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The performance this week by Nigerian star TEMS is one eagerly awaited moment at the inaugural SXSW London, which opens Monday (June 2) and runs through Saturday (June 7), building on the four-decade legacy of the South By Southwest music, arts, film and tech conference and festival launched by four young colleagues in Austin, Texas, in 1987.
TEMS will headline The Stage at SXSW London on Thursday (June 5) in an exclusive concert presented by Billboard at London’s iconic music venue Troxy. She was featured on the cover of the magazine’s May 17 issue.
London is some 4,900 air miles from Austin where, in the mid 1980s, the idea of a conference and festival, initially focused on music, was hatched by the co-founders of SXSW: Roland Swenson, Louis Jay Meyers, Louis Black and Nick Barbaro. At the first event, held in March 1987, an expected 150 registrants reached 700 on the opening day.
In 2021, following the challenges of the pandemic, SXSW gained an investment partner in Penske Media Corporation (which also owns Billboard) and the film and production company MRC. Two years later, Penske took majority ownership of SXSW.
Under its new owners, SXSW has gone global. The third SXSW Sydney will take place in Australia’s largest city from Oct. 13-19.
This first SXSW London takes place at a time when the creative industries of the United Kingdom are more vital than ever, with the music business finding global success with superstars like Dua Lipa, Charli xcx, Coldplay and others. The event also follows the publication by Billboard of its annual Global Power Players list and its first U.K. Power Players list, whose honorees will be recognized at an invitation-only gathering.
Here are seven highlights to watch for at SXSW London.
By the Numbers
Source: Getty Images / Indiana Pacers / New York Knicks
It’s no longer orange and blue skies after the NBA’s “most overrated player,” Tyrese Haliburton, and the Indiana Pacers once again sent New York Knicks, Ben Stiller, Timothee Chalamet, Spike Lee, and the rest of the diehard Knickerbocker fans on summer break.
The New York Knicks and their fans thought their 52-year championship drought was coming to an end, but unfortunately, the Indiana Pacers had other plans.
Last night, in a game that started close, the Pacers eventually cruised to a 125-108 Game 6 win over the Knicks, punching their ticket to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years to face the Oklahoma City Thunder, where they hope they can win the franchise’s first NBA title.
Out of the gate, the Knicks didn’t let the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd affect them, keeping the contest close, trailing by only four points at halftime. But it was clear they couldn’t keep pace with the Pacers, who turned it on in the second half, ending the third quarter with an 11-point lead that the Knicks couldn’t overcome.
It didn’t help that the Knicks’ offense was stifled by the Pacers’ defense in the second half. The clutch player of the year and Knicks’ top offensive weapon, Jalen Brunson, was held to just 19 points and shot 4/10 at the half because Andrew Nembhard locked him down.
In Games 1-5, Andrew Nembhard defended Jalen Brunson for 49 match-ups, allowing 51.0 player points per 100 match-ups
In Game 6, Nembhard defended Brunson for 55 match-ups, giving up just 9.1 player points per 100 match-ups
He was sensational. pic.twitter.com/VQNoJSo22x
— Caitlin Cooper (@C2_Cooper) June 1, 2025
Turnovers Killed The Knicks’ Chances
The Pacers also forced 18 Knicks turnovers, scoring 25 fastbreak points, a recipe for disaster for any team trying to win an Eastern Conference Finals series.
After being stifled in Game 5, Tyrese Haliburton returned to form, scoring 21 points and dishing out 13 assists. However, it was Pascal Siakam’s 31-point performance that helped put the Knicks away for good, earning him the series MVP award, which also provided a classic meme moment.
Tyrese Haliburton thought that Larry Bird ECF MVP trophy was his🤣#NBA #Pacers pic.twitter.com/59eF189mNI
— Caleb Nixon (@calebnixonmedia) June 1, 2025
Jalen Brunson Still Has Confidence In This Knicks Team
Despite solid offensive efforts from OG Anunoby, who led all Knicks scorers with 24 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns with 22, it just wasn’t enough.
It didn’t help that Josh Hart, who has been reliable all season, didn’t leave his mark on the game, scoring only 4 points.
Following the game, Brunson says he still believes in this Knicks team as it is constructed, telling reporters he has “The most confidence, overconfident, seriously,” Brunson said. “There’s not an ounce of any type of doubt that I’m confident with this group.”
Jalen Brunson was asked if he has confidence that Tom Thibodeau is the right coach for the Knicks moving forward:
“Is that a real question right now? You just asked me if I believe if he’s the right guy. Yes.” pic.twitter.com/FRjCO8genL
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) June 1, 2025
A Magical Season Comes To A Bitter End
Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks looked like they were on the verge of a special season after two big playoff series wins, including knocking off the defending champion Boston Celtics.
