2006 in music
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Events
- January – James Nicholl, drummer of Pay*Ola became ill and was admitted to hospital. He has since been released and made a full recovery.
- January 3 – The Strokes release First Impressions of Earth, their third studio album.
- January 11 to January 15 – MahlerFest XIX held in Boulder, Colorado, honoring Austrian composer Gustav Mahler.
- January 13 - Igor Cavalera goes on hiatus from Sepultura due to being a Father.
- January 13 - Mylène Farmer launched her Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy (tour) at Paris-Bercy. She gave 13 concerts which ended on January 29.
- January 16 – Frontman Rob Aston announces that the Transplants have disbanded shortly after their fall tour is cancelled.
- January 24 – It was announced popular British girl-band All Saints are to regroup for a tour and album later in the year.
- January 31 – American hardcore punk band Champion announces their impending breakup, with a final show scheduled for May.

- February – Alice in Chains reform with new singer William DuVall as the replacement of Layne Staley, who died of a drug overdose in April 2002. Their planned tour will embark their first performance since 1996.
- February 1 – Vienna State Opera announced that Seiji Ozawa, a Conductor who concurrently works as a Music Director of the Opera, has had to cancel all his performance commitments for 2006 due to ill-health.
- February 8 – The 48th annual Grammy Awards are handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Madonna opens the awards for a third time. U2 is the night's big winner, with 5 awards. Mariah Carey won 3 of her 8 nominations, though those 3 wins weren't telecasted. They were her first Grammys since the first time she was nominated: Back in 1991.
- February 10 – Pioneering Hip Hop producer/MC J Dilla passes away in Los Angeles from Lupus.White Lion/Black Label Society bassist James Lorenzo joins Megadeth as the replacement for James MacDonough (who was previously in Iced Earth).
- February 18 – The Rolling Stones give a free concert to 3 million people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, possibly one of the largest ever given.
- February 22 – The 1 billionth song was downloaded on ITunes; the song was "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay.
- February 25 – The 4th Annual TRL Awards are held in New York City. Madonna wins the Lifetime Achievement Award and Bono wins the Most Inspired Artist/Humanitarian Award. Other winners include Fall Out Boy, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Ashlee Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Amanda Bynes, and My Chemical Romance. Performers included Ashlee Simpson and Chris Brown.
- March – Bon Jovi's second single, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", off the album Have A Nice Day goes to number one in the US Hot Country Charts for two weeks. For the first time ever, a rock band has achieved a number one hit in the country charts.
- March 5 – Three 6 Mafia made history as they became the first African-American hip-hop group to win an Academy Award for Best Song and also became the first hip-hop artists to ever perform at the ceremony. The group was nominated for the song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from the Hustle & Flow soundtrack.
- March 11 – James Blunt, with his track "You're Beautiful", becomes the first British artist to top the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart since Elton John with "Candle In The Wind 1997" almost nine years earlier.
- March 22 – News reports are released that Aerosmith's lead singer Steven Tyler is ill and will require throat surgery. The band cancels the rest of their tour (which was Top 3 at the time) with Cheap Trick and the band is on hiatus indefinitely until Tyler recovers.
- March 25 – Buck Owens, Bakersfield's country music player, dies.
- March 28
- Shakira re-releases her CD Oral Fixation vol. 2 with her hit single "Hips Don't Lie."
- T.I. released his 4th album KING including hit singles "What You Know" and "Why You Wanna".
- April 1,2 - The Festival Imperial was held in the Autódromo La Guácima in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
- April 4 - Hawk Nelson released their second album, Smile, It's the End of the World
- April 11 - Proof is shot and killed outside a nightclub
- April 20 – Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins confirms that the band are in the studio recording for their first album since 2000s Machina/The Machines of God.
- April 15- Super star Mary J. Blige single "Be Without You" ends its 15 week at number one on the R&B Billboard chart, making it the most successful R&B song in history.
- April 21 to April 23 – Terrastock 6, Providence, Rhode Island.
- April 25 - Popular American rock band, the Goo Goo Dolls, celebrate twenty successful years in the music industry with the release of Let Love In. The album has received amazing ratings and is widely considered as a must-have album.
- April 25 – Rihanna's second album featuring "SOS (Rescue Me)", "Unfaithful" and "We Ride" is released.
- April 29 to April 30 – The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place in Indio, California. Performers include: Madonna, James Blunt, Kanye West, Depeche Mode, Paul Oakenfold among others.
- It is rumored that Alice Cooper has began writing material for his next album, which would be his 28th. It is also rumored that Welcome To My Nightmare guitarist Dick Wagner has written material for this album.
