Carín León told his fans he tried everything he could to make it to his fourth residency show at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Thursday night (Sept. 10), but a series of “aircraft malfunctions” left him far away from the venue at showtime. In an Instagram Story (translated into English), the singer wrote, “Due to an unexpected mishap during my move, and always putting everyone’s safety first, we unfortunately have to reschedule tonight’s show at Sphere.”
León assured disappointed fans — who were reportedly in their seats awaiting the start of the show when the news was announced over the arena’s sound system — that their tickets will be valid for a new date — Sept. 15, 2027 — and if they can’t make it then they can get a refund at the point of purchase in the next 30 days. “I know all the effort, excitement, and desire that many brought to be here tonight, and I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” he wrote. “Thank you for your patience, for understanding and for all the affection you always make me reach. See you the soonest my people.”
In an accompanying video, he explained that he and his band could not make it to the show due to “aircraft malfunctions,” describing trying to board two different planes Thursday afternoon, both of which he said had issues that prevented them from taking off, including one with a brake failure and another with a steering issue.
“We had to prioritize the safety of the people and the pilots, so we weren’t allowed to fly. The authorities wouldn’t let us,” León said in the video. “I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart and want to reaffirm our love for you. This isn’t a lack of commitment on our part. Things simply didn’t go as we had hoped, and I stand here feeling deeply embarrassed.”
The venue also posted a statement that read: “Due to an unexpected transportation issue, tonight’s Carín show at Sphere is postponed.” At press time, a spokesperson for León had not returned Billboard‘s request for further comment on the last-minute show cancellation.
León, 37, became the first Latin artist to book a residency at the Sphere, kicking off his planned seven-show run last week and announcing earlier in the day on Thursday that he is planning a return in 2027. The next run of shows produced by AEG will find the singer touching down again at the immersive Las Vegas theater on Sept. 16, 17 and 18 of next year during Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations.
During León’s first sold-out night at the Sphere on Sept. 4 he was joined by country singer Cody Johnson and Mexican rock band the Warning. León is booked to play the venue again on Friday night (Sept. 11), as well as Saturday (Sept. 12) and Sunday (Sept. 13).
One of America’s most beloved and long-running competition shows, Dancing With the Stars, begins its 35th season on Sept. 15 and 16 on ABC and Disney +. Though every season brings a new slate of stars — including Ciara Miller, Julia Stiles, Amber Glenn and Jenna Dewan for this fall’s cast — Dancing With the Stars has had one constant over the last 17 seasons: music director Ray Chew.
Chew, leading a 14 piece band, has played an instrumental role in modernizing the music of the show, taking it from a classic ballroom feel to one that reacts in real time to pop culture trends. He’s led his crew of musicians through a recreation of hit Broadway musical Wicked, a night of TikTok viral hits and just about every genre, tempo and style.
To pull it off is no easy feat. DWTS is shot in real time, and the music director tells Billboard his average show day begins at 3:30 AM, and doesn’t end until the show wraps that evening. Throughout the week, his team is also racing against the clock to create arrangements for songs the choreographers are picking in real time, a process he lovingly refers to as “unbaking the cake,” or trying to sleuth out each element of the song so that his musicians can rework it in a matter of days.
Meanwhile, the show’s music supervisor, Nancy Severinsen, is working to clear the rights for the songs, which, as Chew explains, doesn’t always work. “To clear one song, it could have two writers, [or] it could even have seven publishers,” Chew explains. “You got to contact everybody, and everybody’s not waiting around on their phone to be contacted. Some of the music clearance happen right up until the last minute.” He notes that even on the Wicked night they have to rework their original plans to satisfy the vision of the original rights holders of the music.
Still, Chew takes it all stride — he knows how to work under the pressure of live TV. He got his start in the band for Saturday Night Live back in the 1980s, and then has gone on to music direct everything from the Grammy Awards, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Miss Universe, the Emmys, the BET Awards, American Idol, Showtime at the Apollo and more. Dancing With the Stars, however, he says is like a “unicorn” for live TV.
As using live musicians becomes increasingly less common, the dance competition is a bright spot, which one of the largest, if not the largest, live bands on screen today. “It’s a blessing,” Chew says. “It’s a blessing.”
To discuss how the show comes together every week, and the important, but little understood, role that music directors hold, Chew joined Billboard’s music industry podcast On the Record.