But it would turn out their biggest test would be the franchise’s longtime rivals, the Indiana Pacers, who have played boogeyman to the Knicks franchise for many years.
Coming into the series, the Knicks had all the momentum, especially after pulling off one of the biggest comebacks in playoff history en route to denying the Celtics the opportunity to defend their 2023-24 NBA championship.
It would turn out that the Knicks would get a taste of their own medicine after they dramatically blew a significant lead in game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, which led to an insane Tyrese Haliburton buzzer-beater to force overtime, where the Knicks came up short, and eventually would go on to lose the series.
TYRESE HALIBURTON BUZZER BEATER FORCES OT 🤯🤯🤯
AND HE DID THE CHOKE SIGN TO THE KNICKS!!! pic.twitter.com/0jufr6naNl
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 22, 2025
As you can imagine, Knicks fans’ emotions are all over the place. Some are proud of their Knickerbockers, while others feel a change is needed, calling for the firing of head coach Tom Thibodeau, whose rotations and refusal to use his bench were once again the subject of discussion.
Tom Thibodeau is just Doc Rivers but plays his stars 48 minutes a game. pic.twitter.com/d2fVTya9Cj
— chickenfried🍗 (@realzachbrown) May 26, 2025
Welp, there’s always next year.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. A proud Knicks fan
I don’t care I’m damn proud of this team.A season full of memoriesTwo All Star startersBack to back 50 win seasonsGreat series win vs DetroitAn upset for the ages vs BostonFirst ECF in 25 yearsIt was an amazing season pic.twitter.com/JWJipMcEsq— KNICKS BEAST (@KnicksBeast) June 1, 2025
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Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen are officially husband and wife.
The singer-actress, 28, and Buffalo Bills quarterback, 29, were photographed walking down the aisle during a stunning wedding ceremony in Southern California on Saturday (May 31), according to People.
Neither Steinfeld nor Allen had shared photos of their oceanside nuptials on social media at press time.
The couple announced their engagement in November 2024 with a breathtaking Instagram post. In the snapshot, the NFL star is seen down on one knee atop a grassy ridge overlooking the water, surrounded by candles and framed by a large, flower-covered arch.
The Sinners actress and Allen were first linked romantically in spring 2023, after being spotted dining together in New York City. Months later, Allen confirmed the relationship but asked The Associated Press not to mention Steinfeld by name in an attempt to maintain privacy.
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Earlier this year, Steinfeld opened up about the engagement during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Speaking about her new life in Buffalo, N.Y., the “Starving” singer said with a smile, “I have been given a very warm welcome.” She added, “The people are incredible, it’s such a wonderful, wonderful place.”
Allen’s Buffalo Bills had an impressive season, making it to the AFC Championship before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of the Super Bowl. Steinfeld has become a vocal supporter of her new husband’s team. In a February interview with Who What Wear, she playfully shaded the Chiefs when asked to name the four AFC teams.
“You got the Buffalo Bills and the Bills’ three sons,” she replied pointedly.
Still, Steinfeld managed to find a few kind words for the Chiefs in a Hot Ones Versus episode released the day before her Fallon appearance in early April. When challenged to compliment the team or eat a spicy wing, Steinfeld gave it her best shot while facing off against her Sinners co-star Michael B. Jordan.
“Yellow and red really complement them all pretty well,” she said to avoid eating a spicy wing, struggling to think of more things to say as Jordan laughed at her. “They are very loud … it’s great you want that from a fanbase. And third, they go hard for their team.”
BTS has shared new details about its upcoming 2025 FESTA, marking the K-pop group’s 12th anniversary. This year’s offline celebration is set for June 13–14 at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang, South Korea. The event will be open to the public and feature interactive activities, including a FESTA-themed game zone, DIY photo card stations, […]
Netflix has confirmed Lady Gaga will appear in season two of Wednesday, the hit series starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. Gaga will be “playing the mysterious and enigmatic Rosaline Rotwood, a legendary Nevermore teacher who crosses paths with Wednesday,” according to a company release on Netflix.com. The streaming service first announced the news of […]
Next year things might look a bit different for Miley Cyrus, who says in a conversation with The New York Times that she’s looking forward to a “rebirth of how I look at my career.”
When asked about her relationship with mainstream success, Cyrus, who just released her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, spoke of what she sees next for herself as an artist.
“I think it’s winding down, my attachment to mainstream success,” Cyrus said in the video interview, published on Saturday, May 31. (A shortened version of the full interview was published on the outlet’s website.)
