The two artists are set to be joined by five other American acts, including country icon Willie Nelson, rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, rapper Missy Elliott, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow and rhythm and blues vocal group the Spinners.

Bush has been nominated three times in the past five years (2018, 2021, 2022) but 2023 is the year she finally claims her prestigious place among music’s greats. Having released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including her first, “Wuthering Heights“, released in 1978 when only 19 years old, which reached number one in the UK and stayed there for four weeks, Bush is a late 70s and 80s music icon.

Watch the music video for “Wuthering Heights” below:

She recently came back to the limelight following the resurgent success of hit single “Running Up That Hill“, reaching UK number one a full 38 years since it was first released. The resurgence came after the song featured in the extremely popular Netflix drama Stranger Things. If Bush was to travel to New York to accept her induction and perform, as is customary, it would be her first public appearance since 2014, and as such would greatly excite her many fans.

Michael received his induction by way of a fan vote, receiving 1.04 million votes, just ahead of fellow nominee and singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper. Michael is one the best-selling musicians of all time, achieving widespread success both in the UK and the US, releasing seven UK number one singles and eight US number ones. His induction also coincides with the 40th anniversary of Wham!’s debut album, Anniversary. 

Watch the music video for “Careless Whisper” below:

Artists who were nominated this year but din’t make the cut include English post-punk band Joy Division (subsequently New Order) and English heavy metal group Iron Maiden. Cyndi Lauper, as previosly mentioned, also didn’t make it, along with American rock band Soundgarden, brother and sister rock duo the White Stripes, singer-songwriter Warren Zevon and legendary New York hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest.

Other winners include DJ Kool Herc and guitarist Link Wray, both receiving the Musical Influence Award, while the Music Excellence Award will be awarded to singer Chaka Khan and songwriters Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin, and television presenter Don Cornelius is set to win the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be held at the Barclays Center in New York in November.

Hynde herself was inducted into the Hall of Fame back in 2005 as part of The Pretenders, but has since taken to social media to decry its relevance. She stated, “I don’t even wanna be associated with it. It’s just more establishment backslapping.”

She continued, “Other than Neil Young’s participation in the induction process, the whole thing was, and is, total bollocks. It’s absolutely nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll and anyone who thinks it is is a fool.”

Despite being inducted back in 2005, Hynde seems to have always viewed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a negative light.

In her Facebook post, she stated, “I got in a band so I didn’t have to be part of all that. I was living a happy life in Rio when I got the call I was being inducted. My heart sank because I knew I’d have to go back for it as it would be too much of a kick in the teeth to my parents if I didn’t. I’d upset them enough by then, so it was one of those things that would bail me out from years of disappointing them. ( like moving out of the USA and being arrested at PETA protests and my general personality ).”

This discussion was sparked after Courtney Love called for more female acts to be inducted. Love shared her outrage at the lack of diversity on social media, telling the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to “GO TO HELL IN A HANDBAG BRO!”

@rockhall GO TO HELL IN A HANDBAG BRO!

I wrote this for the @guardian https://t.co/sjpCeYcqyY

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) March 17, 2023

Love, the lead singer of grunge band Hole, subsequently wrote an article for The Guardian in which she highlighted that “barely 8% of its inductees are female. The canon-making doesn’t just reek of sexist gatekeeping, but also purposeful ignorance and hostility.”

She continued, “the nominations for this year’s class, announced last month, offered the annual reminder of just how extraordinary a woman must be to make it into the ol’ boy’s club.”

Love also drew attention to the fact that “it doesn’t look good for black artists either.” “If the Rock Hall is not willing to look at the ways it is replicating the violence of structural racism and sexism that artists face in the music industry, if it cannot properly honour what visionary women artists have created, innovated, revolutionised and contributed to popular music – well, then let it go to hell in a handbag.”

Love responded to Chrissie Hynde’s Facebook post on Twitter, writing “principals b4 personalities!”

ARTISTS! Beef off the table. Principals b4 personalities! @chrissiehynde (blew my world into a rainbow in 79 #GOAT ) TBC. I would not accept, don’t need! @rockhall. BRO it isn’t 4 me I speak. THAT BOARD NEEDS A HOSE DOWN so women & poc can FEED THEIR KIDS. Not just Bon Jovi pic.twitter.com/LVJpPUa1g6 — Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) March 17, 2023

Love has continued her tyrade on social media, claiming she was previously “silenced by boos” when she has previously tried to speak her mind.

BRO! @billboard

Me @rockhall HOLDING MY TONGUE.

When I went to speak? I was silenced by boos… So, yeah. pic.twitter.com/2mHdeuNSF7

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) March 17, 2023

Hynde and Love have both been met with varying receptions from fans after sharing their controversial standpoints.

The Pretenders are rumoured to be releasing a new album this year titled Relentless with the release date yet to be confirmed.

See The Pretenders at Midnight Sun Weekender Festival. Tickets available here.

