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Dolly Parton might just saddle up with Beyoncé on the Cowboy Carter Tour, with the country icon revealing she’s not opposed to sharing the stage with the pop star at one of the latter’s shows this year.
Following the pair’s collaborations on Bey’s Cowboy Carter, Parton reacted to the possibility of performing alongside the Destiny’s Child alum in an interview with HuffPost published Thursday (May 22). “You never know ― anything is possible!” the “9 to 5” singer said.
“Because she really is doing great with that [tour],” Parton added of Bey’s Cowboy Carter trek, which kicked off April 28 in Los Angeles.
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The interview comes more than a year after Cowboy Carter dropped, showcasing the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer as she embraced her Southern roots and tinkered with the country genre. Featuring a spoken interlude from Parton, the album spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and won both best country album and album of the year at the 2025 Grammys.
The LP also featured a new take on the Dollywood founder’s smash hit “Jolene,” with Bey shaking up the lyrics to say, “I’m warning you, don’t come for my man” instead of the original, “I’m begging of you, please don’t take my man.”
“I was very honored that she wanted to do her version of ‘Jolene,’” Parton told the publication. “That’s all a great compliment to me, when somebody wants to do my songs in any version.”
“I was very amused by her take on that, and I got a big kick out of that,” she continued. “She’s not gonna sit back and say, ‘Oh please don’t take my man.’ She’s gonna kick some a–!”
Following stops in L.A. and, most recently, Chicago, Beyoncé is gearing up to play five nights at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. She’ll then spend June touring through England and France before circling back through the United States.
Parton’s new interview also comes as she’s gearing up to publish a new memoir, Star Of The Show: My Life On Stage, on Nov. 11. On a more personal front, the legend also recently lost her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean.
“It’s a big adjustment, just trying to change patterns and habits,” she said of her grief in an interview with TODAY earlier in May. “I’ll do fine, and I’m very involved in my work, and that’s been the best thing that could happen to me. But I’ll always miss him, of course, and always love him.”
05/22/2025
Billboard has rounded up 16 songs by R&B and rap artists that sample old African songs.
05/22/2025
Months after hip-hop producer Madlib filed a lawsuit against his former manager and business partner Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, the exec is now suing him right back — blasting him for “having the audacity to bring this mean-spirited personal action” and citing a potential release of music by the late Mac Miller.
In a countersuit filed last week in Los Angeles court, Egon accused Madlib of a wide range of “misconduct” following the sudden end of their long partnership — a split that Egon said came after he had spent more than a decade building Madlib’s career and catering to his “whims and eccentricities.”
“Madlib had the audacity to bring this mean-spirited personal action against Egon, accusing him with no basis or any proof,” Kenneth Freundlich, the manager’s lawyer, writes in the May 14 cross-complaint. “Instead, under the apparent spell of his transactional lawyer/manager, it is Madlib who has unlawfully absconded with [shared] property.”
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The lawsuit did not disclose the identity of the “lawyer/manager” in question. Madlib’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on the allegations in the countersuit.
Madlib, a critically acclaimed producer known for his work with Kanye West (now Ye) and the late MF Doom, filed his lawsuit against Egon in October, accusing him of “rank self-dealing” and “pervasive mismanagement.” The case accused Egon of abusing his power over their companies (record label Madicine Show and merch firm Rapp Cats) to profit at Madlib’s expense.
But in last week’s countersuit, it was Egon’s turn to level accusations. After more than a decade together, he says Madlib “cut off all ties” in 2022 and launched his own label called Madlib Invazion — a name he says belongs to their old company. In one of his many claims, he says Madlib is infringing Madicine Show’s trademarks by using that name.
“It could not be clearer that Madlib did this to usurp and disrupt Madicine Show’s business and to blatantly trade on the goodwill created by Madicine Show in the name ‘Madlib Invazion,’” Egon’s lawyers wrote. “Because of Madlib’s nefarious formation of a record label with the identical name … the public is confused and misled.”
Egon says Madlib’s new label is interfering with music projects that legally belong to the old company, including the release of a years-old recording of the late Miller that has long been rumored to be in the works. (Miller’s estate is not involved in the dispute nor accused of any wrongdoing.) He also says Madlib is refusing to complete an album for Freddie Gibbs that they are contractually obligated to deliver to Sony Music.
