Here’s Why ‘High Infidelity’ Is Trending on April 29

“Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th?” Taylor Swift asks in “High Infidelity,” a bonus track from her extended Midnights (3am Edition) album. “Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?”

It was Swift’s “High Infidelity” that trended on Twitter on its first April 29, after being released six months ago (and to the dismay of some REO Speedwagon fans who thought 1980’s Hi Infidelity was maybe getting rediscovered on April 29).

Swifties had clever quips and memes aplenty across social media on Saturday, as well as celebratory tweets marking a new “holiday” to observe in the fandom.

“i cant believe april 29 never existed until taylor swift invented it,” one fan commented in a tweet, while another honored the day along with the birth of her nephew: “My nephew being born on High Infedility Day,” they wrote with a shocked face emoji.

Most prevalent were tweets referencing a widespread guess that Swift might perform “High Infidelity” for the first time ever — during the part of her Eras Tour set featuring two surprise songs Saturday night in Atlanta, following the live debut of “Coney Island” solo at Friday’s show — to observe High Infidelity Day. Some went into a spiral of anxiety that they might be getting their hopes up too soon.

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“When Taylor doesn’t perform High Infidelity on April 29th because everyone is assuming she’s going to and the whole point of a surprise song is that it’s a surprise,” one pointed out. “what do we do if taylor ends up not singing high infidelity today,” another asked.

See some of the best fan tweets on April 29 about “High Infidelity” below and look out for Billboard‘s review of Swift’s April 29 show on Sunday.

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Jon Pardi Invited to Become Grand Ole Opry Member During Stagecoach Festival

Jon Pardi got quite the surprise during his performance at Stagecoach on Friday night (April 28): an official invitation to become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry, via a video invite from Alan Jackson.

While Pardi was on stage at the Indio, California, festival, friend and restauranteur Guy Fieri appeared to point the country star’s attention toward Jackson’s video.

“I’ve been appreciating your music ever since you were touring with me a few years ago. So I get the honor to invite you in front of all your Stagecoach friends out there to be the first native of California to become an official member of the Grand Ole Opry,” Jackson said, guitar in hand.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Opry executive producer Dan Rogers set up the Opry mic stand in front of Pardi.

“That mic stand represents the future of country music as well as its incredible history,” Rogers told the crowd. “This night will go down in history, too, both because Jon is the first artist invited to join the Opry on this stage and because he’s the first native Californian to get that call. What a great night!”

Pardi’s induction date has not yet been announced.

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“I moved to Nashville chasing a dream at 22 years old and now I’m here. I love you guys and I love country music. Thank you, everybody. This is an amazing night. I’ll never forget it,” an emotional Pardi said upon hearing the news.

Later in the night Pardi added, “I always wondered how this might happen if it was going to. I never imagined anything this great. That was incredible.”

Backstage, Rogers made another statement in support of Pardi: “For nearly a decade now, Jon Pardi has been adding something great to the show every single time he plays the Opry,” he noted. “For me personally, I’ll never forget the big sounds he brought to the Opry stage during the pandemic and the way he connected with audiences around the world via our livestream even when he was playing to an empty Opry House. I have no doubt there are good times ahead for all of us with Jon as a future Opry member.”

Pardi recently received his third nomination for album of the year at the upcoming ACM Awards. He also announced his Mr. Saturday Night World Tour, kicking off in August. See all of his upcoming dates here.

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Taylor Swift Performs ‘Coney Island’ Live for the First Time — Without The National

Taylor Swift performed “Coney Island” live for the first time in Atlanta Friday night (April 28). But the Evermore highlight, a heart-wrenching track that features The National‘s Matt Berninger trading vocals with Swift, was a solo performance at the city’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Swift carefully chose her words in introducing “Coney Island” to the stadium bursting with zealous fans, clarifying that she had something special up her sleeve but the surprise would be delivered by her alone.

“Any time I’m gonna talk about or even reference another artist, I feel inclined to tell you that if they’re not here, they’re not here,” she told the crowd. “No one else is here. You are stuck with me. It’s only me.”

She continued, “But I am gonna talk about another artist. I just feel like, you know, stadiums are huge and it’s important to really communicate, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m gonna talk about another artist who has an album that just came out that is so incredible. The National just had an album come out. This band has influenced me beyond my ability to verbalize how much they’ve influenced me — just lyrically, their ability to set a scene, their ability to tell a story. And obviously, Aaron Dessner is in The National and he has completely changed my life.”

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Swift took a moment to promote the band’s new album and her own contribution to it, her new National collab “The Alcott,” which was released the same day as her first of three Atlanta shows. Sitting at the piano, she then sang “Coney Island,” which Swifties have been eager to hear live during the surprise songs segment of her Eras Tour set.

“I was lucky enough to be able to write a song with them for their new album, which is called the First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Check it out, stream it, buy it on vinyl. I love them so much. They’ve been so kind to me. So, I’m not gonna sing the song that we have on this new album — it’s called ‘The Alcott’ — check that out, though. But I am gonna sing ‘Coney Island.’”

Watch a fan-captured video of Swift’s solo version of Evermore‘s “Coney Island” live from Atlanta below.

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New Jersey’s Bamboozle Festival Featuring Limp Bizkit, Rick Ross Canceled as Fans Revolt

An Atlantic City, N.J., music festival that was slated to feature Limp Bizkit, Rick Ross and Steve Aoki has been canceled just a week before kick-off after fans revolted over what they saw as unfulfilled promises and the city declined to issue a final permit for the event.

