Well, I screwed up. I immediately published a scheduled post. So now we start Maple Leaf March a day early.
So, Goldie's nominated at the JUNOS next month, and I think she's got a shot.
Nominated in the Breakthrough Artist category, she's making fun, compelling pop music. Getting a big break opening for Katy Perry - even at this stage in her career - has really helped her immeasurably in reaching a larger audience.
From her 2025 album Goldie Boutilier Presents.... Goldie Montana, without further ado.
We weren't kidding about that Katy Perry tour. And Ms. Boutilier made the most of her chance.
Neil Sedaka is a big enough deal that he gets TWO posts.
In 1973, he released a single called "Love Will Keep Us Together" that he wrote (with Howard Greenfield) and recorded himself.
This performance isn't from 1973, but it's still really good.
Anyway, I know you know this song. As we approach post #2000 on this blog, take a look at post #10, In 1975, pop duo The Captain and Tennille recorded a cover of this song that ended up being the literal biggest hit of 1975. It was just a monstrous song - and at the end, they paid tribute to its originator.
In 1976, they performed the song with Sedaka.
That wasn't the only time they did that.
Sedaka was a great songwriter and a delightful performer, and he will be missed.
The famed singer songwriter Neil Sedaka passed away yesterday. His music will be missed. He was probably more successful as a songwriter, but he *did* perform as well. This song, from 1960, was his first top 5 hit in the United States and a #1 in Canada! The song, co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, is really a sweet tribute to the pinups of the past.
This video is from 1966.
Sedaka never really stopped performing, and he always mentored the next generation of musicians. Here he is with Fountains of Wayne in 2007.
Lilly Hiatt is music royalty. Her father is famed musician John Hiatt. Her husband is Coley Hinson of Coley and the Young Go Hards fame.... plus, he's a producer. And playing the instruments Lilly isn't.
She released an excellent album - Forever - in 2025, and the first single is an absolute earworm. Why this isn't a hit song is BEYOND me. Written by Lilly Hiatt, it's a hard-rocking but country-tinged instant classic.
But my writing style has changed since then. This time, I'm going to start with Kasey Chambers, the Australian country star who wrote and released this song on her 1999 album The Captain, produced by her older brother (and acclaimed producer) Nash Chambers.
The song is spectacular.
For her 2025 album Rhinestone Requiem, Sunny Sweeney covered this song, and it is a FAITHFUL cover.
The cover is spectacular.
So, the one change I made since 2012 is that I endeavor to include live performances for all these songs. For Kasey, I decided to go with a 2011 performance that literally closed her whole US tour, from Dallas and featuring her father, musician Bill Chambers.
Sunny literally uses the song as her encore now.
And, the best part is, she gives full credit.
Now, if only they'd do a performance together! I'm not even sure they've ever met!
It's been a bit since we posted about Olivia Rodrigo, so we felt we were due, since her 3rd album is expected to drop sometime this year.
We went all the way back to the beginning - to 2021, and her debut single (not counting her High School Musical stuff), from her debut album SOUR. The song, co-written by Rodrigo and her producer, Dan Nigro, is mature and drives right into the multifaceted feelings one might feel after a breakup.
The song was a record-breaker - it debuted at #1, making 17-year-old Rodrigo the youngest artists to ever do that (Billie Eilish was younger at #1, but did not debut there). It spent its first eight weeks, in fact, at #1.
It's actually quite a sad song, lyrically. And it's not one that I initially liked, although it's grown on me.
There are so many great performances of this song. I chose her Austin City Limits performance because, well, she is very clear about how much the song means to her.... and also, that's probably the youngest audience in ACL history.
In January, Rodrigo announced a project where other artists would be covering songs from SOUR. Alongside that was this version of "drivers license" by David Byrne.
In 1995, I went to see Throwing Muses in concert in Northampton, Massachusetts. Kristin Hersh was wearing a black t-shirt that said "i hate milk".
A few songs in, she explained her shirt. It was a labelmate of hers, Air Miami - it was a name of one of their songs.
So, naturally, I had to seek it out.
Air Miami was a DC duo comprised of Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, both formerly part of the trio Unrest. They only lasted from 1994 until 1996, but managed to get this classic song released. Their music was released on Robinson's Teen Beat Records as well as 4AD.
