The 89th Academy Awards took place last night at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel the evening was peppered with political talk and ended with one of the biggest snafus since Steve Harvey crowned the wrong Miss Universe in 2015.

The night kicked off with “Best original Song” nominee, Justin Timberlake entering the Dolby Theater from the back and singing and dancing his away to the main stage up the aisle. He stopped to greet his “Mickey Mouse Club” costar, Ryan Gosling. Once on stage, JT was joined by his Tennessee Kids and a crew of dancers only to jump back off stage to dance with Halle Berry, Denzel Washington and wife, Jessica Biel. It was an upbeat start with Justin Timberlake entirely in his element, only further fueling the hopes of a new JT album and tour.

Kimmel for his part tried to keep his monologue light and his antics fun, dropping Red Vines and Jr. Mints on to the presumably hungry crowd and also kidnapping a bus full of Los Angeles tourists who only thought they were getting a bus ride through town to look at houses.  

Other performances were peppered throughout the night including John Legend, Sting, and 16 year old, Moana star, Auli’I Cravalho, who took getting hit by a flag during her performance with co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda in stride.

Miranda for his part did not win his ‘O’ in the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). The award for Best Original Song instead went to Justin Hurwitz for “City of Stars” from the 14 times nominated motion picture, La La Land. The movie went on to take home 6 of the 14 nods including Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director for Damien Chazelle, who at 34 became the youngest person to win the award.

For the biggest, most memorable moment of the night, Click Here.

Written by Kristen

Virginia singer Chris Brown has announced dates for “The Party” North American tour via his Instagram page. Support will come from 50 Cent, Fabolous, O.T. Genasis and Kap G.

The tour will span 33 cities and kicks off March 31st in Baltimore, Maryland before concluding May 23rd in Los Angeles.

Brown’s shows are known to feature surprise guest spots and, according to a press release, fans are encouraged to “get [to the show] on time each night” to be part of a “historical movement.”

Brown’s most recent single, “Party,” features appearances from Gucci Mane and Usher. His upcoming album, Heartbreak on a Full Moon, is expected to be released this year through RCA Records. 

For the full list of tour dates, Click Here.
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Written by Eugene

​The Ticket Galaxy offices are located in South Windsor, CT and this weekend, the world famous, Harlem Globetrotters played a mere hop, skip and a jump away at the XL Center in Hartford. To celebrate our partnership as the Official Secondary Ticket Partner of the Harlem Globetrotters, Ticket Galaxy took a team outing to see the Globies live!

Prior to the show, Ticket Galaxy team members along with their invited guests, were provided a catered lunch in one of the suites at the XL Center. Prior to heading down to their seats, everyone was treated to a photo opportunity with select Harlem Globetrotters! This was great fun for the kids in attendance (as well as the big kids) as they introduced themselves and showed off the ever-famous ball spin!

Kaylee attended the event and had this to say, "Ticket Galaxy is an amazing company that has provided me with so many exciting and unforgettable experiences.  The Harlem Globetrotters game was nothing short of this.  I am so grateful for my time here and look forward to all that is sure to come."

The excitement continued as Ticket Galaxy employee, Eric and his young sons headed down on the court as part of the game-ball presentation. Even more exciting still was having Ticket Galaxy team members in attendance to witness the "Ticket Galaxy Seat Upgrade" that occurs at every Harlem Globetrotters event. There is a randomly selected family between the first and second quarter that gets brought down to court-side seats!
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All in all it was a great day for team members to step away from their desks and enjoy an event with their family and friends all while seeing the Ticket Galaxy name and logo in bright lights around the venue!

Interested in seeing the Harlem Globetrotters when they come to your town? Click Here.

Written by Kristen

Bay Area Thrash legends Metallica have announced a North American tour in support of their latest full length, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. The tour, the band’s first since 2009, will kick off in Baltimore, Maryland on May 10th and hit stadiums in 25 cities before wrapping up August 16th in Edmonton, Canada.

The trek will feature support from Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat. The latter of which will be replaced by French Progressive Metal band Gojira for the second half of the tour.

