Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
The Velvet Sundown, the AI-generated retro rock group that launched out of nowhere in June, has done something many real bands struggle to achieve: Gain worldwide media attention that converts into streams at Spotify and other streaming platforms.
In the week ended July 3, The Velvet Sundown’s catalog of 26 songs — spanning two albums — generated 2.59 million streams globally, according to Luminate. That’s a staggering 399% increase from the previous week. The surge followed a flood of online coverage at music trades, mainstream newspapers, and popular YouTube channels, all intrigued by the novelty — and the ethical implications — surrounding an artificial band that diverts attention (and royalties) from actual musicians.
After more than two weeks of media coverage, the buzz hasn’t died down. The Velvet Sundown has been featured in major publications, including articles at BBC.com and a long-form think piece in The Atlantic. In an era when viral fame often fades in hours, the sustained interest — from both the media and the public — is remarkable. Just six weeks ago, the band had zero streams. Today, it boasts 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, up from approximately 300,000 following a viral Reddit post about the band on June 24. To capitalize on the momentum, The Velvet Sundown will release yet another album on Monday (July 14).
The notoriety of being an AI band has translated into modest real-world success. By Tuesday (July 8), the attention had propelled The Velvet Sundown’s track “Dust in the Wind” to No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart — a measure of recent popularity and social engagement — in the U.K., Ireland, Israel, Iceland and Sweden, and into the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark and a handful of other countries. “Dust in the Wind” also landed on iTunes’ top tracks list in Switzerland (No. 3), Poland (No. 9), Austria (No. 14), Canada (No. 20) and Sweden (No. 23), according to Chartmetric.
The Velvet Sundown represents a reality of the music business in 2025: Getting online attention, whether complimentary or critical, helps an artist rise above the noise and find listeners. Notoriety — being known for something negative — isn’t necessarily a liability.
For all the people turned off by The Velvet Sundown’s artificial origins, there may be other listeners who stick around, says Phillip Lybrand, creator of the AI-generated band Hoverborg. The group’s album The Good Stuff, a collection of catchy pop-punk songs, used Lybrand’s lyrics but was otherwise conceived entirely on the generative AI platform Udio. The Good Stuff received some positive press and online streams early on, but coming clean about the band’s origins actually added to its momentum. “I’ve sold through Bandcamp more copies of it digitally, and the physical CD and vinyl, since letting people know it was AI-generated,” Lybrand says, adding that only one person has asked for a refund.
Even though streaming platforms are awash in AI-generated content — Deezer estimates that 18% of its daily uploads come from AI — the success of The Velvet Sundown stands out. The band’s albums, complete with evocative, surrealistic artwork, do an excellent job of capturing the look and feel of a psychedelic folk-rock band. Importantly, the songs reveal a level of expertise that is typically absent from hastily created AI music, says author and audio engineer Bobby Owsinski: “It does take a fair amount of skill and a fair amount of time to come up with that.”
Real-life music groups Kneecap and Bob Vylan have also grabbed worldwide attention for controversy as of late. Kneecap, a hip-hop trio from Northern Ireland, gained notoriety in April for the anti-Israel comments it made during its performance at Coachella. More media impressions followed: Kneecap split with its agent, Independent Artist Group, after Coachella, and band member Mo Charra (born Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) was indicted on a terrorism charge in the U.K. for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London. Charra was released on bail on June 18, but the controversy wasn’t over.
Both Kneecap and Bob Vylan ran into trouble following their appearances at Glastonbury in late June. Kneecap’s Charra voiced support for Palestine and criticized U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer — with an expletive — for stating the Irish group should not be allowed to perform at the annual event in Somerset, England. And Bob Vylan singer Pascal Robinson-Fraser, who performs as Bobby Vylan, led a chant of “death, death to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces, the country’s national military. Since the performances were broadcast live by Britain’s public service broadcaster, the BBC, both Kneecap and Bob Vylan are facing a criminal investigation.
