Music

Thomas Rhett is the reigning ACM Male Artist of the Year, and he’s nominated again this year, but he’s not expecting to hang onto the title.

“It would be shocking,” the singer admits. “I’m always very thrilled to be nominated, but man, when you’re in these categories with these other people, you’re just like, ‘Man, these people are amazing.'”

To win again this year, Thomas would have to beat out Luke Combs, Jimmie Allen, Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen — some tough competition. TR’s been working hard to win his spot in the nominees list, though, he explains. Specifically, he’s always working on honing his vocal skills.

“I’ve worked on it a bunch,” he reveals. “I think I was naturally an OK singer, but I would say over the last few years I’ve worked really hard, just with a coach…learning how to get my range a little bit more up and down, and learning how to use different parts of my voice. And I think it’s translated a little bit.”

Fans can see his hard work in action tonight when he performs at the ACM Awards. The show starts at 8 p.m. ET, and will stream live from Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton, Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett will co-host the show.

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Glass Animals finally topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. After spending nearly 60 weeks on the chart — 59 to be precise — “Heat Waves” is finally the number-one song, and now claims the title of having the longest climb to the top. 

This shatters the previous record holder, Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which spent 35 weeks ascending to the top. “Heat Waves” is also just the 23rd song in all of Billboard history to spend 59 or more weeks on the chart, regardless of placement.

Glass Animals made all sorts of history with their latest achievement. “Heat Waves” is the first song written and produced by just the band to top the Hot 100 in over 35 years — the last being Boston‘s 1986 hit “Amanda.”

Not only that, “Heat Waves” is now the 11th song in Billboard history to go to number one after bowing at the bottom of the chart.  The last single to debut at number 100 before going all the way to the top was Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth‘s 2015 collab “See You Again.”

“Heat Waves” is also the first song by a band to first rule the Alternative Airplay chart before taking over the Hot 100 since 2012 — the last being fun.‘s “We Are Young.” In addition, this marks the first time in nearly 50 years that a band with “Glass” in its name topped the Hot 100 — the last being when “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass hit number one in 1972.

This also marks the first time since 2007 that a song with “heat” or “hot” in the title went to number one — the last being Mims‘ “This Is Why I’m Hot.”

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Maren Morris‘ new single, “Circles Around This Town,” will get the Vegas treatment tonight when she performs its TV debut at the 2022 ACM Awards.

The show is taking place at Allegiant Stadium, a venue that, Maren says, was pretty dazzling even during rehearsals. “It’s beautiful, and the stage that we’re performing it on is so high up, it almost popped my ears,” Maren explains.

In fact, the stage is so massive that it was even a little daunting to a seasoned pro like Maren. “It’s kind of overwhelming how big it is in there,” she admits.

Still, once the crowd and her country-star peers assemble for the big night, Maren says it’s sure to be an unforgettable experience. “It’s very crazy, but so epic, and the whole window wall is behind us, so you just see the [Las Vegas] Strip,” she describes. “It’s gonna be beautiful.”

In addition to her performance, Maren is a nominee at tonight’s awards show. The event starts at 8 p.m. ET, and it’ll stream on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton, Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett are co-hosting the show.

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Ghost will be celebrating the arrival of their new album with a “release ritual.”

The virtual event is set to stream live on YouTube this Thursday, March 10, at 2 p.m. ET, and will be followed by an “afterparty” exclusively for YouTube Premium subscribers.

As for what a “release ritual” actually entails, that’s not totally clear, but a trailer for the celebration promises that it’ll include Papa Emeritus IV, frontman Tobias Forge‘s persona for the Impera album cycle, and the Nameless Ghouls that make up the rest of Ghost.

Impera, the follow-up to 2018’s Prequelle, arrives this Friday, March 11. It includes the previously released songs “Hunter’s Moon,” “Call Me Little Sunshine” and “Twenties.”

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The Weeknd has a pretty big gig coming up…he’ll be appearing on The Simpsons!  He confirmed his exciting new venture on Twitter, saying he is “proud of this one.”

