Author: Rap Hooks

Zach Top, Keith Urban and Brooks & Dunn will be the three headliners for the 2026 edition of C2C: Country to Country.

The annual international country music fest, created by AEG Europe and SJM Concerts, takes place March 13-15 with the artists each headlining a show at London’s the O2, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Belfast’s SSE arenas over three consecutive nights.

Appearing with Top, who will start in London on March 13, will be Scotty McCreery, Waylon Wyatt and Noeline. This marks Top’s first European dates, while McCreery recently came back from playing in Europe and has built a strong following overseas.

Urban, who will start in Glasgow on March 13, will be joined by Russell Dickerson, Tyler Braden, Alana Springsteen and Bayker Blankenship. Urban has frequently played throughout Europe.

Brooks & Dunn will launch in Belfast before playing in Glasgow and London, marking their first time headlining C2C and the legendary duo’s first U.K. appearance since 2010. They will be joined by Drake Milligan, Kameron Marlowe, Ashley Cooke and Mackenzie Carpenter.  

More artists are set to be announced for all the bills.

Tickets will go on sale Friday (Sept. 26) at 10 a.m. local time.

C2C launched in 2013 at London’s O2 Arena, with appearances by Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood, and then expanded to Dublin (now Belfast) and Glasgow.

BBC Radio 2 is the broadcast partner for C2C, while the Country Music Association is a key festival partner. “CMA is proud to once again sponsor the Spotlight Stage at C2C,” Sarah Trahern, CMA CEO said in a statement. “Helping rising country artists take their music to international audiences and working alongside the industry that champions them worldwide remains central to our mission.” The CMA will also sponsor a songwriters series.

Starting in 2019, editions will launch in the Netherlands and Germany, which are held the week before the London/Belfast/Glasgow dates with some overlapping artists. 

The 2026 Norwegian edition, to be held March 5-7 outside of Rotterdam, will feature Jordan Davis, Top, Milligan, Jackson Dean, Marlowe, Braden and Wyatt, among others. The Germany edition, to be held in Berlin March 6-8, will feature Davis, Top, McCreery, Milligan and Marlowe among others.

As it turns out, Coachella didn’t need all that extra time to sell tickets.

Last week, the music festival went on sale months earlier than in previous years as part of a concerted effort to sell as many tickets as possible after falling short of selling out two years in a row. By going on sale Friday (Sept. 19), Coachella’s organizer, Goldenvoice, gave itself seven months to sell out of the 250,000 tickets it puts on sale for the two-weekend festival.

But thanks to a strong lineup, which includes Justin Bieber‘s first concert since 2022, Coachella sold out of tickets in about four days — an incredible feat for a mature festival that few, if any, industry watchers saw coming.

After all, the festival business is a fairly mature industry that has dramatically changed since the pre-pandemic period when festivals like Coachella sold out thanks to strong bookings like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. A decade ago, Coachella and its country music counterpart Stagecoach were monoliths in festival-friendly Southern California, but today, consumers have more options than ever to spend their entertainment dollars.

Not only are there more festivals to choose from than a decade ago, but festivals are now competing against headliner acts like Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, all of whom can easily fill a stadium and charge half as much as Goldenvoice needs to charge to break even on its elaborate annual festival in the desert.

The fact that Goldenvoice sold out the festival after two years of missing the mark in one of the most competitive festival environments to date is an impressive feat and a testament to both its strong lineup this year and consumer trust in the quality of the Coachella brand and the overall fan experience.

Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi’s new daughter was born to be Jon Bon Jovi‘s grandbaby.

About a month after the Stranger Things actress and Rockbottom actor announced they’d welcomed a baby girl through adoption, the rock icon gave an update on life as a new grandpa while appearing on Bunnie xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast. “[It’s] crazy, but great,” he began of gaining a new family member. “Wonderful.”

“They adopted a girl, and we met the baby, obviously, and immediately, that becomes your grandchild, you know what I mean?” Bon Jovi continued on behalf of himself and his wife, Dorothea Hurley. “Your baby. So it’s beautiful, I want to see pictures like every other day, I’m that pain-in-the-butt guy already.”

