Music

The story of Kurt Cobain is becoming an opera. Or, rather, a story inspired by Kurt Cobain.

The London Royal Opera House has announced an adaptation of the 2005 Gus Van Sant film Last Days, which was loosely based on the death of the Nirvana icon.

Like the movie, the Last Days stage production follows a musician named Blake who has “recently escaped rehab to return home.”

“He is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose — self-destruction,” the ROH’s description reads, adding “this new opera plunges into the torment that created a modern myth.”

Last Days is set to run at London’s Linbury Theatre October 7-11.

By the way, an opera isn’t the only thing Last Days has inspired recently. The Batman writer/director Matt Reeves cited the film in an interview with Empire while describing his Cobain-esque interpretation of the Caped Crusader.

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Adele and Ed Sheeran are both nominated for this year’s Ivor Novello Awards, a prestigious U.K. honor that recognizes exceptional songwriting and composing by British or Irish songwriters.

Both Adele and Ed are nominated for Songwriter of the Year, which recognizes songwriters who wrote “an outstanding body of successful songs commercially released in the UK in 2021.”  Coldplay is also nominated in that category.

Adele’s “Easy On Me” is nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

In addition, two of Ed’s songs are nominated in the category of Most Performed Work, which recognizes songs that got the most airplay across radio, TV, movies, video games and other platforms in the past year. “Shivers” and “Bad Habits” are both nominated.  Elton John and Dua Lipa‘s song “Cold Heart” is also nominated in that category.

The Ivor Novello Awards — named after a popular Welsh composer, singer and actor — were first given out in 1956 and are judged by songwriters and composers, except for the Most Performed Work category, which is based on data. This year’s ceremony will take place May 19 in London.

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Of all the music he made both with Wham! and as a solo artist, George Michael thought most highly of his 1996 album Older, which he called “the best, most healing piece of music I’ve written in my life,” as well as “my greatest moment.”  Now, the album is being reissued as a deluxe limited-edition box set, due out July 8.

The set includes five CDs and three vinyl LPs, comprising the original album Older, and a six-track collection called Upper that was released in 1997, made up of B-sides from the album’s singles.  There are also three CDs of dance mixes, radio edits, instrumentals and live versions of previous hits “Freedom” and “One More Try.”

The whole thing comes packaged with a 48-page book, The Story of Older, and three art prints of George.

Upon its release, Older — George’s first album in more than five years — was a massive hit in his native U.K., and also reached the top 10 in the U.S.  The singles “Jesus to a Child” and “Fastlove” were both top 10 U.S. hits; in the U.K., Older spun off six top three singles.

After Older, George released one more studio album of original material, 2004’s Patience, as well as an album of covers, a live orchestral album and two best-of collections.  He died on Christmas Day, 2016.

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After teasing fans all week, Alicia Keys has finally dropped “City of Gods (Part II).”

The new track is a reimagined, slowed down, more R&B version of the epic collaboration that featured Five Foreign and Kanye West that debuted nearly two months ago. In fact, Keys is all by herself on the single, marking her first release as in independent artist on AKW Records.

Fans are also treated to newly penned verses from the New York native, who stripped down the song for a more soulful vibe.

“City of gods, city of dreams / City where nothing is ever what it seems / They’ll never take it all away from me / ‘Cause I see nothing but infinity,” Alicia sings in the first verse.

Not only did the 15-time Grammy Award-winning artist release a new song, she dropped a music video as well that served simple yet eye-catching visuals, including Keys draped gold and diamond chains in front of the futuristic-looking Mercedes-Benz EQ.

“City of Gods (Part II)” is available to stream now.

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After nine months of wedded bliss, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are as smitten with each other as ever — and they’ve got the nicknames to prove it.

Gwen stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week, and during Ellen’s “Burning Questions” segment, the singer revealed that her nickname for Blake is “Blakey,” while he calls her “Pretty Girl.”

“I didn’t make that up, he made it up,” Gwen quickly clarifies of the latter name. “He calls me ‘Pretty Girl.’”

Blake and Gwen’s adoring nicknames may be some of the cutest in the genre, but Reba McEntire and Rex Linn have got them beat when it comes to originality. During an episode of her Living & Learning with Reba McEntire podcast, the country legend explained that Rex started calling her “Tater Tot” after her appetizer of choice during an early night out together.

So Reba fired back, dubbing her boyfriend “Sugar Tot,” and ever since then, the couple’s billed themselves as “The Tots.”

