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Linkin Park will headline the upcoming UEFA Champions League final kick-off show at Munich Football Arena on May 31. The teams for the finale of one of the most prestigious football tournaments on Earth have not yet been announced, but regardless of which top-division European club makes the cut, they will have the pitch more […]
A forthcoming compilation album will feature a collection of many of Avicii‘s biggest hits, along with a never before released song. Titled Avicii Forever, the compilation will be released on May 16 via Interscope Records. The compilation is a project by Interscope, the Avicii Estate and Pophouse, which acquired 75% of the late producer’s recording […]
Gospel Music Hall of Fame members Amy Grant, CeCe Winans and Michael W. Smith will help usher in the holiday season, with their Christmas Together tour launching Nov. 28 in Greensboro, N.C. The tour will make seven more stops in states including Georgia, Illinois, Virginia and Ohio, before wrapping Dec. 8 in St. Louis.
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Last year, Winans released the holiday set Joyful, Joyful: A Christmas Album, with her rendition of “Joy to the World” rising to No. 6 on Billboard‘s Hot Gospel Songs chart. Grant has released five studio Christmas albums, including 2016’s Tennessee Christmas. Her songs such as “Emmanuel,” “Breath of Heaven,” “My Grown Up Christmas List” and “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” have become holiday classics. Smith has also released a handful of holiday projects, including 2023’s Every Christmas. In 2013, his collaboration with Carrie Underwood on “All Is Well” reached No. 6 on the Hot Christian Songs chart.
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This isn’t the first time the three artists have performed together for a holiday tour; Grant and Smith have held Christmas tours for more than 30 years, with Winans joining them on their 1998 Christmas Tour.
“I’m so excited to be joining Michael and Amy for the Christmas Together tour,” Winans tells Billboard. “There’s nothing like coming together with friends to celebrate the true meaning of the season through music, worship and joy. I can’t wait to share these unforgettable nights with audiences across the country.”
“I look forward to every moment of Christmas Together with Michael and CeCe, the rehearsals, the travel, the concerts! We can’t wait to celebrate Christmas together and with all of you,” Grant tells Billboard.
“We all know, Christmas is hands down my favorite time of year, and getting to tour with Amy always makes it even more special — but this year, we’re taking it to the next level!” Smith adds. “We’re beyond excited to have our dear friend CeCe Winans join us. After so many years of touring together, adding CeCe’s incredible voice and spirit to the mix feels like the ultimate Christmas gift. To say that the three of us are thrilled about this tour is simply an understatement.”
See the full list of dates for the Christmas Together Tour below:
Christmas Together
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Spotify is a dominant force in the music and audio streaming space and owns a large market share of users who enjoy the service. On Wednesday (April 16), however, Spotify found itself trending on X after users complained of the service going dark on them and sparking complaints.
As of this writing, Spotify still appears to be down, and neither the Web nor mobile versions are working. We even tried the desktop app, and that too was not responsive. Taking a look at Downdetector, it appears the service went out around 8 AM ET this morning with nearly 50,000 users reporting an outage.
Via the Spotify Status account on X, the service’s teams are aware of the issues and have posted a message.
“We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!” read their reply on X.
In the comment section of Downdetector, some are reporting limited functionality, but overall, most are saying that all forms of the service are inaccessible at the moment.
While the company addresses the issue and gets the fix going, we’ve scoured X for some replies regarding the outage of the audio streaming service. According to some of the replies we’ve seen, some people felt inconvenienced by the service interruption.
Check out those replies below.
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Houston rap legend Slim Thug is feeling confident these days, and he’s got his sights set on none other than Megan Thee Stallion.
After the Hot Girl Coach was seen dancing to two of his classic tracks, “Thug from Around the Way” and the iconic “Still Tippin,” Slim Thug took it as more than just a tribute. “Aye, if that ain’t a ‘Daddy, I want you’ call then what is,” he said. “She danced to two of my songs? I say I’m in there.” The rapper believes it’s only a matter of time before Megan makes the first move. “I’m just waiting on my day she comes to Houston and hits me up,” he added with a smirk.
The two H-Town artists go way back, with Slim Thug showing love to Megan early in her career. Their paths have crossed at several Houston events, but fans are skeptical about his recent crush claims. Many online are calling Thug delusional, saying Megan was simply showing respect to another Houston icon, not flirting. “That’s not her shooting her shot, she’s just reppin’ the city,” one fan commented.
