After nearly three decades in the business and three Grammy Awards to their name, Maroon 5 know how to craft a buoyant pop hit. Now teasing a new era of music, the group recruited Megan Thee Stallion for their latest offering, the shimmering single “Beautiful Mistakes.”
Over a trap-influenced beat, Maroon 5 and Megan Thee Stallion recount their regrets about an ending relationship. “I’m in love with the past / And now we liе awake, making beautiful mistakes,” they sing.
Speaking about the single in a conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Maroon 5 vocalist Adam Levine said, “I’m absolutely obsessed with the song. We love how it came out.” Levine went on to praise Megan as “a superstar” for her role on the track. “The way she built her part was just, it couldn’t have been a more epic kind of climax for the song,” he added. “I mean, it really is absolutely perfect. So, I mean, what she did was just miraculous, and it brought the song to a whole new level.”
“Beautiful Mistakes” isn’t the only exciting project Megan released on Wednesday. The rapper also announced that she’ll be one of the new faces of Calvin Klein’s 2021 campaign alongside pop singer Rina Sawayama and actor Anthony Ramos.
Listen to Maroon 5 and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Beautiful Mistakes” above.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Last year’s festival season was a total wash thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, it’s starting to look like 2021 may face a similar fate. LiveNation’s CEO seems to think big concerts can return this summer, but others don’t seem as optimistic. Earlier this year, Glastonbury announced that it would not put on a 2021 festival. A week ago, Boston Calling also announced that they were canceling their 2021 event. Now, another festival has closed its doors for 2021: Primavera Sound.
In a post titled “We will dance in 2022,” organizers wrote today:
“It is with great sadness that we must announce that the 20th anniversary of Primavera Sound Barcelona is postponed until 2022 due to force majeure.
We have tried everything, but we have now made this very painful decision due to the uncertainty surrounding the legal framework for large events on the original dates of the festival — from June 2nd to 6th –, which, added to the restrictions that currently exist, mean that we cannot work normally on the preparation of the festival nor ensure that, once the date arrives, it can be celebrated.
Thank you to all the artists, agencies, sponsors, production companies and workers involved in everything necessary to hold Primavera Sound. And to the attendees, our family, thank you for your faith and love. We owe you the best edition of Primavera Sound, and we are already working on it.
Like last year, we are going to offer all ticket holders the possibility to keep their tickets for next year. It will also be possible to request a refund of the ticket from Wednesday, June 2nd, which is when the Primavera Sound Barcelona 2022 line-up will be revealed.
We will make it doubly good next year.
Until then, take good care of yourself. See you soon.”
This year’s lineup was set to include Pavement, The Strokes, Bad Bunny, Tyler The Creator, Charli XCX, Tame Impala, FKA Twigs, Jamie xx, and Gorillaz, among others.
Check out the announcement below.
We will make it doubly good in 2022. Because yes, really, we will dance together again… and like never before.
Though she rose to fame as an actor on the Disney+ hit series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single “Drivers License” made her a household name. Since releasing the track, Rodrigo has dominated charts, been in the throes of a teen pop love triangle, received kind cosigns from pop stars like Taylor Swift, and was even name-dropped in a recent Saturday Night Live sketch. Now, continuing with the its success, “Drivers License” is once again at No. 1.
This week, “Drivers License” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the seventh consecutive week. The track is the first debut single to ever spend that long at the top spot on the Hot 100 chart, but that’s not all. “Drivers License” also managed an impressive feat previously achieved by Drake: It’s the first single to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1 since Drake’s 2018 “God’s Plan.”
While the song has hovered at top of the charts for weeks, its apparently continuing to increase in popularity. According to Billboard, “Drivers License” totaled 21.5 million streams in the US and was downloaded 13,000 times this week alone, up 38 percent since last week’s charts. The song also received a healthy boost from US radio stations, as it was spun 67.3 million times on the airwaves, a 13 percent increase from last week.
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of February below.
The National — The National, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, and Cherry Tree EP (Reissue)
4AD
It’s been 20 years since The National started their career with their self-titled debut album in 2001, then followed it with Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers and the Cherry Tree EP. Now, all three of those releases have gotten fresh remasters, and limited colored editions are available just for members of the band’s Cherry Tree fan club. For everybody else, the black vinyl editions still look pretty slick.
Sleepless In Seattle Original Soundtrack (Reissue)
Real Gone Music
Sleepless In Seattle was an iconic romantic comedy of its era, but aside from that, it had a killer soundtrack as well (which actually tore up the charts). It features songs from Céline Dion, Carly Simon, Tammy Wynette, Louis Armstrong, Nat “King” Cole, and others, and appropriately, this edition (limited to 1,500 copies) was released on red vinyl for Valentine’s Day.
