All writers

Chris Willman

variety.com
30
articles (90 days)

Recent articles

Sara Bareilles on ‘Good Grief’ and Finding Joy in the Tough Stuff: ‘Grief Is the Mothership of This Record, but It Carries Release, Hope, Optimism and Connection’
She could have called it “Great Grief,” but that would have been immodest. Sara Bareilles’ “Good Grief,” her first new studio album in seven years, is one of the year’s finest achievements from a s...
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Ella Langley’s ‘Dandelion’ Album Returns to No. 1 Spot on Billboard 200 for First Time in Four Months, So ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Won’t Get Lonely at the Top
Ella Langely’s fans are choosing her “Dandelion” album as a complete piece of work, and not just staying entirely trained on her long-running “Choosin’ Texas” smash. “Dandelion” has returned to the...
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Lucy Dacus on Doing a Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Show to End Her ‘Forever Is a Feeling’ Cycle, After Previously Bringing the Boygenius Era to a Close There: ‘Maybe It’s a Place Where I’m Supposed to Cry’
“Forever Is a Feeling,” Lucy Dacus promised in the romantic-sounding title of her 2025 solo album. Feelings are transitory things, of course, and some of the good ones must come to an end, which is...
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Camera-Shy Chrissie Hynde on Finally Allowing a Definitive Doc to Be Made About ‘The Pretenders,’ Bowing in Toronto: ‘I Just Wanted to Be in a Band. I’ve Never Graduated Beyond That Initial Interest in It’
At this late date, what the Pretenders accomplished is no mystery achievement. But it’s also a story that has never been extensively chronicled on film until “The Pretenders,” a Joss Crowley-direct...
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Ocean Way Festival Featuring Killers, Olivia Dean and Jack White Is Canceled, as Santa Monica Blames Beach Damage From Hurricane Forces
Ocean Way is going away, at least for a year. Goldenvoice’s inaugural Ocean Way Festival, which was scheduled to take place on the beach in Santa Monica Sept. 26-27, has been called off, with city ...
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Pink Explains Slamming Macklemore’s Pro-Palestine Performances, Acknowledges Heavy Backlash: ‘I’m Standing Up for My Own People, and I Thought I Knew How Lonely That Would Be. It’s Lonelier Than That’
Pink had fallen silent in the face of backlash from many quarters following her reposting a call for Macklemore to be dropped from the Ed Sheeran tour in the wake of his nightly pro-Palestinian son...
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Watch Brandi Carlile and Bonnie Raitt Duet on ‘Love Me Like a Man’ for ‘Austin City Limits’ Premiere, Plus a Web-Only Bonus, ‘Angel From Montgomery’ (EXCLUSIVE)
For the season premiere of “Austin City Limits,” Brandi Carlile is officially the one being feted, as the episode finds her formally inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. But who’s hon...
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‘Dolly Parton International Airport’ Moves Closer to Becoming a Reality, as Nashville Airport Board Votes Unanimously for Name Change
The idea of renaming Nashville’s airport for Dolly Parton was not just an easily forgotten pipe dream that popped up in the days following the superstar’s death in August. The proposal moved a big ...
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Taylor Swift to Attend CMA Awards for First Time in 10 Years After ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ Nomination, Further Cementing Her Country Comeback
In most cases, Taylor Swift leaves a little bit of suspense in the air as to whether she’ll attend one of the many awards shows where she is nominated. Not this time. Within hours of the announceme...
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Ella Langley Leads 2026 CMA Awards Nominations With Nine, as Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves Also Score Big Tallies
In perhaps the least surprising development in recent CMA Awards history, Ella Langley emerged at the front of the pack when nominations for the 2026 telecast were announced Thursday morning, scori...
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Harry Styles Announces Global Stadium Tour for 2027, With Openers in U.S. Including Kylie Minogue, Lainey Wilson and Tinashe
All residencies must come to an end someday, but that doesn’t mean Harry Styles is anywhere near done performing live in the era of “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” His Together, Together ...
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Louis Messina, Taylor Swift’s Tour Promoter, Urges Judge to Reject Live Nation/Ticketmaster Antitrust Settlement: ‘I Could Go Out of Business Like Other Promoters Who Have Fallen Victim to Live Nation’
You might think that the man who promoted Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, as well as all of her other global outings, would be powerful enough not to feel intimidated by Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Yet...
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‘Elsinore’ Director Simon Stone, Basking in Telluride’s Glow, on Making a Movie About Love of the Theater, the Peak AIDS Era, and Being ‘100% in the Service of Andrew Scott’
The Telluride Film Festival casts a wide net, as almost all festivals of its ilk do, but if it has had any speciality that stands out among many, it might be the well-earned tearjerker. There is as...
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At Telluride Film Festival, Bill Gates Compares Lack of Control Over AI to HAL in ‘2001’: ‘You Could Say “Please Shut Down,” and It Would Say, “OK, I Took That Under Advisement, But…”‘
Plenty of comparisons have been made in recent years between fast-developing artificial intelligence systems and HAL, the rogue computer in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” that operated b...
