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U2 singer Bono paid tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during the band’s residency show at Las Vegas’ Sphere on Saturday night, less than a day after the most prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin was reported dead. “Alexei Navalny!” Bono said as the crowd repeated the Kremlin critic’s name back to him in full.
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“Next week it will be two years since Putin invaded. For these people, freedom is not just a word in a song,” Bono said about the Russian dictator’s unprovoked war on Ukraine in video captured by a fan. “For these people, freedom is the most important word in the world – so important that Ukrainians are fighting and dying for it. And so important that Alexey Navalny chose to give his up,” Bono added to cheers from the crowd.
Navalny’s death while in custody has drawn worldwide condemnation in light of the opposition leader’s history speaking out against Putin’s repressive rule. In 2020, anti-corruption crusader and lawyer Navalny, 47, was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent Novichok. Though he never confirmed Putin was behind the attempt on his life, Navalny blamed the Russian leader for the attempted assassination using a method preferred by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
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Despite the clear and present danger to his life, Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, where he was immediately arrested and accused of parole violations, leading to rare mass protests across the nation. He was then sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on embezzlement and contempt charges in what international observers dubbed a show trial. After going missing from the prison he was sent to for three weeks in Dec. 2023, Navalny popped up in a barren Arctic Circle penal colony earlier this year before his death was announced on Friday.
Officials at the Russian prison service said Navalny reportedly died after falling unconscious while taking a walk. “Apparently, Putin would never, ever say his name so I felt tonight, the free people from here – people who believe in freedom – we must say his name,” Bono said during Saturday’s show, according to CNN.
Former one-term president Donald Trump — the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election — has so far declined to publicly condemn Russia and Putin for Navalny’s death, which has still not been explained. In fact, Trump used it as a means to once again denigrate his political opponents and complain about his many legal issues in what he dubbed a “FAILING NATION!” in one of his all-caps social media missives over the weekend.
The White House on Tuesday (Feb. 20) announced plans for “major sanctions” on Russia in the wake of the incident, with National security communications advisor John Kirby saying the new sanctions are designed to “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny,” according to USA Today.
U2, long known for their political activism, followed the Navalny shout-out with a cover of Crowded House’s 1986 ballad “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” a staple of their Vegas shows. Just months after Russia launched the war on Ukraine, Bono and U2 guitarist The Edge played a May 2022 show at the Khreschatyk metro station in Kyiv at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Edge and I got to stand with some of the people in Ukraine as they stood in that train station, which was a converted bomb shelter,” Bono told the Sphere crowd of that underground gig. “We got to stand with some of the people of Ukraine as they waited for the train to arrive with the rest of the free world on it. They’re still waiting for some of that train to arrive. America, you’re so generous. But let’s get these people what they need.”
Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (1917, Spectre) has gotten the green light to begin work on four separate feature films that will tell the individual stories of all four Beatles. According to a release from Sony Pictures Entertainment announcing the project on Tuesday morning (Feb. 20), Mendes will direct the films focused on George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr due out in 2027.
The project will mark the first time the band’s Apple Corps Ltd. and the group — McCartney and Starr and the families of Harrison and Lennon — have given full access to life story and music rights for a scripted film. “I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” said Mendes in a statement.
Mendes will direct the four stand-alone theatrical movies — with each one told from one band member’s point of view — as well as intersecting to tell the full story of the Fab Four. SPE, which will finance and distribute the movies conceived by Mendes, will share the details of the roll-out, which it promised will be “innovative and groundbreaking.”
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The director’s Neal Street Productions partner, Pippa Harris, added, “We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling, and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time. To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”
One of the most scrutinized and studied groups in popular music history, the Fab Four have been the subjects of hundreds of books and docs, including Peter Jackson’s acclaimed 2021 four-part documentary series, Get Back, which incorporated previously unseen and unheard audio and video.
Apple Corps Ltd. CEO Jeff Jones said the company is “delighted to collaborate with Sam, Pippa and Julie to explore each Beatle’s unique story and to bring them together in a suitably captivating and innovative way. Sony Pictures’ enthusiastic support, championing the project’s scope and creative vision from the start, has been invaluable for all of us.”
