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Awards

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It’s a few days late to tie in with St. Patrick’s Day, but U2 are the first Irish songwriters to be named Ivors Academy Fellows. They are the second group to receive the honor, following Bee Gees.
Ivors Academy Fellows is the highest honor that the organization, best known for their annual Ivor Novello Awards, bestows. The award will be presented at this year’s The Ivors with Amazon Music event at Grosvenor House in London on Thursday May 22. This year’s Ivor Novello Award nominees will be announced on Wednesday April 23.

With U2’s inclusion, the total number of Fellows rises to 32. This counts U2 (Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.) as four individuals and Bees Gees (Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb) as three. Most of the honorees (see full list at the end of this story) have hailed from Britain, though the roster also includes American composer/conductor John Adams, American rock singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen and French composer/conductor Pierre Boulez.

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Formed in Dublin in 1978, U2 is one of the greatest songwriting partnerships and most influential bands of all time. The band has amassed eight No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. U2 is the only band to have a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in four consecutive decades (the 1980s through the 2010s).

U2 has won 22 Grammy Awards, far more than any other group in history. This tally includes four wins in songwriting categories: two for song of the year (for “Beautiful Day” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own”) and two for best rock song (for “Vertigo” and “City of Blinding Lights”).

In addition, the band members have received two Oscar nominations for best original song, for “The Hands That Built America” (from Gangs of New York) and “Ordinary Love” (from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom).

U2 has won four Ivor Novello Awards – the Special Award for International Achievement in 1994, Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Walk On” in 2002, Outstanding Song Collection in 2003 and International Hit of the Year for “Vertigo” in 2005.

Other prized songs by U2 include “I Will Follow,” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “With or Without You” and “One.”

“To be recognised in this way by The Ivors Academy feels very special indeed,” U2’s Adam Clayton said in a statement. “The appreciation of one’s peers is a humbling honour and we are immensely grateful. We’ve been playing our songs in this country for over 45 years, thank you to all those who have not just supported us, but carried us… producers, engineers, crew, fans, management, label.”

Bandmate Larry Mullen Jr. added: “Making music collectively, as we’ve done for close to 50 years, has been an incredible experience and privilege for the four of us and I believe it’s a testament to a band that values individual creativity and independence of mind. We are grateful to each other and very grateful to The Ivors Academy for recognising us with this award.”

Tom Gray, chair of The Ivors Academy said in a statement: “With fearless poetic lyricism always centre-stage in panoramic musical vistas, the sound of U2 has redefined the fabric of popular music. Their songs are sweeping catalysts: hymnals and rallying cries. U2’s induction into Fellowship honours their seminal contributions to music through exceptional songwriting craft.”

Roberto Neri, CEO of The Ivors Academy, added: “We are proud to welcome U2 to Fellowship of The Ivors Academy as era-defining songwriters whose legacy continues to propel musical innovation and inspire social progress. As U2’s politically charged anthems have sparked global change, The Ivors Academy is committed to championing creative integrity with the same unwavering passion. At a time when AI threatens to undermine human creativity, U2’s Fellowship stands as a testament to the irreplaceable role of songwriters and composers in shaping culture and inspiring change.”

U2’s many other awards include the Kennedy Center Honors in 2022 and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience award.

Here’s a full, updated list of Fellows of the Ivors Academy. Notes: Multiple honorees in a single year are listed alphabetically. Paul McCartney’s team prefers not to list him with his Sir honorific.

2000: Paul McCartney

2001: Sir Malcolm Arnold CBE, John Barry OBE

2004: John Adams, Sir Elton John

2005: David Arnold, Pierre Boulez CBE, Sir John Dankworth CBE, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CH CBE

2006: Sir Barry Gibb CBE, Maurice Gibb CBE, Robin Gibb CBE

2007: George Fenton

2009: Don Black OBE, David Ferguson

2010: Sir Tim Rice

2012: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber

2015: Annie Lennox OBE

2020: Joan Armatrading CBE, Julian Joseph OBE

2021: Kate Bush CBE

2022: Peter Gabriel, Judith Weir CBE

2023: John Rutter CBE, Sting

2024: Sir James Macmillan, Bruce Springsteen, Errollyn Wallen

2025: Bono (Paul Hewson), Adam Clayton, The Edge (Dave Evans), Larry Mullen Jr.

