Rihanna has confirmed she will headline the Super Bowl 2023 halftime show next February, marking her first time headlining the event.

In addition to a statement released by Halftime Show executive producers Roc Nation, Rihanna herself confirmed the news in a post to her Instagram earlier today (Sunday September 25), sharing a photo of an NFL-branded football.

Roc Nation founder Jay-Z called Rihanna “a generational talent”. “[She is] A woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” the rapper said. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”

NFL Head of Music Seth Dudowsky said they were “thrilled” to welcome Rihanna as the Halftime Show’s headliner. “Rihanna is a once-in-a-generation artist who has been a cultural force throughout her career,” Dudowsky said. “We look forward to collaborating with Rihanna, Roc Nation and Apple Music to bring fans another historic Halftime Show performance.”

The Super Bowl LVII takes place on February 12, 2023, at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It will be the first year that Apple Music will serve as a sponsor for the halftime show, replacing the NFL’s long-time partner, Pepsi.

Announced by the NFL last week at midnight (via Variety), the new partnership prompted speculation that Taylor Swift – whose forthcoming album is called ‘Midnight’ – was being considered as a potential headliner.

Those rumours were later reported to be false, Swift said to have turned down the offer because she “didn’t want to perform until she finished re-recording all of her first six albums”.

In 2018, Rihanna was offered the chance to headline the 2019 Halftime Show. She turned the offer down in a bid to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who was the first NFL player to take a knee in protest against police brutality in 2016.

Notably, Rihanna hasn’t released an album since 2016, when she dropped her eighth studio album ‘Anti’. The artist hasn’t performed live since her appearance at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Last year’s Super Bowl was headlined by Dr. Dre with special guest performers Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige.

The post Rihanna confirmed to headline Super Bowl 2023 halftime show appeared first on NME.

Smashing Pumpkins brought their new single to the TV this weekend (September 23) – watch them perform ‘Beguiled’ on Fallon below.

READ MORE: Smashing Pumpkins release new single ‘Beguiled’ and tell us about their three-part “rock opera”, ‘ATUM’

‘Beguiled’ was released last week as the first taster of the band’s new three-part “rock opera” album, ‘ATUM’. Following on from 2020’s ‘CYR’, the forthcoming 33-song album serves as a sequel to the band’s classic double records ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (1995) and ‘Machina/The Machines Of God’ (2000).

Another new song from the album, ‘Empires’, was debuted live at the band’s recent intimate gig in Chicago.

Speaking to NME this month, Billy Corgan explained how ‘Beguiled’ had emerged from around “80 ideas” that eventually turned into “a bunch of different demos; a riff here, a chord change, a little vocal melody”.

“And then you’d go through and say, ‘OK, these are the ones that are gonna work and seem to fit together’,” he recalled.

“I do love the song; we’ve been practising it in rehearsal ’cause we’re about to do a show in a couple of days. It rocks. It’s nice to hear it against all the other classic songs ’cause it holds up really well.”

Watch them perform it on Fallon below.

Discussing the new album at large in the new NME interview, Corgan said: “When you decide to do a three-act, 33-song rock musical in 2022… [Laughs] you’re definitely stepping in it! Because there’s a lot of people who believe less is more these days. I’m on the opposite side – I actually think more is more!”

While ‘Beguiled’ feels like a bold statement of intent, Corgan admitted that there were “probably about seven other songs” that could’ve been used to introduce fans to the ambitious ‘ATUM’ era.

“With 33 songs, I was sort of Switzerland on the whole thing,” he told NME. “I really didn’t get too caught up in what everybody would want. And what was nice was that everybody seemed to want the same track. So if that represents the record for them, then great. But there’s so much music.”

The new album will be previewed on the band’s forthcoming North American tour with Jane’s Addiction.

Smashing Pumpkins will officially kick their tour off at the American Airline Center in Dallas, Texas on October 2. From there, they’ll make their way across the United States and Canada, wrapping up on November 19 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. They’ll be joined by Jane’s Addiction for the whole run, as well as Poppy and Meg Myers on select dates. Tickets are available here.

