the tonight show starring jimmy fallon
Manchester, for any music (or sport) fan who knows their stuff, is a city that punches several divisions above its weight. For its part in the spread of electronic dance music through the U.K. in the late ‘80s, and the peerless, timeless bands that emerged from its scene — think The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, Happy Mondays — Manchester is one of the world’s great music cities.
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The Stone Roses, the indie-rock enigmas whose iconic, self-titled debut from 1989, is considered by many as the greatest debut of them all, if not the greatest album, period, are among the Manchester royalty.
As is Oasis, the now-defunct giant of the Britpop era, which landed at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart with every studio album (seven in total), and smashed records along the way. The “Live Forever” rockers are one step away from induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.
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The Stones Roses’ guitarist John Squire and former Oasis and Beady Eye frontman Liam Gallagher recently teamed up for a collaborative, self-titled album which – no surprises here – blasted to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart earlier this year, outselling its nearest competitor by three copies to one. Liam now boasts 14 U.K. No. 1 albums across a three-decade career.
On Tuesday night, April 9, that “superduo” paid a visit to NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, for a performance of the bluesy-rock album track “I’m A Wheel.”
Gallagher, in particular, is in fine form, staring down the barrel of the camera, snarling and full of menace and reminding us how a seasoned frontman, with his deep bag of tricks, can own the stage.
The singer unloaded some of that venom in February, when the shortlist for the Rock Hall of announced – with Oasis featuring on it.
The famously tetchy singer, who went solo after older brother and chief Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher split the band in 2009, summed up his vibe about the nod in a short, sharp tweet in which he wrote, “F–ck the Rock n Roll hall of fame its full of BUMBACLARTS.” The latter is a Jamaican slang term frequently employed by Gallagher on his socials when peeved to express his disdain in no uncertain terms.
Watch the late-night performance below.
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Grupo Frontera delivered an emotionally charged showcase of their single “Ya Pedo Quién Sabe” on Thursday night’s (April 4) Tonight Show. Proudly representing the Rio Grande Valley by performing in front of a neon 956 sign — the area code of the borderland region they’re from — the band appeared rocking their usual black cowboy hats, with […]
If form is a guide, Lenny Kravitz ought to be a shoo-in for the Rock Hall class of 2024.
With a new album out in May, the veteran rocker has been soaking up the plaudits on the awards trail, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, presented earlier this month (with a savage roasting by his daughter Zoë Kravitz), and the Music Icon Award at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards, held last month in Santa Monica, Calif.
The most-coveted music award of them all potentially awaits, a spot in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, for which Kravitz is nominated alongside the likes of Mary J. Blige, Oasis, Dave Matthews Band, Cher, Mariah Carey, Kool & the Gang and more.
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Nothing is certain. Though Kravitz is taking the time to smell the flowers.
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“It’s a beautiful thing. It’s lovely to receive flowers,” he explained when he stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, for an interview which aired Wednesday night, March 20.
The “Fly Away” singer’s recording career took off in the early ‘90s, following a bidding war among the-then five major labels. He decided on Virgin, and the label’s promise that the multi-hyphenate would have total creative control.
“I promised myself,” he told host Jimmy Fallon, “when I was coming up I never took the time to enjoy those kinds of things. I was always moving forward, not thinking about the past or what was happening. So, I said when this stuff starts happening again, I’m going to take the time, and I’m going to enjoy the moments because it’s beautiful.”
Awards are a bonus for Kravitz, who is readying the May 24 release of Blue Electric Light, his 12th studio album. The collection, he remarked, is about “celebration, life, humanity, sexuality, sensuality, spirituality.”
Its title track came to Kravitz in a dream during the final stretch of recording sessions in the Bahamas. He cut it the next day, and guitarist Craig Ross persuaded Lenny to dump his previously planned album title.
Blue Electric Light is “just that vibration of love, of god, of spirit,” he explained to Fallon.
Kravitz will support the album with a summer European arena and festival tour, kicking off June 23 at Sporthalle in Hamburg, Germany. But first, the rock star and his band gave a taste of things to come with a late-night performance of album track “Human,” a song about us “spiritual beings having a human existence, the journey, man.”
Watch the late-night interview and performance below.
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Kacey Musgraves has returned with her new album Deeper Well, but according to her, she almost didn’t live to see the day. While shooting the music video for the project’s title track in Iceland, the country star said she almost took a windblown tumble off an extremely tall, steep precipice. “We picked literally the worst […]
Olivia Rodrigo‘s no-following rule on Instagram seriously backfired at one point.
Appearing on the Tonight Show Thursday night (Dec. 7), the 20-year-old pop star finally explained why she doesn’t follow anyone else on her account, which has 35 million followers. “I try to follow zero people because it helps me be off of my phone, you know, off of social media,” she told host Jimmy Fallon.
But even the best laid plans can have unintended consequences. “I had this very embarrassing encounter once where I was stalking my ex, as one does,” she confessed. “Sue me, sorry. And I accidentally followed him ’cause I was stalking him. And I was just following one person so it was super obvious that I was following him.”
After one of her friends breathlessly ran in from the other room to inform Olivia of the mistake, things took a turn for the worse. “I went to open the Instagram app, and the second I opened the app, my phone died!” Rodrigo continued, earning stunned laughs from the audience. “I couldn’t find the charger so I was just following my ex for a while.”
The “Vampire” singer’s stop by the Tonight Show comes three nights ahead of her upcoming return to Saturday Night Live, where she’ll serve as musical guest on this weekend’s Adam Driver-hosted episode. She previously sang “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U” on the show in 2021, in one of the first-ever live performances of her career.