Justifying the huge scope of the venues, drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone that: “Full stadium runs can sometimes be a little intimidating. There’s all these things to worry about like, ‘You should really try to play maybe only on the weekend,’ and ‘Where do you play on Tuesday?’ and some of those practicalities can get a little bewildering. We just threw caution to the wind. Doing a stadium run seemed like the perfect thing on the back of how well this record has been received and all the good will that’s out there in Metallica’s world right now.”

​Metallica has been in the news recently as their genre-defying Grammy performance with Lady Gaga was marred by technical issues. Frontman James Hetfield was clearly frustrated when his mic wasn’t working for the first half of “Moth into Flame” and ended the performance by kicking over his mic stand and hurling his guitar to a crew member.

Ulrich brushed off the incident as a “slight technical snafu” and went on to praise Lady Gaga and the “quintessential perfect fifth member of this band.

Hardwired to Self-Destruct is the band’s first studio album in eight years. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album went to number one in 57 countries.

For the full list of tour dates, Click Here.

Another Grammy performer and winner, Chicago artist, Chance the Rapper has announced a Spring tour.

The 39 date arena tour will begin in San Diego, California on April 24th and conclude October 4th in Los Angeles. The run will include stops at JMBYLA, Boston Calling, Sasquatch, Governor’s Ball, Bonnaroo, Firefly and the Bon Iver-curated Eaux Claires festivals.

Chance the Rapper was nominated for seven Grammy awards and won three – Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, and Best Rap Performance. He made history at the award show by being the first artist to win without selling physical copies of his albums. In fact, all of his music is posted online for free. He explained his methodology in a recent Vanity Fair interview:

“After meeting with the three major labels, I realized my strength was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it. I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.”

The rapper’s latest, Coloring Book, is available now. 

​For the full list of tour dates, Click Here.

Written by Eugene

Knowing what to play on the most romantic night of the year is tough. How do you even begin to figure out what songs are considered the “most” romantic? If you’re looking to put together a play list, look no further. The below 10 songs are proven to be the crème de la crème. How do we know? We looked at it a few different ways. 

First we took a look at a list Billboard released last year of their top 50 songs with the word “love” in them. From there we narrowed it down to the five songs from their list that spent the most time at number 1 on their Hot 100 charts:

           5. “Let Me Love You” – Mario (Number 1 for nine weeks in 2005)
           4. “Endless Love” – Diana Ross & Lionel Richie (Number 1 for nine weeks in 1981)
           3. “We Found Love” – Calvin Harris feat. Rihanna (Number 1 for 10 weeks in 2011)
           2. “I’ll Make Love to You” – Boyz II Men (Number 1 for 14 weeks in 1994)
           1. “I Will Always Love You” – Whitney Houston (Number 1 for 14 weeks in 1992)

Then we took a look at the list Spotifiy released in summer of 2016 of the most popular first dance songs. Spotify named these the top five based off of playlists called “First Dance” created by Spotify users:
           
           ​5. “A Thousand Years” – Christina Perri
           4. “All of Me” – John Legend
           3. You Are the Best Thing” – Ray LaMontagne
           2. “At Last” – Etta James
           1. “Thinking Out Loud” – Ed Sheeran 

It should be noted that when Spotify released their list in 2015, “A Thousand Years”, “All of Me” and “Thinking Out Loud” were all on that list too. So those songs may be extra romantic as they have survived two wedding seasons, we’ll see if they can make it a third when Spotify releases their list for 2017. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Written by Kristen

Beyoncé showed off her bump, Adele restarted her performance and Twenty One Pilots accepted their award in their underwear. The 59th annual Grammy Awards were star studded and packed with performances and moments everyone will be talking about today.

Adele opened the show with her Record of the Year winning song, “Hello” using no special effects other than the black and white screen that showed close ups of the singer on stage. James Corden was the host for the evening and in his opening monologue took a tumble down the stairs and lost a shoe before rapping about the night’s upcoming events. The first award of the night, Best New Artist went to Chance the Rapper who would later win again for Best Rap Album. His performance later in the evening was raw with emotion as he proved you don’t need a record label to win big on the industry’s biggest night.