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“I kind of feel like this album, it’s definitely not a ‘last lap’ — I’m definitely not going 180 in my career necessarily right now — but I think it’s potentially the last time I’ll do it exactly this way,” she noted.
The singer announced Something Beautiful in March, when she gave fans a first listen to album track “Prelude” and the set’s title track. She’s since released two more singles, “End of the World” and “More to Lose,” and just before the album’s release held a private concert hosted by TikTok at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. Still to come is a visual component to the project, a film set to show in theaters for one night only on June 12 in the United States and Canada, and internationally on June 27.
Cyrus — whose previous full-length release, 2023’s Endless Summer Vacation, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — said, “I’m taking a big bet on this one [Something Beautiful]. I’m all in. But I don’t think I’ll put myself in a position that I add this much pressure to myself again.”
“A lot of things are going to change about that for me, towards the end [of this year] and the beginning of next year. That’s really kind of my focus, of using this year to kind of wind that idea I’ve had of myself down. There’s a song on the album called ‘Reborn’ and it’s kind of about this. I feel like next year for me is gonna be kind of this rebirth of how I do things and how I look at my career,” said Cyrus.
The conversation clocked in at nearly an hour, between Cyrus’ in-person sit-down with the publication and a follow-up call. Among the many topics discussed with candor: her present-day relationship with each parent (Tish and Billy Ray Cyrus), whether she’s interested in being a parent one day, what happened when she did E.M.D.R. therapy, growing up as a child star and why finally winning her first Grammy (for “Flowers,” in 2024) was so significant, and — when interviewer Lulu Garcia-Navarro brought up Cyrus’ peers in the industry — her rapport with other female pop stars.
“I find the relationship between female pop stars to be really interesting and often very fraught,” Garcia-Navarro suggested, to which Cyrus joked: “Divas.”
“Is that what you think is happening?” she asked Cyrus.
“I mean, probably on my end,” the singer said, and then clarified, “I don’t mind the word diva. Maybe I’m a little diva.”
Cyrus added, “It’s kind of cool. It’s a fantasy. You don’t have to be famous to be a diva — just be a diva. Diva does not mean difficult for no reason.” When asked whether she thinks she’s difficult, she quipped: “I’m difficult, but not for no reason.”
The interviewer followed up by prompting, “You have said you don’t feel part of the cohort of singers of your generation and age group … You’ve held yourself apart in a certain way.” She asked Cyrus why.
“I don’t think it’s so much of a conscious choice,” Cyrus said. “I think for me, my persona — the public’s idea of me — is ‘on,’ in some way, but in my own time, I’m very off. I like no makeup, my hair up messy. I don’t even look in the mirror in my own time.”
“It’s not that I haven’t found it,” she said. “I haven’t looked very hard. I’m sure girls in my community are going like, ‘Well, that’s me too and you haven’t reached out.’ No, I haven’t … I like doing my two worlds.”
Cyrus related her real life to that of her teenaged Hannah Montana persona.
“Maybe it’s something subconsciously from the show, like from Hannah Montana where I think my famous person has one life and then as a regular person I have another life,” she explained. “I think maybe subconsciously it programmed me — not even joking — to think who I am at home and who I am as a performer are kind of like two separate identities, and actually they are.”
Elsewhere in the conversation the former Disney star talked about the younger generation of pop singers, including Sabrina Carpenter, whom she’s met and sometimes worries about due to the hectic schedule the “Espresso” hitmaker keeps. “Every time I see her I have the urge to ask her if she’s OK. I’ll see she’s performing in Ireland, and then the next day she’s doing a show in Kansas. And I’m like, ‘I don’t know how that could be physically OK,’ because I was in that situation. I know what it feels like to fry yourself, and I don’t want anyone else to get fried. But I like all the new girls. I think they’re all unique and are very found,” Cyrus said.
See her full interview with the New York Times in the video below.
Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer whose music provided essential accompaniment for the animated antics of The Simpsons for 27 years, has died.
His daughter Kaarin Clausen told The Associated Press that Alf Clausen died Thursday (May 29) at his home in Los Angeles after struggling with Parkinson’s disease for about a decade. He was 84.
Clausen, who also scored TV series including Moonlighting and Alf (“no relation,” he used to joke) was nominated for 30 Emmy Awards, 21 of them for The Simpsons, winning twice.
Al Jean, an early Simpsons writer who was one of the key creative figures on the show in the 1990s, said in a post on X Friday that “Clausen was an incredibly talented man who did so much for The Simpsons.”
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While Danny Elfman wrote the show’s theme song, Clausen joined the Fox animated series created by Matt Groening in 1990 and provided essentially all of its music until 2017, composing nearly 600 scores and conducting the 35-piece orchestra that played it in the studio.
