Touring
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Wynonna Judd has added 15 additional shows to The Judds: The Final Tour, allowing the tour to continue into 2023.
Initially, the tour had been slated as a Judds farewell tour with Wynonna and her mother, Naomi Judd, prior to Naomi’s death on April 30 at age 76, just one day prior to The Judds’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna later revealed she would continue with the tour dates in honor of her late mother’s life and legacy, and welcomed a rotating roster of female artists to join her, including Martina McBride, Ashley McBryde, Kelsea Ballerini, Brandi Carlile, Trisha Yearwood, and Little Big Town.
The tour, which had been slated to run through Oct. 29 in Lexington, Ky., will now extend through February 2023, with McBryde, McBride, Ballerini, Carlile and Little Big Town all returning as opening acts on various dates for the 2023 run of shows.
“I have never felt so overwhelmed by this much love and support!” Wynonna said via a statement. “The emotions that flow while listening to the different generations of fans sing back to me each night has been otherworldly. I am so humbled by every artist that has come to sing with me on this tour. They’ve all managed to bring something so unique to The Judds music and I can say that no two shows are the same. It has been so life-giving!”
She added, “The decision to add 15 more shows was a no-brainer for me. The fans have been such a gift during my time of grieving and honoring my mother in song. What an amazing season this is. I look so forward to continuing the celebration of the music that has changed my life forever. In my 39 years of performing, these shows have truly been some of my absolute favorite experiences ever and I look forward to making new memories with the fans and guest artists in 2023.”
The Judds: The Final Tour, will visit Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday (Oct. 28).
See the full list of 2023 tour dates below. Presale tickets became available at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, Oct. 24. General public tickets will be on sale on Friday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m. local time.
The Judds: The Final Tour Dates:
Jan. 26, 2023 – Hershey, Pa. – GIANT Center Jan. 28, 2023 – Bridgeport, Conn. – Total Mortgage Arena Jan. 29, 2023 – Worcester, Mass. – DCU Center Feb. 2, 2023 – Tulsa, Okla. -BOK Center Feb. 3, 2023 – Kansas City, Mo. – T-Mobile Center Feb. 4, 2023 – St. Louis, Mo. – Chaifetz Arena Feb. 9, 2023 – Omaha, Neb. – CHI Health Center Omaha Feb. 10, 2023 – Moline, Ill. – Vibrant Arena at THE MARK Feb. 11, 2023 – Dayton, Ohio – WSU Nutter Center Feb. 16, 2023 – Greenville, S.C. – Bon Secours Wellness Arena Feb. 17, 2023 – Fairfax, Va. – EagleBank Arena Feb. 18, 2023 – Charleston, W. Va. – Charleston Coliseum Feb. 23, 2023 – Savannah, Ga. – Enmarket Arena Feb. 24, 2023 – Tampa, Fla. – Amalie Arena Feb. 25, 2023 – Hollywood, Fla. Hard Rock Live at Seminole/Hard Rock Hollywood
Next year, George Strait is preparing to play his most extensive stadium run in nine years since he completed his two-year “The Cowboy Rides Away” tour in 2014.
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The country titan and his Ace in the Hole Band will perform six stadium dates starting May 6 at Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium and ending Aug. 5 at Tampa, Florida’s Raymond James Stadium. There is the potential for one more city to be added. All stops will feature Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town.
“It just felt right,” Strait tells Billboard via email of the mini-tour. “I had the opportunity to work with Chris and Little Big Town and everything just kind of fell in place for next year. I don’t do that many shows anymore, so if we can do a stadium where we can play for more people, that works for me.”
In 2012, Strait announced that he wasn’t “retiring,” but that “the old road-warrior days are just going to be over” after more than 30 years of touring. In 2016, he began an affiliation with Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, which saw him playing several times a year at the venue (the Las Vegas dates will be on hiatus for 2023). He has sprinkled his calendar with a handful of arena, festival and stadium dates each year, but next year marks his biggest stadium commitment in nearly a decade.
Each year, Strait and Messina Group CEO Louis Messina, who has been promoting Strait’s concerts for around 30 years, and Messina Group senior vp Bridget Bauer talk about what’s next, Messina says. “There’s something about him and Chris together that’s magical. They love playing with each other,” Messina continues. “I said, ‘We should do something a little different than we’ve been doing.’ We’ve been doing one or two stadiums every year, but we said, ‘This is all we should do.’ Having him and Chris together and Little Big Town up there, it’s a pretty, pretty amazing show.”
