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FINNEAS, City and Colour to Perform at Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony
Aug 25, 2026
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame is putting together a star-studded international music event for this year's ceremony, with FINNEAS, City and Colour, Jeff Tweedy and Our Lady Peace among the performers announced for the induction gala.
Taking place on September 26 at Toronto’s Massey Hall, the event will honour The Tragically Hip, Loverboy songwriting partners Mike Reno and Paul Dean, Leslie Feist and Roch Voisine.
The performance lineup announced today includes a mix of iconic and up-and-coming Canadian acts and artists with international profiles. Allison Russell, Amanda Marshall, Charlotte Cornfield, Isabelle Boulay, Sebastian Gaskin, TALK and Todd Kerns are also set to take the stage, alongside Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and GRAMMY-winning producer and artist FINNEAS.
There is also a noticeable francophone presence in the lineup. Ludovick Bourgeois, who won La Voix, Québec's adaptation of The Voice, in 2017, will perform alongside country singer Matt Lang, Sara Dufour and Boulay, one of Québec’s most prominent francophone vocalists. Rolling Stone Canada 'Future of Music 2026' artists Tia Wood and Ruby Waters, meanwhile, join a new generation of Canadian artists represented at the ceremony.
The event will also feature a special appearance from Boi-1da, the Toronto-born producer whose credits include some of the biggest records in contemporary hip-hop and pop.
FINNEAS will also be serving as one of the ceremony’s inductors. He will be joined by Kids in the Hall co-founder Bruce McCulloch, actor and filmmaker Jay Baruchel, and Olympic gold medalists and Walter Cup-winning hockey players Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. Canadian songwriter Jim Vallance will also participate as an inductor. Vallance, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022, is best known for his songwriting partnership with Bryan Adams and has won a record four JUNO Awards for Songwriter of the Year.
Journalist and producer George Stroumboulopoulos will co-host the ceremony alongside Québec pop singer and TV host Marie-Mai.
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Johnny Marr
Andrew Cotterill
Johnny Marr Finds Defiance in Idealism on New Single ‘It’s Time’
Aug 25, 2026
Johnny Marr released a new single, “It’s Time.” The uplifting rock number is the third song to emerge from the Smiths guitarist’s forthcoming LP, The Age of Everything, out Oct. 2 via BMG.
“’It’s Time’ is my way of singing about some worldly issues but finding defiance in idealism,” Marr said in a statement. “I wanted a lyric that matched the exuberance of the music but is actually about resisting cynicism and corruption: ‘Everybody ain’t making it, change the weather and breaking it. Mobilize to know the truth. Open eyes to know the truth.’ I guess it’s about the assholes with dodgy views.”
The music video for “It’s Time” was filmed earlier this year at the biggest headlining show of Marr’s solo career, held at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl.
The Age of Everything, Marr’s fifth full-length studio album, features 10 tracks. It was written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of the U.S., and recorded in Manchester. The musician has so far shared “Spin” and “Ophelia.”
“This is the record that’s been the most cathartic,” Marr shared when the album was announced. “The title came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea. It seemed to sum up the way I think a lot of people are feeling. It’s all encompassing, but it’s not necessarily a negative statement. There’s a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.”
Along with the album, Marr will released an illustrated, enhanced, and reformatted anniversary edition of his autobiography, Set the Boy Free in Oct. 22 via Thames & Hudson. The book features previously-unseen archival photography, a new introduction, a personal eulogy for Johnny’s friend and the Smiths’ bassist Andy Rourke, and a foreword by Noel Gallagher.
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Watts at the Ice House Comedy Club on June 24, 2026, in Pasadena, California
Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images
Reggie Watts: Festivals Remove Comedian, ‘Comedy Bang! Bang!’ Drops Theme Song
Aug 25, 2026
Comedy Bang! Bang! has quietly removed its Reggie Watts-created theme song as upcoming music festivals have removed Watts’ name from their lineups following Rolling Stone’s report on the comedian-musician’s “reckless” behavior in the wake of his ex-girlfriend’s death.
Fans of the popular comedy podcast were greeted with a generic British woman’s voice stating the episode number today instead of Watts’ improvisational beatboxing riff that served as the show’s intro since 2011.
