An exciting musical year is coming to an end. There were again some comebacks and new projects from well-known music stars.
They haven’t been on a stage for years, haven’t released any new music or recently focused on other projects: These music stars came back into the spotlight in 2023 and caused great enthusiasm among their fans.
Rihanna
After a break of around six years, Rihanna (35) returned with a live performance at the Super Bowl halftime show in mid-February and caused a surprise. The superstar dropped the bomb virtually live on stage at State Farm Stadium in Glendale and proudly presented his baby bump.
A spokesman for the singer confirmed, among other things, shortly after the appearance at the final of the US professional football league NFL “People” magazine: Rihanna is actually expecting her second child with partner A$AP Rocky (35). Riot Rose Mayer’s son was born at the beginning of August. Their first son, RZA Athelston Mayers, was born in May 2022. Rumors of a comeback tour for next year were sparked by a high-ranking source last October revised at the request of “Billboard”.
U2
Irish rock band U2 also made a big announcement as part of this year’s Super Bowl. During the NFL finals, the musicians released a commercial informing their fans about a concert series in Las Vegas. In September they opened the new venue The Sphere at The Venetian Resort in the gaming town in the US state of Nevada. These are the band’s first live performances in a four-year break.
The concert series, which has been extended until February 2024, will feature the seventh studio album “Aehrung Baby” from 1991, which includes, among other things, the mega hit “One”. They thought about the Las Vegas engagement for a long time, but came to the conclusion that “we would be crazy not to accept the invitation,” said a statement from the band.
The Rolling Stones
Released on October 20th, “Hackney Diamonds” is the Rolling Stones’ first studio album with new songs since “A Bigger Bang”, which was released around 18 years ago. At the beginning of September, singer Mick Jagger (80) revealed about the creation of the new album: “We were very lazy. Maybe we were a little too lazy. So we said: Come on, let’s set ourselves a deadline and make an album.” After the first recordings in Keith Richards’ (80) studio in Jamaica, they went to New York for further work. “We got a producer,” Jagger explained, “Andy Watt. He kicked our asses.”
Two songs from the band’s 24th studio album stand out in an emotional way: They were recorded with their drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021), who died in 2021. Ex-member Bill Wyman (87) even took part in one of these songs, as Jagger proudly announced – a line-up that hadn’t existed since 1993. With the record, the Stones were once again happy about the top position in the German album charts at the end of October, as determined by GfK Entertainment. This makes the Stones not only the highest newcomer of the week, the British cult band also had the best start of the year with the album.
Beatles
The two surviving Beatles members Ringo Starr (83) and Paul McCartney (81) delivered a comeback and a farewell at the same time. The song “Now and Then”, released in early November, is the last by the legendary British band that made music history in the 1960s. More than 50 years after the dissolution of the Beatles, more than 40 years after the death of John Lennon (1940-1980) and more than 20 years after the death of George Harrison (1943-2001), the two worked on the actually old song. In an interview with AARP magazine explained Ringo Starr: “Last year Paul called and said, ‘Do you remember John’s unfinished song ‘Now and Then’? Why don’t we work on it?” he explained. “He sent it to me and I played drums and sang. We had a great piece with John singing and playing piano and George playing rhythm guitar.”
But the music that was handed down was incomplete. The song was originally composed by Lennon in the late 1970s. In 1979, the legendary musician recorded an unfinished version on his grand piano in his New York apartment. Large parts of the verses were missing and the quality of the original track on a music cassette was poor. Now the loud humming has been eliminated using AI. The song immediately shot to the top of the charts and has since thrilled millions of Beatles fans around the world.
Agnetha Fältskog
After ten years of waiting, fans were able to look forward to new music from ABBA star Agnetha Fältskog (73). The singer of the Swedish cult band released her new solo album “A+” in mid-October. It is a reworked version of her acclaimed solo album “A” from 2013. In addition to the reissued songs, there is also a new song on the album, “Where Do We Go From Here”.
Although the singer enjoyed great musical success and a fantastic career with ABBA from 1972 to 1982, she completely neglected her work as a songwriter during these years, as she explained to the British “Guardian” on the release of her new solo album. “When we had some free time, I wanted to be with my children. I hadn’t forgotten about music, I was just busy with other things.”
Clear of clouds
Vanessa Mai (30) released her new album “Hotel Tropicana” at the end of May and returned as Wolkenfrei. “When we thought more about bringing Wolkenfrei back to life, we realized that 2023 is the tenth anniversary and that it just fits perfectly,” explained the singer about the comeback of the music project.
In 2013, the initially multi-member band with front woman Vanessa Mai released their debut single “Jeans, T-Shirt and Freedom”, followed in 2014 by the debut album “Endlos in Love”. Just a year later, Stefan Kinski and Marc Fischer announced their departure and Mai continued the project alone. In 2016 she said goodbye to her beginnings and from then on only appeared under her stage name. For her, Wolkenfrei is “an absolute project close to her heart”. However, she doesn’t want to just commit to the hit song, “because I’ve never wanted to. Now with both brands, what they actually are, it’s very special. I enjoy it a lot and it’s really unique.”
Blink-182
The Blink-182 album, which was released in mid-October, is the first that the band released since they celebrated their reunion with member Tom DeLonge (48) in 2022. He had left the band almost ten years earlier. The new album was created in 2022 and 2023 during the reunion tour, which took the three band members through concert locations around the world, it said in an announcement. Travis Barker (48), Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus (51) also made their tour comeback and are presenting their new album “One More Time…” on a world tour that has been running since March 2023 and runs until February 2024 should go.
The fact that Blink-182 can perform with the regular line-up they found in 1998 is not just something special because of DeLonge. In the summer of 2022, bassist Hoppus announced on social media that he was suffering from an aggressive form of cancer and was already in stage four. Around three months later, he also announced via social media that he had beaten the disease for the time being and was cancer-free.
*NSYNC
The boy band *NSYNC released a new, completely original song in 2023 for the first time since 2002. “Better Place” was released on all common platforms, including via YouTube on the official channel of the band around Justin Timberlake (42). “Better Place” is part of the soundtrack for the animated adventure “Trolls 3 – Strong Together”. It is the first new musical release since The Neptunes remix of the song “Girlfriend” alongside rapper Nelly (49) around eleven years ago.
The announcement of the new single came just a few days after *NSYNC’s joint performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez (47), Lance Bass (44), Joey Fatone (46) and Chris Kirkpatrick (52) presented the award for best pop song to colleague Taylor Swift (34). It was their first time in the spotlight together since 2013.
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado (45), Timbaland (51) and Justin Timberlake celebrated a musical reunion in 2023. “We’re back,” it was said in August in an Instagram post by Timbaland. “The time has come,” began a clip that was released, showing excerpts from past performances. The three were successful in 2007 with the song “Give It to Me”, which reached number one in the charts in the USA and Great Britain. In September, fans were able to hear about the new joint single “Keep Going Up!” be happy.