Watch the episode on YouTube, or read an condensed and edited version of the conversation below.
Billboard: Can you walk me through the timeline of a week on Dancing With the Stars?
Ray Chew: Our show day is Tuesday. Wednesday is when we get our assignments. Now, it would be great if we could get in front of this a lot more, but we can’t because it’s a contest. We don’t know who may or may not be on the show. So, yes, they may know what they want to do, but we may not know that they’re going to do it. So Wednesday, I get the assignment. I take a song, a very popular song, and I have to deconstruct it. The process I actually call “unbake the cake.” I have to figure out what’s in that sauce, what’s in that gravy, what makes that really move and tick. Why do people love it? What’s that signature sound that you can’t be without? Nobody’s handing us these ingredients. We have to go in and figure out what’s in that song. Is there a special sound in there? A special synthesizer? What’s happening? And in particular, the vocal. So for the vocalist, we have to do what we call vocal shaping. All right, so if we have a song that is very popular, you don’t want to be out of character. You’ve got to meet the character. Sometimes it’s in all the nuance.
So my prep week starts on Wednesday. We get the song list on Wednesday. At the same time, we have to deconstruct the song. So, 16 songs, right? You have to go through them one by one. That takes hours and hours of work, just trying to take one song and figure out what’s going on in there. Now we have to start doing arrangements for those songs, and that takes days. So we have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to prepare everything we need to do, and then Saturday we have a full-band rehearsal.
On Saturday we have our band—the singers, musicians, everybody—assembled in the ballroom. We have to go through all the songs and make sure that everything is correct. We also have to make sure our audio team hears all the things, because a Frank Sinatra song is not going to sound the same as a Katy Perry song.
How have you seen the show evolve since you got started with it?
Well, the audience has certainly gotten a lot younger and a lot more engaged. I think when I started with the show, it had already been running for 10 years, so it had a very established audience, and it was really a ballroom-type sound with a very traditional presentation. When I came in, I think it was at a turning point where they really wanted to contemporize this stuff. We had to say, “Hey, man, we’ve got to talk to a younger audience. We’ve got to do some songs that are younger and bouncier and have a different thing.” And we’ve evolved into that completely now.
You guys are now also airing Dancing With the Stars on streaming services. Does that impact how the run of show goes on the day of?
Not for us. But two seasons ago — or three seasons ago, during the pandemic — we had to reconfigure everything just to get the show presented at all, because everybody had to be in different quadrants. We couldn’t be in the same space. It was a lot, even just trying to get the show going. That’s when they started doing the streaming. Now that we have a dual package to present, the streaming doesn’t necessarily impact what we do. We do what we do, and then they stream it.
On the day of the performance, what is that timeline like for you?
Well, it starts with the night before. I have to go to bed at 9 o’clock, which is totally against my whole body. But it’s because I have to get up at 3:30. Then we have to be on set at 5 or 5:30 sometimes, I have to allow time because you never know. You’re expecting no traffic at 4 in the morning, but you never know. We have our entire music team, which is 14 musicians and singers, and we’re expected to be on. When I say “on,” I mean it has to sound as live and as great as it can. You can’t say, “well, we’re waking up and we know we’re going to get it going.” No, you get it going. You’re going at 5:30.
We start at 5:30. We do a rehearsal of some of the revisions they may have wanted. They’ll tell us, “Hey, I need a little of this over the weekend,” so we have notes, and we’ll start with that. Then the dance teams come in at 7. We’ll do a camera block with them until about 12, and then at 12 we take a lunch break. We do a dress rehearsal from 1 to 4:30, and then we go on air live at 5:30.
It seems like a luxury in TV today to get to work with 14 musicians — live musicians — week after week. I could imagine some productions just wanting to cut costs and be like, “well, a master recording is good enough. We’ll just license that.” Have you seen TV shows change over time in their willingness to hire live musicians?
This is the dinosaur. Well, I don’t want to say dinosaur — It’s a unicorn. We’re a unicorn because I don’t see any other show that do this. Some of the other shows continue to have live music, but it’s not 14 musicians. All credit goes to the fact that there’s an appetite for this sound. The audience is loving it. When I went to the Dancing With the Stars convention, the fans were coming up to me. I was like, “wow, this is beautiful.”
The comment I got most was, “We love what you do,” because anybody can play a master recording. We hear that all the time. We’re bringing a different life to the song.