Sitting in a sun-drenched room at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton, Gracie Abrams is shaking her head “no.” She’s reflecting on a breakout 2024 — during which she scored her highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit to date and received her second Grammy Award nomination, for “Us,” a collaboration with none other than Taylor Swift. But Abrams still struggles to see herself as the superstar she’s become.
“It’s such a dream and a pretty wild ride to look back on the year and be able to reflect on all of these moments that I never could have imagined ever happening,” the 25-year-old says in quiet awe. When it comes to the matter of her smash hit “That’s So True,” it is true — she never saw it coming. After humming the song’s in-the-works hook and melody for months, she and her songwriting partner and roommate Audrey Hobert finished it in about 15 minutes one day after “laughing our asses off on the roof” of New York’s Electric Lady Studios.

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The catchy, stream-of-consciousness song was one of four additions to the deluxe version of Abrams’ second album, The Secret of Us (which arrived in October), but quickly surpassed the album’s previous hits, including “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “Close to You” (which peaked at Nos. 19 and 49, respectively, while “True” reached No. 6). Such wins have helped Abrams, who co-wrote and co-­produced every track on The Secret of Us and its deluxe edition, earn the Billboard‘s 2025 Women in Music Songwriter of the Year honor — but, with characteristic humility, she won’t say she’s mastered the craft just yet.

“F–k no! Sorry,” she says with a laugh. “I feel very far away from having mastered anything in my life. But I will continue to attempt to get closer to that point.”

Sami Drasin

Since you released your debut album in 2023, how have you grown as a songwriter?

What I can point to specifically that has broadened my horizons is the partnership I’ve had with Audrey. She’s my oldest friend and we very much grew up together, and then to fold in this collaborative [relationship] was not something either of us ever would have anticipated. But as a songwriter, to find someone who you feel so open with, who you trust so much, who knows everything about you, who knows what your conversational language sounds like, who knows if you’re lying about a feeling… it infused so much life into our album that we made together.

What’s an example of a time she called “bulls–t” on you?

Less like “bulls–t” and more [like] in the morning if I would come downstairs and she’s like, “How are you doing?” I’m like, “I’m fine.” And she’s like, “You f–king liar.” Or like, “I’m really over that person,” [and she’s like,] “No, you’re not, you liar.” We checked each other as much in our songwriting process as we did in our day-to-day friendship.

Sami Drasin

Sami Drasin

As we speak, you’re about to head out on your European/U.K. tour [which Abrams wrapped March 12]. How did you spend your time before returning to the road?

I have just come back from being at Aaron [Dessner’s studio, Long Pond, in New York] so I feel like… I’m in the middle of something. I don’t know what it is yet… We’ve been collecting a whole lot of music over the past few months, and he and I are both very curious about all of it because I think [the songs] belong in different worlds a little bit, which excites me. I think that means there are many possibilities for what either the singular project looks like or multiple [projects].

You said you haven’t mastered songwriting yet. Do you feel close?

No. Oh, my God, no. I want to broaden my vocabulary times a thousand. I want to spend the majority of my year reading so that I can do that. I feel nowhere near that level. I have a million people I want to continue to learn from. Taylor is a great example of someone I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time around and every single time I’m like, “Tell me everything you know, please. Teach me how to be.” I want to live fully and do my best to capture what that feels like.

Gracie Abrams photographed February 1, 2025 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Sami Drasin

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

In the summer of 2023, Tyla made a massive splash with her Billboard Hot 100 top 10 popiano smash, “Water.” But that turned out to be just a hint of what the South African star was capable of — and in March 2024, she released her acclaimed self-titled debut album, a showcase for her expert fusion of amapiano, Afrobeats, pop and R&B.
That same month, she was forced to cancel her debut Coachella set and first headlining international tour in the wake of a back injury. But no setback could stop Tyla, 23, from shining in the global spotlight. She ditched her aquatic motif for a sand-sculpted Balmain gown for her debut at the Met Gala in New York last May, and this year, she’ll join A-listers like André 3000 and Usher as a member of the Costume Institute Benefit Host Committee as the event honors Black style. In October, she performed her song “Push 2 Start” for the first time at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show; the sweltering reggae-infused track from the deluxe version of Tyla, released just days before, became her second Hot 100 entry.

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Following her historic 2024 Grammy Award win — when “Water” took home the inaugural best African music performance trophy, making her the youngest-ever African artist to win a Grammy — Tyla picked up more hardware at the BET Awards, Billboard Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. And this year’s Women in Music Impact honoree remains determined to spotlight African music and bring her native South African amapiano to the world’s biggest stages while dispelling the notion that she, and all African artists, only make “Afrobeats” music. Case in point: Come April, Tyla will finally play Coachella.

“The fact that what I’ve been doing has impacted people all over the world, especially African artists, is special,” she says.

You’ve been very vocal while winning “Afrobeats” awards. Is it hard to relish those victories when your music is being mislabeled?

