Music

Halsey has assured fans that their recently disclosed health issues will not impact the upcoming Love and Power Tour, which is only days away from starting. 

Saying they were “legitimately just rehearsing and decided to jump on and talk about how excited I am,” Halsey clarified what they said in an earlier Instagram story, where they revealed they were diagnosed with multiple ailments that may be causing them to become allergic to most foods. 

With their tour days away, Halsey encouraged fans to start thinking about seeing them in person instead of worry about “that really sad story.”  

“I didn’t want you guys to think that something was wrong, so I jumped on to maybe give guys a little more positive of a vibe,” Halsey continued, teasing some features of the upcoming tour. “I changed the set list yesterday,” Halsey revealed, noting they “swapped a bunch of stuff around and added a bunch of songs.”

“I’ll pull a fast one. I’ll just change it last minute. That’s what I do,” they teased. 

“The show is wonderful,” Halsey continued. “The visuals are really cool and really intense.” 

The “Bad at Love” singer did bring down the mood to issue one final reminder to parents planning to attend one of their shows: “If you are bringing a young child to the show, consider this me telling you maybe to not,” adding that the tour’s “vibe” is not for “young, young children.”

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A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel has released a new song called “Free and Weightless,” a track off his upcoming debut solo album, What Normal Was.

“‘Free and Weightless’ stood on its own as an instrumental demo for a year before I cracked the code on the vocals,” Howerdel shares. “It was built out of a rolling collage of loops, which isn’t something I would normally do.”

“Thematically, everything on this record is pointed at personal relationships,” he explains. “The songs are a combination of a few conversations happening in a split-screen point-of-view. No one story is ever completely singular. It’s like patchwork.”

“Free and Weightless” is available now via digital outlets. It follows the previously released single “Poison Flowers.”

What Normal Was drops June 10. Howerdel will launch a U.S. solo tour in support of the album the following day, June 11, in Ventura, California. The outing will include two dates opening for Puscifer, which, of course, is fronted by Howerdel’s APC band mate, Maynard James Keenan.

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Dierks Bentley and Elle King team up once again in their newest duet, “Worth a Shot.” It’s the second time they’ve worked together on a song — their first collaboration was “Different for Girls,” which was a number-one country hit back in 2016.

It’s no coincidence that they’re teaming up again: Dierks and Elle are a match made in musical heaven, as the pair explain in a new interview on Apple Music Country’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen.

“I feel like I’m the perfect foil to Elle in so many different ways,” Dierks explains. “My voice just holds the line there pretty good, down the middle. It’s good for her to bounce her amazing voice off of, because mine’s just toeing the line.”

As for their real-life friendship? Dierks says that even though they’re very different, that part works well, too.

“I don’t have any tattoos, so I’m the opposite there in that way,” he continues. “We yin and yang really well together.”

Collaborating with Dierks has also been a way for Elle to explore her country side, starting from the very first time they worked together. She’s currently at work on a country-leaning album, and she says this musical chapter isn’t coming out of left field — on the contrary, it’s a part of her that’s always been there in her songs.

“And I also got signed to a rock and pop label because of a banjo song called ‘Good to Be a Man,’” Elle points out. “Which is a country song. So I feel like it’s a nice nod of, I had to go through all these things to end up where I feel most at home now. And I’m very happy to be here.”

“Worth a Shot” arrives on Friday.

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Chlöe Bailey is Allure’s new cover star. The singer opens up to the mag about body image, her sexy on-stage persona, and what she’s looking for in a relationship.

She tells Allure her relationship to her body is “complicated.” “I’ve always had thick thighs and a butt,” Chlöe says. “But I was growing up at a time when, if someone on television told you that you had a big butt, they meant it as an insult. So I was a little ashamed of my curves. I tried to hide them. It took a very, very long time. Now my favorite thing about [my body] is my butt.”

Chlöe cites Beyoncé and Jill Scott as singers who championed body positivity and made her feel more confident in her own skin. Now, she expresses that confidence while performing.

“I’m fearless. I feel sexy. I feel strong. I feel like nothing can hold me back,” she says of her on-stage persona. “…When I’m [not performing], I’m a bubbly, corny, clumsy person.”

That’s something she says can be confusing to men who want to date her.

“I present myself in my music videos as this really sensual girl, but when it comes to love and relationships, that’s not how I am,” she says. “But that’s what guys think of me sometimes. So, I’ve been pretty protective of my heart and figuring out guys’ true intentions.”

She adds, “I just want them to appreciate my nerdy side, my work ethic, and be my best friend. It has to be someone who’s really intellectual because that’s sexy. You can teach me things.”

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After teasing it on Instagram last month, Post Malone has dropped his new single, “Cooped Up,” featuring Roddy Ricch.

