A man died while attending the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.

The attendee, who was in his mid-50s, experienced a “medical emergency” while attending the annual event Thursday (Sept. 3), according to organizers.

“It is with heavy hearts that Burning Man Project confirms a Black Rock City participant in his mid-50s experienced a medical emergency,” the statement read. “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the participant’s family, friends, and those affected by this loss.”

The man “immediately received lifesaving measures, and was transported to the onsite center for emergency care where he was pronounced deceased,” the festival said.

The individual’s cause of death had not been revealed at press time. His identity was not being released until his family had been notified.

The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said deputies received a report of an unresponsive man found on the streets at the festival, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. Authorities said there appeared to be no evidence of external foul play. The medical examiner was working to determine the man’s cause of death.

“The safety and well-being of our community and staff remain our highest priority,” Burning Man’s statement said.

The festival launched its 40th anniversary celebration at Black Rock Desert on Aug. 30 and is scheduled to wrap Monday (Sept. 7).

The attendee’s death comes as this year’s Burning Man festival has faced weather-related challenges, including heavy rain Friday (Sept. 4) that temporarily closed the main entrance and exit gate, according to TMZ. Organizers urged attendees to delay their travel and asked those already at the festival to avoid driving.

The incident comes one year after the death of 37-year-old Vadim Kruglov, who was found fatally stabbed inside a tent at Burning Man in August 2025. His death marked the festival’s first reported homicide.

Jay-Z opened his two-night stand at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday (Sept. 4) with a tribute to Beyoncé on her 45th birthday, pausing his set for the sold-out crowd to serenade her with “Happy Birthday” as fireworks lit up the stadium.

Beyoncé, watching from a VIP suite with friends, appeared on the venue’s giant screens in a hoodie, blowing kisses and waving to fans below.

The show marked Jay-Z’s first UK headline performance in nearly 13 years — his last solo London date was 2013’s Magna Carta World Tour at The O2 Arena — and the first time he’s played the city since 2018’s On the Run II Tour with Beyoncé. The run celebrates the 30th anniversary of his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and follows a similarly star-studded trio of shows at New York’s Yankee Stadium last month, which also marked 25 years of The Blueprint.

Sir Idris Elba opened the night with the same spoken intro that led off Jay-Z’s 2007 album American Gangster, before Jay moved into a set spanning his catalog, from early cuts to career-defining hits. The night’s guest turns gave it the same event-show energy as the Yankee Stadium run: DJ Khaled joined for “God Did” alongside U.K. rapper Giggs, who also performed his own breakout single, “Talking the Hardest.” Later, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean surprised the crowd with a run of Fugees classics — “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly” and “Fu-Gee-La.”

The show drew a heavy celebrity turnout, including David Beckham, Cynthia Erivo, Michael B. Jordan, Rick Rubin, Thomas Tuchel, Dave, Olivia Dean, AJ Odudu and Kano.

Jay-Z plays a second Tottenham Hotspur date Saturday (Sept. 5) before the tour continues to Paris’s Stade de France on Sept. 10 and wraps with two shows at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in late October — additional dates added on top of the run’s original schedule as demand grew.

Dolly Parton‘s sister Stella Parton has shared a message in the wake of the country superstar’s death, asking people online to “show more compassion” as her family navigates the loss.

On Friday (Sept. 4), Stella posted a two-slide letter to Instagram marking 10 days since Dolly died at the age of 80 following a brief cancer battle. “We will be okay in time but each of us will grieve in our own personal way,” Stella wrote in the message. “Sadly, because of the way our lives have been in front of the public, we have no choice but to be subjected to incredible pressure and insensitivity from strangers.”

“There is a tremendous amount of AI and endless garbage being posted everyday and it’s been challenging to absorb and or ignore,” Stella continued. “[Dolly] loved her fans and the public in general. That is the reason she chose not to express her opinions on a lot of things like politics, religion and individuals in the public eye. She knew as well as anyone what a negative vortex that could turn into which is nothing but a huge waste of positive energy.”

Stella went on to ask the public to “show more compassion and wisdom” as everyone moves forward. “Use my sister’s life as an example for tolerance and respect toward others,” she added. “It’s not about the most clever comments, fake AI garbage or snarky tweets. At the end of the day or the end of a life, how will you feel about yourself? It’s not about what other individuals you will never meet think of you!”

