NEWS
The "Grand National" tour from Kendrick Lamar, his former TDE partner SZA, and star West Coast producer Mustard has brought a lot of opportunities for fan engagement. Whether that's a Not Beauty pop-up or a crowd of over 40,000 fans, this trek kicked off on a great note.
As caught by NFR Podcast and others on Twitter, their concert in Houston on Wednesday (April 23) reportedly became the highest-grossing hip-hop show in history. It reportedly garnered $9.44 million. Their "Grand National" opening in Minneapolis just last week was the previous record holder according to Touring Data, becoming the first rap show to gross over $9 million. Before that, Eminem held the record, which he set at a 2019 concert in Melbourne.
This is a staggering achievement for a tour with only two shows under its belt at press time. The Minneapolis show opened the "Grand National" trek in... well, grand fashion. New Kendrick Lamar verses and plenty of other surprises emerged, along with consistently impressive showings from SZA and Mustard's crowd control.
Of course, Kendrick Lamar added more shots for good measure. Some fans are already tired of all the Drake discourse, but both artists seem happy to keep things going. One is on the road and one is in court. But we've seen how this fueled standout recent moments like the PARTYNEXTDOOR collab album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U and pretty much everything K.Dot touches these days. Even if they aren't direct in their allusions and jabs, they know fans are smart enough to connect the dots. Or just, you know, ignore them and move on with their lives if they don't care.
Nevertheless, there are many more narrative offshoots from the "Grand National" tour's context that are much more positive. For example, one is Kendrick Lamar and SZA dominating Billboard with "luther." Their Minneapolis show matched with their ninth consecutive and total week at the number one spot on the Hot 100 chart.
What else will the "Grand National" tour offer? We have no idea, but whether there is consistency or surprise on the horizon, we can't wait to find out. We know at least one thing that will definitely come of this trek, and that's a whole lot of cash.
Just days after landing her fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Drop Dead,” Olivia Rodrigo is now getting major recognition from Niall Horan.
In a recent conversation with Rolling Stone published April 30, the former One Direction member shared insight into how he approaches songwriting, highlighting the comeback of bridges in pop and pointing to Rodrigo as a key influence behind it.
“It’s great to hear [bridges]. I feel like Olivia Rodrigo has been a big influence on that for pop writers,” the Irish artist said, before singing part of the “Drivers License” bridge. “What I like about Olivia’s music is [that] you feel like you’re getting one song and then you get a completely different song. It completely flips on its head musically, goes somewhere different, brings you to a bridge, brings you to some weird musical breakdown thing. Whatever [she] and Dan Nigro are up to is a good little team they’ve got going there. It’s definitely influencing people, including myself.”
Horan also spoke at length about his upcoming project Dinner Party, set to arrive June 5 through Capitol Records. He has already released two tracks from the record, including the title cut and “Little More Time,” both produced alongside Afterhrs, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta. The album rollout will be paired with an extensive 22-date tour across Europe, Ireland and the U.K. The Irish singer’s new release follows 2023’s The Show, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. During the interview, Horan also mentioned that his next era leans more into rock elements, something he connects back to his long-standing love for bands like Blink-182.
“That drum sound is something that we were trying to chase, and that comes from that late-’90s, early-2000s punk-rock era,” he said. “Rock’s been a big influence in my life since I was a child. I write pop songs, but dressing them up in a different way sometimes is quite cool. And now, the way my career is going, I’m completely thinking about live shows all the time. I learned so much from being on the road and being out there every night. There’s only so much sitting on Spotify you can do and reading comments before you actually get an idea of what people actually think. You can see it in the room. The rockier stuff really goes off at the shows.”
The “Slow Hands” hitmaker also has two U.S. stadium dates lined up for this year. Joining longtime friend and Grammy-nominated country artist Thomas Rhett, Horan is set to perform at GEODIS Park in Nashville on July 9 and Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 19, with Live Nation handling promotion for both shows. Kashus Culpepper and Emily Ann Roberts will open the concerts. With such a packed touring schedule, all four remaining members of One Direction are expected to be on the road with new music this year. When asked about attending his former bandmates’ shows, Horan gave praise to Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
“I went to Harry’s show a couple of years ago, and that was just wild. Madness going on there,” he said. “It reminded me of the 1D stadium shows where it was just seas of people jumping up and down. Watching the things going on on the floor, all the fans dancing around, I love that. You feel a sense of pride watching the boys doing what they love to do, and the communities that they’re able to create. I’m going to try and get to a Louis show of some capacity in the next few weeks.”
Horan is now the fourth One Direction member to drop a new album this year. Tomlinson released How Did I Get Here? in January, Styles hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in March, and ZAYN followed with Konnakol earlier this month on April 17.