The lawsuit from Madlib is the second legal battle Egon has faced in recent years. Back in 2023, MF Doom’s widow (Jasmine Dumile Thompson) filed a case against him, claiming he stole dozens of private notebooks belonging to the late hip-hop legend and was refusing to return them in the years since Doom’s 2020 death.
In a response filing, Egon’s lawyers blasted that case as “baseless and libelous” and part of a “year-long smear campaign.” The lawsuit ended last year with a settlement, which reportedly saw the notes returned to Thompson.
Kid Cudi took the stand as a witness in Diddy’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial on Thursday (May 22). Following his hours-long testimony surrounding his brief romance with Cassie in 2011, Cudi took to X to reflect on his time in court and thanked his fans for their support along the way.
“I’ve been seeing all the love and support and I just want to say thank you so much, man,” Cudi said. “People been hitting me up the past week just checking in and even today, it really means a lot to me, man. You guys are the best. I love y’all.”
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The Cleveland native continued: “This is a stressful situation. I’m glad it’s behind me. Yeah, I love y’all.”
Producer BNYX and Cudi’s fans showed their appreciation in his replies on X for taking the stand. “You did great Scott! Glad it’s over and done with,” one person wrote. While another added: “I’m so proud of you baby!!!!! Take time for yourself , you did that.”
The “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper was questioned on the stand Thursday about his short stint dating Cassie in the early 2010s, and Cudi opened up about Diddy allegedly setting his Porsche on fire with a Molotov cocktail. Cudi also recounted a break-in of his home around the time of his relationship with Cassie, which he tied to Diddy.
Cassie’s initial bombshell 2023 lawsuit against Combs accused Diddy of blowing up Kid Cudi’s car in his driveway after repeatedly threatening Cudder.
“Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other,” she reportedly said of why she ended things romantically with Cudi during her emotional testimony last week.
“[Diddy] said he wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car blown up,” Cassie recalled. “We met, [Diddy], [Kid Cudi] and me. [Kid Cudi] said, ‘What about my vehicle?’ And [Diddy] said, ‘What vehicle?’ And that was the end of the meeting.”
The Bad Boy mogul could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty on all counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. Diddy’s trial is expected to last into July.
Watch Cudi’s full statement on his experience at the Diddy trial below:
Brandy Senki released their first album, BRANDY SENKI, on May 14. The band, which formed in August 2022, is made up of Hazuki (guitar and vocals), Minori (bass), and Bori (drums). They’ve picked up a tremendous amount of momentum, selling out shows on both their first solo tour of Japan, in January 2025, and their upcoming BRANDY SENKI 1ST ALBUM RELEASE TOUR, which will begin in June.
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Their major label debut album, BRANDY SENKI, is the culmination of their efforts so far. It’s a collection of 13 songs including “Musica,” which brought them to the attention of the world at large, “Coming-of-age Story,” which generated a ton of buzz when it was shared by NJZ’s Minji, and “Fix,” a dramatic song that depicts the weaknesses we all have. Billboard JAPAN took the opportunity of this momentous release to talk with Brandy Senki about how they felt as they enter this new stage of their musical careers.
To start off, could you tell us about Neon Oasis Fest 2025, the Taiwanese music festival you just finished performing at in late April? What did you think of your first overseas show?
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Hazuki: Standing up there on stage, you could feel the love, even in another country with a whole different language. Also, the way people listened was a little different than the way Japanese audiences do. There were people who were really amped up, but there were also people slowly swaying to the music. There was this striking feeling of personal freedom. It was a lot of fun.
Your new album, BRANDY SENKI, is the same as your band’s. What led you to choose this name?
Hazuki: There are only really a few times when you can self-title an album. This album has lots of songs that we’d released in the past, so we talked about making it a self-titled album to share the message that “this is what Brandy Senki is today.” That’s why we called the album BRANDY SENKI.
I think the first song on an album is important. Why did you pick “The End of the F***ing World” to start off the album?
Hazuki: We thought a lot about how someone who didn’t know Brandy Senki would feel when they listened to the album for the first time. We thought it would be good to start with a song that would get the listener excited, like “What’s about to start?” This song was perfect for that.
You’ve said that this song was influenced by the British show The End of the F***ing World. When you write poetry or music, Hazuki, are you usually influenced by things like novels or movies?
Hazuki: Always. But being inspired by a single work, like I was with “The End of the F***ing World,” is unusual.
Could each of you share a song on the album that is especially important to you?
