Matt Cowan/Getty Images for Hangout Music Festival)
The summer concert season is heating up, with LANY unveiling their 34-date North American tour that kicks off in August.
The “ex i never had” singers have named their trek the Summer Forever Tour and tapped Surfaces as their opening act. The duo will get things started on August 3 with their first concert taking place at The Chrysalis at Merriweather Park in Columbia, Maryland. They’ll hit the U.S. and Canada’s major cities, including Houston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Vancouver and more.
The multi-date trek wraps September 24 with a pit stop at Lumen Field – Muckleshoot Plaza in Seattle, Washington. A full list of dates can be found on their official website.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 15, starting at 10 a.m. local on Ticketmaster.com.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Julian Lennon, the older son of John Lennon, has shared his first-ever public performance of his late father’s classic song “Imagine” as part of the Global Citizen organization’s recently launched Stand Up for Ukraine campaign.
On Friday, Julian posted a video on his official YouTube channel of him singing the 1971 peace anthem, with Extreme‘s Nuno Bettencourt joining him on acoustic guitar and backing vocals.
In a message accompanying the video, Julian writes, “The War on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy…As a human, and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most significant way I could. So…for the first time ever, I publicly performed my Dad’s song, IMAGINE.”
He continues, “Why now, after all these years? — I had always said, that the only time I would ever consider singing ‘IMAGINE’ would be if it was the ‘End of the World’…But also because his lyrics reflect our collective desire for peace worldwide. Because within this song, we’re transported to a space, where love and togetherness become our reality, if but for a moment in time…The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, that we are all hoping for…”
Julian concludes, “As a result of the ongoing murderous violence, millions of innocent families, have been forced to leave the comfort of their homes, to seek asylum elsewhere. I’m calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the sentiment of IMAGINE, to stand up for refugees everywhere! Please advocate and donate from the heart. #StandUpForUkraine”
As previously reported, Global Citizen’s Stand Up for Ukraine saw a wide variety of music stars taking to social media on Friday and directing their attention to Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s ongoing military invasion of the country.
Backstreet Boys just relaunched their DNA tour at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in on Friday, and they’ll play two more shows at the Las Vegas venue before continuing the tour in earnest on June 4 in Chula Vista, California. But the group is already thinking ahead to 2023, which is when they’ll be celebrating their — gasp! — 30th anniversary.
“We have some interesting tricks up our sleeve,” AJ McLean tells the U.K.’s Official Charts Company. “I’ll say this: If these things come to light, our fans are literally going to lose their f***ing minds.”
AJ declined to go into detail about the mind-blowing plans, but he did tease, “We have some really incredible things in the works that will probably take all the way up to our 30th to plan; there are lots of moving parts. We definitely have a couple of big, big, big things — probably the biggest we’ve done in years — planned. It’s gonna be awesome.”
He notes, “30’s a big one, so we have to do something massive.”
Before that happens, though, AJ says he’ll release a solo EP with “a couple of feature[d artists] on there that are more in the millennial world.” Later this year, Backstreet Boys will release a Christmas album and will reportedly do a holiday residency in Las Vegas.
AJ also points out that even though people think Harry Styles is pushing the boundaries of fashion by wearing nail polish, he’s “been doing it for 25 years,” and has his own nail polish line. What’s more, AJ says he was inspired to do it by someone several generations before him: Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler.
Pink and Stevie Nicks will headline the sixth annual Ohana Festival, founded by Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder.
Vedder will also be one of the headliners at the event, which takes place from September 30 to October 2 at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA. Most of the other artists performing are alternative rock stars like St. Vincent, Jack White, Grouplove and The Revivalists.
Pink is also scheduled to headline California’s BottleRock Napa Festival on May 29, while Stevie has a whole bunch of festival dates on her schedule: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Tennessee’s Bonnaroo, Colorado’s Jazz Aspen Snowmass festival, Asbury Park, NJ’s Sea.Hear.Now Festival and Connecticut’s Sound on Sound Festival.
A pre-sale starts Wednesday, April 13 at 10 a.m. PT for fans who sign up for early access at OhanaFest.com. Any tickets left over go on sale to the general public on April 14 at 10 a.m. PT. Options include Single Day or Weekend, and there are VIP options available as well. The website has all the information.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Doheny State Beach Foundation and the San Onofre Parks Foundation.
Jessie James Decker is among the artists performing from the RAM Trucks Side Stage of the 2022 CMT Music Awards tonight, but it’s not her first time attending the ceremony: She’s got a hilarious story about a wine-fueled mishap that happened backstage during a previous CMT Awards.
That year, Jessie was at the show to present an award, and when she’d finished, she spent some time hanging out with her fellow country artists and enjoying the backstage bar.
“So I have a third glass of wine, and I’m feeling good. I ran into an artist named Clare Dunn,” Jessie recounts on a new episode of CMT’s I Probably Shouldn’t Tell You This series.
Jessie had long been a fan of Clare, so the two made plans to co-write and exchanged numbers. Then, later on that same evening, Jessie ran into Kelsea Ballerini.
“I said, ‘Hey, we should catch up and hang out.’ She was like, ‘You know what, take down my number and let’s get together soon,’” Jessie recalls.