- May 1 - 1,572 guitarists simultaneously play Jimi Hendrix' song "Hey Joe" in the town square of Wrocław, Poland, breaking a Guinness world record.
- May 2
- Tool releases 10,000 Days their 4th studio album. It is their follow-up to 2001's Lateralus.
- Pearl Jam releases Pearl Jam.
- May 8 - Mor ve Otesi, a Turkish Alternative Rock band, release "Büyük Düşler", their 5th studio album.
- May 9 – Red Hot Chili Peppers release Stadium Arcadium, their 9th studio album. It is a double album. It reached #1 in 26 countries, selling more than 1.1 millions copies in first week.
- May 10 - Roy Mayorga joins Stone Sour.
- May 11 – Dave Baksh announces that he left Sum 41 to pursue his career with his second band Brown Brigade.
- May 12 - May 17 - Guns N' Roses play 4 warm-up shows at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, preceding a European tour and shows across the U.S. No release date for Chinese Democracy is announced.
- May 13
- The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ airs the fourteenth annual Weenie Roast.
- Drummer Ryan Vandeberghe announces that The Suicide Machines have broken up after 15 years of activity.
- May 20 – Finnish monster rock band Lordi win the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", the first hard rock/heavy metal song to win.
- May 23
- Madonna opens up her Confessions Tour for her late 2005 album Confessions on a Dancefloor in Los Angeles. Tickets were sold out within minutes in North America, Europe, and Asia, resulting in new dates to be announced in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and London. The tour grossed more than $260 million – the highest grossed tour in history by a female artist.
- The Wreckers release their debut album, Stand Still, Look Pretty.
- May 24 – Taylor Hicks wins American Idol, season 5. Katharine McPhee is the runner-up.
- May 26 – Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale have their first baby boy, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale.
- June 1 – Youngbloodz and entourage arrested on drugs and weapons charges in Atlanta, Georgia.

- June 6 – Metallica play their new song (Yet to be titled) for the first time in Berlin and AFI release the album decemberunderground. Ice released his first album since year 2000 (excluding 'Greatest Hits' in 2001) 'Laugh Now, Cry Later' with popular singles 'Why We Thugs' and 'Go To Church'.
- June 8 – Shakira's single "Hips Don't Lie" sells 266,500 downloads in its first week of availability, smashing D4L's record of only 175,000. "Hips Don't Lie" also breaks another record, gaining the highest airplay in a single week with 9,657 spins, breaking Gwen Stefani´s "Hollaback Girl" record of 9,582.
- June 9 – Nelly Furtado's new album, Loose is released and debuts at #1 with approx. 219,000 copies, making the album her 1st #1 album.
- June 12
- György Ligeti died in Vienna.
- Keane release their second studio album Under the Iron Sea, which sold in its first week 75,702 copies. It remains the first place in the UK Albums Chart despite new albums from Fatboy Slim and The Automatic
- Igor Cavalera leaves Sepultura because of Artistic Incompatibility. He becomes the Third official member as well as the Second Cavalera to leave.
- June 14 - Shakira launches her Oral Fixation Tour in Zaragoza, Spain. The concert is expected to have 100 shows in 4 continents. 4 extra shows were added to the original 1 for Miami, Florida, when tickets sold out and thousands of fans were left without them.
- June 16 to June 18 – Bonnaroo Music Festival takes place in Manchester, TN. Performers include Radiohead, Tom Petty, Phil Lesh and Friends, Beck, and Sasha.
- June 19 - "Beautiful Goal" single by Paul Oakenfold was released.
- June 20 - Christian Metal band Underoath release Define the Great Line and it debuts at number 2 and goes to sell 98,000 units in its first week of release and over 500,000 units to date.
- June 23 – Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson leaves the group to pursue other interests.
- July – Luciano Pavarotti is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
- July 1 – Glue Gun performed the first reunion concert at Harpers in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. This concert embarked the band's first performance since breaking up in 1996.
- July 4 – Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith perform with the Boston Pops Orchestra in a nationally televised event.
- July 5 – American Idol tour begins.
- July 7 – Syd Barrett, co-founder and original vocalist for Pink Floyd dies of complications from diabetes
- July 9 – Scooter, releases its long awaited live CD and DVD Excess All Areas, recorded from the "Who's Got The Last Laugh Now?" Tour 2006.
- July 11 - Jean Dolabella replaces Igor Cavalera in Sepultura.
- July 12 – Rivers Cuomo confirms that Weezer is now on hiatus again. As for the future of the band, he said "I'm not certain we'll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one."