The Foo Fighters will scale down from stadiums and arenas to perform an intimate, one-night-only private gig in Washington, D.C. in support of Power to the Patients on March 5. The show will be hosted by the non-profit that is fighting for a more affordable, accessible and equitable healthcare system via price transparency. Explore Explore […]
While today (Feb. 20) is officially Olivia Rodrigo‘s 21st birthday, the singer jokingly celebrated her milestone bday a day earlier with friends in an Instagram post on Monday in which she joked, “Today is my last day of being able to under age drink (hypothetically) !!!!” The series of snaps included Rodrigo rocking a plunging […]
Paul McCartney no longer gently weeps for his original bass guitar.
A five-year search by the manufacturer of the instrument that was aided by a husband-and-wife team of journalists helped reunite The Beatles star with the distinctive violin-shaped 1961 electric Höfner that went missing a half century ago and is estimated to be worth 10 million pounds ($12.6 million).
McCartney had asked Höfner to help find the missing instrument that helped launch Beatlemania across the universe, Scott Jones, a journalist who teamed up with Höfner executive Nick Wass to track it down, said Friday (Feb. 16).
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“Paul said to me, ‘Hey, because you’re from Höfner, couldn’t you help find my bass?’” Wass said. “And that’s what sparked this great hunt. Sitting there, seeing what the lost bass means to Paul, I was determined to solve the mystery.”
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McCartney bought the bass for about 30 pounds ($37) in 1961 when The Beatles were developing their chops during a series of residencies in Hamburg, Germany. The instrument was played on the Beatles first two records and featured on hits such as “Love Me Do,” “Twist and Shout,” and “She Loves You.”
“Because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical,” McCartney once said. “I got into that. And once I bought it, I fell in love with it.”
It was rumored to have been stolen around the time The Beatles were recording their final album, Let it Be, in 1969. But no one was sure when it went missing.
What began as a long and winding road for Wass to track down the bass picked up speed when Jones serendipitously joined the hunt after seeing McCartney headline the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. The stage lights at one point seemed to illuminate nothing but the sunburst pattern on his bass and Jones wondered if it was the same instrument McCartney had played in the early ‘60s.
When he later searched the internet he was stunned to find the original bass was missing and there was a search for it.
“I was staggered, I was amazed,” Jones said. “I think we live in a world where The Beatles could do almost anything and it would get a lot of attention.”
Jones and his wife, Naomi, both journalists and researchers, got in touch with Wass to spread the word more broadly.
After hitting a dead end following a lead about a roadie for The Who, they relaunched The Lost Bass Project in September and within 48 hours were inundated with 600 emails that contained the “little gems that led us to where we are today,” Jones said.
One of those emails came from sound engineer Ian Horne, who had worked with McCartney’s band Wings, and was the first big breakthrough in the hunt. Horne said the bass had been swiped from the back of his van one night in the Notting Hill section of London in 1972.
The researchers published the new information on their website in October, adding that Horne said McCartney told him not to worry about the theft and that he continued working for him for another six years.
“But I’ve carried the guilt all my life,” Horne said.
After publishing that update, a bigger break came when they were contacted by a person who said their father had stolen the bass. The man didn’t set out to steal McCartney’s instrument and panicked when he realized what he had, Jones said.
The thief, who was not named, ended up selling it to Ron Guest, landlord of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and some beers.
As the Joneses were starting to look for relatives of Guest, word had already reached his family. His daughter-in-law contacted McCartney’s studio.
Cathy Guest said that the old bass that had been in her attic for years looked like the one they were looking for.
It had been passed from Ron Guest to his oldest son, who died in a car wreck, and then to a younger son, Haydn Guest, who was married to Cathy and died in 2020.
The instrument was returned to McCartney in December and then it took about two months to authenticate it.
The project had planned to announce the news but were upstaged by Cathy Guest’s son, Ruaidhri Guest, a 21-year-old film student who posted photos Tuesday of the guitar on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “I inherited this item which has been returned to Paul McCartney. Share the news.” He posted a message Friday saying the family had been inundated with interview requests and would tell its story eventually.
