Pop
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Kylie Minogue’s red-hot moment isn’t cooling off anytime soon.
Australia’s “princess of pop” started her week in Singapore, where she performed for the crowds gathered for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, and fulfilled a lifelong dream when she waved the chequered flag.
Then, on Thursday, Kylie’s name was called out — five times — when the nominations for the 2024 ARIA Awards were announced. Only Royel Otis (with eight) and Dom Dolla (six) collected more nods.
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Next month, the Melbourne-raised pop veteran releases Tension II, Kylie’s 17th studio album and the sequel to her 2023 hit Tension, which led the national charts in the United Kingdom and Australia, and peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200.
Tension II is scheduled to arrive Oct. 18, and is led by “Lights Camera Action,” the lead single due out this Friday, Sept. 27.
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There’s no slowing down for Kylie who, in the early months of 2025, embarks on a global tour.
Choosing which songs to stack in her setlist is a “juggling act,” she tells ABC Breakfast in her homeland. It’s “the hardest part of every tour.”
Of course, Kylie will deliver “the biggest hits and leave some space for some oddities. Not just the same old songs you’ve heard time and time again on tours,” she admits.
The global success of Tension hit “Padam Padam” was both “mind-blowing” and “life-changing,” says Kylie. “I didn’t set out to do that. I just consistently worked and consistently try and keep achieving.”
Tension II has “a similar vibe” to its predecessor, Minogue confesses, and features “a few random collaborations which I’ve really enjoyed,” with The Blessed Madonna, Orville Peck, Bebe Rexha, Tove Lo, and fellow Aussie Sia among them. “You feel like some of the pressure’s off you when you share the load.”
Kylie can apparently do no wrong. Earlier in the year, she scooped the Global Icon Award at the BRIT Awards, becoming just the second woman to win it following Taylor Swift in 2021, and went on to win the Billboard Women in Music Icon Award.
Kylie landed a Grammy Award (best pop dance recording) for “Padam Padam,” completed her inaugural Las Vegas Residency, and signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) for live representation in the U.S. and Canada and acting roles worldwide.
The Tension Tour 2025 is scheduled to kick off Feb. 15 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, following by pan-Asian dates in March, and a trek through the U.K. and Europe in May.
The music of Sophie lives on through her self-titled final album, which surprised dropped late Wednesday.
Released through Future Classic and Transgressive, the posthumous SOPHIE collection is stacked with collaborations with close friends, and houses previously-released cuts “Reason Why” (featuring Kim Petras & BC Kingdom), “Berlin Nightmare” featuring Evita Manji, “One More Time” ft. Popstar, “Exhilarate” ft. Bibi Bourelly, and “My Forever” ft. Cecile Believe.
Hannah Diamond worked with Sophie on the album track “Always and Forever,” recorded in London during the 2020 lockdown. “It ended up being the last ever day that I saw her in person,” Diamond remarks.
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Sophie, an important figure in underground pop and dance music, died the following year, at the age of 34.
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“Our beautiful Sophie passed away this morning after a terrible accident,” read a statement at the time, issued by Future Classic. “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell.”
Born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Sophie Xeon inherited an interest in dance and electronic music from their father, and started recording their own music at a young age. In the early ’10s, they struck up an association with a few artists on the PC Music label, soon to be at the experimental pop vanguard, and released their debut single “Nothing More to Say” in 2013.
Over the next decade, Sophie appeared on and helmed a slew of recordings, including 2017’s “It’s Okay to Cry,” ultimately named by Billboard as one of the best songs of the year.
Following Sophie’s passing, pop cult favorite Rina Sawayama remembered the lateartist as “the sweetest – an icon and a visionary,” adding, “the world and our community has lost a beautiful soul.”
SOPHIE is released as a double vinyl, with each side representing a different section of the album. The wax comes in standard black as well as translucent neon pink, clear, and silver and is available to order here.
Stream SOPHIE in full below.
Is this your card? Halsey just unveiled the latest piece of the puzzle for her upcoming album The Great Impersonator, sharing the track list with a clever video posted to the singer/songwriter’s socials Wednesday (Sept. 25). The clip shows a set of hands holding a deck of cards, deftly holding them up one by one […]
A-ha’s chart-topping hit, “Take on Me” reached two billion YouTube views this week, marking the first song released in that decade to achieve this milestone. The Norwegian trio — Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, who were 22, 26 and 24, respectively at the time — released their debut album, Hunting High and Low, in […]
Keith Urban proved he’s a man of many talents on Tuesday night’s (Sept. 24) Tonight Show, when host Jimmy Fallon asked him to do an impromptu cover of any pop song that came to mind. After recalling how he got a ukulele as a kid from his parents before switching to guitar at 6, Urban recounted his youthful talent show adventures — including a very embarrassing picture of one of his award-winning performances — as well as a short teenage stint in the metal band Fractured Mirror. Given his eclectic musical background and his penchant for reimagining chart-topping hits during shows, Fallon questioned how Urban chooses which pop songs to cover during his concerts.
