Keith Urban; Photo by Andrew Wendowski, Carrie Underwood; Photo by Jeff Johnson, Luke Bryan; Photo Courtesy Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert; Photo by John Shearer, Garth Brooks; Photo by Andrew Wendowski
Las Vegas is the home of late nights, fabulous shopping experiences, fine dining, and best of all, world-renowned entertainment. Country stars like Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, and Garth Brooks are bringing a bit of Nashville to Sin City with a spectacular set of shows, unlike anything fans have seen on a standard tour.
Shifting stages, surprise guests, epic costume changes and more can all be expected from these upcoming residences.
Keep reading to find out more about the specially-curated country music experiences that are taking over Las Vegas in 2023.
Garth Brooks; Photo by Andrew Wendowski
Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks is taking his live show to Sin City with his Garth Brooks/Plus ONE Las Vegas Residency. Beginning in May, the show will take place at the 4,100-seat The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, in the heart of the famed Las Vegas Strip.
The country music icon promises that each night of his Las Vegas residency will give fans the opportunity to see him in an intimate setting. Each of the once-in-a-lifetime performances will be unique with varying band members and an occasional special guest. Garth Brooks/Plus ONE kicks off on May 18 and will continue through June, July, November and December of 2023.
Purchase tickets HERE.
Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert is extending her headlining residency show at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Due to fan demand, Miranda Lambert: Velvet Rodeo The Las Vegas Residency will now run through the end of 2023. Lambert added 16 new shows, all of which will take place in July, November, and December 2023. Her previously announced shows also include dates in March and April.
Designed exclusively for Zappos Theater and promoted by Live Nation and Caesars Entertainment, the country star’s residency will give her audience an up close and personal opportunity to experience live performances of her numerous chart-topping songs and beloved album cuts.
Purchase tickets HERE,
Keith Urban; Photo by Andrew Wendowski
Keith Urban
Keith Urban will be taking over Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino for 16 dates in 2023. Keith Urban: The Las Vegas Residency will launch in March, following his headlining THE SPEED OF NOW WORLD TOUR 2022, and continue with dates in June and the beginning of July.
Over the past three years, Urban has had a successful run of shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. In the new space, he promises that each night will consist of a brand-new show that is custom designed for the fresh space in Zappos Theater.
Purchase tickets HERE.
Carrie Underwood; Photo by Jeff Johnson
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood’s wildly successful REFLECTION: The Las Vegas Residency at Resorts World Theatre is slated to return in 2023. The female country star will make her way back to Sin City for 18 new dates, beginning June 21.
Underwood was the very first artist to grace the Resorts World Theatre stage when she made her debut at the 5,000-seat theatre with a sold-out show on Dec. 1, 2021. With several costume changes and state of the art production, REFLECTION quickly became a must-see Las Vegas residency. Her new headlining stint will include dates throughout June, July, September, November and December.
Purchase tickets HERE.
Luke Bryan; Photo Courtesy of John Shearer/Getty Images
Luke Bryan
Due to ticket demand, Luke Bryan has unveiled 12 new dates for Luke Bryan: Vegas at Resorts World Theatre. The expanded residency will showcase Bryan’s tremendous success as an artist through a career-spanning setlist, stunning visuals, and shifting stages that move along to the beat of the music.
Bryan kicked off his residency in February of 2022. With the recently-announced new dates, he will remain in Las Vegas for several shows in February and March before wrapping up on April 1.
Four test pieces by Swedish composers will challenge the competing bands in Malmo later this year
The European Brass Band Association (EBBA) has announced the details of the four set-works that will be performed by competing bands at its festival event in Malmö later this year.
All come from Swedish composers and have been commissioned by the local organising committee, Brassmusik Skåne.
Joel Thoor Engström (1987) is based in Stockholm. His works range from orchestra and choir to chamber/solo and opera and have been performed at several established Swedish venues. He was a finalist in the 2006 EBBC Composers’ Competition.
His music is characterised by colourful expressions in rhythm and harmony, influenced by neo-classical composers and the French tradition following Debussy and Ravel to electronic funk and progressive disco.
In describing his work, he states: “Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. Every day she opened the gates of the east with her rosy fingers and riding her chariot in a glowing mantel across the sky, accompanied by children, she announced the coming arrival of her brother, Sol (the sun).
The natural phenomenon Aurora Borealis (or “northern lights”) is what inspired the Romans to this personification of the dawn and it can be a mysterious thing to behold, of both beauty and awe.
The dawn can be a symbol for many things, something beginning as well as something ending. The age old message of Aurora could therefore be considered timeless. Her call amid the joyous dance of the children of the stars that a new hope, a new light is on its way can be a comforting notion to all in the face of hardships.
This piece is in three movements, played attacca. Though not written with a programmatic intent, the writing process has evoked my thoughts on the symbolic themes of the Roman myth; the setting of an unstable and uncertain scene — like an endless fall — in the first movement, followed by a waiting and the “kindling of light” in the second, finishing with a festive song of praise in the third.
