Year In Review: Music artists who made a comeback in 2021

The year 2021 was quite eventful for the music industry and musicians across the globe. After a disastrous 2020, things had taken a turn for the better. The new normal became a way of life, there were vaccines available to effectively combat the virus (until Omicron surfaced and challenged the entire status quo) and the music circuit was gradually bouncing back. Live shows began to happen, musicians embarked on tours and some of them released new material as well.

Here’s a look at some artists who picked 2021 as the year for their comeback and gifted the world with new music and made it a better place.

1. ABBA- Voyage

When ABBA played their last live show, India and UK both had female Prime Ministers, David Letterman had just debuted as a talk show host, and Michael Jackson was yet to unleash his pop-culture phenomenon Thriller on to the world. Most importantly, India was yet to win a Cricket World Cup. It was in 1982 and the world has come a long way since then. The Swedish pop legends released Voyage, their first studio offering in close to four decades and garnered critical acclaim along with commercial success. It debuted at No.2 on the Billboard 200, which is the best the band has fared so far.

On September 2, the band released the first video of the album titled I Still Have Faith In You, which contains candid visuals of the band’s glorious past. On December 3, they released their special Christmas offering called Little Things, the royalty earnings of which will be paid towards UNICEF’s Global Child Protection Fund. As of now, ABBA is preparing for their concert slated to be held in 2022. As per the band’s official website, ‘it's the greatest ABBA performance the world has never seen. Until now’.

2. Iron Maiden- Senjutsu

Heavy metal fans across the globe went into frenzy in September this year when British heavy metal titans Iron Maiden released their epic offering Senjutsu. This was their 17th studio album and came six years after their last album Book of Souls (2015). The band had gone through a period of uncertainty in those years, especially after frontman Bruce Dickinson was diagnosed with cancer in his tongue. Dickinson, known for his operatic vocals and ability to hit the highest of the notes with effortless ease, in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment said that cancer couldn’t impede his vocals and the surgery in fact, made him sound better than before. The first song to be released was Writing on the Wall, a metal song of epic proportions. It was accompanied with an animated music video that dealt with Biblical themes and starred their mascot Eddie. Senjutsu debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200 chart and became Iron Maiden’s highest-charting album in their four-decade-long career. The band recently announced their upcoming ‘Legacy of the Beast World Tour 2022’ which is slated to begin in May in Croatia and will see them travel across the globe playing to sea of fans across boundaries.

3. Adele- 30

Towards the end of 2021, British powerhouse Adele blessed her legions of fans with an album that will be remembered for ages to come. At a time when the world was collectively going through a tough phase, moving from one tragedy to the next, Adele’s music made the world feel they aren’t alone in their sadness and pain. Her fourth studio offering, 30 comes over half a decade after her last release 25 (2015) and deals with subjects that are very close to the singer-songwriter’s heart. 30 just like its predecessors 25 and 21 (2011) debuted on No 1 at Billboard 200 and has still managed to hold on to the top spot.

Adele teased the first song of her album, Easy on Me on October 5. The 21-second black-and-white clip was enough to drive the world crazy and the message was loud and clear -- the biggest female pop singer of this generation was coming back. The album was released in November and streaming giant Spotify did something very remarkable. Acting upon Adele’s request, the streaming platform had disabled the shuffle option, thus letting people listen to an album as per the tracklisting or the way the artists intended them to. Last month Adele announced her first-ever Las Vegas residency, where she will play twice a week at the Colosseum of Las Vegas at Caesars Palace. She is slated to play 24 shows starting January 21 until April 16.

4. John Mayer- Sob Rock

Guitar virtuoso John Mayer went into an experimental mode during the pandemic and decided to bring back the signature sound of the 80s in his own style. The result was Sob Rock, his eight studio album after a gap of four years, which had equal doses of comfort and catharsis. Sob Rock was like a dose of nostalgia for the fans of 80’s music which was dominated by the synth-pop, glam rock and a very dominant snare sound. It debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart in July. The album’s first song ‘Last Train Home’ was released on June 4 and the music was oozing the classic 80’s vibe -- twin keyboards, snare and Mayer playing away in his unconventional pink PRS Silver Sky. The influence of artists like Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Bryan Adams, U2, Phil Collins et al who dominated the decades between mid 70s to early 90s on the album was evident throughout. Mayer will be embarking on his ‘Sob Rock’ tour starting on January 7 in Mexico.

