State Champ Radio Author: djfrosty
Page: 477
The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office.
The office said in a statement Sunday (May 11) that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.”
On Thursday (May 8), President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.
Trending on Billboard
Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020.
Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers.
In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works.
“Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine … would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.”
The White House didn’t return a message seeking comment Sunday.
Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter’s firing.
“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee.
Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.
Kelly Clarkson is getting candid with fans about why she hasn’t been hitting the road lately.
During her concert in Atlantic City, N.J., on Friday (May 9), the 43-year-old pop star and TV personality told the crowd that touring isn’t realistic right now due to the demanding schedule of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
“We haven’t done a show in a while, y’all, ’cause I have a talk show. It’s like a whole other job,” Clarkson said, referencing her band, according to Page Six. The Grammy winner also noted that being a single mother takes up much of her time.
Still, Clarkson expressed gratitude for the opportunity to perform two nights at Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena — her first live shows in nearly six months.
“We are bummed ’cause we love doing shows, and it’s hard to fit it in, so it’s cool when it does work out with the schedule,” the American Idol alum told the audience. “And it’s cool to get to see your faces and feed off y’all. Thank you so much for having so much energy.”
Trending on Billboard
Her 90-minute set included fan-favorite hits such as “My Life Would Suck Without You,” “Because of You,” “Breakaway,” “Miss Independent,” “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” and “Since U Been Gone.” It marked her first full-length concert since November 2024.
Clarkson hasn’t embarked on a full tour since 2019. In the years since, she has booked Las Vegas residencies — including shows at PH Live at Planet Hollywood in 2023 and 2024. Earlier this year, she announced a new Vegas residency, Kelly Clarkson: Studio Sessions, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show opens July 4 and runs through July and August, with additional dates scheduled for November.
In March, Clarkson celebrated the milestone 1,000th episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. The daytime program, which launched in 2019, was renewed by NBC Owned Television Stations for a seventh season in December 2024. Her contract is set to expire next year, Page Six reports.
The show has earned 22 Daytime Emmy Awards, including eight individual wins for Clarkson herself. Most recently, it won outstanding daytime talk series for the fourth consecutive year at the 2024 Daytime Emmys.
Now in its sixth season, The Kelly Clarkson Show averages 1.2 million viewers per day and remains one of the top syndicated talk shows in the country, airing on more than 200 stations nationwide.
Arcade Fire returned to Saturday Night Live on May 10 to perform new songs from their upcoming album. The Canadian quintet — led by frontman Win Butler and his wife, Régine Chassagne — took the stage at Studio 8H ahead of their forthcoming seventh studio album, Pink Elephant. Arcade Fire opened their set with the […]
Miley Cyrus is putting family first. On the heels of dropping her new single, the ballad “More to Lose,” the singer released a statement on Saturday (May 10) in response to rumors of a rift with parents Tish and Billy Ray.
“I rarely comment on rumors,” Miley noted in an update shared via Instagram Story on her official account. “But my mama and I are too tight for anything to ever come between us. She’s my best friend.”
“Like a lot of moms, she doesn’t know how to work her phone and somehow unfollowed me–simple, coincidental, and uninteresting,” she said, in reference to murmurs that Tish had reportedly unfollowed her on the social media app earlier this week.
Trending on Billboard
Her statement continued: “My dad and I have had our challenges over the years. Now, in my thirties, family is my priority above all else. I’m at peace knowing bridges have been built and time has done a lot of healing.”
“Grateful for the good health and love that flows through my family,” Miley concluded her message.
Fans had expressed concern about the alleged unfollowing in various comments on Tish’s recent Instagram posts, to which she responded that she didn’t know she’d apparently unfollowed her daughter. “have no idea how that happened but it’s fixed now!” read Tish’s reply to one of those comments on Wednesday, May 7. (At press time on Saturday, she follows Miley on Instagram.)
On Wednesday, Billy Ray had posted a video clip with Miley performing at the piano, along with the caption, “Can’t wait to see this young lady. Crazy how time flies.”
On Friday, he uploaded a snapshot of himself with his son Braison, plus Miley and her boyfriend Maxx Morando, all together in celebration of Braison’s birthday.