George Strait and Chris Stapleton
Becky Fluke
The outing includes stops at stadiums in Seattle and Milwaukee, venues Strait hasn’t previously played, as well as cities where he hasn’t performed in a long time. Unlike his arena shows, which are often in the round, the stadium stage will be in the end zone with minimal but top-of-the-line production, befitting Strait’s low-key presence. “We’re not carrying pyro or lasers or sh– like that,” Messina says. “There’s no dancers. People are there to see George.”
Tickets will go on pre-sale Oct. 26 and start at $59. The regular on-sale begins Nov. 4.
The ability to still sell out stadiums five decades into his career fills Strait, 70, with gratitude. “It’s amazing,” he says. “I’ve got the best fans in the world and I’m glad they still come out to hear us play. My whole career has been amazing as far as that goes. I’ve been blessed to be with a great record company, MCA, and although they don’t play me much anymore, country radio was really good to me for a lot of years and I really appreciate those years.”
And Strait has been great for country radio. With iconic songs like “Amarillo by Morning,” “The Chair,” “The Fireman” and “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” his 61 top 10s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart are the most of any artist, as are his 100 total entries on the chart. On Hot Country Songs, his 44 No. 1s also set a record, as do his 86 top 10s.
With so many smashes, Strait’s shows are usually wall-to-wall hits, and while he tries to change the set list up, “there are certain songs that I feel we have to do – I don’t want anything thrown at me!” he jokes. “I’m kidding, of course, but I just know when I go to see a certain artist it’s usually because of certain songs. If I don’t hear them, I’m disappointed.”
Like many artists, Strait gained a new appreciation for performing live when he was unable to play concerts during the pandemic shutdown. “I never took being able to play music for granted, but I certainly didn’t expect something like the pandemic to happen,” he says. “I think we all were afraid we might never get to play in those arenas or stadiums again; that it would be too restricted. I love watching football on TV again now and seeing people sitting shoulder to shoulder in these huge stadiums. It happened faster than I expected.”
While many artists find it hard to build a connection with their fans in a huge stadium, Strait says he’s just the opposite, and incredibly, still gets butterflies before he hits the stage. “For me it’s very personal. I can feel every person out there. It’s a huge vibe. Huge,” he says. “I’m always very nervous days or even weeks before. The day of, I’m not very good to be around, I don’t think. It all goes away though as soon as I walk onstage.”
George Strait and Little Big Town
Jason Stoltzfutz
Strait has known Stapleton and Little Big Town for years. The lineup played a stadium show in Minneapolis in November 2021 (in a concert rescheduled from the pandemic) and in Kansas City this past July, but Strait says the dates were less of a test run for the 2023 stadium shows than they were simply playing with his friends: “They’re both super talented artists. I love working with both.”
During the Kansas City date, Stapleton’s wife, Morgane, asked the pair when they were going to do a duet together. “They go, ‘We’re going to figure something out,’” Messina says, though he adds, “George and Chris aren’t the most talkative people in the world when it comes to giving an answer. Though at least when you have Morgane pushing the envelope a little bit, that sure makes it easier instead of me asking. I know they love working with each other.”
On those dates, Stapleton joined Strait for a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” (a frequent selection on Strait’s setlist) and LBT harmonized with Strait on his hit “You Look So Good in Love.” Strait says while “there’s no guarantee that we’ll do songs together, [there’s] a high probability” that some crossover will occur. “If we do, we’ll pick something that works for both of us. Whether or not it’s ‘You Wreck Me’ or something else, you’ll just have to come and see,” he teases.
Strait’s last release was 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, which was his 27th album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, the most of any artist. While he says he can’t promise that he’ll have new music by the time the first stadium date rolls around in May, “we could possibly have something new by then. It’s been a while for me and I’m definitely getting the itch.”
Though the first date isn’t until May, Strait is getting the itch to get back onstage as well, as he quotes his own lyrics from a 2011 song to describe his long love affair with his audience. “By the time showtime arrives every night, I’m usually tired of waiting and champing at the bit to go,” he says. “’When I walk through those curtains and see those smiling faces, my feet don’t touch the ground again till I walk back out and get on that bus that got me here’ — that’s from a song I wrote called ‘I’ll Always Remember You.’ It’s a true statement.”