Megan Thee Stallion with Bun B, Slim Thug & Lil’ Keke at her Houston show 🤘🏽🚀 pic.twitter.com/JGUTtzfUmq
— Wave Check🌊 (@thewavecheckk) June 15, 2024
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Still, Slim Thug isn’t backing down. In his mind, the dance videos are enough proof that Megan might be feeling the OG Playa. Whether it’s a romantic spark or just mutual admiration, one thing’s for sure, Houston stays winning with legends new and old.
Billboard’s data partner Luminate has signed a new partnership with South Korean firm KreatorsNetwork, granting the company exclusive rights to distribute Luminate’s global music streaming data, consumer insights, and metadata products via its CONNECT platform in South Korea.
The agreement, announced on Tuesday (April 16), positions KreatorsNetwork as Luminate’s sole authorized reseller in the Korean market, providing localized access to global streaming analytics and music intelligence tools for labels, distributors, and music marketers.
“At Luminate, we are dedicated to working with partners across the entertainment industry at a global level, helping them to make data-informed decisions in an ever-evolving media landscape,” said Luminate CEO Rob Jonas in a statement. “We’re glad to enter this new partnership with KreatorsNetwork, which allows us to amplify our service within such an influential and forward-thinking international market.”
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Steve Shin, CEO of KreatorsNetwork, added: “After serving K-pop labels for the past five years via data-driven promotional strategies, we are confident that Luminate’s expertise will help us pave the way for the Korean music industry’s move to the next phase of global expansion.”
The deal comes at a moment of continued global growth in music streaming, particularly across Asia. According to Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Music Report, global on-demand audio streams reached 4.8 trillion last year — up 14% from 2023. While the U.S. saw a 6.4% increase, ex-U.S. markets grew by 17.3%, with Asia leading the way in premium (paid) streaming growth. South Korea, in particular, was among the top ten countries globally for premium streaming expansion, up 14.7% year-over-year.
For Luminate, the partnership strengthens its presence in one of the world’s most influential music markets, while offering Korean music companies more robust access to tools for analyzing streaming performance, audience behavior, and cross-border trends.
Luminate’s CONNECT platform — launched in 2024 — provides a centralized dashboard for global music data, consumer insights, and metadata delivery, and is designed to support music clients with real-time intelligence for campaign planning and market expansion.
Natti Natasha earns her first No. 1 as a soloist, unaccompanied by another artist, on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart with “Desde Hoy” which jumps 2-1 for its first week atop the April 19-dated ranking. It’s her first return to the summit in over five years.
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“Desde Hoy” takes the lead on Tropical Airplay, with the week’s Greatest Gainer honors, after a 9% gain in audience impressions, up 6.6 million, earned in the U.S. during the April 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate. The song is the opening track off Natti’s fourth studio album, Natti Natasha En Amargue, her maiden entrance and first top 10 on the Tropical Albums chart (No. 6 debut and peak, Feb. 22 dated list).
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“Desde Hoy” marks Natti Natasha’s first No. 1 on Tropical Airplay in over five years. Her previous chart-topping hit, “La Mejor Versión de Mí,” her first collaboration with Romeo Santos as a co-billed artist, ruled the chart for 15 weeks between 2019-2020. Rewind to 2019, and her featured role on Don Omar’s “Dutty Love” reigned for one week then.
Notably, with “Desde Hoy” reaching No. 1, Natti joins an elite group of female artists who have topped the Tropical Airplay chart as soloists, unaided by any other act, during the 2020s decade. Before Natti, Rosalía’s “Despechá” reigned for four weeks in 2022, while Karol G most recently made history with “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido.” The latter broke the longest-leading record by surpassing Prince Royce’s 29-week reign with “Carita de Inocente” (chart dated Feb. 8). Ultimately, “Si Antes” dominated Tropical Airplay for 31 weeks between 2024-25.
With the new No. 1 by a woman, let’s review all the female artists who have led Tropical Airplay this decade, either as solo acts or through collaborations;
Title, Artist, Peak Date“La Mejor Versión de Mí,” Natti Natasha & Romeo Santos, Oct. 26, 2019“Víctimas Las Dos,” Víctor Manuelle & La India, May 29, 2021“La Fama,” Rosalía Featuring The Weeknd, May 14, 2022“Te Espero,” Prince Royce & Maria Becerra, May 28, 2022“Despechá,” Rosalía, Oct. 1, 2022“Monotonía,” Shakira + Ozuna, Dec. 3, 2022“El Pañuelo,” Romeo Santos & Rosalía, Feb. 4, 2023“Así Es La Vida,” Enrique Iglesias & Maria Becerra, Dec. 9, 2023“Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” Karol G, July 20, 2024“Desde Hoy,” Natti Natasha, April 19, 2025
“Desde Hoy” also makes progress son the overall Latin Airplay chart, where it climbs 9-5
Justin Vernon has a new Bon Iver album to hawk, Sable, Fable. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to take the odd Taylor Swift question here and there. Which is why during a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week, the singer-songwriter waxed rhapsodic about accidentally being pulled into Swift’s pandemic orbit in the best way possible.
