Chaka Khan, Men At Work and former Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs are among the acts set to play the annual Sea.Hear.Now festival, happening Sept. 19-20 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
The beachside festival will feature over 25 artists, including headliners Mumford & Sons and The Strokes. The lineup also includes Goo Goo Dolls, Shaggy, Ziggy Marley, The Offspring, The All-American Rejects, Pixies and Jarod Clemons, son of the late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons.
A presale for tickets begins Thursday at 10 a.m. ET, with tickets going on sale to the general public at 11 a.m. Presale registration is now open.
Sea.Hear.Now launched in 2018 and in the past has featured such artists as Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Lenny Kravitz, Blondie, Stevie Nicks and Billy Idol.
Zara Larsson performs on ABC’s ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,’ Dec. 31, 2025 (Disney/Christopher Willard)
Zara Larsson’s glow-up is complete: She’s been tapped to perform at one of the most star-studded charity events of the year.
Zara will provide the entertainment at the 32nd installment of amfAR’s Gala Cannes, taking place during the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 21.
The charity, whose founding national chairperson was the late screen icon Elizabeth Taylor, is focused on ending HIV/AIDS, as well as improving global health. Over the years, the charity has raised over $950 million for scientific research.
In a statement to Variety, amfAR CEO Kyle Clifford said of Zara, “She is not only an exciting and talented artist, but she is also a longtime supporter of our mission and we could not be more grateful to have her with us.”
Last year’s event included performances by Adam Lambert, Duran Duran and Ciara, while attendees included Leonardo DiCaprio, Spike Lee, Colman Domingo, Jeff Bezos and Heidi Klum.
Other singers who’ve performed at the gala over the years include Cher, Nick Jonas, Christina Aguilera, Charli XCX, Ellie Goulding and Ricky Martin.
Meanwhile, Zara and PinkPantheress are celebrating the fact that their collab “Stateside” has just hit #1 on Billboard‘s Global 200 chart. It’s the first #1 on any Billboard chart for either artist.
Michael Stipe performs with Aaron Dessner during Democracy Now! 30th Anniversary Event at Riverside Church on March 23, 2026 in New York City. (Rob Kim/Getty Images)
The R.E.M. frontman played the song “No Time For Love Like Now,” which he recorded with The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon for their Big Red Machine project. Dessner also joined Stipe for the performance.
Other performers included Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith.
The night ended with all the musicians coming on stage for a rendition of Smith’s “People Have the Power.”
Bruce Springsteen performs during Democracy Now! 30th Anniversary Event at Riverside Church on March 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Michael Stipe were among the performers at Democracy Now!’s 30th anniversary event at Riverside Church in New York City Monday night.
Springsteen was a surprise guest and treated the audience to a performance of his new protest song “Streets of Minneapolis.”
“This past winter when federal troops brought death and terror into the streets of Minneapolis they picked the wrong city,” Springsteen said. “The power and the solidarity of the people of Minneapolis was an inspiration to the entire country. Their strength and their commitment told us that this is still America and the reactionary nightmare and the invasion of an American city will not stand,” he added. “Their strength gave us hope. They gave us courage.”
“And for those who gave their lives,” he continued, mentioning Renée Good and Alex Pretti — two Minneapolis residents who were fatally shot by federal agents — “their bravery their sacrifice and their names will not be forgotten.”
Following the song, Springsteen was asked about his upcoming Land of Hope and Dreams American tour, sharing that he’s going to hit cities that “had to deal with ICE.” With the trek ending in Washington, D.C., he added he has a “few words to say to the f***** White House.”
Elsewhere during the evening, Stipe was joined by The National’s Aaron Dessner to perform the track “No Time For Love Like Now,” originally recorded with Big Red Machine and featuring Justin Vernon. Smith, joined by her daughter, Jesse Smith, and guitarist Tony Shanahan, read a passage from her book Bread of Angels and performed “Peaceable Kingdom,” along with a part of her iconic tune “People Have the Power.”
The night ended with all the musicians coming on stage for an encore of Smith’s “People Have The Power.”
Forty years ago, Van Halen released their seventh studio album, 5150, which was their first record with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, following the departure of original frontman David Lee Roth.
5150 is named after guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s home studio and is also a reference to the California law that allows a mentally disturbed person to be placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold. It went on to become the band’s first #1 album and contained three pop hits: “Dreams,” “Why Can’t This Be Love” and “Love Walks In.”
5150 went on to be certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA.
On Friday, Van Halen will release a special 40th anniversary expanded edition of 5150, featuring a remastered version of the album as well as bonus 7-inch single edits and extended 12-inch tracks.
There’s also a CD featuring unreleased live recordings from Van Halen’s Aug. 27, 1986, concert at New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut, and a Blu-ray with the band’s 1986 concert video Live Without a Net, recorded during the same New Haven show, upgraded to HD for the first time.
Barry Manilow, ‘What A Time’ album. (STILETTO Entertainment)
Barry Manilow feels lucky to be alive after receiving a diagnosis of stage 1 lung cancer followed by surgery.
In his new People magazine cover story, Manilow reveals that he went to the doctor in November for an unrelated problem, but his doctor ordered an MRI for his lungs after learning that he’d had bronchitis twice recently.
“If he hadn’t done that, man … He saved my life, because there’s no symptoms for what I had. I could go on, nothing hurt — but they found the dot in my lung,” Manilow tells People. “They called me and said, ‘Could be cancer.’ That’s a bad word. ‘Not me. F*** you. I can’t have cancer.’”
But he did.