Strait doesn’t rule out a similar run in 2024. “Whether or not we do it again the following year depends on how we all feel it went when we’re finished with these shows,” he says. “Chris and I haven’t talked about 2024 at this point.” Messina adds that a tour with shows 20 weekends in a row isn’t going to repeat, but a short outing could happen again. “It depends upon how he likes it or doesn’t like it,” he says. “The good thing about George Strait is we can do anything that he wants to do.”
George Strait 2023 tour dates:
May 6: Glendale, Arizona, State Farm StadiumJune 3: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, American Family FieldJune 17: Seattle, Washington, Lumen FieldJune 24: Denver, Colorado, Empower Field at Mile HighJuly 29: Nashville, Tennessee, Nissan StadiumAugust 5: Tampa, Florida, Raymond James Stadium
Calls to break up Live Nation Entertainment are getting louder.
The American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit advocating for more aggressive antitrust enforcement, urged the Department of Justice on Wednesday to unwind the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation for allegedly price gouging customers in addition to strong-arming artists and venues into accepting unfavorable conditions. In a letter to the DOJ obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the group claims that the live-events behemoth continues to violate the conditions of a 2010 settlement greenlighting the deal.
“Ticketmaster’s market power over live events is ripping off sports and music fans and undermining the vibrancy and independence of the music industry,” said Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “With new leadership at the DOJ committed to enforcing the antitrust laws, our new campaign helps connect the voices of fans, artists and others in the music business who are sick and tired of being at the mercy of Ticketmaster’s monopoly with enforcers who have the power to unwind it.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2009, two years after the live-events organizer announced plans to build its own ticketing service. Prior to the deal, Live Nation was Ticketmaster’s largest customer.
The merger was met with pushback. Bruce Springsteen, upset at Ticketmaster for steering concertgoers toward its own secondary ticketing platform, wrote in a 2009 letter to his fans that “the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing.” (Springsteen’s current tour lists dates with Ticketmaster listings.)
At the time, David Balto, an antitrust attorney at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, testified to the Senate that the combined company “will cut off the air supply for any future rival to challenge its monopoly in the ticket distribution market,” and use its newfound reach to “diminish competition in independent concert promotion.”
Antitrust regulators approved the deal with certain conditions. They required Ticketmaster to sell its ticketing service subsidiary, Paciolan, to Comcast and to license its ticketing software to Live Nation’s rival, AEG. The new company was also not allowed to bundle or retaliate against venues for working with other ticketing services.
The American Economic Liberties Project argues that Live Nation is violating the consent decree. It points to conditioning the availability of the company’s performers to independent venues using Ticketmaster’s services.
“Live Nation essentially uses its concert promotion services to bully venues away from using the few competitors that Ticketmaster still has,” states an analysis from the group. “If a venue opts not to use those services, Live Nation retaliates by effectively boycotting the venue. Because Live Nation controls so much of the market for concert promotion, being able to book performers who contract with Live Nation can make or break a venue’s ability to survive.”
In 2019, the DOJ found that Live Nation had been violating the terms of the settlement by forcing venues to accept Ticketmaster’s ticketing services as a condition for hosting Live Nation performers and retaliating against those that refused. The agency, in turn, threatened to assess monetary penalties for additional violations and installed a monitor tasked with investigating further breaches of the consent decree, which was extended until 2025.
The organization also claims that Ticketmaster wouldn’t be able to charge hidden and excessive fees if it weren’t an illegal monopoly and that it facilitates price gouging by encouraging scalping. The company runs a secondary ticket market called Ticketmaster Resale, where they charge a second, more lucrative fee in addition to the fee assessed on its primary ticket market. By allowing scalpers to buy up the majority of tickets, Ticketmaster can essentially assess a second fee on consumers who missed out on the initial sale of concert tickets.
“Ticketmaster has an incentive to minimize the genuine sales by concertgoers on the primary market, by either restricting sales or allowing scalpers to buy, and then profiting from the price gouging in the secondary market, where consumers pay far more,” the analysis states. (The American Economic Liberties Project’s petition is here.)
This article was originally published on THR.com.
