Month: May 2024

Billie Eilish has announced she will embark on the “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” of her third studio album ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’, set for release on May 17th.

Eilish will embark on her North American leg of the tour in September, running through to the end of December 2024. The tour will continue in Australia starting February 2025 ahead of her European, UK, and Ireland arena dates from April until late July 2025 .

The North American leg includes multiple arena shows in a number of cities, including at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto; Madison Square Garden in New York City; State Farm Arena in Atlanta; United Center in Chicago; Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle; and Kia Forum in Inglewood.  Eilish will also make stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Newark, Boston, Nashville, Omaha, Denver, Portland, San Jose, and more.

Eilish is undertaking several sustainability measures for her world tour. She’s partnered with the nonprofit Reverb to make donations for environmental and climate justice projects. With Reverb, she’ll set up “eco-villages” at the shows for fans to learn more about the sustainability efforts. In addition, Eilish is working with Support+Feed to offer plant-based food options and encourage fans to plant-based foods more often.

Tickets to Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour” go on sale beginning Friday, May 3rd via Ticketmaster.

 

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Ed Sheeran announced he will perform a one-night-only special concert this month, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his album “X (Multiply)” with a special concert in May.

“X (Multiply)” was released back in 2014 and will turn 10 years old this June; it featured the singles “Sing,” “Don’t,” “Thinking Out Loud,” “Bloodstream” and “Photograph,” and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In celebration of his now iconic sophomore album, ‘X’, the concert setlist will reflect Sheeran’s ‘X (Wembley Edition)’ release from 2014.

Sheeran posted on Instagram: “10th anniversary of Multiply this year, which feels wild but also a lot has happened in that 10 years. This album was made from 2011 – 2014, and spanned my whole personal life through that time, which was a mad time. Going from playing pubs and and clubs to selling arenas in those years, falling in and out of love, travelling all around the world, it was a real rollercoaster, and it’s been amazing to revisit all the memories. Can’t wait to experience the multiply show with you, and remember some amazing moments over this summer together.”

Sheeran will also release an anniversary edition of X (Multiply) featuring nine additional tracks: “Take It Back,” “Shirtsleeves,” “Even My Dad Does Sometimes,” “I See Fire,” “All of the Stars,” “English Rose,” “Touch and Go,” “New York” and “Make It Rain.”  The album is scheduled for release June 21.

Sheeran has partnered with ‘Seated’ for an exclusive fan on-sale, where fans can register to be in with a chance of being selected for the opportunity to purchase tickets. Registration will close tomorrow (May 2) at 11:59 ET. Head HERE for information.

General on-sale for tickets will be offered to the selective fans on Monday (May 6) at 10am ET via Ticketmaster.

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Singer-songwriter Dua Lipa is set to guest host and serve as musical guest on the May 4 episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

The show’s X social media feed read: “DOUBLE DUTY DUA!!!!!!!!”

Lipa, 28, is gearing up for the release of her latest album, Radical Optimism, set for release on May 3 and the follow-up to Lipa’s Grammy-winning 2020 album, Future Nostalgia.. She recently dropped her latest single “Illusion,” as well as an accompanying music video, off Radical Optimism.

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Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department’ has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated May 4, earning the superstar her 14th chart-topping album. Billboard reports that “TTPD” debuted with 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, with 1.914 million units traditional album sales (vinyl purchases alone representing 859,000) and on-demand streams of 891.34 million units. The album also made history with the largest streaming week for an album, ever – and the second-largest week for an album in general since the Billboard 200 started measuring by units in December 2014. It also is the third-largest sales week since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991, and the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in the modern era.

Swift is now tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1 albums among soloists in the nearly-70-year history of the Billboard chart, second to The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s overall.  Swift herself reacted to the record-breaking success of ‘TTPD’ in a post on social media, writing on Instagram beneath a carousel of polaroids from the recording process: “My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album. 2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed. I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough — Taylor Swift, the Chairman of TTPD ”

Additionally, Swift’s song “Fortnight” (featuring Post Malone) has landed on top of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her seventh Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 debut, and her 12th overall No. 1 on the chart.  Swift also became the only artist in history to hold the entire top 14 on the Hot 100 with tracks off “TTPD”, and she’s broken the record for most consecutive new albums with a Hot 100 No. 1 hit (with eight), as well as breaking the record for most simultaneous Hot 100 debuts (with 31).

Just days after “TTPD” dropped on April 19, (along with the surprise accompanying LP, The Anthology), Swift broke her own record for most weekly vinyl album sales, moving 700,000 copies, and about 1.5 million U.S. sales after the three-day period across all formats. The album also became the first album to hit one billion Spotify streams within its first week, beating a record that was previously held by Swift’s last album, Midnights.

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