Billy Corgan debuted the long-anticipated operatic adaptation of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on Fri., Nov. 21, with the Smashing Pumpkins leader performing on opening night at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The new production presents a symphonic and operatic reimagining of the band’s 1995 double album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and marked a defining moment in the group’s commercial peak. Across the evening, selections including “Tonight, Tonight,” “1979,” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” were transformed for a full operatic cast and orchestra.

Corgan appeared as a featured vocalist throughout the performance, joined by soprano Sydney Mancasola, mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams, tenor Dominick Valdés Chenes and baritone Edward Parks. The Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus performed under conductor James Lowe, who has been one of Corgan’s key collaborators in reworking the score for the stage.

In a previous statement, Corgan said the process allowed him to reconsider the album nearly 30 years on. “It is thrilling to collaborate with Lyric head John Mangum, my musical partner James Lowe, and all of the artists at Lyric in reimagining this very special and historic album, and to discover how Lyric’s full operatic treatment is helping me experience my own compositions in powerful new ways,” he said.

“Opera and rock both tell stories of heightened emotions, and I am excited for both fans of my music and traditional opera fans to hear some truly inspired work; for the balance here is to honor both traditions in a magisterial way.”

Originally released in Oct. 1995, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned seven Grammy nominations, including album of the year. It produced two of the band’s most enduring singles with “1979” (which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100) and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” the latter winning the group a Grammy for best hard rock performance. The album remains one of the Smashing Pumpkins’ most critically and commercially significant projects, certified diamond by the RIAA.

The Lyric Opera production continues its limited run in Chicago through the coming week.

Jellybean Johnson, the Minneapolis musician and producer who was the drummer for the Prince-affiliated funk-rock group The Time, has died. He was 69.

His cause of death is unknown. TMZ first reported Johnson’s passing, noting that he died Friday night (Nov. 21) according to a statement obtained by his family.

Prince recruited Johnson (real name Garry George Johnson), who was self-taught on drums and guitar, in 1981 for The Time, an act born out of the city’s Flyte Tyme. They’d known each other since their high school years in Minneapolis.

“The drums are physical and violent for me while the guitar is spiritual and emotional,” Johnson said in a 2018 interview with Australian Musician. He also quipped to the publication, “When you live here in the cold, you stay in [in] the winter time and you learn how to play.”

As a member of The Time — and later, Prince’s The Family — Johnson helped establish the funk-rock, new wave and synth-pop hybrid that became known as the Minneapolis Sound. He appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in 1984’s Academy Award-winning Purple Rain and as himself in 1990’s Graffiti Bridge.

The Time had five top 10 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the ’80s and early ’90s (when the chart was called Hot Black Singles), including “777-9311,” “Jungle Love” and “Jerk-Out,” which reached No. 1 in 1990.

Johnson is also known for his work as a producer, with Janet Jackson‘s 1990 Hot 100 No. 1 “Black Cat” among his credits — and he was an in-demand session musician.

Sheila E., a longtime friend and a frequent collaborator with Prince, remembered Johnson in an emotional post on Facebook Saturday morning, which she shared “with a heavy heart.”

“My dear friend Jellybean passed away a couple of hours ago,” Sheila E. wrote. “We are devastated by this news. I’m praying for his family and all the kids. He was a kind human being, extremely talented and funny. He had a great sense of humor and [was] an awesome guitar player.”

Directing her words toward her late friend, she added, “Yesterday was your birthday, I forgot to call you and I’m so sorry. I love u bean. Rest in peace and power.”

“I’m absolutely heartbroken!” The Family vocalist Susannah Melvoin wrote on Instagram. “My beautiful brother Jellybean Johnson has passed. This band was and is the kind of Family that believed we all rightfully belonged together in love, music and kindness. Jellybean was the master of loving you like no brother could! My big brother, who watched over me and anyone who he loved!”

Melvoin’s note continued: “I met him when I was 19 years old and he was already a seasoned musical savant at 28. He’d been in the Time and was masterfully put into a band that became what we lovingly and rightfully call the family. He went from being behind the drums to playing guitar in this band because he was a guitar player first and drummer second. Oxygen for him was the inhale and exhale of playing his guitar. I can barely get this out….his children and family members need our support and love. Please send it their way.”

“May you rest in all that is light and graceful,” she said to Johnson.