Live Nation Concerts has announced Geni Lincoln will be joining the company as their new president of California region. Lincoln will oversee all booking, marketing and business operations in California for the leading live entertainment promoter. She previously served as the GM and senior vp of live events for the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
“I am very excited to return to Live Nation and join the stellar California team,” said Lincoln. “I have been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best teams in the business and look forward to continuing growing those relationships in this role at Live Nation.”
Concert industry veteran Rich Best, who previously served as president of California is now joining Live Nation’s global team. Under the leadership of Arthur Fogel and Omar Al-joulani, the global promoting team produces and promotes Live Nation’s worldwide tours for artists including The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Post Malone, Bruno Mars and more. Best has been with Live Nation for over 20 years, and in his time as a promoter has continued to help a roster of artists plan worldwide tours including Pearl Jam, Rufus Du Sol, and more.
Lincoln has worked at the Kia Forum for nine years and was part of the team responsible for maintaining the legendary venue’s high rankings every year and transforming the artist experience there. Live Nation booked hundreds of shows during Lincoln’s time at the Forum and Lincoln has worked very closely with much of the team she is now leading.
“We are thrilled to welcome Geni back to Live Nation, leading our California team,” said Jordan Zachary, co-president of US Concerts. “In her prior role at the Forum she has worked incredibly closely with our teams and we’re excited to see her continue to support even more of our division and the artists we support across California.”
Best added “This is a great opportunity for my friend Geni and I give her a warm welcome to one of the most vibrant concert markets in the world. At the same time I’m incredibly excited to take the next step living out my dream working with artists on a global stage.”
Her move to Live Nation is full circle as she began her career working for House of Blues Entertainment at Universal Amphitheatre in Hollywood, which became part of Live Nation during her tenure. (Universal Amphitheatre closed in 2013). In addition to her work in live events, Geni has also spent the last five years volunteering with Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Los Angeles – a non-profit social justice organization empowering young girls through music education.
Car Seat Headrest singer Will Toledo told fans on Tuesday (Oct. 18) that he is unable to embark on the band’s planned West Coast U.S. tour and an appearance at this weekend’s When We Were Young festival due to what he described as ongoing serious health issues.
“After another month of struggling to regain my health, I am currently forced to face the fact that my body lacks the basic levels of functionality necessary to leave the house most days, let along embark on a tour,” Toledo wrote in a note to fans.
Though the 30-year-old singer did not specify what is ailing him, he said as a result of his illness they’ve been forced to pull out of the all-star When We Were Young event at the Las Vegas Festival Ground (Oct. 22, 23, 29) slated to feature sets from Paramore, My Chemical Romance, AFI, Hawthorne Heights, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes, The Linda Lindas, Manchester Orchestra, The Used and many more.
“We are unfortunately forced to pull out of the When We Were Young festival dates and cancel our upcoming California tour,” Toledo noted of scheduled October dates in Pioneertown, CA (Oct. 20), Los Angeles (Oct. 25), San Diego (Oct. 26) and Santa Ana (Oct. 27). Refunds for the headlining dates will be available at point of purchase.
The band also pulled out of the Frantic City Fest in New Jersey on Sept. 24 citing unspecified “continued health issues as well as a planned Sept. 2 slot at Out of Space in Evanston, Illinois due to a rebound case of the post-COVID condition “histamine intolerance,” which Toledo said involves “heavy nausea, fatigue, dizziness and a ‘buzzing’ nervous system.”
Check out Toledo’s note below.
The Knitting Factory brand is returning to Los Angeles after more than a decade.
The new venue, Knitting Factory NoHo, will open on the second floor of the Federal Bar in North Hollywood. The venue is a 300-plus-capacity room that offers a patio and expansive local views from the historic building. Formerly a bank, the Federal Bar building was built in 1929 and has high-beamed ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Since Knitting Factory Hollywood closed in 2009, Knitting Factory Entertainment (KFE) CEO Morgan Margolis has developed a hospitality division of the company. In Los Angeles alone, this includes The Federal Bar, El Tejano, Thirsty Merchant, Cantiki and Boomtown Brewery partnerships. KFE is also behind the Desert Daze festival with partner Phil Pirrone. Additionally, the company remains a longtime partner with local promoter and Spaceland Presents CEO Mitchell Frank on the Regent Theatre in Downtown L.A.
