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Rimas Entertainment, home to Bad Bunny and the No. 1 label on Billboard‘s 2024 year-end Top Independent Labels chart, has acquired a “significant” stake in Dale Play Records, the maverick Argentine label that’s home to DJ Bizarrap, Rels B and rapper Duki, Billboard can reveal.
The partnership includes Sony Music Latin Iberia, which continues to own a stake in the label. Helping bring the deal to fruition were Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group chairman and Sony Music Entertainment CEO; Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin America, Spain and Portugal; and Brad Navin and Jason Pascal of The Orchard.
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Fede Lauria, the Argentine executive who founded Dale Play out of Argentina and grew the label to its current stature, will retain a smaller percentage of the company and continue as CEO. The Orchard will also continue to distribute Dale Play as it has for years. The company’s other business verticals, which include booking and management — including the management of Duki, Nicki Nicole and Bizarrap — are not part of the deal and will remain solely under Lauria.
The partnership brings together two indie companies that have redefined the way Latin music is made and promoted on a global scale, with both developing and capitalizing on a new wave of urban music in Spanish — one centered in Puerto Rico (Rimas) and the other in Argentina (Dale Play) — with international ambitions. Rimas has already expanded its roster beyond Puerto Rico, signing Spain’s Quevedo and Mexico’s Latin Mafia.
“From day one, our mission has been to support and develop artists with authenticity and respect for their identity,” said Rimas Entertainment CEO Noah Assad in a statement. “With Federico and Dale Play, we’ve built a relationship founded on trust and mutual admiration. This alliance will allow us to break new boundaries and create opportunities for our artists and teams.”
In an earlier conversation with Billboard, Assad noted that this is Rimas’ first major acquisition and that it follows a longstanding friendship and years of business dealings between him and Lauria.
“We’re working hand in hand and all we’re doing is adding more value to each other, him to me and me to him,” he said. “The collaboration already existed. We’re formalizing something that was already happening.”
Lauria was already an established concert promoter in Argentina with the company Dale Play (which currently sells over 1 million tickets per year, mostly in Argentina) when he created the label portion of his business, Dale Play Records, in 2017, focusing on a previously untapped rap and trap music scene bubbling out of Argentina. Sony Music came in as a partner in 2020.
“Afo and I have had a long-standing friendship for many years, united by a mission to elevate Latin music to the highest level,” said Lauria in a statement. The new partnership with Rimas, he told Billboard earlier, “reflects a journey we have been on for many years with Noah, Jomy and the RIMAS team. We share the same vision and values. Our companies are 360 companies with similar philosophies and origins. They’re rare in the global market. We do management, booking, label, publishing. The potential that these two ecosystems have together and the mutual collaboration that our artists and businesses can have is huge.”
Fede Lauria, Noah Assad and Afo Verde.
Afo Verde/Sony Music Latin Iberia
Added Verde in a statement: “I have great admiration for the achievements of both Fede and Noah. They epitomize the new generation of executives and label leaders, characterized by their independent spirit and innovative approach. It is a privilege to continue our partnership with them, and I love that they wanted to work together.”
Assad and Lauria’s working relationship dates back to Bad Bunny’s early days as an artist playing small venues in Buenos Aires, which Lauria booked. Today, he still promotes Bunny’s Argentina stadium and arena dates. The two have since worked together on multiple artist collaborations and started discussing a possible partnership three years ago, with conversations solidifying last year.
“This alliance is key to expanding our global reach and connecting with talent wherever it may be,” said Jonathan “Jomy” Miranda, president of Rimas Entertainment, in a statement. “We have always been at the forefront of discovering new artists, and now, through this partnership, we will have ears in more corners of the world to support and develop the next generation of stars.”
“Rimas is still Rimas and Dale Play is still Dale Play,” said Lauria during his conversation with Billboard, when asked about the future management of the respective labels. But, he adds, both labels have been “an essential part of the development of a cultural movement, and we’re in the process of shaping artists in Spain and Mexico that aren’t Argentine or Puerto Rican. Being together gives us huge power.”
Everything aligned to make the partnership come together now, said Assad. “We want a partner that has a clear vision, knows what they want and knows their destination,” he adds. “Culturally speaking, we share a lot of the same culture, and that’s why we’re doing this strategic alliance.”