“They don’t even know how long I had this thing sitting on me. It could have been years,” Manilow says. “If it had gone any further, then I would be up s***’s creek. It just so happened that it hadn’t spread, and boy oh boy, I thought I might be dying.”
Manilow eventually had a lobectomy to remove part of his lung, and then spent a week in the ICU. He tells People, “I don’t remember it, thank goodness, because it was a nightmare.”
But, he adds, “I’m one of the lucky ones; I don’t have to have chemo, radiation and all that stuff.”
However, Manilow, whose new album is coming out in June, says the experience certainly made him “take stock of my life.”
“This made me stop and think about: Have I done what I wanted to do, and have I made people happy? Have I been a good friend? All of those cornball things that I’ve read for all of my life, I started to think about that, too,” he says.
“And the answers are yes. And as a matter of fact, there are more yeses than I ever thought.”
Newcomer Zach John King is currently enjoying his very first hit on the Billboard Country Airplay chart with “Get to Drinkin’.”
“The story behind ‘Get to Drinkin” is about a relationship that I had in the past that, after a few Jack & Cokes, I started to paint it with rose-colored glasses, started to act like it wasn’t my fault for letting things get so bad,” he says. “I think everybody feels that way at some point in a relationship.”
“It’s a song that covers a sad topic with really upbeat and fun music,” he adds.
While we wait for Zach’s debut album, he has some high-profile gigs on the horizon, heading out on tour with Morgan Wallen for a second year in a row on April 18. He will also open for Jon Pardi, Luke Bryan, Riley Green and Thomas Rhett.
Cover of The Black Crowes’ ‘A Pound of Feathers’ (Silver Arrow Records)
The Black Crowes are giving fans some insight into the music that inspired their recently released album, A Pound of Feathers.
The band has released a new Spotify playlist, Feathers and Lead, which they describe on Instagram as “The songs that shaped A Pound of Feathers.”
They add that the playlist highlights the “records that inspired the writing, the feel and the freedom behind this chapter from The Black Crowes.”
The playlist includes such songs as “I’m Not Talking” by The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck on lead guitar; “Popcorn” by Ike & Tina Turner; “Evil” by Howlin’ Wolf; “Knocking ‘Em Down (In the City)” by Iggy Pop; “Girl I Love You” by Eddie Floyd; “Elephant Man” by Bo Diddley; and “I Bet You” by Funkadelic.
A Pound of Feathers, the 10th studio album from The Black Crowes, is the follow-up to their 2023 release, Happiness Bastards, which was their first album of new material since 2009.
The Black Crowes will kick off The Southern Hospitality tour, with country rock band Whiskey Myers, on May 17 in Austin, Texas. Before that they will tour Australia and Japan.
Ella Langley performs on ABC’s ‘CMA Fest presented by SoFi’ (Disney/Connie Chornuk)
Ella Langley’s hit “Choosin’ Texas” has been #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and has now broken a record set by Taylor Swift — but that may not be the most interesting thing about it.
“Choosin’ Texas” now holds the record for the most weeks ever spent at #1 on the Hot 100 by a song that was also #1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. The previous record was three, which Taylor held with 2012’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
Now, for the interesting part. Ella co-wrote “Choosin’ Texas” with country superstar Miranda Lambert during a writers retreat. While there, she asked Miranda about something a mutual friend once told her: that Miranda used to own a kangaroo.
“As a fellow animal lover, I had so many questions about that,” Ella told ABC Audio. So after they’d written a song together, Ella said, “I was like, ‘Why don’t you tell me about that kangaroo?’ And she tells me the whole story.”
“At the end of the story, she got pulled over with the kangaroo in the passenger seat. [The] kangaroo got her out of a ticket, [it] really did,” Ella noted.
After Miranda mentioned that she had Texas plates on her car at the time, Ella said, “I was like, ‘Well, he’s probably like, “She’s from Texas, I can tell.”‘”
“And just literally that right there, the melody kind of just fell out,” she continued. “I went, ‘She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way he’s two-stepping ’round the room.’ Just like that.”
“And she’s like, ‘She’s from Texas, like the one he went with!’ And, I mean, [within] 30, 45 minutes that song was written.”
She laughs, “People are like, ‘Where do you get your inspiration from?’ I’m like, ‘Baby, it comes from everywhere and anywhere.'”
The Format on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
Ever since The Format broke up in 2008, bandmates Nate Ruess and Sam Means have fielded questions about whether they would ever reunite. Even still, they didn’t expect the overwhelming reaction to their first show back in 2025.
“Surprised is an understatement,” Means tells ABC Audio. “We were just absolutely … our faces were melted by just, like, what was going on.”
That comeback show took place in a basketball arena in The Format’s hometown of Phoenix and marked the band’s biggest headlining performance of their career.
“I don’t even know if fun. ever played a headlining show that big,” Means laughs, referring to Ruess’ former band. “So it was wild to come back after so much time and play in a basketball arena. The energy that night was just unmatched.”
The Format had initially planned to reunite in 2020 for a run of shows, but those were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five years in between allowed The Format to make a new album, Boycott Heaven, which marked their first record in 20 years.
“The 2020 stuff, I’m sad that that never happened,” Means says. “But in hindsight, I think, this is a much better situation.”
Boycott Heaven is out now, and The Format will launch a full reunion tour in support of it Thursday in Boston.
“We’re going to be playing a lot of new stuff, obviously playing a ton of old stuff, but we like to do a different set list every show,” Means says. “Nate is really famous for the last-second set list before the show, so people will get a good variety.”
