AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND NEWS
by Christie Eliezer
AUSTRALIA
CMC Rocks Wins At First Countrytown Awards
CMC Rocks, the largest country music fest in the southern hemisphere, was honored as the festival of the year at the inaugural Countrytown Awards in Brisbane, Australia.
The awards ceremony was held March 18 before a packed Triffid club, presented by Countrytown magazine publisher The Music Press Pty Ltd.
The win set up CMC Rocks’ March 21 to 23 edition at Willowbank Speedway with a lineup boasting U.S. headliners Thomas Rhett, Cody Johnson and Jon Pardi.The event, which sold out with in six hours, will host 23,000 fans.
Produced by Chugg Entertainment / Frontier and Potts Entertainment, CMC Rocks injects $14 million (US$8.77 million) into the Queensland economy.
Over the past 18 years, CMC helped shape some of Countrytown’s winners across 10 categories.
This included debuting Lainey Wilson, who took the international act gong, and double-winners James Johnston and the Wolfe Brothers.
Johnston who’s notched up six No. 1 airplay hits, a platinum single and 85 million global streams, took male artist and entertainer of the year.
“What makes these awards truly special is that they’re entirely fan-voted,” he said.
The Wolfe Brothers took group, and tour of the year for the sold-out four month “Livin’ The Dream” run.
Female artist winner Kayalee Bell, who last year signed with C3 Management for U.S. management, recently played more overseas dates and was the first New Zealand–born act to win the Jeff Walker Global Country Artist award at the CMA Awards in Nashville.
Another Step Towards A 24-Hour Sydney
The City of Sydney is going ahead with 24-hour plans after positive feedback from residents.
For special entertainment precincts, live music venues, bars, cafes and retail shops can trade up to 4 a.m. without changing their liquor licences, and further apply for a 24-hour licence.
They also get liquor license fee discounts, to encourage greater diversity on offer.
Sydney mayor Clover Moore said plans came “in response to the challenging hospitality environment. We all want a night-life we can be proud of and that our global city deserves.”
A draft Entertainment Sound Management Development Control Plan establishes rules for noise reduction requirements at new residential developments and soundproofing and acoustic testing for new or altered entertainment venues.
Heritage Listing For LGBTQIA+ Venues
Three LGBTQIA+ venues on Sydney’s famed Oxford Street were heritage listed following a study to identify sites for queer communities.
These were the Oxford Hotel which began in the 1850s and became a queer club July 1982, one-time underground cabaret room Palms, and Universal, which operated as safe gay discos Tropicana, Club 85 and Midnight Shift.
NEW ZEALAND
Four Cities Pitch For Homegrown
Four cities are pitching to host Homegrown, after the festival bid farewell after 18 years to Wellington’s waterfront March 15 before 23,000.
It included an emotional finale by rock band Shihad and retiring pop singer Mitch James.
Hamilton cited its large-enough venues as the 6,000-seat Claudelands and 10,000- capacity Seddon Park, while Rotorua spotlighted its 26,000 capacity International Stadium.
Dunedin, whose mayor Jules Radich has been pushing to host a music festival for 12 months, referred its 30,000-seat indoor Forsyth Barr Stadium and a student population of 20,000.
New Plymouth suggested the 21,000 capacity Pukekura Park amphitheatre and the region’s capability for large events as WOMAD which this year drew 36,000 over three days.
Festival director Andrew Tuck felt the event would stagnate if it stayed in Wellington, and was looking for a city with a five-year vision.
ASIA NEWS
by Phil Brasor
Mariah Carey Announces Asia Run
Mariah Carey will be bringing her Las Vegas residency on the road to Asia this spring and fall when “The Celebration of Mimi” tour, which marks the 20th anniversary of her album The Emancipation of Mimi, visits China, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. So far, shows have been announced for Shanghai on May 16 and 17, Bangkok on October 11, Manila on October 14, Kobe October 28 and Yokohama on November 1 and 2.
In other concert news, Summer Sonic, one of Japan’s premier summer music festivals, has announced Alicia Keys as its second headliner, along with previously confirmed headliner Fall Out Boy. Yungblud and Tinashe have also been added to the lineup.
Tyler, The Creator has added second shows to two of his Asian stops for the “Chromakopia World Tour”: Tokyo on Sept. 10 and Manila on Sept. 21.
Toto will play their first concert in Singapore in two decades when they appear at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention on April 29.
Travis Scott will be touring Asia in the fall, making his first-ever visits to China and India. He’ll be playing Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi Oct. 18, Seoul’s Goyang Stadium October 25, the Sanya Sports Stadium in Hainan, China, Nov. 1 and the Belluna Dome in Saitama, Japan Nov. 8.
KOREA
NJZ Returns, Retreats
The Korea Times reports that the K-pop group formerly known as NewJeans performed on March 23 as the final act on the third day of the Hong Kong music festival ComplexCon without actually mentioning what their name happens to be right now. Several weeks ago, the quintet, who split from their agency, Ador, while still under contract, had changed their name to NJZ, but a court order issued the previous Friday demanded they halt all musical activities in line with an injunction requested by Ador, which the court concluded had not violated its own contractual obligations, despite what the group claimed.
During the show in Hong Kong the five women announced they would “pause group activities” for the time being, but nevertheless put on a show in their first public appearance after leaving Ador, a subsidiary of K-pop juggernaut HYBE. One member, Minji, said to the audience, “We knew from the beginning that this wouldn’t be easy — probably better than anyone else. While we accept the court’s decision and the process, we’ll continue to speak up to protect one another. That’s a choice we’ll never regret.”
