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Country Music Hall of Fame member George Strait set a new attendance record at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, venue American Family Field on Saturday (June 3), when Strait’s headlining concert brought in 46,641 attendees — the highest-ever attendance in the venue. The concert also featured Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town. American Family Field is home to major league baseball team the Milwaukee Brewers.
“We have been fortunate to have a number of fantastic shows at American Family Field since we opened our doors. Our expectations for George Strait, Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town were very high and those expectations were blown away,” Jason Hartlund, executive vp/chief commercial officer for the Milwaukee Brewers, said via a statement. “We set venue records for concert attendance and gross ticket revenue, among others. The Brewers have worked with Messina Touring Group for over a decade and have always enjoyed the relationship. We look forward to working together on many future shows [at] American Family Field.”
The Milwaukee show on June 3 is just the latest record-setting Strait has been doing recently: The accolade follows the recent record-setting attendance on May 27 at the Buckeye Country Superfest at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, which welcomed 63,891 attendees. Other artists on the Buckeye Country Superfest lineup were Stapleton, Little Big Town and Warren Zeiders.
Strait currently has eight additional concerts on the books for the rest of 2023, including a two-night stop at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 28-29, an Aug. 5 show at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, as well as a double-header at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, on Nov. 17-18.
Strait’s most recent album, 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, marked his 27th album to debut at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart. Strait previously noted to Billboard that he’s not ruling out a similar touring run in 2024, saying, “Whether or not we do it again the following year depends on how we all feel it went when we’re finished with these shows.”
Messina Group CEO Louis Messina, who has promoted Strait’s concerts for approximately three decades, also previously added that a short touring stint could possibly happen next year. “It depends upon how he likes it or doesn’t like it,” Messina said. “The good thing about George Strait is we can do anything that he wants to do.”
“My brain just broke,” Taylor Swift said into her mic at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Saturday night (June 3), when she invited a young fan to come up on stage with her.
The Eras Tour setlist — which runs for nearly three-and-a-half hours and covers more than 40 songs — might be meticulously rehearsed in the interest of time, but Swift’s “22” performance last night had a very unrehearsed bit when she became overcome by the cuteness of a child in the audience.
During “22,” one lucky fan gets escorted to the front of the stage on the catwalk end, where Swift hands over the hat that she’s been wearing that night. This special experience seemed to be going as planned at her second of three Chicago tour dates on Saturday. Then Swift got lost in the moment.
Swift crouched down and leaned forward, handed the hat to a young fan and took her hand. And then she encouraged her with a nod to join her on the actual stage. But she wasn’t quite thinking about the safety of that fun gesture. She suddenly stopped herself, admitted that her brain broke and rejoined the Eras dancers in the “22” kickline — kicking with the wrong leg.
By her next song, the 10-minute “All Too Well,” Swift told the crowd about the funny incident that had just happened.
“I just had this inclination,” explained Swift. “She’s so cute that I wanted to like, I was just like ‘I’m just gonna bring her on the stage, I’m just gonna hug her and put her on the stage.’ And then I remembered we don’t have a safe way to get her off the stage.”
“My brain went completely blank,” she said. “I was just like, ‘You’re so sweet and cute, come up on the stage.’ She was confused. I was confused. So if anybody else was confused, that was because that child was so adorable that I tried to make her a part of the show.” She joked, “I had no control over it.”
At this point, Swift added in a universal compliment to everyone that had showed up: “You’re all so cute. I feel that way about a lot of you during the show. We make eye contact and you guys are like performing, passionately. There’s a lot of really passionate performances happening in the audience of the show. Have you noticed that too? You look around you, you wanna be best friends with everyone. Yeah, that happens to me too.”
See the Chicago concert moment below. You can also catch how it went down from the perspective of the girl on TikTok, as another fan captured it from her angle.
Matty Healy has been known to kiss fans, and even one of his bandmates, as part of his stage act with The 1975 during fan favorite “Robbers.” One time, he sucked someone’s thumb.