The next morning, Jessie decided to firm up her plans with Clare, and texted her asking for song pitches, though she was a little surprised not to hear back until the end of the day. After several hours — and a few reminder texts — the songs finally came through, but Jessie was confused to see that all the songs had Kelsea’s voice on the demo.
That’s when things clicked: She’d gotten the numbers switched. “I was like, ‘OMG, I thought I was texting Clare Dunn.’ It was so fine — she just wrote a bunch of ‘ha-has’…I ended up saving their numbers correctly,” Jessie sums up.
Still, no CMT Awards will ever go by without Jessie remembering the one she spent “harassing Kelsea Ballerini,” the singer adds.
Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown and Cody Johnson are the final three nominees for Video of the Year at the CMT Awards.
Jason and Carrie are up for their chart-topping duet, “If I Didn’t Love You,” Kane is nominated for his hit, “One Mississippi,” and Cody scored a nod for his first #1 single, “Til You Can’t.” Fans can vote for their favorite now on Twitter. The winner will be revealed during tonight’s broadcast.
Gabby Barrett has also been added to the star-studded lineup of performers that includes all of the Video of the Year nominees, as well as Carly Pearce, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and more.
Additionally, Faith Hill is set to present the award for the Video of the Year alongside her 1883 costar, Isabel May. This marks the first time the country legend has appeared at the show since 2010. Craig Morgan, model Lily Aldridge and former NFL player Mike Singletary will also present awards throughout the night.
Kelsea Ballerini, who has tested positive for COVID-19, will co-host the show remotely from home with actor Anthony Mackie, who will be live from Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. Kane will fill in for Kelsea in person when the CMT Awards air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.
The next missive from the Prince of Darkness is upon us: Ozzy Osbourne‘s new solo album is done.
In a tweet over the weekend, the Black Sabbath frontman revealed, “I’m so happy to let everyone know that I finished my new album this week and delivered it to my label [Epic Records].”
“I’ll be sharing all the information about the album and its upcoming release with you in the next several weeks,” Ozzy added.
The upcoming record will be the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man, which marked Osbourne’s first solo effort in 10 years. Like Ordinary Man, the album will be produced by Andrew Watt, and features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who recently revealed a number of other guests on the record, including Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Queens of the Stone Age‘s Josh Homme, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo.
Watt also previously shared that Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins played on the album, as well, but that was before Hawkins’ unexpected death last month.
Kelsea Ballerini will no longer host the CMT Awards in person after testing positive for COVID-19.
A statement from CMT on Monday morning confirms that Kelsea, who was supposed to host the show with actor Anthony Mackie live from Nashville, has contracted the virus and will be co-hosting remotely. Kane Brown, who co-hosted the show with Kelsea last year, will fill in for her during the in-person ceremony at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.
“I am devastated. I’m gutted. But the good news is that I’m feeling a lot better,” Kelsea shared in a video posted to Instagram, revealing that CMT brought part of set to her house where she’s quarantining so she can still host and perform.
“It is certainly not what we expected or planned for, but we are doing our damn best,” she adds with a smile. “Let’s make some lemonade together out of these very bitter lemons.”
Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images; ABC/Randy Holmes
A pair of rock artists went through some big life events over the weekend.
Jack White not only got engaged to his longtime partner, Olivia Jean, they also got married. Immediately after he proposed to her during his concert in Detroit last Friday, White and Jean were officially wed in a onstage ceremony officiated by Third Man Records co-founder Ben Swank.
White celebrated the news in an Instagram post featuring a photo of himself alongside Jean immediately after the surprise proposal. In the caption, he wrote, “Let’s get married in a big cathedral by a priest,” a lyric from the beloved White Stripes song “Hotel Yorba.”
The same day of White’s wedding, Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph welcomed his second child with wife Jenna Black.
“New baby arrived yesterday,” Joseph wrote in a tweet Saturday. “I had a great time.”
The tweet includes a photo of Joseph beaming over an exhausted Black as she holds the newborn.
Joseph added, “Already named her, but still open for suggestions.”
Black gave birth to her and Joseph’s first kid, Rosie Robert Joseph, in February 2020.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Olivia Rodrigo is the Songwriter of the Year. That’s according to the performance-rights organization ASCAP, which has handed out its annual Pop Music Awards.
Olivia, who just won several Grammys and Kids’ Choice Awards, won Songwriter of the Year because of the success of the songs from her debut album, SOUR: specifically, “drivers license,” “deja vu” and “good 4 u.”
Meanwhile, Dua Lipa‘s hit “Levitating” has been named the ASCAP Pop Music Awards’ Song of the Year, thanks to its status as one of the longest-charting Billboard Hot 100 Hits of All Time.
ASCAP also honored a list of songs as ‘Most Performed,’ based on data from terrestrial and satellite radio, as well as on-demand audio streams, provided by Luminate, formerly PMRC Data. Those songs include Silk Sonic‘s “Leave the Door Open,” Duncan Laurence‘s “Arcade,” Maroon 5′s “Beautiful Mistakes,” Justin Bieber‘s “Peaches,” The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears,” and Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI‘s “Stay.”
The winners will be celebrated starting April 11 through April 14 on ASCAP’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds.