Have you ever had a musician who you’ve covered on the show reach out to you and say thanks, or that they loved the cover you performed on the show?
Yeah, I’ve had that a lot. We did Janet Jackson week, and Janet Jackson also made a video appearance, but the producers of that project are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. They’re very special. I know these guys, and I was like, I am not going to not make — by the way, I give the same attention to everything, but I was like, “you know what? I know these guys are watching, so let me make sure every little thing that I can think of is as good as possible.” The good news is that they contacted me afterward. Jimmy Jam said, “Hey man, you did us right on that stuff.”
More than 20 years after its release, The Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It” has been welcomed into YouTube’s Billion Views Club.
The music video for the 2005 release becomes the group’s fourth to hit the milestone, the streaming giant reports, following “Where Is the Love?;” “RITMO,” their collaboration with J Balvin for the Bad Boys for Life soundtrack; and “My Humps,” which crossed the threshold in July.
The party-starter samples Dick Dale’s 1962 version of “Misirlou” and was housed on the Monkey Business (via A&M/Interscope) album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and would’ve hit the summit were it not for Coldplay’s X&Y. “Pump It” became the group’s fourth consecutive top 20 single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 18.
The hip-hop outfit pumped it up in 2011 when they performed the track and others during their Super Bowl halftime show.
Shot in Los Angeles, the music video features a customized Honda Civic Hybrid with Black Eyed Peas graphics, a car that was later presented as a prize during the 2006 Honda Civic Tour.
The song has had several lives, including a remix, “Pump It Harder,” for the deluxe edition of the act’s fifth studio album, the Billboard 200 leader The E.N.D. (from 2009). Also, Dutch DJ and producer Tiësto made a high-energy EDM cut, “Pump It Louder,” which dropped in 2022 and was released on his studio album Drive.
Black Eyed Peas had a new look, new sound when Fergie exited in 2018, shifting her focus toward solo projects and motherhood. Ever since, the Black Eyed Peas continued to release music and tour as a trio, all the while maintaining that the split was amicable. The group’s most recent album, Elevation, was released in 2022.
Then, in December 2025, Fergie hinted at a happy reunion when she shared photos on Instagram showing herself alongside will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.Ap as they gathered to celebrate their milestone birthdays.
In May of this year, it happened when the classic lineup reunited publicly onstage for a surprise appearance at the American Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena while accepting the best throwback song award for “Rock That Body.”
Watch The Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It” below.
Charli xcx is bringing her Music, Fashion, Film era to the United Kingdom and Europe in February, announcing a new run of arena dates in support of her latest album.
The trek kicks off Feb. 13 in Dublin, followed by stops in Glasgow, Manchester , London and Amsterdam, before wrapping Feb. 24 in Paris. Support will come from fast-rising pop act Audrey Hobert. See the full dates below.
Fans can access presale registration through Sept. 15 at Charli’s official website — where further ticketing information can also be found — with the presale running Sept. 16 – 17. “I’m so ready to bring you this show that I love so much,” she wrote on X.
The announcement follows a landmark summer for Charli, who topped the bill at Reading Festival on Aug. 28. The appearance marked Charli’s first headline performance at the event, and along with a slot at sister site Leeds, her only U.K. festival dates of the summer.
Reporting from the field, Billboard U.K. editor Thomas Smith wrote that Charli “commanded the stage with a singular focus and was bolstered by a live band in places and a group of dancers; the result was a statement of epic proportions,” add that “striking” stage production brought a “thrilling edge” to the 34-year-old’s performance.
The Reading set arrived just weeks after Music, Fashion, Film (July 24), Charli’s seventh studio album and the follow-up to 2024’s culture-dominating Brat. The album represents another sharp turn in the Essex-raised artist’s constantly evolving career, leaning into darkier, grittier rock sounds while continuing her fascination with celebrity and pop culture.
Music, Fashion, Film debuted at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, giving Charli her fourth U.K. chart-topper and making her the first British female artist to score two new No. 1 albums in the same calendar year (following February’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack). The new record opened at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 while also giving Charli her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.
The North American leg of the Music, Fashion, Film tour will commence on Friday (Sept. 11) in Philadelphia. The 12-date arena trek includes stops in New York, Toronto, Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles before wrapping in Las Vegas on Oct. 23. Electronic artist Underscores will join Charli on the road.
