Music

It doesn’t matter if you’re Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd or Eminem: When you perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, you don’t get paid. The NFL’s first head of music — who was just appointed in April — is coming clean about why that is.

Seth Dudowsky, who’s been with the league since 2013, tells Billboard, “The most valuable currency that exists in our culture at this point is a captive audience — people’s attention. It’s the hardest thing to capture, no matter who you are. So, the real value that our platforms offer is the promotional value of being up on that stage.”

Dudowsky says that in addition to the halftime show, which attracts “hundreds of millions of viewers,” performers also benefit from being featured in a huge marketing campaign and get payments to license their music for advertising purposes. Then, of course, there’s the inevitable sales bumps that comes after the game.

Using the 2020 halftime show, which featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, as an example of that, Dudowsky boasts, “When you look at Shakira’s ‘Whenever, Wherever’ becoming a No. 1 song [on iTunes] almost 20 years after it was released … in terms of value, that’s something that, for a lot of artists, isn’t even quantifiable.”

As for who might perform during halftime in 2023, Dudowsky says, “I can’t speak to where we are this year, but historically [when the season begins], we are starting to solidify plans with an artist with the goal of announcing in-season who the artist is.” 

No matter who it is, though, he says, “We’re already planning the production.”

Super Bowl 57 will be held February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

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Yungblud has premiered a new song called “Tissues,” which will appear on his upcoming self-titled album.

“Tissues,” which samples The Cure‘s “Close to Me,” is available now via digital outlets. It’s the fourth track to be released from the record, following “The Funeral,” “Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today” and the WILLOW collaboration “Memories.”

Yungblud the album, the English rocker’s third full-length effort, arrives in full this Friday, September 2.

To celebrate the new release, Yungblud will be making appearances at a number of U.S. record stores September 2 to September 5. You can also catch him at several U.S. festivals this fall, including Riot Fest, Louder than Life, Firefly and Aftershock.

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As Serena Williams plays in what she says will be her final tournament this week, the US Open in New York City, her good friend Beyoncé is paying homage to the tennis star by narrating a Gatorade commercial in tribute to her historic career.

“When the world writes her down in history, we’ll begin where she started: at love,” Queen Bey says, opening the ad titled “Love Means Everything.”

“To feel like a queen unapologetically, with a crown indefinitely,” Beyoncé continues. “A movement to always love being a proud Black woman, a parent, a dreamer, a leader. To love being one of a kind.”

The Renaissance singer has known the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion for many years. Serena appeared in Beyoncé’s 2016 “Sorry” video from the Lemonade film. Williams also joined the 28-time Grammy winner as she performed the song on the Formation Tour in October 2016 at Met-Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Last year, Beyoncé recorded the Oscar-nominated song “Be Alive” for King Richard, the film about how Serena’s father, Richard Williams, developed her and sister Venus into tennis superstars.

“So when we write her down in history, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, we’ll remember what she’s shown us,” Beyoncé concludes. “A movement to love you.”

Serena appears on the cover of this week’s TIME. The magazine writes, “The greatest female athlete of all-time—check that: perhaps the greatest athlete of all-time.”

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Ed Sheeran‘s collaboration with Cradle of Filth is actually, really happening.

The extreme metal outfit’s frontman, Dani Filth, has confirmed the news in an interview with Knotfest.com.

“He’s done some of it,” Filth says of the “Castle on the Hill” singer. “But then he had a baby, and then he got sidetracked with that and doing whatever Ed does, which is play massive shows around the globe.”

“[Sheeran] is going to finish it, he assures me,” Filth adds. “Actually, I spoke to him quite recently. Yeah, so that’s happening.”

As for how anyone would even think that Cradle of Filth recording with Ed Sheeran could occur, you may recall last year when the pop star was quoted as saying that he’s a big metal fan, and loved bands including Cradle of Filth and Slipknot growing up, adding that he “would not be opposed” to recording a metal album of his own.

After Filth responded with an Instagram post reading, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he and Sheeran got in touch and started discussing a potential collaboration.

Now that Filth is, indeed, believing and seeing an Ed Sheeran metal song, he tells Knotfest.com what he likes about the idea of working with someone who plays such a different style of music.

“The clash of interests, the marriage of extremes, I think, that’s interesting in itself,” Filth says.

