One of pop’s best-kept secrets of 2026 out, as the news is out that Olivia Rodrigo and the Cure’s Robert Smith have a full-on duet on her forthcoming album, which is less than a week away from release. The reveal came in the form of Rodrigo bringing Smith out at the Primavera Sound festival partway […]

One hates to prioritize one artform over another… really, one does. But after seeing Ariana Grande’s opening show on her “Eternal Sunshine Tour” at the Oakland Arena Saturday night, it is tempting to want to send the multi-hyphenate talent a message, if you had the means to get one through, and it would go something […]

Bill Cody, one of the nation’s most revered country radio personalities from his decades-long roles as an announcer for the Grand Ole Opry and WSM morning show host, died Tuesday in Nashville. He was 67. In recent days, much of Nashville’s country music community had sent out calls for prayer on behalf of Cody, after […]

On the very day the “Freedom 250” concert series was announced, rapper Young MC became the second artist to publicly back out of the government-sponsored festival taking place on the National Lawn in Washington, D.C.. His exit following Morris Day’s statement earlier Wednesday that he and the Time would have nothing to do with the […]

President Donald J. Trump is now saying “cancel it” about the concert series his Freedom 250 organization is putting on in June and July, after five of the nine artists announced backed out within 48 hours of the shows being announced. He wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday night: “We should have a giant […]

Is every musical artist’s fan base just waiting to turn on them, at a moment’s notice? The fickleness of fandom was never more apparent than it was reading the comments this past week from self-proclaimed followers of the artists who were booked to perform at the ill-fated “Freedom 250” concert series on the National Lawn […]

Frankie Valli, who at 92 has never lost his love for the road, announced Friday that he is canceling the remainder of his concert dates for 2026, due to health issues. “I’m so sorry to disappoint the folks who have purchased tickets to my shows,” he said on social media, “but I have decided to […]

And then there was… one? Going into this past weekend, there were two out of nine artists booked for the “Freedom 250” concerts in Washington, D.C. that were still proclaiming an eagerness to do the gig: Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan. Now that number has been halved, as Morvan, who said he was […]

The American Music Awards are drawing some of the biggest stars in music to Las Vegas to perform present or collect honors on the three-hour CBS/Paramount+ telecast, and Variety has photographers on the carpet and backstage to capture all the looks heating up Memorial Day weekend. Queen Latifah is hosting, and among those making their […]

The third time’s the third charm for Olivia Rodrigo, who is beginning to look like she might be constitutionally incapable of not turning in one of the year’s most diverting albums, in any given try. Not many artists have started off with as smashing a three-peat as Rodrigo and her producer/co-writer partner Dan Nigro, who’ve […]

Jack White has a followup album to the acclaimed “No Name” coming this summer, titled “Frozen Charlotte”… and it’s already quietly gone on sale for pre-order on his website, despite the lack of any other official announcement of the project. The pre-order page for two different vinyl variants of the LP on White’s site says […]

Teahouses and raves have not often been mentioned in the same breath, but Katseye brought the hyper-pop dance party to a beyond-brightly-colored tearoom set with the quintet’s live rendition of “Pinky Up” on the American Music Awards. The galvanizing number came shortly before the group won best new artist on the CBS/Paramount+ telecast. Kateye’s performance […]