Backstage at the 57th ACM Awards at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Monday, reporters gathered in the first in-person press room since the start of the pandemic, while others joined virtually.
Girl power seemed to be the theme of the night, as Female Artist winner Carly Pearce reminded the room that “the ladies are here to stay.”
Lainey Wilson arrived to prove the point with trophies for both New Female Artist and Song of the Year for “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
Single of the Year winner Jason Aldean admitted he was nervous for Carrie Underwood to make her dramatic aerial entrance from above, while Carrie herself revealed she was more than up for the challenge for the performance of their #1 hit, “If I Didn’t Love You.”
Meanwhile, Old Dominion front man Matthew Ramsey confessed five consecutive Group of the Year trophies do make the band anxious about whether their streak can continue. Vocal Duo winners Brothers Osborne reclaimed the title, after relinquishing the crown to Dan + Shay for several years.
New Male Artist Parker McCollum revealed it was the ACM’s decision to have him sing his breakthrough #1, “Pretty Heart,” instead of his current hit, “To Be Loved by You.”
Hey country stars — if you’re ever considering not showing up at a major awards ceremony, just think about Miranda Lambert. The superstar singer missed the Academy of Country Music Awards for the first time in 17 years Monday night… and ended up winning Entertainer of the Year for the very first time.
Miranda was in London when Dolly Parton announced the news, and in a video message, she said, “I cannot believe I’m not there to celebrate!” It was Miranda’s sixth time being nominated in that category and she said, “I never thought it would happen, but thank you so much to the country music family for embracing me all these years.”
Miranda is the first female artist to win the award solely on her own since Taylor Swift in 2012; in 2020, Carrie Underwood and Thomas Rhett tied for the trophy. She and Elle King also won the Video of the Year award for “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”
Embattled singer Morgan Wallen won the Album of the Year trophy for Dangerous: The Double Album, and thanked “everyone who’s shown me grace along the way.” He also addressed his fans, who kept the album at number one for weeks, by saying forcefully, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’m blown away by you guys.”
The night’s other big winners were Chris Stapleton and Carly Pearce for Male and Female Artist of the Year, Old Dominion for Group of the Year and Brothers Osborne for Duo of the Year.
Lainey Wilson, who was named New Female Artist ahead of the ceremony, also won Song of the Year for “Things a Man Oughta Know,” and started her speech by saying, “Holy moly! Country music is my life!” In his acceptance speech, Chris Stapleton gave a rare shout-out to his kids and, in an awards show first, two of them were even seen on camera.
The show, which streamed commercial-free on Amazon Prime Video from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, was co-hosted by Dolly Parton, Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen. Dolly kicked off the proceedings by saying that, despite the fact that she’d “rather pass a kidney stone” than get political, she wanted to “send love and hope to our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.”
“Why don’t we dedicate this entire show to them and pray for peace around this crazy ol’ world?” she added. Later, at the podium, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey said, “I’m so thankful that Dolly said what she said at the beginning,” noting that “it felt a little weird” to be having fun at an awards show while “there are people fighting for their lives.”
No commercials meant the show was able to pack in the music, at one point giving us 35 straight minutes of performances. Standouts included Chris Stapleton’s powerful rendition of “Watch You Burn,” written about the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting; Eric Church‘s 16-song medley of hits from his entire career; Kelly Clarkson‘s note-perfect rendition of Dolly’s classic song “I Will Always Love You;” Breland and Thomas Rhett teaming for “Praise the Lord;” Gabby Barrett’s cover of Lee Ann Womack‘s classic “I Hope You Dance” and Brothers Osborne and Brittney Spencer closing the show with “These Boots Are Made for Walkin.'”
After a two-year pandemic hiatus, Dan Reynolds‘ LOVELOUD Festival returns in 2022.
The Imagine Dragons frontman will headline LOVELOUD 2022, which takes place May 14 in Salt Lake City. WILLOW and Neon Trees are also on the lineup.
“Because of the pandemic, it’s been far too long that we have all been able to come together like this to celebrate diversity and speak out on the power of unconditional love and equality,” Reynolds says. “We have a fantastic line-up of performers, each of whom bring a unique and powerful voice to the cause.”
Reynolds first launched LOVELOUD in 2017 in support of LGBTQ+ youth. The creation of the festival is the subject of the 2018 documentary, Believer.
For the full LOVELOUD 2022 lineup and all ticket info info, visit LOVELOUDFest.com.
In the past couple of years, Billy Joel‘s charity foundation has pivoted from funding music education programs to helping with pandemic-related causes, such as providing PPE for healthcare workers and helping with food insecurity. Now, the Billy Joel Foundation is providing aid to the people of Ukraine.