The estimated value of the instrument is based on the fact that a Gibson acoustic guitar Kurt Cobain played on MTV Unplugged sold for $6 million (4.7 million pounds), Jones said. But it held almost no value during the past half century.
“The thief couldn’t sell it,” Jones said. “Clearly, the Guest family never tried to sell it. It’s a red alert because the minute you come forward someone’s going to go, ‘That’s Paul McCartney’s guitar.’”
It is now McCartney’s once again. His official website posted a message announcing its return, saying “Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
Papa Roach notches its 10th career No. 1, and its fourth from its 2022 album Ego Trip, on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Leave a Light On” leaps 4-1 on the Feb. 24-dated survey.
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Papa Roach becomes the 11th act to achieve 10 of more rulers in the chart’s 43-year history. Shinedown leads all acts with 19 No. 1s.
Speaking of Shinedown, Papa Roach joins the band as one of only seven acts with at least four Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s from a single album. Eight sets in all have reached the milestone, with two belonging to Shinedown. The Black Crowes first did so in 1992 via The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Prior to Papa Roach, Linkin Park joined the elite club thanks to a fourth No. 1 from its 2003 album Meteora, with “Lost” leading from the set’s 20th-anniversary deluxe version.
Albums With Four or More Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s:5, The Sound of Madness, Shinedown, 2008-11: “Devour,” “Second Chance,” “Sound of Madness,” “The Crow & the Butterfly,” “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” (the lattermost song was added for the album’s 2010 deluxe release)4, Ego Trip, Papa Roach, 2021-24: “Kill the Noise,” “No Apologies,” “Cut the Line,” “Leave a Light On”4, Meteora, Linkin Park, 2003-04; 2023: “Somewhere I Belong,” “Numb,” “Lying From You,” “Lost” (the lattermost song was added for the album’s 2023 20th anniversary reissue)4, F8, Five Finger Death Punch, 2020-21: “Inside Out,” “A Little Bit Off,” “Living the Dream,” “Darkness Settles In”4, When Legends Rise, Godsmack, 2018-20: “Bulletproof,” “When Legends Rise,” “Under Your Scars,” “Unforgettable”4, Attention Attention, Shinedown, 2018-20: “Devil,” “Get Up,” “Monsters,” “Attention Attention”4, Immortalized, Disturbed, 2015-16: “The Vengeful One,” “The Light,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Open Your Eyes”4, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, The Black Crowes, 1992: “Remedy,” “Sting Me,” “Thorn in My Pride,” “Hotel Illness”
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Papa Roach first topped Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2009, for six weeks with “Lifeline.” The band’s history on the chart stretches back to 2000, when its debut entry “Last Resort” hit No. 4.
“Leave a Light On” is the sixth song from Ego Trip to reach Mainstream Rock Airplay. In addition to its four rulers, “Swerve” peaked at No. 35 in September 2021 and “Stand Up” reached No. 12 in April 2022.
Concurrently, “Leave a Light On” lifts 25-22 on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it ranks at No. 12, after hitting No. 10, with 3.3 million audience impressions, up 2%, Feb. 9-15, according to Luminate.
Ego Trip, Papa Roach’s 11th studio LP, debuted at No. 6 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in April 2022 and has earned 125,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Feb. 24 will update on Billboard.com Wednesday, Feb. 21, a day later than usual due to the Presidents’ Day holiday (Feb. 19) in the U.S.
The Voice alum Cassadee Pope has spent the last decade making a name for herself in Nashville as one of country music’s most outspoken talents. Now, she’s explaining why she’s ready to leave the genre behind.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the “Take You Home” singer explained that she decided to return to her rock roots (Pope originally fronted the pop-punk band Hey Monday before appearing on The Voice season three) after experiencing significant backlash for speaking out against racism and transphobia in the country scene, specifically from other stars such as Morgan Wallen and Jason Aldean’s wife.
“I realize every genre has problematic people in it,” she said of her decision to leave country. “I’m not saying there’s not a frontman in a band who hasn’t been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is in my bones more. You’re not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out.”
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When Wallen was caught on camera using a racial slur in 2021, Pope was one of many artists to speak out about the incident, saying she was “disgusted” and that his behavior “does NOT represent all of country music.” Looking back, though, Pope said she regretted the way she handled her response. “I was just another angry white person who just learned about racism,” she said. “If that were to have happened today, I would have had a different response.”
