🤘VMAs Bring Heart
🫶This Swedish Festival Will Trade You Tickets for a Kidney (Sort Of)
🎶10+ Event Announcements
Shakira
The Strokes
Joe Bonamassa
Doechii
Allman Betts Band
Stay sharp, stay loud—this is what’s next. 🎧
🤘 Backstage Pass
The 2025 VMAs Bring the Heat and the Heart
Every year, the VMAs bring their usual dose of chaos and camp, but buried in the spectacle is a category that actually asks for something more: Video for Good. This year’s nominees aren’t preachy or packaged like causes. They’re personal, raw, and weird in the best ways.
Doechii’s “Anxiety” turns mental health into choreography, equal parts beautiful and brutal. It doesn’t offer easy answers, just honesty, and that alone feels radical. Meanwhile, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish’s “Guess” delivers a pixelated takedown of beauty culture that’s as absurd as it is accurate. Think Instagram on acid, with just enough clarity to make you wince.
Eminem and Jelly Roll’s “Somebody Save Me” doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It’s stark, it’s bleak, and it carries the weight of lived experience. There's no redemption arc, just two voices sitting in the mess, unflinching.
On the flip side, “Younger and Hotter Than Me” leans into comedy. Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco riff on influencer youth obsession, turning insecurity into satire without losing the sting.
Burna Boy’s “Higher” offers a rare kind of optimism. Set in his hometown in Nigeria, it’s a celebration of real people and real places, free from exotic filters. And “Sleepwalking” by Zach Hood and Sasha Alex Sloan is all restraint and grayscale—a quiet ache for anyone who’s felt numb for too long.
Voting’s open through Sept. 5 at vote.mtv.com. Pick the one that stuck with you.
🫶 Artists Doing Good
This Swedish Festival Will Trade You Tickets for a Kidney (Sort Of) 🎫🫁
Way Out West in Gothenburg is offering a wild new way to score free tickets: sign up to become a postmortem organ donor. Dubbed The Kidney Pass, the initiative plays off the old joke, “I’d give a kidney to see Charli XCX” and turns it into a chance to win 3-day passes to the sold-out fest.
It’s not organ-for-entry, exactly. Just a pledge to donate your organs after death, in exchange for the shot at catching Charli, Chappell Roan, Iggy Pop, and more live. Organ donor sign-ups in Sweden have dropped 30% in recent years, so the fest is using its platform to nudge fans toward something a little bigger than music.
As they put it: “One day, your kidney could save a life—when you’re done using it.”
📢 Sound Off
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🎶 Event Radar
Shakira – Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran Tour Adds Second Latin American Leg
After a historic run across the Americas, Shakira’s not done yet. She just announced a second Latin American leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour—adding 30+ stadium shows starting August 11 in Tijuana and wrapping December 9 in Buenos Aires.
Shakira’s rewriting the rules, one sold-out stadium at a time.
The Strokes – Two Pre-ACL Texas Warm-Ups Incoming
The Strokes have announced two intimate warm-up shows ahead of their headlining slot at this year’s Austin City Limits festival. The band will perform at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on September 27 and at the Abraham Chavez Theatre in El Paso on October 1. These dates come just before their ACL appearances, where they’ll headline Saturday night alongside Sabrina Carpenter on both weekends of the festival, taking place October 3–5 and 10–12 in Austin, Texas. Fans can sign up for a pre-sale starting August 6 at 10am local time, with general tickets going on sale Friday, August 8 at the same time.
Joe Bonamassa – Fall U.S. Tour Heads to Red Rocks & Beyond
With his Fall Tour set to begin in November Grammy-nominated blues/rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa has already announced a U.S. Spring 2026 tour in support of his 17th studio album, Breakthrough. Recorded across Greece, Egypt, Nashville, and Los Angeles, the album showcases Bonamassa’s signature blend of funky blues, Texas swing, acoustic ballads, and hard rock. The newly announced tour begins on February 21 in South Bend, IN, and runs through March 21 in Clearwater, FL, with notable stops in Madison (Feb. 25), Pittsburgh (Mar. 7), and Knoxville (Mar. 17). The run also includes two sold-out events: Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea XI from March 25–29, and Sound Wave Beach Weekend from April 10–12 in Florida.
Doechii – Live from the Swamp Tour
Doechii has announced her “Live from the Swamp” Tour, a 12-city North American headlining run kicking off October 14 in Chicago and wrapping November 10 in Seattle. Produced by Live Nation, the tour follows her buzzy Lollapalooza debut and includes stops in major cities like Toronto (Oct. 17), Boston (Oct. 19), Atlanta (Oct. 27), and San Francisco (Nov. 7). Ahead of the tour, fans spotted albino alligator installations in several cities as a creative teaser. Doechii will also perform at festivals including All Things Go (Sept. 27–28) and Australia’s Spilt Milk in December. Presales begin August 7–8, with general onsale starting August 11.
Allman Betts Band – Fall Tour Brings Southern Rock Legacy Back
The Allman Betts Band has announced the ninth annual Family Revival Tour, set to kick off on November 29 in St. Louis and wrap up on December 21 in San Francisco. Led by Devon Allman and Duane Betts, sons of Allman Brothers Band legends, the 20-date coast-to-coast tour will feature a rotating lineup of special guests including Amanda Shires, Sierra Hull, Dweezil Zappa, Robert Randolph, members of North Mississippi Allstars, Charlie Starr, G. Love, and more. Stops include iconic venues like New York’s Beacon Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Hall, and The Fillmore in San Francisco. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 8.
Stray Cats – Rockabilly Resurrection Tour Rolls Across the U.S. – The Stray Cats are hitting the road October 25–November 23, 2025, for their first full U.S. tour since the pandemic. The 18-date tour includes stops at iconic venues like The Louisville Palace, The Capitol Theatre, and The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Get tickets here
Eggy – Trio Tour Follows Drummer’s Mental Health Break – Starting Aug 16 • Burlington, VT: With drummer Mike Goodman stepping back for his well-being, Eggy heads out as a trio, promising reinvented jams, rotating guests, and a new dynamic for fans of their improvisational groove. Get tickets here
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – Fall North American Run – Oct 9–Nov 14 • U.S. + Canada: The Alfredo collaborators link up again for a 17-date tour, starting in Chicago and hitting major cities including New York, Atlanta, Toronto, and L.A. Get tickets here
Chris Young – A Chris Young Christmas Tour Makes Holiday Debut – Nov 21–Dec 20 • Nationwide: The country crooner unwraps his first-ever holiday tour, mixing Christmas originals with countrified classics. Launches in Nashville and sleighs through 12 cities before ending in Tampa. Get tickets here
Yo Gabba Gabba! Live – Fall Tour Is Pure Neon Nostalgia – Kicks off Oct 4 • San Diego: DJ Lance and the whole crew return to stages nationwide for a new live tour that blends toddler-time singalongs with low-key parent nostalgia. Think: Biz’s Beat of the Day and indie guest stars for the grown-ups. Get tickets here
🎤 Mic Drop
“Superlungs” Said No. Terry Reid Turned Down Led Zeppelin
Terry Reid, the British vocal powerhouse dubbed “Superlungs,” turned down fronting both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple—then built a career that earned cult status on his own terms. With albums like River and Seed of Memory, he became a musician’s musician, admired by Aretha Franklin, Jack White, and generations in between. Reid died this week at 75, remembered not for the paths he passed up, but for the singular one he carved. Read more here.
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That’s a wrap for this week! Until next time, catch you in the pit—or next week’s email. 🎵🔥
Signing off,
The Fandiem Team