Chris Willman-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic One of the buzziest — or should that be tipsiest? — performances at this past weekend’s Stagecoach came from an artist who wasn’t even listed on the poster art. Late-breaking sensation Shaboozey was squeezed into the festival as a performer in the Bud Light Backyard tent, where there was other squeezing going on as Sunday’s festivalgoers stood in line to get a glimpse of the artist whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has proven to be a straight-out-of-the-box smash among both country and hip-hop fans. Shaboozey isn’t coming to stardom himself in any kind of overnight way; the 28-year-old, Virginia-born singer-rapper put out his first single 10 years ago, and he’s about to release his third major-label album.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Taylor Swift has just introduced 31 brand new songs to the world, as she did in April with the deluxe double-album that is “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” it may be a fool’s errand to immediately assess where where all that fresh grist fits into the overall scope of her catalog. Foolish, and also irresistible.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Morgan Wallen and Post Malone have been teasing a joint single, and the two singers premiered the new song, “I Had Some Help,” in a duet performance during Wallen’s headlining set at the Stagecoach festival in California Sunday night. The new song, “I Had Some Help,” is a drinking-buddies anthem and includes the key lyrics “I had some help / It ain’t like I can make this kind of mess all by myself / Don’t act like you ain’t help me pull that bottle off the shelf / Been deep in every weekend, if you couldn’t tell / They say teamwork makes the dream work / Hell, I had some help.” No official announcements have been made about the single, much less a release date.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department” has lived up to its blockbuster potential and then some. Billboard reported Sunday that, per data provided by Luminate, the new release racked up 2.61 million album-equivalent units in its first week out — the best one-week figure for any album in nine years. The last album to debut with a higher figure was Adele’s “25,” which bowed with 3.482 million in 2015, a number that is considered unrepeatable with the changes that have occurred in consumption since then.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Beyonce did not show up. Reba did. And it was enough.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It would be hard to imagine a more actually polarizing set — as in, splitting real fans into roughly even, truly diametrically opposed camps — than the headlining show Eric Church delivered to round out the first night of Stagecoach in California. The 70,000 festival attendees will definitely not lack for anything to talk, or argue, about for the rest of the weekend, and the debate will also continue among the many more fans who watched the livestream on Prime Video and Amazon’s Twitch channel.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The tide of Black women in country is a phenomenon that much of the world has suddenly become aware of, thanks to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and the lesser-known artists being championed through guest slots on the album. Does this mark the true signal change that advocates for diversity in country have long dreamed of? Or is the real progress within the ranks of the music industry that could allow young Black country artists so lacking that the current excitement might be destined to go down as a glorious blip? These were among the topics of a presentation by the Black Music Action Coalition at Live Nation’s Beverly Hills headquarters Wednesday, with Mickey Guyton, songwriter-artist INK (who is a key contributor to “Cowboy Carter”) and academic researcher Dr.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Spotify announced Wednesday that Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department” has become the first album in the app’s history to pick up a billion streams in a single week. And it did that with still a couple of days left to go in the seven-day period in question. The previous high-water mark for most album streams in a week belonged to Swift’s last all-new release, “Midnights,” in October 2022.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic David Gilmour, who has often given off the appearance of being happily retired, hasn’t been keeping himself from the studio after all. The ex-Pink Floyd singer-guitarist has announced his first album in nine years, “Luck and Strange,” and he’s giving everyone time to prepare for it, with the release not coming till Sept.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Eddie Vedder-founded Ohana Festival will return to southern California for three days in September, with the opening and closing nights headlined by Pearl Jam, sandwiching a performance by Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the top-billed Saturday evening slot. Other performers joining the eclectic lineup, scheduled for Sept. 27-29, include Alanis Morissette, Turnpike Troubadours, Garbage, Black Pumas, Maren Morris, Crowded House, the Breeders, Idles and Jenny Lewis.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic More than 20 years after his death, there are treasures in the Johnny Cash vault that have remained unmined, despite assumptions that everything interesting might have been brought into the light in the posthumous recordings that came out in the years following his 2003 death. On June 28, Universal Music will issue “Songwriter,” a collection of 11 previously unreleased recordings that Cash demo-ed in 1993, all of them self-penned originals.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There’s no golden ticket quite like the golden ticket of finding your name in the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song. It’s one thing if you’re Charlie Puth, and already on a list of Spotify’s 150 top monthly artists. But for another musical artist name-checked in Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department,” the impact stands to be much more impactful.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has revealed the names of 16 artists or other musical figures who will be inducted in 2024. It’s a diverse list that stretches from R&B/rock pioneer Big Mama Thornton to pop superstars Cher and Dionne Warwick, and from ’70s-rooted rockers like Peter Frampton, Foreigner and Ozzy Osbourne to ’90s icons the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If we had the ability to assess who is the most beloved figure in music — not in overall numbers, but sheer adoration, per capita and per peer — it likely wouldn’t be Taylor or Beyoncé but Mavis Staples, who has been taking us there since the late ’60s. There being the smile that crosses anyone’s face when fortunate enough to be in the same room, or even in just giving a passing thought to that voice, that presence, and all the different ways in which Staples embodies righteousness.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There’s a certain type of vinyl geek that has all 387 exclusives coming out for Record Store Day 2024 committed to memory — color variants, pressing quantities and prices included. The rest of us may need a bit of guidance, which is where this look at 25 wallet-worthy releases comes in. Obviously, our list represents less than 10% of this year’s RSD population, but you can go to the full list — found here — after you get a start (or a reminder) with our rundown, which includes a mixture of the most obviously commercial titles and an assortment of cred or cult items.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift can’t quit breaking her own records. After Spotify revealed Friday that “The Tortured Poets Department” had become the first album in the DSP’s history to amass 200 million streams in a single day, the service updated that news early Saturday, to report that first-day streams actually surpassed 300 million, when all was said and done and counted.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The torture is over for fans who waited weeks and months for Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” to arrive. But the truly faithful still have some work ahead, in trying to decode what or who is the subject of each of the 16 songs (plus four bonus tracks).

