The hard hats came off for the first official concert at TD Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario last Friday night (Nov. 21) — and it started with a bang.

The first show at the former Copps Coliseum and FirstOntario Centre arena since its nearly $300-million transformation by American sports and live entertainment company Oak View Group was one of the most prominent music legends still playing today: Sir Paul McCartney. That’s a big flex for a venue aiming to prove itself as both a relief valve for the red-hot Toronto live music touring market and a destination in its own right, as well as Oak View Group’s new flagship venue in Canada.

McCartney has a discography packed full of some of the most immortal songs of all time from the Beatles to Wings to his solo career, and the multigenerational crowd that packed the sold-out 18,000-capacity venue showed their appreciation by shouting and singing along with every song. 

Partway through the set, the 83-year-old artist took an informal poll: “How many of you here are actually from Hamilton?” he asked, before repeating the question asking how many are not. Judging by the cheers, it sounded like 60-40 out-of-towners to Hamiltonians. It’s been nearly 10 years since McCartney last played the city, and he made it count with a marathon 36-song setlist that lasted close to three hours.

The arrival of TD Coliseum may be described as an upgrade of an existing arena, but that tag seriously underplays the significance of what is a genuinely dramatic $300 million transformation of the 18,000-capacity venue. 

The ribbon cutting on Nov. 20 was attended by Ontario Premier Doug Ford (taking time out on his birthday), several of his provincial cabinet members, the mayor of Hamilton, Andrea Horwath, and high-level representatives from Oak View Group, the Denver-based international venues giant in charge of the project, and its partners, including TD Bank and Live Nation Canada.

Nick DeLuco, senior vice president and general manager of TD Coliseum, launched the event by recalling that “749 days ago, we were here, talking about a vision, a dream of what this venue was going to become, and now it’s real.”

Read more on the opening McCartney concert here and the opening of TD Coliseum here. — Richard Trapunski and Kerry Doole

—

Macklam Feldman Management Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Macklam Feldman Management (MFM) is celebrating 30 years.

As the Canadian-born international talent agency embarks on its third decade, the company is welcoming new team members and a bevy of emerging talent.

Founded in Vancouver in 1995 by industry titans Stephen Macklam and Sam Feldman, the partnership initially emerged to manage Irish folk band The Chieftains. The success of the group proved their joint prowess — and Macklam Feldman Management was born.

Since then, the management company — a subsidiary of Feldman’s A&F Music Ltd. — has overseen and guided the careers of some of the biggest artists in the world including Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones, Leonard Cohen, Bette Midler, Tracy Chapman and James Taylor alongside a roster that today includes legends Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Colin James and more.

“We’ve been fortunate to work with some of the most iconic artists in the world, and this recent momentum marks the most concentrated period of investment in artist development since the company was founded,” Feldman tells Billboard Canada.

While working with icons like McLachlan and Costello, Macklam and Feldman are music industry legends in their own right. (The latter also founded The Feldman Agency, one of Canada’s biggest booking agencies, before selling the namesake company to his executive team in 2019.) Recently, however, MFM has increasingly invested in artist development.

Over the last two years, MFM has expanded its team with four new staff members — Samuel Chadwick, Sam Hughes, Connor Macklam and Wesley Attew — who are dedicated to artist development and digital marketing. They will work with artist managers Scott Oerlemans and Kyle Kubicek to strengthen MFM’s artist development and digital marketing operations for their growing roster.

Over the past year, they have welcomed a new wave of artists, including American singer-songwriter aron!, rock band Tommy Lefroy, U.K. post-punk band YAANG and country singer Dawson Gray. They join 2022 signees, emerging folk-pop trio Tiny Habits, who recently opened for McLachlan on her 30th anniversary Fumbling Towards Ecstasy tour. Each brings a fresh musical perspective and global prospects to the agency.

Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

—

New National Report Calls for Boost to Indigenous Music ‘Discoverability’ in Canada’s Streaming Era

As Canada updates its rules for how streaming platforms support local culture, a key opportunity is emerging to strengthen the visibility of Indigenous music at home and abroad.

The Indigenous Music Office (IMO) has released a new study that sheds light on the challenges affecting Indigenous artists and music companies accessing international markets.

Pathways to International Markets: A Strategy to Increase Export Capacity for Indigenous Music is the music organization’s first major research project. The study establishes four key strategic directions that identify the roles that funders, music industry organizations and partners play in increasing financing, professional development and discoverability for Indigenous artists and industry professionals.

In the study, the IMO highlights that export activities generate significant career development opportunities for Indigenous music artists. However, most funds available to the Canadian music industry lack a strategic focus on assisting the development and export of Indigenous music.

“A strategy to increase the export capacity of the Indigenous music sector is timely as demand for Indigenous music is growing in Canada and around the world,” the report reads.