He was born in a household where the performing arts were important and central - his father is famed singer/songwriter Marka - and yes, I know most of you haven't heard of him, but trust me. His mother is actress and musician Laurence Bibot. I think his sister did something, too.
But he's a talented rapper and producer in his own right, and since I enjoyed this song by an artist I definitely found because of AngĆØle, I wanted to share it with you.
And yes, he does perform live, and yes, it is entertaining.
LISASINSON is not a band you're going to understand.
They aren't like anything I've ever heard, and yet, also exactly the right kind of bright pop/rock fusion - they call it "punky pop" - I needed.
From Valencia, Spain, the band released their latest album, Desde CuƔndo Todo, last month. This is a single from the album, and I think you're going to hear the bright punky pop pretty clearly.
There are actually two versions of the video (the song is remixed here by David Van Bylen and this version also features La Casa Azul).
I did not put Ela Minus's album DĆa on my Wicked 25 last year... although she did make the very long honorable mention list. If I was making that list today, I'm not sure that album wouldn't make it. This album is growing on me over time.
The Colombian native artist started off as a drummer, but her time in college in Boston shaped her electronic/jazz stylings that are her signature now.
This song, from DĆa, was co-written by Minus and Katie O'Neill (who also did sound engineering and additional production on the album).
I want to make something clear. A lot of electronic artists are DJs. Ela Minus is first and foremost a live artist, and I think this video - where she is appearing with analog equipment - illustrates that well.
So, by the way, does this actual live performance.
It takes a cast iron set to name a song after yourself.
It takes a bigger one to name it after your alter ego.
Meet Suga, best known for being a member of BTS.... you know, that Korean boy band you love. He's done some solo stuff as Agust D, his rap alter ego.
This is not BTS music.
This is just.... awesome. It's strong, angry hip-hop that happens to be mostly in Korean. Using heavily a sample from "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown, it is unabashed and in-your-face. That sample held up its release on streaming platforms for five years - as clearance was needed to use it. That clearance finally came in 2023.
I was actually not expecting to find a live performance of this song.
Indeed, this was the first BLACKPINK song to hit the US Hot 100, peaking at #52 in 2018, which was practically unheard of for a non-novelty Korean single at the time. Now, not so much. Written as a combination of pop and trap, it was designed by Teddy Park to suit the voices and styles of the four women, and accomplished that well.
The influence does not stop there. Rolling Stone named it the sixth most influential K-Pop song of all time in 2023, as well as one of the 250 best singles of the century so far in ANY genre. It won a Kid's Choice award! In the UNITED STATES. This song tore down walls and changed pop music forever, more than any of their others.
And now, you're humming it and yelling "BLACKPINK!"
They also got to perform the song - actually live, with a full band - at Coachella in 2019.
And yes, Dua Lipa and AngĆØle do stop their video in the middle to talk about Dexter, who is clearly Dua's pet, getting his balls cut off. In English.
The song is from Dua Lipa's huge hit album Future Nostalgia and was a huge #1 hit... and now most of you are thinking "but I don't remember this song being a huge hit and in fact my copy of Future Nostalgia doesn't have this song." Well, while it did eventually get a lot of streaming play in the US, it was a HUGE hit in France and Belgium - both Flanders AND Wallonia, and if you know Belgium, you know that's a BIG deal - and was originally included only on the French version of Future Nostalgia. It was eventually added to worldwide versions of Future Nostalgia and also the expanded Future Nostalgia (The Moonlight Edition).
The song itself is a lot of fun, and was written by the artists and their songwriting teams.
So both artists actually play the song live, and I wanted to share a few of those performances. I'll start with one from June 2025, at a Dua Lipa show in Antwerp. For those not up on their world cities, Antwerp is the largest city in Belgium, in the Flemish region of the country a.k.a. Flanders.
So yeah. There was a special guest who happened to be in the neighborhood, and by in the neighborhood, I mean a 33-minute train ride away in Brussels. No word on whether or not AngĆØle drove or took the train.
Unlike that 2025 performance, the crowd KNEW AngĆØle was in the building, as she was the opening act for that show and several on the Future Nostalgia tour... .so it would have been weird for Dua to not bring her out, right?
By the way, they're really good on stage together.
Now, AngĆØle also has toured, and she also performs the song live.