One of the key musical thematic features of this piece is a harmonic progression (first heard in the trombone section at bar 16).
It twists and turns around its axis like the waves of the northern lights, or the turns of Auroras chariot. Throughout the piece, its harmonic “magnetic fields”are constantly pulling and shaping the music into new forms.”
Tobias Broström (1978) was born in Helsingborg. Following four years of percussion studies at the Malmö Academy of Music, he undertook a Master’s degree in composition, studying with the composer Rolf Martinsson and Prof. Luca Francesconi.
Known for his rhythmically powerful music, colourful orchestration and a poignant harmonic sense, he has swiftly established himself among the foremost Scandinavian composers of his generation.
He describes his music as full of frenzy and power, appearing in attacks and waves.
He has collaborated with renowned conductors and soloists from HÃ¥kan Hardenberger to Rumon Gamba. Hardenberger has performed his work, ‘Lucernaris’ on numerous occasions.
Speaking about his work, he stated that despite the title he does not believe the work to be tragic in nature.
He stated: “Structurally, the piece has an overall A-B-A form with the first section an extended and ferocious passage in 6/8 time. It exploits the rhythmic possibilities in 6/8 and cross-rhythms and cross-dynamics are a feature and challenge that bands will need to overcome.
The Overture could be considered as absolute music, rather than having a fixed programme — the only potential tragedy being people attending the EBBC in Malmö and not hearing the performances of this exciting piece.”
Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. Every day she opened the gates of the east with her rosy fingers and riding her chariot in a glowing mantel across the skycomposer
Denis Wick
Youth Sections:
EBBC Youth Championship Premier Section: Phoenix’ Chant (Daniel MöllÃ¥s)
Daniel MöllÃ¥s (1993) is based in Malmö. He began his musical journey playing trombone and piano, through which he soon developed an interest in composing and arranging.
Since graduating he has studied composition at the Linnaeus University in Växjö (2012-13), Gotland School of Music Composition (2013-15) and at Malmö Academy of Music (MAM), including an exchange course at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2018.
He has worked with several ensembles, orchestras and soloists, such as the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg SO and Norrköping SO amongst others.
Speaking about his work, ‘Phoenix’ Chant’ he said: “The initial sketches were written in the late Autumn of 2021; a time of increasing political tensions both nationally and worldwide, but also some relief that our society were starting to see the return of better times after the pandemic.
Whether this relief actually came or not might be quite hard, if not even impossible to say in today’s social climate. However just as it was then, hope remains as our strongest tool to cope with the difficult times — and above all to inspire us to work towards an actual better future.
As the sketches were developed and later on revised as the set piece commissioned by Brassmusik SkÃ¥ne for the European Brass Band Championships Youth Premier Section in Malmö 2023, the Phoenix theme became even more relevant, as it highlights the true importance and influence of the young for a sustainable journey ahead through time.
Although challenges will occur, hope remains through the voices of youth, calling for a brighter future.
This chant is for them. For all.”
EBBC Youth Development Section: Turning Torso (Magnus Hylander)
Magnus Hylander (1967) lives in Fristad and is a tuba player, who in addition to his composing can also be found conducting bands in the area.
He studied at the Malmö Academy of Music and played with the brass quintet Brassa Nova between 1992 and 1998. He has composed and arranged many pieces, mostly for brass, but also for other ensembles. Some of his works have been recorded by Göteborg Brassband, Flesland Musikklag, BrassaNova and Band of the Malmö Fire Brigade amongst others.
Speaking about his work he says: “The composition refers to the neo-futurist skyscraper built in the western harbour of Malmö in 2005.
It was designed by Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter Santiago Calatravo. One reason for building Turning Torso was to have a new symbol for Malmö in lieu of the shipbuilding crane that had been removed a few years earlier.
The piece starts off, quiet and calmly, from a distance where you just barely can see the building. The next section describes the odd shapes and quirkiness of the building. In the middle section we are up at the top level and enjoying the spectacular view of the city on one side and over to Denmark on the other.
At last, we take the speedy elevator down for a last look at the magnificent building using the music from the opening.”
Feb. 8 (UPI) — South Korean boy band NCT Dream is back with new music.
The K-pop group, a subunit of the boy band NCT, released its debut Japanese single album, Best Friend Ever, and a music video for its song of the same name.
The “Best Friend Ever” video shows the members of NCT Dream have a sleepover, where they have a pillow fight and lounge in matching robes.
Best Friend Ever also features the Japanese version of NCT Dream’s hit single “Glitch Mode.”
NCT Dream consists of NCT’s Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. The group’s most recent Korean release, the EP Candy, was released in December.
As a full group, NCT has 23 members and also features the subunits NCT U, NCT 127 and WayV.
NCT 127 recently completed its second world tour, which drew more than 700,000 fans during its run.
joan are expected to drop their debut album titled superglue on 19th April. Following that release, the alt-pop duo will be going on a US tour from 13th May.