Miley’s new song “More to Lose” is off of the imminent album Something Beautiful, a 13-track collection due out on May 30. It’ll be the follow-up to 2023’s Endless Summer Vacation, which was led by the Grammy-winning, Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Flowers”; Endless Summer Vacation reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
“I tried to keep it a singular take,” she shared with fans about recording the emotional track “More to Lose.” “It’s really a song that’s more of a story, and I never want that to be interrupted or overthought or chasing perfection. I never wanted ‘More to Lose’ to be perfect, I wanted it to sound beautiful and emotional.”
During a special evening with Spotify last week, Cyrus gave more insight into Something Beautiful, revealing the album’s overarching theme as “beauty, but not what beauty represents by a standard of someone else’s idea.” In another sound-bite from the event, she said — to cheers from the audience — “On a scale of, I think, one to gay, how gay is this album? It’s not only my best album, but also my gayest.”
A 100-degree day in the desert was the scene to kick off the After Hours Til Dawn Tour in Arizona on Friday night (May 9). The Weeknd and Playboi Carti matched the heat and brought the fire to the State Farm Stadium stage, setting the tone for the 43-date North American trek. 60,000 of the […]
It’s been more than a year since Kendrick Lamar upended the rap game and significantly altered the course of popular culture with “Not Like Us,” the five-time Grammy-winning, Billboard Hot 100-topping knockout punch in his monthslong battle against Drake. If the feverish crowd at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Friday night (May 10) was anything to go by, K.Dot’s ongoing domination isn’t likely to subside anytime soon.
Lamar and SZA, former TDE labelmates and both global superstars in their own rights, graced the NYC-area venue for their second of two shows in East Rutherford, N.J., on their blockbuster Grand National Tour. One of the most ambitious treks in hip-hop history, the Grand National Tour is a towering achievement.
From mainstream-conquering smashes (“Luther,” “Humble,” “DNA”) to headier deep cuts from his latest Billboard 200 chart-topper (“Man at the Garden,” “Reincarnated”), Lamar meticulously presented hip-hop as stadium-sized theater. He didn’t do so by relying on flashy production or set design; instead, he stripped hip-hop down to its five founding pillars, laying bare the incomparable art form that is emceeing on a hot mic.
Kicking things off with GNX opener “Wacced Out Murals,” Lamar launched the nearly three-hour extravaganza all on his lonesome. Lamar and SZA traded sets bridged by beloved duets like “Doves in the Wind,” “All the Stars” and the more recent “30 for 30 Freestyle.” Though both artists sourced the bulk of their sets from their most recent releases (GNX for Lamar and SOS Deluxe: LANA for SZA), they also held space for their respective catalogs. Lamar rapped the opening verse of “Swimming Pools” completely a cappella for his “day ones”; SZA frequently shouted out her “Ctrl babies” before performing cuts like “Garden (Say It Like Dat)” and “Broken Clocks,” and she pulled Zacari‘s weight for a sweet rendition of Lamar’s “Love.”
SZA performs on the opening night of the Grand National Tour with Kendrick Lamar on April 19, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cassidy Meyers
Across a stage reminiscent of the video game controller setup of Lamar’s landmark Super Bowl LIX halftime show, the Grand National Tour’s set design is largely minimalistic, save for a stair platform placed at the center of the stage. Despite a few levitating mini-platforms and a flying fairy moment for SZA, the true centerpiece of the Grand National stage was the literal GNX that helped the set transition between each set. When Kendrick first hit the stage, the black GNX stood as it does on the album cover, but by the time SZA hit her set, the vehicle transformed into a grassy, fauna-laden ride that nodded to the insect aesthetic of the LANA era. At the show’s close (“Gloria”), Lamar opened the passenger door for SZA like a consummate gentleman and joined her in the car as they wished the packed stadium safe travels home.
Both a wildly impressive victory lap and the progeny of over a decade of grueling work from both Lamar and SZA, the Grand National Tour saw two of the most defining artists of the 2010s operating at the height of their powers while ensuring hip-hop always remains at the center.
Here are the 10 best moments from their Grand National Tour stop at MetLife Stadium.
Prince Easter Eggs
President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday (May 8) as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those it sees as opposed to the president and his agenda.