Pope spoke up again when country star Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, made a series of transphobic comments online, thanking her parents for not “changing her gender” after she experienced a “tomboy phase.” When the beauty influencer continued spreading dangerous misinformation, Pope called her out, saying, “You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging. But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition.”
She would later be joined by fellow country star Maren Morris, who famously referred to Brittany Aldean as “insurrection Barbie” in her response.
The Voice winner told the publication that, unlike her Wallen comments, she never felt embarrassed with how she responded to the beauty influencer’s post. “In that moment, I felt so proud. I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and kept going,” she said. “It’s only been the past few months that I’ve let my guard down in therapy and said, ‘Wait, I actually wasn’t OK.’ But I think that kind of comes with the territory of including activism in your life.”
Pope is not the only former country singer who decided to depart the genre. In September, Morris said that she would be stepping away from the country music industry after witnessing the rise in “misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic” messaging in the industry. “I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy.”
In the wake of the nation’s 50th mass shooting so far this year, John Mellencamp says enough is enough. The singer issued an urgent statement on Friday (Feb. 16) just days after the killing of a popular Kansas City DJ/radio personality and the wounding of more than 20 people at Wednesday’s parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII win on Sunday.
“Excuse me for saying the obvious truth. I do so out of love for this country and the pain of learning, once again, that children have been killed by gun violence,” the longtime gun control advocate wrote in the note, which did not specifically mention the violence that marred the Chiefs celebration. “If we as a country want to find the collective will within ourselves to change our gun laws, let’s stop playing silly political games. Show the carnage on the news. Show the American people the dead children and others who have been struck down. Show us what guns and bullets can do to the human body.”
A popular Kansas City DJ and radio personality, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 44, a married mother of two, was killed on Wednesday when unknown assailants opened fire near the end of the parade attended by a reported one million fans. Despite more than 800 officers on site to secure the route, the burst of gunfire killed Lopez-Galvan and injured 22 others, with half the victims under the age of 16.
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“The news media need to be brave enough to let Americans see what slaughtered children look like,” Mellencamp said, echoing the calls from many gun control advocates in the wake of the 2012 slaughter of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT and the 2022 murder of 19 students aged 9-11 in Uvalde, TX. Shortly after the latter, the New York Times asked, “Would disseminating graphic images of the results of gun violence jolt the nation’s gridlocked leadership into action?” referring to intransigence from the political right to tighten gun laws to prevent future incidents.
While experts and photo editors struggle with the ethical quandary of whether showing graphic images of children killed by weapons of war — a majority of mass shootings employ military-style assault weapons with large magazines — might seem exploitative, or could move the needle toward tighter gun laws, the media often shies away from showing gory images. In both Uvalde and Sandy Hook, horrific images of the carnage were not released to the public.
The Times noted that other explicit, disturbing images the media has aired from the Holocaust and the Vietnam War to the current war in Ukraine and the 1955 image of a 14-year-old Emmett Till’s brutalized body after two white men beat, shot and dumped his body in a river have prompted public outcry and action.
Mellencamp, 72, said in his note that he recalled the shock and horror the nation felt when images of young soldiers killed in Vietnam began appearing on the nightly news. “When I was a teenager, there was a war in Vietnam,” he wrote. “In the beginning, no one paid much attention to this problem in a foreign land until the media shouldered the responsibility and showed America how our sons were being slaughtered. Once these images were shown on TV, there was overwhelming demand for that war to be ended immediately.”
The musician and father of five children added that as a dad and a human being “with deep empathy for the parents whose children had their lives ended so suddenly and so senselessly: Show America the carnage. I am not being callous, and I know it will be painful to see. But, sad to say, I think it’s the only way to shock America out of its stupor.”