For now, we can enjoy their newest single, “nervous”. This catchy song was accompanied by a music video which you can see above.
Talking about “nervous”, the duo noted: “We wrote this song with the lovely Emily Falvey of Nashville and Jonathan Capeci from Nightly, and the second we all walked into the room together there was immediate chemistry between us. We wanted to get as close to the emotion of a sort of school like love story, where you constantly want to be around them but you also literally feel like you’re going to throw up because you’re so… nervous (wink), and you don’t want to say the wrong thing around them. it’s such a cool and distinct feeling, we hope this song takes you back to that place.”
OnePlus Buds Pro 2 review: cool buds with a talent for music
MSRP $179.00
“The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 have excellent musical performance and long battery life but are let down by active noise cancelation that’s less effective than the competition.”
Pros
Great Dynaudio-tuned musical performance
Long battery life
Dual Connection works well
Android and iOS compatibility
Cons
Poor ANC and transparency performance
Limited Spatial Audio support
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 force you to answer a difficult question before you buy them: Do you value wonderful musical fidelity over having the most effective Active Noise Cancelation (ANC)?
If the answer is yes, then OnePlus’s partnership with Dynaudio should put the Buds Pro 2 on your radar. If you want the best of both worlds, then they may not be so attractive, as I found out after a couple of weeks of listening to them. Here’s what they are like.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: design and fit
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
These small earbuds blend a matte finish with polished stems for an eye-catching look, and the Arbor Green color seen in our photos is made to complement the Eternal Green color of the OnePlus 11 smartphone. The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are also available in black. The case is in the same color and is made of slightly textured plastic. This makes it light, but it does feel like it’ll scratch easily, and I really wouldn’t want to accidentally tread on it, as the lid doesn’t feel like it’ll survive without cracking.
The design itself hasn’t really changed over the OnePlus Buds Pro, but there are tiny alterations. The dimensions have changed by a millimeter or two, and the weight of each ‘bud is up by half a gram. The case is lighter though. The Buds Pro 2 share the same IP55 water resistance rating for the earbuds and IPX4 rating for the case too. This means you’ll be able to listen in the rain, and sweat won’t bother them either.
I like the fit of the Buds Pro 2. OnePlus says the earbud casing has been streamlined for a better fit, and they certainly do nestle comfortably in my ears. They haven’t fallen out when I’m exercising, but they can feel like they don’t seal very well for me, and that’s due to OnePlus unfortunately only including a choice of three differently sized alternative silicone ear tips, which is a little restrictive. I found the middle ones a little too small, and the largest ones a little too big. I doubt I’ll be the only one, but all ear shapes are different.
This is the only negative thing to say about the earbuds’ fit and comfort, but I do think that if the silicone tips were slightly more adaptable, or a set of foam alternatives were included, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 would have almost perfect in-ear fit and comfort.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: connectivity, controls, and app
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 connect using Bluetooth 5.3 with both Android and iOS devices. If you use a recent OnePlus phone with OxygenOS 12 or 13, all the settings can be found baked into the operating system — but only if you go searching for them as for some reason they’re hidden away. If not, then you need to download the HeyMelody app available from Google Play or the App Store. Some features, such as Spatial Audio, are not available on iOS. I had no problem switching between devices, the Bluetooth range has been excellent, and the connection has been rock-solid, too.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2 controls on the OnePlus 11.Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
I like the Dual Connection feature here, where the Buds Pro 2 will connect to two devices simultaneously. To enable this you have to activate it in the settings menu, as it’s not on by default. The earbuds happily stayed connected to my phone and computer at the same time and played back audio without complaint. It’s a handy feature that works really well. Fast Pair is also available, and it has taken only seconds after pressing the button on the case to pair with all the devices I’ve tested.
You control the Buds Pro 2 with touch controls on the stems, which provide a button-like haptic response when you press or squeeze them. The controls are sensitive and easy to locate due to the long stems. Switching between noise cancelation being on, off, or in transparency mode is awkward, as it plays a nondescript sound to accompany the modes. Due to the sometimes loose fit and the noise cancelation’s effect not always being that pronounced, you end up cycling through the modes or reaching for the app to confirm which setting is active.
HeyMelody app on iOS.Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The app also provides the option to personalize the noise cancellation feature, an equalizer, a Game Mode, a fit test, and a “Golden Sound” mode that tunes the sound based on your hearing and inner ear structure. It certainly changes the sound of the headphones when you use it, and you can save different profiles, too. Finally, there’s Zen Mode Air, where one of five different ambient sounds (from white noise to a seashore sound) are stored and played on the earbuds.
In the future, OnePlus will add a feature that will apparently inform you about your posture using the earbuds, but it has not provided an exact date outside of it being this year. Controlling the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and using the app isn’t any better or worse than other true wireless earbuds, but squeezing the stems is slightly less awkward and uncomfortable than pressing the body of the ‘buds, as you would pairs like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: Listening and sound
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Each OnePlus Buds Pro 2 earbud has an 11mm and 6mm driver, co-created with Dynaudio, inside, with support for SBC, AAC, and the LHDC 4.0 Lossless codec. I listened to the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 using the OnePlus 11, an iPhone 14 Pro, a 2020 iPad Pro, and an M1 Mac mini, using Tidal, YouTube Music, and my own collection of music, plus YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and Vimeo.