Baker recently explained to Uproxx how her new album feels like a boundary-breaking one for her, even if it isn’t: “It’s actually not that extreme, it just feels extreme for me. I’m like, ‘Drum machines, wow.’ I’m slow to change, I’m slow to changing who I am as a person. It takes me a while to adjust to stuff. So, I thought of this as a weird record.”
PJ Harvey — Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea and Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea — Demos (Reissues)
UMe/Island
PJ Harvey has been a staple of this monthly round-up lately, as she is in the midst of a series of rereleases from throughout her career. This month saw a new edition of 2000’s Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, one of the most commercially successful albums of her career. Like previous reissues, this one also comes with a collection of previously unreleased demos.
Get Stories From The City, Stories From The Seahere. Get Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea — Demoshere.
J Dilla — Welcome 2 Detroit — The 20th Anniversary Edition
BBE Music
J Dilla is one of the most beloved producers in hip-hop history, and now the release that started it all, Welcome 2 Detroit, is the subject of a new limited edition 20th anniversary box set. Aside from the album itself, the release also features previously unreleased outtakes, liner notes, interviews, and previously unpublished photos, making it a definitive edition of a classic.
This new edition of John Coltrane’s legendary 1961 album Lush Life — which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year — was carefully remastered from the original analog tapes. Additionally, this is the first release in Craft Recordings’ new “Small Batch” series, each item in which will be individually numbered and come in “a foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase featuring an acrylic inset of the original artwork,” as well as “a reproduction of the original album jacket, complete with tip-on jacket, and protected by an archival-quality, anti-static, non-scratching inner sleeve.”
The Strokes’ stunning debut album Is This It was a tough act to follow, but they did just fine with Room On Fire, which also earned the group critical acclaim. Now the album has gotten a shiny new Vinyl Me, Please reissue, for which the album was remastered and presented with an exclusive art print.
The Band — Stage Fright (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition)
Capitol/UMe
Capitol and UMe are going all out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stage Fright, the third album from The Band. They’re reissuing it in multiple formats, the most expansive of which is the Super Deluxe Edition, which includes two CDs, a Blu-ray, an LP, and a 7-inch vinyl. Spread across those products are unreleased recordings, a 5.1 surround mix of the album, a photo booklet, and much more.
Danny L Harle went full concept on his new album, Harlecore, which presents a futuristic vision of a club (a club feeling like something that’s definitely futuristic at the moment). Digging through the album’s credits will reveal that it features contributions from Caroline Polachek, Hudson Mohawke, Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry and Martin Doherty, Eyelar, and Hannah Diamond.
Of how it felt to finally release the new Foo Fighters album, Taylor Hawkins said, “[It feels] like taking a big huge sh*t. My stomach’s been hurting for a long time. Finally! A collective sigh of relief. We’ve finally got over our constipation.” What’s not sh*tty is the limited edition purple smoke vinyl edition of the album. While that is unfortunately sold out, there’s nothing wrong with the classic black vinyl edition that is still available.
Vinyl Me, Please has historically let members choose between three categories for their monthly album: classics, essentials, and hip-hop. Now, starting in March, they’ve added a new vertical: country. They got a heck of a release to kick things off, too, as their first VMP Country Record Of The Month is Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison. The vinyl proved to be popular, as it’s currently sold out, although there is the option to get on a standby list and get the chance to secure a copy in the future. The lesson: Get on board early because VMP is really bringing it with their new country offerings.
It was around mid-March of 2020 that the first shelter-in-place orders were issued in the United States. That was almost a year ago now, and the future of the live music industry is still uncertain. LiveNation seems to think, though, that they will be able to host large, mostly full concerts this summer.
CEO Michael Rapino said during Live Nation’s Q4 2020 earnings call last week that “a clear outline to a 75 percent to 100 percent” is likely to go forward, noting that 75-plus-percent capacity shows in large US markets are “within sight.” He also noted, “We might have certain states that might not be ready, but we have enough states and enough artists willing to play the open slots if we get to that level in the right markets. So as long as these states open up to the right capacities, we can start in midsummer and in the southern US we can go all the way into November.”
As for shows at a lower capacity, that doesn’t seem to be in LiveNation’s plans, as Rapino said, “[We] have not, to date, done a lot of work in the 0-percent to 50-percent capacity business. We don’t see that as a viable model to ramp back up [considering the] fixed cost.”
This news comes just about a week after Boston Calling decided to cancel its event this year for the second year in a row, so it remains to be seen if other events will follow suit or if LiveNation’s optimism is shared by others.
Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in March. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
Friday, March 5
A Day To Remember — You’re Welcome (Fueled By Ramen)
Adult Mom — Driver (Epitaph Records)
Alex Bleeker — Heaven On The Faultline (Night Bloom Records)
The Anchoress — The Art Of Losing (Kscope)
Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus — These 13 (Thirty Tigers)
Arab Strap — As Days Get Dark (Rock Action/Best & Fairest)
Barbarossa — Love Here Listen (Memphis Industries)
Bernice — Eau De Bonjourno (Telephone Explosion)
Charles Ellsworth — Honeysuckle Summer (Burro Borracho Records)
Charlie Peacock — Trout Creek Ranch (Twenty Ten Music)
Chevelle — NIRATIAS (Epic Records)
Daniel Kehoe — Disco Body Buzz (Tin Angel)
Decent Criminal — DC EP (Sell The Heart Records)
Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats — Unlocked 1.5 EP (Loma Vista)
Dodie — Build A Problem (The Orchard)
Dreamshade — A Pale Blue Dot (Horang Music)
The Drive — Can You Feel It (RCA)
Elizabeth And The Catapult — Sincerely, E (Compass Records)
Field Works — Cedars (Rollercoaster Records)
Fruit Bats — The Pet Parade (Merge Records)
Gabrielle — Do It Again (BMG)
Genesis Owusu — Smiling With No Teeth (Ourness)
G.S. Schray — The Changing Account (Last Resort)
The Horrors — Lout EP (Wolf Tone)
Ian Sweet — Show Me How You Disappear (Polyvinyl)
Jay Gonzalez — Back To The Hive (Middlebrow Records)
Jaz Elise — The Golden Hour EP (In.Digg.Nation Collective)
Jessy Rose — Are You Home? EP (Killing A Friend)
John-Robert — Healthy Baby Boy, Part 1 (Nice Life Recording Company/Warner Records)
John Sharkey III — Shoot Out The Cameras (Mistletone Records)
Judith Hill — Baby, I’m Hollywood (Regime Music Group)
Juliet Quick — Glass Years EP (Substitute Scene Records)
Kings Of Leon — When You See Yourself (RCA Records)
Leon III — Antlers In Velvet (Monosonic)
Mere Women — Romantic Notions (Poison City)
Oliver Jean And April March — Palladium EP (Third Man Records)
Painted Shrines — Heaven And Holy (Woodsist)
Pat Metheny — Road To The Sun (Modern Recordings)
Quintin Copper & Nas Mellow — Paradise (Sonar Kollektiv)
Soul Station — Now And Then (UMe)
Postdata — Twin Flames (Paper Bag Records)
Ron Gallo — Peacemeal (New West Records)
The Spill Canvas — Conduit (Pure Noise Records)
Spirit Award — Lunatic House (Share It Music)
Steve Almaas — Everywhere You’ve Been (Lonesome Whippoorwill)
Thirdface — Do It With A Smile (Exploding In Sound Records)
Thomas Blondet & Steven Rubin — Sea Songs EP (Rhythm & Culture Music)
Tigers Jaw — I Won’t Care How You Remember Me (Hopeless Records)
Various Artists — Coming 2 America (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Def Jam Recordings)
William The Conqueror — Maverick Thinker (Chrysalis Records)
Zara Larsson — Poster Girl (Epic Records)
Friday, March 12
Allie Crow Buckley — Moonlit And Devious (Night Bloom Records)
Baby Boys — Threesome (Transgressive Records)
Blackmore’s Night — Nature’s Light (earMUSIC)
Cactus Flowers — Solace EP (People.Parties.Places)
Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter — Anticipation (American Dreams Records)
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels — Tone Poem (Blue Note Records)
Chez Kane — Chez Kane (Frontiers Music)
Colin Miller — Hook EP (Oof Records)
Cool Ghouls — At George’s Zoo (Melodic/Empty Cellar)
DeeCRACKS — Serious Issues (uhfrecords)
Dollar Signs — Hearts Of Gold (Pure Noise Records)
Do Nothing — Glueland EP (Exact Truth)
Electric Jalaba — El Hal / The Feeling (Strut Records)
Dionne Warwick has become everyone’s favorite auntie on Twitter. The legendary singer has graced her growing social media fan base with phenomenal content that ranges from poking fun at the young generation of artists to seeking knowledge about them as well. All in all, it’s been a joy to watch Warwick work through the Twitter world and it was only a matter of time before Saturday Night Live emulated her personality on the show, something the cast did during their most recent episode.
