Who doesn’t love a long Weeknd? The international superstar’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour has become one of the biggest global treks ever, appearing in the top 10 of Billboard’s annual top tours chart for three of the last four years. But after reaching new heights last year, 2026 will be its biggest yet, generating another $440 million in ticket sales with more than 3 million fans in attendance.

Last year, The Weeknd set R&B records as the After Hours Til Dawn Tour became the highest-grossing and best-selling tour in the genre’s history, knocking Beyoncé and Bruno Mars off their long-held perches. But with this year’s brief stint in Latin America, more than 40 shows across Europe and a final run of 17 dates in Asia, it transcends genre altogether to become the highest-grossing tour in Boxscore history by a solo male artist.

According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, The Weeknd’s world tour has grossed $735.8 million and sold 5.8 million tickets since launching in 2022, current through his May 1 performance in São Paulo, Brazil. According to the tour’s promoter Live Nation and The Weeknd’s agency CAA, the remaining 59 shows push the trek’s total take well beyond $1 billion, joining tours by Coldplay and Taylor Swift in the exclusive 10-figure club.

The Weeknd kicked off the 2026 UK/Europe leg of the tour last night (June 11) at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium. He plays there again tonight before embarking on multi-night runs in Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm and more, including five shows at London’s Wembley Stadium in August. It’s the tour’s second trip to the continent, after 30 shows that collectively grossed $158.1 million and sold 1.6 million tickets in 2023. This summer’s run could approach double those earnings.

The tour’s final leg will mark The Weeknd’s first shows in Asia since a brief dedicated run in 2018. This time, he’ll play more than two times the number of shows, and, to match the tour’s other 159 dates around the world, elevate from arenas to stadiums.

As part of The Weeknd’s 2026 tour, he is partnering with Global Citizen and the United Nations World Food Programme, donating €1 from each ticket sold at all shows across Europe and £1 across shows in the United Kingdom to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund and XO Humanitarian Fund, respectively.

The After Hours Til Dawn Tour has evolved since its 2022 kick-off, then in support of After Hours and Dawn FM, the first two albums of a promised trilogy. In the immediate wake of record-breaking Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles like “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears,” he placed two songs on the chart’s 2023 year-end roundup with “Creepin,” with Metro Boomin and 21 Savage, and “Die For You,” alongside Ariana Grande. He rounded out the trilogy with 2025’s Wake Up Tomorrow as his fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, expanding the tour’s setlist to the scope of his entire career.

While it seemed like every other seat was filled by an at-first dejected and then wildly elated celebrity cheering on the New York Knicks to a totally improbable last-second victory in game four of the NBA finals on Wednesday night (June 10), one A-lister who couldn’t make it still grabbed massive headlines.

On Thursday (June 11), Nicole Kidman gave her enthusiastic thumbs-up to Taylor Swift, and Este and Alana Haim of the band Haim for representing with their custom Knicks name pun T-shirts. And while she didn’t specifically shout out Este Haim for rocking a hilarious “Knickole Kidman” shirt on game night, in her Instagram Story the Margo’s Got Money Troubles star told the trio that she was with them in spirit.

“Right there with you girls!” Kidman wrote over a video of Swift shouting and pointing to her shirt — which read “Stevie Knicks” — before the camera turns to Swift hyping up Este’s Kidman-coded top. Kidman also reposted the trio’s celebration video in which they danced to Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” again lamenting that she could not be there to enjoy the good times.

“My girls!” she wrote in the caption. “I just wanna have fun!”

As just about everyone has seen by now, boy did they have fun! The trio — plus Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay, also wearing a “Stevie Knicks” shirt — have been clipped into countless videos showing their wild enthusiasm during the game in which the Knicks improbably came back from a 29-point deficit to win as time expired, taking a 3-1 lead in the series.

Vogue caught up with Alana Haim after the game, to talk about her custom T-shirt/tote bag side hustle. They found out that the bassist/singer bought the royal blue shirts from Michael’s for $2.99 each and screen-printed them herself after getting a text from Swift that read, “I want to wear this shirt to the game, can you make it for me?”

