Elton John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, where he’s mistakenly announced as “Sir John Elton” as he approached Her Majesty. He was honored for his for services to music and his charitable services.
After his investiture, Elton revealed his conversation with the Queen: “She said I must be terribly busy…but there was no way I would miss this.”
Elton was honored by the Royal Family once again in 2020, appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by then Prince Charles (now King Charles II).
Madonna has reportedly broken up with her boyfriend and is now dedicating herself to her upcoming Celebration tour, with an eye toward “reminding everyone what a star she is,” reports Page Six.
Madonna started dating 23-year-old model Andrew Darnell soon after breaking up with her boyfriend of three years, Ahlamalik Williams, last year. But a source tells Page Six, “It was only a very casual thing [with Darnell] so she’s not broken-hearted … She had a lot of fun with Andrew but it was never love or anything like that.”
However, the source also claims that Madonna is having “a bit of a crisis of confidence” and the breakup “doesn’t help.” According to the source, Madonna felt that when she appeared at the Grammy Awards earlier this month, “no one cared that she was in the room, and it used to be so different for her.”
As a result, the source claims, she now feels “out of favor” — but she’s determined to show everyone that you can’t keep the Queen of Pop down via her nearly sold-out Celebration tour, kicking off later this year.
“She’s throwing herself into the tour and is determined that not only will it be brilliant, but it will also thrust her back into the limelight,” the source dished, adding, “She wants to remind everyone what a star she is.”
Queen is back with another peek behind the scenes with the latest episode of their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live. After last week’s episode focused on picking the right opening number, this week they look at one of their go-to openers, the song “Now I’m Here.”
The episode features four live performances of the 1974 track, from the Sheer Heart Attack album, which has appeared on more Queen set lists than any other song.
Two of the live performances feature Freddie Mercury performing the song, one at the London Rainbow in 1974 and another at the London Hammersmith in 1975. The other two feature Adam Lambert and were shot at Summer Sonic, Tokyo, in 2014 and at the band’s Rhapsody Over London show in 2022.
The band’s GRRR Live! debuts at number seven on the Billboard Total Album Sales chart, which since May of 1991 has tallied album releases based on traditional album sales, as opposed to the Billboard 200, which ranks them based on sales, streaming and more.
This is the fifth straight year the band has landed in the Top 10 on this chart.
GRRR Live! was recorded at the band’s December 15, 2012, concert at Newark’s Prudential Center, which was part of their 50 & Counting tour, celebrating their 50th anniversary. It features guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, John Mayer,Gary Clark Jr., Mick Taylor and The Black Keys.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Smokey Robinson has done a lot in his career, but there’s still one thing he’s hoping to accomplish. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Smokey reveals his desire to try his hand at acting.
“If there’s anything left on my bucket list, it would be that I would like to make a movie, a good movie,” he tells the show. “… I’d like to be in a really good movie and be a character.”
Smokey also discussed how he feels about a movie or Broadway show being made about his life and career, and he says if it happens, it’s “gonna be very candid.”
“I might as well be candid. I don’t want to sugarcoat it… There’s going to be my ups and my downs, and my positives and my negatives, and all that has to be included, if it’s going to be real,” he shares. “I want it to be real, so people can get a good feeling of what my life has been and what it’s like.”
Queen has just landed a new Spotify milestone: The band’s classic track “We Will Rock You” has surpassed one million streams on the streaming service.
“We Will Rock You,” written by guitarist Brian May, was featured on the band’s 1977 album, News of the World, and was released as a single on October 7 of that year. It went on to be certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.
The song isn’t the only Queen track to reach such a milestone on the streaming service: Back in December, “Bohemian Rhapsody” surpassed two billion steams on Spotify.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation
KISS’ Gene Simmons has welcomed a new member into his family.People reports that the rocker’s daughter Sophie, with wife Shannon Tweed-Simmons, wed fiancé James Henderson Wednesday at Shannon’s home in Los Angeles.
The mag reports that the couple first tied the knot Friday at a courthouse in Los Angeles, before celebrating with 30 guests at a bash in the backyard of Shannon’s “she-shed.”
“We couldn’t be prouder of our daughter,” Gene and Shannon tell the mag. “James is a solid young man, and Sophie can do anything she puts her mind to,” adding, “We wish them a lifetime of love and happiness. If they are even half as happy as we are, they will last long.”
Sophie chose a blush Lahav dress for her big day, while her groom wore a Tom Ford suit.
As for the location of the wedding, Sophie shares, “The view truly can’t be beat and I love that it is intimate and family oriented,” adding, “James and I never wanted a big wedding so this is the perfect space for us.”
And the couple plan to continue the party: Another speakeasy-style bash with 250 guests is happening Thursday in Los Angeles, and on Friday, they are hosting a brunch for out-of-town guests who flew in for the affair.
We are getting our first real look at the upcoming Disney+ docu-special about U2’s Bono and TheEdge, featuring talk show host David Letterman. A trailer for Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming has just been released, with the special described as “part concert movie, part travel adventure plus a whole lot of Bono and The Edge, with Dave’s humor throughout.”
The trailer features clips of the two rockers walking through Dublin with Letterman, along with performance footage, clips of the two singing with others at a local pub and more.
“Traditional storytelling part of Dublin,” Bono shares in the clip. “It’s in our music. Our songs, they’re still growing, they’re still emerging.”
In the trailer, Letterman asks the rockers about changing up the songs for their upcoming album, Songs of Surrender, dropping March 17. Bono notes, “We wanted to strip away the artifice that inevitably emerges when you’ve been around this long.”
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, directed by Morgan Neville, debuts March 17 on Disney+.
As previously reported, a recent article in Variety claimed The Rolling Stones had collaborated with Paul McCartney for their upcoming album, with the Beatle allegedly laying down bass tracks recently at a studio in Los Angeles. Well, it turns out fans shouldn’t expect to hear McCartney on the entire record.
ABC Audio has learned that McCartney does play bass on one track, and early reports, also by Variety, suggesting RingoStarr was also part of the project are inaccurate.
As for the record itself, it is reportedly being produced by Ozzy Osbourne/Iggy Pop/Elton John producer Andrew Watt. So far, there’s no word on when The Stones’ album will come out, but whenever it does, it will be the band’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The last new album they released was the 2016’s blues covers album Blue & Lonesome.
Elton John is making it even harder to break his record of having the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Last month, Billboardreported Sir Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the first trek ever to earn more than $800 million, besting the previous record Ed Sheeran set in 2019 after his Divide tour made $776.4 million.
The outlet reports Sir Elton’s tour added an additional $40.9 million to its coffers in the month of January, during which he performed eight shows across Australia and New Zealand.
The numbers now extend his lead atop the Top Tours chart. Sir Elton is also #1 on the Top Boxscores chart for making $11.3 million after performing a pair of shows at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
This marks the ninth time an artist has simultaneously ruled both charts, but the second time for Sir Elton. The only other act who ruled both charts twice is K-pop sensation BTS.
Sir Elton’s pair of performance at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Australia, is #2 on the recent Boxscores chart after making $10.2 million. He also appears in fourth place, making $8.4 million for his two shows at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Sir Elton’s farewell tour is scheduled to conclude on July 8 in Stockholm, Sweden.
As previously reported, Sir Elton’s career total when it comes to concerts stands at $1.863 billion grossed and 19.9 million tickets sold — the highest for any solo artist in Billboard Boxscore history.