The official trailer for BE@RBRICK is out now (Thursday, March 6), with Billboard Family giving audiences an exclusive first look at the new Apple TV+ animated series.
Based on the collectible figures from Japanese company Medicom Toy, the CG-animated show infuses a message to embrace individuality with feel-good comic relief and plenty of music. The series was developed by Meghan McCarthy (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Centaurworld), who serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer, with music helmed by Timbaland, executive music producer.
The BE@RBRICK trailer, premiering ahead of the series’ release on Apple TV+ on March 21, introduces young Jasmine Finch and her high school bandmates, who are breaking the mold by pursuing their dreams of making music in a world where your painted-on look is expected to be what determines your path in life.
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Speaking to Billboard Family over Zoom, McCarthy says her aim was to treat the animated ensemble, voiced by Brianna Bryan, Skyla I’Lece, Isaiah Crews, Alison Jaye and Noah Bentley, “with respect and treat them like they are three-dimensional, real characters that your audience can see themselves in, see their friends in.”
First Look: The Official BE@RBRICK Trailer From Apple TV+
“Any time you’re translating from something that exists in another format, like in this case a collectible [toy] … you do have people who are very familiar with it, and then you have an audience that isn’t familiar with BE@RBRICK at all, and then neither is familiar with how you’re going to showcase them in a series,” McCarthy explains.
“If you ask somebody on the street who’s familiar with BE@RBRICK, tell me three things that you know about them, what does everybody tell you? That’s a great starting point ‘cause you want to make sure you stay true to those things,” she says of developing the show, produced and animated by DreamWorks Animation and Dentsu Inc.
Jasmine Finch (voiced by Brianna Bryan) and Nick Hazard (voiced by Isaiah Crews) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
For BE@RBRICK, McCarthy says those things included a “very specific shape — little bear heads and little bellies,” and “how when you paint them, they take on this whole new thing. That’s what really gives them their uniqueness and their value, so you don’t want to abandon that.”
“The third thing was they do all these amazing collabs with musicians and artists,” she adds, “and so creativity is a huge part of what makes BE@RBRICK, BE@RBRICK — expressing that creativity.”
There’s the humor that makes BE@RBRICK the series relatable — “I think that it’s really funny in a way that is not mean-spirited. We’re laughing with these characters, we’re not laughing at them, which I think is really great for families,” says McCarthy, who’s a parent herself — and there’s the music, a primary focus for the storyline.
“It’s a show you can dance to,” she says. “The music is really incredible and fun and there’s so much of it on the show.”
Holly Honeywell (voiced by Skyla I’Lece) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
“Ultimately, I think the takeaway of the show is the importance of creativity and self-expression and how that can change the world, and how kids [like Jasmine] are a factor in changing the world. I think those are great, relatable themes that a whole family can rally around,” McCarthy says.
That’s something that drew Timbaland to the project.
“The bigger message is that anyone can choose their own path, no matter where they come from,” he tells Billboard Family of the show.
Timbaland first discussed the opportunity to be involved with BE@RBRICK back in 2019, in a meeting with Alexandra Nickson, SVP, TV Music at DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks then came to McCarthy with the prospect of working alongside the Billboard chart-topping and Grammy Award-winning producer for the show. “Who’s gonna say no to that?” she says with a laugh. “The guy who’s produced some of the coolest things in the history of the world? Yeah, I think he’d be pretty good for this.”
Over the past few years Timbaland has worked with a group of Beatclub producers, artists and songwriters to bring the series’ soundtrack to fruition. The series features an original score by Jina Hyojin An (XO, Kitty) and Shirley Song (Exploding Kittens).
“The process was similar to making a record,” Timbaland notes over email, “but in this case, we received creative briefs from the DreamWorks team. That allowed us the time to get everything right, the music, the lyrics and the overall vibe.”
