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Photo Gallery: No Doubt Open Their Sphere Residency With “Tragic Kingdom” Live for the First Time in Nearly 20 Years

Eric Alper
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Photo Gallery: No Doubt Open Their Sphere Residency With “Tragic Kingdom” Live for the First Time in Nearly 20 Years

No Doubt walked onto the Sphere stage in Las Vegas on Wednesday night and opened with “Tragic Kingdom,” a song the band hadn’t performed live in nearly 20 years. That’s how you start a residency. The show was the first of 18 dates at one of the most technologically advanced venues in the world, and it delivered on every level.

Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young tore through fan favourites including “Don’t Speak,” “Hella Good,” “Ex-Girlfriend,” and “Just A Girl,” backed by Sphere’s fully immersive LED display and Sphere Immersive Sound system. Archival footage dating back to the band’s late-80s beginnings ran throughout the show, making it feel like both a celebration and a statement.

The residency marks No Doubt’s first extended run of shows in nearly 14 years, following their 2012 Seven Night Stand in Los Angeles. It arrives on the heels of the 30th anniversary of ‘Tragic Kingdom’, the breakthrough album that defined an era and continues to connect with audiences worldwide. The band also becomes the first female-led act to headline Sphere.

Their return has been building. Reunion performances at Coachella in 2024 and FIREAID in early 2025 reestablished the band’s presence before this Las Vegas run. Sphere is the right room for a catalog this big and a visual identity this strong. The venue wraps the audience in sound and image in a way that few acts have the material to fully justify. No Doubt does.

Running alongside the residency is The No Doubt Experience, an immersive pop-up developed with Vibee and located in The Summit Showroom at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The exhibit features more than 500 artifacts from the band’s archives, interactive installations, and archival storytelling tracing their full evolution. It’s free and open to the public, with added access for Vibee VIP pass holders.

The residency runs through Saturday, June 13. Tickets and information are available at nodoubt.com.

Live at Sphere — Remaining Dates:

Friday, May 8, 2026

Saturday, May 9, 2026

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Friday, May 15, 2026

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Thursday, May 21, 2026 (Memorial Day Weekend)

Saturday, May 23, 2026 (Memorial Day Weekend)

Sunday, May 24, 2026 (Memorial Day Weekend)

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Friday, May 29, 2026

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Friday, June 5, 2026

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Friday, June 12, 2026

Saturday, June 13, 2026

All Photos below by Matt Starkey

All Photos below by John Shearer

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Mary J. Blige Adds Ten More Las Vegas Dates After Her Residency Opens to Sold-Out Crowds

Eric Alper
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Mary J. Blige Adds Ten More Las Vegas Dates After Her Residency Opens to Sold-Out Crowds

Mary J. Blige sold out her opening weekend in Las Vegas, and the demand didn’t stop there. Ten additional performances of Mary J. Blige: My Life, My Story The Las Vegas Residency have been added at Dolby Live at Park MGM, with new dates running August 28 through September 6 and October 23–31. Presales are open now, with general sale opening Monday, May 11 at 10 a.m. local time.

The residency is a full career retrospective, backed by a powerhouse live band, dynamic dancers, and a production built to match the scale of her catalog. Hits including “Family Affair,” “Be Without You,” “Real Love,” and “I’m Goin’ Down” anchor a show that moves through three decades of some of the most essential R&B music ever recorded. Blige’s voice, her raw storytelling, the whole thing lands exactly as it should in Dolby Live’s 5,200-seat room.

The opening weekend set a high bar. Surprise appearances from The Lox, Method Man, Jadakiss, and 50 Cent turned already-sold-out shows into genuine events. Each performance promises new surprises and special collaborations. A limited number of tickets remain for the previously announced May and July dates.

Britpop Icons Ash Celebrate 30 Years of ‘1977’ With Expanded Edition and Global Tour

Eric Alper
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Britpop Icons Ash Celebrate 30 Years of ‘1977’ With Expanded Edition and Global Tour

Thirty years ago, three teenagers from Northern Ireland released a debut album that became one of the defining records of the Britpop era. ‘1977’ hit number one, went platinum, and gave the world “Girl From Mars,” “Goldfinger,” “Kung Fu,” and “Oh Yeah.” Ash are marking the anniversary properly, with an expanded edition of the album and a global tour that runs from September through December 2026.

The 30th Anniversary Edition comes in three formats. The 2LP EcoRecord Green and Black ‘InkPlosion’ vinyl presents the original album on LP1, with a curated collection of B-sides on LP2, including “Day Of The Triffids,” “Luther Ingo’s Star Cruiser,” “Cantina Band,” and “T Rex.” The 2CD Digisleeve and digital edition dig even deeper.