Organizers of the Bamboozle Festival, which was set to hold its first edition in more than 10 years at Bader Field from May 5-7, announced the cancellation in a notice posted to the festival’s official website on Friday (April 28).

“After extensive discussions, we have made the heartbreaking decision to cancel Bamboozle 2023,” reads the post on the website, which has been scrubbed of all other information. “An incredible amount of time, dedication, passion and hard work was invested into making this comeback a success. We appreciate everyone who supported this festival. Refunds should be requested at point of purchase.”

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Though the festival did not cite the reason for the cancellation, a separate statement put out by Anthony Swan, city business administrator of Atlantic City, said the city put the kibosh on the event after failing to receive the paperwork necessary for it to proceed.

“We asked for this information months in advance to protect the city and the taxpayers of Atlantic City,” said Swan. “The event was fast approaching, and these issues were still unresolved.” After organizers failed to meet the city’s April 27 deadline to submit the documents, Swan added, “the attorney for the festival organizers has been notified … that the event is canceled consistent with our prior notice.”

The cancellation follows weeks of contention between Bamboozle organizers and fans, which began when those who bought tickets during the presale started complaining that the “stacked” lineup promised by founder John D’Esposito in a post on Bamboozle’s official Instagram page failed to come to fruition. Making matters worse, D’Esposito had said that the $400 three-day ticket prices would “jump” as more artists were announced, but instead they fell by nearly $100 after the fest offered a discount code.

The war of words between D’Esposito and fans ramped up in February when an anonymous Instagram account bearing the handle @scamboozlefest began making critical posts about the festival, claiming that organizers were refusing to honor refund requests and re-posting screenshots that showed D’Esposito harassing angry ticket buyers over Instagram, email and text. The Bamboozle Festival’s official Instagram account also began posting negative comments on Scamboozle’s posts, calling fans names like “clown,” “dork,” “pinhead” and “jackass.”

One post on the Scamboozle account bore screenshots of emails in which D’Esposito threatened to doxx a disgruntled fan named Alphonso Cino: “Maybe we have a street party in front of your home address,” one of the emails read. In an interview earlier this month with The Philadelphia Inquirer — which reported that Cino filed complaints against the promoters both with his local police department and the New Jersey State Police Cyber Crimes Unit — D’Esposito claimed the emails were “tongue in cheek” and that he “was joking around.” In the same story, D’Esposito said he expected roughly 15,000 attendees at the festival and claimed that a total of just 47 fans had been refunded the price of their tickets by their credit card companies.

According to NJ.com, numerous Bamboozle ticket buyers have also filed complaints with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs for false advertising and refund requests.

Following Friday’s cancellation, vendors also began scrambling to recover the money they had shelled out. Speaking with The Press of Atlantic City, Nick Richetti of Canna City Hemp said he was worried about receiving a refund after paying out $10,000 for a booth on the festival grounds. “I own one small CBD store in North Carolina, and $10,000 will absolutely break me,” he said.

Billboard reached out for comment to an email listed on Bamboozle’s official Facebook page but hadn’t received a response by press time.

D’Esposito founded Bamboozle in 2002 and kept the festival going for the next decade, with previous editions featuring top-tier acts such as 50 Cent, Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi, Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. At its peak, the event was drawing more than 100,000 fans over a single weekend. Following an alleged dispute between D’Esposito and his partners in the event, Live Nation and House of Blues, the festival went dormant in 2012. D’Esposito told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he repurchased the festival’s trademark in 2020 in order to resurrect it.

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Here’s Why Smokey Robinson Thought His New Album’s Title ‘Would Cause Controversy’

Ahead of releasing his first album in more than a decade, Smokey Robinson sat down with Billboard News to discuss the creative process of his latest effort, Gasms. 

The Grammy winner tells Billboard‘s executive director of R&B/Hip-Hop, Gail Mitchell, that Gasms was a laborious journey that took between five and six years to make. “‘Orgasm’ is the first word I think people think about. That’s probably the most important one,” he quips. “I thought it would cause controversy, and people would say, ‘What is he talking about?’ and it did. People say, ‘What is it about?’ I say, ‘I want you to listen, and you tell me what it’s about. It’s about whatever you want it to be about. I left it like that.”

Spearheading Gasms were Robinson’s two first singles, “If We Don’t Have Each Other” and “How You Make Me Feel.” The inception for the latter found him behind the piano, where he whipped up the song’s melody. “I was tinkering around with the piano one day, and I just started to sing that to myself,” he recalls. “I wanted a modern-day sound to it.”

With a decorated career spanning over 60 years, the revered singer-songwriter also spoke on the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Having a fistful of songs sampled in the past — most notably “Much Better Off” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for A$AP Rocky (“Jukebox Joints” ) and Kanye West (“Devil in a New Dress”) — Robinson expressed delight in the genre’s growth. 

“I’m not surprised that hip-hop has lasted for 50 years because when we first started Motown, there were people saying this music is ridiculous and it would never work. There are always those people — skeptics. Those are normally people of a different age era.”

He later adds: “There are kids making some wonderful music and they always has been.”

Gasms is out now. 

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Smokey Robinson Talks Controversy Around New Album ‘Gasms’, Being Sampled, & More | Billboard News

Motown legend Smokey Robinson stopped by Billboard News to chat with Billboard’s Executive Director of R&B / Hip-Hop Gail Mitchell. He opened up about the reaction to his new album ‘Gasms’, what it’s like to be sampled by other artists, the Spanish language EP he is working on, and more!

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