its way up the list. It broke into the top 10 on the June 22-dated chart, rising 12-10. It has since moved 8-6-5-5-7-8-4-3-2.
The 3-2 ascent for Rise reflects the tracking week that contained a buzzy festival performance from Roan — her Aug. 11 gig at Outside Lands in San Francisco. The latter generated a quasi-viral moment where she chastised the VIP section for not singing along to the album’s “Hot To Go!”
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 4-3 on the latest Billboard 200 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). It also claims a ninth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft steps 5-4 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 (up 1%), while Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene climbs 7-5 with 48,000 (though down 6%).
Charli XCX’s Brat is a non-mover at No. 6 (47,000; down 16%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season steps 9-7 (just over 38,000; up 3%); Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 8 (38,000; up 2%); Twisters: The Album rises 10-9 (34,000; down 7%); and Zach Bryan’s self-titled chart-topper returns to the top 10, climbing 12-10 (nearly 34,000; up 6%).
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.
Hayley Williams showed vampire love for Robert Pattinson from the stage at Wembley Stadium in London.
During Paramore‘s opening set at Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour on Saturday (Aug. 17), Williams gave a shout-out to fellow support act Suki Waterhouse’s Twilight-starring fiancé and performed the band’s 2008 track “Decode.”
“Suki killed it earlier. But I would like to dedicate this next song to Mr. Waterhouse,” Williams is heard telling the crowd in a fan-captured clip on X (formerly Twitter). “He has the skin of a killer, Bella. It’s for you, Robert.”
“Decode” was featured on the teen vampire romances soundtrack, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The Grammy-nominated song — which also appeared on Paramore’s third album, Brand New Eyes, in 2009 — reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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It’s not clear if the 38-year-old actor, who shares a daughter with Waterhouse, was in attendance at Saturday night’s concert. The couple began dating in 2018 and got engaged in late 2023. Swift announced Waterhouse as one of her Eras Tour openers in London earlier this month.
“It feels like an honour to simply exist at the same time as @taylorswift, let alone be an opener for her on the biggest and best tour ever,” Waterhouse, who is close friends with Swift, wrote after the announcement. “A dream come true that I never want to wake up from. Playing at wembley stadium in my hometown!!”
Paramore’s performance of “Decode” wasn’t the only standout moment at Saturday’s Eras Tour stop. During the show, Swift delivered the tour’s live debut of Reputation‘s “I Did Something Bad” during the acoustic section of the show.
“The whole tour I’ve done 100s of songs, but I’ve not done one of my favorite ones,” teased Swift, guitar in hand in front of 92,000 people, “because I was waiting for the right crowd.”
The pop superstar’s surprise songs set also featured a piano mashup that pulled at the heartstrings: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” from The Tortured Poets Department, and “Coney Island,” from Evermore.
Swift has two more Wembley shows (Aug. 19-20) before wrapping her run of London tour dates.
Taylor Swift did not announce Reputation (Taylor’s Version) Saturday night, but she did finally perform the album’s “I Did Something Bad” on The Eras Tour. At her Aug. 17 show, the song — a personal favorite, Swift said — got its tour debut during the acoustic set at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“The whole tour I’ve done 100s of songs, but I’ve not done one of my favorite ones,” teased Swift, guitar in hand in front of 92,000 people, “because I was waiting for the right crowd.”
And then came “I Did Something Bad” for the first time in 2024 — a sharp, acoustic version of one of Reputation‘s big pop pillars.
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Swift’s Eras rendition of the song still was a thrill, building up to a bridge that had her scream-singing the last “Light me up!”
Of course, it was a thrill to Swifties not just in a musical sense, but in getting hopes high that Swift’s much-anticipated Reputation (Taylor’s Version) might be this-much-closer to materializing.
With only two re-recorded album releases remaining in Swift’s queue, Reputation and her self-titled debut, and with the tip last December that Rep‘s previously unheard vault tracks are “fire” (it’s what Swift said), playing a Rep rarity, which many fans guessed would be saved to align with an album announcement, is an interesting choice. “I Did Something Bad” hasn’t been performed live by Swift since 2018.
Swiftstorians might recall that it was almost exactly seven years ago, on Aug. 18, 2017, when Swift cryptically went dark on socials ahead of the original Reputation album’s announcement. Without explanation, on Aug. 21, 2017, one post showed up on her feed: the first slither of the now-iconic snake imagery associated with her sixth studio album.
“I DID SOMETHING BAD” surfaced as a trending topic on social media into the late hours of Saturday, with fan memes aplenty. (Scroll through them below.)
In Saturday night’s acoustic set, she also played a piano mashup that pulled at the heartstrings: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” from The Tortured Poets Department, and “Coney Island,” from Evermore. Swift has two more Wembley shows before wrapping her run of London tour dates.
Keep track of all of the surprise songs performed on The Eras Tour on Billboard‘s full list, after you watch “I Did Something Bad” and scroll through the general reaction Swifties had online.
TOMORROW IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF WHEN TAYLOR BLACKED OUT HER SOCIAL MEDIA BEFORE REPUTATION AND SHE ALSO SANG I DID SOMETHING BAD TODAY??!!! pic.twitter.com/af2GheLwf4— veronica⸆⸉ (@thisisvertrying) August 17, 2024
Taylor Swift is praising Post Malone following his new album release.
The 34-year-old pop superstar took to her Instagram Story on Saturday (Aug. 17) to gush over the “Sunflower” singer’s country debut, F-1 Trillion, which dropped on Friday.
“Was lucky enough to hear this amazing music on set of the ‘fortnight’ video when Austin played it for me,” Swift captioned an image of herself on set with Malone, 29. She added, “It’s incredible how versatile his artistry is. And just the most down to earth guy alive.”
The “Anti-Hero” hitmaker’s post also included a link to stream F-1 Trillion.
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Malone has spent months in Nashville, writing and collaborating with Music City’s top country artists and songwriters in crafting the new set. He teamed with Morgan Wallen for the six-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “I Had Some Help,” and his collaboration with Blake Shelton, “Pour Me a Drink,” is at No. 14 on the Country Airplay chart.
F-1 Trillion also features collaborations with Luke Combs, Dolly Parton, Jelly Roll, Tim McGraw, Ernest, Hank Williams Jr., Lainey Wilson, Brad Paisley, Sierra Ferrell, HARDY and Chris Stapleton.
Earlier this year, Swift teamed up with Malone on “Fortnight,” the lead single from her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department. The track spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May.
Malone also joined Swift for the trippy music video of “Fortnight.” The visual features Post’s tattoos on Taylor’s face as she appears to wipe her face clean, only to reveal a face full of ink instead. In a series of flashback scenes, both of the musicians are fresh-faced, as Swift runs into the arms of a tattoo-free Malone.
See Swift’s post about Malone’s F-1 Trillion album on her Instagram Story here.