December 6, 2023 Taylor Swift is named Time magazine's 2023 Person Of The Year, the first entertainer ever picked.More
December 1, 2023 Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé opens in theaters, offering a behind-the-scenes look at her Renaissance tour. It tops the domestic box office the opening weekend with a $21 million take. Like Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour film, it's distributed by AMC Theatres, bypassing traditional studios to allow Beyoncé, who wrote and produced it, to get a bigger cut.
October 14, 2023 After a delay while she battled a bacterial infection, Madonna begins her Celebration Tour at the O2 Arena in London. Three of her kids join her onstage, with daughter Ester doing some vogueing and son David playing guitar.
October 13, 2023 Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opens in theaters, blowing away box office records to become the top-grossing concert film of all time. The film documents her wildly popular Eras Tour using footage shot during three Los Angeles shows in August.More
September 8, 2023 Olivia Rodrigo releases her sophomore album, Guts. Featuring the chart-topping lead single, "Vampire," it's her second album to reach the summit of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
August 26, 2023 Oliver Anthony becomes the first artist with no chart history to debut at #1 in America when "Rich Men North Of Richmond," recorded outdoors in one take with his dogs nearby, shoots to the top.More
August 16, 2023 Britney Spears' third husband, Sam Asghari, files for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. They started dating in 2017 after he played her love interest in the "Slumber Party" video, and got married in June 2022. Their divorce is finalized on May 2, 2024.
July 21, 2023 At the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, The 1975 frontman Matt Healy speaks out against the country's ban on homosexuality and kisses bass player Ross MacDonald in protest. The Malaysian government responds by canceling the last two days of the festival.
June 24, 2023 At the Glastonbury Festival, Lewis Capaldi struggles to control his Tourette's syndrome and can't make it through his hit "Someone You Loved." He's shaken but visibly moved when the crowd sings it for him in a unified show of support. Capaldi takes a break from music to work on his health, and slowly returns to action in 2024.
June 10, 2023 The movie Mary J. Blige's Real Love airs on Lifetime. Based on her 1992 hit, it's followed a week later by Mary J. Blige's Strength Of A Woman, which continues the story of a young woman who must decide if the guy she falls for is worth the sacrifices. Blige is an executive producer on both films, which were made in collaboration with her production company, Blue Butterfly.
March 11, 2023 "TQG," a collaboration between Colombian superstars Shakira and Karol G, debuts at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Just weeks after Shakira became the first female artist to open in the Top 10 with a Spanish-language track ("Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 53"), "TQG" breaks the record as the highest-charting Spanish-language tune by a female artist in the tally's history.
March 3, 2023 De La Soul's first six albums, including their 1989 groundbreaking debut, 3 Feet High And Rising, are finally made available for streaming. A label dispute, along with challenges getting the many samples cleared, kept them in purgatory.
November 15, 2022 The presale for Taylor Swift's Eras tour crashes Ticketmaster, leading to frustrated fans and a federal investigation. Despite the snafu, 2.4 million tickets are sold, the most for one artist ever in a single day.
November 13, 2022 John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads," already a staple at Oktoberfests and other gatherings in Germany, becomes a sporting event singalong when the crowd of nearly 70,000 at Allianz Arena in Munich belts it out during the first NFL came in the country.
November 4, 2022 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story opens in theaters, with Daniel Radcliffe (best known for playing Harry Potter) in the title role. "The things that brought him joy and made him laugh led to a career of immense variety and longevity and an incredible amount of joy," Radcliffe says of Yankovic.
October 12, 2022 Following years as a featured vocalist for the likes of Jonas Blue, Jax Jones and David Guetta, Raye releases her breakthrough single, "Escapism," a song about "running away from reality as fast as you possibly can." Months later, it's included on her debut album, My 21st Century Blues.
September 27, 2022 Lizzo plays a few notes from a crystal flute once owned by US President James Madison at her concert in Washington, DC. The instrument, made in 1813, is on loan from the Library of Congress, which is drawing attention to their flute collection, the largest in the world. "It's like playing out of a wine glass," Lizzo says.
August 26, 2022 After Jason Aldean's wife Brittany posts a makeup video on Instagram with the caption, "I'd really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase," Maren Morris, an advocate for transgender rights, flames her with a Tweet, writing, "Zip it, Insurrection Barbie." The feud raises tensions between conservative members of the country music community and those with more progressive views like Morris.
July 24, 2022 Joni Mitchell makes a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, performing a full set for the first time since 2000. Performing from a chair (Mitchell had a brain aneurism in 2015), she's joined by Brandi Carlile for most of the set.
July 16, 2022 Jennifer Lopez marries Ben Affleck at a quickie wedding in Las Vegas. The couple were engaged in 2002 and had a lavish ceremony planned, but they called it off. They started dating again in 2021 after Lopez' marriage to Marc Anthony and Affleck's marriage to Jennifer Garner ended.
May 27, 2022 Season 4 of the Netflix series Stranger Things airs with a scene featuring the 1985 Kate Bush song "Running Up That Hill." The song starts trending and enters the Top 10 in 34 different territories, including America, where it lands at #8. Bush's previous chart peak in the US was #30 when the song was first released.
May 27, 2022 Abba's virtual reality show Voyages opens in London with digital avatars performing in place of the actual band members.More
May 19, 2022 Ciara lands on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which is starting to feature singers in addition to athletes and models. Megan Thee Stallion made the cover the previous year.
May 9, 2022 Lola Young posts about her schizoaffective disorder on Instagram. "My mental health condition does not define me," she writes. "It is my superpower."
April 15, 2022 Edgar Winter releases Brother Johnny, a tribute album saluting his late brother, blues-rock legend Johnny Winter. The album features contributions from Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and many other famous guest artists. It wins a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category to earn Edgar his only Grammy Award.
March 18, 2022 In a video that goes viral, Charlie Puth demonstrates his perfect pitch on Jimmy Kimmel Live by identifying the key of any sound Kimmel makes. He also demonstrates how he can simulate a phone vibration with his voice, a stupid human trick he used to annoy his teachers.
January 26, 2022 Spotify complies with Neil Young's request to remove his music from the service. Young's issue is with the Spotify podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, which he feels is spreading false information about vaccines. Joni Mitchell also removes her music, but Spotify stands tall for Rogan, whose subscriber count grows considerably in wake of the controversy. Young returns to Spotify two years later.
January 13, 2022 Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes dies of cancer at 78. The group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007 by Keith Richards, who said they "could sing their way right through a wall of sound," referring to the dense production in hits like "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You."
November 5, 2021 Ten fans are killed and hundreds injured during Travis Scott's performance at his Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, when the crowd of 50,000 surges toward the stage, crushing the victims.More
July 29, 2021 After postponing the previous year's festival due to the coronavirus outbreak, Lollapalooza returns in full force for a four-day music event in Chicago's Grant Park. But there's a catch: Festivalgoers must provide proof of vaccinations or negative COVID tests to gain entry. Those who have tested negative but are unvaccinated also have to wear a mask.More
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC