Collaborating with legends, tearing down stages — she’s the rock star we need right now

Olivia Rodrigo will never settle for being just another main pop girl. She demands to be your perfect all-American rock star. O-Rod has claimed her crown as the truest, realest, most shameless rock & roller of our moment. “There’s something so special about rock music made by women,” she said in December, in her conversation with Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame podcast. “There’s a different emotional quality to it. The pain and rage and vulnerability that a woman can express through a rock song is an entirely different category. Growing up, I was so inspired by that.”

This former Disney princess has always reveled in her rock moves, ever since her first tour in 2022, when she was covering Veruca Salt and Avril Lavigne. Early on, she joined No Doubt and Sheryl Crow onstage. But she takes special pride in celebrating the Nineties feminist-­punk explosion — and claiming her place in it. This is the girl who told Rolling Stone her mom used to wake her up every morning by playing the 1990s grunge queens Babes in Toyland. (“Vomit Heart” walked so “Drivers License” could run?)

Last year was Rodrigo’s ­festival era, rampaging around the world with her lethal all-­female band. She cranked up her ­fiercest arena-slaying bravado, belting “All-American Bitch” as the bloodthirsty rock & roll animal she was always meant to be. She dropped to her knees to worship the guitar heroes in her band, Daisy Spencer and ­Arianna Powell. She sang duets with her idols, from Weezer to David Byrne. Best of all, she shared the stage with the Cure’s Robert Smith at Glastonbury, calling him “the greatest songwriter to come out of England.”

But she’s always given it up to her rock inspirations. In June, when she made her surprise appearance at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, she shocked the crowd by bringing out Robert Smith himself, who joined her to debut their then-­unreleased duet “What’s Wrong With Me.” She sang her Number One hit “Drop Dead,” with the line “You know all the words to ‘Just Like Heaven,’ and I know why he wrote them” — then she sang a duet with the man who wrote them.

Rodrigo obviously wasn’t ­kidding when she kept saying how her new tunes were inspired by goth bands like the Cure and Joy Division. You can hear that all over her blockbuster album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. She digs deep into Eighties and Nineties rock sounds: the synth buzz of “Maggots for Brains,” the electro-punk aggro of “My Way,” the post-punk guitar jangle of “U + Me = <3.” “The Cure” might be her greatest song yet, simmering in the 1990s mode of Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair. This summer, she joined the Pumpkins at ­Lollapalooza, singing the Mellon Collie banger “Thirty Three and a Third,” shortly before she was seen rocking out at a My ­Chemical Romance show.

She has made a bold ­statement with her Daisy Chain Fields festival, a wildly ­ambitious celebration of women in music, reaching back to legends like Stevie Nicks from the 1970s; Garbage, Bikini Kill, and the Breeders from the 1990s; and Karen O from the 2000s. The slate reached from ­Doechii to Katseye to Mitski, not to ­mention her old doughnut-­shop friend Chappell Roan. It’s fitting that she sang a ­triumphant duet with Sarah McLachlan, since she’s upholding the spirit of the pioneering Lilith Fair.

She keeps showing off her wide-ranging sense of rock history, with her producer-collaborator Dan Nigro, who came out of the Long Island emo scene with his band As Tall As Lions. (She’s said he suggested her joke on the album about her “yacht-rock music taste.”) Rodrigo’s unfiltered rockness is an achievement to celebrate. May she stay this unrelentlessly upset forever.

This story is part of our Reasons to Love Rock series, with all the sounds, trends, scenes, and artists that have us excited about rock music in 2026.

It just never stops for Angine de Poitrine, as it was announced they are bringing their extraterrestrial brand of Québec math-rock to the Polaris Music Prize stage.

The Saguenay duo have been added to the lineup for the 2026 Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony, taking place September 22 at Toronto’s Massey Hall. The announcement comes thef day after the band made their U.S. late-night television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they performed their previously unreleased track “Zugzegk.”

The group has had one of the most fascinating and cataclismic breakout years in recent Canadian music history. Their album Vol. II is among the 10 records shortlisted for the 2026 Polaris Album Prize, while “Fabienk” is also in contention for the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize.

They join an evening featuring performances from fellow Polaris nominees including Aquakulture, Begonia, Bibi Club, Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Elizabeth Copeland, Charlotte Cornfield, Les Louanges and Tanya Tagaq. Long List nominees Slash Need will also perform an interpretation of Peaches’ No Lube So Rude.

Back home (or at least their terrestrial residence) in Québec, Angine de Poitrine are also getting high praise at the ADISQ Awards, where they're nominated in 11 categories, just one shy of fellow Rolling Stone Canada Future of Music 2026 alum Lou-Adriane Cassidy, who leads with 12.

Just two days after launching her first concert residency in six years, Canadian superstar Céline is seeing a major surge in Spotify activity, with listeners across Europe and North America revisiting her catalogue at striking levels.

In Canada, 15 Céline songs landed among Spotify’s top 15 trending tracks, led by «On ne change pas», whose streams were up 322 percent compared with its average. ''S’il suffisait d’aimer'', ''Pour que tu m’aimes encore'' and ''J’irai où tu iras'' also posted significant increases.

