Drake Adds 14 New Dates to It’s All a Blur Tour

It’s been just three days since Drake announced his It’s All a Blur tour with 21 Savage, but the demand is so high that he has already added 14 additional dates to the upcoming North American trek.

On Thursday (March 16), Drizzy added second shows in Houston, Dallas, Miami, Detroit, Montreal, Washington, DC, Seattle, Vancouver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Las Vegas — as well as third shows in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Inglewood, Calif., bringing the tour to a massive 42 shows this summer. The tour will kick off on June 16 in New Orleans, and will wrap on Sept. 5 in Glendale, Ariz.

The shows in Drake’s hometown of Toronto, Canada, will be announced at a later date.

The tour is the “Jimmy Cooks” artist’s first since his 2018 trek, Aubrey & the Three Amigos. According to the press release, as the title suggests, the It’s All a Blur Tour is “a celebration of the last decade.”

Tickets for the new dates will be available at the general onsale, which kicks off Friday (March 17) at noon local time on DrakeRelated.com.

See the new list of dates below.

  • Fri Jun 16 – New Orleans, LA – Smoothie King Center
  • Mon Jun 19 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
  • Wed Jun 21 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
  • Thu Jun 22 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
  • Sat Jun 24 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
  • Sun Jun 25 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
  • Wed Jun 28 – Miami, FL – Miami-Dade Arena
  • Thu Jun 29 – Miami, FL – Miami-Dade Arena
  • Sat Jul 01 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
  • Sun Jul 02 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
  • Wed Jul 05 – Chicago, IL – United Center
  • Thu Jul 06 – Chicago, IL – United Center
  • Sat Jul 08 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
  • Sun Jul 09 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
  • Tue Jul 11 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
  • Wed Jul 12 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
  • Fri Jul 14 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
  • Mon Jul 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
  • Tue Jul 18 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
  • Thu Jul 20 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
  • Sun Jul 23 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
  • Tue Jul 25 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
  • Wed Jul 26 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
  • Fri Jul 28 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
  • Sat Jul 29 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
  • Mon Jul 31 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
  • Tue Aug 1 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
  • Sat Aug 12 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum
  • Sun Aug 13 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum
  • Tue Aug 15 – Inglewood, CA – Kia Forum
  • Fri Aug 18 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center
  • Sat Aug 19 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center
  • Mon Aug 21 – Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena
  • Tue Aug 22 – Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena
  • Fri Aug 25 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
  • Sat Aug 26 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
  • Mon Aug 28 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
  • Tue Aug 29 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
  • Fri Sep 01 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
  • Sat Sep 02 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
  • Tue Sep 05 – Glendale, AZ – Desert Diamond Arena
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Bandcamp Employees Move to Unionize After ‘Shift’ in ‘Workplace Conditions’ Following Epic Games Sale

Following Bandcamp’s sale to Epic Games last year, employees at the popular independent music streaming and sales platform are making efforts to unionize.

On Thursday (March 16), Bandcamp workers filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to authorize a union election, marking the latest push by music company employees to unionize. If approved, the workers will hold an election to officially form the union. The effort follows similar initiatives from employees at indie label Secretly Group and YouTube Music, as well as workers at broader tech and media companies like Amazon, Disney and Tesla.

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Bandcamp United is a group of “designers, journalists, support staff, engineers and more,” according to a statement, that is “committed to protecting the benefits we have, fixing historical disparities within and across departments, and promoting equitable conditions and economic stability for all of our colleagues.”

“If you think about Bandcamp, it’s about paying artists fairly for the music that we love so much,” says Eli Rider, a Philadelphia-based data analyst for the music streaming and sales platform, and one of the union organizers, in a phone interview. “So, the workers that build the site and support it also would like to have fair and transparent wages.”

Rider wouldn’t elaborate on specific issues around wages or workplace conditions that prompted the employees’ move to unionize. She also wouldn’t specify how many workers were involved in the union effort, but said, “We have a broad base of support,” including from U.S. and international Bandcamp employees.

Discussions around unionizing began during online meetings last July, according to Rider. “Folks just started talking more about what they were experiencing at work,” she says. “It was mostly talk, but then someone had the idea of getting organized.” At that point, they reached out to existing unions, before deciding to affiliate with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 1010.

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Bandcamp was sold to Epic Games, the company that owns Fortnite, for an undisclosed amount in March 2022. After the sale, Rider says there was “a shift in our workplace conditions” that he describes as “unexpected.”

