The North American leg of Noah Kahan's We'll All Be Here Forever Tour kicked off Tuesday, March 26, in Vancouver. In a Facebook post, the "Stick Season" artist reflects on what the show meant to him.
"It is something so surreal to open your eyes and see an arena filled with fans of your music in front of you," Kahan writes. "It takes your breath away, every single time."
"Vancouver thank you for stealing my breath and my heart as we opened the tour," he adds. "I wish I could perform for you every night."
The We'll All Be Here Forever Tour comes to the U.S. in May.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreNoah Kahan reflects on "surreal" first show of North American We'll All Be Here Forever Tour
Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson feature on Beyoncé's new album 'Cowboy Carter'
Beyoncé's new album, Cowboy Carter, is already out in some parts of the world, so the featured artists on the album have now been revealed.
Sorry, there are no Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga duets to be found, but Miley Cyrus sings on a song called "II Most Wanted." Meanwhile, Post Malone is on the track "Levii's Jeans."
The album also includes several interludes, which see additional guest stars serving as DJs on a fictional radio station called KNTRY. Country music icon Dolly Parton is included on an interlude called "Dolly P," and she introduces Bey's version of her classic song "Jolene" -- for which Beyoncé has changed the lyrics. She also briefly appears in the intro of the song "Tyrant."
Fellow country music icon Willie Nelson is also featured on two interludes: "Smoke Hour Willie Nelson" and "Smoke Hour II."
Also of note: Beyoncé has recorded a version of The Beatles' 1968 classic "Blackbird," and in the song "Ya Ya," she interpolates The Beach Boys' classic song "Good Vibrations." That song is introduced by the voice of Linda Martell, a major Black female country star.
Cowboy Carter, which arrives Thursday at midnight, also includes Bey's #1 hit "Texas Hold 'Em."
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreMiley Cyrus, Post Malone, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson feature on Beyoncé's new album 'Cowboy Carter'
When Billie Eilish's most recent album, Happier Than Ever, came out, she offered it in eight different vinyl versions, but all the vinyl was recycled, and the shrink wrap was made from sugarcane. That's why Billie, who's all about sustainability, has a problem with artists who go crazy with vinyl variants without thinking about the environmental impact.
Speaking to Billboard, Billie says, "We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging… which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money ... I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is."
"It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable," she continues.
"And then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f****** 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more," Billie adds. "It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that s***.
Billie's mom, Maggie Baird, even tells Billboard that she would like the publication to have "limits, like no more than four colors" of vinyl for each release.
Among the artists who most recently offered or are offering different vinyl versions of their albums: Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Shakira, Olivia Rodrigo, Pearl Jam and Justin Timberlake.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreBillie Eilish takes issue with the "biggest artists in the world" selling "wasteful" vinyl variants
Sheryl Crow brought her sons, Levi and Wyatt, with her when she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November, and she says Levi, who's 13, had an interesting way of trying to understand just what the honor meant for her.
"My 13-year-old was like, 'Is this like the NBA Hall of Fame?'” Sheryl tells USA Today. "Afterward, he asked me if I was the Taylor Swift of my time period."
Sheryl says comparing her career to Taylor's isn't exactly apples to apples, considering she came up in the '90s. Back then, she notes, "There was nothing – no machine or anything – that could make anyone that big."
Sheryl says the induction made her think that "there was a moment when [my boys] thought I was pretty cool," but she already knows that one of today's hottest pop stars — Olivia Rodrigo — thinks she is. At the ceremony, she performed with both Olivia and her own personal idol, Stevie Nicks.
"If not for (Stevie), I would not be doing what I’m doing. I’m still a child looking up to this rock star," Sheryl notes. "I feel that way with Olivia. I somewhat see myself in what she’s doing. She loves seeing herself get better as a songwriter and that was me when I was young."
Sheryl's new album, Evolution, is out on March 29.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreSheryl Crow's son asked her if she was the "Taylor Swift of her time"
Tyla's goal is to become Africa's first pop star, and she's well on her way with a Grammy for Best African Music Performance, her global smash "Water" and her self-titled debut album. Though she had to postpone her planned tour due to an injury, she still has plans for world domination.
In addition to music, Tyla tells Billboardthat she'd like to branch out into fashion, beauty and acting. "People are going to see me everywhere,” she says. "So if you don’t like me, I’m sorry.”
Even her injury isn't going stop her from bringing her music to fans. "I’m really confident in what I’ve created. Now’s a time where I can showcase a performance style where I’m not really dancing as much," she tells Billboard. "Maybe I strip back a little bit more and I’m just serving vocals.”
"But there’s no way to stop me," she continues. "I’m always going to find a way.”
Right now, you can see Tyla showing off her dance moves in the spring campaign for GAP.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreTyla is ready to take over the world: "There's no way to stop me"
Not only was Taylor Swift the bestselling artist in the world in 2023, she also sold the most vinyl.