Duran Duran’s A View to a Kill is a great example of where the Buds Pro 2 excel. A strong bass kick that doesn’t overpower the ever-present mid-bass and percussion, with centered, realistic, and powerful vocals inside a wide soundstage. They make that almost over-produced stereo effect that continues throughout the song really come alive, so it’s involving and exciting. They sound excellent.
Not every track is so successful, and the Buds Pro 2 can sound muddy and confused in guitar-driven pop tracks, like they’re struggling when pushed hard, leaving you a little disappointed. Oasis’s Don’t Look Back in Anger (Tidal’s remastered version) isn’t as full or rounded as I expect, for example, and The Bluetones Marblehead Johnson doesn’t have as much punch as I want either.
For my preferred choice of music, having vocals front-and-center is important, and almost regardless of what you listen to, the Buds Pro 2 certainly succeed here. Voices have way more depth and emotion than the Nothing Ear 1’s, and there’s more bass than the Apple AirPods Pro. I have not been able to test them against the AirPods Pro 2 though. Compared to the original AirPods Pro, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 have a fuller, more vibrant tone, but they can’t match the AirPods’ wonderful precision, stereo separation, and balance.
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are superb for vocal-forward music.
But it’s how they handle vocals that has really made me warm to the OnePlus Buds Pro 2. The cute voice of each Woo!Ah member is distinct during Rollercoaster, where the baseline really pumps away throughout, making it immersive, fun, and exciting, just as the song should be. Vocals remain clear and centrally staged during Nogizaka46’s Koko ni wa Nai Mono, and the build-up to the chorus sounds fantastic because of this. Genuinely, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are superb for vocal-forward music.
I find AirPods Pro are clearer and more controlled, but the Buds Pro 2 have a greater capacity for deeper bass and therefore can be more exciting to listen to. I’ve used them for video calls on my Mac and for voice calls with various phones, and call quality is excellent. However, the active noise cancellation (ANC) can cause problems, which I’ll come back to later.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: Spatial Audio
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Spatial Audio, now part of Android 13, has two different settings, Fixed and Head Tracking, which are adjusted in the phone’s settings. I tested the feature using the OnePlus 11, which OnePlus announced alongside the Buds Pro 2. Dig into the complicated settings menu for Spatial Audio and you get a demonstration of both modes so you can hear the difference. Later in February, a specially tuned Spatial Audio EQ designed by composer Hans Zimmer will be added through an update.
Watching spoken word on YouTube you do notice the Spatial Audio effect, but it’s not as effective as Apple’s implementation. The problem is where it shifts from left to right when your device is not in the center of your view, as it can distinctly mute the opposite earbud. It gives you the odd feeling the earbud has suddenly stopped working, especially with additional pressure created when you have noise cancelation activated. It takes a few seconds to reorientate itself and sound more natural.
The effect is slightly less distracting when listening to music, but it does drastically change the sound of the music. There are all kinds of algorithmic magic going on in the background to make Spatial Audio work, and not everyone is going to appreciate how it alters the tone, bass, and vocals of different songs. I’m not convinced there’s much value in Spatial Audio on Android yet, and when it’s not as seamless as it should be, the feature becomes more of a distraction than anything else.
Spatial Audio did not seem to have an effect when watching Netflix (but I don’t pay the Premium subscription level, so this may be part of the problem) or listening to Google Podcasts. It’s not a feature I would choose to use very often on the Buds Pro 2, due to the strange sensation it currently gives, and the lack of wide cost-free support.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: Active Noise Cancellation
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
I don’t like the OnePlus Buds Pro 2’s noise cancellation system. Not only is it a pain to actually activate, as discussed above, but I don’t think it’s very effective. In certain listening situations, it can be bafflingly hard to tell the difference between on and transparency mode, due to outside sounds being artificially introduced by both. With ANC on, subtle outside sounds can take on a metallic, strangely amplified timbre. It’s the same with your own voice when using the transparency mode, and it’s nowhere near as pleasant and natural as the AirPods Pro.
I’m wearing them as I type this, and although noise cancelation is on I can still easily hear myself typing on a mechanical keyboard, and it’s not even an especially loud one. Worse, these ambient sounds that aren’t blocked out, tend to become harsher when mixed with voices, and particularly on calls, this can make it uncomfortable to have ANC on.
Louder sounds are suppressed using ANC, including passing traffic or dull, continuous noises like ambient conversation and machinery, but it’s far less effective than the Apple AirPods Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 2. I have reached for both these when I really want to isolate myself, despite really liking the way the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 sound when playing music. I’m using the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 ahead of release, and there’s a chance a software update will fix this odd performance, but I can only review what I hear.