Sheeran previously dipped into the rock world earlier this year with a new version of his song “Bad Habits” featuring Bring Me the Horizon.

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Upcoming docuseries They Called Us Outlaws previewed its first trailer this week, and it offers a glimpse into the impressive array of country star guests sharing their insights into the outlaw country movement.

Among those is Eric Church, who reflects on the term “outlaw country” in an interview in the trailer.

“I have a love-hate relationship with the term ‘outlaw,’” Eric explains. “The connotation of that is that you’re outside the law. And the real artists, the real songwriters, I don’t think they ever knew what the rules and laws were. They just did what they did.”

At the forefront of the outlaw movement were artists like Waylon Jennings, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson and many more. Some of the mainstays of the movement and their descendants appear in the docuseries, plus modern-day outlaw-leaning stars like Miranda Lambert, Tyler Childers and Margo Price.

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When Demi Lovato released their 2021 album Dancing with the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, they also released a four-part documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil. It was the third documentary in which the singer detailed their personal struggles, following 2017’s Simply Complicated and 2012’s Stay Strong. But now, Demi says, they’re done with docs.

Speaking to Alternative Press, Demi explains, “Honestly, I’m really sick of watching myself, and I think other people probably are, too. And if they aren’t, then they can watch my music videos.”

While Demi used those documentaries to discuss topics like their substance abuse, rehab, eating disorder, sexuality, sexual assault, mental health issues and more, they now regret putting them all out before their 30th birthday. 

In particular, Demi says their feelings about drugs have changed: In Dancing with the Devil, they said their version of sobriety included smoking pot and drinking in moderation. That’s no longer the case.

“I wish I would have waited until I had my s**t figured out more because now it’s cemented,” Demi explains. “Sobriety is what works for me and nothing else.” The next time they want to tell all, they say, it’ll be in the form of a book or a sit-down interview.

“My story’s not done,” they explain, “So I want to be able to say by the time I’ve written a book, ‘OK, this is me grown up.’”

Another thing they won’t do anymore? Make pop music. Or, as Demi puts it to Alternative Press, “I think that my pop-R&B days are gonezo.”

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Nita Strauss has premiered a new solo song called “Summer Storm.”

The track finds the guitarist returning to her instrumental roots following her 2021 single “Dead Inside,” which features guest vocals by Disturbed‘s David Draiman. Strauss’ debut solo album, 2018’s Controlled Chaos, is all instrumental.

You can listen to “Summer Storm” now via digital outlets. Its accompanying video, which features live footage from Strauss’ recent solo tour, is streaming now on YouTube.

Strauss is currently playing guitar in Demi Lovato‘s live band in support of the pop star’s new, rock-driven album, Holy F***. News of Strauss’ collaboration with Lovato came after she’d announced she wouldn’t be joining Alice Cooper on his fall tour after eight years playing in the shock-rocker’s band.

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With The Who gearing up to launch the second North American leg of their 2022 The Who Hits Back! tour in the fall, the band has just added two more shows to the trek.

The new dates are scheduled for October 24 at the SAP Center, San Jose, California, and October 30 at Ak-Chin Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona. Founding Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his current band, The Dirty Knobs, will open for The Who at both concerts. Campbell and The Dirty Knobs had previously been announced as The Who’s support act for the British rock legends’ upcoming shows from October 14 through November 1.

Tickets for the San Jose and Phoenix concerts will go on sale to the general public this Thursday, September 1, at 10 a.m. local time, while presale tickets are available now. Visit TheWho.com for more information.

The upcoming leg of The Who Hits Back! tour, which now features a total of 16 concerts, kicks off on October 2 in Toronto and is plotted out through a November 4-5 engagement in Las Vegas.

Ex-Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page will open for The Who from October 2 through October 12, while contemporary British rock band The Wild Things will be the support act at the tour’s two-show finale in Las Vegas.

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Arctic Monkeys have premiered a new song called “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball,” the first preview of the band’s much-anticipated upcoming album, The Car.

Sonically, the track follows in the lounge-y direction of 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, though is lyrically more grounded than its science fiction-themed predecessor. “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” also gives The Car its title with the lyric, “If you wanna walk me to the car.”

You can listen to “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.

The Car, the seventh Arctic Monkeys album, is due out October 21.

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