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Our 21 Favorite Concerts of 2021
Ah, 2021 — the year live music (mostly) roared back. After 18 months of livestream drudgery, it felt like unicorns dancing on a rainbow every time someone so much as plugged in a guitar. It was a year of “post-vax concert stories,” where every show was a hard-won reunion, a triumphant homecoming, and a victory all at once. Strangest of all, it was the year when we found ourselves getting misty just being able to look out at a crowd, marveling at the gift of singing shoulder-to-shoulder with someone other than our cats. Okay, so we’re still a little sentimental. The point is, in a year when every show was a grand slam of catharsis and joy, it was slightly painful to narrow this list down. But after not getting to do one at all in 2020, we are ecstatic and proud to give you some of the highe...
Warner Music Group Acquires 300 Entertainment in $400M Deal
300 Entertainment, the independent music company that is home to Megan Thee Stallion, Young Thug, Gunna, Fetty Wap, Highly Suspect and more, has been purchased by the Warner Music Group, the companies announced today (Dec. 16). News of the acquisition — which sources tell Billboard is for around $400 million — was first reported by Billboard earlier this month. As part of the deal, 300 co-founder and CEO Kevin Liles has been appointed chairman/CEO of both 300, which will remain a standalone entity, and Elektra Music Group, which encompasses Fueled By Ramen, Roadrunner Records, DTA, Low Country Sound and Public Consumption. Elektra co-presidents Gregg Nadel and Mike Easterlin will continue to run Elektra, but will now report to Liles moving forward. “At 300, we’re all about freedom — the fr...
Brandi Carlile, James Taylor & More Set for MusiCares Gala Honoring Joni Mitchell
The first batch of artists set to perform at the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Joni Mitchell range from longtime friends and colleagues, such as Graham Nash, James Taylor and Herbie Hancock, to younger singer/songwriters, including Brandi Carlile, Leon Bridges, Maggie Rogers and Mickey Guyton. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The initial roster of performers, announced Thursday (Dec. 16), also includes Jon Batiste, who is this year’s top Grammy nominee with 11 nods, triple Grammy winners Pentatonix and four-time nominees Black Pumas. Carlile and Batiste will serve as artistic directors, a first for the Person of the Year concert. Mike Elizondo, who won a Grammy for co-producing Switchfoot’s 2009 album Hello Hurricane, will serv...
Ed Sheeran & Elton John Highlight International Holiday Hits on Global Charts
SZA scores the week’s highest debut on the Dec. 18-dated Billboard Global 200 as “I Hate U” arrives at No. 11. But Ed Sheeran and Elton John take top honors among new entries on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. survey, dashing in at No. 10 with “Merry Christmas.” The team-up, released Dec. 3, drew 29 million streams and sold 42,300 downloads worldwide in its first week (ending Dec. 9), according to MRC Data. The song’s streams break down to 69% (20.1 million) from audio platforms and 31% (8.9 million) from video services, largely thanks to its festive official video that also premiered Dec. 3. A 31% share might seem small for a song’s video streams, but it’s a rare high mark among holiday titles that mostly live on audio services, many of which predate the ’80s-era breakout of videos. Next ...
How the Pandemic and TikTok Fueled the Success of Kali Uchis’ Bilingual Hit ‘Telepatia’
When Kali Uchis told her father she wanted to skip college to become a professional musician, his answer wasn’t quite what she had hoped for. “ ‘There are a lot of girls prettier than you and that have a better voice than you,’ ” Uchis recalls him telling her. “ ‘What would make you stand out from them?’ ” She wasn’t dissuaded. “ ‘Well, there can be a million girls more pretty than me and with a better voice than me,’ ” she answered. “ ‘But they’ll never be me.’ ” Today, it’s precisely that other-ness that has led 27-year-old Uchis — the bilingual, bicultural, genre-bending singer-songwriter whose vocals flow effortlessly between English and Spanish — to become an unlikely star with the song “Telepatía,” a trippy fantasy in which she sings of wa...
How 2021 Was Cory Henry’s ‘Best’ Year Yet
“Being Grammy-nominated signifies a turning point in my life from the standpoint of me getting to play music I enjoy to play and create,” says Cory Henry, who previously won three Grammy Awards as a member of the instrumental ensemble Snarky Puppy. He recently received four more nominations: his 2020 solo album Something to Say in the Best Progressive R&B Album category, as co-producer/writer on Eric Bellinger’s New Light (also in the Best Progressive R&B Album category) and as a co-producer/writer on Kanye West’s Donda, nominated for both Album of The Year and Best Rap Album. “Seeing [my work] get recognized in this way makes me feel confident in my artistry,” he continues. “I moved to L.A. and uprooted my life, so seeing this body of work get nominat...
