Music

Luke Bryan plans to “Country On” in 2023.

The superstar’s summer tour will take its name from his 30th #1, kicking off a 36-city run July 15 in Syracuse, New York. 

An impressive slate of newcomers will join him on the trek, including Jackson Dean, Chayce Beckham, Jon Langston, Conner Smith, Hailey Whitters, Tyler Braden, Ashley Cooke and Alana Springsteen.

“Artists get into the business to make music and perform it for the fans,” Luke reflects. “Leaving it all out on that stage is what it’s all about for me. I’m excited to support and have so many talented new artists along for the ride this year. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of our job.”

Presales start on Tuesday, January 31, before tickets become available to the general public on Friday. 

Of course, Luke won’t exactly be chilling at home until he hits the road this summer. On Wednesday, he restarts his Vegas residency at Resorts World, before the season 21 premiere of American Idol on Sunday, February 19, on ABC.

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This year’s Billboard Women in Music Awards will honor a vast array of female stars in multiple genres.

Kim Petras will receive the Chartbreaker Award, while Latto will get the Powerhouse Award. Becky G will be honored with the Impact Award, while Lana Del Rey gets the Visionary Award.

K-pop girl group TWICE, rising rapper Doechii and country star Lainey Wilson will also be honored at the March 1 ceremony, hosted by Quinta Brunson at the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in LA. More honorees, as well as presenters and the recipient of the Woman of the Year Award, will be announced soon.

In a statement, Billboard‘s editorial director, Hannah Karp, said, “We’re thrilled to recognize these groundbreaking artists across genres and generations who are defining today’s sound – and paving the way for tomorrow’s women in music.”

The event is open to the public; tickets go on sale Friday, February 3, at 1 p.m. ET at BillboardWomenInMusic.com. Can’t make it to LA? The event will also stream live.

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The Grammys has landed a big one: Harry Styles will perform on this Sunday’s ceremony.

Harry joins previously announced Grammy performers Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras, and Sam Smith. Harry is up for six Grammys, including Record, Album and Song of the Year. Beyonce leads all nominees with nine nods in total. 

Harry already has one Grammy to his name, for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Watermelon Sugar.”

Harry will perform the last North American dates of his Love on Tour trek on Tuesday and Wednesday. After the Grammys on Sunday, he’ll head down to Australia to resume the tour in Perth.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, will air at 8 p.m. ET Sunday night on CBS. The Grammy Premiere Ceremony — where they give out all the awards that they don’t show on camera — will be streamed via live.grammy.com at 3:30pm ET.

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Britney Spears is reassuring fans that she’s doing just fine following her reported police wellness check. 

Taking to Twitter on Saturday, Britney shared a short clip of her posing in front of a gym mirror and wrote, “Yep that’s me … I’m alive and well.”

“But not really convinced on these health juices, I mean there are SO MANY !!! Yoga and chest call me in. I do it inside, outside, wherever I fancy … this is me at a gym living my best life,” she continued. 

The pop star, 41, also addressed her absence from Instagram in the thread, explaining, “I shut down my Instagram because there were too many people saying I looked like an idiot dancing and that I looked crazy.”

Britney added that she’s a “sensitive” person and the comments “hurt [her] feelings.”  She also expressed that she was surprised fans were so worried about her due to her break from the social media app. 

“I’m shocked as hell that when I took my Instagram down fans got worried and sent the cops to my house  … it really was uncalled for,” the “Circus” singer tweeted. “l adore my fans but for those who did that aren’t real fans and I honestly felt like it was a way to make me look bad !!!”

“l’m alive, fine, healthy, and ready to start a new day – a new morning anew !!! To my real fans, God bless you,” she said. 

Britney’s posts come just days after she issued a statement on how police were called to her home. Sources from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department previously told ABC News that deputies responded to the singer’s home Tuesday, January 24, for a “check the wellbeing” call.

 It also comes shortly after Britney had deactivated her Instagram, which she has done many times before.

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Meghan Trainor’s been talking about having another baby since she and husband Daryl Sabara became parents to son Riley in 2021.  Well, now her dream has come true: She’s expecting another child.

“What a blessing,” Meghan tells People. “I’m just so grateful I can get pregnant. And I’m like, ‘I’m crushing it. This is amazing. This is my dreams.’ I’m halfway there — I want four kids!”

Meghan is four months along and she says compared to her first pregnancy, “This one was a ride. It was a rocky ride, but luckily it was during the holidays, so I could just chill and lay down. I pee every 20 minutes, and I’m fully out of breath just from talking. It’s great.” She’s also craving — yes — pickles.

