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NCT Dream announced Tuesday (March 7) that they’re heading Stateside for their first headlining tour of the U.S.
The seven-date U.S. leg of The Dream Show2: In A DREAM Tour is slated to begin April 5 with a show at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., followed by stops in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas. From there, the K-pop idols will head to the West Coast, where they’ll play the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., before finishing up the tour April 21 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
NCTzens will be able to purchase tickets for all seven dates starting this Friday (March 10) at 4 p.m. local time via either Ticketmaster or AXS.
The group is currently in Jakarta, Indonesia, where they played three back-to-back shows at the Indonesia Convention Center as part of the tour’s Asia leg. Next they’re set to make stops in Bangkok, Thailand and Hong Kong before jetting to Europe to add London, Paris and Berlin to the itinerary.
In December, the NCT subgroup released their holiday single “Candy,” updating H.O.T.’s classic 1996 K-pop track for the 21st century. (The ’90s act is largely credited with establishing the boy-band blueprint as South Korea’s first “idol” group.)
Along with the single, NCT Dream dropped their special winter album of the same name featuring tracks like “Graduation,” “Tangerine Love (Forever)” and “Take My Breath.” The release served as the septet’s follow-up to their 2022 album Glitch Mode, which was repackaged and reissued last May as Beatbox.
Check out NCT Dream’s complete list of U.S. dates below.
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Gigi Hadid opened up in a new interview over the weekend about the realities of coparenting daughter Khai with Zayn Malik.
In a sit-down published in The Sunday Times March 5, the supermodel said she’s able to balance work and motherhood by scheduling modeling commitments “when Khai is with her dad.”
Though she didn’t mention Zayn by name, Hadid made it clear that successful co-parenting remains a top priority for her, even if she and the former One Direction-er are no longer linked romantically. “That she can be with both parents makes me very happy,” she told the U.K. outlet of her 2-year-old daughter’s relationship with her famous dad.
Hadid and Zayn previously dated off and on starting in 2015, with the model memorably starring in the music video for Zayn’s debut solo single, “Pillowtalk.” They later appeared on the cover of Vogue together in August 2017, nearly three years before Hadid announced she was pregnant in the spring of 2020. Khai was born the following September, but the couple’s relationship ended shortly after the little one’s first birthday in October 2021, when Zayn was reportedly involved in an altercation with Gigi’s mom, Yolanda Hadid.
The singer pleaded no contest to four charges of harassment against the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, and was ultimately ordered to complete anger management and domestic violence programs while serving 360 days of probation.
In January, Zayn — who’s currently working on his fourth solo album — signed with UTA for representation across music, film and television and other areas.
Just three more sleeps until Miley Cyrus drops her anticipated eighth studio album, Endless Summer Vacation. She also revealed on Tuesday morning (March 7) that we will get the video for her song “River” on Friday (March 10) as well, previewing the visual in a 13-second teaser that begged more questions than it answered.
The moody black and white with the first images fro the video for “River” opens with Cyrus in fuzzy focus, her hair windblown, as stabbing guitars and triumphant keyboards swell to introduce the song’s title in a screen-filling, blocky, font.
Miley didn’t offer up much more information on the track other than to confirm that the visual is due out on Friday. But on Monday she explained the logic behind the formatting of the collection, which she said is divided into “AM and PM” moods that represent two distinct acts.
“The AM to me is representing the morning time, where there’s a buzz and energy and there’s a potential of new possibilities. It’s a new day,” Cyrus explained in a short clip. “At nighttime, it feels like there’s a slinky, seediness and kind of a grime but a glamour at the same time. In the evening, it’s a great time for rest, it’s a time to recover. Or it’s a time to go out and experience the wild side. In LA, there’s a certain energy to the night and you can feel trouble boil up to the surface and it’s very inspiring to me.”
