Robbie Williams will perform at this year’s Lexus Melbourne Cup Day — Australia’s premier horse racing event — on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the Victoria Racing Club announced, giving the British star a warmup slot days ahead of his Australian arena tour.

Williams will headline the Elms Live Stage at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse after the day’s final race, then deliver a second performance in the mounting yard as part of the Nine Network broadcast, immediately before the Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy presentation. The VRC is billing the mounting yard set as the biggest pre-Cup performance ever staged at the venue. Both appearances are included in the price of general admission.

“Australia, I’m coming in hot. Lexus Melbourne Cup Day will be my first stop before the Britpop Australian tour, and I’m ready to make it unforgettable,” Williams said in a statement. “Expect big songs, big energy and a massive celebration after the race that stops the nation.” VRC chief executive Kylie Rogers called it “the perfect way to celebrate the prestige and significance of Lexus Melbourne Cup Day,” noting it marks Williams’ first performance at Flemington.

The Cup Day date lands during a career-defining run for Williams. His 13th studio album, Britpop, arrived via Columbia Records in January — released three weeks ahead of schedule in a surprise drop timed to avoid competing with Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. The gambit paid off: Britpop debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. Official Albums Chart, giving Williams his 16th career chart-topper there and making him the outright record-holder for the most No. 1 albums in the chart’s history, surpassing the Beatles’ longstanding mark of 15. The album, featuring guest turns from Chris Martin, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Mexican duo Jesse & Joy, drew some of Williams’ strongest reviews in years.

Williams’ Australian and New Zealand dates are part of his Britpop Tour, a stadium run marking his first tour of mainly outdoor venues since 2017’s Heavy Entertainment Show Tour. The Australian leg will feature support from Manchester’s The Lottery Winners and Melbourne artist G Flip, with Wellington group Drax Project joining for the New Zealand shows.

Melbourne Cup Carnival runs across four days this year: Victoria Derby Day on Saturday, Oct. 31, Cup Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, Crown Oaks Day on Thursday, Nov. 5, and TAB Champions Stakes Day on Saturday, Nov. 7, when Australian DJ FISHER performs. Additional Carnival entertainment is expected to be announced.

Jorja Smith will return to Australia in November 2027 for a three-date arena and amphitheater run, her first visit to the country since 2024.

The East Coast tour opens at Brisbane’s Riverstage on Saturday, Nov. 6, continues at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday, Nov. 9, and closes at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Saturday, Nov. 13. Fans who purchase What Are the Odds through Smith’s website get early ticket access starting Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 12 p.m. AEST, followed by a Handsome Tours presale Thursday, Aug. 27 and general sale Friday, Aug. 28.

The dates follow the Wednesday (Aug. 21) release of What Are the Odds, Smith’s third studio album and her first as a fully independent artist, released via FAMM/The Orchard. Produced entirely by longtime collaborator P2J, the 12-track record marks a full pivot toward dance music, moving through U.K. garage, grime, 2-step, funky house and Afro house. “This album came together really naturally,” Smith told Billboard ahead of release. “There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment. Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house, and it all grew from there.”

Smith released the album the same night she co-headlined London’s All Points East with Tems, and Australian audiences will hear tracks including “What’s Done Is Done,” “Alive” — featuring Wizkid — and “I Lied, You Lied” live for the first time.

The tour caps a milestone year for the Walsall-born singer. Smith marked the 10th anniversary of her breakout debut single “Blue Lights” in 2026, opened six stadium dates for Harry Styles in Mexico City, and appeared as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK. Her catalog carries real chart weight in her home market: 2018 debut Lost & Found reached No. 3 on the U.K. Albums Chart and earned her the Brit Critics’ Choice Award, while 2019 brought a Grammy nomination for best new artist and the Brit Award for British female solo artist. Follow-up Falling or Flying (2023) also hit No. 3 in the U.K.

Smith last toured Australia in October 2024 on her Falling or Flying run, playing a sold-out arena show in Melbourne, a stacked Adelaide date and a sold-out Sydney close, plus a set at Promiseland Festival. She made her Australian debut in 2019.

Jorja Smith’s 2027 Australian tour dates:

Saturday, Nov. 6 — Riverstage, Brisbane
Tuesday, Nov. 9 — Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Saturday, Nov. 13 — Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne

The first week of the Tupac Shakur murder trial featured dramatic opening statements, heated testimony from a former Bloods gang member, and infamous recordings in which defendant Duane “Keffe D” Davis candidly discussed the shooting with police detectives.

You’re reading Billboard’s weekly Tupac trial recap, a one-sheet breakdown of everything that happened in the epic murder case over the past week. Stay tuned here each Friday for all the testimony and big events you might have missed.

As the trial kicked off Monday (Aug. 17) with opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that Davis had orchestrated the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac as “an act of revenge” after Shakur beat up his nephew. And, as expected, they leaned heavily on statements from the man himself – both in an interview with police and a 2019 tell-all memoir.

“Let’s be clear: Duane Davis did not pull the trigger,” prosecutor Binu Palal told jurors. “You will learn that when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters were armed and ready to execute their revenge. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

In his own opener, defense attorney Michael W. Sanft said his client’s statements about he shooting had been fiction and that there was not hard evidence to corroborate them. At one point, he loaded a presentation screen for jurors that just read “Bulls–t” in white text. “Keffe D was known to do this,” the attorney told the jurors, pointing to the card.

After opening statements, jurors immediately began hearing witness testimony – first from Garry Dale, a Las Vegas police officer who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting and rode in the ambulance with Shakur. Dale told jurors that he tried to convince the rapper to say who did it, but that Shakur merely repeated “We’ll take care of it” several times: “I couldn’t get him to talk to me any further than that.”

Testimony on Tuesday included Reggie Wright Jr., a former head of security at Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, and James McDonald, a former Bloods gang member also linked to Knight. At one point, McDonald sparred with Sanft, suggesting he was hurting Davis’ case. “Talk to your lawyer, man,” McDonald said directly to Davis, before saying to Sanft: “I’m not finna send him to prison. You are!”

On Thursday and Friday, jurors heard a key piece of evidence: audio recordings of meetings in 2008 and 2009 in which Davis discussed the shooting with police detectives. At the time, the investigators told him that “nothing you say today can be used against you,” but the judge overseeing the current case later ruled that Davis waived that immunity by talking about the same events in public.

In the tapes, jurors heard Davis tell detectives that his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson – the man beaten by Tupac earlier in the night – had fired the shots that killed Shakur. Also in the recordings, Davis suggested that Sean “Diddy” Combs, then known as “Puffy,” was involved in conversations about the killing.

There’s been a long-simmering conspiracy theory that Combs ordered a hit on Shakur as part of the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry between his Bad Boy Records and Death Row. Combs has consistently denied any involvement in Shakur’s death; after a recent Netflix docuseries advanced the theory, attorneys for the now-imprisoned mogul sent a legal threat calling the project a “shameful hit piece.”

Testimony was also heard Friday from Leonard Jefferson, who took the last-ever photo of Shakur riding in a car with Knight before the shooting that night in Las Vegas. “I said, ‘Ay, what up, Pac?’” testified Jefferson of seeing the duo while stopped at a traffic light before grabbing a 35 millimeter camera out of his central console and snapping the famous picture.

Davis’ trial is set to resume on Monday and run for several more weeks.