In a statement Thursday, Bandcamp’s CEO Ethan Diamond responded: “We are aware that some Bandcamp employees are seeking to organize a union and [we] are reviewing the petition to understand their concerns.”

Formed in 2007, Bandcamp was a crucial outlet for indie musicians after touring revenue disappeared during the COVID-19 quarantine period. Artists relied on the Bandcamp Fridays promotion to sell merch and music; on those days, they received 93% of the revenue compared to 82% on a typical day. On the first Bandcamp Friday after concerts shut down in 2020, fans bought 800,000 items from artists on Bandcamp totaling $4.3 million.

“It is important to us that Bandcamp’s artist-first mission continues with clarity and accountability, with all resources afforded to us distributed in the fairest and most transparent way possible,” the workers said on their website. “We feel a responsibility to support those who are most marginalized, to use our platform with integrity, and to provide reasonable protections and accommodations for those at-risk.”

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This 8th-grader from Argentina just won the spelling bee for the third year in a row

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Party on: Judge gives nightclub 30-day reprieve on Miami Beach’s 2 a.m. last call

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MAMAMOO Announce First-Ever U.S. Concerts: See the 9 Cities on Their Arena Tour

Nine years into MAMAMOO‘s career as a leading, chart-topping K-pop girl group, the quartet has announced their first-ever tour dates for the United States.

As the next step in the act’s “MY CON” world tour that traveled across Asia in late 2022 and early 2023, Whee In, Solar, Moon Byul and Hwa Sa will visit nine arenas for their inaugural Stateside tour. The U.S. leg begins in New York on May 16 before wrapping in Los Angeles on June 4. Venue information wasn’t immediately available at press time beyond shows in arenas.

The tour dates will mark MAMAMOO’s live Stateside return as well. The group has not performed in the States since appearing at the 2019 KCON Los Angeles festival. The trek is presented by Mammoth Inc. and Sugar Monkey Live.

The new “MY CON” tour dates follow the group’s latest EP, Mic On, released in November of last year, which included the single “Illella” that peaked at No. 5 on Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart. Beyond group activities, the members have remained active with their solo music and projects. Solar and Moon Byul even teamed up as a duo for MAMAMOO+ for 2022 single “Better” and have new music together coming out later this month.

Tickets go on sale on at 10 a.m. local time on March 29 via Ticketmaster. See the full U.S. tour dates below.

MAMAMOO 2023 MY CON U.S. Tour Dates

May 16 – New York, NY
May 18 – Baltimore, MD
May 20 – Atlanta, GA
May 22 – Nashville, TN
May 24 – Fort Worth, TX
May 27 – Chicago, IL
May 31 – Glendale, AZ
June 2 – Oakland, CA
June 4 – Los Angeles, CA

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Here Are Jimmy Fallon’s Best Pranks, From ‘The Voice’ Auditions to ‘Game of Thrones’ Spoilers

Jimmy Fallon loves a good prank. The late night talk show host is known for playing tricks on his fans and famous friends, and most recently made his way into The Voice auditions.

On March 7, Fallon pretended to blind audition for the NBC singing competition’s coaches Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper, delivering a performance of Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).”

Clarkson, Horan and Chance all turn around to take a peek at who the mysterious singer is, but Shelton remained unfazed by the prank. Saturday Night Live alum then walks offstage and presses the country star’s button for him. “You broke the rules!” Shelton jokingly scolds him, grinning when he sees Fallon’s face.

However, The Voice mischief is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Fallon’s pranks. We’ve rounded up five of our favorites, which you can check out below.

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Live Music Experts Reveal Best Strategies and Biggest Threats To Touring at SXSW 2023

On Wednesday, March 15, Billboard editor Taylor Mims moderated a panel at SXSW that discussed the touring industry’s post-pandemic status. Featuring panelists Sara Mertz (VP of music partnerships at Tixr), Liz Norris (manager at Activist Artists Management) and Sarah Tehrani (music touring agent at WME), the panelists voiced concerns about saturation on the road, rising touring costs and the increase in specialized live experiences.

Mertz recalled how as quarantine restrictions lifted and tickets went back on sale, there was “lots of excitement” and a massive rush back to get back the road. But then the industry was then hit with subsequent variants, leading to cancellations en masse. “What we’ve been experiencing the last few years is a pendulum,” she explained.

And while Tehrani added that she has hopes for the industry to level out next year — for which agents at WME are already booking now — Norris explained that “nothing will be the exact same as it was in 2019,” given consumer behavior has changed over the last few years, along with other factors.