Haim said she thought her pal would never ask, so then the two talked fonts and sizing, with Swift offering up her idea for a music-related Knicks pun, setting off a parade of punny ideas. “We really just wanted to have fun, because we were so excited that we were going to the game, and I thought it would make people laugh, so we put them on shirts and all decided to wear them,” she said.

And yes, Este brought an extra one, because she always does, to give to friends, which is how Hargitay ended up joining in on the action. For the record, third Haim sister lead guitarist/singer Danielle was also reportedly at the game wearing a shirt reading “Knickolas Cage,” but did not sit with her siblings on celebrity row.

Game five of the series will take place in San Antonio on Saturday (June 13), which, if the Knicks win it, would mark the team’s first championship if 53 years.

The big guy upstairs has been looking down on Tori Kelly, who drops her sixth and latest album God Must Really Love Me.

The new collection arrived at the stroke of midnight via Epic Records, and is home to the previously-released singles “Control” and “Dive” (which she reportedly wrote while seven-months pregnant).  

The album explores love, identity and “the quiet work of protecting your peace amid the constant noise of the outside world,” and was announced some six months after the birth of Kelly’s first child with husband André Murillo. The press release shared that Kelly experienced a creative “urgency” like never before, as she locked into the songwriting process “with full-hearted conviction, frequently recording voice memos while nursing her son.”

The big guy upstairs.

“Before the baby was born I’d tried to work on as many songs as possible, because I thought maybe I wouldn’t want to write once I was in mom mode. But then everything just hit me at once and right away I knew what I needed to say and exactly how I wanted it to sound,” she remarks. “I really challenged myself to peel back the layers and go much deeper with my lyrics. In the past I’ve held back from getting too specific in my songs, but this time I just completely let go.”

In a change of tac, Kelly developed most of its songs in solitude before heading into the studio with such producers and co-writers as DIXSON (Kehlani, Vic Mensa), Nija Charles (Summer Walker, Kiana Ledé), Emily Warren (Dua Lipa, Noah Kahan), and Ammo (Beyoncé, Teddy Swims). Most of the album came to life in Los Angeles with her two main collaborators, Tommy King (HAIM, Donna Missal) and Dan Farber (Lizzo, Alessia Cara), although a string of songs emerged while touring Europe in summer 2025 with Ed Sheeran.

Kelly is supporting the new album with Forrest Frank for the 29-date The Jesus Generation Tour, which continues through to Aug. 1 at Globe Life Field.

God Must Really Love Me is the followup to Kelly’s 2024 self-titled album, Tori. Stream it in full below below.

Too much Olivia Rodrigo is never enough. That’s certainly the case for late-night owls who tuned into Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night, June 11, as Rodrigo stuck around for her second performance in as many nights.

Rodrigo performed the world premiere of “stupid song,” which appears on her third and latest album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.

After her performance Wednesday of “the cure,” Rodrigo toned it all down for “stupid song.” Wearing a white t-shirt, a light pink skirt and high-cut black boots, Rodrigo took her seat at the piano for the fresh cut, with support from a full band and backing singers. Those high notes, you bet she hit them.

Rodrigo is on the promotion trail for you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, which dropped at the stroke of midnight and houses the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “drop dead.”

She’ll support the collection with a 65-date Unraveled Tour that will hit arenas for multiple night stands in North America, Europe and the U.K. this fall and winter, starting Sept. 25 show at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn.

During her interview Wednesday night, Rodrigo explained to Kimmel the wholesome way she decided which tracks to drop ahead of the full release. “It’s really hard,” she said. “Last Thanksgiving, I was with my family, and they live in Wisconsin. It was all of us, aunts and uncles and cousins.

“I turned the lights off really low, because I was really shy, and I was so nervous to see their faces while they heard the songs for the first time,” she continued. “I played them the whole thing, and then they did ballots, and everyone cast their vote on what they thought the single should be … Everyone liked ‘The Cure’ the most. That was the No. 1 that we got.”

Watch Rodrigo’s performance below of “stupid song.”

Australia’s love story with Taylor Swift continues, as “I Knew It, I Knew You” (via Republic/Universal) opens at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, an effort that places her in the frame with rock music royalty.