Dolly died on Aug. 25, only after which it was revealed that the music legend had been battling cancer. She was the fourth-oldest of 12 siblings, while Stella came along sixth. Earlier this year, their brother Coy passed away.

Stella first spoke out about her older sister’s passing two days after the fact, revealing in a letter that Dolly had been willing to let doctors try “experimental drugs” on her in the hopes that their research might help others someday.

“My sister was one of the most generous, thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever known,” Stella wrote at the time. “What the world saw is exactly who she was.”

See Stella’s full letter below.

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Someone has given NCT 127 notepads. The five bandmates are parked along one side of a wide conference room table, each with hotel stationery and a pen sitting in front of them. It immediately feels like a mistake. When not reflecting on what’s changed for the group in the decade since debut — or heckling each other for misspeaking like they’re still bratty kids living on top of each other in dorms — they’re hunched over, doodling.

Just over 10 years ago, the world was introduced to NCT’s first fixed subgroup (NCT DREAM, WayV and NCT WISH would soon follow) as teenagers getting aggro in science class. In real life, that rowdy energy has dispersed into a mellower campus crush vibe — if you squint, the drawing could almost be confused for diligent note-taking — but the septet’s seventh studio album, Blingy, is just as loud as ever. “I wanted to make a statement,” Chicago native Johnny says: “NCT 127 is back.”

K-pop’s noisiest mavericks have had a relatively quiet couple of years. In 2024, group leader Taeyong enlisted in the South Korean military for compulsory service; deep-voiced, dimpled Jaehyun was next to go. By the end of 2025, they were almost done, while two more — Doyoung and Jungwoo — cycled in, leaving five members (a head count rounded out by Johnny, Yuta and Haechan) to shoulder the weight of this comeback.

When they sit down with Billboard, the rollout is still in progress. Across the table, Taeyong is making scribbles that look plucked straight out of the mind of Bart Simpson: a disembodied robot head; messy stars; a stick-figure animal being beamed up by a UFO; a bird-man with abs and pecs — and, in a nod to Blingy’s raucous lead single, “Piñata,” live debuted at KCON LA the previous Friday (Aug. 14), a donkey with stubby little legs.

A few days later, the headlining set is still on their minds. There’s good reason for it to be: “It’s one of the hardest performances we’d ever had to get ready for,” Johnny says. To offset lineup changes, the guys ultimately had to redistribute lines for nearly every song on the setlist.

This is to say nothing of all the work that went into Blingy’s title track, which was only briefly teased at KCON. Taeyong, who co-created its choreo, recalls the first “full power” run-through: “I wasn’t even dripping sweat. I was just soaked,” he says. “Like some exercise…”

“CrossFit,” Johnny says, then spells out: “H-I-I-T.”

“A bit like CrossFit,” Taeyong laughs. “Maybe even harder.”

While the leader had proposed a few cuts, his teammates rejected them outright. “I felt it then,” Taeyong says. “The members really don’t change when it comes to ambition about performance and being uncompromising with what we show. We all have this desire.” He chuckles to himself: “I have it a bit less. But with everyone’s help, I was able to do it, too.”

Now in his thirties, Taeyong acts like his stamina has fallen off a cliff, but his post-military activities suggest otherwise: within six months of discharging, he released his debut solo studio album WYLD. Granted, it was “easier to make music in the military,” he admits. He had a hand in every track on his own project — but after returning to his group, Taeyong says he barely has time to listen to music, let alone produce it.

Jaehyun took a brief vacation before throwing himself into album preparations. He didn’t have much difficulty settling back in — that is, if his dry witticisms are to be believed. “Music is my life,” he says, completely straight-faced. “Always music. Today music, tomorrow music.”

And a lot was riding on that music. So, when it came time to pick the centerpiece for this era, there was a three-way split: management liked “Piñata” so much they tried to tip the scales in its favor; A&R championed the chest-beating “Legacy”; the members, however, threw their weight behind the impossible-to-ignore “Blingy.”

“It’s a song that gets your attention,” Johnny says. “I wanted people to stop and listen if they were walking by.”

Turning heads is far from a new goal for them. To this day, the title track from NCT 127’s best-selling album Sticker (and its cacophonous flute) is subject to hot debate: “It’s one of those songs where either you hate it, or you love it,” Johnny says. “We try to make people who hate it love it, but sometimes you don’t. We kinda just started to understand that.”

