Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
Black Sabbath was scary from the start. The first song on its debut album — both called “Black Sabbath” — opens with the sounds of a rainstorm and church bells, then a wicked guitar riff. Then Ozzy Osbourne howls a question: “What is this that stands before me?” When the album came out, in early 1970, it was, pardon the pun, a hell of a question. Led Zeppelin had released its first album a year before, but Sabbath was darker, sludgier, laden with doom. The band’s psychedelic visions were dark and haunted, as far from the colorful optimism of flower power as its native Birmingham, U.K., was from San Francisco.
The first four Sabbath albums — the debut, followed by Paranoid, Master of Reality and Vol. 4 — laid out the blueprint for the entire genre of heavy metal. Osbourne’s success with Sabbath would propel him into a successful solo career as a recording artist and a top touring act. What’s harder to figure out — the light mystery at the heart of the Prince of Darkness — is how he became a sitcom dad in The Osbournes, remained popular enough until this summer to headline the “Back to the Beginning” concert in Birmingham on July 5 and loomed large enough as an icon to receive a tequila-poured tribute from Drake that made it into the paper of record. In the end, even the Gray Lady bowed.
His secret, I suspect, was not taking himself too seriously.
This might sound bonkers considering just how serious Sabbath sounded — not to mention how genuinely frightening Osbourne seemed in the eighties. As a pre-teen early in that decade, I heard rumors that Osbourne bit the head off a live bat (true, but he thought it was fake), did the same to a dove (apparently true) and sacrificed live chickens onstage during his show (I can find no evidence of this, although he apparently once put a chicken full of antifreeze on a fence to scare away coyotes). This sounded dangerous — but, since parents hated it, possibly also fun.
Two decades later, he was a befuddled sitcom dad, struggling to figure out how to work the remote control on The Osbournes. He didn’t seem frightening at all — just slightly confused, dedicated to his family, knowing about his flaws, and much more plainly decent than anyone would have suspected. This figure who once menaced parents was a parent himself — one who just happened to have a job as a rock star.
The reason this worked was that Osbourne was in on the joke. It didn’t always seem that way — mostly because he mumbled. But he knew that the idea that the Prince of Darkness couldn’t housetrain his dogs was comedy gold. And, like few other rock stars, he wasn’t afraid to laugh at himself.
This might seem like slight praise, but how many aging pop stars, especially in rock, realize that, on some level, they are professional entertainers doing a young person’s job? (They can also be serious artists! This isn’t mutually exclusive.) This also changed with the times. In the ’70s and ’80s, a little mystique went a long way — Led Zeppelin hardly ever appeared on television, and it probably helped. By the end of the nineties, maintaining an image seemed tired — the radical move was to embrace exposure, deflate the myth, offer a view backstage, or at least a limited view of it.
Osbourne became bigger than ever. The Osbournes boosted Osbourne’s albums and Ozzfest, and he was on the cover of Rolling Stone in May 2002 and then again in July. In 2004, MTV created “Battle for Ozzfest,” a contest to win a spot on the tour — booking as a revenue stream. His wife, Sharon Osbourne, became a celebrity in her own right, the wickedly funny host of a UK talk show, judge on the UK X-Factor and co-host of The Talk. Sometimes, she was the truly scary one, extreme and even vindictive in the defense of her client and husband. Every artist should be so lucky.
Osbourne slowed down after his 2018 “No More Tours II” concerts — they took place a full quarter decade after his “No More Tours” shows — and his music, at least before his death, didn’t stream in a way that reflected his fame and his appeal as a touring act. He took quite a final bow, however, at “Back to the Beginning,” an all-star metal show that raised £140 million ($188.4 million) for Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Cure Parkinson’s. It seems like quite a charitable move for a guy who started his career singing about Satan. But the truth is that Osbourne was both more complicated than he appeared — and at the same time not so complicated at all.
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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