Lucky for Wisconsin music fans, the world’s largest music festival Summerfest has no breed restrictions, because Grammy award winning multi-platinum recording artist Pitbull has been announced as the festival’s final headliner. Performing at Summerfest‘s Marcus Amphitheatre stage on Thursday, June 30th, Pitbull will be joined by special guest, Prince Royce. After a headlining performance at Summerfest in 2013, Pitbull will surely shine on the familiar stage.
Tickets for Pitbull’s Summerfest performance go on sale May 14th at 10 a.m. and you can score your tickets on Ticketmaster.com.
After supporting singer/songwriter Charlie Puth on his huge spring tour, Phoebe Ryan has announced her own headlining tour that will kick off this summer. Titled the “Boyz N Poizn” tour, the ‘Chronix’ singer will hit the road on July 5th in Washington DC and will make stops in Chicago, New York, Toronto and more, until the tour concludes July 24th in Seattle. Ryan is one of this year’s emerging artists to watch and she isn’t traveling alone either, as electronic/pop duo Cardiknox will be supporting Ryan on the tour.
Check out Phoebe Ryan’s “Boyz N Poizn” tour dates below!
Lollapalooza is going to be huge in 2016. Not only is it the Chicago festival’s big 25th anniversary, but the festival has now expanded into a 4-day festival, starting the weekend on a Thursday. And as always, the artist lineup is stacked, as fans this year will catch performances from Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, J. Cole, the Red Hot Chile Peppers, LCD Soundsystem, Future, Ellie Goulding and many more. Kicking off on July 28th and ending on the 31st, Lolla just may be the top festival of the 2016 season.
But with every great festival comes hard choices, and now that Lollapalooza has announced its full schedule, it is time to start deciding between sets. Lana Del Rey or J. Cole? Alunageorge or G-Eazy? Vic Mensa or Disclosure? So many great artist, leaving many fans to pick favorites…
Lollapalooza will be here before you know it, so check out the full schedule at Lollapalooza’s official website now!
If you’ve ever seen comedian Aziz Ansari’s stand-up review of an R. Kelly concert and viewed it as sheer entertainment and comedy, instead of an accurate representation of what an R. Kelly performance is actually like, then you were wrong. In Ansari’s special, “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening”, the Parks and Recreation comedian describes an elaborate production where Kelly splices his music with unimaginable theatrics, video clips, entertaining conversations with the audience, and wild pyrotechnics. Not only is all the above 100% factual, but fans in attendance tonight at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL can attest to it all first hand. To say R. Kelly is a one of the best showmen from the past two decades would be an understatement, and tonight he certainly delivered for his hometown crowd of Chicago.
If R. Kelly was anyone but R. Kelly, we would have expected “The Buffet Tour” to open with a performance of the majority of tracks from Kelly’s most recently LP, The Buffet, with a few of the Chicago singer’s biggest hits mixed in throughout the set and in the encore. And if that predictable and structured layout would have took place tonight, it would have been just fine and fans would have certainly left with their money’s worth. However the night’s performance was nothing but structured and predictable, and totally rewrites your expectations going into a live show. And in the most unique way, despite the show being a weird random mess (for lack of better words), it all worked and fans were more than entertained throughout the night. Beyond the music, highlights of the night included R. Kelly responding to internet haters by watching Kobe’s last game on a 50 ft. screen, a flying blimp robot named R. Bot, and random videos of R. Kelly playing basketball and talking about his love of chili. R. Kelly reinvents the wheel when it doesn’t need reinventing, and in doing so he takes us down a whole new and amazing path that we never knew existed.
Despite being dubbed “The Buffet Tour”, tonight’s performance focused around R. Kelly’s massive catalog of hits instead of pinpointing on just his most recent project. Fans went from feeling sexy during ‘Bump N’ Grind’ to getting emotional while singing along to ‘I Believe I Can Fly’. Kelly’s 2-hour long performance truly reminds you of his consistency in the R&B world and the massive number of hit records that R. Kelly has delivered throughout the years. While the video intermissions and added production value certainly make R. Kelly’s performances stand out, it’s the individual performances of tracks that serve as the highlights of the night. The Buffet Tour left not one fan hungry for more tonight, but many would definitely come back for second helpings if they could.
Check out our photos from tonight’s performance below and check out the remaining dates for The Buffet Tourhere.
Just a few weeks removed from her huge headlining performances at Coachella, Ellie Goulding brought her Delirium World Tour to Chicago’s Allstate Arena in Rosement, IL. What will be Goulding’s second Windy City performance of the summer, as she is scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza’s big 25th year anniversary, the arena was packed with Goulding’s fans who came ready to dance the night away. The ‘Love Me Like You Do’ singer didn’t come alone however, as the English singer/songwriter brought British electronic trio, Years & Years, and the immensely talented, Bebe Rexha.
Kicking off the night as the arena began to fill up was singer/songwriter Bebe Rexha. Perhaps known best now for her G-Eazy collaboration, ‘Me, Myself & I’, a record that Rexha wrote before it found its home on the Bay Area rapper’s most recent LP, Rexha is one of the most underrated songwriters of the past half-decade. Rexha got her big break when Eminem bought her track ‘Monster’, a record that previously had little backing from label heads. Lucky for Rexha, ‘Monster’ became a hit and ever since then the Brooklyn native has continued to prove her doubters wrong. Rexha has had some big festival appearances, has worked with the likes of Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, David Guetta and Nicki Minaj (to name a few), and now of course she is on a huge U.S. tour leg with Ellie Goulding. During her live performances, Rexha converses with the crowd, reminding fans of catalog of records that she has worked on behind the scenes. Don’t be mistaken though, Rexha is much more than just a talented writer and is well on her way to putting “Bebe Rexha the artist” at the forefront of the records that she produces.
