Events in Music in 2018

Jan 13 Actor Mark Wahlberg donates his $1.5M re-shoot fee for the film "All The Money In The World" to "Time's Up" movement after revelation co-star Michelle Williams was only paid $1000

Jan 23 Singer Neil Diamond retires from touring abruptly, after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease

Jan 28 60th Grammy Awards: Bruno Mars wins Best Song "That's What I Like," and Best Album "24K Magic"

Feb 27 Barbra Streisand reveals she has cloned her dog twice

Mar 30 Country singer songwriter Kacey Musgraves releases her fourth album "Golden Hour" (Grammy Album of the Year 2019)

Apr 14 Beyoncé is the first black woman to headline the Coachella Music Festival, her performance on this day the most-watched performance ever on YouTube

Apr 14 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Nina Simone; Sister Rosetta Tharpe; Bon Jovi; The Cars; Dire Straits; and Moody Blues

Apr 16 Kendrick Lamar is the first rapper and non-classical or jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music with his album "Damn"

Apr 24 Ed Sheeran's "÷" is the best-selling album of 2017, selling 6.1 million copies, according to IFPI

Apr 27 Swedish band ABBA announce they have recorded new songs for the first time since 1982

May 2 Kanye West widely criticized for saying "slavery is a choice" in TMZ interview

May 5 Childish Gambino [Donald Glover] releases the music video to new single "This is America" to wide acclaim

May 7 Met Gala 2018 "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination' is hosted by Anna Wintour, Amal Clooney, Donatella Versace and Rihanna wearing a Pope-inspired outfit

May 10 R. Kelly's songs removed from Spotify playlists after sexual abuse allegations

May 16 Painting "Past Times" by Kerry James Marshall is bought by Sean Combs for $21.1 million, most paid for a living African American artist

May 18 K-pop boy band BTS release their album "Love Yourself: Tear", sells 135,000 first week

May 27 South Korean boy band BTS are the first K-pop group to top the US Billboard 200 with their album "Love Yourself: Tear"

Jun 4 "Ocean's 8" film premieres, directed by Gary Ross starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna

Jun 6 52nd CMT Music Awards: Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood win

Jun 14 21st FIFA World Cup opens at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia with British singer Robbie Williams and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina performing

Jun 29 Drake releases his fifth studio album "Scorpion", a double album with 25 tracks

Jul 3 Cardi B becomes first female rapper to get two number one US Billboard hits, with "I Like It" with Bad Bunny and J Balvin

Jul 18 Cliff Richard wins privacy case against the BBC, for reporting he was being investigated over historic child sexual assaults

Jul 24 Singer Demi Lovato is hospitalized after a drug overdose in Los Angeles

Jul 26 Sir Paul McCartney performs a "secret" gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles began

Aug 23 Tenor Plácido Domingo sings his 150th opera role in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” at the Salzburg Festival, Austria

Aug 24 Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler sends cease-and-desist letter to President Trump demanding he stop using the band's songs at rallies

Aug 27 Former Spice Girl Mel B announces she is entering rehab for alcohol and sex addiction following her acrimonious divorce

Aug 28 Aretha Franklin lies in state at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit in a 24 carat coffin

Aug 31 "A Star is Born" film remake directed by and starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga premieres at the Venice Film Festival

Sep 1 Bishop Charles H. Ellis III apologises for groping Ariana Grande during Aretha Franklin's funeral service

Sep 7 Rappers Cardi B and Nicki Minaj come to physical blows at a New York Fashion event

Sep 7 Eminem breaks 36-year UK chart record for consecutive No. 1 albums with "Kamikaze"

Sep 10 John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice win Emmys for "Jesus Christ Superstar - Live In Concert", making them all EGOT winners, Legend is the first black male winner

Sep 22 Farm Aid held in Hartford, Connecticut; performers include Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, Sturgill Simpson, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Margo Price [1]

Sep 28 Warner Bros. Records releases American singer Cher's 26th solo studio album "Dancing Queen"; album contains cover versions of 11 songs of Swedish pop group ABBA, and lands in top 10 of charts in 19 countries

Oct 23 Freddie Mercury bio film "Bohemian Rhapsody" directed by Bryan Singer, starring Rami Malek (Best Actor Academy Awards 2019) premieres in London

Oct 26 Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor announces she has converted to Islam

Nov 2 Blue Note Records releases "She Remembers Everything", the fourteenth studio album by singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, produced by Tucker Martine and Cash's husband John Leventhal

Nov 4 Camila Cabello wins four awards at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Bilbao, Janet Jackson accepts the Global Icon award

Nov 5 Spice Girls announce a new tour without "Posh Spice" Victoria Beckham

Dec 1 Computer-animated film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" premieres in Los Angeles (Academy Award Best Animated Film 2019)