Charli xcx 2027 Tour of U.K. & Europe:
Feb. 13 — Dublin, IE
Feb. 15 — Glasgow, U.K.
Feb. 17 — Manchester, U.K.
Feb. 19 — London, U.K.
Feb. 22 — Amsterdam, NL
Feb. 24 — Paris FR
The Official Charts Company is putting the spotlight on British talent with the launch of the Official Homegrown Albums Chart, a new weekly ranking designed to celebrate the U.K. artists making the biggest impact across the domestic albums market.
The chart launches Friday (Sept. 11) on the OCC website, with its first broadcast highlights set for Sunday (Sept. 13) on the BBC Radio 1 Official Chart First Look Show. It will showcase the biggest albums from U.K. artists released within the previous 12 months, ranked using OCC music consumption data.
Eligibility for the new chart will follow the BRIT Awards’ definition of a British artist. Under the BRITs’ criteria, an artist qualifies if they were born in the U.K., hold a U.K. passport (including another nationality) or have been a permanent resident in the U.K. for more than five years. For groups, at least 50% of members must meet those criteria.
The chart has been developed with support from across the U.K. music industry, including major and independent labels, and has been championed by the Association of Independent Music (AIM) and the Music Managers Forum (MMF). It arrives as British music continues to make a major impact at home and abroad, with the likes of Olivia Dean, RAYE, PinkPantheress, Lola Young and Sam Fender all enjoying major commercial success within the past year.
In a statement, Chris Austin and Becca Monahan, co-managing directors of the Official Charts Company, say: “The U.K. remains one of the world’s leading music markets and is home to an extraordinary pipeline of creative talent. The Official Homegrown Albums Chart has been developed to highlight the strength and breadth of British artists making a real impact with fans across the albums market.
“We hope the chart will become an important new measure of success for UK artists, from exciting emerging talent through to some of our biggest established names. We’re grateful to AIM, the MMF, stakeholders from across both the independent and major label communities, and BBC Radio 1 for their support in bringing the chart to life.”
Annabella Coldrick, chief executive, Music Managers Forum, added: “This is really great news for British artists. For the past two years, the MMF’s members have advocated for a homegrown chart which would spotlight U.K. artists and help accelerate fan engagement with a domestic audience. We are delighted to see the OCC respond so positively, and that the Official Homegrown Albums Chart will receive prominent support on BBC Radio 1. It is potentially a real boost for U.K. talent.”
Aled Haydn Jones, head of BBC Radio 1, said: “A huge part of what we do at Radio 1 is champion British artists who are shaping the sound of music right now, from exciting new voices breaking through to established acts. We’re really pleased to support the launch of the Official Homegrown Albums Chart, giving these artists another opportunity to be discovered and celebrated by our listeners every week. It’s a great addition to the Official Charts offering, and we’re excited to bring it to life on Radio 1’s new First Look show with Lauren Layfield.”
The Homegrown Albums Chart is the latest specialist ranking from the Official Charts Company, which has expanded its chart offering this year with launches including the Official R&B U.K. Chart, a weekly ranking spotlighting British R&B artists and new releases.
Oasis teased an upcoming major announcement with a special drone light show above Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on Thursday evening (Sept. 10).
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The band uploaded footage of the stunt on their Instagram account on Friday morning (Sept. 11), which shows a formation of drone lights that created the band’s iconic logo, before showing the time and date of a forthcoming announcement due on Sept. 14 at 4 p.m. BST (11 a.m. ET).
The teaser comes as the latest suggestion that a tour announcement for 2027 could be on the cards after a number of clues shared by the band. Over the last week, its official Instagram account has hosted a series of vignette teasers hinting to potential locations of the next stretch.
Each has featured references to the tour’s rumored locations, with fans seemingly identifying the locations through easter eggs in the clips: Glasgow, Scotland; Manchester, England; Munich, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; and Boston, Mass. have all featured in the run so far.
The band’s Live ‘25 reunion run took in shows across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Latin America, Asia and North America. Reports of a second batch of shows has been rampant ever since, spurred on by frontman Liam Gallagher who has hinted at the return on his X profile.
The announcement teaser comes following the release of new documentary film Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger which opened in theatres in the U.K. on Wednesday (Sept. 9) and globally on Friday (Sept. 11).
The film, helmed by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Live ‘25 dates and features live performance footage and the first joint interview between Noel and Liam in decades.