BRBX Media DJ (voiced by Timbaland) in ‘BE@RBRICK,’ premiering March 21, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+
As McCarthy points out, “For our main character Jasmine and her friends to be able to express themselves through their music, and to root for them, you have to think they’re pretty darn good at it. You have to think the world would be at a loss if they weren’t allowed to put their creativity out there. So to have Timbaland, who has such a finger on the pulse of music and making it feel very relevant to today, that was so key. … They’re not human characters, but they’re making this music that feels like, ‘Oh yeah, I would totally hear this out in the real world. This would be a hit song in the real world.’ That’s the energy and that’s the vibe that he absolutely brought to the table.”
Timbaland says he can “absolutely” relate to Jasmine’s experience in feeling the pull to create music, sharing that “from a very early age, I always knew I wanted to be a music producer when I started DJing.”
His advice for kids who want to follow his path as a producer: “Now is one of the best times to be an independent artist. The playing field is more level than it was when you had to be signed to a major label to break into the industry. My advice is simple: Never give up!”
BE@RBRICK will be available to stream on Apple TV+ on March 21.
Billie Joe Armstrong is Bay Area to the death. The Green Day frontman has long flown the flag of his hometown of Oakland, CA, and nothing has fired him up more than the heartbreaking loss over the past few years of the proud city’s professional sports franchises, the Oakland A’s and NFL’s Raiders.
Now he’s doing something about it.
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The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Wednesday (March 5) that Armstrong has joined fellow Oaktown legend rapper Too $hort as part of the ownership group of the Oakland Ballers, the new independent Pioneer League team that as of this year will be the Bay’s only professional baseball team; the A’s are playing in Sacramento for the next two years ahead of a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028 and the Raiders left in 2020 for Las Vegas.
“This is all about bringing families to a ball game,” Armstrong told THR. “After the A’s left, the town was heartbroken. The Ballers are going to bring good vibes back to Oakland and the broader East Bay.” The privately owned team played their first season in 2024 in the new 4,000-capacity Raimondi Park, which drew baseball lovers for its first season with a unique offer that allowed more than 2,200 fans to buy a share in the team and take seats on its board; the minimum buy-in is $510, a nod to the Bay Area’s area code.
$hort Dogg told THR that he thinks the Ballers are a shining example of what his city’s value proposition. “Oakland is the connection, it’s the diverse city of all walks of life and cultures. We respect each other’s originality, you can be you and with your people,” he said. “It’s ‘I f–k with you regardless.”
And, not for nothing, the “Blow the Whistle” MC — who said he worked as a vendor at the old Oakland Coliseum in high school — loves the name, too. “If I can’t brag on a big-league franchise I can brag on being a Baller,” he said of the team whose name is a pointed rejoinder to former MLB team the A’s. The two musicians bought in as part of the second round of community investment that opened this week, aimed at raising $2 million.
While the amount of Armstrong and Too $hort’s investment has not been revealed, one of the Ballers’ co-founders, Bryan Carmel, said their stake is not just another example of a celebrity swooping in to try and goose a team’s prospects, a la Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ purchase of revival of Welsh soccer team Wrexham, chronicled on the FX series Welcome to Wrexham.
Carmel said Armstrong’s relationship with the Ballers began when the rocker and his wife showed up at a game last year. “I looked over and there they were, sitting in front of my parents,” Carmel said. “And then I looked again and they were at the merch stand and Billie Joe was buying a T-shirt. It was crazy because we were playing Green Day songs earlier — not because he was there but just because we’re an Oakland club so we play Green Day songs.”
Armstrong spray-painted the Oakland B’s name over the Oakland A’s logo at the Rogers Center in Toronto last year.
“Sports in the Bay Area have been transforming over the last couple of years. We’ve had some emotional goodbyes to teams we grew up with, but recently there has been a major shift,” Armstrong told The Athletic. “The Oakland Ballers and the Oakland Roots and Soul represent everything I love and grew up on in the Bay Area. The welcoming atmosphere, DIY attitude and the people behind it make me proud to be an investor and support the next generation of teams kids in the Bay will be proud of.”
The Ballers hosted an open try-out last year that led to the signing of history-making right-handed pitcher Kelsie Whitmore, their first female player and, in 2022, the first woman to sign a professional contract with a Major League Baseball Partner League team. The team will kick off their second season on Mary 20.
Since bluegrass artist and mandolin virtuoso Sierra Hull signed her first label deal at just 13 and released her Rounder Records debut in 2008, she’s long since grown used to shattering glass ceilings.