Twenty One Pilots won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their hit “Stressed Out” and as they exited their row they each began to unbutton their pants and drop their drawers before getting on stage. This odd-ball moment turned semi-sweet when the duo explained they used to watch the Grammy's from home in their underwear and vowed that if/when they ever won they would accept their award in the same fashion. Staying true to their word the duo did just that.

Adele had a big night, winning not only Record of the Year but Song of the Year and Album of the Year as well, even though she couldn’t help but to bow down to Beyoncé. For a brief moment many wondered if she would leap off stage and hand the award to Beyoncé the way she spoke so highly and how she felt so unworthy of the Album of the Year honor. For those wondering, no, Kanye West was not in attendance.

Entering the night with nine nominations, Beyoncé took home two including the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album, accepting with a pre-written speech. Her performance was part spoken word and part hologram as pre-recorded track spoke about the importance of being a mother. She would go on to sing two songs off her nominated album, Lemonade. Downed in gold, the newly announced but clearly pregnant Queen Bey made viewers gasp as she appeared to put way to much trust into a chair that would put her practically on her back. One might question the placement of her performance as it was extremely large scale and it was not the opener for the evening or closer but simply placed in the middle of the first half of the broadcast. 

For more on music's biggest night, Click Here.

Written by Kristen

Coming off the heels of her Super Bowl LI Half Time performance, Lady Gaga has announced an extensive world tour in support of her new album, Joanne.

The North American portion of the trek will run from August until the end of the year and will bookend a European run from mid-September to early November. See the dates below.

Upon the release of Joanne, the singer announced only a short three show run called The Dive Bar tour to promote the album. However, in late 2016, she confirmed that a more thorough tour was to come during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show.

Joanne, Lady Gaga’s fifth studio album, was released October 21st 2016 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It features guest appearances from Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine.

​For the full list of tour dates, Click Here. 

Written by Eugene

The New England Patriots were down 21-3 at the half and they ended up setting two Super Bowl records.
The first quarter ended scoreless and with Tom Brady getting sacked, twice. The second quarter ended with the Pats down 21-3. In the third, things didn’t look any better after a missed a field goal kick cost them the extra point. It wasn't until the fourth where things got interesting. The fourth started with the Pats facing a 28-9 deficit. A successful field goal and touchdown brought the score up to 28-20.

With more than three minutes left in play, the Patriots were making their way down the field in an attempt to tie the game. The Falcons had the ball just out of their fingertips a few times but they could not successfully stop the drive. At the end of the fourth it was all tied up 28-28 and for the first time in Super Bowl history there would be overtime played.

As if the past 30 minutes weren’t exciting enough, the Patriots almost clinched the win when Tom Brady passed to Martellus Bennett in the end zone only to have a flag on the play. They would have to do it again, but could they get it done? The answer was yes. Though not in a flashy, catch the pass from Brady way. James White willed the upper half of his body across the end zone just as his knees dropped and with that, touchdown, 34-28 Patriots win. Also for the first time in Super Bowl history, a team came back from more than a 10 point deficit to win the game. Roger Goodell was on hand to present the trophy to Robert Kraft, through boos, and Tom Brady was named MVP.
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To read about other things that happened during the Super Bowl (like the commercials and the halftime show), Click Here.

Written by Kristen

New York EDM duo The Chainsmokers have announced a North American tour.

The tour will see the DJs playing arenas across the country and will kick off April 13th in Miami and conclude June 10th in Queens, NY.

Main support will come from Kiiara and Emily Warren. The group has also promised a variety of special guests on Twitter, including Alison Wonderland, Illenium and Shaun Frank. It is unclear if these guests will play the entirety of the tour or just select dates.


The Chainsmokers scored their first number one single this summer with “Closer,” which features a vocal performance from Halsey. They have yet to release an album – but did tell Billboard that they expect to release their still-nameless debut in April.


​For the full list of tour dates, Click Here.

Written by Eugene