It’s still an honor because I do use Afrobeats’ influence in my music. I represent Africa as a whole. Genre is so fluid, so it’s become difficult to categorize it. If people see it as the influence that the artist is using in their music getting its recognition, it’ll help more [with perceptions], rather than being like, “This person is not that.”

Who are the women who’ve been the most influential in your life as an artist?

Tems is a big one. What she’s been able to do has been very inspiring. Britney [Spears], Whitney Houston, Aaliyah.

What performance that you’ve done in the past year have you found most impactful?

The shows I did back home [in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria]. I haven’t really done much there since everything has happened [with “Water” blowing up]. Those were the biggest headlining shows I’ve ever had. It was fun being able to have that much control over the stage, the dancing, the lighting, the song arrangements. It was really cool to create something from scratch and give home a whole show that I’ve never been able to give them.

What else do you have in store for 2025?

New album. I’ve changed a lot in a short amount of time because I was kind of forced to with how fast I had to adapt to everything. I don’t think it’s going to be the same energy [as Tyla] at all, especially with what I’ve started making. It’s different, but also still Tyla.

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Hours into their Billboard Women in Music photo shoot, the members of aespa are goofing off. High-pitched giggles reverberate through the studio as Winter, Karina, Ningning and Giselle tickle one another’s sides, talk in silly voices and play with the straps on their leathery stage outfits.
It’s mesmerizing to watch the four early-20-somethings be so, well, real, not just because they’re one of K-pop’s most polished acts — which they demonstrate by immediately snapping back into place once the photographer is ready again — but also because ­aespa has a particular penchant for the surreal. The SM Entertainment group debuted in 2020 with K-pop’s first lineup to feature both human and virtual members, pairing each girl with an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar as part of a cyberpunk musical metaverse marked by dark, 808-laced hyperpop and edgy-chic outfits.

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Ever since, the act has leveraged its niche into unprecedented crossover success — in November, mini-album Whiplash made it the first K-pop girl group to have six projects reach the Billboard 200 top 50, and it just wrapped its second global arena tour — and a reputation for being one of the genre’s “most adventurous and contemporary” groups, as its “Over You” collaborator Jacob Collier put it to Billboard in January.

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But going forward, 2025’s Billboard Women in Music Group of the Year also wants to focus on something potentially even more subversive: showing that beneath the personas, its members are just those real-life girls blowing off steam between camera flashes. “We’re not actual AI; we do have days where we don’t feel the best,” Giselle says once the foursome has squeezed together on a couch. “Our storyline can be fun to keep up with, but I want fans to look up to aespa for our human traits, too.”

Karina

Abi Polinsky

Why do you think aespa has made a name as trendsetters?

Giselle: There’s always going to be trends, but we don’t follow them because we can’t. We have our own story to tell that was set from the start.

Winter: We usually talk about ourselves more than love [in our lyrics]. We’re the main characters of our stories.

Karina: We’re honest. Of course, you have to be professional and present your best self, but we also try to show the not-perfect side. We’re not trying to filter everything or over-mask ourselves.

Giselle

Abi Polinsky

What’s next in aespa’s evolution?

Ningning: We did start out with our avatar concept, but now we’re also trying really hard to explore different concepts and themes. In the future, there may be moments where the fans don’t see the avatars.

Karina: We want aespa to be a really stylish group, not only in fashion and music, but also in terms of versatility and excelling in every genre. I also want all our members to shine individually when we’re together and even when we’re not together.

From left: Ningning, Karina, Giselle, and Winter of aespa photographed on February 10, 2025 in New York.

Abi Polinsky

Who are your favorite artists/dream collaborators at the moment?

Ningning: Doechii. I’d just really like to meet her.

Winter: Billie Eilish. She’s so good at expressing her honest feelings through her music.

Karina: Olivia Dean. Whenever I need to find composure, I listen to her.

Giselle: SZA. Her music is so hard to get sick of — and very relatable.

Winter

Abi Polinsky

As a girl group, how do you support one another?

Ningning: We’re all from different countries and environments, but we’ve been doing this for five years. They’re always there for me. Working with this mindset that we’re in this together makes it easier to handle challenging situations and emotions.

Winter: I don’t think we could’ve made it through this alone. We’ve had to overcome certain obstacles, but with each other’s support, we were able to move forward. (Karina giggles as Giselle starts poking her ­affectionately.) These girls are all very precious to me.