This includes financing the growth of a domestic Indigenous-owned and led music ecosystem, strengthening export readiness of Indigenous artists, prioritizing international showcasing, touring and networking and promoting discoverability of Indigenous music on streaming and broadcasting platforms.

The study calls for promoting “discoverability of Indigenous music on streaming and broadcasting platforms” as the most specific pathway for Indigenous artists and organizations to reach larger audiences.

In addition to working closely with the CRTC on the implementation of Online Streaming Act, the IMO has assisted in the development of the commission’s new Indigenous Broadcasting Policy, in partnership with First Nations, Métis and Inuit broadcasters, along with Indigenous content creators and audiences.

The study was developed amidst the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, a once-in-a-generation update to CanCon regulations, and ongoing Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearings. In September, various Canadian music orgs voiced their opinions on the changes, one of which highlights the importance of artist discoverability for Indigenous musicians.

An important part of the hearings was last year’s CRTC decision to enforce major foreign-owned streaming services with Canadian revenues over $25 million to pay a now-paused 5% of revenues into Canadian content funds, like the Indigenous Music Office and FACTOR.

Read more here. — HTS

Xposure Music, a Canadian catalog firm focused on mostly independent artists, said on Monday it secured $42.5 million in debt financing from billionaire hedge funder David Tepper‘s Andalusian Credit Partners and private investors.

Xposure co-founders and co-CEOs Ryan Garber and Gregory Walfish said they have signed over 100 deals with independent and some major label artists worth between $10,000 and $4 million since starting Xposure in 2021. Their firm’s total funding now tops $50 million and includes support from equity investors including Garber’s father, former Cirque du Soleil chairman and a minority owner of the Seattle Kraken Mitch Garber.

In recent years, the billions invested by global asset managers and private equity firms to acquire the rights to music’s most popular songs has prompted smaller investors to exploit their specialized genre knowledge and industry connections to acquire music IP in a niche category.

Major funds doing this include Beyond Music, which acquires K-pop and evergreen Asian music catalogs, Cutting Edge Media, which owns media music rights used by the film, TV and wellness industries, and Duetti, which also buys master recordings and publishing rights from independent artists.

“Our goal is to continue to serve as the gateway for emerging artists to access meaningful funding and take their careers to the next level, and this investment gives us the resources to make that possible,” Garber said.

Xposure’s Walfish tells Billboard the initial idea was to create a platform for artists to submit music, pay a fee and be guaranteed that their music would be heard by a record label. While they had early success — signing up nearly 25,000 artists and 200 record label executives — Walfish said it led them to discover that what artists really needed was financing for future projects. Xposure pivoted to catalog acquisitions and other financing options in November 2023. Walfish says Xposure’s acquisition deals with artists are flexible, with Xposure buying entire catalogs of master recordings, publishing rights and writer’s share in perpetuity, or fractions of the artists’ rights to albums or individual songs. Xposure also offers term advances.

“More options for artists are better because they are not forced to take a crazy record deal, and in our underwriting and due diligence, we see some crazy deals,” Walfish says. “Music has become a great asset class recognized by a lot of people, but … this is peoples’ life work that they’re entrusting you with. We want to build relationships with the artists we work with.”

With this new financing, Xposure aims to selectively expand their portfolio holdings and catalogs in new genres like Latin and K-Pop, to further develop their in-house valuation tools, and explore more strategic partnerships, like the one they have with indie distributor Too Lost. That partnership, announced in October, will help accelerate distribution of the catalogs Xposure has rights to and help it acquire new ones, the company has said.

Kylie Minogue is finally sharing the Christmas song she has been holding onto for a decade. The pop icon has released her new single “XMAS,” a track she says dates back to the summer of 2015 and was originally inspired by the Village People’s “YMCA.”

The song arrives as part of the 10th anniversary edition of Minogue’s holiday album, Kylie Christmas, which returns on Dec. 5 as Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped) with four brand-new tracks.

Speaking to The Sun, Minogue explained that the idea first came to her while she was in Berlin shortly after releasing her first holiday album, Kylie Christmas, that same year.

“The song comes from 2015. I was at Soho House in Berlin, it was summer on the terrace and we’d just done the first Christmas album,” she said. “We’d had a couple of glasses of wine … and it came to us like ‘YMCA’ but ‘XMAS.’ I’ve been sitting on the chorus for 10 years.”

The single arrives with a video that sees Minogue recreating the iconic flying lift from Dirty Dancing. Despite decades of stage experience, she admitted the move was a leap of faith.

“I was a bit scared as I’ve never done it before. It was a fantasy moment. I was told not to overthink it,” she said. “We did a couple of practices before we did the main one. The thing is, you just need to trust the other person. The first one I got up, but I overshot it. The second was fine. The third one was good. The bruises were worth it the next day.”