On Instagram, Meghan posted a photo of herself posing with the sonogram, and captioned it, “BABY #2 COMING THIS SUMMER.”

But that’s not all: The “Made You Look” singer is also publishing her first book in April. It’s called Dear Future Mama: A TMI Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and New Motherhood from Your Bestie.

“I spent my entire pregnancy trying to get all the information I could possibly get…as the first of my friends to be pregnant, nobody around me but my mom, my aunts, and strangers on the internet knew what I was going through,” Meghan says in a statement.

“After feeling so overwhelmed and alone in my first pregnancy, I was inspired to write this book to make sure no other future mama ever felt like that,” she continues. “I want to give future mamas permission to find the right path for them —without the judgment of others. I want this book to feel like a hug from a bestie.” 

The guide is due April 25; you can pre-order it now.

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This week, newcomer Nate Smith scores his first #1 on the country chart as his debut single, “Whiskey on You,” takes its place at the top. 

Next up, the Paradise, California native is set to release his self-titled debut album — something he’s been dreaming of for quite awhile.

“It’s like one thing to put out singles, you know, and I love doing that,” he tells ABC Audio. “But the honor of getting to put a whole album out is crazy. I have wanted to do that since I was a kid.”

“I used to design album covers when I was 12 years old on Microsoft Paint,” he reminisces, “and I’d attach the like record label logo onto it and all that stuff. So it’s pretty wild.”

When Nate’s album arrives February 17, it won’t be sporting one of his self-made covers, however. Instead it’s simply a photo he describes as “kind of vintage.” 

This summer, Nate heads out on tour with Thomas Rhett.

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“Snap” singer Rosa Linn is gearing up for a busy 2023, with spots on several high-profile tours and new music. In fact, she “leaked” a new song on Instagram a few days ago. It doesn’t sound much like “Snap,” but both songs are performed in English.

That’s notable because the Armenian singer’s first language isn’t English. It’s not even her second language — that would be Russian. But like other pop stars who hail from different countries, like Denmark’s Lukas Graham, Italy’s Måneskin, Sweden’s Zara Larsson or Germany’s Kim Petras — she sings in English because she’s got her eye on the prize.

“Well, I do write in Armenian and Russian, too, but I always had this dream of becoming a globally known artist, songwriter, producer, performer [and] musician,” Rosa tells ABC Audio. “I just realized that that’s what the market is, y’know?”

Plus, Rosa says English fits her music better.

“I love [the] English language. I think it’s beautiful and it, y’know, it matches perfectly the melodies that I love,” she explains. “[The] Armenian language or Russian language may not match the melodies that I write as well as English would.”

It’s no wonder she writes songs that sound better in English — as Rosa notes, all her musical influences sang in English, too.

“When I was 15 I was a fan of Ozzy Osbourne,” she laughs. “I loved, like, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, System of a Down, who are also Armenians … I love Adele, Norah Jones, Coldplay, U2, I love everything.”

Rosa is going to open for Ed Sheeran on his Mathematics tour starting June 17 in Toronto. She’ll also jump on a tour with alt-rockers Milky Chance and Young the Giant.

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One of the most common refrains from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was that quarantining would give you the opportunity to pursue that passion project or new hobby you otherwise didn’t have time for. One of the people who actually took that advice was Queens of the Stone Age bassist Michael Shuman.

“Not being able to tour and be on the road … it gave me a chance to look at myself, try something different and challenge myself,” Shuman tells ABC Audio. “Having hours on end to toy with a different way of looking at music that I hadn’t explored before, I think, was my main focus.”

The result is a new solo endeavor called GLU, which Shuman began with the intention of changing up his usual guitar-based approach to songwriting.

“I think going to the computer and going to synthetic instruments and starting at that point just allowed my musical approach to open up,” Shuman explains.

For those who know him through his work with QotSA, the most surprising element of GLU will probably be Shuman’s rapping vocals.

“I wanted people to take my lyrics and my rhymes and my flow seriously, while also having this musical landscape that isn’t necessarily in a lot of modern hip-hop, or however you want to call it,” Shuman shares. “I kinda hate saying ‘hip-hop,’ ’cause it’s not that, but it is a lot of what influenced me on this.”

The debut GLU EP, My Demons, will arrive February 24. Its title track, which features Phantogram‘s Sarah Barthel, is out now.

“When you hear someone like [Barthel], who’s a real bada** and is really, really good at her craft, to have that [voice] come in and compliment the song was kinda everything,” Shuman says.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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