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift usually writes either an essay or poem to be included in her album packaging, but for “The Tortured Poets Department,” she used the buddy system. Stevie Nicks contributed a handwritten poem she wrote for Swift, which is the first thing fans will see when they open the LP gatefolds or CD booklets Friday morning. That doesn’t mean Swift skipped out on her usual duties, as the album packaging also includes a long handwritten poem she penned herself, placed after the lyrics in the booklets as a sort of epilogue.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Would you be surprised to know (or be reminded) that Taylor Swift hasn’t really released a breakup album in a decade? For a gal who’s never really shorn that as her songwriting reputation, it’s funny to think that she’s spent the better part of the last 10 years being off-brand, in a manner of thinking, with most of her new material. Granted, it became hard to think of her as anything but the queen of bust-ups when “All Too Well” got transformed from a 2012 also-ran album track into the Song of the 2020s.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Returning for its 15th annual edition this weekend, the TCM Classic Film Festival will turn Hollywood Blvd. into the center of the movie universe again for four days, for that very obsessive and loving subset of film fans that has the network’s vintage fare as part of their weekly and daily lives. And just what time span “classics” falls into is exemplified by the big opening and closing night films.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Barbra Streisand has recorded a new song, “Love Will Survive,” to serve as the end-title theme for “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part, Holocaust-themedseries that premieres on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in other territories on May 2. The song will come out globally via her longtime label, Columbia Records, on April 25.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For an artist looking to break Coachella, it pays to enlist friends at a cutting-edge production firm. At this year’s festival, L.A.-based Silent House has laid claim to designing and executing the elaborate productions for three of the four headliners.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Library of Congress has released its annual list of 25 audio recordings earmarked for celebration and preservation as part of the National Recording Registry, and the musical artists selected for inclusion run the historical gamut from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to “Ready to Die.” Benny Goodman, Gene Autry and Perry Como are among the mid-20th-century icons making the list, which extends to ’70s and ’80s releases by ABBA, the Cars, Doug E. Fresh and Blondie, and is rounded out on the latter end by such artists as Green Day, the Chicks and the Notorious B.I.G.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic For decades, the attitude toward the documentary “Let It Be” in the Beatles‘ camp seemed to be: Let it it rest in peace. But the film is finally going to be seen again.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic With the April 15 episode of “NCIS” on CBS, the overall franchise — including its multiple spinoffs — clocks its 1,000th episode. That’s a milestone for all of the associated series, but the mothership show accounts for nearly half of those, and is edging ever closer to its own once-unfathomable benchmark: “NCIS” O.G.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Billy Joel fans will get to find out whether Davy is still in the Navy after all. A broadcast special of the singer in performance at Madison Square Garden was cut off abruptly in most time zones Sunday night during his climactic rendition of the signature hit “Piano Man,” and after considerable public outrage, CBS has committed to re-airing the entire program on Friday night.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The 30th anniversary of the original animated film version of “The Lion King” will be celebrated at the Hollywood Bowl next month with a live-to-film concert/screening that will include cast members from both the movie and theatrical versions — and beyond — including Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Billy Eichner, Ernie Sabella, Jason Weaver and Bradley GIbson. The shows will take place at the Bowl May 24-25 and be produced by Disney Concerts, Fulwell 73 Productions, AMP Worldwide and Live Nation-Hewitt Silva.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Award-winning country star Lainey Wilson will be the subject of a documentary special being produced by Robin Roberts‘ production unit at ABC News Studios, to be seen on Hulu, with a premiere date set for May 29. The Roberts-led division has several such projects in development. The host indicated that the doc-style specials will focus of telling the stories of empowered women.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Doja Cat has rarely turned in an uninteresting or unprovocative performance, and her headlining set Sunday night at Coachella offered a plethora of looks and concepts designed to prompt dazzlement and debate among the viewing audience. Dinosaur skeletons? Mudbath choreography? Twerking Yetis? Her hour-and-a-half set just about had it all… Well, everything except for her biggest pop hits, like “Say So” and “Kiss Me More.” Familiar older songs were notably MIA from a setlist that included 12 songs from her 2023 “Scarlet” album, with its determined focus on her rapping side, and four more from the deluxe edition, “Scarlet 2: Claude,” that just popped.