Mellencamp released his 25th album, Orpheus Descending, last year, which included the anti-gun violence track “Hey God.” “Weapons and guns, are they really my rights?/ Laws written a long time ago/ No one could imagine the sight of so many dead on the floor,” he sings on the track, adding, “Hey, God, if you’re still there, would you please come down? We can’t take it anymore.“
The shooting at the Chiefs parade left at least nine children injured, with a spokesperson for Children’s Mercy Hospital telling WBAL that the 11 children being treated there — nine for gunshot wounds — were between 6-15 years old. The city has long struggled with high rates of gun violence, matching a record in 2023 with 182 homicides, most of which involved guns.
In the wake of the Chiefs parade shooting, Democrat Sen. Steve Roberts decried his state as having “some of the loosest gun laws” in the country, while Republican Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Bill Eigel tweeted what has become a consistent refrain from conservative politicians and Second Amendment defenders in the wake of the nation’s near-daily mass shooting incidents.
“To the liberal gun grabbers already trying to use this KC tragedy to push your radical gun control agenda, hear me now: NOT IN MISSOURI,” Eigel tweeted. “One good guy with a gun could have stopped the evil criminals who opened fire on the crowd immediately. Guns don’t kill people. Thugs and criminals kill people.”
See Mellencamp’s statement below.
At this point the only question might be: what genre can’t Post Malone tackle? The lanky rapper who began his career rhyming before pivoting back-and-forth between rock, pop and every combination in-between appears to be ready to fully take a country detour. After wowing the crowd at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas last weekend with his meditative take on “American The Beautiful” on acoustic guitar, Posty surprised fans again on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 15) with a brief snippet of a new collaboration with Luke Combs.
Smoke in hand, Malone energetically plays air drums and shakes his head as he sings along to a song that appears to be called “Ain’t Got a Guy For That.” At press time spokespeople for Malone and Combs had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information on the song.
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In the brief snippet, Combs can be heard singing “No VIP up at MIT/ And they still won’t let me fly the time machine,” before Malone grabs the chorus, “She’s searching for someone good who’s gonna built it back/ Ain’t I ain’t got a guy for that/ Ain’t got a guy for that (x3).”
Combs posted a comment on the snippet, matching Posty’s beer emoji and adding a fire one, while Malone’s label, Republic Records, commented, “LFG [cowboy emoji]” and Republic’s relaunched Mercury Records added, “in your country era fs.” Over Super Bowl weekend, Combs posted a pic with Malone and Peyton Manning.
Malone has been dipping his toe into country lately, including making his first Country Airplay chart appearance last year on a “duet” version of Joe Diffie’s “Pickup Man”, which debuted at No. 54 just after Posty teamed up with Morgan Wallen and HARDY to play the song at the 2023 CMA Awards; the track will appear on HARDY’s upcoming Hixtape Vol. 3: Difftape, due out on March 29.
Speaking to Access Hollywood at the time, Malone teased his own country music project when asked if he has a country album in the works. “I think so… yes,” he said.
In addition to covering Brad Paisley’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song),” Malone has performed on stage with a number of other country stars, including Blake Shelton, Little Big Town and Darius Rucker and he has been pictured in the studio or in writing rooms with Paisley and Combs.
In a June 2022 visit to Howard Stern’s SiriusXm radio show, Malone first hinted that a country turn might be in the offing. “To be honest, there’s nothing stopping me from taking a camera or setting up in my studio in Utah and just recording a country album and me just putting it on f–king YouTube,” Malone said. “I’m allowed to do that… I split my time between a lot of different things because I am happily obligated to do concerts and show love to my fans … and then I’m happily obligated to write music and make beats by myself, and I’m happily obligated to, you know, take care of my family. So, it’s a lot of time, and it’s about finding that space to allot that time. If I get another year to myself, maybe I’ll make a f–-king country album.”
In the meantime, the Malone country era will continue on April 28 when he takes the stage at the Stagecoach Festival, which will also feature sets from headliners Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert and Eric Church, as well as Jelly Roll, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson & Family, Leon Bridges, Ernest, HARDY, Bailey Zimmerman and many more.
Watch Malone jam out to the Combs collab below.
It’s been almost four years since Lady Gaga dropped her Chromatica album. And while her Little Monsters have waited patiently while the singer played her Las Vegas residency and suited up to play Harley Quinn in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux sequel alongside Joaquin Phoenix, on Wednesday (Feb. 14) she gave them hope that new […]