“While this is a more intimate venue than our partner venue, Regent Theatre (1,000 cap.), our team plans to bring incredible live experiences for musicians, comedians, artists, and fans alike, as our company has been doing for decades,” said Margolis in a statement. “In North Hollywood specifically, we’ve been in the area since The Federal Bar opened with a private performance from jazz legend Stanley Clarke in January 2011, and there is an appetite for more music-based programming as the neighborhood continues to grow into a distinct residential and entertainment district.”
Knitting Factory
Morgan Margolis
The space above the Federal Bar previously hosted private events and live shows from artists including John Doe, Kurt Vile, Big Thief, Ducktails, Cayucas, Sea Wolf, Chuck Prophet, Jenny O. and Motopony. Existing facilities are currently undergoing major renovations, including raising and widening the stage, improving sightlines, and upgrading audio-visual production. The new venue also hides a classic speakeasy, which will operate as a private VIP bar and green room.
Veteran music curator Chris Diaz will serve as Knitting Factory Noho’s consultant talent booker. Diaz got his start as a sound engineer and local booker at Knitting Factory Hollywood. Diaz moved from sound engineer to senior talent booker, moving to New York after Knitting Factory Hollywood closed to program the newly opened Knitting Factory Brooklyn. He returned to Los Angeles in 2013 to book two venues for California promoter Goldenvoice — The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip and The Glass House Concert Hall in Pomona — before booking for Spaceland Presents at The Regent Theatre.
“Working with Knitting Factory Entertainment again, and specifically with Morgan, is like being reunited with a long-lost family member,” said Diaz. “It is very exciting to be a part of bringing this legendary brand back to Los Angeles, to help ensure its future legacy.”
Programming for the new L.A. venue is set to begin later this year. The news of the new North Hollywood location comes after the closure of Knitting Factory Brooklyn and the announcement of a new Knitting Factory venue that will open in New York’s East Village neighborhood in early 2023.
Greta Van Fleet have been forced to postpone a trio of shows after singer Josh Kiszka ruptured his eardrum during a show in Bangor, Maine earlier this month. “It’s with a heavy heart that we must reschedule our shows this upcoming week,” the band wrote in a statement.
“During our last show in Bangor [on Oct. 8], I ruptured an eardrum and upon further evaluation I have just been advised it needs more time to fully heal than initially anticipated. I’m working closely with my team to ensure I get proper rest in order to finish out the year strong.” The group said they are working on rescheduling the dates as soon as possible.
The affected shows were slated on Tuesday(Oct. 18) in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wednesday (Oct. 19) in Greenville, South Carolina and Oct. 21 in Jacksonville, Florida. “I’m gutted to have to do this and I cannot begin to express how much I appreciate the love and support you give us every night,” Kiszka told fans. “It’s devastating me to make this announcement, but know it’s imperative in order to keep performing.” The band encouraged fans who will want to see them to hold on to their tickets, or to seek a refund at point of purchase.
According to GVF’s updated tour scheduled, their next date will be at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Oct. 25; at press time it was unclear if an announced Oct. 22 show in Estero, Florida at Hertz Arena is still on.
Back in March the band postponed the eight remaining dates on their Dreams in Gold tour after guitarist Jake Kiszka was hospitalized with pneumonia.
See the band’s post below.
Way back in 2018, Elton John launched the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, billed as his final, three-year-long global trek. The announcement of his final shows has paid dividends, generating more than half a billion dollars while he plays to more than four million fans. So far, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed $661.3 million and sold 4.5 million tickets across 257 shows around the world through Oct. 9.
John has been banking millions since the tour began, but stepped on the gas after returning from a two-year COVID-19 delay. After playing 39 North American arena dates in the spring, he flew to Europe for a 19-date stadium run, and then came back stateside for more than 30 domestic stadium shows. Of those, 20 have played so far, adding $133.4 million and 830,000 tickets to the tour’s sum.
From one North American leg to another, attendance jumped by 192% to 41,513 per show, and nightly revenue increased by 160% to $6.7 million.
The 39 stadium shows that have played so far in Europe and North America have earned $202.6 million and sold 1.3 million tickets, making up 31% and 30%, respectively, of the tour’s total figures, despite accounting for just 15% of its shows.