France has seen an even bigger spike, with nearly 30 of her tracks trending, as Céline-mania takes over Paris. ''All by Myself (Live)'' jumped 655 percent, while ''Beauty and the Beast'' rose 516 percent. ''On ne change pas'' was up 493 percent, while ''The Power of Love'' and ''Imperfections'' climbed by more than 475 percent. The renewed interest is also crossing language barriers. ''Pour que tu m’aimes encore'' has entered the Top 10 trending songs in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and the U.S., where it was the only Céline track among the day’s Top 50 trending songs.

We also finally know what caused the delay on the opening night. Québec music veteran Robert Charlebois, who attended the opening with Céline’s family, revealed on France 5 that the singer arrived 48 minutes late because the group was waiting for Michelle Obama, according to Oprah Winfrey, who was also in attendance. Charlebois said Céline’s family was concerned because such a delay was highly unusual for her. He joked that it was more reminiscent of Madonna.

Céline Dion is scheduled to continue her residency through October 17, with a second run of performances planned for May 2027.

Drake revealed his much teased project, ‘Fear of Missing Out,’ Sept. 15

Drake revealed his elusive project, “Fear of Missing Out,” on Tuesday night.

While the video was slated to rollout at 9 p.m. ET, there were a few delays on the livestream that sent eager fans clamoring online for the release. When his not-so-short film finally dropped, viewers were taken on a tour of Drake’s sumptuous lifestyle and summer antics. The camera followed Drake dancing through his sprawling mansion and driving his lime green boat along the slick Toronto skyline; joining an intimate chat between his mother, Sandra “Icemom” Graham, and her best friends; and brandishing a pair of $150,000 Iron Man suits. The video also previewed songs with Don Toliver and Sexyy Red, and a reworked version of Ella Langley’s massive hit “Choosin’ Texas.”

Drake first began hinting at his latest offering last month, sharing photos of his family alongside the caption: “FOMO 2026.” Two weeks later, he followed that up with an image of a CD cover titled “Fear of Missing Out.”

The day before FOMO’s official drop, Drake teased the “not so short film” on social media alongside a blurry image of himself and a lengthy message. The rapper called FOMO a “self funded surrealism” and said it was a “story about making the absolute most of it all in one summer.”

He then doled out “some life advice” to consider before watching the project and said: “Nobody is coming to save you. You must use each day to decipher who you love and trust and march forward with them.”

The rapper expressed his hope that FOMO “serves as motivation to make that call, take that trip, drop that song, open that shop, see your parents, leave that relationship or stay in it forever, spend the bread, get some more etc.”

He also pushed back against what he believes in an industry that keeps “saying our genre is dying” and that videos “don’t matter.” “I still care. As much as I did on the set of Best I Ever Had,” he wrote before ending his note. “So be kind and rewind.”

A judge has recused herself from a high-profile sexual assault lawsuit against Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

A Los Angeles County judge abruptly recused herself Tuesday from a high-profile sexual assault lawsuit against Steven Tyler, marking an unexpected twist just two weeks before a trial was set to begin over claims the Aerosmith frontman abused plaintiff Julia Misley when she was a minor in the 1970s.

At an afternoon hearing in Torrance, California, Judge Patricia A. Young stated that she disclosed a potential conflict to both sides on Monday and asked how they wished to proceed. When a lawyer for Misley said the parties met but could not agree to waive the issue, Young said she had no choice but to step aside.

A source told Rolling Stone that Young informed the parties she had been consulting with another judge about the long-running lawsuit and only recently learned that was a problem because the other judge had previously been removed from the case for undisclosed reasons.

“As a result of the parties not waiving, I will officially disqualify,” Judge Young said from the bench. “Once I discovered the basis for my disqualification, I did not take any further action, so anything that was an open question as of last Friday … I have not ruled on those, and I will not rule on those.”

Judge Young said the upcoming Sept. 28 trial date would “automatically” be taken off calendar. It was not immediately clear when the case would be reassigned or a new trial date set. Attempts to reach lawyers on both sides for comment were not immediately successful.

In her lawsuit initially filed in December 2022 and first reported by Rolling Stone, Misley claimed that Tyler sexually abused her for years beginning in 1973, when she was a high school sophomore, and he was 25. Tyler denied the claims and asked the court to dismiss the entire lawsuit, arguing that he lived with Misley in Boston for the vast majority of their relationship, where the age of consent was 16. He argued that Massachusetts law governed the relationship even when he traveled with Misley, formerly Julia Holcomb, in other states.

Tyler succeeded in getting much of Misley’s case dismissed, including allegations tied to alleged conduct in Oregon and Washington. But Misley and her lawyers persuaded the court that Tyler was still subject to local laws when he traveled with her in California and that the state’s Child Victims Act, enacted in 2019, had temporarily revived otherwise expired claims by giving survivors of childhood sexual abuse a three-year window to sue.