Ningning

Abi Polinsky

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Shaboozey, MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Jessica Pratt and Kim Gordon are among the leading artist nominees for the 2025 Libera Awards, which honor the best in independent music across 28 categories. This 14th annual awards ceremony will take place on Monday, June 9 at the historic Gotham Hall in New York City.

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The nominees for record of the year include Pratt’s Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer), Gordon’s The Collective (Matador Records), Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks (ANTI-), Mk.gee’s “Rockman” (R&R Digital) and Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood (ANTI-).

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Pratt, Lenderman and Mk.gee are also nominated for the breakthrough artist award, where they face Magdalena Bay (Mom+Pop), Mannequin Pussy (Epitaph) and Shaboozey (American Dogwood/EMPIRE). Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks, was nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 2 and new artist of the year at the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 20.

The nominations were announced on Wednesday (March 19) by FIM (The Foundation for Independent Music) and A2IM (The American Association of Independent Music, Inc.).

“Huge congratulations to all the incredibly talented nominees for the 14th annual Libera Awards,” Dr. Richard James Burgess, president and CEO of A2IM, said in a statement. “As the world’s largest awards show dedicated to the diverse and vibrant world of independent music, the Libera Awards honor both the artists and the industry that champion them. This year’s event promises to be our biggest and best yet, as A2IM proudly celebrates its 20th anniversary.”

The Libera Awards Presented by Merlin – the official name of the awards – will kick off the Indie Week conference, which will run from Tuesday, June 10 through Thursday, June 12 at the InterContinental New York Times Square.

A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of over 600 independently-owned American music labels.

Here’s a complete list of nominees for the 2025 Libera Awards Presented by Merlin.

Record of the Year

Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador Records)

MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (ANTI-)

Mk.gee – “Rockman” (R&R Digital)

Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (ANTI-)

Breakthrough Artist

Jessica Pratt (Mexican Summer)

Magdalena Bay (Mom+Pop)

Mannequin Pussy (Epitaph)

MJ Lenderman (ANTI-)

Mk.gee (R&R Digital)

Shaboozey (American Dogwood/EMPIRE)

Music Video of the Year

Caravan Palace – “Mirrors” (Le Plan Recordings)

Fontaines D.C. – “Starburster” (XL Recordings)

Justice – “Neverender (starring Tame Impala)” (Because Music)

Porter Robinson – “Cheerleader” (Mom+Pop)

Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman – “Right Back to It” (ANTI-)

Yaeji – “booboo” (XL Recordings)

Reissue

Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock: The Album (Tommy Boy Records)

American Football – American Football LP1 (25th Anniversary Edition) (Polyvinyl Record Co.)

Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd – The Moon and the Melodies (4AD)

John Cale – Paris 1919 (Deluxe Edition) (Domino Recording Company)

MF DOOM – MM..FOOD (20th Anniversary Edition) (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

Ray Charles – Crying Time (Tangerine Records)

Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso (10 Year Anniversary Edition) (Psychic Hotline)

Remix

Fcukers – “Bon Bon (Confidence Man Remix)” (Technicolour/Ninja Tune)

Kelela – RAVE:N, The Remixes (Warp Records)

MF DOOM – “One Beer (Madlib Remix)” (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

Shygirl – “mr useless – MK remix” (Because Music)

Slowdive – “kisses (grouper remix)” (Dead Oceans)

Alternative Rock Record

Being Dead – EELS (Bayonet Records)

Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (4AD)

Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador Records)

Nada Surf – Moon Mirror (New West Records)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God (Play It Again Sam)

American Roots Record

Dave Alvin + Jimmie Dale Gilmore – TexiCali (Yep Roc Records)

Fantastic Negrito – Son of a Broken Man (Storefront Records)

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Woodland (Acony Records)

Joe Ely – Driven to Drive (Rack ’Em Records)

MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (ANTI-)

Swamp Dogg – Blackgrass (Oh Boy Records)

Blues Record

Cedric Burnside – Hill Country Love (Provogue Records)

Little Feat – Sam’s Place (Hot Tomato Records)

Ruthie Foster – Mileage (Sun Records)

Shemekia Copeland – Blame It on Eve (Alligator Records)

The Taj Mahal Sextet – Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa (Lightning Rod Records)

 Classical Record

Ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem (harmonia mundi)

II Divo – XX: 20th Anniversary Album (Il Divo Music)

Isabelle Faust – Britten: Violin Concerto and Chamber Works (harmonia mundi)

Ju-Ping Song – Monad (Starkland)

Kelly Moran – Moves in the Field (Warp Records)

Marc-André Hamelin, Nathalie Forget, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno – Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie (harmonia mundi)

Michael Torke – Bloom (Ecstatic Records)

Country Record

Corb Lund – El Viejo (New West Records)