Hayden was notified of her dismissal in a curt email from the Presidential Personnel Office.
“Carla,” the email began. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”
Hayden had been appointed to the post by President Obama in 2016 and had been confirmed by the Senate. She was the first woman and the first African American to serve in that post. Her 10-year term was set to expire next year.
Trending on Billboard
Hayden’s firing angered congressional Democrats. “Enough is enough,” said Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, who called Hayden “a “trailblazer, a scholar, and a public servant of the highest order.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also blasted the firing. “Donald Trump’s unjust decision to fire Dr. Hayden in an email sent by a random political hack is a disgrace and the latest in his ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history and turn back the clock,” Jeffries said.
Robert Newlen, the principal deputy librarian, said he would serve as acting librarian of Congress “until further instruction. I promise to keep everyone informed,” he wrote to colleagues.
In February, Trump fired Deborah F. Rutter as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, following his announcement that he was elected as Kennedy Center chair. Rutter had served in that position since 2014.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, home to more than 10 million collection items. The library says its holdings constitute “the creative record of the United States.” It acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings. It also has collections of rare books, prints and photographs, as well valuable artifacts, such as a flute owned by President James Madison, which Lizzo played in a widely-publicized (and, in some quarters, controversial) 2022 performance arranged by Hayden. The library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.
The Librarian of Congress oversees two high-profile awards — the National Recording Registry and the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The National Recording Registry, which dates to 2001, vies with the Recording Academy’s Grammy Hall of Fame as the most prestigious institutional award for classic recordings. Established in 2007, the Gershwin Prize honors living musical artists for exceptional contributions in the field of popular song.
The Library calls the Gershwin Prize “the nation’s highest award for influence, impact and achievement in popular music.” The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Recording Academy might argue with that, but it has definitely become one of the most prestigious awards — and relatively quickly.
The most recent class of National Registry inductees was announced on April 9. The Library has not yet announced the 2025 recipient of the Gershwin Prize. Elton John and Bernie Taupin were announced as the 2024 recipients on Jan. 30, 2024.
Gershwin Prize honorees during Hayden’s tenure were Smokey Robinson (2016), Tony Bennett (2017), Gloria & Emilio Estefan (2019), Garth Brooks (2020), Lionel Richie (2022), Joni Mitchell (2023) and John & Taupin. Criteria for selection include artistic merit; influence in promoting music as a vehicle of cultural understanding; impact and achievement in entertaining and informing audiences; and inspiring new generations of musicians.
According to the Library of Congress site: “The [Gershwin Prize] honoree is selected by the Librarian of Congress in consultation with a board of scholars, producers, performers, songwriters and music specialists.”
The Librarian of Congress also takes the lead role in selecting the 25 titles each year that are inducted into the National Recording Registry. According to the site: “Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 titles each year that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old.”
In announcing what turn out to be the final batch of National Recording Registry inductions under her tenure, Hayden said: “These are the sounds of America — our wide-ranging history and culture. The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist.”
Harry Styles was among the thousands in attendance at the conclave election of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday (May 8).
The 31-year-old pop superstar was spotted in a now-viral photograph taken in Saint Peter’s Square, dressed in a blue jacket, sunglasses and a baseball cap that read “Techno is my boyfriend.”
The “Watermelon Sugar” hitmaker was also seen walking the streets of Rome ahead of the historic ceremony, according to ABC News.
Fans on social media quickly took note of the former One Direction member in the crowd.
Trending on Billboard
“Little did the pope know he was waving to harry styles,” one fan wrote on X. Another added, “One thing about harry styles, he’s always going to accidentally serve cinema somewhere in europe.”
Pope Leo XIV was elected following the death of Pope Francis in April at the age of 88. Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost, 69, was chosen by Catholic cardinals to become the 267th pontiff and the first-ever U.S.-born pope.
Styles has kept a relatively low professional profile since wrapping up his global Love on Tour in 2023, which followed the release of his third studio album, Harry’s House, in 2022. During the lengthy trek, which launched in 2021, the singer fit in a few mini residencies, including a 15-show run at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and another 15 shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Harry’s House spawned the 15-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “As It Was,” spent two weeks atop the Billboard 200, and earned him album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Since then, Styles has been spotted traveling the world, recently participating in the Tokyo Marathon in March, where he finished 6,010th out of more than 37,000 runners. He also joined a running club in London in April.