In getting to this point, John’s goodbye run is the third tour in Boxscore history to pass the $600 million threshold, following U2’s 360 Tour, which grossed $736.4 million in 2009-11, and Ed Sheeran’s reigning champ, The Divide Tour, which earned $776.4 million from 2017 to 2019.
Sheeran’s all-time champ is an interesting comparison point, with 258 shows throughout its two-and-a-half-year run – just one more than John’s tour has played so far. In contrast to Sheeran and U2, as well as other $500 million tours by Guns ‘N Roses, The Rolling Stones and Coldplay, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has spent most of its time in arenas. While these classic rock greats made their sums quickly in 50,000-plus-capacity stadiums, John has been a road horse in 15,000-cap arenas, able to push high ticket prices in a relatively intimate setting.
The current North American leg continues with 13 more shows before its Nov. 20 close at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. John continues with a 10-stadium run in Australia and New Zealand in January, plus a return to European arenas with more than 40 shows in the spring. The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour is scheduled to close at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena on July 8, 2023, and with just $115 million between him and the all-time record, John soldiers on at breakneck speed.
Across his career, John has grossed $1.7 billion and sold 19.1 million tickets, becoming the highest grossing solo act in Billboard Boxscore’s three-decade-plus history.
Catching her breath as she opens up a Zoom call, Rina Sawayama is quick to offer an explanation.
“Sorry if there’s some slight background noise,” she says, as a low rumble of hushed conversations echo behind her. “I’m in rehearsals right now and trying to step out. Everywhere else is too cold, so I have to sit in the corner of the rehearsal room for this.”
It’s indicative of the British pop star’s life as of late — when she speaks with Billboard, she’s putting the final touches on her Hold the Girl Tour, an international set of live dates that began Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland that will see her perform in Great Britain, North America, New Zealand and Australia through January 2023.
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The show simply continues on the momentum Sawayama has been building throughout the year — along with completing her long-delayed U.S. tour of her debut album Sawayama, the star has been hard at work promoting and releasing Hold the Girl, her critically-acclaimed sophomore set dealing starkly with mental health and childhood trauma through the lens of alternative pop songs.
For Sawayama though, the release of Hold the Girl has felt more like putting out two albums at once — since COVID-19 effectively shut down much of the promotional work surrounding her debut in 2020 (as well as her original European tour), the star has been working double duty when it comes to unveiling the new project.
“It’s the fans who couldn’t come and get their records signed the first time are coming round with two vinyls now,” she explains. “They’re talking about their experience about how both albums have helped them through difficult times, so it really feels like I’m promoting two albums in a way.”
A lot has changed for the singer since debuting Sawayama — back then, for example, the star says that because she didn’t have a live opportunity to commune with her fans, she found herself diving deep online to figure out what the response to her work looked like.
“It was all online, it was all tweets, and back then I used to read every tweet and YouTube comment and all of the stuff like that,” she says. “I was reading every review and comment, and I did that for the first record — I read so many and I really cared about what everyone thought. I’ve very happily moved on from that.”
The subject matter has also evolved — throughout the new LP, Sawayama explores the idea of parenting her inner child and coming to terms with traumatic events from her childhood. Songs like the title track and “Forgiveness” seek to create reconciliation, while others like “Your Age” and “Frankenstein” seethe with rage at having gone through pain in the first place.
It’s an album dappled with personal truths and revelations that Sawayama was ready to share after a few years of therapy. The therapy process itself was “really hard,” she says, as she was encouraged to “come to a realization that your whole world is turned upside down.” But once she had moved past that, the writing and producing process of her album “was very good for me.”
Then, it came time to promote the project, which came with its own complications for the singer. “I talked about the very deep, emotional parts of the record to too many people, and it felt like I was sort of re-traumatizing myself every time,” Sawayama offers. “I think I did 120 interviews for this record, and I really thought I could handle it emotionally — but it was quite a lot. I never got specific, but even just alluding to the trauma, your body sets up this little reaction inside of you where it’s getting ready for fight or flight.”
But instead of succumbing to the emotional exhaustion of reliving some of her darkest moments over and over, Sawayama is choosing to find the silver lining in the promotional push. “I think it was a lesson that you can be boundaried about what you talk about; you can share it with the people who understand, but you don’t have to share it with everyone,” she says, relief hanging off each word.