- July 25 – Former member of Destiny's Child, LeToya releases her debut album 6 years after being dismissed from the group and staying away from the spotlight. She tops the albums chart in the United States and later in the year earns her first Platinum certificate as a solo artist.
- July 29 - Former Neighbours star Stephanie McIntosh releases her debut single Mistake in Australia, where it became a top 3 hit.
- July 30 – The last ever weekly version of Top of the Pops is broadcast.
- August 1 – 10th anniversary of MTV2's original launch and 25th anniversary of MTV's original launch.
- August 4 to August 6 – Lollapalooza, Chicago, Illinois.
- August 4 – classical and rock violinist, Monroe Clark dies.
- August 15 – Christina Aguilera releases her long awaited third album Back to Basics, #1 in 13 countries, including USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- August 22
- Paris Hilton releases her debut album Paris.
- Kelis releases her fourth studio album Kelis Was Here.
- The girl group Danity Kane, formed on the reality show Making the Band 3, releases their debut album Danity Kane.
- August 23 – Tata Young publishes her second CD in English Temperature Rising and initiates tour by the USA and two months later it publishes it in Germany.
- August 25 - It was reported that Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton was undergoing treatment for throat cancer and would sit out the first half of the band's Route of All Evil Tour, the first time he would miss any shows in the band's history. Longtime band friend David Hull filled in for Hamilton until his return.
- August 29 – Jessi Malay releases her debut single "Gimme", featuring Lil Scrappy.
- Method Man releases album - 4:21...The day after
- September 5
- The Mercury Music Prize is held in the UK, with Arctic Monkeys' debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not winning ahead of entries from acts such as Muse and Thom Yorke.
- Beyoncé released the awaited B'Day, follow-up to her multi-platinum debut Dangerously In Love.
- September 9
- John Mayer releases his third album Continuum in Australia, followed by USA on September 12. Stephanie McIntosh releases her debut album Tightropenin Australia.
- Justin Timberlake releases his long awaited second album FutureSex/LoveSounds.
- September 12 - Britney Spears and her husband at the time Kevin Federline give birth to their second child together, baby boy named Jayden James. Everclear's 7th studio album, Weclome To The Drama Club is released on the same day.
- Papa Roach releases their fourth studio album titled The Paramour Sessions
- September 19 - Ben Kweller releases his third solo album self-titled Ben Kweller released on ATO Records. Fergie releases her first solo album, The Dutchess, which peaked at #3 in the U.S.
- September 26 – Ludacris releases his fifth LP album Release Therapy. "Weird Al" Yankovic releases his new album Straight Outta Lynwood. Janet Jackson releases 20 Y.O..
- September 27 – Boy band Five announce they are to reunite – minus original bandmate Sean Conlon.
- October 3
- Brazil releases The Philosophy of Velocity.
- Lindsey Buckingham releases Under the Skin, his first solo album in 14 years.
- Evanescence releases their second album The Open Door.
- The Killers release their second album "Sam's Town"
- October 9
- Albert Hammond, Jr., guitarist The Strokes releases a solo album entitled Yours to Keep on Rough Trade Records.
- Violinist and Opera Singer, Logan Simpson is arrested for refusing to stop his car when a traffic light turns red.
- October 10 – Justin Hawkins, lead singer of the band The Darkness announces he is leaving the band.
- October 11 – After 25 years as an artist, "Weird Al" Yankovic finally gets his first top 10 hit, with "White & Nerdy".
- October 15 – Legendary New York City music club CBGB closes after a lengthy rent dispute. Patti Smith performs the final show at the club. CBGB announces it is moving to the Las Vegas Strip.
- October 17
- The cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes release their fifth studio album, sixth overall, Love Their Country. The album features covers of country and western songs from artists like the Dixie Chicks, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.
- The French singer Manu Chao performs in Colombia in front of 80,000 people.
- October 24 – The Corrs release their greatest hits collection Dreams - The Ultimate Collection.
- October 25 – Guitarist Brian May announces on his web-site that Queen is heading back into the studio for recording sessions. The lineup Queen + Paul Rodgers features May, Rodgers – the former lead vocalist of Free, and former Queen drummer Roger Taylor.
- October 26 - Duran Duran lead guitarist Andy Taylor once again leaves the band after a series of disagreements surrounding their latest album, which was still incomplete by year's end. Speculation points to his disapproval of the usage of both Timbaland and Justin Timberlake in the creation of the band's album. The band hires an interim guitarist to supplant Taylor, with no real replacement being announced.