Brown and Bongiovi announced on Aug. 21 that they were now parents, writing in a joint statement, “This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption.”

“We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy,” the pair continued. “And then there were 3.”

The news came about a year after the two actors tied the knot after three years of dating. Brown is 21 while Bongiovi is 23, but according to the latter’s father, the couple is stronger than ever despite getting married and starting a family at such a young age.

“They got married very young, but we blessed it because we get it,” Bon Jovi told Bunnie xo, who is married to country star Jelly Roll. “They’re sort of mature beyond their years. Her and Jake fell in love and we just thought, ‘OK, we’ll support this.’ It’s working out.”

Of the Enola Homes star, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer added, “She’s a sweetheart, and she’s a hard worker. I tell her all the time how much I admire her, because her work ethic is unbelievable.”

Bon Jovi’s Dumb Blonde debut comes as his band is gearing up to release Forever (Legendary Edition), a revamped edition of their 2024 album that will feature collaborations with Avril Lavigne, Bruce Springsteen, James Bay and more. Jelly also makes a cameo on the Oct. 24-slated LP, adding vocals to “Living Proof.”

Listen to Bon Jovi’s full interview with Bunnie xo below.

“Gala,” the new single from XG, tops this week’s fan-voted music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Sept. 19) on Billboard, choosing the septet’s fresh track as their favorite new release.

“Gala” made its grand entrance during a week that also saw new releases streaming in from Cardi B, RAYE, Miley Cyrus, Lola Young and more, with the fashion-focused tune bringing in 65% of the vote.

“Gala” is the pre-release single from JURIN, CHISA, HINATA, HARVEY, JURIA, MAYA and COCONA’s long-awaited debut studio album, which arrives on Jan. 23, 2026. The group first teased the album release date in early September.

“This song was mainly inspired by the iconic Met Gala,” XG’s MAYA recently told The Hollywood Reporter, adding, “We tried so many new things, choreography wise, music wise and fashion wise, so we’re really excited to showcase that. I feel like this song is really XG.”

HARVEY explained to THR, “I think it’s fair to say that we’ve grown a lot since we first debuted, but personally I think we became a lot more fearless when it comes to challenging ourselves to new things. Especially with ‘Gala,’ I think we can see that come into play fully. We’ve challenged ourselves to try many different dances and a new sense of fashion that we haven’t done before to become bolder. In that sense, I think we’ve seen ourselves come a long way.”

“We tried voguing, break dancing and some acrobatics this time,” COCONA added in the group’s chat. “It was very, very hard to learn, but a great experience for us, and we wanted to make ‘Gala’ feel more like a show.”

Among the new releases trailing behind “Gala” on this week’s poll are Cardi B’s Am I the Drama?, with 4% of the vote, followed by RAYE’s “Where Is My Husband?” and Miley Cyrus’ “Secrets.”

See the final results of this week’s poll below.

Dua Lipa is continuing her streak of teaming up with iconic artists on her Radical Optimism World Tour.

On Saturday night (Sept. 20), the 30-year-old British-Albanian pop star delivered the third show of her four-night run at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where she surprised fans by bringing out legendary musician Nile Rodgers for an electrifying performance of Chic’s 1978 disco classic “Le Freak.” Watch it here.

Lipa has become known for performing a locally inspired cover at stops on her Radical Optimism Tour, which launched its U.S. leg at Chicago’s United Center earlier this month.

During her previous MSG shows earlier in the week, the “Dance the Night” singer paid tribute to the city with covers of New York staples, including Alicia Keys’ “No One” and Blondie’s “One Way or Another.”

“Here in New York, I’m actually spoiled with the choice,” Lipa told the crowd before her Blondie cover.

Check out Billboard’s recap of the five best moments from her second night at MSG here.

At the tour’s U.S. kickoff in Chicago on Sept. 5, Lipa brought out hometown legend Chaka Khan to perform a powerful rendition of the 1983 hit “Ain’t Nobody.”

The tradition of regional covers began earlier in the year during her stops in Australia and New Zealand, where she performed songs by artists such as AC/DC, Lorde and Kylie Minogue. She also welcomed special guests including Troye Sivan, Tame Impala and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.