“Just [a] well-written song,” Urban said of how he chose his live takes on songs by Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. “Taylor songs are well-written, the bones are good, they’re well written, so you can do them in any form. You can do any well-written song in almost any style,” he added. When Fallon asked if any song was stuck in Urban’d head that moment, the singer suggested Sabrina Carpenter’s summer smash “Espresso,” but do it on banjo.
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So, of course, despite seemingly not having tried that combo before, Fallon surprised Urban by pulling a beautiful six-string banjo out from behind his desk, which Urban proceeded to expertly pick as he sang the song’s indelible chorus while the studio audience clapped along in time.
Urban also had a chuckle with Fallon over a prank they pulled on the singer’s wife, actress Nicole Kidman, at the Met Gala in May.
“I was sitting next to Nic, and she had her hand on mine, and she was talking to somebody,” Urban explained. “And Jimmy came over and talked to me, and I say, ‘Jump in the seat, Jimmy, and just, like, slide your hand in under mine, so she’s holding your hand. She won’t know.’” So Fallon — who will never forget that time Kidman revealed in 2015 that she used to have a crush on him and that he missed his shot at a date with her — slid into Urban’s spot for the switcheroo that totally caught The Perfect Couple star off her game.
“So Jimmy slides in, so Nic’s got his hand like this,” Urban said as the host put his hand over the singer’s hand. “This is Nic and him.” Urban then described walking around to the other side of the table and waving at his surprised wife. “And she was like, ‘What’s going on?!’” Fallon said in his best shocked Kidman voice. “She’s like ‘What?! Jimmy, don’t do that!’”
During the chat, Urban also talked about his new record, High, and said he made a completely different LP called 615 that he had ready to go last year before scrapping it entirely because it didn’t feel quite right before returning later in the show to play the High single “Chuck Taylors.”
Watch Urban on the Tonight Show below.
Chappell Roan wants you to remember not to believe everything that you read. After receiving some backlash for a recent interview in which she said she doesn’t “feel pressured to endorse someone” in November’s presidential election after lamenting “problems on both sides,” Roan took to TikTok on Tuesday (Sept. 24) to issue a clarification.
“I have encouraged people to use critical thinking skills, learn about what they’re voting for, learn about who they’re voting for, and ask questions and it’s being completely taken out of context, per usual,” she said in the two-and-a-half minute clip that found the typically glammed-up singer addressing the camera in a sweatshirt and sans makeup.
“There is nuance to what I say in interviews and I think it’s important that people use critical thinking. I think it’s important for me to question authority and question world leaders and question myself, question my algorithm, question if some person that tweeted something about someone else is even true,” Roan, 26, continued.
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“It’s important to question because that’s how I think we move forward. This is my third election in voting and the world is changing so rapidly and I want to be part of the generation that changes things for good because we need it. If you come to my shows, if you read my full interviews, if you literally know anything about me and for what I stand for, you know that this is not lip service, this is not virtue signaling, that my actions have always paved the way for my project and the people who really know me. Actions speak louder than words and actions speak louder than an endorsement,” she said, pausing to let that thought sink in.
She then provided what she said was the full context of what she said in a recent profile in The Guardian, in which she was also quoted telling fans, “I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.” The original comments drew backslash from some on social media who had expected the longtime advocate for trans rights and the LGBTQ+ community to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — a vocal LGBTQ+ rights advocate — over former President Donald Trump, who has made repeated false claims about gender-affirming surgery for teens and called for removing federal protections based on gender identity.
“‘I have so many issues with our government in every way,’” she said in the TikTok video, reading from her full Guardian quote. “‘There are so many things that I would want to change so feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides and I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.’”
She continued reading from the article, “The change she wants to see in the US in this election year, she says instantly, is trans rights. They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period.’”
“So, hear it from my mouth if you’re still wondering,” Roan concluded. “No, I’m not voting for Trump and yes, I will always question those in power and those making decisions over other people and I will stand up for what’s right and what I believe in and it’s always at the forefront of my project and I’m sorry that you fell for the clickbait.”