Fancy Hagood – American Spirit (Fancy Hagood Enterprises)

Johnny Blue Skies – Passage du Desir (High Top Mountain Records)

Shaboozey – Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going (American Dogwood/EMPIRE)

Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (ANTI-)

Zach Top – Cold Beer & Country Music (Leo33)

Dance Record

A.G. Cook – “Britpop” (New Alias)

Fcukers – Baggy$$ (Technicolour / Ninja Tune)

Peggy Gou – I Hear You (XL Recordings)

Shygirl – Club Shy (Because Music)

SOPHIE – SOPHIE (Future Classic)

Electronic Record

Caribou – Honey (Merge Records)

Floating Points – Cascade (Ninja Tune)

Flying Lotus – Spirit Box (Warp Records)

Jamie xx – In Waves (Young)

Justice – Hyperdrama (Because Music)

Photay – Windswept (Mexican Summer)

Folk Record

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)

Aoife O’Donovan – All My Friends (Yep Roc Records)

Bonny Light Horseman – Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free (Jagjaguwar)

Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Madi Diaz – Weird Faith (ANTI-)

Global Record

Altin Gun – “Vallahi Yok” (ATO Records)

Asake – Lungu Boy (YBNL Nation/EMPIRE)

BALTHVS – Harvest (Mixto Records)

Glass Beams – Mahal (Ninja Tune)

Hermanos Gutiérrez – Sonido Cósmico (Easy Eye Sound)

Manu Chao – Viva Tu (Because Music)

Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice (Matador Records)

Heavy Record

Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (Loma Vista Recordings)

High On Fire – Cometh the Storm (MNRK Music Group)

METZ – Up on Gravity Hill (Sub Pop Records)

Scene Queen – Hot Singles in Your Area (Hopeless Records)

Speed – “Only One Mode” (FLATSPOT)

Hip-Hop/Rap Record

BigXthaPlug – Take Care (UnitedMasters)

Cash Cobain – PLAY CASH COBAIN (Giant Music)

Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Vol. 1 (Loma Vista Recordings)

Denzel Curry – King of the Mischievous South (Loma Vista Recordings)

E L U C I D – REVELATOR (Fat Possum Records)

Shygirl – “Immaculate” (feat. Saweetie) (Because Music)

Jazz Record

BADBADNOTGOOD – Mid Spiral (XL Recordings)

Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching (Partisan Records)

Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement (Young)

Lakecia Benjamin – Phoenix Reimagined (Live) (Ropeadope Records)

Morgan Guerin – Tales of the Facade (Candid Records)

Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp Records)

Nubya Garcia – Odyssey (Concord Jazz)

Latin Record

Angélica Garcia – Gemelo (Partisan Records)

Buscabulla – “11:11” (Domino Recording Company)

Chicano Batman – “Era Primavera” (ATO Records)

Dayme Arocena – Alkemi (Brownswood Recordings)

Gaby Moreno and La Lom – “Alma Florecida” (Cosmica Artists)

Girl Ultra – blush (Big Dada/Ninja Tune)

Reyna Tropical – Malegría (Psychic Hotline)

Outlier Record

Chanel Beads – Your Day Will Come (Jagjaguwar)

Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn – Quiet in a World Full of Noise (Merge Records)

Hakushi Hasegawa – Mahōgakkō (Brainfeeder)

Helado Negro – PHASOR (4AD)

Khruangbin – A LA SALA (Dead Oceans)

Moor Mother – The Great Bailout (ANTI-)

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE – YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING (Saddle Creek)

urika’s bedroom – Big Smile, Black Mire (True Panther)

Pop Record

Kate Nash – 9 Sad Symphonies (Kill Rock Stars)

Kesha – “Joyride” (Kesha Records)

Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk (Mom+Pop)

Sofie Royer – Young-Girl Forever (Stones Throw Records)

SOPHIE – SOPHIE (Future Classic)

Suki Waterhouse – Memoir of a Sparklemuffin (Sub Pop Records)

Punk Record

A Place To Bury Strangers – Synthesizer (Dedstrange)

Chubby And the Gang – And Then There Was… (FLATSPOT)

Ekko Astral – pink balloons (Topshelf Records)

Laura Jane Grace – Hole in My Head (Polyvinyl Record Co.)

Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced (Sub Pop Records)

SPRINTS – Letter to Self (City Slang)

R&B Record

Erika de Casier – Still (4AD)

Fana Hues – Moth (Bright Antenna Records)

Mavis Staples – “Worthy” (ANTI-)

NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge) – Why Lawd? (Stones Throw Records)

serpentwithfeet – GRIP (Secretly Canadian)

Yaya Bey – Ten Fold (Big Dada/Ninja Tune)

Rock Record

Fontaines D.C. – Romance (XL Recordings)

IDLES – TANGK (Partisan Records)

Jack White – No Name (Third Man Records)

Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (Epitaph)

The Lemon Twigs – A Dream Is All We Know (Captured Tracks)

The Linda Lindas – No Obligation (Epitaph)

Singer Songwriter Record

Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD)

Christian Lee Hutson – Paradise Pop. 10 (ANTI-)

Faye Webster – Underdressed at the Symphony (Secretly Canadian)

Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Katie Gavin – “As Good as It Gets” (Saddest Factory Records)

Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat (Partisan Records/Chrysalis Records)

Soul/Funk Record

Angela Muñoz – Descanso (Stones Throw Records)

Neal Francis – “Back It Up” (ATO Records)

The Dip – Love Direction (Dualtone)

Thee Sacred Souls – Got a Story to Tell (Daptone Records)

Thee Sinseers – Sinseerly Yours (Colemine Records)

Spiritual Record

Brother John – Brother John & The GFT Collective (The Blues Preachers/The Orchard)

Flock – Flock II (Strut)

Lauren Daigle – “Then I Will (from Boenhoffer)” (Centricity Music)

Lecrae – “Die for the Party” (Reach Records)

The Harlem Gospel Travelers – Rhapsody (Colemine Records)

The Nelons – Loving You (Daywind Records)

Sync Record

Cigarettes After Sex – “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” (It Ends With Us) (Partisan Records)

De La Soul – “Say No Go” (Civil War) (A.O.I./Chrysalis/Reservoir)

Jamie xx & The Avalanches – “All You Children” (Apple) (Young)

Spoon – “The Way We Get By” (’A Real Pain’ Trailer) (Matador Records)

Waxahatchee feat. MJ Lenderman – “Right Back to It” (Tracker S1 E6) (ANTI-)

Label of the Year (15+ Employees)

ANTI- Records

Dead Oceans

Mom+Pop

Ninja Tune

Partisan Records

Stones Throw Records

Sub Pop Records

Warp Records

Label of the Year (6-14 Employees)

Captured Tracks

City Slang

Fat Possum

Light in the Attic

Mexican Summer

Secret City Records

Label of the Year (5 Or Fewer Employees)

Bayonet Records

Daptone Records

Oh Boy Records

Psychic Hotline

Topshelf Records

True Panther

Distributor of the Year

FUGA

IDOL

Redeye

Secretly Distribution

Symphonic Distribution

The Orchard

Independent Champion

Bandcamp

Infinite Catalog

Marauder

Qobuz

The Bloom Effect

Publisher of the Year

Beggars Music

Downtown Music Publishing

Reservoir

Secret City Publishing

Warp Publishing

Marketing Genius

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Less than an hour into February’s Grammy Awards telecast, one of the evening’s undeniable peak moments occurred. Doechii — the charismatic, lyrically dexterous Florida rapper who was up for three awards that night — won best rap album, making her just the second solo female rapper (and third overall) to win the honor. “Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic, or you’re too loud,” she declared in a tearful acceptance speech that instantly went viral.

For Billboard’s Woman of the Year, it was the culmination of a stunning rise, propelled by her acclaimed mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. But it was also just a beginning: The 26-year-old Tampa MC hasn’t even dropped her debut album yet. 

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Doechii uploaded her first song to SoundCloud when she was just 16 and, in the following years, put out a pair of mixtapes, the latter of which included her first viral hit, 2020’s “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake.” In 2021, she guested on Isaiah Rashad’s “What U Sed,” and in 2022, she became the rapper’s labelmate after signing a joint deal with Capitol Records and Top Dawg Entertainment.

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Her Kodak Black-featuring single, “What It Is (Block Boy)” — released in early 2023, around when she was named Billboard’s Women in Music Rising Star — became her highest-peaking entry on the Billboard Hot 100 at that date, but a fraught period followed; subsequent singles didn’t catch on, and Doechii was, as she later wrote on social media, “battling differences with [her] label and a creative numbness that broke [her].” To ease that tension, she turned to dance music. In March 2024, Doechii joined forces with Miami MC JT and DJ Miss Milan — the latter is now a fixture in her artist universe — to release “Alter Ego,” a vivacious house-rap track that served as a palate cleanser for the fans who hadn’t enjoyed her pop-rap swings from 2023, while also setting the stage for her “Swamp Sessions,” weekly drops of new music that led up to Alligator Bites Never Heal’s late-August release.

