This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.
Specific locations 2006 in British music 2006 in Irish music 2006 in Norwegian music 2006 in Scandinavian music 2006 in South Korean music 2006 in Swiss music
Specific genres 2006 in classical music 2006 in country music 2006 in heavy metal music 2006 in hip-hop 2006 in jazz 2006 in Latin music 2006 in progressive rock 2006 in rock music
Events January January 14 – Eminem remarries ex-wife Kim after five years of separation. January 20 – February 5 – The Big Day Out festival takes place in Australia and New Zealand, headlined by The White Stripes, Iggy and the Stooges and Franz Ferdinand. AFI withdraw due to a delay in recording their then-untitled seventh studio album, with Mylo and Jean Grae also withdrawing from the lineup. January 31 – American hardcore punk band Champion announced their impending breakup, with a final show scheduled for May.
February February 1 Vienna State Opera announces that music director Seiji Ozawa will have to cancel all of 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, USA. Madonna opens the awards for a third time. U2 is the night's big winner, with five awards, becoming the only rock act currently to win two Album of the Year awards with their win for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, following their 1988 win for The Joshua Tree. They also win Song of the Year for "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", while Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" wins Record of the Year. John Legend wins Best New Artist. Mariah Carey won three of her eight nominations, her first Grammys since 1991. Kelly Clarkson is the first American Idol contestant ever to win a Grammy. February 18 – The Rolling Stones give a free concert with about 1,3 million people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. February 22 – The one billionth song is downloaded on iTunes; the song is "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay. February 24 – Premiere of The Scarecrow by Joseph Turrin at University of Texas at Austin Performing Arts Center. February 25 – The fourth annual Total Request Live awards are held in New York City, USA. 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 March 5 Bon Jovi's second single, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", from the album Have A Nice Day goes to number one in the U.S. Hot Country Charts for two weeks. This is the first time a rock band has achieved a number one hit in the US country charts. Three 6 Mafia 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 film soundtrack. March 11 – James Blunt, with his single "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.
April April 1–2 – The Festival Imperial is held in the Autódromo La Guácima, in Alajuela, Costa Rica. April 5 – Eminem files for divorce from wife Kim, less than three months after they were married for the second time. April 11 – Rapper Proof is shot and killed by a nightclub bouncer at 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Michigan, after allegedly shooting a third man, Keith Bender, Jr, who later dies of his injuries. April 15 – Mary J. Blige's single "Be Without You" ends its 15th week at number one on the US Billboard R&B chart, making it the most successful R&B song in history. April 29–30 – The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place in Indio, California, USA. Performers include Madonna, James Blunt, Kanye West, Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, and Paul Oakenfold.
May May 1 – 1,951 guitarists simultaneously play Jimi Hendrix's song "Hey Joe" in the town square of Wrocław, Poland, breaking a Guinness world record. May 2 – Pearl Jam release their self-titled album Pearl Jam, their eighth studio album. It was also their first released album after their departure from Sony. May 8 – Mor ve Otesi, a Turkish alternative rock band, release Büyük Düşler, their fifth studio album. May 9 – Beirut release their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. May 20 – Finnish monster rock band Lordi win the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", the first hard rock and heavy metal song to win. May 21 – Madonna begins her Confessions Tour in Los Angeles, USA. 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 US$260 million – the highest-grossing tour in history by a female artist. May 24 – Taylor Hicks wins the US television talent contest, American Idol, season 5. Katharine McPhee is the runner-up.
