Believe it or not, there were things that happened in 2023 that didn't involve Taylor Swift. Here's a roundup of some of the other music stories that made headlines this year:
Jonas Brothers released their long-awaited follow-up to their comeback album, Happiness Begins. Called The Album, it was influenced by the sounds of 1970s soft rock. The brothers promoted the album with a five-night Broadway residency, followed by The Tour, which featured them performing all the songs from five of their albums each night. In the middle of all this, Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner announced they were divorcing. A nasty legal battle over their two daughters followed, but the two eventually came to an agreement.
Miley Cyrus ruled the charts with her song "Flowers," which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January, spent eight nonconsecutive weeks on top and set a Spotify record for fastest song to 1 billion streams. The song and its parent album, Endless Summer Vacation, earned Miley multiple Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Miley followed that up with a new song, "Used to Be Young," in August.
Ed Sheeran had a busy 2023: In addition to continuing his Mathematics world tour, he released not one but two albums. In May, he released - (Subtract), his final math-related LP. Co-written and co-produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, it was inspired by his grief over the death of his best friend Jamal Edwards and by his wife, Cherry's, cancer scare. In September he released Autumn Variations, with songs inspired by his life and the lives of his friends.
Pink released her album Trustfall in February and then launched her hugely successful, high-flying Summer Carnival Stadium Tour, which has sold over 3 million tickets and grossed $350 million worldwide.
Josh Groban returned to Broadway, playing the bloody title role in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was critically acclaimed, as well as a commercial success, but it remains to be seen how the show will fare when Josh departs the role in January.
Rod Stewart and Michael Bublé launched their own brands of brown liquor: Rod's Scotch whisky is called Wolfie's, while Michael's Canadian whiskey is Fraser & Thompson.
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