Another member, Hyein, added, “Some people might think it would’ve been better if we had just stayed with Ador and endured it quietly. But for us, this was about protecting ourselves. We believe that only by doing so can we come back stronger.”
The court also banned the group from “pursuing individual promotional activities and advertising contracts without agency approval.” Neither the name NewJeans nor NJZ was uttered from the stage during the entire performance, though audience members continually chanted “NJZ.” The group performed together and individually, and even debuted a new song, “Pit Stop.”
According to the decision handed down by the Seoul Central District Court on March 21, all five members are restricted from carrying out any sort of activity without Ador’s approval, unless and until they are allowed to do so by a court after a full civil trial.
Initially, the group said they would defy the court order, but the Korea Times said that music insiders speculated that the strong backlash surrounding an interview they gave to Time magazine published the day after the court order may have weakened their resolve. In the interview, members criticized the ruling and characterized themselves as being social rebels, which led to harsh criticism that they were “disparaging the entire K-pop industry” by conflating a contractual dispute as a “broader societal issue.”
Apparently, the plan now is for the group to put all their efforts into their legal battle, which they believe will ultimately validate their rejection of their exclusive contract.
HONG KONG
Ticketing Row Draws Government Attention
Authorities in Hong Kong have become involved in a ticketing snafu surrounding a major concert tour. South China Morning Post reports that the city’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau announced on March 22 that it was “highly concerned” about errors found on some of the tickets sold for a series of Coldplay concerts that will take place at the new Kai Tak Stadium in April. The bureau has told the ticketing agent Cityline to “provide remedial measures including refunding handling fees.”
Many of the disputed tickets had been sold to fans in mainland China, who reportedly “bombarded” the social media account of the bureau with complaints. Cityline initially said via email that affected ticketholders would have to exchange their tickets at one of seven locations in Hong Kong between March 24 and April 7. Then the bureau stepped in asking Cityline to do better, after which the company set up two exchange points outside of Hong Kong. As one fan said on social media, the system would essentially add costs to the tickets for people who live on the mainland, since exchanging them would require time and money for travel into Hong Kong. On March 24, lawmaker Yang Wing-kit said on a radio broadcast that Cityline should make it possible to exchange tickets by post. “There will be people coming from the mainland,” he said, as quoted by RTHK, “or even Southeast Asia to see the concerts. If you only set up [two booths on the mainland] maybe people in Shanghai will have to spend a lot of time traveling…to exchange their tickets.”
Cityline has been cited for improper ticket handling before. Some tickets to the festival ComplexCon, which took place the weekend of March 22-23, were issued for dates that were not the ones requested by the buyers.
LATIN AMERICA NEWS
by Oscar Aréliz
Brazil, Mexico Crack IFPI’s Top 10 Global Markets List
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global organization that represents the recording industry, recently released its annual Global Music Report, and one of the biggest takeaways from the document was the growth of Latin American markets.
Mexico cracked the top 10 music markets list for the first time, confirming the nation’s growing influence in all facets of the industry, from streaming to box office sales. Mexico knocked off Australia to take the No. 10 spot behind Brazil, and the IFPI confirmed to Pollstar that this year’s list is the first to feature two Latin American markets in the top 10.
Revenue in Latin America was among the best globally, with a 22.5% increase in 2024, marking the 15th consecutive year the region has experienced growth. The IFPI said streaming is a “key driver,” accounting for 87.8% of recorded music revenues in LATAM. Brazil is the fastest growing market in the top 10 with revenues up 21.7%, and Mexico’s revenue increased by 15.6%.
The two countries are also powerhouses in the global touring scene, with two Mexican stadiums and one from Brazil claiming the top three spots on Pollstar’s Year End Worldwide Top 100 Stadium chart (ranked by tickets). Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros, a 65,000-capacity stadium built for live music, was No. 1 with 1.58 million tickets sold, and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack was No. 2 with 1.14 million. São Paulo’s Allianz Parque was No. 3 with 1.14 million tickets sold.
Shakira Shines At Estadio GNP Seguros, Announces Four More Shows In Mexico
Shakira is concluding a sold-out seven-night stand in Mexico City at the 65,000-capacity Estadio GNP Seguros this weekend, shattering records at the iconic venue formerly known as Foro Sol.
After selling two stadium shows near Monterrey and two nights at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Shakira returned to the nation’s capital for the first time in seven years with an electrifying performance to kick off a sold-out, seven-night stand that will draw a whopping 455,000 fans. The Colombian star is the first artist to perform seven consecutive shows at the iconic Mexico City stadium.
She had a surprise for her fans on the fourth night (March 25) of her mini-residency in Mexico City. Shakira brought out Grupo Frontera for a live performance of “Entre Paréntesis), and the nanny to her two sons, Milan and Sasha, also joined the singer while she performed “El Jefe.”
Shakira’s successful run is a massive boost to Mexico’s economy, especially in the capital. Preliminary data from the nation’s Ministry of Tourism indicates hotel occupancy in Mexico City will reach 66%, according to a release sent by Live Nation.
The unprecedented demand from Mexican fans prompted the 48-year-old pop star to keep the party going, and Shakira announced that she would be back later this year in four markets. The singer hailing from Barranquilla added another concert at Estadio GNP Seguros, which is slated for Aug. 29, and she will then visit Querétaro’s Estadio Corregidora on Sept. 2. Shakira will then return to Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron on Sept. 6 and follow that with a show at Estadio Cuauhtémoc in Puebla on Sept. 12.
Shakira kicks off the U.S. leg of her tour on April 13 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The routing includes stops at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Fenway Park in Boston, Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