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In 2016, Hull became the first woman named the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)’s mandolin player of the year — and went on to win in the category five more times. She is also part of the acclaimed assembly The First Ladies of Bluegrass, who were the first women to win IBMA musician accolades in their respective instrument categories — in addition to Hull winning mandolin player of the year, her cohorts include Missy Raines (bass player of the year), Alison Brown (banjo player of the year), Becky Buller (fiddle player of the year) and Molly Tuttle (guitar player of the year).
So, the title of Hull’s new album, A Tip Toe High Wire, out Friday (March 7), nods to the ambition and uncertainty that comes with high-flying acrobatics—a feeling familiar to Hull, who is stepping out onto her own highwire, as the album marks not only her first release in five years, but Hull’s first as an independent artist after parting with Rounder.
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“It is so wild to think how different the landscape was for an artist releasing music than what it is now,” Hull tells Billboard, adding, “I’m so grateful to Rounder and the experience I got to have there. I feel like a lot of people start out their careers more independent, hoping to get signed or go the label route and then go back independent. But for me, [making records independently] is brand new.”
When Hull’s contract with Rounder had been fulfilled, she says, “I just felt like I wasn’t in a rush to make any decisions. I felt like it was a good opportunity to have a clean slate. I didn’t have an album that was about to come out, so I thought, ‘Let me take a moment of pause and see what happens.’ I don’t know if I’ll forever be independent. Who knows? But I felt like I owed it to myself to have this moment to experience it and learn from it.”
The album takes its title from one of the project’s songs, “Spitfire,” which Hull wrote for her late grandmother over two years ago. The song touches on the hardships Hull’s grandmother faced, including becoming a widow by 18 after her husband died in a drowning accident roughly a month after their wedding.
“There’s a lyric, ‘Tougher than thorns on a brier.’ That was her, this country woman who grew up in the boonies of Tennessee,” Hull says. “She grew up poor and never had a lot of education and things like that in her life, but she was just an instinctually smart woman. So much of what she had to endure, she fought her way through. When I think about something that I feel down about, sometimes I think of Granny and knew she would’ve been tough. She would do anything for her family and fight for all of us in the most beautiful way, but she ain’t going to take no crap from nobody.”
It’s a song that has fueled Hull as a creator and as a businesswoman in her new space as an independent artist.
“It can be a little scary stepping into this space,” says two-time Grammy nominee Hull, who pulled together a supportive team around her that includes TMWRK Management’s Paddy Scace and Dylan Sklare, and Wasserman for booking. “It felt like I didn’t have to ask too many questions to anybody else… It was me calling the shots. It’s different investing your own time and vision and financially, and all those things. I’m kind of putting everything on myself, but there’s freedom in that, too.”
Her first session for the new album stretches back to December 2021, when Hull did basic tracking for a couple of songs. But the project was sidelined as Hull took on roles providing instrumental work on a range of albums including Sturgill Simpson’s Passage du Desir, a John Anderson tribute album, Béla Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue and My Bluegrass Heart, Tuttle’s Crooked Tree, and some of Brad Paisley’s recent music releases. She also toured with Simpson’s and Devon Allman’s bands, in addition to helming her own shows.
Those live performances informed A Tip Toe High Wire, which features Hull’s touring band, including Shaun Richardson on guitar, Avery Merritt on fiddle, Erik Coveney on bass and Mark Raudabaugh on drums. Hull had intended to tour with a full band to promote 2020’s 25 Trips, but the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered those plans. So, when the opportunity to hit the road reopened, Hull took advantage and those performances prompted Hull to draw in the tightknit feel of the live band into the new project.
“Just the inspiration of working with those guys [made me think] about what the music would feel like if they were part of it in the recorded setting as well,” she says. “It was the first time where I had written specific songs, thinking about how this group of musicians would sound playing on it.”
Hull and her bandmates worked to create a balance on A Tip Toe High Wire, upholding her reverence for bluegrass traditions, while simultaneously looking forward with unique collaborations.