While the trend continued less frequently during the European leg, she performed Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero” in Madrid. In London, she brought out Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay for “Virtual Insanity” at Wembley Stadium, followed the next night by a guest appearance from Charli XCX for her Brat hit “360.”

Other notable tributes included The Zutons’ “Valerie” (made popular by Amy Winehouse) with the group’s frontman Dave McCabe in Liverpool, The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” in the Fab Four’s hometown, and a heartfelt performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U” in Dublin in honor of late Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor.

Lipa is set to wrap up her four-night MSG stint on Sunday (Sept. 21) before continuing the North American leg with stops in Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, followed by a run of dates through South America and Mexico.

After a brief break in August following two months of shows across Europe, Lipa resumed touring in North America with back-to-back shows in Toronto on Sept. 1–2.

The Radical Optimism World Tour is in support of Lipa’s third studio album, Radical Optimism, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2024. The album produced several hits, including lead single “Houdini,” which spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

Twenty One Pilots land the year’s biggest week for any rock album — and the largest in six years — as the duo’s new studio effort, Breach, bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 27.

The set is the act’s second leader and launches with 200,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Sept. 18, according to Luminate. That marks Twenty One Pilots’ best week ever and the biggest week for a rock album since Tool’s Fear Inoculum launched at No. 1 with 270,000 on the Sept. 14, 2019-dated chart. (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)

The majority of Breach’s opening week was powered by traditional album sales, numbering 169,000 sold, which lands Twenty One Pilots its biggest sales week ever, and the biggest for any rock album in six years. The last rock set to sell more copies in a single week was Fear Inoculum, which sold 248,000 in its opening stanza.

Breach is Twenty One Pilots’ first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in a little more than a decade, since Blurryface bowed at No. 1 on the June 6, 2015 chart. All told, Breach is the band’s fifth top 10, following Clancy (No. 3 in 2024), Scaled and Icy (No. 3, 2021), Trench (No. 2, 2018) and Blurryface.

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Ed Sheeran scores his eighth top 10 album as Play premieres at No. 5.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 27, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Sept. 23. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of Breach’s 200,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 169,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 40.68 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — the act’s best streaming week yet; it also debuts at No. 8 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.

Breach’s opening-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, which sold a combined 72,000. That marks Twenty One Pilots’ best week ever on vinyl and the largest vinyl sales week for a rock album in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991).

Breach was also issued on three deluxe CD editions in lavish packaging containing collectible ephemera, a standard widely available CD and digital download, along with a widely available deluxe digital download edition with the bonus track “Drag Path,” alternative cover art and a PDF booklet.

Breach was preceded by its first single, “The Contract,” which hit No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart dated Aug. 2, marking Twenty One Pilots’ 12th leader. The band kicked off its The Clancy Tour: Breach 2025 on Sept. 18 in Cincinnati, and the trek continues with dates in the U.S. and Canada through Oct. 26 in Los Angeles.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack falls to No. 2 on the Billboard with 112,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%) after reaching No. 1 for the first time a week ago. Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 3 (97,000, down 2%) and Sabrina Carpenter’s former leader Man’s Best Friend dips 2-4 (88,000, down 26%).

Ed Sheeran scores his eighth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Play starts at No. 5 with 71,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 51,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 19,000 (equaling 24.26 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 23 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000.

Play’s opening sales week was aided by its availability across more than 10 vinyl variants (one signed), four standard CD variants (two signed), two deluxe CD editions (with two bonus tracks, one signed), a deluxe CD boxed set containing a T-shirt and a signed CD, a standard streaming and digital download album, and a deluxe streaming and digital download album with five bonus tracks.

Play was previewed by the hit song “Azizam,” which reached the top 10 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary, and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Sheeran’s 26th top 40-charted hit).

Justin Bieber’s SWAG shifts 4-6 on the Billboard 200 (44,000 equivalent album units, down 45%); Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid falls 5-7 (36,000, down 4%); SZA’s chart-topping SOS is down 6-8 (a little more than 33,000, up less than 1%); Wallen’s former No. 1 One Thing at a Time descends 7-9 (33,000, up 1%); and sombr’s I Barely Know Her is steady at No. 10 (29,000, up less than 1%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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