In a Rolling Stone interview in August, Roan encouraged her fans to make their voices heard. “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community,” she said. “My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee. I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historic time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”
The clarification seemed to clear up any question of where Roan stands on the critical issues in the Nov. 5 contest between Harris and twice-impeached convicted felon Trump, though it did not include a specific endorsement of Harris, who has been using Roan’s song “Femininomenon” in her campaign.
Watch Roan’s full statement below.
Leave it to Lady Gaga to give one of the most famous faces in the world a maniacal makeover. On Wednesday morning (Sept. 25), the singer released a tantalizing 80-second preview of one of the songs from her surprise Joker: Folie à Deux companion album, Harlequin. “The Joker,” a rock-edged track that seems to be co-star Joaquin Phoenix’s theme song is accompanied by a video in which Gaga’s Harley Quinn takes a midnight stroll through Paris’ Louvre Museum for a bout of midnight mischief.
“There’s always a joker in the pack/ There’s always a lonely clown,” Gaga sings over the sound of subtle guitar as she meanders by the signature IM Pei-designed glass pyramid and dances down the steps with the Winged Victory of Samothrace sculpture in the background. Wearing a modest prairie dress, low-top Chuck Taylor gym shoes and polka dot tights, her hair colored red, Gaga (as Quinn), sings, “The poor laughing fool falls on his back/And everyone loves when he’s down/There’s always a funny man in the game/ But he’s only funny by mistake,” a succinct summary of tragic anti-hero Jack Oswald White’s killer clown persona.
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With the whole place to herself at night, Gaga/Quinn takes aim with her finger guns and blasts away at priceless artworks as the song’s tempo and intensity rise to match her character’s sinister plans. “And everyone laughs at him, just the same/ They don’t see his lonely heart break,” she sings as her voice reaches a crescendo and Quinn ekes out a crooked smile and wave while taking in the Mona Lisa.
With the electric guitars cranking up and drums kicking in, Gaga wails, “They don’t care as long as there is a jester/ Just a fool, as foolish as he can be/ There’s always a joker/ That’s the rule, but fate is the hand that I see/ The Joker is meeeee!!” as Harley pulls out a tube of lipstick and gives the most iconic painting of a smiling woman a new, Joker-worthy blood red Chelsea grin.
Satisfied with her work, Gaga walks away, her eye makeup starting to melt across her face as the guitars get louder and she repeats “the Joker is me,” while strutting through the darkened Louvre galleries. “There’s always a joker,” Gaga captioned the video preview, along with hashtags for the museum, the movie and the upcoming “Figures du Fou” exhibit at the Louvre. Not for nothing, the august institution is clearly all-in on the movie promo, as it changed the official image on its X account to the Joker-ized Mona Lisa lipstick smile.
The Figures Du Fou exhibition (which translates to Figures of the Fool), opens on Oct. 16 and is described as examining, “the omnipresence of fools in Western art and culture at the end of the Middle Ages, and attempts to parse the meaning of these figures, who would seem to play a key role in the advent of modernity. The fool may make us laugh, with his abundance of frivolous antics, but he also harbours a wealth of hidden facets of an erotic, scatological, tragic or violent nature. Capable of the best and of the worst, the fool entertains, warns or denounces; he turns societal values on their head and may even overthrow the established order.”
In other words, the Joker.
On Tuesday, Gaga surprised Little Monsters when she announced that the Harlequin album will drop on Friday (Sept. 27). On the LP’s cover, Gaga is depicted standing in a shower fully clothed, with the water causing her clown makeup to drip down her face as it does as the end of “The Joker” video.
On the back of a milk carton Gaga appeared to preview the 13-song album’s track list, which features some recognizable standards, including “Get Happy,” “That’s Entertainment,” “Oh When the Saints” and “World on a String.”
Gaga recently revealed that her upcoming, untitled seventh studio album is due out in February, with a lead single slated to drop next month. Joker: Folie à Deux is due in theaters on Oct. 4.
Watch “The Joker” preview below.
Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall has shared her latest solo song “Midnight Cowboy”, co-written with RAYE.
The new song follows JADE’s debut solo single “Angel Of My Dreams” which was released on RCA in July. The track hit No.7 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Charts upon release and has accumulated 40 million streams to date.
“Midnight Cowboy” features a spoken-word interlude by Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa and includes references to former British Vogue editor Edward Enniful in its lyrics: “I’m the editor, call me Mr Enninful”
Speaking about the song, which was written in 2022, Thirlwall said: “Midnight Cowboy” is a sultry, understated bass heavy bop about owning your sexuality and your talents that come with it.”
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Upon the release of “Angel Of My Dreams”, JADE became the final member of Little Mix to embark on a solo career. In 2021 following a decade of performing and touring, the group, composed of Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and formerly Jesy Nelson, called a hiatus to pursue new projects.
