Music

Donald Glover told Outkast at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that there would be no Childish Gambino without them. He similarly shared with ABC Audio that the group’s existence helped make songs like “This Is America” possible.

“I don’t think that there’d be like ‘This is America’ or anything like that without them kind of allowing…weirdos in hip-hop, whether it’s like [Outkast], Missy Elliott or you know like Timbaland and Magoo,” he said. “These were people who were allowed to be, like, visually stunning.” 

He noted Outkast was just the first he was personally able to witness as they came from his hometown of Atlanta.

Donald inducted the rap duo, comprised of Big Boi and André 3000, into the Performer category of the Rock Hall Saturday night, where he spoke more about the influence they had on his career.

“Big Boi and André, I want to personally thank you. Around the time Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, I wrote a letter from college to my brother, and I said, ‘I had a dream that we wrote a show together,’” Donald said of his FX show Atlanta with brother Stephen Glover. “Thank you for showing me that brothers may not always see eye to eye in their philosophies or styles, but they need each other in a world that would rather see them both fail together.”

Outkast then took the stage and thanked a slew of people for their success, following their speech with a performance featuring Big Boi and special guests including Doja Cat, Tyler, The Creator, Killer Mike and J.I.D.

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Zara Larsson has been nominated for a Grammy in the best dance pop recording category for the title track of her album Midnight Sun, but it’s another song from the album, “Crush,” that is climbing the charts right now. Zara says “Crush” is an example of what happened when she decided to co-write every song on the album.

“I feel really confident as a writer and as a singer just going into the studio and feeling like, ‘I want this to be my truth,'” she told ABC Audio. “And some of the songs on the album, they’re a bit messy. And it’s like, some of the songs aren’t the nicest, but it’s the truth. And I think it’s just more fun that way.”

And “Crush” is, in fact, messy: It’s about being infatuated with someone else while you’re already in a committed relationship. “A lot of people that I played it to, they’re like, ‘Ooh, that’s relatable.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, okay!'” Zara said.

“But it sounds like such a fun, big pop song. And I don’t think you really clock what I’m singing about until the very end, perhaps, or if you listen twice,” she continued. “But I thought, ‘You know what? Let me just sing about this.'”

“Maybe [this is] something that I wouldn’t have done a couple of years ago, because I would have been like, ‘Oh no!! What are people gonna think about me?’ and all that stuff,” she noted. “And now, I just don’t really care!” 

Zara is currently touring Europe, but she’s coming back to the U.S. for some multi-artist shows in December. Her Midnight Sun tour starts Feb. 28 in Portland, Oregon.

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Goo Goo Dolls are shufflin’ off to Buffalo — Buffalo, New York, their hometown — later this month for a special show.

The band will do a benefit show at Buffalo’s Town Ballroom Nov. 20 to raise money for FeedMore WNY, which provides food and skills training to residents of Western New York. Tickets go on sale Nov. 12 at googoodolls.com/tour, with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity.

Goo Goo Dolls did two additional charity shows Sunday and Monday night: They performed at New York City’s Beacon Theatre to raise money for Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, which helps young people affected by violence. It’s part of a partnership with the charity that dates back to 2021; the band has been selling autographed guitars at their shows to help the cause.

The “Iris” hitmakers will ring in 2026 with a New Year’s Eve show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. So far, they have two festival dates booked for next year: one in February, one in April.

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Both Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson set new records on this week’s Billboard Hot 100.

Taylor’s “The Fate of Ophelia” is #1 for a fifth week. With the song’s parent album The Life of a Showgirl also at #1 for a fifth week, Taylor is now the only artist to debut at #1 on both charts simultaneously and then hold those top spots for that length of time.

Additionally, “The Fate of Ophelia” is Taylor’s third #1 hit to have stayed on top for at least five weeks. The only other ones are “Anti-Hero,” which lasted eight weeks on top, and “Blank Space,” which spent seven weeks in pole position. She’s had 13 #1 hits in all.

Following Halloween, Michael Jackson’s song “Thriller” — which initially peaked at #4 in 1984 — has jumped from #32 to #10. As per Billboard, that makes the late King of Pop the first solo artist ever to hit the top 10 in six different decades: the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, ’10s and ’20s.

Michael has now passed the record set by Andy Williams, who reached the top 10 in five decades, mostly thanks to his holiday hit “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

After reaching the top 10 for the first time in 1969 as a member of the Jackson 5, Michael first hit the top 10 as a solo artist in 1971 with his song “Got to Be There.” Until now, he was last in the top 10 in 2018, as a featured artist on Drake‘s song “Don’t Matter to Me.”

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Music City’s The Listening Room will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a March 3 concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium. HARDY, Jo Dee Messina, Mitchell Tenpenny and more are set to play, with tickets going on sale Friday. 

CMA new artist of the year nominee Stephen Wilson Jr. will launch his Gary the Torch Tour March 6 in Columbus, Ohio. He’s also set to play ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Nov. 18.

Maddox Batson sets out on his 46-show Maddox Batson Live Worldwide Tour next year, with stops in Canada, the U.K., Germany, Norway and Sweden. Pre-sales start Tuesday, before going on sale to the public Friday. 

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