As a cadre of excited voices begin to rally behind her once again, Sawayama is more than happy to refocus onto the task at hand — creating a show that fans are going to love. “It’s my favorite bit of what I do,” she says, excitedly.
The Hold the Girl Tour promises to be a spectacle in and of itself, with Sawayama describing the everything as “bigger.” She’s teamed up with production company WFB Live — who helped craft Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia Tour as well as Post Malone’s 12 Carat Tour — to take the same number of people on stage (two band members, two backup dancers, and Sawayama) and make it feel more extravagant.
Sawayama quickly rattles off just a few examples of the amped-up production — new lighting rigs, stunning choreography, interesting stage pieces — before coming to her own conclusion of what they’re accomplishing. “We’re now maximizing the sound, maximizing the slay,” she says, before laughing at her own joke.
It’s a strange experience for the star, especially with her U.S. tour set to kick off on November 1 in Brooklyn, NY — despite having spent the earlier part of this year touring the States, Sawayama is returning a mere six months later and playing venues doubled in size. Plus, she adds, they’re traveling to states they didn’t get to hit the first time around.
“There’s cities like Nashville, and places in Texas, and North Carolina, where we’ve never been to, and we’re having to scale down the show quite a bit,” she says. “Even thinking about, if we’re walking five steps in the New York show to get from one end to the other, let’s say, you have to cut it down to two steps in these other places. It’s a weird puzzle, and it keeps things exciting.”
That excitement remains in the singer’s voice throughout the interview, as she remains in awe of the task at hand. “For a U.K. artist, being able to tour the U.S. and have success doing it is a dream,” she says. “I feel so lucky that I can do multiple tours and festivals in the same year.”
“Success” is an important word to associate with Sawayama at the moment — after unveiling Hold the Girl in September and earning a No. 3 debut on the U.K. Albums Chart, the singer officially became the highest-charting Japanese artist in the history of the U.K charts.
It’s especially important for an artist who fought publicly for recognition as a British artist back in 2020, prompting the BRITs to change the rules for their eligibility regarding British citizenship. “When I heard that, it was like, ‘Oh my god, maybe I’m helping make that happen for someone else right now,’” she explained, adding that BLACKPINK earning their No. 1 position on the chart that same week felt appropriate. “Just to see all of this East and Southeast Asian representation like that is something I never would have thought could happen five or six years ago.”
With the whiplash of her tour-to-album-back-to-tour schedule weighing on her, Sawayama takes a moment to breathe as she lays out her plans for the future. “I’m allowed to take time with my third record,” she says, audibly relaxing as she does. “It’s been a very crazy, very fast journey; with the first and second albums, I felt like I was working with a lot of limitations in terms of writing and promoting it. I feel like I’ve made a lot of different mistakes with the first and second record — I’m immensely proud of them, but on the third record, I want to consolidate and take time to really focus on what I enjoy and love.”
Beck will no longer serve as the opening act on Arcade Fire‘s upcoming North American tour, Billboard can confirm. Instead, the Haitian band Boukman Eksperyans will take his place.
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While Beck didn’t provide a reason for his decision, his exit comes just months after sexual misconduct allegations against Arcade Fire’s frontman Win Butler. The allegations against Butler were first published on Aug. 27 in a Pitchfork story. The report detailed the accounts of four individuals who claimed to have had inappropriate sexual interactions with Butler, with one alleging that the singer had assaulted them; he has denied that any of the alleged incidents were nonconsensual.
In addition to the testimonies of his alleged victims, a statement from Butler was included in Pitchfork‘s report. In it, the musician says the relationships he’s had outside of his marriage to Arcade Fire bandmate Régine Chassagne have all been consensual, and that his wife had been aware of them.
“Our marriage has, in the past, been more unconventional than some,” he wrote. “I have connected with people in person, at shows, and through social media, and I have shared messages of which I am not proud. Most importantly, every single one of these interactions has been mutual and always between consenting adults. It is deeply revisionist, and frankly just wrong, for anyone to suggest otherwise.”
“I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false,” he continued. “I vehemently deny any suggestion that I forced myself on a woman or demanded sexual favors. That simply, and unequivocally, never happened.”
“While these relationships were all consensual, I am very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behavior,” he added. “Life is filled with tremendous pain and error, and I never want to be part of causing someone else’s pain.”