Behind the Setlist

Hailey Whitters is an Iowa-born, Nashville-based country singer-songwriter with a handful of solo albums and a Grammy nomination to her credit. Earlier this year Hailey had her first headlining tour from February to May (including some dates in the U.K. and Ireland for the C2C: Country to Country Festival in March). Next, Hailey is going out on a national tour opening for country star John Pardi starting in Irving, Texas on July 14 and finishing in Nashville on October 1. Her third album, Raised,

Ani DiFranco is an American singer-songwriter and founder of Righteous Babe Records, through which she has released two dozen studio albums and EPs since 1990 in addition to numerous live albums that capture her rousing, emotional live performances. Ani's latest album, Revolutionary Love was released in January 2021. She wrote the title track for her friend Valarie Kaur, a civil rights leader who was working on a book called Revolutionary Love Project. "I actually wrote her three songs," says Ani

Curt Smith joins Behind the Setlist to talk about Tears for Fears' new album, The Tipping Point, his excitement to play the new songs live, how to choose songs for concerts, his opinion on encores and much more. Smith and bandmate Roland Orzabal first hit the charts in the U.K. in 1982 with "Mad World." For a time, the band performed the song to sound like the darker Gary Jules and Michael Andrews version that was featured on the soundtrack to the film Donnie Darko in 2001. They have also performed

Ann Wilson, co-founder of the legendary rock group Heart, joins Glenn Peoples (Billboard) and Jay Gilbert (Label Logic) to talk about the set list from her show at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle, WA on Oct. 13, 2021. Ann played three songs from new album, Fierce Bliss, released on April 29, "Greed," "Black Wing" and a cover of Queen's "Love of My Life." And, of course, she performed a number of Heart favorites, such as "Crazy On You," "Barracuda," "Even It Up" and "Love Alive." "Some make the

Multi-platinum singer-songwriter Andy Grammer hit the Billboard Hot 100 with such tracks "Keep Your Head Up" and "Honey, I'm Good." In recent months, he released four new tracks through his own Giant Soul Records imprint through his longtime label S-Curve Records. On Behind the Setlist, Grammer talks about the art of creating a setlist -- which includes highs, lows, new tracks, a cover song or two and even his own poetry. "We all need a reason to jump out of bed," he says about his shows' positive

Billboard has a new podcast coming up called Behind the Setlist where artists talk about the songs they play live. Sometimes we talk about a specific concert. Other times we discuss how the artist approaches building a setlist and taking the audience on a journey. And we always talk about the cover songs artists play and why they choose them. Our initial episodes will be Ann Wilson (from Heart), Andy Grammer, Curt Smith from Tears for Fears, Simple Plan and John Waite of Bad English and The