The last time the two worked together was on a remix of “Wow” back in 2019, and Ricch also seems grateful that Posty gave him a career boost: In the song, he raps, “Posty took me on my first damn tour date/He had me rockin’ every night, sold-out arenas.”

On the song, Post talks about returning to music and live performances after being sidelined by the pandemic, singing, “I’m about to pull up, hit switch, pull curtain/And I been waitin’ so long, now I gotta resurface…’Cause I been feelin’ cooped up.” 

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Post explains, “I’ve been out of my bag for a long time, and I’m trying to hop back in there, man.”

“Quarantine has been just so wacky. It’s just so strange going up in front of people and being able to sing for people again,” he notes, adding, “It’s about gaining that confidence back…I’m pumped to go out and meet fans again. I’m the most excited man in the world.”

“Cooped Up” is from Post’s new album, Twelve Carat Toothache, due out June 3.  He tells Zane that it’s about “the bipolar aspect, the duality of everything.”

Posty says, “There’s a lot of things, very much so, on this record that are tongue-in-cheek. I think this whole record is the most honest record I’ve made…But every song in there tells a story, so this is kind of like, ‘Here’s the life that we live, but there’s always something going on in the background.’”

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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Arcade Fire has shared a cover of the Harry Styles song “As It Was.”

The performance, which Win Butler and company recorded for BBC Radio 2, stays true to the melody of the pop star’s original while adding extra instrumentation to turn it into a full Arcade Fire jam.

You can watch the cover streaming now on YouTube.

Arcade Fire just released their new album, WE, last Friday. They also announced a North American tour in support of the record, which is set to kick off in October.

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Shawn Mendes is a big proponent of making environmentally conscious choices: His upcoming tour will be cutting CO2 emissions by 50% per show compared to his 2019 trek, for example.  Now, he’s extended that attitude towards the outfits he’ll be wearing onstage.

Shawn has partnered with Tommy Hilfiger for #PlayItForward, an initiative that will see Shawn rocking a “sustainable” tour wardrobe — which means, essentially, recycled clothing. He’ll wear custom-made designs crafted from leftover fabrics and trimmings from previous Hilfiger collections.

Shawn also stars in Tommy Hilfiger’s “Classics Reborn” campaign, launching May 16, in which he wears vintage styles from Hilfiger’s “1985 Program” collection, including the brand’s iconic 1985 polo, now made of organic cotton. He’s also shown wearing denim made from 20% recycled cotton, which requires less water and energy to produce.

In addition, the brand and Shawn will collaborate on a capsule collection for Spring 2023, which will include “material recycling innovations.”

“I’ve always been inspired by Tommy and the iconic brand he built, and I’m excited to share our journey together with my fans,” Shawn says. “Everyone has a role to play in creating a more sustainable future and I’m inspired to see what we can achieve.”

As part of the partnership, Tommy Hilfiger is also donating $1 million to mitigate and offset the tour’s environmental impact.

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Dan + Shay and Machine Gun Kelly are two late additions to the lineup of the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, after rock mainstay act the Red Hot Chili Peppers had to drop off the bill.

Billboard confirms Dan + Shay’s booking on the awards show, which will take place on Sunday. They’re up for an award at the show, too: The duo is a finalist in the top country duo/group award, which they previously won in 2019.

They’re joining a lineup that already has some acts repping the country genre: Miranda Lambert and Elle King are performing their collaboration, “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” which topped the country charts.

Controversial hitmaker Morgan Wallen is also among the evening’s performers, despite the continuing fallout from his early 2021 scandal, in which he was filmed using a racist slur. After announcing his addition to the bill, Billboard issued an internal memo explaining the decision to book Morgan.

The Peppers dropped out of the BBMAs lineup with a message on social media, citing “unforeseen circumstances.” It would have been the group’s first BBMAs performance since 1999.

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As Diddy prepares to host the Billboard Music Awards this weekend, he’s giving Billboard a taste of what to expect.

In particular, he explains why it was important for the show to have Travis Scott and country singer Morgan Wallen perform — two artists who have been embroiled in controversy recently.

“The mood of the show is about love and forgiveness,” Diddy says. “As a musical family, none of us are saints; none of us are without things that happen to them in life. So one of the things I’m doing directly is un-canceling the canceled. That’s breaking news because people haven’t been about uncanceling. But canceling is a trend that needs to stop.”

“Travis went through a tragedy; Morgan [used the N-word] while talking to his boy,” he continues. “People make mistakes. Now we’re moving on with love and respect for everybody that was hurt or affected. It’s time to forgive.”

Diddy, who’s also executive producing the show, adds that the ceremony is about everybody “getting a second chance at life” post-pandemic. “We need love and I’m excited about celebrating that,” he says.

The Billboard Music Awards airs Sunday on NBC.

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