The uproar that followed Kneecap’s Coachella set has had an undeniable effect on the metrics that denote success. From the week before Coachella to the week after Glastonbury, Kneecap’s weekly global on-demand streams more than doubled. The increase in new listeners isn’t necessarily fleeting: Chartmetric data for the last 30 days shows that Kneecap’s new followers on Spotify have grown faster than its monthly listeners, suggesting that people who recently discovered the group are more than casual fans. As for Bob Vylan, Glastonbury led to a nearly 13-fold increase in the duo’s weekly streams.
In music, gaining fame for political statements isn’t necessarily bad for business. For groups such as Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine, being controversial was part of the appeal. Today, though, the internet amplifies statements and preserves them for posterity. “Artists ought to be ready to live and die by what they’re putting out to the world,” says Johnny Cloherty, CEO of Genni, a social media creator network. In the case of The Velvet Sundown, people won’t forget that the viral band was created using AI technology. The question there is whether, ultimately, they’ll even care.
Osheaga has a knack for booking budding superstars right as they blow up. Last year, it was Chappell Roan. This year, it was Doechii.
The Grammy-winning, Florida-born rapper took the stage on the first night of the Montreal music festival on Friday (Aug. 1), and it felt like a star-making performance. The Killers headlined the mainstage, but unlike Chappell Roan, who played for 40,000 people at 3:30 in the afternoon last year, Doechii did have the honor of closing out the festival on the secondary Forest Stage.
Her set was pushed back slightly to start at 10:10 p.m., meaning she was the final performer of the night before the noise curfew at 11 p.m. And for those who wanted to catch both acts, The Killers made it easy by playing their belt-along favorite “Mr. Brightside” as their first song and packing the first hour of their two-hour, 9:10 p.m. set with hits.
Doechii’s stage set was decked out to fit her Swamp Princess persona, covered in greenery and a large, elevated swampy platform for her to stand on. The crowd was packed in, so the fans stuck at the back still had a visual feast. “I look good from the nosebleeds,” she rapped from her 2025 hit “Nosebleeds,” and this show proved it.
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
For a full hour, Doechii kept the energy up. She rapped a mile a minute, all live with almost no reliance on a backing track. She showed off her full skill set, from pure hip-hop to sung R&B/pop hooks, and comedic banter to thought-out stagecraft. She brought unbridled charisma, taking time to dance and twerk and show off some vogue moves as well. She showed off a reverence for classic hip-hop, rapping over Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” and later screaming over a distorted guitar sample — almost veering towards nu-metal. She showed she can do it all.
The audience stayed captivated, rapping along and matching her energy throughout. It was Doechii’s first time in Canada, and you could tell she was impressed by the reaction. “As an artist, you can get so much hate and negativity,” she said. “Then you go out in real life and see your real fans.”
She took some time to thank her gay fans, her female fans, and the fans who brought their boyfriends. “If your boyfriend hates female rappers, then leave him immediately,” she said.
Seeing all the phones out, she seized her moment. “Ya’ll can’t be scared to stand up for what you believe in, you can’t be scared to say what matters,” she said. “Free Palestine.”
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
Doechii broke out her biggest hit, the Billboard Hot 100 top-10 charting “Anxiety,” and thanked all her fans for streaming it. The “Somebody That I Used To Know” sampling song is a bit of an outlier in her catalogue, but it’s a viral TikTok favourite, and she’s found a way to fit it perfectly into her set. After playing the song, she thanked Gotye for approving the sample.
The true highlight of the set was “Denial Is a River.” The song, which features Doechii rapping with her internal monologue, took on a whole new call-and-response dimension with fans chanting along to every word.
It felt like she was still just getting started when, midway through the next song, the beat cut out. “F— that, they cut me off!” she yelled. She put her thumbs down, inciting the crowd to boo, then threw her hands up. “Whatever,” she said, walking off the stage.