But since Healy’s been rumored to be dating Taylor Swift, music fans have favored analyzing their apparent romance over his intimate onstage antics. Recently Healy was busy showing up for Swift during Eras Tour weekends in Nashville and Philadelphia, and now he’s back on the road with his band.
At The 1975’s performance at Denmark’s NorthSide Festival this weekend, the kiss returned. This time, Healy, bottle of alcohol in hand, knelt in front of a smiling security guard at the fest and smooched him on the lips — after asking for his consent. “Wanna kiss me?” he mouthed to him before going for it.
While Healy hasn’t dropped snogging from his routine, he did make it a point to not lock lips with anyone right in front of Swift when she made a surprise appearance at The 1975’s show at London’s O2 Arena in January. At the concert — where Swift gave an impromptu live performance of her own “Anti-Hero” and The 1975’s “The City” — Healy announced to the audience, “I’m not kissing anybody in front of Taylor Swift. Have some respect. In front of the queen? It’s not happening.”
During The 1975’s set at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival last weekend, Healy seemingly brought up the Swift dating rumors. He cleverly addressed them by revealing nothing at all.
“Is it all a bit? Is it sincere? Will he ever address it? All of these questions and more will be ignored in the next hour,” Healy quipped, presumably referencing his rumored relationship.
See Healy’s latest stage kiss in the fan footage below. The 1975’s upcoming tour dates can be found here.
The Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna‘s “Popular” has topped this week’s new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (June 2) on Billboard, choosing the pop singer’s star-studded collaboration as their favorite new music release of the past week.
“Popular” earned 52% of the vote, narrowly beating out Stray Kids’ latest album 5-Star, while also triumphing over the Foo Fighters (But Here We Are), Metro Boomin’ (the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Peso Pluma & Bizarrap (“BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 55”), Jelly Roll (Whitsitt Chapel) and others.
The new song from the pop-rap trio is the latest from The Idol, The Weeknd’s new HBO show starring himself and Lily-Rose Depp set to premiere tonight (Sunday, June 4) at 9 p.m. ET. The series follows pop star Jocelyn (Depp) as she tries to mount a comeback with some help from the enigmatic Tedros (The Weeknd).
Speaking about the song in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, The Weeknd gushed over Madonna’s involvement in the track. “Madonna, Madge, she’s the ultimate co-sign for this song, for this album, and for this TV show,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to work with her. I’ve always wanted to write and produce a Madonna album — well, co-produce with her, of cours, because she’s a visionary and she has such a singular vision — and I just want to come into her world and create a classic Madonna album.”
Coming in just behind “Popular” is Stray Kids’ new album 5-Star with 42% of the vote, the Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are with 3.7% of the vote, and Metro Boomin’s Spider-Verse soundtrack with just 0.6% of the vote.
Check out the final results of our weekly new music poll below:
Taylor Swift’s Midnights jumps back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 10), for a sixth nonconsecutive week atop the list. The set bumps 3-1 after the May 26 release of two deluxe editions of the album, along with a new color vinyl variant of the original standard album.
Midnights earned 282,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending June 1 (up 389%), according to Luminate – the second-largest week of 2023 for any album. Only the debut frame of Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time posted a bigger week this year, when it launched at No. 1 with 501,000 (chart dated March 18).
Midnights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Nov. 5, 2022, and spent its first two weeks at No. 1. It then notched three further weeks at No. 1 on the charts dated Nov. 26-Dec. 10, 2022. The album has never left the top 10 in its 32 weeks on the chart.
Midnights’ return to No. 1 halts the chart-topping run of Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which falls to No. 2 after spending its first 12 weeks at No. 1 – the most weeks atop the chart for a country album in over 30 years. (Country albums are those that have charted on, or are eligible for, Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, rapper Lil Durk score his sixth top 10, as Almost Healed starts at No. 3.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 10, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 6. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Midnights’ 282,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 1, album sales comprise 196,000 (up 1,529% — the largest sales week for any album in 2023 and the biggest since Midnights itself debuted with 1.114 million sold on the Nov. 5-dated chart), SEA units comprise 80,000 (up 79%, equaling 107.6 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 6,000 (up 618%).