A dump truck slammed into the iconic Whisky a Go Go music venue in West Hollywood, Calif., on Friday afternoon (May 9).
Los Angeles County fire officials said the crash occurred around 1:40 p.m. and involved five vehicles, according to ABC 7. The truck also struck a power pole, cutting electricity to a block surrounding the famed Sunset Strip landmark. No serious injuries were reported.
“Due to the traffic collision, some power has been affected and power is out to some parts of the area,” the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff Department stated in a Friday alert. “Crews are currently on scene and working to restore power.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The incident forced the cancellation of Friday night’s scheduled show, which was to feature bands including Boy Hits Car, Barefoot in the Bathroom, and Gearheart. The famed hoped it could reopen by Saturday.
Trending on Billboard
“Well… that was wild,” Boy Hits Car wrote on Instagram. “Yesterday, just hours before we were set to headline at the legendary Whisky A Go Go, a dump truck crashed into the venue. Our show was unfortunately canceled as a result, but the scene quickly turned surreal. ABC7 News and KCAL were there on the spot, and next thing you know, we’re doing interviews for TV instead of soundcheck.”
The band continued, “We’re grateful no one was hurt and we appreciate everyone who reached out in concern. It wasn’t the night we planned, but it sure was memorable.”
The Whisky a Go Go, which opened in 1964, helped foster Los Angeles’ burgeoning rock scene. The venue has hosted generations of legendary acts — from The Doors, the Byrds and Janis Joplin to Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe.
A federal judge granted an injunction on Friday (May 9) to musical group Los Alegres del Barranco, allowing them to sing narcocorridos in the Mexican state of Michoacán despite a state decree that prohibits the dissemination of music or expressions that promote the glorification of criminal activities in public spaces since last April.
The legal measure, identified as injunction case number 518/2025 and to which Billboard Español had access, was filed on April 28 by a representative of the Mexican band. With this ruling, Los Alegres del Barranco will be able to sing narcocorridos provisionally in the state without facing penalties, as the federal judge determined that the decree violates fundamental rights to freedom of speech and labor protected under the Mexican Constitution. The band’s next show in Michoacán is scheduled for May 30 in the municipality of Tziritzicuaro.
For now, the ruling only benefits Los Alegres del Barranco. The federal judge has scheduled a new hearing for May 15 to decide whether the temporary suspension granted to the group will be upheld or revoked.
Trending on Billboard
The government of Michoacán enacted a state decree on April 17 that prohibits the performance and/or reproduction of music that promotes the glorification of criminal activities at public events. The regulation includes musical genres derived from regional Mexican music, such as corridos tumbados, narcocorridos, progressive corridos, war-themed corridos, and altered corridos, as well as any other subgenre that promotes illicit acts or glorifies criminal activity.
The Michoacán government announced that it would file an appeal against the judge’s decision to overturn the prohibition for the musical group, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Billboard Español attempted to contact the Secretariat of Government of Michoacán for comment but has yet to receive a response. Billboard Español is also awaiting responses from the Federal Judiciary Council and representatives of the musical group.
Los Alegres del Barranco became the first act from the regional Mexican genre to be formally accused by the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office of alleged glorification of criminal activities. Authorities in that state, located in western Mexico, are investigating the group after images of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), were projected during their performance of the song “El del Palenque” on March 29 at an auditorium at the University of Guadalajara.
This incident even led the U.S. to revoke work and tourist visas for the band members, as announced on April 1 by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau in a statement on X. A federal judge will now decide whether or not to initiate legal proceedings against the members of the band, their legal representative, and the promoter of their concerts in a hearing scheduled for Monday (May 12).
The band, its representative, and the promoter are facing investigation from the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office for four performances in different municipalities of that state in which they allegedly glorified criminal activities, according to information published on Friday (May 9) by the same office.
Ten out of Mexico’s 32 states have implemented various bans against narcocorridos or any expression that promotes or glorifies criminal activities, though such bans have not yet become federal law.