Billy’s foundation is donating $250,000 to BStrong, a charity started by Bethenny Frankel that has been providing “direct and immediate aid to refugees at the Ukrainian/Polish border.” The money will go to, among other things, survival supply kits, transportation, short and long-term shelter and food relief as the Russian military continues their invasion of the Eastern European nation.
In a statement, the Foundation notes it continues to monitor the situation to determine what will be needed in the coming weeks, and asks those who want to help to donate at Bethenny.com/BStrong.
Selena Gomez has opened up the waiting list to her upcoming mental health service, Wondermind, which she says is “coming soon!” Selena told her Instagram fans to sign up now “so you can be the first to know the official launch date.” The platform aims to normalize conversations about mental health.
Alanis Morissette is warning fans to get ready for some big news. Taking to her Instagram story on Monday, the “Ironic” singer teased, “Some exciting news I can’t wait to share with you tomorrow at 10 am ET/ 7am PT.” She hinted what she has in store by using a music notes, microphone, sparking heart, ticket, guitar and looking-eyes emoji.
Joe Jonas “wanted to challenge” French soccer player Lisa Zimouche, but he was in over his head. In a hilarious video, set to DNCE’s new song “Dancing Feet,” Joe tries showing off his moves but Lisa uses her fancy footwork to steal the ball and score a goal. Joe, faking humiliation, politely applauds the freestyle footballer.
The Chainsmokers revealed in a new TikTok how they created their 2015 hit, “Roses.” “This session is from March 3, 2015,” Drew Taggart explained in the video before breaking down the song’s elements, which include Alex Pall putting together a bass line over a drum beat and ROZES’ vocals. The two captioned the video, “7 years ago… damn” and added “shoutout to the day ones. Love you guys.”
Britney Spears can add Nicki Minaj to her growing list of supporters. Britney shared another video of herself dancing and semi-apologized for posting so many similar clips. “I know I’m not the best dancer,” she admitted before going on to explain why dancing is helping her heal. Nicki was having none of that and commented, “Not the best dancer? BRITNEY! PUT YOUR CROWN BACK ON & LEAVE IT THERE BABY!!!!!! you ARE the best dancer!!! Settled that, what’s next?”
Sonia Recchia/Getty Images / Mark Davis/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productio
Alessia Cara sang Alanis Morissette‘s praises in a new Rolling Stoneop-ed, and explained how the breakthrough Jagged Little Pill album was “really influential to me as a writer.”
“I tend to be a very shy person, and especially when I was coming into being a songwriter, I held back a lot, just because I was afraid of being too honest or too negative. I always felt like I had to throw a positive spin on my records, especially the first one,” Alessia admitted. “Going through a lot of pain and heartbreak in my late teen years and in my early twenties made me realize how important it is to be unfiltered and just get to the bottom of what you’re saying.”
Alessia added that she’s fascinated by how Alanis writes about other people in her songs. “I think she projected her own faults in a way that felt very real,” she assessed. “I took a lot from that, and I think I still do now.”
Alessia also praised Alanis for how she dealt with the high standards set upon female singers.
“As a pop singer and as a pop girl myself, I think we get sucked into the idea of note perfection and quality perfection, but I always admired the fact that she wasn’t always on pitch,” said Alessia. “She favored emotion over perfection.”
Cara was particularly impressed that Alanis “wasn’t afraid to go off or to let her voice crack,” and noted how those little imperfections would make her songs “10 times more impactful than something that sounded sonically perfect.”
“She’s a great case study for how you can be yourself and not have to follow the pop-star thing,” Alessia raved. “Honesty has the most longevity over anything. Her music still holds up nowadays, and it’s because of that honesty.”
You won’t be seeing Kanye West’s Donda 2 on the Billboard charts — and it’s not for lack of sales.
According to Billboard, Donda 2 is ineligible for the charts due to its release on Ye’s own branded “Stem Player,” which costs $200.
Since the Stem Player device can be used for other things — not just playing the album — it falls under Billboard’s latest merch bundle rules, where albums being sold with merchandise are not considered chart eligible.
On February 18, Ye reported that he had sold 39,500 Stem Players to date, bringing in a total of $8.6 million. Ye released four Donda 2 tracks on Stem Player on February 23, and dropped 12 more the next day.
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.
Glass Animals finally topped the BillboardHot 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.”
Motionless in White is about to get in motion again.
The Pennsylvania metallers have announced the release of a new single called “Cyberhex,” which will arrive this Friday, March 11. You can pre-save the track now.
Motionless in White shared the news alongside a sci-fi teaser video starring frontman Chris “Motionless” Cerulli as the leader of a resistance group called “Cyberhex.” As for what they’re actually resisting, we guess we’ll find out on Friday.
“Cyberhex” follows Motionless in White’s most recent album, 2019’s Disguise. The track will drop just a few days before MiW joins Black Veil Brides and Ice Nine Kills on the Trinity of Terror tour, kicking off March 17 in Mesa, Arizona.