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Halestorm‘s 2012 sophomore album The Strange Case of… celebrates its 10th anniversary this Sunday, April 10. The RIAA Gold-certified record helped the Pennsylvania rockers break out with the Grammy-winning hit “Love Bites (So Do I),” as well as the singles “I Miss the Misery” and “Freak Like Me.”

Speaking with ABC Audio, frontwoman Lzzy Hale recalls the Strange Case era being “such an exciting time” for her and her band mates.

“We had already gotten through our first album cycle…which was more, like, wonder, and ‘I don’t know what’s gonna to happen! Is the world gonna like us, are we going to do this again?'” Hale shares. “I feel like Strange Case of… had a mission to it…we had a better idea of who was listening to us, what we wanted to do.”

Another important difference was the upgraded transportation for the Strange Case tour.

“It was our first time in a bus,” says guitarist Joe Hottinger. “We weren’t driving ourselves anymore. It was, like, ‘All right! This is amazing!’ We just went crazy for a few months, ’cause we were, like, ‘Yay, we’re on a bus, whee!'”

Hale laughs, “It was a lot of partying that went on.”

The duo remembers one time in particular having to wake up early for a midday festival set after a long night of partying to celebrate bassist Josh Smith‘s birthday.

“Our tour manager blasted in the bunk, like, ‘Guys, you’re on an hour!'” Hottinger recalls. “We’re, like, ‘What? Oh, my god, I forgot!'”

“It’s 99 degrees out and high noon and you’re gonna sweat it out!” he laughs.

Halestorm’s next album, Back from the Dead, drops May 6.

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Sure, the title track of Cole Swindell’s upcoming album, Stereotype, is a fun-loving song — but there’s a deeper meaning behind its name.

“I was like, ‘I want my album to be called Stereotype,’ because there have been times in my career where people thought, ‘This is all this guy can do. He’s the ‘Chillin’ It’ guy. Here’s the beer guy.’ Whatever it is,” the singer reflects.

But as he put together the track list for his fourth outing, Cole made sure to include plenty of songs that would prove that opinion wrong. “There’s the fun stuff, and then there’s also stuff like ‘Walk on Whiskey’ and ‘Girl Goes Crazy,’” he says, pointing to the album’s final two tracks.

“Stuff that I haven’t really sang about before. That, I think, makes the album really what it is,” the singer adds.

It’s not the first time Cole’s been able to express his more vulnerable, singer-songwriter side in his music. Songs like “You Should Be Here,” “Dad’s Old Number” and “Break Up in the End” all speak from a more intimate and reflective place, he notes. But as his success has continued to grow, Cole says he’s found more leeway to release more and more music in that vein.

“Now I can play those stripped-down songs that hit you right here in the heart: That I love to write and I love to record,” he points out.

Stereotype arrives on Friday. The song’s lead single is “Never Say Never,” Cole’s duet with Lainey Wilson, which recently made it to the final six nominees for Video of the Year at the upcoming CMT Music Awards. They’ll perform together during the show, which airs on CBS April 11.

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Em Beihold‘s song “Numb Little Bug” blew up on TikTok. Now it’s a radio hit and her first major tour starts April 19. But the singer/songwriter says she isn’t trying to become a superstar or get to number one: For her, it’s all about helping people with her music.

“My biggest goal is to create a safe, inclusive place,” she tells ABC Audio. “‘Cause I definitely grew up kinda being excluded from things and people didn’t really understand me. And so when people are like, ‘I had my first day at school and no one talked to me, but I listened to your song and I feel like I have a friend through the phone’ — like, that’s the most meaningful by far.”

In fact, Em says some of the stories that fans have shared with her make her cry. 

“There was someone who was like, “I’ve never felt seen before, and your song literally invited me to take the steps to see a therapist and talk to my friends and family,'” she recalls. “It’s crazy! That’s crazy that someone can change their whole life based on a song!”

And while Em released a number of songs prior to “Numb Little Bug,” she’s happy that it’s this particular song that’s really introduced her to listeners.

“This would be the one that I want them to hear, because it’s the bluntest song I’ve ever written,” she explains. “I’m also a very blunt person. I don’t sugarcoat things.”

She laughs, “I’ve always been too much of an open book, which isn’t the best for me. But if it’s able to help other people, that’s great.” 

And stay tuned: Em says “there are also more songs in the pipeline moving forward that have kind of a different sound.”

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