OCTOBER 2022
2 – American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
3 – Toyota Center, Houston, TX
5 – Moody Center, Austin, TX
7 – Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
8 – Hard Rock Casino, Hollywood, FL
10 – Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
11 – State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
13 – Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT
14 – UBS Arena, Belmont Park, NY
16 – TD Garden, Boston, MA
18 – Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
19 – Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
21 – Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
22 – PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
24 – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON
26 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
27 – Centre Videotron, Quebec City, QC
29 – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, OH
30 – Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, WI

NOVEMBER 2022
1 – Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
2 – Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
4 – Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
5 – United Center, Chicago, IL
7 – Ball Arena, Denver, CO
9 – Spokane Arena, Spokane, WA
11 – Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
12 – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
13 – Moda Center, Portland, OR
15 – Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
16 – Honda Center, Anaheim, CA
18 – Footprint Center, Phoenix, AZ
19 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

The post Watch Smashing Pumpkins bring ‘Beguiled’ to ‘Fallon’ appeared first on NME.

Taylor Swift has reportedly turned down the chance to perform the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

The high-profile slot – which was taken in 2022 by an all-star cast of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar – will take place in Arizona on February 12 next year, and recent reports hinted that Swift was set to perform.

However, new reports in TMZ and People suggest that the singer was asked to perform at the show, but has declined the offer in order to continue re-recording her back catalogue.

In 2019, Swift confirmed her plans to re-record songs from her first six records in a bid to take control over her music once again after music manager Scooter Braun and his media holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC, acquired Swift’s old label, Big Machine Label Group, back in June 2019.

So far, she has released ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ and ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ with a host of outtakes and unreleased songs, while also sharing a re-recorded version of ‘1989’ track ‘Wildest’s Dreams’ as part of a trailer for DreamWorks film Spirit Untamed.

Taylor Swift performs onstage during NSAI 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards. Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Alongside the continuation of the re-recording project, Swift will also release 10th studio album ‘Midnights’ on October 21, which was announced during a surprise appearance from the singer at the MTV VMAs last month.

Swift detailed ‘Midnights’ in the early hours of August 29, after making a surprise announcement at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards less than an hour earlier. While accepting the second of three awards she bagged on the night – Video of the Year for ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’ – Swift revealed: “My brand new album comes out October 21. I will tell you more at midnight.”

On what to expect from its themes, she wrote: “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”

Apart from its thematic concept, few other details are currently known about the singer-songwriter’s 10th album, but she recently revealed that frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff worked on the record.

In the run-up to the album’s release, she has been teasing certain details about the record, including two track titles so far – ‘Vigilante Shit’ and ‘Mastermind’.

Swift also revealed to fans that the back covers for different vinyl versions of ‘Midnights’ come together to make a clockface. Over the past month, Swift has been detailing a host of different editions of the LP version of the album. First came the ‘Jade Green’, ‘Blood Moon’ and ‘Mahogany’ editions of ‘Midnights’, all of which sport exclusive colour schemes, artwork and imagery.

She then revealed a ‘Lavender’ version of the album as part of an ongoing collaboration with Target, then taking to Instagram to reveal that all four collectible editions of the album come with specific back covers that, when placed together, make an entire clockface.

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A release date for the fourth season of Netflix‘s You has been released – find details and see a new teaser trailer below.

The show, which stars Penn Badgley as serial killer Joe Goldberg, was renewed for a fourth run last year before its third season even aired. That season eventually hit screens in October last year.

READ MORE: ‘You’ season three review: trouble in killer Joe’s domestic paradise

Now, Netflix have confirmed that You‘s fourth season will debut in two parts, with the first arriving on February 10, and the second exactly a month later.

A new teaser trailer has been shared along with the release date announcement, which sees Goldberg living in London and stripping away his old identity.

