When RÜFÜS DU SOL completes its current, ongoing tour, the lads will enjoy a well-deserved rest. A good, long break.
The Australian electronic music trio is in the home straight of a record-setting world tour, in support of the 2024 album Inhale / Exhale (via Rose Avenue Records / Warner Music Australasia).
Don’t expect to see the Sydneysiders on stage at a stadium or arena near you for several years, at least until the next release cycle gets underway.
While performing at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, for one of five shows at the venue, frontman Tyrone Lindqvist confirmed RDS’ immediate, post-tour plans. “So, we told ourselves before we walked out on stage we’ve got to make the most of this and we’ve got to take it in for this next month of shows,” he remarked during the Aug. 6 performance, as first reported by Beatportal.
“So, let’s really enjoy this because we’re not going to be touring for a solid amount of time until we have new music, and we can’t wait to share that with you, whatever that sounds like.”
The Sydneysiders completed their 2025 Australia tour last November with the third of three sold-out hometown shows at Afterpay Arena (then known as Qudos Bank Arena), the country’s biggest arena, for 150,000 tickets sold across the country, lifting their overall tally to 750,000 headline tickets for the year.
RDS’ Inhale / Exhale World Tour is one for the history books, one that began with a one-off exclusive outdoor performance at Sydney’s Fleet Steps back in October 2024. Along the way, the Grammy Award-winning act became just the second Aussie act, after AC/DC, and first electronic outfit to headline Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles; and played four nights at Madison Square Garden, again the most by an electronic artist.
Lindqvist and his bandmates Jon George and James Hunt will reach the end of the road this October with performances at Austin City Limits. Before that, RDS will complete its residency at The Forum on Thursday night (Aug. 13), followed by a run of twelve shows across the United States and Canada.
Following its release, Inhale / Exhale debuted at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart, continuing a streak of podium finishes for all five RDS album releases in Australia. RDS have won four career ARIA Awards and six Grammy Award nominations, with a win in 2022 for best dance/electronic recording with “Alive.”
Just in time for fall, The Neighbourhood have hit a big milestone: The California rock band has joined YouTube’s Billion Views Club with their 2012 alternative hit “Sweater Weather.”
The Jesse Rutherford-fronted band released “Sweater Weather” as the lead single from their 2013 debut studio album, I Love You. The album peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200, while the track reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. A previous indie music video was released alongside the song when it dropped, but that version was unlisted after they signed with Columbia Records.
The official music video was uploaded to YouTube in March 2013, during the era of Tumblr aesthetics, at a moment when “indie sleaze” and soft-grunge subcultures were found on the platform.
The track’s milestone lands The Neighbourhood among other record-holders including Bad Bunny — who is in the lead globally with 20 music videos with more than 1 billion views — as well as J Balvin, who is the artist with the second-most entries. PSY’s “Gangnam Style” was the first video to ever reach 1 billion views on the platform in 2012.
Following its initial release, “Sweater Weather” later became an anthem for LGBTQIA+ groups because of lyrics such as “One love, two mouths/ One love, one house.” The track experienced a resurgence in 2020 when TikTok users turned the song into code language for the queer community, and various creators used it to come out as bisexual to their followers on the platform. The popularity of “Sweater Weather” that year and its use on the platform brought a streaming resurgence that led to it debuting on the Billboard Global 200 more than eight years after its release, scaling the list for four weeks before peaking at No. 134 on the chart dated Nov. 7, 2020.
KATSEYE are just about to unleash their new album Wild on Friday, but first, the global girl group dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (Aug. 12) to make their late-night performance debut — and Billboard was inside Studio 6B for their latest visit.
We were also in the building when KATSEYE visited Fallon for their first sit-down back in February, but this time, they took the stage for the television performance debut of their latest single “Animal,” the Ed Sheeran-co-written hit that debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200. “The spirit of Ed is alive in ‘Animal,’” Lara said during Wednesday’s chat.
Of course, when KATSEYE first visited the late-night show earlier this year, it was as a six-piece group; but since that first appearance, two members — Manon in February and Sophia just last week — have taken hiatuses from group activities to focus on their mental health. The remaining quartet (Lara, Daniela, Yoonchae and Megan) expressed their love for their groupmates when Fallon asked about the absent members, with Lara adding that they were grateful to their EYEKONS fanbase who “continue to support us” amid the shifting lineup.