Minogue also addressed the idea of “XMAS” becoming a holiday chart-topper — something she’s not expecting but would happily welcome. “I’m not counting on it,” she said. “It would be crazy but that’s definitely parked to one side for me. I am just happy that ten years have passed since my last Christmas album and we are all here still going.”

The release caps what has been one of the busiest stretches of Minogue’s career. Over the past two years, she has released two albums, including 2023’s Tension, and completed a 66-date world tour behind the record. After nonstop work, she says she’s ready for a pause — sort of.

“It feels like I haven’t stopped. It’s been a gigantic year but I imagine I will be making music just for the love of it and maybe banking some things,” she said. “I could happily be in the studio most of my time. I love it. I find it just gets richer and more satisfying.”

Still, Minogue admitted that trying to record a holiday album during breaks on her Tension tour “was maybe not so wise,” but the creative impulse keeps her going. “I don’t know about releasing. I think I should just do the background work… maybe.”

Minogue’s “XMAS” is out now.

JoJo Siwa says she was hospitalized with sudden “excruciating” stomach pain just hours before her scheduled performance at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Friday (Nov. 28), revealing in a TikTok video that she suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst that caused internal bleeding.

In the post, Siwa explained that she had been dealing with persistent discomfort for several days, which intensified any time she danced, walked or moved. “Every time that I’ve been dancing for the last couple of days or even just walking, my stomach would just really, really hurt,” she said. At first, she assumed the pain was related to menstrual cramps, adding that she tried to ease it with a warm bath. “That set it off 100 times worse,” she said.

After calling her mother for advice, Siwa said she was urged to phone an ambulance. At the hospital, doctors told her the cause: “One of my ovaries had a cyst on it that burst and was bleeding into my stomach,” she explained. She added that the blood in her abdomen triggered the intense pain. “Anytime that the blood in your stomach moves, that’s the bleeding in the stomach. It’s like brutal pain.”

Despite the medical emergency, Siwa still performed her Mall of America set later that day. She told fans she will undergo follow-up checks next week. “We’re going to keep it pushing,” she said, noting she has been instructed to return to the hospital immediately if she experiences vomiting or a recurrence of the severe pain.

@itsjojosiwa

Thank you for all the well wishes🤍 grateful for the Doctors and Nurses for working so fast and helping me get back on time, keep it pushing🤍

♬ original sound – JoJo Siwa

The Minnesota stop followed the conclusion of her Infinity Heart U.K. and European tour, which wrapped earlier this month. Earlier in 2025, Siwa appeared on the U.K. edition of Celebrity Big Brother, where she was the subject of inappropriate comments and behavior from fellow contestant Mickey Rourke.

More recently, she released a cover of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.” Carnes appeared to respond cryptically to the rendition in a TikTok, saying, “There is a difference between singing a song…and embodying it.”

Siwa has continued to tease new music and maintain a high profile across social media throughout the year. In her TikTok about the medical scare, she reassured fans that she expects to recover without further intervention, adding that doctors anticipate the situation will resolve on its own.

Iggy Azalea is officially closing the door on her rap career.

The Australian-born artist, who has shifted her focus to entrepreneurial and digital ventures in recent years, reaffirmed that she does not plan to return to the music industry. The update came via Instagram on Friday (Nov. 28), when the “Fancy” rapper shared a selfie that prompted a fan to ask whether she had recently signed a new record deal.

“F*** no,” Azalea replied in the comments. “But I did consider signing, for weeks. I’m very sure I don’t want to come back to the music industry.”

Her comment follows years of gradual distance from major releases. Azalea’s last studio album, The End of an Era, arrived in 2021 and marked a personal milestone, intended as a closing chapter before a pivot to new creative paths. Her 2014 debut, The New Classic, made a global impact with the Billboard No. 1 single “Fancy” and established her as one of the most commercially successful Australian rappers of the decade.

Earlier this year, Azalea publicly alleged on X (formerly Twitter) that Universal Music Group owed her what she described as “millions of dollars in back pay” from international royalties. She claimed the amount in question was in the “eight-figure range” and said the corporation “technically stole” earnings during her early career. UMG did not comment at the time, and Azalea has continued to discuss the issue while advocating for artist rights and royalty transparency online.

In August, she appeared on ABC News and spoke candidly about the pressures she experienced at the height of her fame. She recalled being labeled an “industry plant” early on and described the rap industry as a “battlefield.” “I was stepping on landmines left and right, and I just couldn’t survive it. It’s not survivable,” she said. She added that while she made mistakes along the way, the emotional toll of navigating the spotlight ultimately reshaped her relationship with music.

“There are some things I walked into and deserve, or things I could have done better,” she said. “But I can’t sit here all day long feeling sorry about that. It’s just part of life.”

Azalea has since focused on business ventures — including cryptocurrency projects and online creative work — and has not hinted at reconsidering her decision. Her latest comments suggest her retirement from music is firm, with no plans for a comeback on the horizon.