The follow-up to Cyrus’ 2020 LP Plastic Hearts was recorded in Los Angeles with producers Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike WiLL Made-It and Tyler Johnson. The “Midnight Sky” singer describes Endless Summer Vacation as a love letter to L.A. that showcases the confidence she’s found since focusing on her mental and physical well-being. The LP is led by Cyrus’ empowering lead single and Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, “Flowers.”
Along with the album, Cyrus will also be releasing her Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions) special on Disney+ on March 10, which will feature performances of songs from her new album, plus will see her revisiting her 2009 classic “The Climb” more than a decade after its release.
Check out the “River” teaser clip below.
Fans in Paris were treated to a whole lot of Lizzo Sunday night (March 5). At a recent concert in the City of Love, the 34-year-old hitmaker pulled down her pants to show off her rear end while twerking onstage — all of which was captured in an Instagram video posted the day after the show.
In the video, Lizzo’s crowd goes wild as she bends over and pulls down her sparkly gold trousers to reveal a leggy leotard underneath, exposing almost all of her behind. Then, she shows off her multitasking skills by shaking her booty while simultaneously performing a fiery solo on her flute.
“SHOWED MY WHOLE A– IN PARIS LAST NIGHT!” she captioned the video. “I LOVE U PARIS.”
“I must be there immediately,” commented her longtime friend and 2023’s Billboard Woman of the Year, SZA, who Lizzo honored in a special virtual appearance at Billboard‘s March 1 Women in Music ceremony.
The “About Damn Time” singer, who’s currently in the middle of the European leg of her Special world tour, has been chronicling her time in France across several different Instagram posts. In one, she poses with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre art museum, and in another, she smooches her boyfriend, multimedia personality Myke Wright, underneath a lit-up Eiffel Tower.
In another video, Lizzo recreates a TikTok trend with one of her Parisian fans at the Sunday concert, quoting a 2009 press interaction between Beyoncé that was later sampled in Queen Bey’s “Partition.” “Are you happy to be in Paris?” the fan asks Lizzo, who replies, “Oui!”
Watch Lizzo shake her booty and other moments from her time in Paris below:
In February, Mimi Webb brought her mother to the 2023 Brit Awards, where she was nominated for best new artist. She lost to Wet Leg, but days later, Webb was still beaming over meeting Harry Styles at the ceremony instead of being fazed by the defeat — as she saw it, she had too much more to look forward to.
On March 3, the charismatic rising pop star released her debut album, Amelia, which includes pop radio hits like “House on Fire” and “Red Flags.” The 12-track project, which juxtaposes power-pop songs with catchy confessionals, is the culmination of a yearslong plan that prioritized career development and patience — and rewarded Webb’s drive.
“I always loved being center stage,” the 22-year-old born Amelia Webb recalls of growing up in Canterbury, England. She started music lessons when she was 12 and became active in her school’s band nights. “That’s where I was able to grow more as a musician and find that love for it. That’s when I decided, ‘Right. I’m going to go for it.’ [There was] no backup plan.”
By 16, Webb moved out to attend Brighton Music College. She didn’t stay long: That same year, she scored a manager in music and tech entrepreneur Rob Ronaldson, who was quick to set up studio time and label meetings in Los Angeles. “I just didn’t have time to do college. I had to drop out,” says Webb, speaking quickly as if to match the pace of her ascent. “I learned so much to the point where I took things into my own hands and went out there and just did it.”
From the start, Ronaldson foresaw Webb’s cross-continental appeal and aimed for a record deal abroad rather than signing in the United Kingdom. The approach aligned with Webb’s own goal: “Break worldwide.”
In 2019, she signed a deal with Epic Records, forming an immediate bond with Ezekiel “Zeke” Lewis, the label’s executive vp of A&R. And in 2020, Best Friends Music’s Brandon Goodman signed on as Webb’s stateside co-manager. Still, she continued to grow her domestic fan base, landing a U.K. hit every year since breaking first on TikTok with the impassioned “Before I Go,” a song Charli D’Amelio used to soundtrack a video on the app. (D’Amelio soon after helped Webb create her own account.)