It’s this brash, unselfconscious style — which they call “Neo” — that’s so successful at bringing fans into the fold, he argues: “Because they are like, ‘What the heck is this?’” Jaehyun adds: “From the start, we had to be experimental.” And it’s grown into a calling card.

But it would be a mistake to chalk NCT 127’s music up to just noise. Despite the project’s on-the-nose title, Blingy contains multitudes: pinballing hip-hop banger “IKR” conducts its chaos with unexpected minimalism (they recorded early in the day for a morning rasp); the lightweight “Day After Day” has magical drum-n-bass swerves.

“It raises the question,” Johnny asks, holding this mixed bag up against the singularity of “Sticker,” “What is Neo?” For ultra-capable vocalist Haechan, deep cut “Mad Dog” is the pinnacle of that sound. It’s acidic and abrasive; crucially, the bridge hits like a melodic chaser to its squeaky dubstep drop, making the contrast all the more delicious.

Perhaps that’s why, despite the group’s sonic identity having been discussed to death — “I don’t really know what Neo is anymore,” Yuta huffs a laugh from beneath his black fringe — Taeyong sums it up rather easily: “There is no Neo song,” he says. “The members’ voices are Neo.”

With Doyoung and Jungwoo gone, Blingy tends to tread lighter on the crazy vocals. (Though not completely: “Piñata,” for one, flexes Yuta’s rock chops.) Yet as a happy surprise for fans — and their fellow members — the pair of enlisted singers show up on “127 Million Miles,” a heartfelt thank you to the many faces in the crowd and beyond. Taeyong explains of the song: “Even if we’re that far apart, we’re still able to be together.”

In July, “Did you miss us?” billboards went up across two major U.S. cities, leading fans to believe that North American dates would be added to NCT 127’s upcoming REDLINE tour. Johnny took it upon himself to personally dispel the rumors. “I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” he says with a small grimace. “I felt like that would make it worse.”

“There was a big picture,” he hand-waves. “But let’s not get into it.”

For the time being, the guys will “reach out as much as possible,” though Johnny adds that another tour is “definitely planned” for next year. “When all of the members are able to work together [in 2027], we’ll definitely try to make another album right away,” he says. What lies beyond is up in the air. “2028.. we’ll try, but we don’t know. Let’s just get through 2027.”

This year, meanwhile, finds them in flux. With the sprawling NCT clan turning a decade old, most of the members’ contracts were up for renewal; when April rolled around, SM Entertainment golden boy Mark Lee became the first to not move forward with the company — or the band.

Johnny emphasizes how long the whole process took in reality. Nothing was done in haste. “The decisions that everybody made weren’t made in a few months,” he says. “It really did take a lot of time and effort and conversation with each other to come upon the conclusion we came upon.”

They kicked off discussions over two years ago, before members began to enlist. “At the beginning, before I went to the military, we all got together and talked about it,” Taeyong says. “I guess each of us had a direction we were thinking about and we each wanted different things, so I think it was unavoidable that we took a longer time to think about it.”

“Ultimately, I can’t say that everyone is completely satisfied,” he concedes, while also effectively putting a lid on the conversation: “But I think we are able to work in a better environment than before.”

With this new seniority came greater creative control. Taeyong fiddles with his phone, looking for an unchosen demo version of an album track. It’s a move not without its objections. “Don’t play it,” Johnny cringes. “Ugh!” Yuta echoes: “What if she likes it too much?” This alternative melody — by the members’ own estimations — wasn’t up to par, so it didn’t go to press. “Hated [this] other version,” Johnny says. “Just gonna say that.”

Do they often find themselves having differences of opinion with their A&R team now? “Always,” Yuta nods.

Taeyong agrees: “I think we have more complaints after renegotiating.” The rest of the members crack up, but Yuta has an amendment to make. “Only him,” he says, poking a thumb at Taeyong. Was he not as forthcoming with his thoughts in the past? “Oh, I complained a lot before,” Taeyong smirks. “And now I’m just complaining even more.”

But they also recognize they’re in good hands for the most part. “We tell the company our opinion,” Haechan says, “[and] resolve it by talking it through. When it comes to songs, the A&R team comes to us with a certain vision, so we keep that in mind as we’re thinking about the album.”

Although Taeyong can be admittedly hard to budge, he’s not closed off to outside information, either. He doesn’t confuse ego for maturity. After SM Entertainment acquired music publisher KRM, “I came to learn some things,” he says. “At first, I had a lot of complaints about there being so many foreign producers in the credits [of our albums].”

But time has shifted his perspective on the matter. “Just because they’re foreign producers doesn’t mean they’re making songs from a place of ignorance,” he says. “These individuals have come over to Korea and are doing song camps. They’re learning about Korean culture and K-pop’s origins, and they know more than I expected. It’s within these song camps where their culture and our culture come together.”

His worries about the K-pop industry divesting itself from the “K” weren’t unfounded. But whereas some K-pop artists seem to chase after the U.S. pop airwaves, NCT 127 has always utilized creative partnerships between (often Black American) producers from the West — Dem Jointz, Patrick “J.Que” Smith, Harvey Mason Jr. — and SM’s genius home team to enhance their sound rather than strip it of complexity.

Johnny offers up a metaphor. “Do you know what an MBTI is?” he asks. “It’s an easy way to explain who you are. But does that define you? I would say no.” The eldest isn’t too hung up on the particulars: “You can label us however you want,” he says. “But, in the end, we kind of made a genre.”

And that’s something they can call all their own.

Additional translation provided by Gene Kim.

BLACKPINK‘s Lisa comes out swinging on her hard-charging single “SaWaDiKa.” And if you’re not convinced that her return to rap is complete, just check out the first, shouted lines of the song whose title translates into “hello” in Thai, because Lisa is cordially inviting you to bask in her badness.

“Hello Sawadika/ Yeah you know my wrist is cold/ Got this timepiece from Geneva/ If you know it then you know,” she raps at the top of the high-fashion, action-heavy video for the song, which dropped on Friday (Sept. 4) and was shot in the singer’s native Bangkok, Thailand. And, just in case you missed the ice-cold message, there’s one more thing on her mind: “I’m that b–ch on your TV/ And my Ferrari indigo/ La la lisa la diva/ Sawadika there she go.”

The video for the spare, bass-heavy song produced by Thom Bridges (KATSEYE, John Summit) is like an entire Paris fashion week in three minutes, from the black feathered catsuit in the first shot to a spangly, space-age burgundy two-piece with matching, jewel-dripping headphones the K-pop superstar sports as she slinks sideways down a street at night amid her crew of black-clad dancers in the clip directed by Bang Jae Yeob (Stray Kids, Aespa).

She’s in full Las Vegas showgirl mode with a towering black feather headdress soon enough for a rooftop dance shot, then glowing like a futuristic TRON character in a neon blue bikini with matching hair in an underground tunnel and action-ready in a red leather bodysuit with boxing shorts that feature the song’s title in rhinestones across the waist in a bit inspired by Muay Thai boxing.

The punchy song is the first taste of Lisa’s upcoming Press Play EP, which will drop on Oct. 23.

According to Lifestyle Asia, the visual is a tour of Thai landmarks, including stops at the Hua Lamphong railway station, the former central passenger terminal in Bangkok, the Soi Charoen Khet 1 neighborhood and Dib Bangkok, the sleek, contemporary art museum that opened last year.

The single is the first solo effort from the singer/rapper/actress this year, following on the heels of her FIFA World Cup 2026 anthem “Goals” with Anitta and Rema. In addition to an upcoming documentary, Always Lalisa (Oct. 12), Lisa is gearing up for her Viva La Lisa Residency in Las Vegas at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Nov. 13, 14, 27 and 28.

Check out the “SaWaDiKa” video below.

And with a click, JISOO is back.

The BLACKPINK star launches the next chapter of her solo career with “CLICK,” a tasty pop treat that’s accompanied with a futuristic music video.

Joseph Kahn (Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Eminem) directs the cinematic clip, which follows the eternal existence of a cyborg JISOO, left behind in a deserted old theme park. There’s no life to be found in this forsaken place. Not in the human form, anyway.

Our lonely hero brightens her endless day when she activates some robot buddies, including some characters who could’ve lived a past life at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant. A twinkle toed humanoid suitor shows up, dressed to impressed. They were made to click.

Kahn and JISOO take this barren sad world, and convert it to light, with life, movement and friendship, its storytelling recalling Wall-E, Stephen Spielberg’s AI and J.F. Sebastian’s workshop in Blade Runner. At its heart is the CLICK Bear, who represents the presence of JISOO’s fans who come from different countries, speak different languages and live different lives.