“People want a more specialized, curated experience than ever,” said Tehrani. “Rather than these big, throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks festivals that are focused on going and discovering new music, we’re seeing more interest in boutique festivals.” For example, music fans seem more interested, in Tehrani’s approximation, to see a one-day legacy hip-hop festival than ever, and meanwhile larger-scale, broad appeal festivals are struggling to get the same sales as they once did.

Some artists Tehrani works with, like R&B singer-songwriter UMI, have even tried incorporating new elements to make their tours stand out, like adding in a meditation practice offered as a VIP experience at her shows to boost fan engagement and spread her passion for wellness.

Such experiences are becoming more crucial as the cost of touring continues to rise with inflation — and as a result of cutbacks on positions like bus drivers and sound engineers — leaving consumers to be pickier about which shows they attend.

But still, this strategy is challenged by a high no-show rate. “Attrition remains an issue,” said Mertz. “I don’t know what it is. I was just meeting with a couple of clients last night and they’re like, ‘We don’t understand it, at our sold-out shows, still 20-25% of people are not showing up. Why?’”

In 2021 the issue was attributed to lingering pandemic concerns, but now one of the only explanations the panelists provided was the possibility of increasingly cunning scalpers. “I do think that scalper activity has increased a lot over the last few years,” said Mertz. “It’s a business now.”

For Norris, whose management firm represents Dead & Company, Michael Franti, and the Lumineers, she said one of the industry’s most pressing concerns is “to do a lot of work to make sure the fans aren’t the ones that pay the price” of today’s higher touring costs.

At the same time, the panelists did identify some positive changes that have emerged in live music over the last few years. “Mental health is now at the forefront,” said Norris.

“Having a therapist and physical therapists on the road is new,” added Tehrani. “We’ve always had vocal coaches and stuff like that, but people are definitely thinking about how to take better care of each other. That’s a very good thing”

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Will Rihanna Get Her Flowers at 2024 Grammys After Oscar Loss?

Rihanna slayed at the 2023 Oscars on Sunday with a classy performance of her soulful ballad “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She didn’t win the Oscar for best original song – the award went to “Naatu Naatu” from RRR – but RiRi will likely have more chances to win for the song at next year’s Grammy Awards.

“Lift Me Up,” which Rihanna co-wrote with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, is a front-runner for a nomination for best song written for visual media.

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“Lift Me Up” could also wind up with record and/or song of the year nominations. Rihanna has been nominated for record of the year three times, for “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z), “Work” (featuring Drake) and as featured artist on Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.”

If “Lift Me Up” is nominated for song of the year, it would mark Rihanna’s first nod in that category. Her only songwriting nods to date are for “Run This Town,” which won best rap song, and “Kiss It Better,” which was nominated for best R&B song.

“Lift Me Up” will also probably be nominated in a performance category – either best R&B performance or best traditional R&B performance. (The final decision on where to slot performances that seem to be on the border between two categories is made by a large screening committee. They base their decision on the sound of the performance, as they perceive it, not chart position or the artist’s image.)

Rihanna has been nominated in R&B performance categories twice, for “Needed Me” and “Hate That I Love You,” a 2007 collab with Ne-Yo. She has yet to be nominated for best traditional R&B performance.

“All the Stars,” from the first Black Panther, was nominated for Grammys in four categories (though it didn’t win in any of them). The smash by Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA was nominated for record and song of the year, best rap/sung performance and best song written for visual media.

The Recording Academy announced earlier this month that the eligibility year for the 66th annual Grammy Awards will end on Aug. 31, one month earlier than usual. So the eligibility “year” will consist of just 11 months.

Rihanna may or may not release her long-awaited ninth studio album by Aug. 31 – she has another “project” in the works just now – which would change the Grammy conversation around her. Rihanna’s best year at the Grammys in terms of nominations was 2016, when she amassed eight nods. (Alas, she lost them all.)

The early front-runners for record of the year nominations, in addition to “Lift Me Up,” include Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” SZA’s “Kill Bill” and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.”

This wouldn’t be the first time “Anti-Hero” and “Lift Me Up” have tangled. By holding at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week last November, Swift’s smash kept Rihanna’s ballad from debuting in the top spot and becoming her 15th No. 1 single. Instead, “Lift Me Up” debuted and peaked at No. 2. “Anti-Hero” went on to log eight total weeks at No. 1 – the record for a Swift single.

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