Effective noise cancellation is an important feature for me, and the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 fall well short of the competition. I don’t know whether this is a software problem, an issue due to the earbuds not always sealing well, or just the way they’re supposed to be, but I know ANC is usually a lot better than it is here.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: Battery life and charging
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Expectations regarding the Buds Pro 2’s battery life are high due to some big claims from OnePlus. On paper using the 520mAh case battery, you can expect 25 hours with ANC on and 39 hours with it off, and nine hours from a single charge (ANC off) of the 60mAh battery in the earbuds. The case has a fast charge feature that should provide three hours of listening time from 10 minutes charge. There’s also wireless charging built into the case.
The battery life has been good. Playing music and using the headphones for voice and video calls, between multiple devices, for three and a half hours with ANC on depletes them from 100% to 50%. This suggests you should get around seven hours of continuous use. This is longer than you’d likely get from the AirPods Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, both of which should deliver around five hours with ANC on.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2: Price and availability
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 cost $179 and will be available from February 16, with pre-orders opening on February 7. They come in the Arbor Green color seen in our photos, and an Obsidian Black color too. You’ll be able to buy them through OnePlus’s own store and through Amazon. In the U.K. the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 cost 179 British pounds, and they will also be released on February 16.
You’re in a difficult position with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Dynaudio’s presence can be heard in the sound produced by the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, and it has brought them alive. I really enjoy listening to music on them and appreciate the punchy bass and the wonderful way they treat vocals. They’re also lightweight and comfortable, even after three or four hours of continuous use, and the battery life is excellent. Cross-device compatibility is great, and the fundamentals are all in place to make living with the Buds Pro 2 painless. However, the ANC feature doesn’t perform well, Spatial Audio is a gimmick, and the price increase over the OnePlus Buds Pro is unfortunate.
I’ve turned to the AirPods Pro and the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro for in-ear ANC duties, both of which isolate me from outside sounds far more effectively. They are both more expensive, but the brilliant Sony WF-1000XM4 can be found for about the same price as the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, as can the Jabra Elite 7 Pro. Both are better purchases if ANC is a feature you use a lot. The disappointing ANC casts a shadow over the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, as does the increased price, which is unfortunate considering how good they sound when simply playing music.
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In a blow to the Los Angeles classical music world, renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel has been poached by the New York Philharmonic.
It was announced on Tuesday (7 February) that the Venezuelan will become the world famous orchestra’s music and artistic director, starting in 2026.
Dudamel, who is known not just for his rare talent, but for his charisma and intense energy, won’t be short of friends in the Big Apple though. He was hired by president of the New York Philharmonic, Deborah Borda, who took him on board as lead conductor at the LA equivalent in 2009.
42 year old Dudamel is also no stranger to his new workplace, having conducted 26 concerts in the east coast city, making his debut there when he was just 26 years of age.
He’s one of the most famous products of Venezuela’s network of musical schools, El Sistema. He also started a youth orchestra, YOLA, in 2007, which has helped 1,500 young people, providing them with free instruments and instruction.
Dudamel’s departure from Los Angeles marks a significant loss for the city and its orchestra. He has played a large part in building a cultural empire on the west coast and helped turn the Philharmonic into one of the most creative and financially successful examples in the entire country and wider world.
Industry experts say his appointment is a major coup for the New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States.
Only a decade ago, it was plagued with concerns about its future, with issues surrounding renovations of its home and its artistic direction.
However, its new headquarters, David Geffen Hall, has now reopened after a €545 million renovation, and in securing Dudamel, the New York icon is celebrating something of a renaissance.
At the New York Philharmonic, Dudamel will succeed Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden who is leaving after 6 years to join the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea.
Country music star Chris Stapleton will perform the national anthem ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles showdown at Super Bowl 57 on Sunday, USA Today reported.
Related
The national anthem performance at Super Bowl 57
Stapleton, an eight-time Grammy winner known for hits like “You Should Probably Leave” and “Tennessee Whiskey,” will perform the national anthem alongside actor Troy Kotsur, who starred in the 2021 Sundance breakout hit and Oscar-winning film “CODA.” Kotsur — who became the second deaf person to win an Oscar, sharing the distinction with his “CODA” co-star, Marlee Matlin — will present the national anthem in American Sign Language, per USA Today.
Additionally, “Abbott Elementary” star Sheryl Lee Ralph will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” presented in ASL by TikTok star Justina Miles, while R&B singer-songwriter Babyface will sing “America the Beautiful,” presented in ASL by Colin Denny, a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, according to Axios.
Related
Most recently, Stapleton appeared at the 65th annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Feb. 5, performing “Higher Ground” alongside Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson. At the ceremony, Stapleton was a nominated songwriter for best country song, having co-written “I’ll Love You Til the Day I Die” for Willie Nelson’s 2022 album “A Beautiful Time,” per Taste of Country.
Stapleton’s upcoming tour, “All American Road Show,” kicks off April 26 and runs through late August.
What time does the 2023 Super Bowl start?