Disc 1 carries the original 12-track album alongside four additional recordings, including the long-lost “Bittersweet Blue,” a 2026 version of “Oh Yeah,” a 2026 demo mix of “Girl From Mars,” and an acoustic 2026 mix of “Gone The Dream.” These aren’t filler additions. They add genuine dimension to a record that still sounds urgent and melodic three decades on.

Disc 2 captures a full live performance of ‘1977’ recorded at STABAL Studios in 2021, with fan favourites from the era including “Coasting,” “Sneaker,” “American Devil,” and “Silver Surfer.” It’s a document of a band that never lost the thread of what made these songs work in the first place.

The global 1977 tour kicks off in September, with dates across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Europe, wrapping in the UK and Ireland in December. Japanese dates are to be announced. Presale opens May 12 and general sale begins May 15.

Also already in the books, Ash performed a live acoustic streamed concert on May 6 from Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre, 30 years to the day since ‘1977’s’ original release. The evening was hosted by BBC Introducing’s Taylor Johnson, who guided the band through the stories behind the music.

The 30th Anniversary Edition of ‘1977’ is available on 2LP vinyl, 2CD Digisleeve, and digitally.

2026 Tour Dates:

September – Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia (dates TBA)

October/November – Europe (dates TBA)

December – UK and Ireland (dates TBA)

Presale: May 12

General Sale: May 15

Pop-R&B Newcomer Maria Ellis Maps Out Heartbreak One Single at a Time With “Relapse”

Eric Alper
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Pop-R&B Newcomer Maria Ellis Maps Out Heartbreak One Single at a Time With “Relapse”

Maria Ellis knows exactly what she’s building. “Relapse,” her new single, is one piece of a larger sequence of songs designed to map a relationship from beginning to end, each release adding context to the last. It’s an ambitious structure, and “Relapse” makes a strong case that she can pull it off.

The song occupies the tension between knowing better and doing it anyway, without pushing toward resolution. That’s a harder emotional register to sustain than either regret or defiance, and Ellis holds it with real control. The hook loops back on itself in a way that mirrors the theme, each pass carrying a bit more weight than the one before.

Musically, “Relapse” lands in a sleek pop-R&B hybrid with clear roots in early-2000s radio, rhythmic structure, layered vocals, and all, but the production stays minimal enough to feel current rather than nostalgic. Nothing in the track feels accidental, and that’s a direct result of Ellis working across songwriting, production, and arrangement herself.

Her debut EP ‘Ultrabaddie’ introduced a more self-possessed, assertive version of her voice. “Relapse” complicates that, which makes the overall project feel more complete and more honest. A songwriter who came up prioritizing expression over technical form, Ellis has been building toward this kind of emotional specificity since the start.

There’s a lived-in quality to the detail here. Writing as a way to process anxiety and loss shaped her instincts early, and those instincts still drive the work. “Relapse” is polished, but it doesn’t sand down the edges that make it real.

imagineNATIVE 2026 Rolls Out Six Special Events and 25 Media Arts Works Across Toronto

Eric Alper
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imagineNATIVE 2026 Rolls Out Six Special Events and 25 Media Arts Works Across Toronto

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival runs June 2–7 in Toronto and June 8–14 online, and the special events and media arts programming announced today match the ambition of the film slate. Six special events, 25 interactive digital works and audio experiences, and all of it open to the public. Tickets and full details are at imagineNATIVE.org.

The festival opens Tuesday, June 2 with the annual Welcome Gathering at the Spadina Museum. Performances by the Skye Dancers, food catered by PowWow Cafe, and an Indigenous artisan market set the tone for the week. That evening, the Opening Night Party moves to Malaparte on King West, with music from Six Nations singer-songwriter James N. Wilson and Ojibwe/Blackfoot DJ, producer, and performer Classic Roots. The CN Tower will be lit in imagineNATIVE’s red, blue, and turquoise for the occasion.

The free iNdigital Space + Arcade exhibition opens June 3 at the TIFF Lightbox and runs through the festival. Fourteen works spanning VR, interactive installations, video games, and projections make up the Official Selection. Standouts include Skins in the Game by Skawennati (Kanien’kehá:ka) and Jason Edward Lewis (Hawaiian/Samoan), examining misrepresentations of Indigenous people in video games, and Blood Quantum Physics by Feather Miigwans (Anishinaabe), a speculative fulldome work where Indigenous cosmology meets quantum science.