When Lowe asked Vernon what it was like to work with Swift, he praised the singer for the “courage” to reach out to The National’s Aaron Dessner to collaborate on her COVID-era Folklore album. On the cusp of quarantine, Vernon said he was about to go on an European tour with Bon Iver a month before lockdown when he tapped Desssner to fill in on guitar.
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The plan was for Dessner to play DJ and cue up demos of songs from his Big Red Machine side project — a long-running collaboration with Vernon — before the Bon Iver arena sets. The tour was quickly cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so like a lot of musicians at the time Dessner went on Instagram Live to play some unreleased music for fans and who happened to hear what he was laying down but Taylor Swift?
“All the glory goes to Taylor for hearing, as a songwriter, what music she wants to make,” Vernon said. “But those songs are Big Red Machine demos at their core and her genius was working with the genius of Aaron Dessner on making the strongest set of lyrics and songwriting that she’s ever had, really.”
As he sat back and watched the process unfold, Vernon said he was mesmerized seeing the global pop icon “enter our whole universe… of course there’s no one bigger and we all bowed down to her.” Vernon described a feeling of not being able to stop blinking as he realized the collaboration between the chart and stadium queen and their low-key indie side project made perfect sense.
“The love and community that Aaron had shown me over these years… Taylor was just stepping into it and flawlessly taking it,” Vernon said, adding that Dessner rang him up during the process and said that there was a track Swift wanted him to sing on. “I was like, ‘Taylor?’” Vernon said he asked as Dessner explained that Swift was writing to some of the Big Red Machine songs she’d heard.
“I was like, ‘Awesome! I’m not doing anything today!’ They sent it and I ended up adding a couple little bits,” Vernon said of the origin story of how he ended up with a co-writing credit — along with Swift, Dessner and the singer’s ex, actor Joe Alwyn (under the pseudonym William Bowery) — on the track. “I just sang it on an SM7 in my little makeshift studio… and it felt level to everything else. It’s an exceptional song and an exceptionally popular song for a good reason,” he said. “But it felt just so natural and I’m so thankful for that opportunity just to have worked with such an amazing artist.”
In addition to “Exile” on the Folklore album, Vernon also pitched in on the title track to the companion Evermore pandemic album, while Swift lent a hand on the Big Red Machine single “Renegade” in 2021.
Watch Vernon talk about working with Swift below.
This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week continues here with a look back at the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top songs from that year, to go with the list of staff favorites our editorial team published earlier this week.
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Fifteen years into her Billboard chart career, Mariah Carey was still achieving firsts.
In 2005, the superstar’s smash “We Belong Together” spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, between that June and September, and went on to top the year-end survey – Carey’s first title to rule the annual recap.
Carey had dominated the 1990s like no act in any previous decade, becoming the first artist to lead the Hot 100 in every year of a decade (1990-99; she expanded her record chart-topping streak to 11 years, through 2000). By 2005, she was back in familiar triumphant territory thanks to the sultry second single from her album The Emancipation of Mimi. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in April 2005 and logged 74 weeks on the chart, the most for an album of hers since Daydream a decade earlier.
“My real fans have always been with me through great times and not-so-great times,” Carey shared in the 2005 year-end Billboard print issue. “That’s why I think we have a really close, special connection.”
Carey’s command was just one of the highlights on the 2005 year-end Hot 100. Elsewhere, 50 Cent boasts four entries in the top 20; Carrie Underwood places with her American Idol coronation ballad, “Inside Your Heaven”; and hits dot the ranking from the debut solo albums from No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas.
As Billboard celebrates 2005 Week, revisit the 2005 year-end Hot 100 chart, as originally revealed in the Dec. 24, 2005, publication. The recap is based on performance on the weekly Hot 100 charts dated Dec. 4, 2004, through Nov. 26, 2005. (You can also check out every year-end Hot 100 Songs chart since 2006 here.)
“Give Me That,” Webbie feat. Bun B
Bobby Vinton turns 90 today, having made his mark on the Billboard charts over the years. The singer, who gained the nickname “The Polish Prince,” had four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200. Vinton holds a special footnote in pop culture history: He had […]
