Music

The Weeknd headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show with a career-spanning, sequin-bombed medley of his biggest hits — from songs from 2011’s House of Balloons to tracks from 2020’s After Hours. Abel Tesfaye kicked things off in a sleek convertible in front of a Vegas-themed backdrop. A choir with glowing red eyes (a nod to Daft Punk) parted to reveal the man himself — magically — in front of a glowing background in a red, sequined suit before he launched into “Starboy.” The choir shed their masks for a...

Sales and streams of Morgan Wallen's new Dangerous: The Double Album surged last week amid controversy over his use of a racist slur, which was caught on video. His album is No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart for a fourth straight week since its release in January.The last country album to spend its first four weeks at No. 1 on this chart was Shania Twain's Up! in 2003. Per Billboard, Garth Brooks' Double Live album is the most recent from a male artist to top the Billboard 200 for four straight weeks, doing...

The Super Bowl is an enormous night for international television. Each year, more than 100 million people are estimated to watch the game, its advertisements and its halftime show. It all begins with the performance of the National Anthem, a tradition that has been carried out by some of the greatest voices in pop music history. The song isn’t easy to deliver — as Christina Aguilera discovered — but there have been some exceptional performances. Click through to see the best star-spangled renditions. Editor’s Note: While we have tried to...

Before her sophomore album debuted on Feb. 7, 1995, few people knew who Shania Twain was. But The Woman in Me, Twain's second record, changed all of that for good.Instead of hitting the "sophomore slump," Twain introduced herself to the world as a bona fide country superstar with The Woman in Me. The project produced eight singles; of those eight, all but one reached the Top 40 (and four turned into No. 1 Billboard hits).Part of Twain's success had to do with the people with whom she aligned herself: She worked with Robert...

In the four days since Morgan Wallen was captured on camera saying a racial slur, blowback from the country music industry has been sweeping. He’s been exiled from country radio, major talent agency WME dropped him as a client, and his record deal — a joint partnership between Big Loud and Republic Records — has been suspended indefinitely.  The label development, which puts Wallen’s most important business contract in limbo, is the most curious — and ambiguous. Several industry attorneys, executives, and insiders, many of whom spoke on condition of...

Forty-five years ago today (Feb. 6, 1976) was a day of celebration for Ronnie Milsap: It was on that date that the singer-songwriter was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, when he was just 33 years old.Milsap became an Opry member just as he was beginning to dominate the charts. At the time of his induction, he was getting ready to release his eighth studio album and was climbing the charts with his 10th charting single, "(I'm a) Stand By My Woman Man," which became his sixth No. 1 hit. By...

The newest release from Bruce Springsteen’s official live album series is a show he played in Nice, France on May 18th, 1997. This was the tail end of the Ghost of Tom Joad tour and features a mixture of new songs like “Straight Time” and “Highway 29” with classics like “The Promised Land and “Atlantic City” and deep cuts like “Red Headed Woman’ and “Highway Patrolman.” To mark the release, the Springsteen archives shared a preview from the concert, “Murder Incorporated.” “In the States we got a part of our...

Manhattan venue CBGB is remembered as the prototypical punk-rock hole in the wall, and an incubator for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame talents the Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie. Yet in the bigger picture, one of the most influential dive bars in music history made sense for Alan Jackson's first New York stop since 9/11, in 2002.CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass and Blues (the oft-forgotten second half of its name, "& OMFUG," was an acronym for "and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers") -- the genres that founder Hilly Kristal expected to...

Eric Church will give one of the biggest performances of his career on Sunday when he sings the National Anthem at the Super Bowl alongside Jazmine Sullivan. Today, Church made it clear that he doesn’t want it to be his only performance of 2021. “Hey guys, we are working on a North American tour,” Church said in a video statement to fans. “We’re waiting for the right timing to officially announce all the details, but I want you to know that a tour is coming, and we are very excited...

Chris Janson's youngest son is about to have a major moment in the spotlight. Jesse Bo Janson is featured in a 2021 Super Bowl commercial from Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.Janson shared the exciting news on Instagram on Thursday (Feb. 4), calling it a "proud dad moment." The young boy's picture appears at about 30 seconds into the one-minute ad: He's the redheaded cutie in the red hat, smiling has he holds a fishing rod in one hand and his catch in the other.Janson doesn't offer specifics about how Jesse's...

The Roots will rerelease their 1995 album Do You Want More?!!!??! as a deluxe reissue complete with previously unreleased songs, remixes, alternate versions, and more. The Do You Want More?!!!??! reissue, due out March 12th as a three-LP, four-LP, or digital deluxe collection, is available to preorder now via Geffen/UMe. Ahead of the reissue’s release, the hip-hop group has shared the digitally unavailable “Street Mix” version of the album ballad “Silent Treatment.” Among the unreleased tracks on the deluxe reissues are “Proceed II Feat. Roy Ayers”, “Proceed III”, “Proceed IV...

Twenty-one years ago today (Feb. 5, 2000), the Chicks (then the Dixie Chicks) rode straight to No. 1 with their single "Cowboy, Take Me Away." The tune, from the Chicks' multi-platinum 1999 album Fly, was written by trio member Martie Maguire, along with songwriter Marcus Hummon.Although Maguire penned "Cowboy, Take Me Away," her sister, fellow Chicks member Emily Robison (now Emily Strayer), deserves some of the credit for inspiring the single, which features lines such as, "Cowboy, take me away / Fly this girl as high as you can / Into the...

Anne Feeney, the influential folk musician and labor activist whose “Have You Been to Jail for Justice” has served as an anthem for activists worldwide, died of Covid-19 on Wednesday. She was 69. Her daughter, Amy Sue Berlin, confirmed the news on Wednesday night. “It is with a very heavy heart that we must announce the passing of our courageous, brilliant, beautiful mother, Anne Feeney,” Berlin wrote on Facebook. “We were very lucky that she fought hard enough to open up her eyes, and give us a couple days to...