A concert cancellation and the disappearance of the group's website and social media accounts left many fans fearful of a breakup, but that fear is unfounded, sources say.
Paramore is a free agent. That, rather than the band's breakup, is why most of the group's online presence was suddenly deleted, sources tell Variety.
The band's long-standing website, paramore.net, now results in a “404 Not Found” message that alarmed many of the group's fans. It's not because of a division. According to sources, the site closed the day the group's 20-year contract with Atlantic Records expired.
Aside from the website being broken, most of Paramore's social media accounts were also deleted. The group's Twitter and Instagram pages – with 5.3 million and 3.5 million followers respectively – show no posts, and their Threads account appears to have been deleted; Only the group's Facebook account still contained archived posts at the time of this writing.
The only thing left on Paramore's Instagram account is a “story” in which he apologizes for canceling a featured performance at iHeart's upcoming AlterEgo concert in Southern California. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Paramore will no longer be able to attend and perform at the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO on January 13,” the statement read. “The band apologizes for any inconvenience caused.” (Fall Out Boy was announced as a replacement headliner at the multi-artist iHeart show on Thursday.)
The cancellation further worried fans, who wondered if it was a sign of a breakup after the sudden social disappearance. However, sources say the cancellation was actually due to scheduling conflicts for key attendees.
Paramore has a busy year of touring ahead of them, most notably on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Europe. The group joins Swift for the first-ever European date in Paris on May 9th and will then remain on the tour for more than three months, leading up to the European finale on August 20th in London. (Gracie Abrams then joins Swift as a prelude to a final round of North American dates in November and December.)
Before Paramore joins the Eras tour, they have a few festival dates in Central and South America coming up in March.
Speculation that Paramore would disband and leave an empty spot on the Eras tour was so widespread over the last 24 hours that Swift fans immediately began speculating about who might fill the band's spot for that tour's three-month European run .
A kind of conspiracy theory emerged around Maisie Peters as a possible European Championship opener for Swift. A print profile of Peters in the UK's December issue of Rolling Stone even said: “It's no wonder she's been hired to support Swift's European 'Eras' tour next year.” But that sentence was from the web version of the story was removed, leading Swifties to speculate: What did Rolling Stone know about Paramore and when did they know it?
Peters himself I sorted that out Friday morning in a post on X (formerly Twitter): She's not on the Eras Tour – instead of Paramore or anyone else. “Girls I'm scared I'll hopefully be screaming all too well at Wembley this summer but it'll be screaming from the stands!” the young star posted. “I’m not an era tour opener! Unfortunately the rumors are just rumors!:
Paramore's contract with Atlantic has caused some public confusion over the years since Hayley Williams was recruited as a solo artist and her signing to the label predates what some accounts of the band's history refer to as the band's inception.
The Atlantic contract was actually a solo contract with Williams, who in 2003 signed a much-touted “360 deal” that gave artists not only the income from their album sales, but also concert, merchandise and other income share with her label, in return supposedly more comprehensive career support. However, the nature of the deal caused disagreement within the band and was cited as the reason for brothers Zach and Josh Farro's departure in 2010. Zach Farro rejoined in 2017; In addition to Williams, he and guitarist Taylor York, who joined in 2009, are the official current band members.
In a long-deleted blog post in 2010, Josh Farro wrote: “After many meetings between Hayley, her manager and the labels, they decided to sign her to Atlantic Records. We didn't understand why Hayley was the only one to sign the contract as we were told it was a “band” but we were too young to understand it all. … All the while we were still wondering whether we were a real band or not, but Hayley continued to insist that we were, even though we were ignored and pushed around by the label.”
Paramore's latest album, This Is Why, was released just 11 months ago on February 10th and was well received, appearing on many best of 2023 lists in recent weeks. (The album title “The News” appeared on Variety's list of the best songs of 2023.) After appearing on many of Swift's Eras tour in the U.S. last spring and summer, Paramore ended their 2023 tour with a series of headline shows in Australia in late November.