“I wanted something fresh, new and maybe innovative feeling,” Hull says. “That’s always the desire for me as an artist to grow and learn, especially as an instrumentalist. I’ve been able to do fun collaborations, but I also just love good, simple songs. The other part of me is not trying to rewrite the script. I just want to do music that feels meaningful to me, and kind of lean into my roots all at the same time.”
The fleet-fingered instrumental track “E Tune,” an older tune on the album that features Fleck, was previously considered for Hull’s 2016 album Weighted Mind, and the 25 Trips album, but didn’t make the cut until now.
“It became a staple of our live show. Once we recorded it, I thought it would be cool with banjo. I’ve done so much with Béla Fleck over the past few years that I asked him to be on this track with us. When he played on it, it just kind of clicked in a way that I was like, ‘Okay, this is making the record. This is the moment.’ We needed that Béla Fleck magic on there.”
Hull produced the album with longtime friend and engineer Shani Gandhi. Other collaborators include Tim O’Brien on the balmy “Come Out of My Blues,” and Aoife O’Donovan on the harmony-drenched “Let’s Go.” The project’s lead single, “Boom” has been a frequent inclusion in Hull’s live shows for the past couple of years.
“It has a few versions of it,” she says. “There’s a real relaxed thing when we get to play this song, something joyful that you can lean into that relaxed nature.”
In May, Hull and her band will take the new music on the road, joining Willie Nelson’s 10th anniversary Outlaw Music Festival Tour, with a lineup that also includes Bob Dylan, Billy Strings, Lake Street Dive and Lily Meola.
There are a few things we know about Post Malone. The “I Had Some Help” singer is unfailingly polite, can 100% rip a Nirvana cover anytime you need him to and is a self-proclaimed master beer pong player.
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Except, that is, when he isn’t.
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According to Taste of Country, in a recent chat on CMT, Kane Brown revealed the story behind the picture that circulated a few months ago of himself, Posty, Jason Aldean and Jelly Roll playing beer pong at last year’s ACM Awards. Brown said he was teamed up with Jelly and, not for nothing, they beat Post and Aldean.
Because the internet is filled with haters, Brown took the opportunity to clear a few things up about the victory. “A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, who do you think won?’ A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, it’s Post and Jelly, ’cause they play all the time,’” Brown said. “Wrong! Man, I was killin’ ’em!” he added unequivocally before sharing the price Malone paid for the loss.
“It was water in the cups, it wasn’t beer,” Brown said. “But, he [Post Malone] was dumping his cigarettes in the last cup, and the table was super long. I was like, ‘I’m gonna hit this cup.’ He said, ‘If you hit this cup, I’ll drink it.’” Brown said he then made eye contact with Aldean and knew exactly what needed to happen.
“I looked at Post, and I said, ‘Drink up,’” Brown said he told Malone after landing the ball in the cup. “Jason just went, ‘Oh my God.’”
Watch Brown tell the story below.
From the moment she blasted onto the pop scene in 2008, Lady Gaga became a lightning rod for public speculation.
Every inch of her persona — her outfits, her lyrics, her anatomy — was scrutinized by fans, critics and media outlets alike. When new projects were announced, speculation would follow; what would Gaga do this time? When some of those projects fell commercially short of the stratospheric bar she’d set at the foundation of her career, that speculation curdled into declarations: Gaga’s reign as pop music’s paragon must be over.
Nearly two decades after that industry-reshaping debut, the pop icon is still struggling to manage the weight of those expectations. “Ever since my first album, I did listen to what people would say. ‘Will she outdo herself? Can she top herself? Can she live up to this? She needs to evolve, she hasn’t changed enough,’” Gaga tells Billboard. “There was a lot of noise.”
When it came time for her to embark on creating her seventh studio album, that noise hadn’t gone away. Fans, who had dubbed the untitled project “LG7,” were sharing wishlists of what they wanted to see Gaga do next. What genre would she tackle this time? Would there be high-profile features? Could the long-awaited continuation of “Telephone” finally materialize?
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Sitting in a New York hotel’s conference room, Gaga’s shoulders relax. “Taking the pressure off myself helped me to value what I feel really matters about me as a person,” she says, her face softening. “When you put your artistry first, and then you take the other stuff away … it gave me so much dignity. And I didn’t realize how much I was craving that.”