The Super Bowl begins Feb. 12 at 4:30 p.m MST and will air on Fox.
Lorrie Murray grew up in Connecticut playing sports, creating visual art, hearing but paying minimal attention to the pop and classic rock her parents listened to and singing for only one year in the school choir during fourth grade. The Alameda resident did not become a multi-instrumentalist or composer like her husband, Dren McDonald, and never formally studied music, as has her daughter, Ella, 20, and son, Maddox, 17.
Murray never formed a rock band, although she said in a recent interview, “I was a sideshow freak for a rock band called Idiot Flesh and was their fire-eater and torch swinger. And I’ve sung random backup vocals. Oh, and I was a bouncer at Merchant’s Saloon in Oakland.” Despite this unlikely background, while working as a graphic designer and art director, Murray became a music concert promoter and tour manager, serving in the industry for 25 years, primarily for the art rock band The Residents.
It was while watching a “60 Minutes” broadcast in 2010 about Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, the Youth Orchestra LA and El Sistema USA, a music education program founded in the 1970s in Venezuela, that a light bulb lit up in her head. Murray’s children were students at Alameda’s former Washington Elementary School, an underperforming school that in 2013 was revamped and became Maya Lin School, an arts magnet elementary school in the Alameda Unified School District.
She suddenly realized that during all the years touring in the music industry, “everywhere I’ve ever gone and from every person, I heard stories about how music opened up a window for them. It’s where they found their tribe. Here in the East Bay, life was all about families and kids, but music was missing. I started wondering if an after-school music program could build community.”
Her wondering led to planning, and in 2014 the Bay Area Music Project (BAMP) was born. The initial project launched at Maya Lin School served the socioeconomically and culturally diverse student population on campus with free or low-cost, high-quality music instruction, instruments and music supplies, snacks and process-over-product social, emotional and academic support.
In 2023, the program (bayareamusicproject.org) operates five days a week and includes students at Alameda’s Maya Lin, Wood Middle and Encinal Junior & Senior High schools and Oakland’s middle and high school students at Life Academy High School. Opportunities in addition to one-on-one instruction include orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, electronic music composition and production, field trips and visits from high-profile artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Black Violin, The Amani Children’s Choir of Uganda and others. The program’s funding streams include the AUSD, tuition fees, grants, corporate partnerships and individual donations.
All of the above is the basis for what Murray emphasized is BAMP’s purpose: “What we are not is an intensive drive towards a career with a symphony or orchestra. We are finding belonging for kids. There is social and emotional intentionality. We hope to gain confident young people who can express themselves in a variety of ways. My objectives of nine years ago have shifted away from simply the high-caliber musicality to whether or not we are forming fully functional humans who are confident in themselves and find connection to other people on deeper levels.”
Murray says the shift comes in response to an escalated urgency to address anxieties and isolation that students have experienced at higher levels since the pandemic began and as they returned to in-classroom learning.
“The struggles in families were heartbreaking, and the kids are permanently changed because of it. First and foremost is their disconnect from friends. Secondly, as we returned, we saw how they’re impacted at every age level. A fifth-grader might have the emotional level of a third-grader. Kindergartners who are now going into third grade — their bodies are bigger, but they don’t know games, how to line up in the hallway. There are expectations for them to behave in ways in which they are not ready to behave.”
The music program invites students to express themselves, to explore freely without the emphasis on right and wrong answers found in math, reading and other courses. For many of the students at Maya Lin, English is a second language.
“This (the music program) gives them freedom to bring their culture, their regulatory skills, their expressivity — all without language, other than the language of music,” Murray said.
The program at Maya Lin took nine years to build, and at Alameda’s Encinal Junior & Senior High, the BAMP team spent six months just asking students what they did or didn’t like about music.
“It’s worth it because you get a better result when the kids are invested,” she said. “You can’t launch a program like this without getting to know the kids and the community.”
Murray looks across today’s social and political climate and watches cultural divides widen, social media encourage snap judgement and some of the youngest elementary school students unable to focus on anything other than a screen. Some older kids are unable to stick with learning something incredibly difficult, like how to play the violin.
“If something doesn’t happen instantly — and you can’t learn it with Google alone — they get flustered. They get frustrated. As they get older, they seek to look or behave like something on TikTok or Twitter, to be an influencer on YouTube.”
She says the solutions aren’t to deny the impact of the Internet and digital world but to use them as pathways to music produced with an instrument.
“With the older kids, we go the digital route and have them compose music on digital software. At the end, you have to use a traditional instrument to apply it. We use whatever they relate to and then hand them a cello or a flute.”
In the Alameda and Oakland classrooms where BAMP operates, the same scene repeats itself: “You see their shoulders drop, they let go with laughter and visibly, physically change. They breathe differently and get into making sounds. They respond to even silly prompts. One teaching artist said to the advanced orchestra that they are fuzzy caterpillars about to fly off to a burning sun. He counted them in and they just played. Each kid just related. It wasn’t a math equation, and they produced a cacophony of amazing sound. It was freedom, openness, confidence and trust in the teacher and themselves.”
