(CAMDEN, NJ) -- Multi platinum Grammy award winning rock band Imagine Dragons have announced 20 new shows on their massive Mercury World Tour, including a pair in New Jersey. Produced by Live Nation, the summer North American tour celebrates the release of their latest album, Mercury – Act 1 (KIDinaKORNER / Interscope). Imagine Dragons, along with special guests Macklemore and Kings Elliot will come to the Waterfront Music Pavilion in Camden on Tuesday, August 16th and the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Thursday, August 18th.
Imagine Dragons teamed up with esteemed producer Rick Rubin on Mercury – Act 1, which debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. Mercury – Act 1 marks the band’s first new music since their 2018 album Origins, and features the singles “Wrecked”, “Cutthroat” and “Follow You.” “Follow You” reached No. 1 on both Mediabase’s Alternative Radio chart and Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. It marked the band’s quickest ascent to the top of the Billboard chart, surpassing the seven-week climb for “Natural” in 2018 and eight-week climb for “Believer” in 2017.
On the heels of “Enemy,” which has topped the Alternative Radio chart for the past seven weeks and is rapidly ascending at Top 40 radio (#10) and Hot AC (#9), Imagine Dragons unveiled their new single, “Bones,” the first new music from their forthcoming release Mercury – Act 2. A spirited examination of life and death, the song explodes with an infectious chorus that celebrates the intangible spark that ignites our beings.
With 49 million albums and 55 million songs sold globally, as well as 75 billion combined streams, Imagine Dragons remains one of the best-selling rock bands, reinventing the genre with their enormous breakout success across the 2010s. Billboard’s Top 3 rock songs of the decade belonged to the band – “Believer,” “Thunder” and “Radioactive.” Formed in 2009, Imagine Dragons developed a grassroots following with a series of independently released EPs before making their major label debut on KIDinaKORNER/Interscope with the 2012 EP Continued Silence.
Night Visions, their 2012 full-length debut, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2 and the lead-off track “Radioactive” topped Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart, won a GRAMMY for Best Rock Performance, and achieved RIAA Diamond status. 2015’s Smoke + Mirrors debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. EVOLVE, which followed in 2017, earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and unleashed three No. 1 Alternative radio hits: “Believer,” the GRAMMY-nominated “Thunder” and “Whatever It Takes.” All three songs were also top 5 hits at Top 40 radio, with “Thunder” rising to the No. 1 spot. The band’s fourth album, ORIGINS, debuted atop Billboard’s Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts and lead single “Natural” spent nine weeks at No. 1 at alternative radio and set the current record for all-time “most spins in a week” at the format.
Macklemore most recently released his new single “Next Year” featuring Windser (Oct 29). The new record is produced by Ryan Lewis, the first new song the two have made in five years. Macklemore’s next full length project will arrive in 2022.
Multi-platinum and GRAMMY award winning rapper Macklemore has made history as an independent artist with a combination of commercial success, critical acclaim and international appeal. ‘GEMINI’, Macklemore’s first solo effort in 12 years, was released in 2017 and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and #1 on the charts for Rap, R&B/Hip-Hop, and Independent Albums. ‘GEMINI’ includes three Platinum-certified singles, “Glorious” (featuring Skylar Grey), “Good Old Days” (featuring Kesha), and “Marmalade” (featuring Lil Yachty).
‘GEMINI’ follows two releases with producer Ryan Lewis: the multiple-GRAMMY award winning and multi-platinum album, ‘The Heist’ (which spawned two #1 singles, the Diamond-certified “Thrift Shop” and multi-platinum “Can’t Hold Us”) and 2016 release “This Unruly Mess I’ve Made”, which featured the Platinum-certified single “Downtown”.
Introducing herself to the world with a rarely-seen example of complete, raw honesty, the visual for Kings Elliot’s debut single ‘I’m Getting Tired Of Me’ acts as an emotional punch in the gut. A stark piece of candid black and white footage, captured as the half-British, half-Swiss singer had a crippling panic attack whilst shooting what she had intended to be the ‘proper’ video for the track, it’s an uncomfortable image that belies the sweet sounds that surrounded it.
In truth, however, it’s a duality that sits at the heart of everything she creates. On one hand, Kings Elliot is a wildly ambitious artist, who strives to create unique soundscapes for her confessional songs; on the other, she’s a young woman who has had to learn to embrace her struggles, who — having been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder — has fought internal demons her entire life in order to get to this point, and for whom music is not only a want but a need.
If tenacity and perseverance are things Kings Elliot has had to embrace more than most, then the songs that make up debut EP ‘Chaos In My Court’ — released track-by-track since that debut last year — are testament to the importance of both strength and vulnerability. Musically, the singer draws inspiration from the wistfully melancholic melodies of the ’40s and ’50s, realising that a version of this soothing world was where she needed her own often fraught and turmoil-laden lyrical sentiments to live, turning them into devastating songs that sound uniquely current, yet timeless.
‘Dancing Alone,’ which details the tricky task of navigating a relationship whilst having Borderline, and cinematic follow-up ‘Bitter Tonic’ — which fills its lyrics with courtly metaphors for struggle and spawned the EP’s title — are keen examples of this: tracks that explore dark and difficult emotions with a sweetness of melodic touch. ‘Call Me A Dreamer’ and ‘The Outsider’ complete Kings’ debut EP — the former, a song to her ‘well’ self to remind her that the rollercoaster is still continuing; the latter a yearning lament of someone who wants nothing more than to belong somewhere.
MERCURY WORLD TOUR DATES:
Sun Apr 10 – Victoria, BC – Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre +
Wed Apr 13 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place +
Fri Apr 15 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome +
Sun Apr 17 – Saskatoon, SK – SaskTel Centre +
Tue Apr 19 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre +
Fri Apr 22 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre +
Sun Apr 24 – London, ON – Budweiser Gardens +
Tue Apr 26 – Quebec City, QC – Centre Videotron +
Thu Apr 28 – Moncton, NB – Avenir Centre +
Sun May 01 – Quebec City, QC – Centre Videotron +
Tue May 03 – Montreal, QC – Centre Bell +
Wed May 04 – Montreal, QC – Centre Bell +
Fri Aug 05 – Salt Lake City, UT – Rice-Eccles Stadium* ^!
Sun Aug 07 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheatre* ^!
Tue Aug 09 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center* ^!
Fri Aug 12 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium* ^!
Sun Aug 14 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live* ^!
Tue Aug 16 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion* ^!
Thu Aug 18 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center* ^!
Sat Aug 20 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park* ^!
Mon Aug 22 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre* ^!
Wed Aug 24 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre* ^!
Fri Aug 26 – Tinley Park, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – Chicago, IL* ^!
Sun Aug 28 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center* ^!
Tue Aug 30 – Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre* ^!
Thu Sep 01 – Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman* ^!
Sat Sep 03 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion*!
Mon Sep 05 – Commerce City, CO – DICK’S Sporting Goods Park* ^!
Thu Sep 08 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre* ^!
Sat Sep 10 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium* ^!
Tue Sep 13 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre* ^!
Thu Sep 15 – Los Angeles, CA – Banc of California Stadium* ^!
*New Dates
+With support from AVIV
^With support from Maclemore
! With support from Kings Elliot