Eleven audio works accompany the interactive exhibition, drawing from podcasts and original music by artists including Jana Schmeiding (Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux), Brian Bahe (Hopi/Tohono O’odham/Navajo), The Aunties Dandelion (Kanyen′kehá:ka – Six Nations), Melaw Nakehk’o (Dene/Dënesųłiné), Jayne King and Taylor Tutawa Mclaren (both Māori), Kim Wheeler (Anishinaabe/Mohawk), January Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora Six Nations of the Grand River), and others.

The Art Crawl returns Thursday, June 4, now in its 12th year as a festival staple. Seven artist-run galleries participate, including Gallery TPW, A Space Gallery, Gallery 44, Market Gallery, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, and Vtape. The pay-what-you-can crawl features work from Kent Monkman (Cree), Darlene Naponse (Anishinaabe), Zachery Cameron Longboy (Sayisi Dene), Kay Nadjiwon (Anishinaabe), and several others pushing the boundaries of Indigenous storytelling in visual art.

TD Free Friday lands June 5, with all screenings across the festival available at no cost, supported by TD Bank. The annual Awards Presentation follows on the afternoon of June 6 at the TIFF Lightbox, hosted by Saulteaux/Cree comedian Vance Banzo. Award medallions and lanyards were created by Tuscarora WoodWorks and Two Hearts Beadwork, respectively.

Closing out the special events is The Beat, a live concert at the El Mocambo. Gary Farmer and The Dish and Spoon Band headline, the blues-rock outfit led by acclaimed Cayuga actor and musician Gary Farmer. They’re joined by Evan Redsky, a singer-songwriter from Mississaugi First Nation, and MR SAUGA, whose work is grounded in the traditional and cultural influences of the Michi Saagiig peoples. It’s a closing night worth staying for.

Festival Dates:

In-Person: June 2–7, 2026, Toronto

Online: June 8–14, 2026

TD Free Friday: June 5, 2026 (all screenings free)

Tickets and full programming: imagineNATIVE.org

Country Legend Reba McEntire Drops the Music Video for New Single “One Night In Tulsa”

Eric Alper
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Country Legend Reba McEntire Drops the Music Video for New Single “One Night In Tulsa”

Reba McEntire just released the music video for “One Night In Tulsa,” and it’s exactly the kind of moment her five-decade career earns. Filmed during her exclusive one-night-only pop-up event, “One Night In Atoka,” the video captures a stripped-down live performance inside Reba’s Place, her restaurant, bar, live music venue, and retail store in Atoka, Oklahoma. The audience was made up entirely of sweepstakes winners, making the footage feel genuinely rare.

The song itself is a return to the ’90s Country ballads that built McEntire’s reputation as one of the genre’s most defining voices of heartbreak. “One Night In Tulsa” draws on her Oklahoma roots, and the live setting gives it an intimacy that a studio recording simply couldn’t replicate. It lands beautifully.

“One Night In Tulsa” is the title track of the ‘One Night In Tulsa EP’, the first in a series of monthly music capsules McEntire is releasing throughout 2026 to mark her 50-year career milestone. Each capsule pairs a newly recorded song with a curated selection of tracks that trace the arc of her legacy. A companion playlist, “The Making of Reba,” is available now.

The numbers behind McEntire’s career are almost hard to process. Thirty-five number one singles. Over 58 million albums sold worldwide. Sixty Top 10 hits on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, the most among female artists in the format’s history. Her Top 10 streak spans five consecutive decades, putting her in rare company alongside George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton.

Beyond the music, McEntire has built one of the most expansive careers in entertainment. Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. Kennedy Center Honors recipient. A critically acclaimed Broadway run in Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. Six seasons of her self-titled sitcom. Happy’s Place, now renewed for a third season. Four seasons as a coach on The Voice. A New York Times bestselling book in Not That Fancy.

The monthly capsule rollout gives fans a structured, deepening look at what 50 years of McEntire sounds like, new music alongside the catalog, curated and connected. It’s a smart, generous way to mark a milestone this significant.

The ‘One Night In Tulsa EP’ is out now. The music video is streaming via MCA. More capsules follow monthly throughout 2026.

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imagineNATIVE 2026 Unleashes Its Most Expansive Programming Yet, Spanning 56 Nations Across 20 Countries

Eric Alper
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imagineNATIVE 2026 Unleashes Its Most Expansive Programming Yet, Spanning 56 Nations Across 20 Countries

26 years in, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival continues to define what Indigenous screen storytelling looks like on a global stage. The 2026 edition runs June 2–7 in Toronto and June 8–14 online, with a program representing 56 Indigenous Nations across 20 countries.