Unfortunately, Osheaga has a hard 11 p.m. noise curfew. It’s clear the next time she’s back, she’ll have to have a longer headliner-length set.
Doechii performs tonight (Aug. 2) at Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she’s teased a special guest. If Osheaga was anything to go by, her set will likely be all over social media soon.
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
Olivia Rodrigo was joined by surprise guest Weezer during her headlining set at Lollapalooza 2025.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the 22-year-old pop superstar made her debut on the second day of the Chicago music festival at Grant Park. Toward the end of her evening set, she surprised the crowd by inviting Weezer to join her on stage.
In a fan-captured video on TikTok, Rodrigo shared with the crowd that Weezer was the first band she ever saw live.
“You always remember your first concert. It’s a very, very special moment,” the “Drivers License” singer said. “I remember my first concert. It was a very memorable night. I watched this incredible band and I am so over the moon, because that incredible band is actually here tonight to play a few songs. Will you please say hello to Weezer?”
Weezer then joined Rodrigo for performances of their classic hits “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So,” both from the group’s 1994 self-titled album. She played guitar and harmonized alongside frontman Rivers Cuomo during the collaboration. Check out clips from the performances here and here on X.
This marked Weezer’s first Lollapalooza performance since they headlined alongside Widespread Panic in 2005.
This isn’t the first time Rodrigo has brought out surprise guests during her recent festival appearances. She recently invited David Byrne onstage at New York’s Governors Ball to perform Talking Heads’ 1983 hit “Burning Down the House,” and welcomed The Cure’s Robert Smith at this year’s Glastonbury Festival to perform “Friday I’m In Love” and “Just Like Heaven.”
During her Lolla set on Saturday, Rodrigo opened with “Obsessed” and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” and also performed hits including “Driver’s License,” “Traitor,” “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Love Is Embarrassing.”
The Chicago festival continues Saturday (Aug. 2) with headliners Rüfüs Du Sol and TWICE, followed by closers Sabrina Carpenter and A$AP Rocky on Sunday.
Kelly Osbourne is paying tribute to her father, Ozzy Osbourne, just days after his funeral.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the 40-year-old TV personality shared an NSFW photo on her Instagram Story in memory of the rock legend, who passed away on July 22 at the age of 76.
The outdoor image featured a beautiful display of purple flowers arranged to spell out “Ozzy F—ing Osbourne,” set beside a serene pond surrounded by a rolling hill and trees.
In a second post, Kelly shared a heartfelt clip from The Osbournes, the MTV reality series that aired from 2002 to 2005. The snippet shows Ozzy lying in bed with his wife, Sharon Osbourne, offering words of wisdom.
“Listen, all you got to worry about is getting through today,” the Black Sabbath frontman says. “That’s all you got to worry about.”
Just days earlier, Kelly attended her father’s funeral procession in his hometown of Birmingham, England, where fans flooded the streets to pay their respects. Sharon, along with Ozzy’s other children — Aimeé and Jack — laid flowers at the Black Sabbath Bridge, which had been covered with tributes from mourners.
Shortly after Ozzy’s passing, Kelly posted another emotional tribute to her Instagram Story on July 24. “I feel unhappy I am so sad,” she wrote. “I lost the best friend I ever had,” the Fashion Police alum added, along with a heartbroken emoji. Her words echoed lyrics from Black Sabbath’s ballad “Changes,” which she and her father released as a duet in 2003.
Ozzy Osbourne died at age 76, just weeks after performing his final concert. His family confirmed the news in a joint statement. “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” they wrote. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
Just a month before his death, Kelly had honored her dad on Father’s Day with an Instagram post that included a slideshow of Ozzy spending time with her young son, Sidney, whom she shares with fiancé Sid Wilson.
“Happy Father’s Day daddy,” she wrote at the time. “I love you more than anyone or anything in the world! I am so proud to be your daughter and Beyond honored to watch you be the best #Papa in the world to my son!”
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