The mixtape featured many “Swamp Sessions” tracks, though it wasn’t an instant smash, debuting at No. 117 on the Billboard 200. But for Doechii, that was just a jumping-off point to let her singular vision and meticulous world-building — magnetic live and televised performances anchored by smartly assembled medleys and athletic, Bob Fosse-referencing choreography; proudly Black glam; idiosyncratic music videos nodding equally to ballroom culture, Westerns and telenovelas — blossom.

In the process, Doechii spun gold from one of the most painful periods of her life, and by late 2024, she was inescapable. In September, she featured on Katy Perry’s dance-pop single “I’m His, He’s Mine,” and the following month, she delivered a scene-stealing verse on Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia standout “Balloon.” In December, she mounted a pair of eye-catching performances that kicked her rise into high gear: first, a medley of “Boiled Peanuts” and “Denial Is a River” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that featured her own choreography; and, just two days later, her thrilling NPR Tiny Desk set, which quickly dominated social media thanks to her fastidious storytelling and cohesive arrangements.

As her star has risen, Doechii’s commitment to exalting all parts of her dark-skinned, Black queer self has remained paramount. It’s why her first unaccompanied Hot 100 entry was “Denial Is a River,” in which she confides to her therapist that her boyfriend had been cheating on her with another man — just one example of how refreshingly honest (and unafraid to get messy on wax) an artist she is. The week following the Grammys, Alligator Bites Never Heal soared to No. 14 on the Billboard 200, and in late February, “Denial Is a River” peaked at No. 21 on the Hot 100, while the track “Nissan Altima,” which had been nominated for the best rap performance Grammy, hit No. 73.

“To be so fresh in her career, Doechii has incredible vision and focus,” Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. says. “She’s a true student of hip-hop and it shows based on how she’s being embraced in the culture. The future is wide open for her.”

Now, even as Alligator Bites Never Heal continues to find new fans, Doechii is already scoring hits outside of it. Her collaboration with Blackpink superstar Jennie, “ExtraL,” debuted on the Hot 100 in March, and her latest release, “Anxiety,” is also having a major impact. Originally a 2019 direct-to-YouTube track, “Anxiety” was sampled by New York drill rapper Sleepy Hallow last year, and after a February Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-inspired TikTok trend, audiences begged for a new solo version by the Swamp Princess, who quickly obliged in early March. (The track debuted at No. 13 on the Hot 100 — her highest-peaking hit on the chart yet — and Doechii recently added it to Alligator Bites Never Heal.)

She did so as she descended on Paris Fashion Week, where her spectacularly theatrical looks made her the event’s undisputed victor — just ask Anna Wintour or Thom Browne — and affirmed she’s more central to the pop culture conversation than ever. Case in point: An offhand quip she made on Hot Ones about straight men being one of her dating red flags set social media ablaze for a week straight.

Around the same time, Doechii made a surprise live appearance that proved why she’ll always rise above that noise: At a Miami festival, Lauryn Hill invited her onstage to duet on “Doo Wop (That Thing),” then yielded the stage for Doechii to perform her own “Catfish.” Rapping and singing alongside her “hero,” the raw talent that makes Doechii an especially bright light in an ever-precarious industry was on full display — a reminder that, as she said at the Grammys, she’s a true “testimony” to the merits of following a vision and trusting that the world will eventually catch up to you.

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Erykah Badu remembers her last moments of normalcy. The generational talent who changed the course of R&B and hip-hop with her home-cooked neo-soul has never truly been “normal,” of course. But before Badu was the futuristic stylist we know her to be, she was just a young woman from Dallas. One who traveled to New York during the paralyzing North American blizzard of 1996 to finish a debut album she hoped would be good enough to allow her to make another one. “That’s how I met New York. Like, ‘Oh, you cold!’ ” she says in the much more agreeable climate of her hometown. “I was like, ‘OK, if this is what I got to do — then this is what I got to do.’ ”

Despite the frigid weather, the then-25-year-old Badu found a warm and welcoming community in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. In 1992, Entertainment Weekly correctly noted the area was the “red-hot center of a national black arts renaissance.” Chris Rock called it home, as did Gil Scott-Heron. Digable Planets copped a spot and recorded its second album, Blowout Comb, as a love letter to the hood. Badu moved into a cozy apartment above Mo’s Bar & Lounge, right around the way from one of her favorite spots, Brooklyn Moon Café. Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule — the studio behind Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and Jungle Fever — was close by. “[I was] right in the center of Blackness,” she remembers. “Dreads, headwraps and people who looked like me who I didn’t know existed. I felt like I belonged there. I met people who felt the way I felt, and that’s when I knew I wasn’t alone in my journey or quest to find out, ‘Who am I?’ ”