Speaking to Billboard U.K. earlier this week, directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern discussed the pressure of being in the rehearsal room while filming. “We were very conscious that we didn’t want to be the people that messed up the Oasis reunion,” Southern said. “We didn’t want to be the film crew that got in the way, or interfered, or frustrated them or pissed them off!”
The drinks are on Angus & Julia Stone, as Karaoke Bar (via Virgin Music) opens its account at No. 1 on the ARIA Album Chart.
Karaoke Bar is the sibling act’s third album to go all the way to the top of the national chart following Down The Way in 2010 and Angus & Julia Stone in 2014. All six of the Stones’ album have cracked the top 10.
The winners of six ARIA Awards, the Aussie pair are currently playing dates in North America on their Karaoke Bar World Tour, with homecoming shows locked in for February and March 2027.
“We’re blown away to hear that Karaoke Bar is the No. 1 album in Australia. We’ve been making music together for such a long time, and to still be able to share new songs and have people connect with them in this way feels incredibly special,” reads a statement from Angus and Julia, shared by ARIA.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way, and to everyone who has bought, streamed or listened to the record since it came out last week. We never take any of it for granted. To have this album go to No. 1 here at home means the world to us.”
It’s the third ARIA No. 1 album from a homegrown act in 2026 after releases from Karnivool and DMA’S. “It’s an absolute thrill to see two Aussie No. 1 debuts within a fortnight,” adds ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd. “Huge congratulations to Angus and Julia Stone for another landmark achievement in their near two-decade career together and as adored solo artists.”
Also new to the chart, published Friday, Sept. 11, is Slovak singer-songwriter Adela’s debut collection Prima (Capitol/EMI), at No. 6, while British masked metal act President arrives at No. 9 with their debut album Blood of Your Empire (Atlantic/Warner).
The best-selling album on wax this week belongs to Ecca Vandal, the Melbourne-based alternative rock artist whose second album Looking For People To Unfollow (Loma Vista Recordings/Universal) reenters the all-genres albums chart at No. 12, a new peak.
Aussie hard rock veterans Airbourne fly in at No. 19 with their self-titled sixth studio album (via Spinefarm/Inertia), while Amyl And The Sniffers add a fourth top 30 chart appearance with Truth Or Consequence (Live from El Coyote) (via Virgin Music/Universal), new at No. 23. Truth Or Consequence was recorded at the El Coyote Café in Los Angeles and is the first live album from the globe-trotting Australian punk-rockers, winners of seven ARIA Awards.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, it’s a lucky 13th week at No. 1 for Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” (Sony). According to ARIA, no other country song has spent as many weeks at the top of the leaderboard. The next best is Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” which reigned for eight weeks in 2023, while Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” led for seven weeks back in 1992.
In the United States, “Choosin’ Texas” is the biggest country hit of them all with 21 weeks (and counting) atop the Billboard Hot 100. It’s just one week away from tying the longest-running No. 1 in Hot 100 history, a record that belongs to Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” currently owning 22 weeks at No. 1 across multiple holiday seasons.
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 Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, ADÉLA and more.
This week, Jhené Aiko shares her first album since 2020’s Chilombo; Bleachers release a new single from the Practical Magic 2 soundtrack; and, at long last, Dove Cameron drops the lead single for long-awaited debut album… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Bleachers, “Caught Myself Believing”
Amidst the rock band’s BLEACHERS FOREVER Troubador takeover, which includes five nights at the intimate Los Angeles venue, Bleachers released a new track that’s included on the Practical Magic 2 soundtrack. With a title like “Caught Myself Believing,” it makes sense for the fantastical film, yet it still sounds like a distinct enough Bleachers song to stand on its own, too — and would sound right at home in the act’s live show. — LYNDSEY HAVENS
Dove Cameron, “When In Rome”
After teasing her highly anticipated debut album earlier this year, pop singer Dove Cameron is inching closer than ever to its arrival with “When In Rome,” the album’s lead single. The lovestruck, playful track plucks inspiration from Cameron’s own life, as she is engaged to Måneskin frontman Damiano David (who is notably Italian with “jet black hair,” as she sings). “Why don’t we get married?/ Build a home/ Something in the summer time,” Cameron sings, skillfully using this single to tackle some wedding planning as well. — L.H.
