Month: August 2023

TWICE carves out a slice of history with the announcement of a one-off stadium show in Australia later this year.

Produced by Live Nation, TWICE will bring their 5th World Tour ‘Ready To Be’ to Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 4.

With that show, TWICE will become the first female group to headline a stadium in Australia, and the first K-pop stadium concert to be held in the land Down Under.

The one-off show follows four sold-out Australian arena dates in May.

“Australian fans have fallen head over feels for their signature high energy performance and stellar setlist of chart-topping hits,” reads a statement from LN.

General tickets go on sale from Wednesday, Sept. 6, with the Live Nation presale starting earlier, from Monday, Sept. 4.

The nine-member South Korean pop act was formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015, when Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu were selected from Sixteen, a one-season talent show.

Earlier this year, TWICE claimed their third No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 25) as Ready to Be: 12th Mini Album debuted atop the list with the act’s best sales week ever.

The EP peaked at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and is one of the group’s four top 10 appearanced on that chart.

TWICE recently completed the North American swing of their 5th World Tour ‘Ready To Be,’ playing 13 sold-out performances at nine stadiums and arenas, according to LN. The second leg of the tour will run from September through December, with the group playing venues across Europe and Asia.

In March of this year, the performers were honored with the Breakthrough Award at Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music, which Sabrina Carpenter presented.

Also on the night, TWICE dazzled with a rendition of Ready to Be cut “Moonlight Sunrise,” the artists’ second English-language single, following “The Feels,” which dropped in October 2021.

Doja Cat has one paw on the U.K. chart title.

The U.S. rapper, singer and songwriter leads the chart blast with “Paint The Town Red” (via RCA), which, if it holds its position, would mark her first U.K. chart crown.

Currently, according to the Official Charts Company, Doja Cat leads by a whisker. Less than 1,000 chart units separate “Paint The Town Red” from her all-female top 5 rivals, which include Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” (No. 2 via Interscope), Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (No. 3 via EMI), Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” (No. 4 via Interscope/Atlantic) and Peggy Gou’s “It Goes Like (Nanana)” (No. 5 via XL Recordings).

In her career to date, Doja Cat has a U.K. chart best of No. 2 for 2020’s “Say So” and a No. 3 for 2021’s “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA.

“Paint The Town Red,” the current leader in Australia, contains a sample of the Dionne Warwick classic from 1963 “Walk On By.” When the Official U.K. Singles Chart was published last Friday, Aug. 25, “Paint The Town Red” lifted 15-4 for a new peak, betting the best of Warwick’s original.

Based on early sales and streaming activity reported by the OCC, Dua Lipa’s stint at the chart summit is likely to end at one week, as her Barbie cut “Dance The Night” (Warner Records) looks set to tumble out the top 10.

There are, however, other dance tunes looking to rise in the top tier. Calvin Harris and Sam Smith’s “Desire” (Columbia) could hit a new peak of No. 6, while Chase & Status, Bou and Flowdan’s “Baddadan” (EMI) is predicted to enter the top 10 for the first time at No. 8.

Miley Cyrus’ new single “Used To Be Young” (Columbia) could bag the week’s highest debut at No. 9, for what would give the U.S. pop singer her ninth U.K. top 10 and 24th top 40 appearance.

Finally, Selena Gomez is eyeing a 20th U.K. top 40 with “Single Soon” (Interscope), which, based on the chart blast, could enter at No. 17. Afrobeats star Burna Boy’s collaboration with London rapper Dave, “Cheat On Me” (Atlantic), could land at No. 20.

All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, Sept. 1.

Mitchel Musso, best known for playing Oliver Oken on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, was arrested on Saturday night (Aug. 26) in Rockwall, Texas, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The 32-year-old actor was arrested after officers responded to a report that someone “who appeared intoxicated” at a hotel in Rockwall, which is about 20 miles northeast of downtown Dallas. According to the publication, Musso walked into the hotel, took a bag of chips and started eating them. He was allegedly “verbally abusive” before he left without paying. The former Disney Channel star also reportedly had multiple outstanding warrants related to traffic violations in the area.

Musso was booked on public intoxication and theft, in addition to other charges, with a total bail of $1,000. He was released on bond on Sunday, according to Morning News.

The actor starred alongside Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment and Jason Earle in the popular Disney Channel series, Hannah Montana, that ran for four seasons from 2006 to 2011. Musso, who was born in Garland, Texas, also had roles in other popular Disney series including Phineas & Ferb, Life Is Ruff and Disney XD show Pair of Kings.

In the music world, he unveiled his self-titled debut album in 2009, which featured the popular single “Hey,” which debuted at No. 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His second album, Brainstorm, was released in 2010.

After a 10-year hiatus, Musso returned to music with a new single, “Drank,” which was featured on his 2022 mixtape, Ghost.

Saturday night (Aug. 26) will go down in Grupo Firme‘s history as the group set a new record at the Feria Nacional Potosina with 300,000 fans in attendance at their concert, according to figures provided by the Coordinación Estatal de Protección Civil in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The numbers also represent a new record for the group, which in 2022 gathered around 250,000 people in Mexico City’s Zócalo.

However, what will remain etched in the memory of fans aside from the music is that frontman Eduin Caz shocked followers with a revelation about his health. In the last year, Caz underwent cancer surgery after suffering from Barrett’s esophagus, a condition associated with an increased risk of developing esophageal cancer.

“I gathered the best doctors, God bless, and I had the surgery,” Caz said. “I never revealed it because I don’t like to be looked at like, ‘Oh, poor thing.’ But I just had a study done and I’m doing great.”

“He had a tumor and they removed it, a sign that we beat the cancer,” Vicente Zambrano, Grupo Firme’s publicist, clarified to Billboard Español on Monday (Aug. 28).

On July 30, Caz announced on social media as he celebrated his 30th birthday while touring in Costa Rica that once the trip was over he would take a break from his career but the group would remain intact. He did not specify the reason or how long he would take but said it was a personal matter.

“I lost many things that are not coming back. The truth is that I balance out everything I have lived through, and honestly, that was how things had to happen,” he said at the time. “But I think I need to go back to putting myself first, and to feel good about myself.”

Grupo Firme’s temporary hiatus comes at the conclusion of its Hay Que Conectarla stadium tour, which began April 15 in Washington, D.C., and traveled through 13 cities across the U.S. The stint continued through Central America on July 14 in Guatemala through El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

On Aug. 5, they performed at the Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín, Colombia, for their only show in that country, where they had Maluma as their guest to perform the song “Cada Quien,” one of the many successful collaborations with which Grupo Firme helped put the regional Mexican genre on the global map.

On the Billboard charts, Grupo Firme reached No. 3 on Latin Airplay with “Que Onda Perdida” with Gerardo Coronel, which also topped the Regional Mexican Airplay chart for three weeks in July. Most recently, “El Amor De Su Vida” landed on the Billboard Global 200, where it debuted and peaked at No. 60 on the Aug. 19 chart.

On Oct. 5, Grupo Firme will compete for the Billboard Latin Music Award for tour of the year. To see the full list of 2023 finalists, click here.