The single, which appears in the new Toy Story 5 film, is her 14^th leader, a feat that sees her tie things up with the King, Elvis Presley, with the second most chart-toppers in Australia, ARIA reports. She has some way to go to challenge The Beatles, who top the list with 26, although all of the Fab Four and Elvis’ No. 1 hit singles came before the launch of the official ARIA Charts in 1983.

With that impressive start for “I Knew It, I Knew You,” Swift has now logged 35 weeks at No 1 on Australia’s singles chart.

There’s a Cinderella chart story for the late Mac Miller, as the decade-old “Cinderella” (Warner Music) featuring Ty Dolla $ign opens at No. 23, while Alyssa Grace bags a top 40 appearance with the independent release “Bloodstream,” new at No. 39.

Meanwhile, multiple ARIA Award winner G Flip grabs a new peak position with “Bed On Fire” (AWAL), up 33-28. It’s one of three homegrown titles on the chart, a list that includes Tame Impala’s “Dracula” (Columbia/Sony), which dips 7-8, and The Kid Laroi’s “Girls,” which reenters at No. 46.

Niall Horan’s Dinner Party (Capitol/Universal) turns into a feast on the ARIA Albums Chart, as the Irish pop singer’s third studio album opens at No. 1. That’s the second solo leader for Horan, after 2023’s The Show, while 2017’s Flicker and 2020’s Heartbreak Weather narrowly missed out, both peaking at No. 2. As a member of One Direction, Horan had four leaders: Up All Night (in 2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014).

Australian audiences will get another chance to see Horan up close, when he visits the country for a four-date arena tour next February, produced by TEG and announced earlier in the week.

Also new to the ARIA Chart, published Friday, June 12, is Evanescence with Sanctuary (Columbia/Sony), their sixth studio album. It’s new at No. 2. The U.S. alternative rock outfit is on a healthy streak of top 10 appearances, with Fallen (No. 1 in 2003), The Open Door (No. 1 in 2006), Evanescence (No. 5 in 2011), Synthesis (No. 6 in 2017) and The Bitter Truth (No. 3 in 2021) all impacting the top tier.

Like Horan, Evanescence has just announced a tour of Australia in the early stages of 2027 (produced by Live Nation).

Completing an all-new top three is Malcolm Todd’s Do That Again (Columbia/Sony), arriving at No. 3, for his first ARIA Albums Chart entry. The U.S. singer and songwriter also appears at No. 10 on the national singles chart with 2024’s “Earrings,” unchanged at No. 10.

Fresh off their induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame on Thursday evening (June 11), Vika & Linda have the week’s best-selling homegrown release with Where Do You Come From? (Mushroom Music), the sister act’s ninth studio album. It’s new at No. 11, for their fifth top 10 appearance, a tally that includes a No. 1 with 2020’s career retrospective Akilotoa (Anthology 1994-2006).

“We thought this week couldn’t get any better. It’s ended with a bang,” the Bull sisters comment in a statement. “We’re blown away by the response to our new album ‘Where Do You Come From?’, thank you to everyone who got it to No. 1. We feel very lucky to have a wonderful team who have worked incredibly hard.”

Further down the list, Newcastle, New South Wales indie rock band Rum Jungle swings into the chart at No. 19 with the indepedently-released Marginalia, the followup to their top 10 release from 2025, Recency Bias.

Also, Freye Skye (Stardust at No. 21 via Hollywood Records/UMA), Pink Floyd (8-Tracks at No. 22 via Legacy/Sony), The Pretty Littles (Mulga Wire at No. 36 via CMI) and Vince Staples (Cry Baby at No. 37 via Universal) parachute into the top 40.

Taylor Swift is a superstar on another level. She shattered the all-time first-week sales record with last year’s The Life of a Showgirl and redefined what it means to be a touring juggernaut with her Eras Tour. She has 14 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, and 14 Grammy Awards. But the ascension of our biggest pop star didn’t start with the sales, and it didn’t start with the stage: it started with her songs. And on Thursday (June 11) night, Swift was celebrated for her first and foremost talent, songwriting, with a wildly deserved induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Despite being one of the most famous people on the planet, Swift attended the induction ceremony as anyone else might. She hobnobbed before the dinner started, and when the ceremony got underway, she sang and danced at her table during the various inductee tributes and performances. (She seemed particularly jazzed during John Fogerty’s ferocious set and Alanis Morissette’s haunting performance.) Joining Swift at her table was fiance Travis Kelce, future mother-in-law Donna Kelce, her own mother and father, as well as Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw.