June June 1 – YoungbloodZ and their entourage are arrested on drugs and weapons charges in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. June 6 – Ice Cube's first album in six years, Laugh Now, Cry Later, is released on his independently owned record label Lench Mob Records. The album debuted in the top five selling 144,000 copies in the first week. June 7 – World premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Freude, for two harps, in the Milan Cathedral by Esther Kooi and Marianne Smit.Karlheinz Stockhausen, 2006 Stockhausen-Kurse Kürten: Programm zu den Interpretations- und Kompositionskursen und Konzerten der Musik von / Programme for the Interpretation and Composition Courses and Concerts of the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, 8. Juli bis 16. Juli 2006 in Kürten / from July 8 to 16, 2006 in Kuerten (Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2006), 19 & 39. June 8 – Shakira's single "Hips Don't Lie" sells 266,500 downloads in its first week of availability, overtaking D4L's record of 175,000. "Hips Don't Lie" also breaks another record, gaining the greatest airplay in a single week with 9,657 plays, breaking Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" record of 9,582. June 9 Nelly Furtado's new album, Loose is released and debuts at No. 1 with 219,000 copies sold, making it her first number-one album. Igor Cavalera leaves Sepultura because of artistic differences – the third official member and the second Cavalera to leave. June 9–11 – The annual Download Festival takes place at Donington Park in Leicestershire, England. Tool, Metallica and Guns N' Roses headlined the main stage, the Snickers stage by The All-American Rejects, Alter Bridge and The Prodigy, the Gibson/Myspace stage by Ginger & The Sonic Circus, Killing Joke and Sick of It All, and the Snickers Bowl stage by Gay for Johnny Depp, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and Viking Skull. June 14 – Shakira launches her Oral Fixation Tour in Zaragoza, Spain. June 16–18 – Bonnaroo Music Festival takes place in Manchester, Tennessee, USA. Performers include Radiohead, Tom Petty, Phil Lesh and Friends, Beck, and Sasha. June 19 – Taylor Swift released her first single, "Tim McGraw", at 16 years old. June 23 – Backstreet Boys band member Kevin Richardson leaves the group to pursue other interests. However, he would return to the group permanently on April 29, 2012.
July July 1 – Glue Gun performed their first reunion concert at Harpers in Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA. It was 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 an event televised nationally in the USA. July 5 – The US television talent show, American Idol, begins its tour. July 7 – Justin Timberlake released his single SexyBack. The song went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 for a total of 7 weeks. July 9 – Scooter releases the live CD and DVD Excess All Areas, with recordings taken from the Who's Got The Last Laugh Now? tour. July 11 – Jean Dolabella replaces Igor Cavalera in Sepultura. July 12 – Rivers Cuomo confirms that Weezer is now on hiatus again. Commenting on the band's future 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 17 – Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne marries Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley in a private ceremony. July 22 – Mariah starts her tour for The Emancipation of Mimi [The Adventures of Mimi]. Taylor Swift first video, "Tim McGraw" on Great American Country. July 29 Stephanie McIntosh, former star of the Australian television soap opera, Neighbours, releases her debut single, "Mistake", in Australia, where it became a top three hit. Family Values Tour 2006, featuring Korn, Deftones and Stone Sour, begins. This was the first Family Values Tour since 2001. July 30 – The last ever weekly edition of the British television chart show, Top of the Pops, is broadcast after 42 years on the air. July 31 – Chicago rock band OK Go release their video for their single "Here It Goes Again", and the video quickly becomes an internet phenomenon on YouTube.
August August 1 – The 10th anniversary of television channel MTV2's launch and the 25th anniversary of MTV's launch. August 2 – Dan Swanö quits Bloodbath. August 4–6 – The Lollapalooza festival is held in Chicago, USA. August 15 – Christina Aguilera releases her third studio album Back to Basics, and debuts No. 1 on the Billboard 200; her first studio album in four years, it becomes her second number one album since her debut, selling 346,000 copies in its first week. August 21 – Anne-Sophie Mutter announces her divorce from André Previn. August 25 It is reported that Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton is undergoing treatment for throat cancer and will 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. Long time band friend David Hull filled in for Hamilton until his return. The Assassin Tree (score: Stuart MacRae, libretto: Simon Armitage) is premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival. August 26 – David Gilmour's world tour ends with a performance at the Gdańsk shipyards, Gdańsk. The show was filmed and recorded for release of the live album set Live in Gdańsk (2008). August 29 – Jessica Simpson released her first album in three years, A Public Affair, after her "public" divorce. August 31 – Rock group Panic! at the Disco win the Video of the Year award for their hit single "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.
September September 3 – Beyoncé Knowles releases her second consecutive No.1 solo album B'Day, selling 541,000 copies in its first week. And spawning two UK No.1 singles. September 5 – The Mercury Music Prize is held in the UK, with Arctic Monkeys' debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not winning ahead of entries from acts such as Muse and Thom Yorke. Audioslave's third and final album, Revelations, is released. September 8 – Eddie Van Halen announces that the lineup for his next album will include his son Wolfgang on bass and not the longtime Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, whom Eddie says he is on the outs with. September 12 – Justin Timberlake releases his second album FutureSex/LoveSounds after 4 years. The album debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving Justin his first number one album as a solo artist, selling 648,000 copies in its first week. Its first three singles were consecutive number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, making Timberlake the first male artist to have three or more consecutive number-one hits from one album since Usher achieved it in 2004 September 18 – Elton John released his 29th studio album The Captain & the Kid. September 19 Ben Kweller releases his third solo album Ben Kweller on the label ATO Records.