- October 30 – Keane release the first single on a USB Memory Stick, "Nothing In My Way."
- October 31 - The Who release their first studio album for 24 years, Endless Wire
- November 7
- Ricky Martin releases his MTV Unplugged.
- Pop megastar Britney Spears files for divorce from husband Kevin Federline.
- November 8 – Nelly Furtado makes a cameo in the Portuguese soap opera Floribella.
- November 10
- R&B singer Gerald Levert dies of an apparent heart attack in his sleep at his home in Cleveland, Ohio.
- Joss Stone announces CD, to be released on March 6 2007.
- November 11
- Justin Timberlake's single "My Love" reaches number one on the Hot 100.
- Kylie Minogue resumes Showgirl - The Homecoming Tour after a year and a half when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and postponed the show.
- November 14 – A tribute to songwriter Cecilia for her 30th death anniversary.
- November 16
- MTV Latin America 2006 awards. Evanescence, Robbie Williams, Panda Nelly Furtado and Shakira performed, among others.
- Snow Patrol became the first British band to get to the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 13 years.
- The Offspring announce on their official website that they were back in the studio recording their first album since 2003's Splinter. The album is produced by Bob Rock of Metallica fame.
- Christina Aguilera announced she'll make her acting debut in CSI:New York February 2007.
- November 24 - American Music Awards air. Winners include Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Jamie Foxx, Nickelback, Sean Paul, Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and Mary J. Blige. Nelly Furtado, John Mayer, Fall Out Boy and Beyoncé performed.
- November 26 - Damien Leith takes the title as Australian Idol 2006 becoming the oldest winner of Idol in the world. He beat 16 year old Jessica Mauboy.
- December 4 - Mylène Farmer released her fourth live album, Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy.
- December 5 - The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani, The Re-Up by Eminem and Ciara: The Evolution by Ciara in stores in the U.S.
- December 6 - Beyoncé reached her fourth number one in the U.S. with "Irreplaceable".
- December 6 - Declared "Dia de Shakira" or "Day of Shakira" by the Mayor of miami.
- December 13th - David Silveria goes on Hiatus from Korn due to managing his Restaurant. There have been reports that it is also because of his Wrist Injury again hinting that he may not come back to Korn.
- December 25 - James Brown dies at 73.
- December 29 - Automatic Hotel releases debut music video " You Can Be A Rainbow (Not A Painbow!)"
- December 31 - Social Deviantz release Bleaky Deky
Bands formed
Bands disbanded
- 22-20s
- Acceptance
- Adequate Seven
- After School Special
- Arab Strap
- Audio Adrenaline
- The Beautiful Mistake (hiatus)
- The Blackout Pact
- Boysetsfire
- The Casket Lottery (hiatus)
- Cave In (hiatus)
- Centinex
- Champion
- Clor
- Cold
- The Corrs (hiatus)
- Day At The Fair
- Dead Moon
- Death from Above 1979
- A Dozen Furies
- Dropbox
- Eiffel 65
- Elefantes
- Escape Velocity (hiatus)
- E.Town Concrete
- Finch (hiatus)
- For Felix (hiatus)
- Frost (hiatus)
- Further Seems Forever
- Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
- High School Football Heroes
- Hope of the States
- If Hope Dies
- JJ72
- JR Ewing
- The Juliana Theory
- Kill Your Idols
- Kind of Like Spitting
- Le Tigre (hiatus)
- The Letters Organize
- Lillix (hiatus)
- Mest
- Mad Capsule Markets (hiatus)
- Marathon
- Midtown (hiatus)
- N'Versity
- The Organ
- Out Hud
- Peccatum
- Pedro the Lion
- A Perfect Circle (hiatus)
- Plonker
- The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower
- Preluders
- Rainer Maria
- Sleater-Kinney
- Stampin' Ground
- The String Cheese Incident
- The Suicide Machines
- Supersystem
- System of a Down (hiatus)
- Test Icicles
- This Day and Age
- Treble Charger (Texan)
- Trick Pony
- TRUSTcompany
- T.S.O.L.
- Van Halen (hiatus)
- Vendetta Red
Bands reformed
- The Afghan Whigs
- All Saints
- Alice in Chains
- Atheist
- Believer
- Blaque
- Blind Melon
- Bloodgood
- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
- Buckcherry
- Cactus
- Chavez
- Deliverance
- Five
- Genesis (with Phil Collins)
- Gorilla Biscuits
- Information Society
- Immortal
- Jodeci
- Lifetime
- Meat Puppets
- Neighborhood Watch
- Ozma
- Take That
- X-Clan