Johnson performed with The Time and Rihanna at the Grammy Awards in 2008, a performance that had him playing the drums to a click track. After being a career musician with his “own click track for 30, 40 years,” Johnson said it was difficult to pivot — “If you go back and watch that performance, it came off flawless, but, man, that week of practice was hell,” he said with a laugh, in a 2024 interview with Dancing to the Drum Machine author Dan Leroy.

“The guys in The Time always trusted me, as far as tempos and all that kind of stuff,” explained Johnson. “But there were a few times, like when I played the Grammys … I remember one time back in ’08, man, I played the Grammys, and Rihanna was on there with [The Time]. And she was just getting huge, and she had that ‘Umbrella’ song … And she had dancers, and she was doing this thing with us, and it was gonna be part Minneapolis, part her. She’s gonna be integrated with us — which means with me being the only drummer, I had to play to a click track. I struggled. I’m not gonna lie. I called every hotshot drummer, young drummers that I know, all my top drum friends. I mean, how do y’all do this? Because some guys, especially studio guys, they learn how to do that. Just deal with click tracks and all that kind of stuff. And I didn’t. I never had to really do that.”

He returned to the Grammys stage in 2017 and 2020 as part of tributes to Prince.

Johnson co-founded the non-profit Minneapolis Sound Museum in 2021, with the goal of preserving the history, culture and legacy of the Minneapolis Sound.

In 2022, he was awarded a Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award with The Time.

Ornella Vanoni, a beloved performer who had a seven decade-long singing career with such international hits as “Senza Fine” and “L’appuntamento,” has died. She was 91.

In a post on X Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her deep sorrow for the loss of Vanoni, whose “unmistakable voice” left an imprint on Italian culture for generations. “Italy loses a unique artist who leaves us with an unrepeatable artistic heritage,” Meloni said.

Vanoni died of cardiac arrest at her Milan home, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported.

Vanoni recorded more than 100 albums with sales of over 55 million copies, vaulting her to iconic status among generations of fans and earning her the moniker “The Lady of Italian Song,” according to LaPresse newspaper.

Born in Milan in 1937, Vanoni’s first love was the theater, which culminated with performances on the Broadway stage in 1964. But her passion for music combined with what LaPresse described as a “highly personal and sophisticated performing style” and vast repertoire from jazz to pop led her to collaborate with some of the most important songwriters in Italy and abroad.

Vanoni’s partnership — and love affair — with famed Genovese singer-songwriter Gino Paoli produced the hit “Senza Fine” (Without End), which shot her onto the international stage in 1961.

Her later collaborations spanned a range of artistic talent including Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock and George Benson, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.

Vanoni excelled in numerous prestigious music festival awards in Italy, including the country’s most popular Sanremo Music Festival in which she participated eight times, earning second place in 1968 with the song “Casa Bianca.”

Her talent extended into songwriting which was recognized when she twice won the prestigious Tenco Award — the only Italian singer to be awarded the prize as a songwriter and the only woman to have won it twice.

ANSA said Vanoni was much sought-after as a guest on television programs in her later years because of her unpredictable nature, the vast wealth of anecdotes she shared and her “complete indifference to political correctness.”

Rolling Loud has unveiled the full lineup for its 2026 Australia edition, confirming a heavyweight bill of U.S. rap acts alongside some of the country’s most prominent homegrown names.

Rolling Loud Australia is set to take place across two cities in March: Sydney’s Centennial Park on March 7, and Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on March 8. The twin one-day events mark Rolling Loud’s first shows in Australia since 2019, and the first time the global hip-hop festival brand has expanded to a two-city format in the country.

Gunna will headline the two-city run, following Rolling Loud’s earlier confirmation that the rapper would anchor the event. Ken Carson joins him at top billing, extending the Opium-affiliated artist’s growing presence across the festival’s global footprint. Sexyy Red — previously announced — leads the second tier of performers.

The 2026 bill includes several major U.S. rap acts across its main stages. Sexyy Red, Tyga, Swae Lee, Lil Tjay, Ski Mask the Slump God, NLE Choppa, Quavo, Ian and rising rapper Osamason are among the international performers scheduled across the weekend. The lineup spans established touring names, TikTok-driven breakout acts and core Rolling Loud regulars who have been fixtures across the festival’s global editions.