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Olivia Rodrigo and Cameron Crowe Go Deeper Into ‘The Cure,’ Confessional Songwriting and Daisy Chain Fields in a Grammy Museum Q&A and Acoustic Set
Filmmaker Cameron Crowe has biopics on the brain, being in late-stage development on his long-planned Joni Mitchell movie, the casting of which is still unknown. So he used his Q&A with Olivia ...
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David Byrne’s Hollywood Bowl Shows Put a Seal on One of the Greatest Rock Tours of All Time: Concert Review
Well, Brady Corbet has got his work cut out for him. That was one of the first thoughts that came to mind soon after David Byrne and company took the stage for the first of two shows at the Hollywo...
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Why Stella Lefty’s ‘Boston’ Became the Biggest Musical Punching Bag of the Decade — and One of the Biggest Songs of the Year
“I like it when you’re nice to me,” Stella Lefty sings in the hook of her breakthrough single, “Boston.” To which we can only reply right now: Hope you’re not reading the comments. Try to recall th...
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Dolly Parton Estate Sets Two-Day DollyFests for Nashville and London in 2027, Says These ‘Parties of a Lifetime’ Will Take the Place of a Public Memorial
The Dolly Parton estate has announced the first large public programs honoring the life and music of the late superstar, with events titled “DollyFest: The Celebration of a Lifetime” set to take pl...
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At Daisy Chain Fields, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan and Honored Forebears Convene for a Superb Festival That’s Hot to Go in Every Way: Concert Review
You know an inaugural festival has been a success when, after the temperature reached 95 degrees, humidity topped 80%… perspiration stains were so pervasive that it was the odd dry spots that looke...
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Sara Bareilles Sings About Loss — and It’s Our Gain — in the Beautifully Bittersweet ‘Good Grief’: Album Review
Well, just how good can grief be? That’s a question raised by Sara Bareilles’ “Good Grief,” which, true to its promissory title, deals primarily with loss and death and the kind of tough stuff that...
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Zak Starkey and the Who Have Kissed and Made Up, as Rehearsal Reunion Is Revealed
Apparently the deep and much-talked-about rift between the Who and former (and future?) drummer Zak Starkey was not quite a hell-freezes-over situation after all. Starkey, who was famously revealed...
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David Byrne’s Dazzling Tour Being Turned Into a Film by ‘Brutalist’ Director Brady Corbet, Shooting in 70mm
Ever since Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads film “Stop Making Sense” picked up its reputation as the best concert movie of all time, David Byrne has kept designing dazzling tours, and prominent direc...
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Olivia Rodrigo Exhibit Coming to Grammy Museum, With Launch Including an On-Stage Cameron Crowe Q&A (EXCLUSIVE)
Olivia Rodrigo’s “The Cure” music video only came out three months ago, but it’s already a museum piece. An exhibit titled “Olivia Rodrigo: The Cure Unraveled” will open at the Grammy Museum in dow...
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Dolly Parton, 1946-2026, In Appreciation: A Life of Many Colors
There’s been a lot of talk about approval ratings lately, so let’s pour one out, or a few billion, for Dolly Parton, the only superstar in the history of entertainment to rise to a 100% public appr...
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Taylor Swift Sings Mashup of ‘All Too Well,’ ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ and ‘August’ in Grammy Museum Video
Most Taylor Swift fans probably do not think of the sad events of “All Too Well” and the ultimately happy “Toy Story 5” as occurring in the same cinematic or musical universe. But, to the contrary,...
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Foo Fighters and Gustavo Dudamel Blow Up the Hollywood Bowl as Conductor Blows Out the Candle on His Time With the LA Phil: Concert Review
The LA Phil has played with plenty of pop and rock acts before, but it may have taken Foo Fighters to really put the dude in Dudamel. And not a moment too soon, with this being famed conductor Gust...
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Dale Morris, Titan of Nashville Management Who Forged Superstar Careers for Kenny Chesney and Alabama, Dies at 89
Dale Morris, one of the leading names in the ranks of Nashville music managers, who helped build up superstar careers for the group Alabama and then Kenny Chesney nearly from scratch, died Friday a...
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Olivia Rodrigo Releases ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-Inspired Song, ‘Serena Joy,’ in a Tiny Run of CDs, With Digital Drop to Follow
It was already clear Olivia Rodrigo is in full feminist mode these days, with her all-female music festival, Daisy Chain Fields, set to take place in California’s Orange County next Saturday. But i...
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The Hollies Officially Call It Quits, as Last Two Members of Classic 1960s Lineup Retire After Being in Band for 63 Years
The Hollies have officially called it a day. And perhaps, like many, you didn’t even realize a version of that classic rock band was still performing. Yet the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted gr...
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C+C Music Factory Co-Founder Robert Clivillés Sues Freedom Williams for $30 Million, Alleging He Wrongfully Claimed Trademark Despite Never Being a Group Member
Whatever fallout came as a result of the canceled Freedom 250 concerts on the National Mall in Washington this summer, we can add a lawsuit that otherwise might not have happened. One prominent fig...
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