This year’s festival opens with AKI, a documentary feature directed by Darlene Naponse (Anishinaabe). Shot entirely in Anishnawbemowin, the film follows the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek through the seasons, with a score by Juno Award-nominated cellist Cris Derksen and multi-instrumentalist Julian Cote. It’s an extraordinary piece of work, immersive and visually unforgettable.

Closing the festival is Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), the Canadian Screen Award-nominated historical drama from celebrated Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk. A traditional Inuit love story steeped in magical realism, the film features first-time actors and brings Inuit culture and folklore to life in genuinely stunning cinematic fashion.

The gothic horror film Mārama, directed by Taratoa Stappard (Ngāti Toa/Ngāti Raukawa me Ngāti Tūwharetoa), is among the major highlights. The Victorian-era debut feature, developed through the imagineNATIVE Institute’s 2020 Screenwriting Features Lab, ventures into what’s been called “Māori Gothic” territory. It screens as part of TD Free Friday on June 5, when all screenings are free.

The dramatic features lineup is deep. Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising, directed by Shane Belcourt (Métis) and produced and co-written by Tanya Talaga (Anishinaabe), reconstructs the 1974 armed occupation of Anicinabe Park in Kenora, Ontario. Meadowlarks, directed by Tasha Hubbard (Cree), brings together Michael Greyeyes, Michelle Thrush, Carmen Moore, and Alex Rice in a story of siblings reunited after the Sixties Scoop. And Gail Maurice’s Blood Lines, her sophomore dramatic feature, is told in English and Michif and centres on a Métis community story of identity, family secrets, and reconnection.

APTN’s REZervations for Two, hosted by Scott Wabano and Kairyn Potts, makes its World Premiere as a new Indigenous blind-dating reality series, a genuinely fun and unexpected addition to the slate. It sits alongside the imagineNATIVE Originals program, showcasing new commissioned work from emerging and mid-career Indigenous filmmakers across Canada.

Special events round out the experience. The Beat, a live concert at the El Mocambo, features Gary Farmer and the Dish and Spoon Band, Evan Redsky, and MR SAUGA. The short film programs, spanning comedy, horror, family programming, experimental work, and land-based storytelling, are among the richest the festival has assembled. The youth-made shorts program includes the winning film from the 2025 imagineNATIVE Tour’s Indigenous Youth Short Film Contest.

The 2026 theme is built around urgent dialogue, resistance, truth-telling, and Indigenous knowledge as a pathway toward a shared future. Across features, shorts, and media arts, the programming delivers exactly that, with a level of ambition and range that makes this one of the most essential film festivals in the country.

2026 Festival Dates:

In-Person: June 2–7, 2026, Toronto

Online: June 8–14, 2026

TD Free Friday: June 5, 2026 (all screenings free)

Tickets and full programming: imagineNATIVE.org

Roch Voisine Brings His Lightfoot Sessions Live Tour to Fallsview Casino This Fall

Eric Alper
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Roch Voisine Brings His Lightfoot Sessions Live Tour to Fallsview Casino This Fall

Roch Voisine has a catalogue that crosses borders, languages, and decades, and this November he’s bringing it all to the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. The show, billed as Roch Voisine: The Lightfoot Sessions Live, takes place Friday, November 13, 2026, with an 8:00 p.m. showtime. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 8 at 10:00 a.m. through ticketmaster.ca.

The evening promises Voisine’s greatest hits alongside a tribute to the legendary Gordon Lightfoot, one of Canada’s most celebrated songwriters. It’s a pairing that makes sense, two figures who shaped the soundtrack of this country in ways that still resonate.

Voisine’s story is one of genuine international reach. His breakthrough album ‘Hélène’, released in the late 1980s, topped charts across Quebec, France, and Europe, selling millions of copies worldwide. He followed that momentum with a sustained career across both French and English markets, touring major international stages and collaborating with producer David Foster.

The honours have matched the output. Voisine holds the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Officer of the Order of Canada, and an honourary doctorate in music. That’s a career measured not just in records sold, but in cultural impact.

“Roch Voisine’s music has played a defining role in Canadian and international pop culture, connecting audiences through powerful storytelling and timeless songs,” said Cathy Price, Vice President of Marketing and Resort Operations for Niagara Casinos. “This performance is a rare opportunity to experience his remarkable catalogue live, in an evening of music, emotion, and shared memories at the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino.”

The OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino, ranked the number one venue in Canada by size, is the right room for a show this loaded with history. Five thousand seats, world-class production, and an artist who knows how to fill a stage.

Show Details:

Roch Voisine: The Lightfoot Sessions Live Friday, November 13, 2026 8:00 p.m. OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls, ON Tickets on sale May 8 at 10:00 a.m. via ticketmaster.ca

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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