Bori: For me, it would be “The End of the F***ing World.” There’s this bouncy beat that goes through the entire song, and it was a bit of a struggle to perform. Now, having finished the song, whenever I hear it or when I play it live, I’m glad I put in the effort.
Minori: For me, it’s the fifth song, “Water Mirror.” We’ve been playing it pretty much since our first show. I think it was also the first song that I wrote a bass line for after Hazuki sent me a demo. So, for me, it’s an important song because it represents a lot of firsts.
Hazuki, what about you?
Hazuki: I’d probably answer that question a different way every day (laughs). Today, I’d say the first song, “Spring.”
The lyrics of “Spring” are very evocative of summer. They mention the beach, and a shirt, and a “Sicilian painting,” which conjures the image of the seaside.
Hazuki: The reality is that, for the people in the song, spring hasn’t even come yet, let alone summer. The heart of the song is this longing to go to the beach, this yearning for Sicily, that kind of feeling. But time just passes in this room.
You’ve also been playing “Last Live” since your early live shows, right?
Minori: It goes back to right around when we were starting out, but we changed the arrangement a little when recording it.
How so?
Minori: In the middle, when the tempo changes in the bridge. There’s a drum fill there now, but that wasn’t there originally.
Bori: We decided to make that part, so we changed the arrangement around that.
Hazuki: We were thinking of a cool way to speed up the tempo of the song.
I also saw the music video. It has this very “kawaii” feel to it. What did you and the director Nathalie Scarlette talk about when making it?
Hazuki: Nathalie came up with pretty much every aspect of the music video, starting from the initial idea. For us, filming in Akihabara or a roller skating rink was really novel. We were really impressed with how great the visuals came out.
Minori: Nathalie really loves Brandy Senki. She understood the lyrics Hazuki had written at a deep level, which was wonderful. Nathalie’s Australian, so she understands what Japan looks like from the outside. She sees beautiful things that we overlook because we take them for granted. It’s wonderful having someone who notices those things and can depict them. I’m always impressed at how she can make these interesting music videos that wouldn’t have even occurred to us.
Bori: It was all shot guerilla-style, too. We set up a drum set in a truck, and there were tourists out there taking photos of us. It was a very different experience than the usual filming of a music video, and really stimulating.
Then there’s the lead single, “Fix.” That word has a lot of different meanings, right?
Hazuki: It’s used to mean a lot of different things, so we thought it would be an interesting name for a song. You can fix something in place, or you can fix something that’s broken. In the song, we use it in different senses, singing about whether you can fix these relationships between people–between yourself and others.
There’s also a brand-new song, “Memento Waltz” Does the title simply mean “don’t forget this waltz?”
Hazuki: Yes. We wanted to make a waltz, or rather a song in triple meter. That was our starting point.
It also has a string part. Was this was your first time using strings since “Nightmarish – Acoustic?”
Minori: “Nightmarish – Acoustic” had strings, too, but this was our first time using strings that were performed live. On the album, there are strings on “Memento Waltz” and also on “Untitled”
“Untitled” is an acoustic piece. When was it written?
Hazuki: We wrote “Untitled” over a year ago. It’s the only song on the album that I think you could call a pure love song.
To close off with, are there any new things that you’ve been trying your hand at, or that you want to try to do in the future?
Minori: I like going on long train trips, but you need to have a whole day free to do that. I want to make time for myself and learn about trains throughout Japan.
Bori: In a certain sense, I’m taking on the challenges of drumming. Ever since I started playing in a band, I’ve been learning different beats and really making them part of my own repertoire. Lately, I’ve been reexamining just what a drum is, and learning more about drums — how do you get a better sound? What form should you use when drumming? That sort of thing.
Hazuki: I just want to work hard on writing our next song.
—This interview by Tatsuya Tanami first appeared on Billboard Japan
Something Beautiful…in the woods? Miley Cyrus opened up in a new interview on Wednesday (May 21) about how she scrapped an overly ambitious plan for her new album thanks to some advice from Harrison Ford. Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music, the superstar explained that her original idea for the project involved performing shows […]
FRUITS ZIPPER’s “Kawaiitte Magic” blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, on the chart released May 21.