Coperni jacket, Justine Clenquet earrings.
Rosaline Shahnavaz
And in 2021, “Good Without,” from Webb’s debut EP, Seven Shades of Heartbreak, crossed the pond and became her first entry on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, followed by “House on Fire” in 2022. She started 2023 completing a hat trick, as the rousing “Red Flags” became her third entry on the list, peaking at No. 29. The success was steady, but to Webb, who was writing incessantly and building her following on social media, it was a whirlwind. “When I look back, I had no clue what I wanted to really do as an artist — till now.”
On Amelia, Webb introduces the world to her two selves: the chill homebody Amelia and the pop powerhouse Mimi. “With this album, I really wanted to get the mixture of both [my] worlds — get those ballads in, but also get the uptempo, fun songs in there as well,” she says.
Webb officially started working on Amelia last April, finishing the bulk of it in under six months, she estimates. “I had a lot of songs in the bag,” she says, noting that she wrote the wishful “See You Soon” four years ago, while she co-wrote newer songs like “Red Flags,” “Roles Reversed” and “Last Train to London” in one week with Connor and Riley McDonough (who last year scored a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 with Joji’s “Glimpse of Us”).
And even though Webb is embracing her offstage persona, she’s grateful for her foresight in creating a moniker, comparing it to a wall. “I think it was a way of protecting [myself],” she says, “and also feeling that confidence to go onstage and not worry about what’s going to happen.”
She admires peers like Tate McRae, whom she opened for on tour, and praises the dominant onstage presence of Dua Lipa, an artist she has “completely fallen in love with” — and one with whom she shares a milestone. “Red Flags” made Webb the first British female artist since Lipa (who was also a U.K. star before crossing over to the United States) to chart two singles in the top 15 of the U.K. Official Singles Chart before releasing a debut album. “I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from how she has done the steps and built from scratch, doing the small shows to the big arenas,” Webb says.
That slow climb is exactly how Webb and her team have arrived at this moment: a hit single leading into a debut album leading into a U.K. and European headlining tour. What will follow, the artist hopes, is U.S. stardom.
“For the last two-and-a-half years, we have been focused on the recording and artist-development process,” Epic chairman/CEO Sylvia Rhone says. “By releasing music and content consistently, coupled with touring, it has allowed her to mature as an artist and build a loyal and global audience.”
“I’m definitely excited for people to get to know Amelia and to tell the story of growing up and how intense everything feels,” says Webb. “I just want people to really get to know me more as an artist — and as a person.”
Mimi Webb photographed on February 24, 2023 at zēphyr in London.
Rosaline Shahnavaz
This story will appear in the March 11, 2023, issue of Billboard.
On the eve of Sunday’s (March 12) Academy Awards, movie maximalist Baz Luhrmann is giving Elvis fans more, more, more. The director whose dizzying biopic of The King is nominated for 8 Oscars announced a deluxe edition of the movie’s official soundtrack on Tuesday (March 7) featuring previously unreleased recordings of star Austin Butler, some contemporary versions of Elvis classics and the new mash-up “Backstreet Boss Nova (Daisy O’Dell Remix)” that mixes up Presley and the iconic ’90s boy band.
“The whole Elvis music team has answered the call from fans with this new Deluxe Edition of the Elvis soundtrack,” said Luhrmann in a statement. “Featuring everything from previously unreleased recordings by Austin Butler to contemporary takes on Elvis’s classics and a fresh mash-up with the Backstreet Boys, the Deluxe album reveals all the complex layers of Austin’s performance, Elvis’s music and those who continue his legacy.”