“I’m not the lovable bookstore manager in New York or the shop clerk in L.A. or the doting husband in the suburbs. No, not anymore. Allow me to introduce myself,” he says, introduced as Professor Jonathan Moore. “I’ve gone through a bit of refinement upon crossing the pond. And living in London has allowed me to bury the past, if you will.

“Gone are the days of unrequited love and longing. This time around, I’m focusing on academia and instruction while keeping my typical extracurricular activities strictly professional. I made time to exchange ideas with like-minded colleagues. Unfortunately, with friends in high places, then usually come others attempting to climb that social ladder. So, they end up falling or shall I say, pushed, to their social death. The question, by who?”

Watch the trailer below.

Reviewing You season three, NME wrote: “With season four already confirmed by Netflix ahead of these new episodes’ premiering, it’s clear we’re not done with the Quinn-Goldbergs and their obsessive, impulsive tendencies yet.

“How You’s writers will keep things fresh in the future remains to be seen but, for now, they’ve managed to create an exhilarating third season of a show that, in other hands, would be a predictable slog.”

The new announcement was revealed during Netflix’s TUDUM event on Saturday (September 24), which also saw a release date for The Witcher season three, new Stranger Things bloopers, a Lupin trailer and more.

The post ‘You’ season four release date announced with new teaser trailer appeared first on NME.

Gorillaz and Beck debuted a new collaboration at the former’s Los Angeles show this weekend (September 23) – watch them perform ‘Possession Island’ below.

READ MORE: ‘Gorillaz’ at 20: how Damon Albarn’s virtual band shaped music history

Gorillaz will release new album ‘Cracker Island’ on February 24, 2023 via Parlophone (pre-order here) and announced the record recently by sharing latest single ‘New Gold’, featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.

The new Beck collaboration will feature on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Song Machine, Season One – Strange Timez’, and they performed it for the first time at the gig at Los Angeles’ Forum on Friday night, alongside their first collaboration, ‘Strange Timez’ track ‘The Valley Of The Pagans’.

Elsewhere at the show, Gorillaz performed ‘New Gold’ with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, and debuted ‘Song Machine’ track ‘Pac-Man’ with ScHoolboy Q.

They also performed the title track from ‘Cracker Island’ with Thundercat and gave a second performance of ‘Rock The House’ with Del the Funky Homosapien, a song that was given its live debut at an earlier show this week, 21 years after its release.

Watch the live debut of ‘Possession Island’ and the other collaborations below.

The virtual band has a host of collaborators on ‘Cracker Island’, their eighth studio album including Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Adeleye Omotayond and more, as well as the aforementioned Beck, Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.

It’s produced by eight-time Grammy Award-winning producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Greg Kurstin along with Gorillaz and Remi Kabaka Jr.

Press material about Gorillaz’s new album states: “Originally based at Kong Studios in West London, the group of musical misfits – Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D – have relocated to Silverlake, California as they recruit new members to join The Last Cult in search of the one truth to fix the world. Reports from the Golden State indicate that Murdoc is in love with the lady next door. Russel is glued to the TV. Noodle is compiling a handbook of wisdom and knowledge. And 2D is busy being 2D.”

Guitarist Noodle said of the their new record: “’Cracker Island’ is the sound of change and the chorus of the collective.” Drummer Russel added: “When the reckoning comes, gotta be ready to step through the gateway. Cracker Island’s got the entry codes…”.

See the ‘Cracker Island’ tracklist below.

1. ‘Cracker Island’ feat. Thundercat
2. ‘Oil’ feat. Stevie Nicks
3. ‘The Tired Influencer’
4. ‘Tarantula’
5. ‘Silent Running’ ft. Adeleye Omotayo
6. ‘New Gold’ feat. Tame Impala & Bootie Brown
7. ‘Baby Queen’
8. ‘Tormenta’ feat. Bad Bunny
9. ‘Skinny Ape’
10. ‘Possession Island’ (feat. Beck)

The post Watch Gorillaz and Beck debut new collaboration ‘Possession Island’ live appeared first on NME.