Following Rexha’s performance, electronic trio and London natives, Years & Years, hit the stage in Rosemont. Consisting of frontman Olly Alexander, Mikey Goldsworthy (bass guitar) and Emre Turkmen (keys), Years & Years has seen a great amount of success back home, especially with their hit single ‘King’, and that success has been carrying over to the states. Tonight fans saw performances of a number of the band’s records from their 2015 debut, Communion. Although they have been together since 2010, they really took their time in putting together a quality first studio project, and the results showed. Not only did their debut receive great reception from critics across the board, but its live performances tonight were definitely embraced by Ellie’s electropop fans in attendance.
After a brief intermission between sets, it was time for Ellie Goulding to hit the stage. Goulding has consistently raised in popularity in the U.S., and the energy throughout the arena was evidence of just that. After her 2010 debut, Lights, it would have been hard for many Chicago fans to imagine Ellie headlining her own show at the Allstate Arena. Just a few years ago, Goulding performed at Chicago’s Schubas Tavern, an intimate 550-capacity club in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood. In just a couple year’s time, Goulding would return to the city for a daytime set at Lollapalooza in 2013. So for the Delirium singer to headline an arena show that foreshadows a headlining Lolla performance is huge and indicative of her global success in the past few years.
Goulding’s performance tonight was very similar to her headlining set at Coachella this year, a performance which many thousands caught, whether live in Indio or via the festival’s live webcast. Opening with the Intro to her 2015 album, where the tour get its name, and transitioning into the LP’s second track, ‘Aftertaste’, Goulding performed the majority of Delirium, which brought fans singles like ‘Something In The Way You Move’ and ‘Love Me Like You Do’. Ellie Goulding’s performance tonight was much more than just a carbon copy of the album however. Mixing in intimate acoustic performances, a beautiful tribute cover to Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’, and performing a few fan favorites from her first two albums, Halcyon and Lights, Ellie certainly put on a memorable performances that fans in attendance will definitely want to relive when Ellie returns to Lollapalooza this year on July 31st, as one of the festival’s final performances celebrating a quarter-century of great live music. If you get a chance to catch Goulding at Grant Park this year, jump on the opportunity.
Check out our photos from tonight’s performance below and check out the remaining dates for the Delirium World Tourhere.
Now that Views and The Life of Pablo have blessed rap fans, besides Frank Ocean’s forthcoming sophomore album, there is no project in music that’s more highly anticipated than Chance The Rapper’s third mixtape/album and the followup to his critically acclaimed, Acid Rap. Last night fans got two steps closer to Chance’s upcoming release, as the Chicago native debuted the project’s track ‘Blessings’ on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and announced Chance 3‘s official release date.
Needless to say the performance was more than memorable, and fans can take comfort in knowing that Chance 3 will release in just one week, on May 13th. No exact word on the project’s method of release, whether it will be via iTunes, Apple Music, TIDAL, or what, but here’s to hoping that fans will finally be able to cop a physical copy of a Chance album.
Watch Chance The Rapper’s debut performance of ‘Blessings’ below.
The first taste of his new music since the second half of his The 20/20 Experience, Justin Timberlake has released his brand new single, ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’. In what will certainly be an anthem of the summer, ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ is an infectious hit that will certainly skyrocket to the top of the charts. The new record can be heard in DreamWork‘s new animated motion picture “Trolls”, and you can buy it now on iTunes. While this one isn’t expected to be on JT’s next full length album, let’s certainly hope this foreshadows a whole new LP from the ‘Take Back The Night’ singer.
Former 2AM Club founder, Marc E. Bassy, is currently in pursuit of his new solo career and he has been hitting the ground running. Introducing himself to fans on G-Eazy’s recent “When It’s Dark Out Tour”, Bassy and the ‘Me Myself & I’ rapper have teamed up again, this time for Bassy’s new record ‘You And Me’. You can preview the single now, and purchase it everywhere this Friday, May 6th.
Last year Chicago’s premiere beachside music festival, Mamby On The Beach, had a great inaugural year. Like nothing else in Chi-town, Mamby brought some huge names in the EDM world to the Windy City’s Oakwood Beach. And now today, festival organizers have announced the daily artist lineup to breakdown which artists will perform on which day of the two-day festival.
Get your tickets not before it’s too late at MambyBeach.com and check out the daily artist lineup below!
Madison’s Revelry Music and Arts Festival has evolved year after year, and while it’s style and location have changed on multiple occasions, one thing that’s consistent is that it always supplies the students of the University of Wisconsin with some great music. Last year was our first year on-site for Revelry, where fans saw great performances from Chance The Rapper, The Chainsmokers, Mick Jenkins and AlunaGeorge, just to name a few. This year’s stellar lineup was no exception to the great lineups of the past. Now hitting stage at Madison’s historic Orpheum Theatre, Revelry saw some great sets from ‘Tuesday’ rapper/singer and OVO Sound artist iLoveMakonnen, GOOD Music‘s Hudson Mohawke, Milwaukee’s talented emerging artist WebsterX, a surprise appearance from IshDARR, Minnesota rapper Finding Novyon, and many more!
If you missed out this year, you did just that, you missed out… because everyone from the bottom to top of the lineup delivered tonight. Hit the jump to check out some of our favorite photos from Revelry 2016, as we sent our photographer Dan Garcia to capture some of the festival’s best moments.
The Early Registration 