The show did not acknowledge the replacement, nor has it directly commented on the recent accusations against Watts, a longtime friend of the show who starred in the TV version of the podcast from 2012 to 2016. (A representative for Comedy Bang! Bang! and its host, Scott Aukerman, did not immediately reply to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
Watts was also scheduled to perform at both the Shambala and Greenbelt festivals in Northamptonshire, England, this week, but his name has since been wiped from their websites. A representative for Greenbelt Festival confirmed that Watts would no longer be appearing, while the Shambala Festival did not respond to a request for clarification. (In a screenshot reviewed by Rolling Stone, however, a festival representative acknowledged that Watts was no longer part of the event.) Over the weekend, a set of shows with frequent collaborator CAPYAC, a surrealist electronic dance band, was canceled in Bristol with no acknowledgment from the venue or any of the parties.
The removals follow a lengthy report published by Rolling Stone on Thursday, where loved ones of Watts’ late ex-girlfriend Katherine McCollough came forward to claim that Watts encouraged McCollough to take a heavy array of drugs, particularly ketamine, throughout their relationship. Friends said they witnessed abusive aspects of the couple’s relationship, including financial dependence, and Watts allegedly withholding emotional support from McCollough.
“[Watts] cultivated a dynamic and a relationship where she felt like she could only truly access intimacy, closeness, and empathy from him if they were both using [drugs] together,” one friend said.
After McCollough suffered a drug-induced manic episode last summer, Watts ended the relationship in October. She died by suicide in March. McCollough’s loved ones claim Watts was reckless in his behavior, and they firmly believe if McCollough had never met Watts, she wouldn’t have developed an addiction to ketamine and she’d still be alive today.
Watts’ attorney, Andrew Brettler, said it was “dangerously false” to suggest that Watts was responsible for McCollough’s suicide. Brettler also pushed back on Watts’ alleged prompting of McCollough to take drugs, claiming she was already an “experienced” drug user before dating Watts.
Rolling Stone spoke with five women who previously dated Watts, three who claimed they also experienced Watts encouraging them to take drugs, including ketamine, with him. Two exes alleged Watts blew past their boundaries to satisfy his own needs. One woman claimed Watts recorded an explicit video of her that she had not consented to, and another claimed Watts initiated sex with her without wearing a condom, despite an implicit agreement they would always use protection due to Watts disclosing that he had an STD.
Through an attorney, Watts said any suggestion that he was an “abusive” boyfriend was false, but did not comment on the women’s accusations directly.
McCollough’s loved ones view her experience with Watts as a devastating cautionary tale and voiced concern that his actions could lead “to irreparable harm or death of another person.”
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Bad Bunny performs live during his "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS World Tour" at Hiram Bithorn Stadium on August 22, 2026 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Gladys Vega/Getty Images
Bad Bunny Closes Historic Tour With Emotional Surprise Finale
Aug 24, 2026
Bad Bunny closed out his record-breaking Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour last night in the place where this creative chapter first began: right in the heart of Puerto Rico. As Benito himself told the crowd of nearly 35,000 people, “I couldn’t do a world tour without including my favorite place in the whole world.”
After 57 dates that took him from Latin America to Australia, Japan, and Europe, Bad Bunny ended the tour at San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium with two final nights celebrating his Grammy-winning album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
Bad Bunny had already completed a 31-date residency in Puerto Rico before the world tour kicked off, but a victory lap in the land that raised him was inevitable. “I saw so much joy around the world when people from other countries became Puerto Rican for one night. Well, here at home we’re Puerto Rican every day, from sunrise to sunset, and from the day we’re born until the day we leave this world,” he told the audience at one point.
Cheery Viruet*Like most of the international dates, the opening act was Chuwi, the dynamic Puerto Rican quartet Bad Bunny plucked from relative obscurity and included on the album’s sunny track “WELTiTA.” The foursome, who have shot to astronomical heights over the last year, played songs like “Rico y Pico,” “Tikiri,” “Mundi,” and “Tierra.” Their music is often influenced by socioeconomic issues in Puerto Rico, with lyrics that address everything from gentrification to colonialism in Puerto Rico and abroad — percussionist Adrián López even waved a Palestinian flag at the end of their set. Bad Bunny has rarely shied away from inserting himself into politics and current events either, so the moment stood out.