If there’s a dream Murray holds for BAMP, she’s in no rush, favoring well made plans, but says the framework would be a full, kindergarten-through-12th-grade program at all Alameda schools and kids from all over the city playing music together. The dream for her is broader, though: “That through music, students and all people learn to listen to one another and respect each other’s cultures.”
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Contact her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.
Photos: Beyoncé (courtesy of artist), Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars (Andres Otero/Everett Collection), Rihanna (Apple Music)
On February 12, sports fans around the globe will crowd around their TV screens to see if the Kansas City Chiefs or the Philadelphia Eagles will claim the Super Bowl LVII trophy as champions of the National Football League. Pop music fans, though, will be waiting for Rihanna to take the stage for the halftime show, which, over the last decade, has generated enough buzz to rival the Big Game itself. From the moment that Rihanna was announced as this year’s halftime entertainment, her fans began doing what they do best: clamoring for a new Rihanna album. The chatter became so prevalent that it was the theme of the promo Fox released a few weeks ago:
This is just the latest bit of proof that the Super Bowl halftime show has become one of the most significant events of the year in pop music. In the last 10 years, these pop extravaganzas situated in the middle of football’s biggest night have turned into an arms race. How did we get here, and what does that mean for Rihanna this Sunday?
A look back at the early days of the Super Bowl halftime show
Early on, the Super Bowl halftime show was mostly made up of marching bands and cheerleaders: Up with People was featured in five Super Bowl halftime shows between 1971 and 1976. Somehow, the event managed to stay alive, and in the 1990s, organizers dipped a toe into pop performances with New Kids on the Block and Gloria Estefan. But few besides Michael Jackson at the Rose Bowl in 1993 delivered on the spectacle. With the widest possible audience to program for, the Super Bowl halftime show hopped around different genres: country, classic rock, Motown-style R&B. Younger viewers were targeted only sporadically, with a few MTV-produced shows in the late ’90s and early aughts. The last of those was the most notorious, of course. The 2004 halftime show featured pop acts Kid Rock, P. Diddy, Jessica Simpson, and Nelly, but the part everybody remembers is when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake duetted on Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” and committed the wardrobe malfunction that rocked a nation.
Post-“Nipplegate,” the halftime show makes safe bets on classic rockers
Much has already been made of “Nipplegate” – including news reports and docuseries — but in terms of how it affected the evolution of the Super Bowl halftime show, it ushered in an era of incredibly safe, dad-targeted rock acts (with one quite notable exception). Over the next several years, the halftime show was headlined by Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, and The Who, and if any of those guys even had nipples, you’d never know it from watching them perform. The exception to this string of low-risk classic rock was when Prince performed in the middle of a Miami downpour in 2007, an iconic — and, yes, oftentimes sexually suggestive — performance that was widely acclaimed and probably went a long way towards calming down FCC-wary executives going forward. At the time, The Smoking Gun reported a scant 150 complaints to the FCC (over 93 million people watched that year’s Super Bowl), and some of those were about a Snickers ad that featured two men kissing.
Madonna sets a new standard
The next watershed halftime show moment occurred in 2012, when Madonna was tapped to perform at halftime for Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Up until this point, even when the Super Bowl veered towards pop, the producers made sure to present a wide swath of acts that might appeal to as broad an audience as possible — and in particular, straight men. NSYNC and Britney Spears were offset by Aerosmith. No Doubt was tempered by Shania Twain and Sting. Handing the entire halftime show to Madonna was a tacit change of direction, counterprogramming the halftime show with an act that unabashedly courted women and gay men.
And Madonna did nothing to butch up her act. Dancers dressed as Roman centurions carried her en masse on a winged throne as she kicked off the show with “Vogue.” And while M.I.A. kicked up some controversy with a middle-finger gesture during her and Nicki Minaj’s guest appearance during “Give Me All Your Luvin” (M.I.A. and the NFL sparred in court for two years over breach of contract, before coming to a confidential settlement), the Madonna halftime show’s true legacy was kicking off a decade of escalating pop dominance.
Beyoncé followed Madonna just one year later with a performance in the New Orleans Superdome that was so spectacular, it was followed by a stadium power outage that suspended play in the second half for 34 minutes. In an impressive flex of her star wattage, Beyoncé’s only guest collaborators were Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams in a Destiny’s Child reunion that only served to underline how far she’s come since her early days. The performance was the most Tweeted-about event to date and stands as one of Beyoncé’s standout live concert performances.
After Madonna and Beyoncé delivered back-to-back pop-diva spectaculars, the standard had now been set. All subsequent performances had to at least strive to meet that level of, if not star power, than at least spectacle. Bruno Mars brought his “hardest working man in show business” act to the Big Game in 2014, followed by a Katy Perry show in 2015 that included Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz, and stands as the most-watched television performance in history. Of course, what everybody really remembers is the Left Shark phenomenon, where one of two dancing shark mascots was noticeably out of sync with the performance, setting the internet ablaze.