At a massive 52 tracks, the deluxe edition features “Toxic Las Vegas” (Presley x Britney Spears and “Fly Away Weave” with the film’s scorer, Elliott Wheeler, as well as Gary Clark Jr., Shannon Sanders, Nashville Urban Choir, Butler, Shonka Dukureh and Lanesha Randolph. The beefed-up album also has the Presley songs “Rubberneckin’,” “Blue Moon,” “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (Wheeler remix and Aug. 12 — Midnight Show version), “A Little Less Conversation” (Presley x JXL) and Butler performing “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Heartbreak Hotel” (with Wheeler), “Are You Lonesome Tonight” (with Wheeler) and “Crawfish” (live on set).
Also included is “How Do You Think I Feel” by Kodi Smit-McPhee (who plays Jimmie Rodgers in the film) and Wheeler and Kacey Musgraves and Mark Ronson’s version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” which, along with the Spears song were released as singles leading up to the original album’s release.
Listen to the Elvis deluxe edition below.
Lewis Capaldi told his fans he was gutted about postponing two European shows this week due to illness. “Zurich & Milan, I’m absolutely devastated to be typing this,” the singer wrote in a note. “As lots of you know for the past few nights of tour I’ve been really struggling with my voice, last night in Stockholm I tried my best to sing through the show even with it feeling really uncomfortable because I was desperate not to let any of you down.”
The 26-year-old star said he visited a voice specialist in Sweden who told him that he has bronchitis and that he should get at least three days vocal rest to make sure he doesn’t damage his voice and can continue touring.
“I’m so very sorry to say that means that the shows in Zurich tomorrow night and in Milan the day after will be postponed,” Capaldi continued. “I’ve already checked with the venues free days they can do as well as dates I can make it back over to play these sold out shows that I’ve been buzzing for for so long!” He announced that the Zurich show at the Hallenstadion — which was originally scheduled for Tuesday (March 7) — will take place on June 28 and the Milan show at the Mediolanum Forum — originally scheduled for Wed. (March 8) — will be pushed to May 31; original tickets for the shows will be valid at the make-up dates.
“Hate letting you all down and this is the last thing I want to be writing,” Capaldi concluded. “Going to be doing everything I can with rest and medication to be ready for Barcelona awards.”
Back on Feb. 21, Capaldi got a helping hand from fans after his Tourette’s syndrome affected him mid-song. The moment occurred as the Scottish singer was performing his No. 1 hit “Someone You Loved” for the packed crowd in Frankfurt. In fan-captured footage from the show, Capaldi appeared to be struggling with tics as he sang, “And I tend to close my eyes when it hurts sometimes/ I fall into your arms/ I’ll be safe in your sound till I come back around.”
From there, the fans picked up the song’s chorus, singing, “For now, the day bleeds into nightfall/ And you’re not here to get me through it all/ I let my guard down and then you pulled the rug/ I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved” back at him en masse.
Capaldi’s next scheduled tour date is on Friday (March 10) at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain.
See Capaldi’s post about his postponed shows below.
Florence Welch is ready to join team Yellowjackets by diving into a portal back to 1995. The + the Machine singer teased her contribution to the upcoming second season of the Showtime drama about a girls’ soccer team stranded in the wilderness — and the inescapable echo of the horrifying things that happened there that haunts their adult lives — with a short Instagram teaser on Monday (March 6).
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In the clip, Welch is backstage flipping through a wardrobe featuring the expected array of pastel-colored, gauzy dresses as a spooky piano theme plays in the background before she gets to a Team Yellowjackets varsity jacket. “So happy I got picked for the team this year,” reads the caption to the post.
Most crucially, as Welch gets ready to join the squad, her band’s frantic cover of No Doubt’s iconic breakthrough ’95 hit, “Just a Girl,” bubbles up. Whereas the original Gwen Stefani-led track was a bouncy, ska-tinged pop smash about female empowerment, in Welch’s hands the tune takes on a sinister, roiling edge in keeping with the show’s midnight black undercurrent.
