Music

Newly crowned ACM entertainer of the year Cody Johnson laid the foundation for his win with life-affirming songs like “‘Til You Can’t,” “The Painter,” “Dirt Cheap” and “The Fall.”

Now that he’s clinched the coveted title, the Texas cowboy is ready to have some fun with his next album — and especially his new radio single.  

“‘Horseback’ was probably one of the most fun songs to cut on Banks of the Trinity, and it’s actually not about the horse,” Cody says. “When I figured out that this is just about an old country boy that went through a divorce and she took his horse and he went and stole his horse back, I laughed until I cried, and it was so fun.”

“[One of the song’s writers] Wyatt McCubbin sang the demo and I fell in love with it,” he adds.

Once his most recent hit peaked at #1, choosing “Horseback” to lead the way was a no-brainer.  

“It was an easy choice for me as the flagship single from Banks of the Trinity because we had just come out of ‘The Fall,’ and it was such a serious song that I kind of wanted to change the channel a little bit and show you guys a little bit of my humorous side,” Cody says. “And it’s really freaking fun to sing.”

He’s set to perform “Horseback” June 24 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, before the arrival of the 16-song album on June 26. 

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The first thing you should know about Brontë Fall’s hit song “Invited to the Party” is that Brontë Fall isn’t an actual person — it’s the musical project of singer/songwriter Teri Bracken O’Brien.

Teri came up with the name by combining the surname of England’s famous literary Brontë sisters with the title of an Emily Brontë poem called “Fall, leaves, fall.” 

“It started as a band with my really good friend from music school. And so I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just part of the band. I write, I play violin, but I’m not the center,'” she tells ABC Audio, adding that she likes to “hide behind a band.”

But after her friend dropped out, Teri says, “I was so in love with what we had started and the songs we started writing and the whole vibe of it that I was like, ‘I can’t let this go by the wayside. I’m gonna be the front person.'”

She became an independent artist and, following the release of her 2024 album, Not Done Yet, reached a personal milestone that inspired her breakthrough hit.

“I was nominated for a Hollywood Independent Music Award last year,” she says. “And I know awards are, like, ‘Oh, giving awards for art is dumb,’ like, ‘everybody’s a winner’ — but the recognition honestly felt so good. I felt like I was finally an actual player in the music industry.”

“I didn’t win, but I was just talking to my guitar teacher about how great it felt. And she’s like, ‘Teri, you were invited to the party,'” she adds. “And I was like, ‘Yes, I was.’ You know? And I just felt like I had to celebrate it.”

Celebrating that kind of success also inspired Teri’s new Brontë Fall single, “Main Character Energy,” out now.

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While Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind, not everyone will get to attend Eddie Vedder’s 2026 Ohana Festival — three-day tickets are already sold out. However, here’s your chance to win a VIP experience to the festival.

Pearl Jam has announced a raffle offering two three-day VIP Ohana 2026 passes, along with round-trip travel to Los Angeles and four-night hotel stay. The winner will also receive a limited-edition poster signed by the PJ members, artist lounge passes, a backstage tour and even surfing lessons.

The raffle is being hosted by the platform Fandiem, and you can enter by donating to Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation. It’ll be open through Sept. 4.

For more info, visit Fandiem.com.

Ohana 2026 takes place Sept. 25-27 in Dana Point, California. Along with headlining sets from Pearl Jam and Vedder, the bill includes Bad Religion, Fontaines D.C., Alabama Shakes, Rilo Kiley, The Format and Billy Idol.

Pearl Jam’s performance is set to mark the debut of their new drummer. Matt Cameron, who manned the PJ kit for 27 years, announced his departure from the band in 2025.

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Akon and Ne-Yo have been on the road together as part of their Nights Like This tour, a collaboration Akon says has been a long time coming.

“Me and Ne-Yo go back 20 years,” he tells ABC Audio. “We always wanted to do something together eventually … but our careers always took us in two different directions.”

This time, however, their schedules and goals aligned, allowing them to finally bring the idea to life. “It just so happened that we were in a cycle to both go out on our own tour. And we just had so much in common as to what we wanted to do, all the way down to the timeline,” Akon says. “So it was like, yo, this could be the perfect time for us to come together and really do this big tour.”