5. Zac Brown Band- The Comeback

The American country band led by Zac Brown had big plans before the pandemic hit and disrupted everything. The band was forced to cancel shows and delay releases as well. But things that had fallen apart during the early days of the pandemic fell back into place in 2021 and their album ‘The Comeback’ was finally out.  Still the journey was not smooth and they faced huge roadblocks in their quest to play live music. Frontman Zac Brown tested positive for COVID-19 in September, due to which they had press pause on their ‘The Comeback Tour’. The album was successful one, with audience lauding the bands effort of fighting all odds and creating music. Their single 'Same Boat' rose the ranks in the Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart to reach #1. Zac Brown Band also released a series of videos on Youtube, including ones that give a rare ‘behind-the-scene’ glimpse of how they write their songs and proceed in the process of songwriting and music production. The band will be touring in USA in Spring-Summer 2022 as per their official website.

6. Diana Ross- Thank You

American singer Diana Ross has had a long, eventful and successful career. From being the lead singer of the best-selling group Supremes in the 1960s to going solo in the next decade, the legendary R&B-Pop singer has entertained and influenced people across the globe. She had also ventured into acting and filmmaking across films and television. Ross made a comeback in 2021 with her 25th album ‘Thank You’ after a 15 year long hiatus.  The Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame Award winner is the second artist infuential artist of the 70s-80s after ABBA, who released new, original music after a long break in 2021. The first single of her album, also titled ‘Thank You’ was released on June 17. The complete album was released in September. As per concert promoting and production Company, Senbla, Ross will be embarking on her ‘Thank You Tour’ in mid-2022 and will playing extensively in the UK.

7. Lorde- Solar Power

New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde released her third album ‘Solar Power’ in 2021. It became her third consecutive album to clinch the top spot on the Billboard‘s Alternative Albums chart after her debut Pure Heroin (2013) and Melodrama (2017). The 25-year old artist is well known for her unconventional vocal style and her lyrical themes which are brooding and inward looking. Her latest album is a steady departure from her earlier ones, in terms of sound and theme. The electro-pop dominated sound has paved away for a soulful-acoustic guitar driven sound sound, which is evident in her song ‘Solar Power’.

Lorde had shot to fame with her debut single ‘Royals’ in 2013. She was appreciated for her vocal quality, which falls in the same league as that of Adele, Florence Welch (Florence + the machine) and Lana Del Ray. Royals had won the Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Grammy Awards, while Pure Heroin had received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Aged 17, she became the youngest artist ever to win a Grammy for Song of the Year. Her second album ‘Melodrama’ had bagged an Album of the Year nomination at the 60th Grammy Awards. Lorde will be touring across the globe starting spring 2022. A majority of her shows in North America, Europe and her home country New Zealand as already sold out.

8. 2PM- Must

Another band that impressed the world with their comeback was K-pop band 2PM. The Seoul based band had taken a taken a hiatus in 2017 for the mandatory military service and came back with their seventh album Must in June. The album was roaring success and had broken the band’s previous record in terms of sales. As per reports, the album sold close to 80,000 copies in its first week, which was way more than their previous offering Gentleman’s Game (2016). The band’s music video from the album, ‘Make It’ got good response from their fandom which was craving for music for almost half a decade. In terms of sound, they had retained their core electronic base and added elements of jazz-like pop. K-pop has gained immense popularity over the last few years along with Korean TV shows called K dramas. Fellow band BTS stands as one of the most popular bands of the current generation and is also known for their immense influnce on social media circuits and their legions of fans called ‘BTS Army’. BTS became the first ever Kpop band to bag a Grammy Nomination, when their song ‘Dynamite’ was nomintaed for ‘Best Pop/Duo Group Performance’ at Grammy Awards 2021.

Honourable Mention: Metallica

No, Metallica didn’t make a comeback in 2021, nor did they release any new material. Yet the American thrash metal giants managed to dominate news cycles with their shows and celebrations. They had two milestones to celebrate over the past couple of months. Firstly, their 40th anniversary as a band. San Francisco went on to declare December 16 as “Metallica Day” as a mark of respect for their contribution to music, art and culture globally. The second reason for the celebration was the 30th anniversary of their genre-altering and career-defining Black Album. Released in 1991, Black Album is hailed as one of the best metal albums ever made and saw the band leave their comfort zone of making fast-angsty-hard hitting songs and experiment without limitations, eventually breaking new ground in metal songwriting.

It became the band’s first album to chart the No.1 position on the Billboard 200 at the time of release and continued to dominate the metal circuit for the years to come. Metallica re-issued the album, along with a compilation album featuring 53 artists who covered the 12 songs of the original album. It also features Indian artists Vishal Dadlani, Divine and Shor Police, who had collaborated to cover their song Unforgiven.