As the main show began, fans who attended Benito’s residency last summer noticed an immediate twist: The residency ended with a showcase of his salsa songs but for this, he started with salsa. He kept the format closer to the world tour, making the last song, “LA MuDANZA,” the opening salvo.
Backed by his touring band LoS SOBRiNOS, Bad Bunny got his fans dancing with hits like “PIToRRO DE COCO,” a salsa version of “Callaíta,” and his now-classics “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” and “NUEVAYoL.” The first surprise of the night happened early on, as legendary Puerto Rican salsa crooner Victor Manuelle showed up to accompany Benito for a performance of “Mala y Peligrosa,” their 2018 collab, which Bad Bunny noted was “the first time I ever sang salsa.” As Bad Bunny stepped away for a wardrobe change, Manuelle continued keeping fans active with a cover of Celia Cruz’s seminal hit “La Vida Es Un Carnaval.”
The iconic casita set that he debuted during the residency and brought with him for most of the world tour returned. The casita marks a highly anticipated part of his act since it features his biggest reggaeton bangers, and Bad Bunny didn’t disappoint. As rowdy bops like “Tití Me Preguntó,” “Me Porto Bonito,” “Yo Perreo Sola,” and “Efecto” blared, Benito put on a show, perreando to the cheers of his fans. RaiNao made an appearance, singing “PERFuMITO NUEVO” while Bad Bunny called her one of his favorite artists.
Saturday’s show included Arcángel, Farruko, and Ñengo Flow as the casita’s surprise guests. But on Sunday, it was all about Bad Bunny’s most steadfast and longtime compatriots, Jowell y Randy. As the raucous opening notes of “Safaera” got the crowd roaring deliriously, the duo made their way to the casita’s roof and joined Bad Bunny in performing the signature song. When it was over, they began to say their goodbyes until Benito stood to the side and wagged his finger at them — they weren’t going anywhere.
Jowell y Randy took over the show for a spell, riling up their audience with raunchy tracks from their repertoire like “El Funeral de la Canoa,” “Hey Miste,” “Siente el Boom,” and more. Benito made his return after their set, introducing the night’s two exclusive songs, “RLNDT” and “120.” He didn’t perform these tracks at any other stop on the world tour and performed an extra one in P.R., with a giant message on the stadium’s screens: “[Puerto Rico] is the best.”
Los Pleneros de la Cresta filed out of the casita for their traditional plena hits “CAFé CON RON” and “Ábreme Paso” as Bad Bunny once again made his way to the main stage for the last part of the concert.
Slowing down the pace for more melancholic and lovelorn songs like “Ojitos Lindos,” “La Canción,” “Yonaguni,” and “KLOuFRENS,” Bad Bunny reminisced about the journey his career has taken leading up to last night. Tying his success to the support of his fans, he urged them to use that passion to fight for Puerto Rico’s interests amid problems it’s currently facing. “I want to give you today a little bit of joy… [and] hope and strength to fight and continue to defend this land,” he said.
The archipelago has faced a drought that has led to severe water shortages in many cities, with government and agency incompetence (or worse, corruption) accused of worsening an already fraught crisis. The power outages that have roiled the country since Hurricane María in 2017 have hardly stopped, a fact that Benito addressed in his song “El Apagón” and which he underlined here with a mock blackout symbolizing what millions of Puerto Ricans live through on a weekly basis. As he performed the track, its original closing lines, sung by his former girlfriend and longtime friend Gabriela Berlingeri, blended lyrics from “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.”
Not wanting to end on a low note, Bad Bunny had one last surprise for those in attendance. He brought out Rauw Alejandro for a rendition of “Party,” and “Qué Pasaría…” off Rauw’s album Cosa Nuestra. That LP, which came before DtMF by two months, is also considered to be an homage to Puerto Rican culture, making it all the more fitting that he makes an appearance here as well. Two stars united by the love for their homeland.
Cheery ViruetThe show wrapped with DtMF’s title track, and Song of the Year nominee, plus an encore featuring “EoO,” as Benito wanted to sign off with one last taste of his favorite music: reggaeton.