When it came time for Swift’s induction (the final one of the Class of 2026) it was a quarter to midnight. Sombr offered a glammed-up rock take on “Cardigan,” her 2020 Hot 100 topper, backed by the SHOF’s versatile house band. “It’s an honor to be here, thank you Taylor for trusting me,” he said. “This next song Taylor wrote when she was 19 years old and it really inspired me…I’m so nervous,” he stopped, laughing after fumbling a few words. “She’s looking at me right now and I’m talking about her music. I’ve never done anything like this.” (Swift, supportive as ever, applauded encouragingly.) Sombr then sang a, well, somber version of “Dear John,” a song hailing from Speak Now, an LP Swift wrote entirely on her own. Swift and her parents sang along, softly.

Swift’s Oscar-winning dinner guest had the honor of inducting her into the esteemed organization. “As a director I am acutely aware of the power music can have on audiences,” Spielberg said, noting that songs have the power to unite us anywhere and everywhere: “Whether it’s sung at the top of our lungs in our cars, in houses of worship, at football games or on the streets of Minnesota.”

So, why was one of the greatest living filmmakers on hand to salute one of our greatest living singer-songwriters? The short answer: she asked him. After receiving a phone call from her several months ago, Spielberg admitted that his elation quickly deflated after he hung up. “What could I possibly say about Taylor Swift that hasn’t already been said?” Spielberg pondered. “Out of curiosity, I asked AI how many words have been written about Taylor Swift.” The effort yielded him nothing. So he continued the experiment, asking AI how many words Taylor Swift herself has written. Once again, AI flopped the assignment. “She is such a force that the depths of her achievement defies AI,” Spielberg quipped.

When it was time for Swift’s big moment, she hugged Liz Rose (a songwriting collaborator from her early days who was inducted into the SHOF in 2023) and walked up to the stage.

The moment she opened her mouth, it was clear that Knicks Mania — which is currently gripping New York — had gotten the best of her. A hoarse-voiced Swift, who was courtside at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night with Kelce, admitted she spent the previous night “screaming for 100%” of the Knicks’ victorious game. “I got home and was like, ‘You gotta stop screaming, you’re screaming too much, you’re screaming instead of talking, you’re too excited.’ Then I got to witness the amazing performances I saw tonight, and I just kept screaming and I never stopped screaming and this is what you get. I make no apologies for that — I’ve had a blast.”

Swift shed some light as to why Spielberg was one of her personal heroes and her pick for the person to induct her into the SHOF. “Through his decades of spellbinding storytelling Steven Spielberg has unknowingly inducted me and countless others into his sacred club of expansive world building,” she explained, thanking him for joining her the same night his latest film, Disclosure Day, hits theaters. “I watched him ace every genre… because of examples like Steven’s I trusted my imagination.”

Later on, she thanked Sombr for his “perfect performance” of two songs that spanned a decade of her life. “His writing is so exceptional that it makes me envious and I love that feeling.” According to Swift, she’s always telling her friends, “Sombr is the future – he does it all on his own and he doesn’t need that AI. The kids will be fine!”

Throughout a thoughtful, well-paced and expertly written speech, Swift placed her songwriting within the context of her wider career and life.

“If I look back at my entire 23-year career in music, the ups and downs and industry battles, the trials and tribulations, the cheers and tears and dogpiling of doubt, the criticisms — both fair and unfair — the complete loss of privacy, the world tours and ego wars, and the twists of fate, the absolute magical chaos of this path that I chose when I was too young to remember it even being a choice at all, songwriting was the easiest thing I ever did,” she said. “Not because it didn’t take effort. It definitely did. Not that it wasn’t frustrating at times, because it could be. And not that my songwriting didn’t haunt me relentlessly until I cracked the perfect internal rhyme scheme for the third line of the second verse before my teachers called me out in class for not paying attention, because that definitely happened.

