New Zealand to merge public TV and radio as audiences shift

Foo Fighters today canceled all of their upcoming tour dates in the wake of drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death last week.

NEW YORK -- Elton John has added 11 new dates on the North American leg of his farewell tour, including concerts in New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Washington state.John begins his final run of dates in North America in Philadelphia on July 15, finishing with a three-night engagement at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 19 and 20.The new dates include concerts on July 24 in East Rutherford, New Jersey; July 27 in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Sept. 8 in Toronto; Sept.

Sigur Rós have added four more shows to their sprawling list of impending tour dates, slating gigs in New Zealand and Australia for this August – get tickets here.The four-date stint will be sandwiched between their 27 shows in North America – the first of which will go down in just under a month – and their 29-date run in the UK and Europe this September. It’ll start in New Zealand, with a lone show at Auckland’s Spark Arena slotted in for Saturday August 6, before the band take to stages in the Australian cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.Tickets for the Auckland and Brisbane dates can be found here, while Sydney and Melbourne fans can get their hands on tickets here.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefWhether or not “The Power of the Dog” wins the big prize at the Academy Awards on Sunday, David Strong, chief executive of the New Zealand Film Commission for the past eight months, is guaranteed to be an in-demand visitor to Los Angeles over the next week.With the Jane Campion-directed film handily showcasing New Zealand’s talent, locations and craft strengths, the country has now reopened its borders to international visitors. Also sweetening the deal are more studio spaces.Ahead of Strong’s flight to Los Angeles, where he has a week of meetings set up with Hollywood decision makers, he spoke to Variety about what New Zealand has to offer going forward.What has been the impact of “The Power of the Dog” and its Oscar nominations? It’s already been a big success story for us.

New Zealand-born Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik might be on the precipice of a banner year. His long-awaited Marilyn Monroe film starring Ana de Armas, “Blonde,” just received an NC-17 rating from the Film Ratings board, something of a first for Netflix, and should make its world premiere later this year (likely Venice, since Netflix avoids Cannes).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe New Zealand International Film Festival will return to an in-person event this year, but in a scaled-down format. It will operate in multiple cities between July 28 and Sept.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMulti-platinum-selling rapper Trippie Redd, one of the first signings to 10K Projects, has re-upped with the company in a “long-term deal that will keep him at the label for years to come,” according to the announcement.In just five years, Trippie has released four studio albums, six mixtapes, eight EPs and almost three dozen singles — not to mention countless guest appearances — adding up to 15 Platinum and 8 Gold certifications.“We launched 10K Projects as a label where artists have complete creative freedom and the support to realize their vision,” said the label’s founder and CEO, Elliot Grainge. “Trippie Redd has thrived under these conditions, releasing a lifetime’s worth of music in just five short years and becoming a singular voice in contemporary music.” Trippie Redd commented: “Elliot signed me when I was 16.

Actress Zoe Saldaña has been extremely busy filming multiple “Avatar” sequels for director Jim Cameron. The central performance capture took place on stages in California and the live-action portions shot in Wellington, New Zealand.

Ed Sheeran has teased his next “curveball” project, confirming that it’s coming very soon.Speaking to The Project NZ about his upcoming Australia and New Zealand stadium tour, the singer-songwriter explained the reasoning behind naming his albums after mathematical symbols.“I was like, ‘I don’t really want to be a poster boy’,” Sheeran said. “So I had sort of figured out a way [to do] it with colours and symbols.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorCrunchyroll is inviting fans of the Dragon Ball anime franchise to hop on their Flying Nimbus cloud — and stream more than 500 episodes of the fan-favorite series that were previously available only on Funimation.For the first time, Toei Animation’s “Dragon Ball,” “Dragon Ball Z” and “Dragon Ball GT” are now available to watch on Sony’s Crunchyroll streaming service in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.The three series come to Crunchyroll as part of another wave of new content from Funimation, after Sony on March 1 announced that the two services would merge into a single unified Crunchyroll service. The trio of shows joins “Dragon Ball Super,” which has been available on Crunchyroll with English subtitles.

Ed Sheeran has announced the Australia and New Zealand leg of his ‘+ – = ÷ x Tour’ – find tickets here.The singer-songwriter will embark on the run of dates in February 2023 in support of his most recent studio album, ‘=’, which came out last October. It’ll mark his first trip Down Under since the record-breaking ‘÷’ tour in 2018.Sheeran will kick off the stadium stint in Wellington, NZ on February 2 before making stop-offs in Auckland (February 10), Brisbane (17), Sydney (24), Melbourne (March 2), Adelaide (7) and Perth (12).Tickets go on general sale next Wednesday (March 23), with a pre-sale due to go live on Monday (March 21).

Coldplay appear to be hinting that an Australian and New Zealand tour may be on the horizon.Through the Twitter account for their Alien Radio project, the band shared a Spotify link to a live performance of ‘Magic’, recorded at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney in June 2014.

Stevie Nicks has shared some advice for Lorde in a new interview, saying that the singer “just has to keep doing what she’s doing”.During a recent conversation in The New Yorker, the Fleetwood Mac star was asked by actor/writer Tavi Gevinson to answer a question from “my friend Ella [Lorde]”, who wanted to know how Nicks had “stayed in touch with her dreams”.“You know, the last show that Fleetwood Mac did in New Zealand [in 2019], I found out that [Lorde] had come with her parents, and she didn’t tell me she was even coming, so I didn’t get to meet her,” Nicks replied.“I have a moon for her, and it’s in a box with a little note, and I’ve never been able to get it to her.”She continued: “I don’t think Lorde is going to have any problem at all keeping in touch with what she does. I think she’s just as odd as you or me.

Aitch has shared a brand new single – watch the video for ‘Baby’ below.The track, produced by Fred Again…, is the Manchester rapper’s first solo single of the year and the latest preview of his forthcoming debut album.‘Baby’ samples Ashanti‘s ‘Rock Wit U (Aww Baby)’, with Aitch adding a contemporary rap feel to the R&B classic.The accompanying video, directed by Zain Alexander Shammas, sees the rapper in Malibu, going through the highs and lows of a relationship. The sun-tinged video features VHS clips of intimate moments, plus a cameo from the rapper’s current girlfriend, Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg.Aitch, who presented the award for Best Solo Act In The World with Big Zuu to Burna Boy at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 spoke to NME on the red carpet about the single.“I think everyone’s gonna love it,” he said of the track.