That's according to the IFPI, the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide. In February, it declared Taylor the Global Recording Artist of the Year for 2023. Now, it's revealed three Global Album Charts, detailing top sales overall for 2023, top streaming albums of 2023 and top-selling vinyl of 2023.
Taylor holds the top three places on the vinyl chart, with 1989 (Taylor's Version) at #1, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) at #2 and Midnights at #3. Overall, she has seven albums in the top 20, the others being folklore, Lover, evermore and Red (Taylor's Version).
Taylor didn't top the Global Sales album chart, but she's the only non-K-pop artist to make the top 10. As for streaming, Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time was #1, followed by SZA's SOS and Taylor's Midnights.
Next year at this time, we may be talking about how Taylor's The Tortured Poets Department did globally in 2024. It's coming out April 19.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreTaylor Swift sold more vinyl than any artist in the world last year
Lorde has premiered her take on "Take Me to the River" for the upcoming tribute to Talking Heads' classic 1984 concert film and live album, Stop Making Sense.
"Take Me to the River" was originally recorded by soul legend Al Green in 1974 and then covered by Talking Heads in 1978. The Talking Heads version became the band's highest charting single at the time, and a live recording is included on Stop Making Sense.
In a statement, Lorde shares that she wanted her "Take Me to the River" cover to reflect when her mom first showed her a Talking Heads video on YouTube when she was 12 years old.
"It's my interpretation of that pixelated spiritual experience," Lorde says. "We did it fast, I didn't let myself tidy it up too much, it had to feel young and imperfect, the peeling posters, the jaw of acne."
You can listen to Lorde's "Take Me to the River" now via digital outlets.
The Stop Making Sense tribute also includes Paramore's cover of "Burning Down the House" as well as contributions from The National, Miley Cyrus, girl in red and The Linda Lindas.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreLorde takes you to the river in latest cover off 'Stop Making Sense' tribute
Though Nelly Furtado hasn't released an album in quite some time, her impact on other musicians is undeniable: Dua Lipa has said that discovering Nelly's music when she was 6 years old made her want to be a pop star, while Drake and Lorde have also cited her as an influence. As you can imagine, Nelly's pretty happy about that.
Asked about being an inspiration for younger acts, Nelly tells Euphoria magazine for a new cover story, "Oh my God, it’s so cool. It makes me proud and happy.” She adds, "I always remember going to my good friend’s birthday and he had very intentionally invited me because he wanted me to meet his good friend Dua Lipa. We finally got to meet and it was something we had been meaning to do for years."
"I get proud when I see somebody who’s told me, ‘Oh, you’ve influenced me,'" the "Say It Right" singer notes. "I literally just saw Dua’s Grammy performance and I was so proud. I was like, ‘This is f***** awesome!’ It’s a great feeling. I’m just grateful to be even in the conversation, to be totally honest.”
After returning to the music scene last year with "Keep Going Up," a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, Nelly is now planning to release a new album, which will be her first since 2017's The Ride. She tells Euphoria, "I can’t reveal too much, but it’s gonna be elevated."
"We have big plans and I’m so excited about it because I’m in a better head space than ever," she adds. "I’ve never loved being an entertainer more. I feel like I’m really owning it.”
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreNelly Furtado thinks it's "so cool" that she inspired Dua Lipa: "It makes me proud and happy"
Camila Cabello just dropped her new single, "I LUV IT," featuring Playboi Carti, but hasn't yet released any details about her upcoming album. However, she tells Apple Music's Zane Lowe that it'll have one very important difference from all of her previous work.
"[There's] one thing I have done on this album that I don't feel like... I feel like I was getting to before, but for me, I've always been just like a song-based artist. I heard Charli [XCX] say the other day, it's like artistry is more important than songs. I was always the opposite mentality," she explains.
"I was always like, everything is about the song," she continues. "That was everything for me. It was just isolated from the name or who did it or whatever, it was just about how does this four-minute, whatever, three-minute piece of music sound."
But now, Camila says, she's thinking of her music as more of an entire artistic work. "I think it's because I started diving deeper into bodies of work and artists," she says. "I was like, 'I love the way Lana [Del Rey] or Carti ... they just, like, create a whole world, and it makes the music so much richer.'"
"So I think I'd attempted to do that before, but never got the full gist of it," says Camila. "And I learned so much from [my collaborators] and really studying this time around the character, the world, the motifs."
Echoing her previous statement to Paper magazine that she's playing a character on the album, Camila tells Zane that her new aesthetic -- blonde hair and what she calls "the baby pink color, the lip gloss" -- has helped her create the character.
"[It's] my villain arc," she says. "My hyper-femme villain arc, that was the beginning."
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read moreCamila Cabello says her new album is exploring her "hyper-femme villain arc"