Even before their interview and performance, KATSEYE popped up during Fallon’s monologue to fill in for various members of the Tonight Show crew: Yoonchae took Black Thought’s spot with house band The Roots; Megan was in announcer Steve Higgins’ place at his podium; Lara stepped in for cameraman Hank; and lastly Daniela took Jimmy’s place at center stage to close out the bit.
Also on Wednesday’s show: Matthew McConaughey is the night’s other guest, and he even pops out do a bluegrass cover of Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” the massive 17-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash, with Fallon joining in on harmonies and struming a washboard.
Tune in to catch KATSEYE on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT tonight on NBC and streaming next day on Peacock.
Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Taste” music video was already cinematic and jaw-dropping, and apparently, its storyline even extends to its props, with one of its most memorable ones having a Sabrina-inspired name.
Jenna Ortega, who starred opposite of Carpenter in the bloody, campy 2024 video, recently revealed a behind-the-scenes detail about the chainsaw she wielded near the end of the video. According to the actress, the prop had a name that referenced Carpenter, although she couldn’t quite recall the exact name.
“I think the chainsaw had some crazy name and reference to Sabrina as well. It was called like the Espresso 3000 or something,” Ortega told Esquire.
The name would be a fitting nod to Carpenter’s hit “Espresso,” which kicked off the pop star’s blockbuster Short n’ Sweet era in the spring of 2024. The chainsaw itself gets interesting screen time in the “Taste” video, which sees Ortega and Carpenter repeatedly trying to kill each other in increasingly elaborate fashion. Ortega said the chainsaw sequence was her favorite part to film, calling it “really camp and fun” and noting that the pair had “nice little outfits” for the scene.
Despite how elaborate the finished video looks, Ortega said there wasn’t actually much time to prepare for the shoot. She revealed that she found out she would be involved only days beforehand and said much of the action wasn’t choreographed in advance.
“Nothing about that music video was choreographed,” Ortega said. “Like we were just running around. We had no time to prep or really talk about it.”
“Taste,” released as the third single from Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, became one of the album’s biggest hits, reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 and spending multiple weeks in the chart’s top 10. Meanwhile, the accompanying video helped establish the song’s darkly comic visual identity, with Carpenter and Ortega battling through a series of increasingly gruesome encounters.
Watch the full interview with Ortega below.
The soulful pop ballad that remains the signature hit for musician/actress Vanessa Williams could have ended up sounding completely different.
The singer recently shared that she was actually the third artist that was offered “Save the Best for Last,” the romantic ballad that would go on to become her highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit.
Williams revealed this fact during her appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast, explaining that the song had first been sent to fellow musician Bette Midler, who ultimately declined, before it was offered to powerhouse Barbra Streisand.
“They gave it to Bette Midler, who passed,” Williams said. “They gave it to Streisand, and she passed. And I was, like, third one up.”
Williams eventually selected the song for her second studio album, The Comfort Zone, released in 1991. “Save the Best for Last” was the album’s third single, quickly becoming a staple song in Williams’ music career and earning two Grammy nominations, including for record of the year. The song spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, giving Williams her first — and, to date, only — chart-topper. It also became one of the biggest hits of 1992, a year that included such smashes like Sir Mix-a-Lot‘s “Baby Got Back” and Whitney Houston‘s “I Will Always Love You,” finishing at No. 4 on the year-end Hot 100.
Williams also told Ferguson about another major pop hit she wished had come her way: Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby,” which topped the Hot 100 for two weeks in 1991. Williams said she would have loved to record that song, but it was never brought to her because of an apparent oversight.
Of course, Williams’ music career goes beyond “Save the Best for Last.” She scored additional Hot 100 hits with songs including “The Comfort Zone,” “Colors of the Wind” from Disney’s Pocahontas, “The Sweetest Days” and “Love Is,” while simultaneously building a major acting career with roles in Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and films including Shaft.
Watch the full episode with Williams and Ferguson below.
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