The Weeknd shared a link to a story from his fans’ watchdog account, The Weeknd Access, which reports that he will “voice the character of ‘Orion Hughes’ in the new episode of ‘The Simpsons’ which will premiere this March 20th.”  Not much else is known about his stint on the long-running animated sitcom.

The Grammy winner has dreamed of voicing a character on The Simpsons for years.  He apparently spoke it into existence when talking to Variety in 2020.  “An obvious bucket list would be to work on The Simpsons,” he said. “That would be a dream — and if they’re reading this, I actually have a pretty cool idea if they’re down.”

The Weeknd has previously crashed the animated universes of American Dad and Robot Chicken, where he either spoofed himself or created alternate versions of his musical personas.  “I want to continue to create different Weeknds in alternate universes,” he also said in the same Variety interview.

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Post Malone didn’t mince words over his pending lawsuit over his 2019 hit, “Circles.” The suit was filed by Canadian musician Tyler Armes, who claims he’s owed songwriting credit.

According to Rolling Stone, Armes says he’s due partial ownership of the song because he contributed a guitar riff to it. The singer adds he was originally offered publishing royalties capped at five percent, but Posty’s team withdrew the offer when he tried negotiating for a higher number.

Now, Malone’s firing back. Through his lawyers, he responded that Armes contributed an “admittedly extremely commonplace guitar chord progression” and that a “fragment of guitar melody” he sang did not make it into the final piece.

Rolling Stone reports Malone further responds, “Armes does not have a shred of affirmative evidence with which to meet his burden of proof that his alleged contribution to the guitar melody is original. Armes admitted that his contributions did not even rise to the level of originality, which is also required in addition to the fixation requirement. He either conceded that his ideas were commonplace musical devices or failed to meet his burden to demonstrate any originality otherwise. Armes thus cannot even establish the threshold requirement that he made a copyrightable contribution.”

Posty seeks to have the lawsuit dismissed.  A hearing has been set for April 4.

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Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan’s “Buy Dirt” is heading into tonight’s ACM Awards ceremony nominated in three categories, and though Luke isn’t the primary artist or a writer on the song, he says its message is enormously important to him.

“[Jordan is] so amazing at all this and having so much fun, and I am, too,” Luke says ahead of the show. “That song is really important for me to be on, too. I’m really honored to be a part of it.”

Luke’s been lucky enough to put out many songs that are special to him over the course of his career, but he knows it’s never a given that a special song will get recognition at an awards show. One example that comes to mind is his chart-topping 2013 ballad, “Drink a Beer.” The song reflects on the loss of a loved one, a pain that Luke knows all too well — when he performed it at the 2013 CMA Awards, he dedicated it to his late siblings, Chris and Kelly.

But “Drink a Beer” was never nominated at an awards show, though in Luke’s opinion, it “probably should have been nominated for some stuff,” or even “won Song of the Year.”

Luke has learned never to take awards show recognition for ganted, which makes “Buy Dirt”’s multiple mentions all the more special. “It’s always amazing to have the opportunity to try to win one of these awards,” he notes.

The ACMs will stream tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton is co-hosting the event with Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen.

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There’s many reasons for Carly Pearce to be excited about the ACM Awards, but perhaps the biggest one is that her idol, Dolly Parton, is co-hosting. 

As a teenager, Carly and her family moved from their native Kentucky to Pigeon Forge, TN, where she became a performer at Dollywood, an experience that trained the “Every Little Thing” singer for her future success.  

“Dolly Parton has always been a huge inspiration in my life ever since I was a little girl,” Carly tells Hello! magazine. “She has taught me so much over the years from her kindness and the way she treats others, to her incredible songwriting and her ability to speak from the heart in all of her songs. Her impact on myself and country music as a whole is something I’ll always cherish.”

The country legend is co-hosting the 57th annual ceremony with Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett, where Carly is nominated for four of the night’s awards: Album of the Year for 29: Written in Stone, Female Artist of the Year, Music Event of the Year and Video of the Year, the latter two for her duet with Ashley McBryde on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”  

Carly and Ashley will perform the track when the ACM Awards air live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

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