The sky-high expectations of this new era of Super Bowl halftime shows were never better exemplified than when Coldplay was announced as the halftime act for Super Bowl 50. Fairly or not, the English rock act had become synonymous with milquetoast, vanilla, so-10-years-ago music by much of the young, vocal, very online pop fandom. Coldplay as the successor to Madonna, Beyoncé, and Left Shark felt all kinds of wrong (and macho football fans weren’t exactly happy about it either). When it was subsequently announced that Bruno Mars (who was already signed on as “curator” of the halftime show) and Beyoncé would join Coldplay’s performance, it seemed obvious who would overshadow whom. And indeed, Beyoncé’s eye-popping, Republican-infuriating performance of “Formation” completely stole the show.
Lady Gaga performed at halftime in 2017 — the 80 For Brady Super Bowl, to put it in context — getting the pop-diva vibe back on track and providing fodder for her in-the-works Netflix documentary Five Foot Two (Jennifer Lopez would later make the Super Bowl halftime show the focal point of her Netflix documentary).
Today’s halftime show arms race
The 2018 halftime show wasn’t received as warmly, with the return of Justin Timberlake. The people — and Janet Jackson fans, in particular — hadn’t forgotten, and Timberlake caught a wave of bad press, as he does every time Nipplegate comes back into the cultural conversation. Timberlake actually invited Jackson to perform alongside him, though she declined, and his subsequent performance with the Tennessee Kids was received as tepidly as his Man of the Woods album was that same year.
The reaction to the Coldplay announcement in 2016 was more or less repeated when Maroon 5 was announced as the headliner for 2019. That year, several artists declined to perform in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback who was blackballed from the league for his “take the knee” protests against police shootings of unarmed Black Americans. A Change.org petition called on Maroon 5 to drop out, but the show went on.
2020 saw the return of pop excess to the halftime show, with a Jennifer Lopez-Shakira double bill that was tremendously energetic and served as a tribute to the performers’ Puerto Rican and Colombian heritage, respectively. The Weeknd performed gamely during the 2021 socially-distanced halftime show, and last year diverged a bit from pop icons to deliver a masters-of-hip-hop extravaganza featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.
And now: Rihanna. There’s no obvious reason why she would debut her first new non-soundtrack music since releasing Anti at the 2016 Super Bowl. Her Oscar-nominated ballad “Lift Me Up,” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, is enough of a peg on which to hang a halftime performance of greatest hits. But that’s the current state of the Super Bowl halftime show arms race. Rihanna isn’t just reckoning with her own legacy of pop hits with this performance. She’s up against a Cecil B. DeMille-styled “Vogue” performance, a Destiny’s Child reunion, and an off-script shark mascot that was watched by the biggest audience in TV history. She’s up against a rendition of “Formation” so anthemic that it broke half of America’s politicians. Even if every subsequent Super Bowl halftime performance doesn’t outpace all of those, that’s the mountaintop they’re all reaching for now. Even without new music, there’s every chance Rihanna can deliver something that can be mentioned in that same breath. But she’ll be in rarefied air if she does.
Joe Reid is the senior writerat Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.
Kelela has released ‘Enough For Love’, the fifth and final single to be lifted from her upcoming album ‘RAVEN’.
‘Enough For Love’ was co-produced by Yo van Lenz, and sees Kelela pose the title as a question, asking if a lover is “tough enough for love” atop airy synths and sparse percussion. The song follows ‘Contact’ as the latest preview of ‘RAVEN’, which is set for release this Friday (February 10). Listen to ‘Enough for Love’ below.
‘Washed Away’, the first single from ‘RAVEN’, arrived last September and marked Kelela’s first new material in five years. “I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” Kelela said at the time.
‘RAVEN’ has elsewhere been previewed by the singles ‘Happy Ending’ in October and ‘On The Run’ in November. ‘RAVEN’ will serve as the follow up to Kelela’s 2017 debut ‘Take Me Apart’, which spawned the singles ‘LMK’, ‘Frontline’, ‘Waitin’ and ‘Blue Light’. “Don’t come here for basic love songs,” NME wrote of the album in a four-star review. “Nothing about this lush and accomplished album suggests Kelela is an artist who wants to repeat herself.”
Despite the years-long gap between releases, Kelela has kept busy with a string of guest verses and other projects. In 2018, the singer shared ‘Take Me a_Part, the Remixes’, which offered new versions of her debut tracklist with assists from Princess Nokia, Junglepussy and Cupcakke. The remix album also enlisted Kaytranada as a producer.
Elsewhere, Kelela appeared on Solange‘s ‘Scales’ – lifted from the singer’s 2016 album ‘A Seat at the Table’ – as well as featuring on Danny Brown’s ‘From The Ground’ and Clams Casino‘s ‘A Breath Away’. Kelela later reunited with Brown for the Gorillaz track ‘Submission’, which appeared on the tracklist of the band’s 2017 album ‘Humanz’.