She unfortunately can't get Dua Lipa to show up most of the time - and certainly not in New York City for her Nonante-Cinq tour, so a larger-than-life projection of her had to suffice.
So, this is an artist we've talked about before, and an artist we undoubtably will talk about again - as we expect a new album out of her this year.
I hope she doesn't let me down.
We, of course, are talking about Belgian artist AngĆØle, who debuted in 2018 with the album Brol, which is Belgian slang that's a little hard to translate, but generally means a heap of random small objects. But there was nothing random about the album.
This was her fourth single from that album, and, well, I think even my non-polyglot readers can figure out what the title is about.
If you're having trouble identifying AngĆØle in the video, she's the one without the mirror box on her head.
I know we focus on a lot of pop artists and then we like to go "wow, look at how talented they are live" but I think this performance, which completely changes the song from slightly spirited and angry to more meloncholy, shows her great range.
By the way, she also co-produced and self-released the album, and wrote and composed almost the whole thing herself. She's a TRUE talent.
From her 2025 album Man's Best Friend, the song, written by Carpenter, Amy Allen and John Ryan, this song, the 2nd single from the album, is very disco-inspired (on brand for her).
It's also very dirty, which is also kind of on brand for her.
The single peaked at its debut point, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, having run into the juggernauts that are Taylor Swift and KPop Demon Hunters. It is STILL in the top 40 as of this writing, though - because the song is excellent.
The video is clearly inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show and also features Colman Domingo in drag.
There were a few alternative endings to the video. Spoiler: the boyfriend dies in all but one of them:
Look, this song is all about the performance... including the dance break. The pregnant pause before the dance break is incredible.
But she added it to her tour setlist, and the performance is entertaining, as it was at this show in Pittsburgh. Let us know in the comments if you were there.
Do you think that it grinds Victoria Justice's gears that Leon Thomas and Ariana Grande both won Grammys this year, and Victoria Justice never even won a Kid's Choice Award?
I don't think it does. And it shouldn't. She's doing her thing and making solid pop music in her own right.
This single from 2024, cowritten by the artist, Toby Gad and Will Jay, is an example of that solid pop music she is making. She's got a bigger voice than I think she gets credit for, and I suspect that the accolades are going to come soon.
This post keeps getting shuffled around, and today, I decided I was done doing that.
Blondshell had a breakout 2025 with her album.... correction, albumS. If You Asked For A Picture was absolutely one of the best albums of 2025. On my Wicked25, it was literally the LAST cut and I don't think I would have cut it if I made that list today.
This song, one of the singles from the album, is a large reason why I thought so highly of the album. Cowritten by Sabrina Teitelbaum (AKA Blondshell) and Sam Stewart, it's a upbeat album about being judged for having a kid too soon.
I mentioned two albums. She also released Another Picture, which contained a lot of reimagined versions of the same songs.... including this one, reimagined as a duet with Samia.
Live in Boston in 2025, Blondshell opened her show with a rousing performance of this song.
The crowd loved it.
Also, stick around for the whole thing. The whole show is great and there's a reason you're going to see the same show posted on Totally Covered today.
The acoustics were a little better in the KEXP studios.
Also, I'm pretty sure those are prescription sunglasses.
Brad Arnold - lead vocalist and drummer - passed away yesterday at age 47 after a relatively short battle with cancer. The entire music community paid their respects, so I left it was time for us to do the same.
This 2008 single, from their self-titled fourth album, made it to the top 20 on the US Pop Charts - their last visit to those heights in this country on pop radio (although they continued to garner rock radio airplay consistently), was originally written for the remake of the movie The Poseiden Adventure, but the filmmakers ended up not wanting it.
The band kept it. And it ended up being a hit. This song about resilience, written by the band, ended up resonating with people.
The band never stopped touring even after their hitmaking days were behind them. Here they are performing this song on a cruise in 2024. They still bring the same energy.
Brad Arnold will be missed. Our best wishes go out to him, the band, and his family.
I wanted to end this week with another Best New Artist nominee from the Grammys - and I had three choices, really.
I went with the most glittery one.
I struggle with liking sombr a little bit - but it may just be because his music doesn't fit into a nice genre-box like I want it to - kinda falling into the same box for me as Tame Impala. But his album I Barely Know Her (Sombr? But I barely know her!) is excellent. His voice is huge, and his music is fun and disco-tingled.