The teen footballers are happy to have her, though, with the Yellowjackets account responding, “We make one hell of a team.” The choice of the No Doubt ditty from the group’s breakthrough third album, Tragic Kingdom, is fitting given the song choices in the first season, which leaned into an angsty mid-1990s alt rock playlist as the soundtrack to the increasingly desperate vibe among the teens starving in the woods.
Among the songs sprinkled throughout the first season were tracks by Alanis Morissette (“Uninvited”), Smashing Pumpkins (“Today”), Hole (“Miss World”), Ultravox (“Vienna”), Montell Jordan (“This Is How We Do It”), Prodigy (“Firestarter”) and Mazzy Star (“Fade Into You”). The show’s packed cast for round two includes the adult versions of the players, Christina Ricci, Lynskey, Tawny Cypress and Juliette Lewis, as well as detective Elijah Wood, Lauren Ambrose, Simone Kessell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Courtney Eaton, Liv Hewson and more.
Season two premieres on Showtime on March 24 on streaming and on demand for subscribers and on linear outlets on March 26 at 9 p.m. ET.
Listen to the preview of Welch’s “Just a Girl” below.
After 2022 marked career milestones for Cravity with their first English single, touring the U.S., and releasing their New Wave album, which saw them “take charge” with their musical direction, the K-pop boy band returns with a “Groovy” direction for 2023.
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The nonet released their new EP MASTER : PIECE on Monday (March 6), boasting six new tracks alongside the single “Groovy.” While New Wave saw Cravity embodying a cheery and breezy sound, the new single “Groovy” continues the bright, feel-good energy with additional sparkle and shimmer. Funky rhythmic guitars back some of the guys’ smoothest and coolest hooks to date before the chorus bursts into an explosion of synthesizers and brass as Cravity declare: “You make you feel so groovy!”
Just like how the production in “Groovy” balances the sleek verses and vibrant choruses, the accompanying music video shows both sides of Cravity as the guys go from suit-and-tie office workers to colorfully dressed pop stars onstage and at press conferences that the paparazzi are fighting to film. The different worlds continuously mix throughout the visual until the final chorus, when the boys dance in vibrant, chic, contemporary suits.
“Groovy” includes songwriting contributions from Cravity members Serim and Allen, who also co-wrote on the new MASTER : PIECE tracks “Fly,” “Get Lifted” and Baddie.” Meanwhile, Cravity’s vocal powerhouse Woobin also wrote on “Baddie” while co-producing the track “Light the Way.” As the youngest male artist under Starship Entertainment (which is home to K-pop acts including chart-toppers Monsta X and IVE), Cravity’s new EP even includes credits from one of their seniors as Exy, leader of Starship girl group WJSN, also contributed lyrics for the track “A to Z.”
Watch Cravity’s new “Groovy” video below and stream MASTER : PIECE here.
Cher and Alexander “A.E.” Edwards are taking their relationship to the next level.
The icon told E! News on Monday (March 6) that she’s working on new music, and she’s even brought her boyfriend — who is a producer himself — into the studio for collaboration. “I’m going to England to make two albums,” she revealed. “Some of the songs Alexander gave me, so I’m pretty excited about that. He’s a producer and a writer and he does everything, so I’m happy about that.”
Cher also added that she’s “trying to get myself in shape” for an upcoming tour she is planning to embark on later this year.
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The “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer previously opened up about the 40-year age difference in her relationship. “On paper, it’s kind of ridiculous,” she admitted on The Kelly Clarkson Show back in December. “But in real life, we get along great. He’s fabulous. And I don’t give men qualities that they don’t deserve.”
She noted that Edwards is “very kind, very smart, he’s very talented, and he’s really funny,” before sweetly observing, “And I think he’s quite handsome.”
Cher and Edwards met at Paris Fashion Week in September, and were later spotted holding hands. The rapper and music executive was previously linked to Amber Rose, with whom he shares three-year-old son Slash Electric.