In addition to the international programming, Rolling Loud Australia will feature a dedicated stage focusing on local artists from Australia and New Zealand. Acts announced for the regional platform include Hooligan Hefs, Youngn Lipz, Amarni, Day1, Lil Golo & Cult Shotta, 4ourttune and Jonny Chopps. While each city will include select local-only performers, the core lineup remains consistent across both dates.

Rolling Loud first debuted in Australia in 2019 with a one-day event at Sydney Olympic Park headlined by Future, Playboi Carti and Rae Sremmurd. That edition sold out quickly and became a key marker of the festival’s global expansion cycle. Its return in 2026 marks the brand’s first Australian event in seven years and the first time Rolling Loud has staged back-to-back shows in two Australian cities.

The announcement follows a period of continued international growth for the Miami-born festival, which recently added new editions across Europe, Asia and India. Rolling Loud India will take place later this month with a lineup headlined by Central Cee, Wiz Khalifa, Don Toliver and Karan Aujla.

Rolling Loud Australia 2026 will run in partnership with Primuse Entertainment as the local production partner. Further scheduling and site details are expected in the lead-up to the March events.

Spotify’s stock price has fallen more than $200 below its all-time high of $785.00 set on June 27 after falling 8.2% to $583.62 in the week ended Friday (Nov. 21). The Swedish streaming giant’s share price dropped more than 7% in the two days after it announced the purchase of WhoSampled, an online song samples database, to power a new song credits feature, SongDNA.

Investors’ reaction to a relatively small acquisition appears to be part of a larger theme in recent weeks. While Spotify is one of the better-performing music stocks of 2025, it has struggled since the company announced on Sept. 30 that CEO Daniel Ek will step down and assume the role of executive chairman. Ek attempted to assuage investors who might be wary of his departure, saying in an open letter that “very little will change” when Spotify is led by co-CEOs Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström, two longtime Spotify executives. Ek added that he will operate with a European-style approach to the executive chairman position that is “more hands-on than the traditional U.S. model.”

But investors aren’t showing much faith in the post-Ek era. Since the announcement, Spotify shares have fallen 19.9%, erasing $29.7 billion of market value. 

Driven by Spotify’s 8.2% decline — the worst for all music companies this week — the Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) fell 4.8% to 2,571.67. Eight of the index’s companies had gains while 11 finished the week with losses. The BGMI has not posted a gain in 10 weeks and now stands 17.5% below the all-time high of 3,117.20 set during the week of June 30.  

Markets were down around the world this week. In the U.S., the Nasdaq fell 2.7% to 22,273.08 and the S&P 500 dropped 1.9% to 6,602.99. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 sank 1.6% to 9,539.71. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index and China’s Shanghai Composite Index each dropped 3.9%. 

Warner Music Group (WMG) finished the week up 1.1% to $30.69. After releasing earnings on Thursday morning (Nov. 20), WMG shares dropped 2.7% on Thursday but gained 3.4% gain on Friday. Investors may not have received their desired message from WMG management, but analysts were upbeat about the numbers and management’s outlook. CFRA bumped WMG shares up to a “hold” rating from the “sell” rating it issued in July. Guggenheim kept its “buy” rating and $37 price target while noting that WMG’s “capital efficient” joint venture with Bain is likely to provide growth to both revenue and earnings. J.P. Morgan, which maintained its “overweight” rating and $40 price target, was “encouraged” by WMG management’s comments on margin expansion and market share gain. 

CTS Eventim shares rose 7.2% to 84.65 euros ($97.52). The German concert promoter and ticketing company released third-quarter earnings on Thursday that showed revenue rose 4%. The week’s gain brought CTS Eventim’s year-to-date gain to 0.8%. 

Netease Cloud Music fell 7.1% to 189.40 HKD ($24.33) after its third-quarter earnings, released on Thursday, revealed a 2% decline in revenue. Cloud Music remains one of the year’s best-performing music stocks, however, with a 2025 gain of 68.8%. 

Live Nation shares fell 3.9% to $130.55. Deutsche Bank lowered its price target to $160 from $173, which suggests 22.6% of upside based on Friday’s closing price, and maintained its “buy” rating. 

The week’s greatest gainer was Cumulus Media, which rose 29% to $0.11. Such large swings are common for Cumulus, which has lost 85.7% of its value in 2025 and experiences sizable moves when it rises or falls a mere penny. With a market capitalization of just $2 million, the radio broadcaster has little effect on the BGMI.