SZA’s “I Hate U” Breaks Apple Music’s All-Time R&B Streaming Record
SZA‘s “I Hate U” has become the most-streamed R&B track by a female artist on Apple Music in its first week, according to a new report from Billboard. “I Hate U” marked SZA’s fifth top 10 entry and her second debut in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10, after the track debuted at No. 7 on the chart earlier this week. The single initially released on SoundCloud during the summer, but after gaining widespread popularity across TikTok, SZA and her team decided to officially drop “I Hate U” on streaming services. “Honestly this started out as an exercise. I just wanted somewhere to dump my thoughts w out pressure,” SZA wrote on Instagram prior to the track’s release. “Y’all made it a thing and I’m not mad lmao. Ask and u shall receive.” “I Hate U,” which was co-written by SZA, Robert Bise...
Here’s a Timeline of Tom Holland and Zendaya’s Relationship, Because We’re Chasing Joy Where We Can
Our 2021 Annual Report continues with a Tomdaya timeline, because why not? As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. Look, we all needed a win this year. Happy release week to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is allegedly exciting and fresh and an impressive moment for the MCU and all that. Anyway, let’s talk about two of its leads: Spider-Man and MJ. Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Tom and Z. Tom Holland (a golden retriever who was accidentally transformed into a lovable young man with the gifts of song, dance, and acrobatics) exploded to full-fledged stardom when he was just nineteen years old. The former Billy Elliot switched out the curtain call tutu for an iconic spidey suit in C...
Jeff Garlin Pushed Out of The Goldbergs Following Multiple HR Investigations
Jeff Garlin is exiting the long-running sitcom The Goldbergs following multiple HR investigations into his on-set behavior. The 59-year-old comedian has been accused of creating a hostile and demeaning work environment, with one anonymous source saying, “He is extremely verbally and emotionally abusive.” Deadline reports that the decision is mutual, and that he will stay long enough to wrap his final scenes of Season Nine. The Goldbergs is one of ABC’s highest-rated comedy series, and no decision has been made about Season 10. Garlin addressed the complaints against him in an interview with Vanity Fair two weeks ago, acknowledging that he’d been the subject of HR investigations for three consecutive years. “I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms ...
M83 to Reissue Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, Share Video for “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea”: Watch
M83’s classic double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming just passed its 10th anniversary, and the band is feeling celebratory. Today the French electronic group announced a vinyl reissue of the record, and shared a new music video for the track “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea.” “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea” serves as prequel to the music video trilogy of “Midnight City,” “Reunion,” and “Wait” that M83 released back in the day. In those videos, a group of supernatural children run from a group of authorities attempting to study their powers. The new clip, directed by Sacha Barbin and Ryan Doubiago, provides an origin story for one of the children. Barbin and Doubiago explained of the video: “This story takes place 10 years earlier in order to highlight the first moment one of these children u...
Ben Stiller Directs Adam Scott in Trailer for Apple TV+ Thriller Series Severance: Watch
Work-life balance gets cut off at in the head in the new teaser trailer for Apple TV+’s Severance. Coming from first-time creator Dan Erickson, the sci-fi thriller series is directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller. (Stiller helmed six of Season 1’s nine episodes, with Aoife McArdle handling the rest.) The show centers on Adam Scott’s Mark Scout, head of a team at Lumon Industries. What exactly the company does might not be as important as how they do it: Using an invasive surgical procedure called “severance,” employees willingly have their memories split between work and home. When they’re at work, they don’t remember their personal lives, and vice versa. As the official synopsis puts it, “This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself a...
Exit Interview: Nathaniel Rateliff Finds His Balance
Nathaniel Rateliff isn’t the sort of guy who emotionally skews in either direction. Down the middle. That’s sort of his thing. But even he can admit that following an 18-month stretch where a pandemic prevented him and pretty much every living musician from touring, heading back out on the road for some of 2021 was nothing short of a blessing. “Yeh, it feels like a success just to be able to tour again,” the singer and frontman for the typically bombastic Night Sweats says over the phone, reflecting on the past year. “We didn’t even know when we’d be able to play shows again or play any kind of live music and then we spent a lot of the summer and fall back in outdoor venues. So that seems like a triumph in its own right.” Add in the fact that he followed up a poignant and beautiful solo al...