The British group have released six studio albums, most recently 2020’s Confetti, and broke various records both in the U.K. and US charts. The band’s 2012 debut album DNA remains the highest chart entry for a debut album by a U.K. girl group on the Billboard 200. Five of their songs have charted at No.1 in the U.K. Singles Charts and nineteen Top 10s.
Speaking to Billboard earlier this year, Thirlwall discussed the decision to go solo after years in a group. “This is essentially me starting again, so I don’t even know what it feels like fame-wise on my own. I’m really grateful I started this journey now at my age, because I’m just a lot more level-headed. I couldn’t be a solo artist 10 years ago.”
She also discussed the origins of her debut solo single, which samples Sandie Shaw’s 1967 song “Puppet on a String”.
“Angel of My Dreams” is about my love-hate relationship with the music industry, which I’ve been a part of for quite some time,” she told Billboard’s Megan Mahar. “I have a lot to say about that, good and bad. ‘Angel of My Dreams’ is like a love letter to the Industry and how obsessed I am with it and how much I love it, but with that comes some trials and tribulations.”
Katy Perry will visit both coasts when she embarks on a tour of Australia next year.
The U.S. pop superstar’s The Lifetimes Tour will swing into Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on June 9, 2025, following by arena dates in Melbourne, Brisbane and wrapping up at Perth’s RAC Arena.
Spanning five dates, the Australia trek is Perry’s first in six years. Expect her to “perform all the hits,” reps say, plus new cuts from her seventh and latest album, 143 (via EMI), which dropped last Friday. “It’s a party and you’re all invited! Stoked to see you in June 2025. Get ready for a high energy singalong to alllllll your faves,” says Katy. 143 is the followup to 2020’s Smile, which peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart.
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The “Fireworks” singer is currently in Australia as the headline act for the pre-game entertainment at the 2024 AFL Grand Final, to be contested by Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground this Saturday, Sept. 28.
“I am delighted to announce that Katy Perry, one of the most in-demand global superstars of all time, is heading back to tour Australia in June, 2025,” comments Paul Dainty AO, president and CEO of TEG Dainty. “Few musical artists achieve the kind of career Katy has earned. Fans who attended her previous shows in this country already know this upcoming tour will be unmissable.”
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TEG DAINTY, a division of TEG, is producing The Lifetimes Tour presented by Snaffle.
The general onsale will kick off 10am (local time) on Friday, Oct. 4 from ticketek.com.au.
Katy Perry 2025 The Lifetimes Tour – Australian Tour DatesJune 9 — Qudos Bank Arena, SydneyJune 12 — Rod Laver Arena, MelbourneJune 13 — Rod Laver Arena, MelbourneJune 17 — Brisbane Entertainment CentreJune 22 — RAC Arena, Perth
Billie Eilish is further distinguishing herself as one of the most environmentally forward thinking artists in music through a new partnership with Google Maps.
As part of Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, which launches Sept. 29 in Quebec City, fans can use Google Maps to find eco-friendly transportation and plant-based food options in many of the places the 43-city world tour is hitting.
Through Maps, Eilish will offer tips for fans looking for sustainable travel options like fuel efficient routes, walking, bike-sharing and public transportation. In each city, Google Maps will offer a walking or public transit route if it’s as convenient and fast as driving in each tour stop city.
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Eilish will also offer recommendations on where fans can grab a plant-based meal in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Fans can simply search for one of these tour cities in Maps and scroll down to find Eilish’s picks.
“I am so excited to see you all at my shows over the coming months, and for us to work together in reducing our collective footprint when it comes to transportation and what we eat,” Eilish says in a statement. “Every action matters, no matter how big or small, and together we can truly begin to heal our beautiful planet. Thanks to Google Maps, everyone will have easy access to resources that will help you make great sustainable choices when you come to my shows. Thank you for caring. See you soon!”
In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Eilish and her mom Maggie Baird, the founder of Support + Feed, which encourages access to plant-based foods, spoke about incorporating sustainability measures into Eilish’s career.
“It’s a never-ending f–king fight,” Eilish said. “As we all know, it’s pretty impossible to force someone to care. All you can do is express and explain your beliefs, but a lot of people don’t really understand the severity of the climate [crisis]. And if they do, they’re like, ‘Well, what’s the point? We’re all going to die anyway.’ Believe me, I feel that way too. But ‘what’s the point’ goes both ways: ‘What’s the point? I can do whatever I want. We’re all going to die anyway.’ Or, ‘What’s the point? I might as well do the right thing while I’m here.’ That’s my view.”