It’s been non-stop for the South Korean pop superstar, who teased her new solo chapter last year with “EYES CLOSED,” a collaboration with ex-One Direction star Zayn. The single reached No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100. With that feat, BLACKPINK became the first girl group to have every member enter the Hot 100 as a solo artist.

BLACKPINK released the DEADLINE EP in February of this year, after completing the group’s Deadline World Tour. DEADLINE opened at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, and marked their first major music release since they hit No. 1 on the all-genres albums tally in 2022 with Born Pink.

“CLICK” follows JISOO’s 2025 debut mini album, AMORTAGE, which included “earthquake” and “Your Love.”

JISOO began her solo journey two years earlier, in 2023, with the release of her debut EP, ME, which became the first album by a female solo artist in South Korea to surpass one million sales. Its single, “꽃(FLOWER),” powered to No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200 in April of that year, and No. 1 on the Global Excl. US chart.

Watch the music video for “CLICK” below.

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.

Last week, we featured Olivia Rodrigo, Alex Warren, JENNIE and more.

This week, Miley begins her new era as a mononym with the lead single of her forthcoming album; Beyoncé celebrates the 20th anniversary of B’Day with an expanded 27-track edition (plus B-sides and Spanish-language versions of her songs); and ADÉLA shares her debut album PRIMA… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Miley, “Bass Persuades”

Days after announcing her 10th studio album (and first on new label home Atlantic), Miley — yes, just Miley now — dropped its title track and lead single, “Bass Persuades.” The synthy bass-bumping track is a hypnotic dance-pop song about how “the kids don’t wanna dance” while simultaneously showing them how it’s done. Here, Miley is not only sharing wisdom like the icon she is (“Glued your eyes to the telephone screen…Just look out the window and what do you see?”) but she’s also subtly nodding to that icon status by referencing, well, herself with the line “chaos is king, but you know that you can’t stop, won’t stop.” If a song this catchy (paired with a video that is arguably inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance sequence) doesn’t make the kids wanna dance… well, then that’s on them. — LYNDSEY HAVENS

Beyoncé, “CAN I WATCH YOU (feat. Pharrell)”

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her knockout second album, B’Day, Beyoncé treated fans to an expanded edition that includes previously-unreleased bonus tracks, and also tacks on “Morning Dew (Donk)” that she surprise dropped on July 4. Of the new material, there’s only two features: Jay-Z on “Welcome to Hollywood” and Pharrell on “Can I Watch You.” The latter is a sultry, R&B-infused indie-rock song on which the question posed in its title is repeatedly answered with a whispered “yes.” — L.H.

ADÉLA, PRIMA

Fast-rising pop artist ADÉLA drops her debut album PRIMA, led by focus single “Nicole Kidman.” The downtempo song opens with a beat that resembles “Bound 2” by Ye, and it lingers in the background until the outro gives it some shine back. Previously-released singles include “KGB,” “Red Bottoms” and “Ain’t In LA,” which earned the Slovakia-born artist her first Billboard Hot 100 entry in August. Read Billboard‘s tracks ranked here, in which Kyle Denis calls PRIMA “one of the most concise, clear-eyed debut pop albums in recent memory.” — L.H.

Medium Build, “It’s Not Easy (Falling In Love)”

On his new album, King Of Having Fun, Medium Build digs deep for what is his sharpest album to date; He really had no choice, after hitting rock bottom following the release of his 2024 album Country. Now in a much better headspace, the artist tells Billboard his latest full-length was made “after getting all the dreams, realizing they don’t satisfy, and then burning out, taking a break, getting sober, getting on meds, changing my life, deciding I do want to live, and I don’t care if music is my life.” Turns out, caring less sounds really great. — L.H.

Ellie Goulding, “For You Entertainment”

“For Your Entertainment” is perhaps the song that best proves the title of Ellie Goulding’s sixth album, I Know Too Much, to be true. Having released her debut single 17 years ago, Goulding has surely learned a lot over the years — and “Entertainment” is her own version of a song like Taylor Swift’s “Mirrorball.” While differently sonically, the two songs tread similar lyrical ground, pulling inspiration from the toll of performing. As Goulding sings with stark honesty: “I’ll be posing all and smiling/ My eyes are like a waterfall, whеn you look away/ Can you see how hard I’m trying just to give it all?” — L.H.