“But when I say that songwriting was the easiest part for me, I think what I mean is that it was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it. I had to be taught how to entertain a crowd. And learn choreography, and be less annoying and navigate the industry and fiercely protect my own sanity through difficult lessons and massive amounts of trial and error and chaos and calamity. But songwriting for me was pretty much the only thing I naturally did.”

Calm and collected throughout most of the speech, Swift faltered a bit when speaking about her family. “It was easy to choose songwriting. But for everyone else in my life, it couldn’t have been easy for my parents and my brother to pick up our entire family and move from Pennsylvania to Nashville,” she said, pausing after choking up a bit. “Even though words are kinda supposed to be my thing I will never be able to express my gratitude,” she told her family. “You are the reason I’m here tonight.”

Before leaving the stage, she offered up a quote from one of her favorite TV shows, Yellowstone, by way of advising the next generation of songwriters. “’It’s the one constant in life, son: you build something worth having, somebody’s gonna try to take it,’” Swift said in her best paternal Southern accent (which was aided somewhat by her strained vocal cords). “I’m using this quote to refer to self-worth, peace of mind and singular vision as a creator,” she explained. “Positive feedback and people loving what you wrote feels incredible… but you need to be ready to receive negative feedback,” she added. “If you make anything awesome, someone out there is bound to say horrible things about it. Or twist what you meant into something completely unrecognizable to you.”

Her advice? “You can be sensitive but also durable…. Take what’s useful and constructive and leave out what’s damaging to your creativity.”

Though she graciously kept a low profile before taking the stage, Swift’s star power was undeniable throughout the entire evening, something many of her fellow inductees couldn’t help but comment on. Walter Afanasieff mentioned it was the “joy of his life” to watch Swift sing along to a medley of his songs performed by Sheléa prior to his induction. Johnny Mercer Award honoree John Fogerty, when addressing the “dark” years he spent not playing his best-known songs in concert, joked, “Taylor Swift, I don’t recommend you do that.”

Swift’s induction as part of the Class of 2026 makes her the youngest woman ever inducted into the SHOF. Furthermore, she’s the first recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award (which the SHOF gives out to promising young talents; she nabbed it in 2010, and RAYE got it this year) to gain full membership. And as Linda Moran, Songwriters Hall of Fame CEO and president, said earlier in the evening, Swift seems to be on track for the organization’s highest honor, the aforementioned Johnny Mercer Award, if she keeps pace.

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 Taylor Swift, Niall Horan, Tinashe and more.

This week: Olivia Rodrigo releases her anticipated third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love; BTS drop a new song on streamers that had previously only been available on a vinyl edition of ARIRANG; and Jack White teases his just-announced new album, Frozen Charlotte, out next month…plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Olivia Rodrigo, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love

After topping the Hot 100 with lead single “Drop Dead” and entering the top five with second single “The Cure,” Olivia Rodrigo’s third full length is finally here. You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love delivers on what its two sections promise: songs about being a “girl so in love” (section one) and songs where that same narrator seems pretty down about it (“you seem pretty sad,” as section two is called). Standout track and third single, “Stupid Song,” seems to tug at the thread that unites those two sensations: feeling stupid. While it comes loaded with the declaration that “nobody’s wanted somebody more,” the humor is in the fact that, as the title suggests, such big feelings can seem rather silly in hindsight. For more, read Billboard‘s review and tracks ranked.

BTS, “Come Over”

In celebration of the 13th BTS Festa, an annual festival for ARMY, the global icons dropped “Come Over” on streamers. Previously, the thumping, hip-hop heavy track was only available as a bonus on the deluxe vinyl of the group’s March album, ARIRANG. The song was co-written by SUGA, RM and j-hope, among others, and co-produced by Grammy award winner Cirkut with SUGA and Ammo.

Jack White, “Dollar Bill”

Following the two-pack White released and performed as musical guest on Saturday Night Live in April (“G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs” and “Derecho Demonico”), the rocker returns with a new single from his freshly-announced new album out July 10. The bluesy “Dollar Bill” opens with a twangy western riff before exploding into classic White, who is most at home on any track when delivering lyrical riddles like: “You can’t control me/ Unless you owe me/ And you don’t own me/ Unless I owe you.”