This song by the seven-member girl group is the theme song for the animated movie Oshiri Tantei: Star and Moon that hit domestic theaters on Mar. 20. The CD version sold 292,341 copies to rule physical sales, powering the track to No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100. It’s the first chart-topper for the ASOBISYSTEM group — here’s a list of the FRUITS ZIPPER’s chart record so far:
“NEW KAWAII” (Peaked at No. 10)“Watashi no ichiban kawaii tokoro” (No. 13)“Kagami” (No. 48)“Fruits Basket” (No. 67)
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” holds at No. 2, coming in at No. 13 for downloads (2,329 units), No. 2 for streaming (8,457,867 streams), No. 91 for radio airplay, and topping video views and karaoke. The three-man band continues to dominate the top 10, with “KUSUSHIKI” following at No. 3, “Tengoku” at No. 4, and “Darling” at No. 10.
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XG’s “MILLION PLACES” debuts at No. 6, coming in at No. 2 for sales (39,404 copies), No. 11 for downloads (2,193 units), No. 4 for radio and No. 93 for video.
Elsewhere on the Japan Hot 100, Gen Hoshino’s “Star” soars 84-12 this week, following the release of his new album Gen on May 14. The music video accompanying “Star” also arrived recently, and the track comes in at No. 72 for downloads, No. 76 for video, and rules radio.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from May 12 to 18, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
Taylor Swift is no longer facing a subpoena in the messy legal battle between her friend Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni after Baldoni dropped the document request, which Swift’s reps had fiercely criticized as “tabloid clickbait.”
Lively’s reps confirmed to Billboard on Thursday (May 22) that the Baldoni camp has dropped separate subpoenas they served on both Swift and her longtime law firm Venable earlier this month in litigation over the movie It Ends With Us, in which Baldoni and Lively are hurling dueling accusations of sexual harassment, retaliation and defamation.
Baldoni’s lawyers had sought communications between the Swift and Lively teams, claiming they heard from an unnamed source that Lively had asked Swift to delete text messages and tried to extort the pop superstar into publicly supporting her in the lawsuit. Lively’s reps denied those contentions as “categorically false,” and a judge quickly struck those claims from the case docket as improper, irrelevant and “potentially libelous.”
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Lively’s spokesperson says in a statement shared with Billboard that they are “pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to Taylor Swift and her law firm.
“We supported the efforts of Taylor’s team to quash these inappropriate subpoenas directed to her counsel and we will continue to stand up for any third party who is unjustly harassed or threatened in the process,” the statement continues.
“The Baldoni and Wayfarer team have tried to put Taylor Swift, a woman who has been an inspiration for tens of millions across the globe, at the center of this case since day one,” Lively’s rep adds. “Faced with having to justify themselves in federal court, they folded. At some point they will run out of distractions from the actual claims of sexual harassment and retaliation they are facing.”
Venable also confirmed in a court filing Thursday that Baldoni withdrew his subpoena targeting the law firm.
Reps for Baldoni and Swift did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. But a spokesperson for Swift previously said she had no involvement in It Ends With Us and slammed Baldoni for trying to “use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
The It Ends With Us legal battle began in December when Lively alleged in a lawsuit that Baldoni had sexually harassed her on the set of the movie released last summer and later orchestrated a public relations smear campaign to retaliate against her for complaining about the behavior.
Baldoni then countersued Lively for defamation and claimed the actress leveraged her relationship with a “megacelebrity friend,” presumed to be Swift, to bully her way into more control of It Ends With Us.
Baldoni’s legal filing included text messages concerning an alleged meeting attended by “Ryan and Taylor,” seemingly referencing Swift and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. In one message sent by Lively, the actress called Swift and Reynolds her “most trusted partners” and compared them to the “dragons” in the TV show Game of Thrones.
“The message could not have been clearer,” Baldoni’s lawyers wrote in the countersuit. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”
SM ENTERTAINMENT artist and NCT member CHENLE has made a powerful return with his Chinese special album Lucid, which shattered pre-order and release records. Produced by TME Producers’ Studio, co-produced by SM ENTERTAINMENT, Lucid includes three tracks: the pre-release single “Tear Bridge,” the title track “Lucid,” and “Cosmic Joke” feat. Bibi Zhou. Before his album […]
Bad Bunny has broken records with his ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ tour. The Latin star has sold 2.6 million tickets to his tour across Madrid, Mexico, Australia, Italy and other locations. The tour is set to kick off in the Dominican Republic in November. Narrator: Bad Bunny breaks records in Latin America, Europe, and Australia […]