The band will be accepting the Award for Musical Excellence at this year’s award ceremony in November in Los Angeles. The category was established in 2000 as the “Sideman” award, with artists such as Chet Atkins and King Curtis winning it before it changed its name to the Award for Musical Excellence 10 years later.

At the time of the categories’ name change, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation chief Joel Peresman told the Plain Dealer that the category “gives us flexibility to dive into some things and recognize some people who might not ordinarily get recognized.”

The website for the awards states, “The Award for Musical Excellence shall be given to artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music.” The winners are chosen by a different committee to the Hall’s main voting body, there is also no limit to the number of artists who can receive the award and it is not required to be given out every year.

When asked about how he felt about receiving The Musical Excellence Award this year, Halford said, “Why haven’t they given us the same title as all of our friends. Black Sabbath, for example. There’s a different tag, isn’t there?” Pressed on the matter, he said, “Well, yeah, I was pissed. I was a bit pissed. At the end of the day, does it matter?”

Halford continued, “Some days, I go, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. We’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Be grateful. Shut the hell up. ‘And then there are other days where I’m like, ‘God damn, why did they give us the Musical Excellence Award?’ Because it sounds very, you know, grandiose. ‘The Musical Excellence Award, reserved for blah, blah, blah.’”

He finished the interview by saying, “and on the other side, it’s like, ‘Great. Everybody else got that and we got shafted with this.’ Judas Priest are still the Rodney Dangerfield of heavy metal. They can’t get no respect.”

Judas Priest formed in Birmingham in 1969 often ranking among the top metal bands of all time, their albums selling more than 50 million copies worldwide. Despite a body of inventive and pioneering work in the latter part of the 1970s, the band didn’t achieve significant commercial success until 1980, with their album British Steel reaching number four on the UK charts. Watch the official video for “Breaking the Law” from their album British Steel below.

UK Tour dates Jan/Feb 2020

See https://t.co/lgBNh6Xxej for ticket links pic.twitter.com/E5cBv0vGDL

— Judas Priest (@judaspriest) September 9, 2019

You can catch Judas Priest on tour in the UK in 2023 on Ozzy Osbourne’s 2020 rescheduled No More Tours 2, tickets are available here.

31/05/2023 – Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham
02/06 – Utilita Arena Newcastle – Newcastle Upon Tyne
04/06 – OVO Hydro – Glasgow
07/06 – AO Arena – Manchester
10/06 – 3Arena – Dublin
12/06 – The O2 – London
14/06 – Resorts World Arena – Birmingham

For nearly 50 years, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has recognized the achievements of the artists who put words and music together. We revealed the six artists of the 2019 class, including @MissyElliott, the first female hip-hop artist to be inducted. https://t.co/TUgScFnmVDpic.twitter.com/rJALbUNElx

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 12, 2019

 

Missy Elliot becomes only the third rapper to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, after Jay Z in 2017 and Jermaine Dupri in 2018 and the decision has achieved widespread praise from fellow recording artists and fans. With Elliot herself saying how humbled she was.

YOU ARE THE BLUE PRINT . Without you we would not know how to flip it and reverse it . PeriodT . I love youuuuu @MissyElliott , congratulations !!!! https://t.co/CqqgCP0jds — Janelle Monáe, Cindi (@JanelleMonae) January 13, 2019

Described as “One of the most significant female artists in contemporary music history” Missy Elliott, born 1st July, 1971, has been at the top of the music industry for over twenty years. She has won 5 GRAMMY® Awards and released six studio albums which included the timeless hits “Get Ur Freak On” (2001) and “Work It” (2002). She has also wrote hit songs for a wide range of artists including Beyonce, Whitney Huston and Mary J Blige. In 2016 she appeared on Car Pool Karaoke with the serving First Lady Michelle Obama.

The other artists to be inducted into The Hall of Fame include ‘Wild World’ songwriter Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). Born in London in 1948 he has been releasing music since the mid-1960s, with his most recent album ‘The Laughing Apple’ being nominated for a GRAMMY® in 2017. American country stars John Prine and Tom T. Hall, record producer and musician Dallas Austin and Californian songwriter Jack Tempchin complete this years list. They will be officially inducted on the 13th of June in New York.

Former Chic front man Nile Rodgers, president of the Song Writers Hall of Fame, released a statement explaining the nominations: “The 2019 slate of inductees represents diversity and unity across genres and gender, highlighting our dedicated mission to honor music creators who have enriched our lives. These are writers who in their time literally transformed music and helped make what’s happening today possible”

Two decades passed since Elliot’s first release, ‘Hot Boyz’. Song Writers Hall of Fame criteria dictate artists are eligible for induction if they have a “catalog of notable hit songs” spanning over 20 years. Elliot’s nomination has therefore come in her first year possible, with Rodgers admitting on air that Elliott “one of my favorite writers of all time”

Elliot’s career has inspired countless new artists, but she’s sure to be ‘the hottest ’round’ for the foreseeable future.