His colleagues said his music was a key component of the show’s comedy, but Clausen believed the best way to back up the gags of Homer, Marge Bart and Lisa was by making the music as straight as possible.
“This is a dream job for a composer,” Clausen told Variety, which first reported his death, in 1998. “Matt Groening said to me very early on, ‘We’re not a cartoon. We’re a drama where the characters are drawn. I want you to score it like a drama.’ I score the emotions of the characters as opposed to specific action hits on the screen.”Groening, in a 1996 interview, called him “one of the unacknowledged treasures of the show.”Clausen was born in Minneapolis and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1966, and moved to Los Angeles seeking a career in music.In the 1970s he was a musical director on several TV variety shows including Donny & Marie.
Clausen worked as an orchestrator for composer Lee Holdridge in his scores for 1980s films including Splash and The Beastmaster.
It was Holdridge who first got the composing job on Moonlighting, the late-’80s ABC rom-com detective series starring Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd, but he handed the gig off to Clausen, who would get six Emmy nominations for his music on it.
Clausen won his Emmys for The Simpsons in 1997 and 1998 and also won five Annie Awards, which honor work in animation in film and television.
He was fired from The Simpsons in a cost-cutting move in 2017, to the outrage of his collaborators and fans. He sued over his dismissal.
Clausen is survived by his wife, Sally; children Kaarin, Scott and Kyle; stepchildren Josh and Emily, and 11 grandchildren.
Robin Thicke and April Love Geary have officially tied the knot.
On Friday (May 30), the longtime couple exchanged vows in a romantic beachside ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, six years after getting engaged in 2018, People reports.
Thicke, 48, and Geary, 30, shared glimpses of the special day on their Instagram Stories. In one video, the “Blurred Lines” singer is seen kissing his new bride as fireworks light up the night sky. Another black-and-white photo captures the newlyweds with their children.
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The couple shares three children together: daughters Mia, 5, and Lola, 4, and son Luca, 2. Thicke also has a 15-year-old son, Julian, from his previous marriage to actress Paula Patton. They were married for nine years before divorcing in 2015.
In another video, posted on Instagram by a wedding guest, Thicke is seen wearing black sunglasses while walking down the aisle to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The ceremony’s star-studded guest list included Leonardo DiCaprio, Usher and Ken Jeong, according to TMZ.
Trending on Billboard
Earlier this month, while in France for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Thicke proposed to Geary for a second time. The couple has been together since 2014 and first got engaged on Christmas Eve 2018 while Geary was pregnant with Lola.
“Robin surprised me during our trip to Cannes by proposing to me again with a new ring that one of my best friends @nikkiwhatnikkiwho @establishedjewelry made, I’m so obsessed with it, thank you!!!” Geary wrote on Instagram. “This trip was such a dream. I love you so much @robinthicke Also a huge thank you to @alilasky for clearing out the whole area and making sure there wasn’t a single person getting in the way.”
Ronald Fenty, the father of Rihanna, has reportedly died at the age of 70.
Fenty passed away following a brief illness, according to Starcom Network News, a radio station based in Rihanna’s native Barbados. The official cause and exact date of death have not yet been disclosed. Sources told the outlet that he was surrounded by family at the time of his passing.
Billboard has reached out to Rihanna’s representatives for comment.
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On Wednesday (May 28), Rihanna’s younger brother, Rajad Fenty, was photographed arriving at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. TMZ reports that the singer was also in the vehicle but was not visible in the photos.
Rihanna — who is currently expecting her third child with A$AP Rocky — had a complicated relationship with her father over the years. The two were estranged for a period before eventually making amends.
After Rihanna (born Robyn Rihanna Fenty) was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009, Fenty spoke publicly about the incident without her consent. In a 2011 interview with Vogue, the singer expressed her disappointment.
“You grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness’ sakes!” she said at the time. “And then he does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it.”
In a 2012 interview with Oprah, Rihanna said she had repaired her relationship with her father, who she had described as being violent growing up. In 2019, however, she filed a lawsuit against him and his business partner, Moses Perkins, accusing them of attempting to profit off her name by launching a company called Fenty Entertainment. She alleged they misled investors by falsely claiming she was involved in the venture. Rihanna dropped the lawsuit shortly before it was set to go to trial in 2021, according to the BBC.
Fenty shared three children — Rihanna, Rajad and Rorrey — with his ex-wife, Monica Braithwaite. The couple divorced in 2002. The family was raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, where Rihanna lived until she moved to the U.S. at age 16. He also had three children from previous relationships: daughters Samantha and Kandy, and son Jamie, People reports.
05/31/2025
In honor of AAPI Month, Billboard speaks to various artists and executives on how the music industry can better serve their community.
05/31/2025