Bebe Rexha, “One Day”

The newly independent pop singer, who partnered with Empire in January after a career with Warner, has dropped her first album since the move. Titled Dirty Blonde, the project mostly delivers high-energy dance-pop bangers, but “One Day” stands out from the rest not only for its mid-tempo production but mostly for its honest lyrics, which Rexha co-wrote. And while it’s likely about a former flame, it could just as easily be a message to Rexha’s fallen fans: “One day, you’ll realize just what you lost/ By then, you’ll be nothing more than an afterthought.” Who needs ’em, right?

Infinity Song, INFINITY SONG

Alt-rock sibling band Infinity Song has released its self-titled debut album today, and it delivers on the exact type harmonies and tightknit writing that can only come from that kind of bond. “We grew up studying music together, performing together and learning how to listen to one another,” the Boyd siblings shared in a statement. “This album gave us the space to lean into our individual strengths while pushing ourselves as musicians…we’re proud of how expansive the record became without losing the intimacy that’s always been at the heart of Infinity Song.” The album was recorded between the Boyd siblings home base of New York and Los Angeles.

A Hall of Fame celebration is typically a chance to bury hatchets, to raise a toast, and to remember the tunes and artists that turned you on during the formative years.

When ARIA inducted six acts into its Hall of Fame on Thursday evening, June 11, the occasion presented a the industry with a chance to take stock, and identify the battles that lay ahead. Specifically, artificial intelligence and its profound threat (and opportunity) to the creative community.

At the tail-end of 2025, Australia’s Productivity Commission completed a year-long inquiry with the publication of its final report on Harnessing data and digital technology. In it, the Commission concluded it would be “premature to make changes to Australia’s copyright laws,” despite lobby efforts from big tech.

That followed Attorney-General Michelle Rowland’s announcement that the federal government wouldn’t water-down existing copyright protections, essentially shutting down the creative sectors’ concerns that an exemption would be carved out for text and data mining (TDM).

The music industry shifted into gear, as the likes of ARIA Award winners Missy Higgins and The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, and Midnight Oil frontman and former Labor frontbencher Peter Garrett, and 2026 ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Kate Ceberano stepped up to advocate for rights holders.

“Our opportunity to shape how AI influences music and what Australian music looks like for generations to come relies on us all getting it right in this regulatory and political moment,” ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd remarked at the top of the 2026 ARIA Hall of Fame. “Getting this right means everyone wins,” she added, pointing to artists and rightsholders, tech platforms, consumers, music fans, and the Australian economy.

AI, and the conversation around it, is everywhere right now. Just this week, the trade body clarified its position on AI generated music ahead of the 2026 ARIA Awards. Going forward, “recordings/items that incorporate elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be submitted for entry, but only if a human is the primary creator of such recording/item and the human contribution is substantial and meaningful,” reads the updated ARIAs guidelines. AI cannot be the sole or central element of any recording/item that is submitted for entries” and any AI services or tools used to assist in the creation of any potential nominees “must be a properly authorized and lawful service/tool.”

The industry will be like a dog with a bone on AI, Herd insists. It won’t give up.

“Our opportunity to shape how AI influences music and what Australian music looks like for generations to come relies on us all getting it right in this regulatory and political moment,” she said during her comments at the top of the HoF.

Read Herd’s opening address at the ARIA Hall of Fame 2026:

View this post on Instagram

Good evening, and welcome to The ARIA Hall of Fame 2026 Special Event.

I want to thank Binowee for that beautiful Welcome and pay my respects to Gadigal elders past and present, and to all the First Nations artists, storytellers, colleagues, and friends in the room tonight.

I’d like to welcome Tony Burke, Minister for the Arts; former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern; Susan Templeman, Special Envoy for the Arts; Senator Sarah Hanson Young; and Millie Millgate of Music Australia.

Thank you also to NSW Music Minister John Graham who can’t be here tonight and Sound NSW, Music Australia, and the Office of the Arts for supporting this event.

From the bottom of our hearts, we are grateful for your deep support and passion for Australian music and our industry. Through a difficult time of disruption and transition with lots of challenges, we know that you have our backs and are doing everything possible to enable Australian music to flourish.