Misley claimed in her lawsuit that Tyler invited her backstage when they first met in Portland in 1973, a month after her 16th birthday. She said he had sex with her that night. They had sex again in Seattle, at the next stop on his concert tour, she claimed. The age of consent in Oregon and Washington at the time was 18.

Misley claimed Tyler also brought her to California for an awards show and dragged her naked onto an elevator so he could have sex with her in a pool. She alleged she was groomed into a three-year relationship in which Tyler became her legal guardian.

In his 2011 memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, Tyler recalled the guardianship arrangement, noting their age difference. “I was so in love, I almost took a teen bride. I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights, and her parents fell in love with me, signed papers over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state,” he wrote.

Tyler recounted having sex with Misley on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston. He also described the incident that Misley says took place at the Beverly Hills hotel. He wrote that he and Misley were naked in the hotel elevator after having sex in a hot tub, and “when the doors opened, there was an Amish family staring at us like figures in an oil painting.”

In a series of recent pretrial rulings, Judge Young said Misley could present evidence to the jury that Tyler “held himself out to be her guardian,” as well as testimony about how she viewed her circumstances at the time. But in a victory for Tyler, the judge ruled that jurors could hear evidence Misley had “consented” to the relationship.

In a controversial ruling, Judge Young said jurors would have to decide whether Tyler occupied a “position of authority” over Misley. If they found that he did not, she said, evidence of consent would be relevant because “consent is a defense.”

It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether the next judge assigned to the case would revisit Judge Young’s evidentiary rulings heading into a new trial date.

Finneas in April 2026.

Finneas and every other artist supporting Ed Sheeran on his Loop Tour have withdrawn from the trek after Macklemore was forced off it following onstage comments he made in support of Palestinians and critical of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Finneas, the singer-songwriter best known for his work with sister Billie Eilish, will no longer open for Sheeran on the upcoming South American leg of the Loop Tour, which was set to begin in November. “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” he wrote on Instagram. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.”

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Additionally, the other two openers for the U.S. leg — Danish pop artist Lukas Graham and Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe — announced they would not partake in the rest of the U.S. leg of the Loop Tour.

On Instagram, Graham wrote, “It’s hard to watch families in other parts of the world burying the people they love. We should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up. Wherever they live. Whatever flag flies over them.

“Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we’re allowed to acknowledge,” he added. “I love Ed, and I’m grateful for everything we’ve shared. That hasn’t changed. But I can’t put these words out into the world and carry on with this tour as things stand. We’re withdrawing from the remaining dates. I’m sorry I won’t be there. This is a difficult decision, but it’s one I need to stand by.”

“I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage,” Rowe wrote on Instagram. Rowe added that he did not “take the decision lightly,” thanking Sheeran for his friendship and for the opportunities he’d given him. “But,” Rowe continued, “as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation… I need to be true to myself and my ancestors who resisted colonization, and fought for a freedom that I enjoy today in Ireland.” (Humanitarian groups and a United Nations commission have said Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel and its allies, including the United States, have denied this.)

Sheeran is also losing the support of Beoga, a traditional Irish folk band who join him onstage for a run of songs during his set. The band said they made the decision to leave the tour “following the silencing of Macklemore by zionist lobbies.”

Like Rowe, the band thanked Sheeran for his friendship and for asking them to join him on tour, but said: “We believe in dialogue as a means of progressing the plight of the Palestinian people. As musicians, playing to those crowds every night is the stuff of dreams but to play in venues that silence anyone advocating for a Free Palestine is simply not an option for us.”

They added, “We were there for Macklemore’s performance and speech. We fully supported his message, so did most of the audience in MetLife Stadium, which terrifies the lobbies. Go back and read the transcript if you’re in doubt. We are Irish people who understand colonialism. As founding members of the Irish Artists for Palestine movement, we are committed activists for justice and will continue to be. This whole episode is once again serving to distract form the real issue, over 1000 Palestinians have been killed since the most recent so-called ceasefire.”

Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s Loop Tour on Monday after several venues told Sheeran they would not allow gigs to take place if the Seattle rapper was still on the bill. Macklemore was heavily criticized by pro-Israel groups for his actions at two shows at MetLife Stadium, where he expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, shouted “Free Palestine,” shared images of the devastation from Israel’s war in Gaza, and performed his protest song, “Hind’s Hall, about pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University.

In a statement, Macklemore said New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, led the effort to pressure Sheeran into dropping Macklemore. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium,” Macklemore wrote. “Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”

Kraft, for his part, confirmed he would not allow Macklemore to perform at Gillette Stadium, which he owns. He said the decision was based on the rapper’s “recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.” Kraft, however, did not address Macklemore’s claim that he also “rallied” other stadium owners to pressure Sheeran into dropping Macklemore.

On Tuesday, Sheeran reiterated that the decision to drop Macklemore was not his, but that of promoter Messina Touring Group following pressure from the venues. “I have spent this week trying to build bridges, to find a solution and unfortunately, was unable to do so,” Sheeran wrote. “I know who I am, both as a person and as an artist, and those who know my heart know my values too.”

Reps for Sheeran did not immediately return requests for comments regarding the decisions of Finneas, Rowe, and Beoga.