Mayhem, Gaga’s long-awaited new album (out Friday, March 7 via Interscope Records), doesn’t concern itself with expectations. It does play with them, though, changing up the sonic and thematic spaces it occupies before it can be boiled down into a single idea. In a musical landscape concerned with “album eras,” Mayhem refuses to be easily categorized. Ranging from grinding industrial techno one moment to soulful, heartfelt balladry the next, Mayhem makes its title a thesis statement — the throughline is disorder.
That pandemonium was established early in the process of making the album, thanks to Gaga’s own sense of experimentation in the studio. When setting out to write and record her new project, the singer says she found herself taking a piecemeal approach to her creative process, a welcome change from past efforts.
“There have been times in my career where I had an idea in terms of how to conceptually approach a record. But I would say that this album, from start to finish, was like pieces coming together,” she says. “I did not want to turn it into anything artificial, I really wanted to allow myself to just follow the music. By doing that, it started to slowly remind me of my earlier work.”
As she began piecing her music together, Gaga created a mantra for her work on the album: “Go with the chaos.” Instead of laboring under the expectation of finding a sonic or thematic subject, she instead opted to embrace the tumult itself and see where it took her.
Part of that process involved bringing in a new suite of collaborators — working closely with co-executive producer Andrew Watt and collaborators like Cirkut and Gesaffelstein, Gaga went about crafting an album that sounded like her while still bringing something fresh to the mix. As Cirkut explained to Billboard in November 2024, that wasn’t always easy to balance in the studio. “Do you do something so different that you move away from the things that you are known for?” he asked. “But if you just do the same thing that you’ve been known for, does that end up feeling like a ‘more-of-the-same’ type situation?”
Gaga says that she found herself leaning hard into her own intuition during the recording process. “I think what I look for in collaborators are people that will uphold me as a woman in the studio and follow my vision,” she explains. “I tried musically to work with people that I could push myself with — so that it wouldn’t be exactly what you’ve heard from me before, but there is the DNA of my approach to pop music.”
That approach to her pop sound pays off in spades throughout Mayhem. On early highlight “Perfect Celebrity,” Gaga takes the ruminations on fame that she made a career out of and twists the knife that little bit deeper. Serving as a kind of mirror image to 2009’s “Paparazzi,” “Perfect Celebrity” puts much of the onus back on Gaga as she examines why she fought for fame so vigorously. “I’m made of plastic like a human doll/ You push and pull me, I don’t hurt at all,” she sings. “I talk in circles because my brain it aches/ You say ‘I love you,’ I disintegrate.”
“I had this feeling inside myself of, ‘You can’t write about that. You can’t show this part of yourself.’ And then I was like, ‘No … embrace it, what do you want to say?’” Gaga recalls of the writing process. “It became complicated so quickly; owning that I wanted to be a star, and that it did bring a lot of complication to my life. So then, it’s also that anger that I felt towards myself, that I brought this on myself.”
She takes a beat before continuing. “I was nervous to put it on the album. But part of Mayhem is that I just put it all out there,” she says.
That’s not to say all of Mayhem is shrouded in darkness — later tracks on the album, like the campy disco banger “Zombieboy,” show Gaga shrugging off that self-seriousness to embrace pure pop hedonism. “Part of my personal mayhem is that it’s fun, and that’s why I keep doing it,” she says. “That’s what makes it complicated — it is dark, and it pulls me away from myself, but it’s also the best time. It’s that point where you’re at the party, and you’re totally numbing out, and you’ve fully accepted that by the morning you are not going to feel well, but you’re fully in it.”
As experimental and twisted as Mayhem gets, it’s clear that the early teases of the album have struck a chord with global audiences. “Die With a Smile,” the project’s closing track featuring Bruno Mars, spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — that’s the second longest stay any of the star’s singles have held in the chart’s top slot, just one week behind her 2011 behemoth “Born This Way.” Meanwhile, “Abracadabra” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart — where it remained for three weeks, — and continues to float around the Hot 100’s top 40.
Gaga is still in awe at both tracks’ immediate success. “I am really grateful, and I am really beside myself,” she says. “I never expect anything like this, because you never know, all you can do is your best. This is really a true honor and privilege.”