And though she didn’t specify which ex was the recipient of her accidental follow, Rodrigo’s fans are convinced it’s her former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costar Joshua Bassett. Some claim to remember the moment she was solely following the “Lie, Lie, Lie,” singer in July of 2022.
“People were like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s hacked!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you guys, be safe! Two-factor authentication, you guys,’” Rodrigo joked to Fallon. “I have a finsta now, so I’m safe.” The singer also talked about her sophomore GUTS album being nominated for six Grammy awards — she said she and her mom used to make their own hand-written ballots for each year’s show when she was a kid — and the time Fallon made her mom’s life when he hugged her at a party.
Fallon also busted out the album cover and a snippet of the adorable Christmas song Rodrigo wrote when she was five (“The Bels”) and a photo of her pop star-themed sixth birthday party, proof, she joked, that she “manifested” her career.
See Olivia Rodrigo on the Tonight Show above.
Fans will soon be able to bask in all of Jung Kook’s solo glory with a very special upcoming television appearance. The “Seven” crooner will make his solo Tonight Show debut on Monday, Nov. 6, as a guest and performer. Emmy-winning host Jimmy Fallon took to the official Tonight Show Instagram to reveal the announcement. […]
Bad Bunny is burning the candle at both ends as he prepares to host and perform on Saturday Night Live Oct. 21 — and when it’s all over, he’s ready for a nap. The Latin music titan stopped by The Tonight Show on Thursday night (Oct. 19), two days ahead of his hosting debut, and […]
Andrew Lloyd Webber stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night (April 17) to reflect on Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and more.
Host Jimmy Fallon led his conversation with the Broadway legend to the Jellicle 1981 musical by asking, “Can I ask you about Cats?” as members of the audience chuckled. “How does one come up with an idea like Cats? And are you a cat person?”
“Well, I am a cat person,” Lord Lloyd Webber responded. “Well, I was a total cat person until I saw the Cats movie.”
After that joke got an impromptu standing ovation from the studio audience, the composer continued. “What happened to the Cats movie was, during the course of it being, as it were, shot — which I hope the whole movie would’ve been — I bought this little puppy. And he was called Mojito, he’s a little Havanese dog, he comes from Cuba.”
Lloyd Webber went on to explain that he tried using the pup as a therapy dog on an airplane, but the unnamed airline said he needed a doctor’s note. “And so I just said, ‘I saw the Cats movie and bought a puppy,’” he deadpanned. “And they said, ‘No doctor’s letter required.’”
Directed by Tom Hooper, the 2019 musical adaptation featured a who’s who of stars like James Corden, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellan and Taylor Swift as humanoid alley cats. It was panned by critics and audiences alike, though “Beautiful Ghosts,” the original song written for the film by Lloyd Webber and Swift, did garner a Grammy nomination for best song written for visual media.
During the interview, the Broadway impresario also spoke about the closing of Phantom the night before, saying, “It was sad last night because I just felt it could run on, but there you go.”
However, the iconic chandelier may not have fallen for the last time. ALW received a mysterious note that was delivered to the Tonight Show studio from the Phantom himself, which read, “I am extremely displeased that my legend is no longer being told in New York, a city for which I have developed great affection. I am therefore currently obtaining a new address in which my legend will be examined in extreme detail. I advise you and New Yorkers to be vigilant.”
Watch Lloyd Webber’s complete interview with Fallon below.
Adam Lambert stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night (March 1) to perform his take on Culture Club‘s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.”
Wearing a bold zebra-print suit, the American Idol alum serenaded the crowd, singing “In my heart the fire is burning/ Choose my color, find a star/ Precious people always tell me/ That’s a step, a step too far.”
Originally released by Boy George and co. in 1982 as their debut U.S. single, the new wave ballad peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and was followed by other top ten hits off Kissing to Be Clever like “Time (Clock of the Heart),” “Church of the Poison Mind” and “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya.” The following year, the band earned their first No. 1 hit with “Karma Chameleon.”
Lambert’s rendition, meanwhile, is included on his new covers album High Drama, which also features bombastic re-imaginings of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero,” Billie Eilish’s “Getting Older” and more.
While accepting an award at the 2023 Creative Coalition Spotlight Initiative Gala in January, the Queen + Adam Lambert singer looked back on the homophobia he faced coming off his breakthrough on Season 8 of American Idol, deciding to be “be as gay as I f—ing can be. And be flamboyant and be wild, and if it gets me into trouble, it gets me in trouble, but I’m not going to back down from it.”
Watch Lambert’s performance of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” on Fallon above.
Bruce Springsteen is coming to a television near you. On Wednesday (Nov. 9), NBC announced that The Boss will be heading to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon starting next week for a full-blown takeover, which will see him performing several tracks from his forthcoming album, Only the Strong Survive.
Springsteen’s takeover will begin on the Nov. 14 episode of Fallon, and will continue through Nov. 15 and Nov. 16, in addition to the special Thanksgiving episode on Nov. 24. During his time on the show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will accompany Fallon as a guest and deliver the live television debut of four tracks from Only the Strong Survive.
While Springsteen’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon marks his third time on the show as a guest, the takeover will be his first, in addition to his first time performing on the television program.
Only the Strong Survive — a covers album of R&B and soul songs — is set to be released on Nov. 11. The 15-track LP features a guest spot from Sam Moore on tracks “Soul Days” and “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” the latter originally written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones. (Billy Idol‘s version of the track, which appeared on his 1986 album Whiplash Smile, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.) Only the Strong Survive also features singles “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” (Frank Wilson), “Nightshift” (Commodores) and “Don’t Play That Song” (Ben E. King).
Springsteen follows a roster of celebrities to takeover Fallon in recent months, including Mariah Carey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Taylor Swift and more.