Setting up the stage for her daily show, Ego Nwodim played the role of Warwick for the Dionne Warwick Talk Show. The sketch began with Kenan Thompson, who appeared dressed as The Weeknd in his current After Hoursplastic surgery look. She asked him about his apparent plastic surgery addiction, confusing his “love” for it as the basis of his “Can’t Feel My Face” track.
Warwick quickly rushed him off stage and invited Nick Jonas, who hosted and performed on the SNL episode, to replace him. The comical questions continued as she asked Nick, who is currently a coach on The Voice, how he could be a more boring contributor to the show than fellow coach John Legend. Warwick also mixed up him with his fellow Jonas brother, Joe, before asking Nick a daring question about his manhood.
The sketch continued with an appearance from Dua Lipa, played by Melissa Villasenor, who agreed to join Warwick in egging Wendy Williams’ house. Lastly Machine Gun Kelly, played by Pete Davidson, joined to close the show, but Warwick was extremely disturbed by his look and quickly asked him to leave.
You can watch the sketch above.
Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s been nearly five years since the pop world received an album from Nick Jonas. His last effort was 2016’s Last Year Was Complicated and since then, the singer has been fairly busy thanks to his role as a coach on The Voice and the reunion of Jonas Brothers with siblings Joe and Kevin. Now, Nick is getting back to his solo career, a return that began with the release of “Spaceman” this past Friday. Just days later, he brought his talents back to the Saturday Night Live stage to perform the single for the first time and to debut a new track as well.
Serving as host and musical guest for the SNL episode, Nick began the night by performing “Spaceman.” He performed the track while rocking a thin astronaut-like jumpsuit, ideal for the out-of-this-world feeling he details on the song. Later in the show, he returned to debut a brand new single, “This Is Heaven.” This track is much livelier than the aforementioned single and found Nick getting lost in the groove of the uplifting song to end the night
Both songs will appear on his upcoming album, Spaceman, which is set for a release on March 12. During a recent interview on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show, Nick spoke about the meaning behind the album’s title. “The key for me was trying to find a way to give this idea a persona, give it a name,” he said in regards to his 2016 album, Last Year Was Complicated. “So ‘Spaceman’ kind of came into my mind as I was thinking, ‘What’s the one thing that all of us have felt during this time? Completely disconnected from the world.’ We’ve gotten so accustomed to looking at a screen instead of human interaction and I think the thing that keeps us all encouraged and hopeful is the idea of knowing that there will be a tomorrow when this is our reality.”
You can watch the performances above.
Spaceman is out 3/12 via Island. Pre-order it here.
J. Balvin made an appearance tonight to walk boxer Canelo Alvarez into the ring for his fight against Avni Yildrim at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. And what better walkout music for Alvarez than a brand new song from the Latin pop superstar? Balvin performed his new single “Ma G” before the fight for the first time, and a video to accompany the new song dropped shortly after, check that out above.
It’s good to see the Latin legend in good spirits and good health again, as last summer he contracted a bad case of Coronavirus and had to spend some time in recovery. Though he bounced back in time for a partnership with McDonald’s last fall, and has apparently been busy in the studio based on the new music tonight. This is the first thing the Colombian star has released since his 2020 collaboration “Un Dia (One Day)” with Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and Tainy.
Along with the new music, Balvin also announced a merch collection that’s a collaboration with 747 and La Plaga Invade, including a varsity jacket, mask, cap, hoodie, sweatpants, and music bundles. Shop that collection here and look out for more info on Balvin’s fifth album coming very soon.
Beyonce has always been the kind of pop star who is interested in giving back to the communities she’s been a part of or benefits from. So when jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz, who has been responsible for plenty of Bey’s red carpet gem-laden looks, decided to began advocating for diversity and inclusion in the precious gems world, it’s no surprise that Beyonce would be a part of it.
As announced via Beyonce.com, the singer and designer are teaming to launch the Beyonce Knowles-Carter x Lorraine Schwartz scholarship at GIA, the Gemological Institute of America. Schwartz has designed jewelry for everyone from Oprah to Lady Gaga to Jennifer Lopez, but Beyonce fans will probably know her work best for the diamond earrings the singer wore on the cover of Dangerously In Love.
“This scholarship is an homage to Beyonce for the inspiration she’s given me through my career,” Schwartz said of the new initiative. “It’s about the love formed from relationships and knowing at the end of the day, we are all the same. Now I have the opportunity to bring that inspiration full circle and show the community the endless possibilities that are in this industry, especially for Black professionals.”
The scholarship will be give “two members of the Black community” the chance to earn credentials at GIA, for the GIA Graduate Gemologist Diploma, with full tuition and paid expenses for the program. The program is primarily online through distance education, and applications for the scholarship are open from March 1 of this year until March 16.