Midnights had an array of drivers assisting its return to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On May 26, Swift released a new deluxe edition of Midnights, dubbed The Til Dawn Edition, through digital retailers, Swift’s webstore and streaming services. The 23-track set includes the original standard album’s 13 tracks, plus the seven bonus tracks from the earlier-released Midnights (The 3am Edition, originally released on Oct. 21, 2022, shortly after the standard album), and three bonus tracks: “Hits Different,” which was previously only on the Target-exclusive CD edition of the standard edition of Midnights; a new version of the standard album’s “Snow on the Beach,” featuring more Lana Del Rey, and a remix of the standard set’s “Karma,” adding Ice Spice as a featured artist.
The “Karma” remix, alongside its official music video, also premiered across streamers and digital retailers as a single on May 26. Swift and Ice Spice gave the first live performance of the track at Swift’s May 26 The Eras Tour concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
In addition to the Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition), on May 26 Swift introduced a further iteration of the album, named Midnights (The Late Night Edition). The 21-track set contains the original standard album’s 13 tracks, plus five of the seven bonus tracks from The 3am Edition and three bonus tracks: the previously noted new versions of “Snow on the Beach” and “Karma,” along with a previously unreleased track titled “You’re Losing Me (From the Vault).” The Late Night Edition version of the album is available only as a CD sold at merch stands at Swift’s The Eras Tour stops (having started on May 26) for $10 and was briefly sold through Swift’s webstore (for 24 hours only) as a digital download album for $5.99 (from 8 p.m. ET on May 26 to 8 p.m. ET on May 27). “You’re Losing Me” is exclusive to The Late Night edition of the album and is not available to stream anywhere officially, nor sold as a stand-alone track.
There is no word on when, or if, The Late Night Edition will be widely released, nor if “You’re Losing Me” will be released a la carte.
Beyond the above drivers, the standard Midnights vinyl album was reissued in a color variant on May 26. The day, the Love Potion purple marble color variant of Midnights was available in select independent record stores, after being previously sold in a short pre-order window through Swift’s webstore (with orders shipping out starting May 26).
Wallen’s One Thing at a Time surrenders the No. 1 slot after spending its first 12 weeks at No. 1, as the album dips to No. 2 with 126,000 equivalent album units earned (down 2%).
Lil Durk notches his sixth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 as Almost Healed debuts at No. 3 with 125,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 122,000 (equaling 167.82 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. Notably, the 125,000-unit start marks Durk’s best week, outside of his collaborative set with Lil Baby, which bowed at No. 1 with 150,000 (June 19, 2021, chart).
A trio of former No. 1s is next on the Billboard 200, as SZA’s SOS dips 2-4 (55,000 equivalent album units earned; down 29%), Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album falls 4-5 (48,000; up 2%) and Swift’s Lover is a non-mover at No. 6 (38,000; down 1%). Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old rises one rung to No. 7 with 33,000 (down 4%).
Bad Bunny’s chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti climbs one spot to No. 8 (nearly 33,000 equivalent album units; down 3%), Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak bumps 10-9 (31,000; down 1%) and Bailey Zimmerman’s Religiously. The Album. climbs back to the top 10, up 11-10 (30,000; down 4%).
As the top 10 contains Wallen’s two albums (One Thing at a Time and Dangerous at Nos. 2 and 5), Combs’ Gettin’ Old (No. 7), Bryan’s American Heartbreak (No. 9) and Zimmerman’s Religiously. The Album. (No. 10), there are five country albums in the top 10 for the first time in nearly a decade. The chart last had at least five country sets in the top 10 on the Oct. 5, 2013-dated list. That week, Justin Moore’s Off the Beaten Path debuted at No. 2, Chris Young’s A.M. launched at No. 3, Luke Bryan’s former leader Crash My Party fell 4-6, Keith Urban’s Fuse fell 1-8 and Billy Currington’s We Are Tonight debuted at No. 10.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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