Rachel Chinouriri, “Make believe”
Fresh off her Daisy Chain Fields festival set, the alternative-pop artist is continuing to tease her upcoming second album, i think i spoke too soon, out Oct. 16 (she even live debuted some new music at the fest). “Make believe” is the album’s second single, is a delicate dance that combines Chinouriri’s soft, airy vocals with heavier production built around booming, bleeding reverb. — L.H.
Cage the Elephant, “Dying In Reverse”
Since signing to Big Loud Rock this summer, Cage the Elephant are making one thing clear: the band is back. It’s first release on the label, “Beaches In Tennessee” shot to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart (and remains at the top spot). The rock act is following it up with “Dying In Reverse,” a song that vocalist Matt Shultz says is essentially about a fresh start or a rebirth of sorts. More in terms of death to ego, renewing the mind and heart. The journey of turning your perspective away from self in order to see more clearly through the lens of love and connect to deeper purpose.” — L.H.
Slayyyter, “Crank 2”
Rising star Slayyyter may be on her sold-out old WOR$T GIRL IN THE WORLD TOUR right now — but you’d never know it based on her output alone. During the tour’s opening night, she debuted four new songs, including the already-released “BRAND NEW CHANEL$” and “CRANK 2,” the latter of which drops today. The dizzying grunge-pop track throws everything at the wall — and in true Slayyyter fashion, it all sticks. — L.H.
This summer, SLAYYYTER released single “brand new chanel$”, whic
Jhené Aiko, Westside Whimsy
Jhené Aiko is finally back with her first studio album since 2020’s three-time Grammy-nominated Chilombo. Titled Westside Whimsy, the 20-track set features appearances by Larry June, OHMA, Tyga, Ab-Soul and Kendrick Lamar. From the star-studded tracklist to the gorgeous, tear-drop-accented artwork, the R&B staple is back like she never left. — KYLE DENIS
Rema, “OH NO”
Right off the heels of his dancehall-indebted “TEA” — and Brooklyn’s iconic West Indian Day Parade (Sept. 7) — Grammy-nominated Nigerian hitmaker Rema is back with “Oh No.” For his new konpa-nodding joint, Rema tapped Latin Grammy-nominated producer Rvssian, who helps the “Calm Down” singer find the sweet spot between his Afrobeats roots and breezier, island riddims. — K.D.
Duran Duran is getting the Royal stamp of approval.
Britain’s Royal Mail will issue a range of Duran Duran stamps and collectibles, all of it celebrating the new wave legends’ music. The artwork from eight classic Duran Duran albums will be pressed as official stamps, including the band’s debut self-titled album from 1981, Rio, Seven And The Ragged Tiger, Notorious, the self-titled 1993 comeback collection (known as The Wedding Album) and 2021’s Future Past.
“Celebrating one of Britain’s most innovative and influential bands, this new collection features iconic album artwork, exclusive collectibles and limited-edition memorabilia spanning more than four decades of creativity,” reads a statement from Royal Mail.
The headline for the collection reads, “BOLD. VISIONARY. EVER-EVOLVING.” Below it, the sub-header: “From bold beginnings to boundless creativity.”
All told, the mail service’s bounty includes more than 30 collectibles, from stamp sets to posters, presentation packs, postcards and framed sheets. Some pieces are available from Sept. 17. The cheapest item is a Duran Duran “First Day” envelope, at 30p (40c). The “Wedding Album” full sheet of 1st Class stamps will set you back £86.40 ($116.85).
Duran Duran joins a small circle of acts who’ve been saluted by the Royal Mail with special stamp issues, AC/DC, The Who and Spice Girls among them.
Click here to pre-order Duran Duran stamps and collectibles.
With their good looks, hits and cracking music videos, Duran Duran would become arguably the biggest band in the world in the first half of the ‘80s. Few acts from their class survived, or thrived, but Duran Duran has enjoyed a rare, late-career renaissance.
This year alone, the band headlined BTS Hyde Park on July 5, completed a residency at Bleaulive at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, embarked on arena and festival spots in North America and across Continental Europe, and dropped a new collaboration with Nile Rodgers, “Free to Love.”
Across their career, the group has collected every conceivable award, including the Brit Awards’ Lifetime Achievement, two Ivor Novellos, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Grammy Awards, and, in 2022, long-overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2024, frontman Simon Le Bon was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King Charles, a salute to his services to music and charity.
Speaking with the BBC, Le Bon said the new Royal Mail stamp collection is a “massive visual validation of the band and its history”.
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