Along with becoming one of the biggest hits of her career, “Die With a Smile” also earned Gaga her 14th Grammy — she took home the 2025 trophy for best pop duo/group performance alongside Mars. When she took to the stage at the February ceremony, though, Gaga made sure that she shared her win with the trans community, reminding the audience at home that “trans people are not invisible” and that they “deserve love.”
Looking at the current administration’s ongoing attacks against the trans community, Gaga doesn’t mince her words. “I think it is abysmal, and horrible, and violent and wrong,” she offers, matter-of-factly. “I just want to extend all of my love and gratitude to the trans community for showing us so much strength and love.”
She often shares that same sentiment about her fanbase, the Little Monsters, whom Gaga credits with “having this conversation [with me] through art and fashion and politics for a long time.” While her fans have always been active and outspoken in their support for her, Mother Monster has noticed a shift in her following as of late.
“I’ve seen Little Monsters be so amazing for almost 20 years. I haven’t seen us like this in a long time,” she says, pointing to the swath of videos fans have shared across apps like TikTok and Instagram learning her choreography and creating new art out of her music. “Between the dancing, the makeup. the hair, the costumes, it gives me so much life, and I am really honored. All I ever want to do is make something that you press play and you feel good for the duration of the record, and maybe you play it again.”
That activation on her base’s part may have something to do with a similar activation on the singer’s part — fans on TikTok have noticed how frequently Gaga comments on fan-made videos, with some even referring to the phenomenon as “conjuring” Gaga.
“That is me,” Gaga confirms about her TikTok comments, smiling. “That’s the way we always were — it just wasn’t to this extent, because we didn’t have the same tools to talk to each other.” After a pause, a look of incredulity crosses Gaga’s face. “I just … how could I not? I always say that I have the best seat in the house, because I get to watch the fans.”
With her fans fired up for a new album, her singles finding massive global success and her meticulously-crafted album ready to release, Gaga takes one last look at a career’s worth of expectations before dismissing them. “I do think that I felt a lot of pressure, over the years, to prove myself as a musician,” she says. “And that sometimes stopped me from having fun. So, I tried to have a lot of fun making this record.”
In February, Billboard announced the expansion of THE STAGE which was heading across the pond to SXSW London for the first time. The performance will be headlined by two-time Grammy winner Tems at the iconic Troxy venue in east London.
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Now, the first support act has been announced for the show, as well as ticket sale details for the June 5 event. Tems will be joined by rising star LULU. on the evening in what’s set to be a must-see event in the capital this summer.
Tickets go on presale via Dice at 10 a.m. (GMT) on Tuesday (March 6), with a general on sale beginning on Friday (March 7) at 10 a.m. (GMT). Fans can register for presale access via the Dice platform.
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LULU. is an up and coming British & Nigerian artist from south east London, who creates a genre blending sound of local scenes and the global sounds of soul and Afrobeats. She released her debut EP collection, Dear Disorientated Soul, in May 2024, and performed at London’s All Points East Festival last summer.
Speaking on the announcement of the stage Mike Van, president of Billboard, said in a press statement, “Tems continues to break boundaries and inspire audiences worldwide, capturing both the spirit of discovery at SXSW and Billboard’s access to the most exceptional talent around the globe. This event will be a celebration of music, culture, and creativity, and we can’t wait to bring fans closer to the artists they love in London’s vibrant setting.”
Next week, Billboard Presents THE STAGE will take place at SXSW in Austin, TX with three star-studded concerts from Koe Wetzel, Grupo Frontera and John Summit from March 13- 15. The shows will take over Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin.
Billboard will provide live coverage throughout SXSW London, which takes place June 2 to 7. Be sure to follow along on billboard.com and on social media (@billboard) for the latest news and announcements.
Celine Dion scored a hole in one on Tuesday (March 4) after ESPN’s Marty Smith asked the singer which one of her classic hits best represents her golf game. Making an appearance at the TGL match between the Atlanta Drive GC and Jupiter Links Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Dion didn’t hesitate. Explore […]
Glastonbury has unveiled the first names for the 2025 edition of the festival, with The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo and Neil Young billed as headliners. View the lineup in full below.