Benito knows he can’t solve all the problems Puerto Rico has but he’s willing to support the movements he believes will benefit his home — and he’s given his fellow boricuas motivation in the face of rising odds. The DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS era may have come to a close last night, but he’s created an impact that will be felt for a long time to come. It was never just music to dance to, but a reminder that everything and everyone worth fighting for is always around you.
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Elena de Soto
Taking Back Sunday Keep Evolving: ''By Any Means Necessary''
Aug 24, 2026
Taking Back Sunday showed up at Warped Tour in Montréal this weekend wearing matching brown suits, arguably not the most punk-rock way to prepare for a day of sun, sweat and thousands of fans. The look was deliberate, though. As the band worked on their latest record, so did a visual world built from mood boards and images collected along the way.
"We had a lot of mood boards," frontman Adam Lazzara reveals. "I've been collecting stuff for a while, just as the record was taking shape."
The actual shopping trip was considerably less elaborate. "We were like, okay, we're all going to go to the store together, we're going to get suits," he says. "And then we didn't even go and really shop around too much. We found these at the first store, and we were like, ‘Okay, they're good.’"
After spending much of their career trying to avoid dressing like they had "real jobs," the band has apparently come around. "We hustled so hard so we wouldn't have to wear them," says bassist Shaun Cooper. "And then it became more comfortable to wear them than sweating through jeans every night."
That is the kind of perspective that comes with nearly three decades in a band. Taking Back Sunday have grown from young musicians chasing the next show into adults trying to reconcile touring with marriages, children and lives that exist outside the road. "We're still trying to figure the balance out," they admit, one of them joking that their child thought they worked at the airport because they were there so frequently. "We weren't too good with balance for a long time."
Once upon a time, the band's instructions to their agent were simple: "We don't care if we're home. Keep us working. Keep us out, we want it." These days, they try not to book anything longer than four or five weeks.
The contrast is particularly striking considering that, in 2003, they toured with Saves the Day for three months. When they reunite with Saves the Day this fall, alongside Thrice, they will be approaching the road from a very different place in life.
Warped Tour itself provides an even longer timeline. Guitarist John Nolan's first experience with the festival came in 1995, when he was still in eighth grade. He remembers seeing Sublime, L7 and Quicksand, buying a No Use for a Name hat and discovering Fat Music for Fat People Volume 2 for three dollars.
"It was just a core memory," he adds. "It was the summer after eighth grade before I started high school, and it was just such a great time with all my friends there sweating it out in the parking lot."
Now, the people who once inspired Taking Back Sunday are part of the band's own history, while the festival they once experienced as fans has become something they can return to as veterans. "It's amazing," Lazzara says. "Like John and Shaun were just saying about having these core memories, so it’s amazing to be able to say that you got to be a little part of that story too."
For them, Warped Tour represented something that was difficult to find before the internet made music discovery effortless. "They were bringing this music that you could only find out if you were in a record store or had a zine from another city," Nolan says. "Like, no internet, and they were bringing this whole culture, this whole community to these off-the-beaten-path places."
That sense of community is still what they see when they look out from the stage. Their audience now includes people separated by decades, but the gap disappears once the music starts. "There's people from all different chapters of life, ranging like a huge age gap for like 30, 40 years," they say. "But all getting lost at the same time to the same thing."
It is a fitting idea for a band that has spent so long refusing to become static. Asked how they have managed to survive when so many of their peers have broken up or moved on, they point first to stubbornness.
"We're all pretty stubborn," Cooper jokes. Then comes the more serious answer: they still have somewhere to go.
"We all have a kind of an idea of how we want the band to evolve," they explain. ‘’Whether it's wearing suits now, or where the sound is going to go or how we're going to shape the songs and the direction and continue to grow and evolve. The three of us have a kind of shared vision in that. And when we can bounce ideas off each other, that keeps exciting and fresh.’’
That might be the secret. Taking Back Sunday have been doing this long enough to know exactly what it takes to keep a band alive, but not long enough to lose the feeling that made them want to do it in the first place.
As Lazzara puts it: "I wanted to do this for as long as I can remember. And I'm able to. So I’ll keep doing it, by any means necessary."
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©2026 ROLLING STONE, LLC. Published under license.
©2026 ROLLING STONE, LLC. Published under license.