This is the first time the Hall of Fame has stood as its own event since 2010. The reason we wanted to bring it back this year is – of course – that it is the ARIA Awards’ 40^th birthday which is a chance to pause and think about everything that got us here: who took the early risks, who played the rooms we still play in and opened the doors that everyone’s walking through now.

It is also a chance to induct a group of very deserving artists on a night which is all about them.

The six artists being inducted – Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait, The Living End, and Vika and Linda – between them have shaped what Australian music sounds like, through extraordinary songs and records, magnetic stage presence, and all the joy and emotion they have gifted us over the years. Lucky for us we get to spend the next few hours celebrating this incredible achievement properly together and with them.

A huge and warm welcome to our inductees and to family, friends and the people who have been part of the journey to this moment. We have a very special evening planned for you all and I hope that it is a night that you will always remember and treasure. You might want to keep the tissues on hand, we did manage to get Tim Rogers to cry last year so…

A 40th anniversary lets you reflect and think hard about where we are and what comes next. As we gather tonight there are several very important national conversations happening, the outcomes of which will shape the future of Australian music and impact generations of artists going forward.

The big, inescapable one is obviously AI.

This year, the skies between the U.S. and Canberra have been busy with planes carrying AI and tech company CEOs and senior executives to Canberra. They arrive waving very large cheques and promising generation-defining investment in Australia, provided we make some “tiny” tweaks to our copyright laws to remove consent and control from artists and rightsholders.

Our opportunity to shape how AI influences music and what Australian music looks like for generations to come relies on us all getting it right in this regulatory and political moment.

Getting this right means everyone wins: artists and rightsholders, tech platforms, consumers, music fans, and the Australian economy.

For artists and rightsholders, getting this wrong means losing consent and control over how your work is used by AI.  Being forced to watch your life’s work disappear into someone else’s AI product to be exploited and monetised without permission or anything resembling fair payment. And it’s hard to even conceive of the damage if AI has unfettered access to extract and exploit thousand of generations of First Nations culture and storytelling.

A country with a creative and media culture as strong as ours will not rewrite its laws on the advice of the people who stand to profit most from dismantling them. Tech companies do not decide how an artist’s music is used, on what terms or at what price. That is the prerogative of the artist and the copyright owner.

We thank Minister Burke, the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, and others who have stood firm with creators so far in the face of this immense pressure. All we can say is hold firm!

But tonight, let’s leave AI at the door and live and be fully present in this very special and very human moment.

This is a room of people who love music, who love Australian music and the artists who made it. And tonight, we ask that you show the love. Be loud, be warm, get up and dance and sing along wherever you feel like singing (as long as it’s during a performance). These six have earned every bit of it.

A huge thanks to the amazing ARIA team, Second Sunday event production team, and the Roving broadcast crew for the huge work and love that goes into a night like this; to the ABC for broadcasting the Hall of Fame to Australian audiences, and to every one of you for being here. We’ve got a good one for you, let’s go!

Olivia Rodrigo has finally released her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, proving once again that she’s the queen of moody love songs.

The pop star’s new LP arrived Friday (June 12), complete with 13 tracks exploring the spectrum of romantic love, from the first rush of the honeymoon phase to the creeping in of uncertainty and the emotional tidal wave that hits after it ends. It comes three years after she last released an album — having topped the Billboard 200 with 2023’s Guts — and even longer since she first established her proficiency for capturing the emotional turbulence of love on debut LP Sour.

“I realized all my favorite romantic love songs were beautiful because they had a tinge of fear or yearning in them,” she said early on of You Seem Pretty Sad in an interview with British Vogue. “I felt a similar way about falling in love, that the second I’m in a really great relationship, I’m gonna start feeling good about myself, and this stuff is going to fall into place. But it just doesn’t work like that.”

The first tastes of the LP fans got were lead single “Drop Dead,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by “The Cure.” She also previewed “Begged” on Saturday Night Live in May and debuted “What’s Wrong With Me” live with collaborator Robert Smith at Primavera Sound in Barcelona.

Rodrigo will now gear up to hit the road in support of the project, with plans to kick off her Unraveled Tour in September. The arena run will take her across North America and Europe through May of next year.

Stream Rodrigo’s new album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love below.