Since I could not find a suitable Grammys performance, I went with his SNL performance of this song.... which, really, had him bringing just as much energy.
I am personally impressed by his ability to go seamlessly between deep growl and significant falsetto.... live!
Leon Thomas was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy and was part of the medley.
So yeah. Of course I am going to.
Because he is making excellent R&B music.
And also, because he was nominated for six Grammys and WON two of them..... and one of the nominations he didn't win was Best New Artist, but since he WON a Grammy in the Best R&B Song category in 2024, his was possibly the most baffling nomination in the category.
His two wins were for Best R&B Album - which was for the album for which this was the title song - and Best Traditional R&B Performance. He absolutely deserved them for Mutt.
As an aside, he was one of two Victorious alumni to win Grammys this year - Ariana Grande being the other. Which is kind of a weird statistic. No other TV show to my knowledge can claim that this year.
And "Mutt" is a great song. Thomas wrote the song (there are other cowriters for the music) while microdosing on psychedelics and watching his dog and cat fight. True story.
Thomas has released several versions of his hit, including a couple of official remixes. Here is one of them.
One of these versions was the one he recorded he recorded for the NPR Tiny Desk Concert series.
This VERSION was specifically nominated for a Grammy (that it did not win - but it's pretty great).
But you're here for the Grammy performance, right?
Well, goody. But we can't. It was an R&B/rock fusion, for sure - and starmaking. And we can't show it to you.
We CAN show you the equally good BET Awards performance, though.
So, seems like we're talking about Best New Artist nominees this week. I guess.
I actually didn't like this song until Sunday.
That's when I heard his Grammy performance as part of the Best New Artist medley. And, despite his earpiece issues (which are preventing me from finding a suitable video of the performance just yet but I still have a couple of days), he killed it.
So, I gave the song another chance.
And, you know what? I get the criticism of his vocals being bored and/or bland.... but also, I don't think they are. He CLEARLY enjoys performing this song. And, being a social media guy - one of the founders of the same Hype House that spawned Addison Rae - he's occupying an interesting spot in music right now.
By the way, this song has been a top 5 hit for almost a year. As of this writing, it still sits at #5 on the US charts. (Edit: as of publishing, still #7)
And the song is actually pretty sweet lyrically.
So, OK, I'm a fan now.
I know I didn't get his Grammy performance in here, but I *did* find a kind of similar one, from The Tonight Show.
But I had this free day, and I was watching the Grammys..... and this song won Best Pop Solo Performance. Lola Young was so charming in her speech, I couldn't skip it.
She had no speech prepared.
I'm very happy for her.
From her second album This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway, Lola wrote the song just before her ADHD diagnosis..... which makes sense, because this song is, no joke, an anthem to ADHD. It is a thing of beauty. It is, indeed, just as messy as its title.
Lola won a Grammy, but she was nominated for two - the other being Best.... New Artist. For her second album. And, by the way, her third album (I'm Only F**king Myself) was released in September.
But, as a nominee, she was part of the fabulous BNA medley. And she took full advantage of her two minutes!
Unfortunately, the Grammys won't let us use that video. But we found a way.
This is Lola Young's only US hit song to date - something that I expect to change. She's still really young - and this Tonight Show performance is a lot of the reason why it was a hit.
I mean, not when I'm writing this. They're weeks away. I am in fact writing this in mid-January, when this song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 because, well, it's fantastic.
But I can only assume that GRAMMY nominee Addison Rae won Best New Artist. She certainly deserved it. (I will edit this to reflect whether or not she did, don't worry).
(Edit: she did not win. She DID perform, though).
This song was her third to hit the Billboard Hot 100 (I told you it was coming) and now, it's done it twice. Again co-written by the artist and producers Luka Kloser and Elvira AnderfjƤrd, Addison really sells the hell out of this one. They set out to write a straight-ahead pop song - inspired by Addison's early and consistent aim for fame - and got something a little unintentionally darker and deeper.
The song is a synth-pop masterpiece, and the video is gold.
Let's go once again to the New York GRAMMY Museum for an absolutely sublime performance of the song. One of the comments implied that you can tell Addison really wants to dance..... and I agree. She very much does.