He adds that if they had gone on separate tours first, their schedules wouldn’t have allowed for them to collaborate in this way, which is why they decided to put things in motion.

“This is our moment, you know what I mean? So we was like, let’s do it, man, share the same stage, go back and forth with our hit records and just throw the biggest party everybody’s ever seen for our culture around the time that we was coming up and doing music,” Akon explains.

After performing in Europe and the U.K., the North American leg of the Nights Like This tour begins Wednesday in Vancouver. Asked what fans can expect from the show, which supports his latest album, Beautiful Day, Akon kept the details under wraps.

“You gotta … buy the ticket and find out,” he teases. 

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Now that we’re halfway through 2026, Rolling Stone has rounded up this year’s releases into a new ranking called “The Best Songs of 2026 So Far.“

The top 10 includes Charli XCX at #1 with “SS26,” from her upcoming album Music, Fashion, Film. The magazine calls the track “hilariously brutal.” Ella Langley’s mega-smash “Choosin’ Texas,” which Rolling Stone describes as “a sparkling entry in the tear-in-my-beer canon,” sits at #3.

In at #4 is Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead,” a song the mag says “captured the feeling of being so deliriously head over heels that you feel literally sick.”

The #5 song makes the cut but is not a single: “Season 2 Weight Loss” by Harry Styles, in which the singer contemplates whether his fans would love him for who he truly is rather than the idol they believe him to be. Rolling Stone says it’s “one of the smartest, most intriguing records” he’s made to date.

Bruno Mars’ comeback single “I Just Might” lands at #8. According to Rolling Stone, it’s “the kind of effervescent pop-funk sugar that’s made him one of the most popular showmen in pop music.”

Beyond the top 10 are songs including sombr’s “Homewrecker,” The KID LAROI’s “Thank God,” Bella Kay’s “iloveitiloveitiloveit” and Gracie Abrams’ “Hit the Wall.”

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The band ME., featuring former Taking Back Sunday members Mark O’Connell and Eddie Reyes, has released a new song called “Grown Man.”

“The song isn’t just about love. It’s about trust,” O’Connell says of “Grown Man.” “It’s about second chances. It’s about finding someone who believes in you when you’ve forgotten how to believe in yourself.”

You can watch the “Grown Man” lyric video streaming on YouTube.

“Grown Man” will appear on the debut ME. album, titled All Good Things, due out July 24. The record also includes the previously released song “Special.”

“We are not the same guys we were 25 years ago,” Reyes says. “ME. is about growth. It’s about creating something new.”

Reyes, a founding member of Taking Back Sunday, parted ways with the band in 2018. O’Connell had drummed in TBS since 2000 before announcing his departure in early 2025.

Taking Back Sunday’s most recent album is 2023’s 152.

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Teyana Taylor wants to set the record straight: She says she was not prevented from joining the New York Knicks on the court following the team’s championship win.

A video of the moment surfed online with the caption, “They wasn’t tryna let Teyana Taylor on the court. San Antonio Trippin!” 

“A few things here,” Taylor wrote in the comments. “I was minding my business on FaceTime then I start walking towards the proper entrance and was actually stopped by the first young lady you see talking to me.”

“I think she was just a little overwhelmed, lol. It was a lot happening,” Teyana went on. “She was def over doing her job but at least she was doing it!”

Teyana added that it was difficult for anyone to access the court that night and clarified she had the credentials necessary to be there but wasn’t “willing to rush or trample my way in.” According to Teyana, she made it onto the court about a minute after the video was recorded.

“I was perfectly fine,” she said. “I had an absolute blast.”

Teyana has posted photos of her from the celebration. She reflected on the Knicks’ championship run and described the team’s journey as one of resilience, much like her own.

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Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Marc Anthony, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, U2’s Bono and The Edge are all set to perform at the Grand Opening Ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center. The event will be livestreamed globally at 11 a.m. CT on Thursday. Barack and Michelle Obama will be giving speeches.

Teddy Swims has shared a live performance of a new song called “Break Up in Reverse,” which is likely to appear on his as-yet unannounced new album. “So excited to share this song with you !!” he wrote on Instagram. Teddy also recently announced the opening acts for his upcoming Ugly Tour, which include Natasha Bedingfield.

Lola Young’s hit “Messy” was named song of the year and top streaming song at the ASCAP London Music Awards, held in the British capital on Tuesday.

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