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The British group will top the Pyramid Stage for the first time on Friday (June 26), ahead of Rodrigo on Sunday’s closing night. Joined by his Chrome Hearts band, Young will return to Worthy Farm in Somerset, south west England for the second time following his last headline set at the site in 2009.
Loyle Carner, The Prodigy, and five-time BRIT winner Charli XCX are all set to close out proceedings on The Other Stage across the weekend (June 25-29).
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Other newly-confirmed acts include Doechii, Alanis Morissette, Tate McRae, Father John Misty, Ezra Collective, Lola Young, RAYE, Noah Kahan, Biffy Clyro, Gracie Abrams and Wolf Alice. See the full lineup below.
Rod Stewart, meanwhile, will perform in the coveted legends slot on the Sunday (June 29), having shared the news last November. The 79-year-old previously appeared at the festival as a headliner in 2002, joining Coldplay and Stereophonics as bill-toppers that year.
Tickets for Glastonbury 2025 went on sale in November and were snapped up by punters in under an hour following the introduction of a new online queuing system. A resale traditionally takes place in early April, which includes unpaid, or unwanted, tickets from people who have canceled their purchase. More details of this year’s resale are expected to arrive soon.
The 1975 have previously appeared twice at Glastonbury, with an early afternoon slot on the Pyramid Stage in 2014 and then gracing The Other Stage two years later. Their headline booking arrives ahead of rumoured new music, with frontman Matty Healy having told fans last February that a record was in the works.
Fans believed that Rodrigo would be one of the headliners due to her forthcoming U.K. touring commitments aligning – including a huge show at BST Hyde Park in London and two rescheduled Manchester gigs – with this year’s festival. The singer made her Glastonbury debut in 2022, where she was joined on stage by Lily Allen for a sprightly rendition of “F–ck You.”
Canadian rocker Young announced in January that he would be headlining Glastonbury, just days after he said that he would withdraw from the festival and called it a “corporate turn-off.” At the time, Young did not expand on the reversal of his decision, instead posting a brief statement to his website. “Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury festival, which I have always loved,” it read. “Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing! Hope to see you there!”
Last year, Glastonbury was headlined by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay. The latter became the first act to top the bill five times, following headline performances in 2002, 2005, 2011 and 2016.
Julien Baker and Torres made a stylish stop at The Daily Show this week, suiting up—literally—for a performance of their latest single, “Bottom of a Bottle.”
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The duo, both dressed in custom-designed Nudie-style suits by Union Western, delivered the introspective country ballad alongside a full band, set against a glowing stage backdrop.
The song is a highlight from their upcoming collaborative album, Send a Prayer My Way, due April 18 via Matador Records. Alongside “Bottom of a Bottle,” the album features 11 other tracks, including the previously released “Sugar in the Tank” and “Sylvia.”
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The project has been years in the making, with its roots tracing back to 2016 when Baker and TORRES first played a show together. That night, the idea of making a country album was casually thrown out. Nearly a decade later, that passing comment has turned into a full-fledged record.
In conversation with host Michael Kosta, Baker and Torres—whose real name is Mackenzie Scott—shared how their friendship and Southern roots naturally led to the project.
“Julien and I have been friends for a while and when the pandemic lockdown occurred I texted her, kind of out of the blue, because I’d been thinking about making a country record for while,” Scott explained. “But I didn’t want to do it alone. And Julien was the first person I thought of because she’s from Tennessee. I’m from Georgia. It just made sense.”
The duo also addressed the album being labeled “queer country.” “I’m certainly proud of that,” Scott said. “We’re queer. But if it were up to me it would just be country.”
To support Send a Prayer My Way, Baker and Torres will embark on a North American tour starting April 23 at The National in Richmond, Virginia, and continuing through May 12 at The Admiral in Omaha, Nebraska. They also have a string of festival appearances lined up, including a set at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, in late March and Zootown Music Festival in Missoula, Montana, in July.
Julien Baker is best known as a member of the indie supergroup Boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Her 2021 solo album, Little Oblivions, debuted at No. 39 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Top Alternative Albums chart. Torres, an acclaimed singer-songwriter, has received critical praise for her 2021 album Thirstier.