Mau P, “Just A Little Bit More”

Mau P’s second track of 2026 is the slinky “Just A Little Bit More.” A staple of his sets over the last few months, the house production is essentially the Mau P take on ’90s R&B, with the soulful vocals — crisply recorded and deployed — giving the song a throwback feel while the rest of the production keeps it fresh and festive. (The whistles!) “Just A Little Bit More” is out on Interscope Records and drops just ahead of the Dutch producer’s set at ARC Music Festival in Chicago this weekend. — KATIE BAIN

Amelie Lens, Aura

A decade after her first official release, Amelie Lens releases her debut album, Aura. The 13-track project contains the same kind of sharp, throttling and often quite cerebral techno that’s made Lens one of the genre’s leading names, with highlights including the previously release Angèle collab “run” and the relentless “the energy is us.” Lens calls Aura “a moment I’ve been waiting for my whole career,” with the project landing before a set in her native Belgium this weekend and shows in Washington D.C., Denver and Los Angeles later this month. These shows precede another major project from Lens, with the artist due to give birth to her second child this winter. — K.B.

Malie Donn, The Golden Child

Malie Donn’s debut studio album is finally here. Billboard’s Caribbean Up-And-Comer of the Month for August first broke through with 2023’s “V6,” and now he’s dropped a sprawling 20-track set featuring contributions from fellow dancehall stars Byron Messia, Javo Donn, DJ Frass and Squash. From the inspirational, autobiographical title track to the sultry, aptly titled “Rated R,” The Golden Child spans the gamut of all the different sounds and themes Malie Donn does best. — KYLE DENIS

Johnny Venus, “Nightmares”

Johnny Venus, one-half of Grammy-nominated rap duo EARTHGANG, has shared the latest preview of his forthcoming debut solo studio album. Co-produced by Courtlin Jabrae and Poplord, “Nightmares” finds Venus delivering his signature disarming songwriting, zeroing in on the specific anxiety of dreading the loss of a cherished love. The 11th Hour can’t come soon enough! — K.D.

A one-off concert celebrating the remarkable career of John Farnham will get the big screen treatment.

As previously reported, Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena will host The Songs Of John Farnham: A Living Legend The Celebration on Sunday, Sept. 20, featuring 120 artists and musicians, and raising funds for Head and Neck Cancer Australia.

The show was a rapid sell-out, organizers say. Now, show producers Cochrane Entertainment and TEG Dainty have struck a deal to broadcast the concert live into HOYTS’ national network of cinemas.

“This is an extraordinary event for Australian music, and the opportunity to take it beyond Rod Laver Arena and into cinemas across the country is unprecedented and incredibly exciting,” comments Paul Dainty, the legendary concert promoter who leads TEG Dainty.

Performers on the night will include Keith Urban, Tina Arena, Jimmy Barnes, Kate Ceberano, Ross Wilson, Human Nature, Richard Marx, Jessica Mauboy and Jon Stevens, with Farnham’s longtime musical director Chong Lim handling musical direction and arrangements. Celine Dion and Hugh Jackman will join in via a satellite feed.

Farnham personally invited each artist appearing at the show, and he has a record-breaking connection with the 15,000-capacity Rod Laver Arena. The veteran singer has performed at the Olympic Park venue on 94 occasions, doing so to more than 1 million total fans.

“The extraordinary response to this concert has shown just how deeply John Farnham’s music continues to resonate with Australians,” adds Cochrane Entertainment founder Tony Cochrane. “We wanted this celebration to be something truly special, and now, through HOYTS, we have the opportunity to share that experience with John’s fans right across Australia.”

With 1986’s Whispering Jack, Farnham engineered one of the all-time great comebacks, Released through Sony Music, the album spent 25 weeks at No. 1, en route to shifting more than one million copies, becoming the first domestic LP to do so. It remains the highest-selling album ever in Australia by a local talent.

Whispering Jack houses Farnham’s signature song, “You’re The Voice,” a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, and, four decades on, the beloved unofficial anthem of Australia.

The legendary, ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted artist faced his toughest challenge yet in August 2022, when he underwent major surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his mouth. Since then, he has made only a handful of rare public appearances, and in 2024 October was heard for the first time in more than two years by way of an audiobook excerpt for his memoir.

Whispering Jack this year enjoys its 40th anniversary with an expanded edition pairing the original LP with the live recording, Whispering Jack Live In Concert, along with new, numbered vinyl and range of merchandise to mark the special occasion.