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To answer that question, Badu would need to enlist her own spirit guides both within and outside of the music industry. One of the most memorable was a woman named Queen Afua, who became a mentor of sorts for young Badu. In addition to helping Badu with her holistic journey, Afua “became my family away from Dallas. She communicated with me like a mother.” But to keep her profile as low as possible, Badu didn’t tell Afua why she was in the Big Apple: “I didn’t tell anyone in New York anything. I just wanted to live.” And so, she lived. When she wasn’t kicking it in Fort Greene, Badu was taking classes at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater taught by dance legend Joan Peters. She took a Kemetic language course, because why not? “A lot of things were happening, and they all became a part of who I am,” Badu says. “You know, as Erica in America.”

Badu constantly told herself to be as “regular as possible,” because she knew the album she was trudging to Battery Studios in Midtown Manhattan to work on with a group of musicians who would go on to become legends in their own right — people like James Poyser and Questlove from Philadelphia’s The Roots — was going “to take this motherf–ker by storm.”

Jai Lennard

The album, Baduizm, did just that. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and ruled the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Buoyed by the meditative smash hit “On & On,” Baduizm helped usher in what became known as neo-soul: a type of R&B that built on the traditions and stylings of the past while breathing new life and energy into the genre. While most neo-soul tracks sampled or interpolated older soul songs, “On & On,” with its rolling bass and booming drums, was wholly original. It felt like a completely fresh idea (and Badu was full of them) but also something familiar and comfortable ­— the delicate balance most artists work their entire lives trying to strike.

“[I’d] never seen someone just full of a bunch of ideas,” Questlove recounted in a 2024 interview with Poyser. “She had a lot of choruses ready. She was the first person I met that instantly had a clever chorus ready in the stash.” For the album’s third single, “Other Side of the Game,” the Roots drummer recalled that Badu came in with the idea to rework the famous chorus to Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys Reply.” Even more impressive, he remembered, was that the version of the song that made it onto the album was essentially the first take that was committed to tape: “I thought, ‘Oh, this girl is going to make it.’ ”

Dressed in an oversize sweatshirt and sweatpants with a warm-looking knitted cap, today Badu comes across every bit as enchanting as she’s made out to be. Sitting in the back room of South Dallas’ Furndware Studios, she speaks with a calm directness that you would expect from a shaman or elementary school teacher. Every question elicits a thoughtful pause and an even more thoughtful answer. When I ask Badu about making versus performing music, for example, she goes into a deep rumination about the focus needed to create great music. “I want to focus, I want to be in the moment of the foreplay. Creating the music. The tragedy. The love. The experience of the whole thing,” she says before exhaling. “Then I go somewhere else after this is done. This is a movie and the studio audience is cracking up and crying and s–t… I hope that answers that question.”

Badu makes you feel as if you’re the most important person in the world when she’s speaking to you. It’s a skill many successful people have, but few can also make you feel like the luckiest — as if she’s letting you, and only you, in on a cosmic secret. That may owe in part to the spiritual tangents she sometimes goes on when answering questions. Or it may simply be the attentiveness she offers in conversation. She says she has learned that the way to become successful — and to maintain that success — is to be healthy, present and aware, and to never stop learning.

Born Erica Abi White in Dallas, Badu didn’t always aspire to “make it.” She simply wanted to create art like most of her family had done. She grew up with her grandmother, mother and uncles, in what she describes as “a house of music lovers and collectors.” There was music in every room — literally. “There were records from wall to wall, a radio in the bathroom that was on the local FM soul station,” she recalls. Everyone was allowed to have their own corner to express their musical tastes. “My uncles would be in the back listening to funk. They were into Bootsy [Collins] and George Duke and Stanley Clarke. My mother was more into the sirens — the Chaka Khans, the Phoebe Snows, the Deniece Williamses, The Emotions. My uncle, who’s a rebel, was into Prince and Pink Floyd and Three Dog Night,” she says. “I had a variety to pull from.”

Erykah Badu photographed on February 7, 2025 at Mars Hill Farm in Ferris, Texas.

Jai Lennard

Badu immersed herself in everything artistic Dallas had to offer a young person. When she was in elementary school, she began taking classes at the Dallas Theater Center, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, where she would sing and dance and perform in plays. Badu and her younger sister, Koko, also frequented The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, where her mother and godmother volunteered. TBAAL’s founder, Curtis King, recalls seeing the “it thing” in Badu from an early age.

Badu went to Louisiana’s Grambling State University to study theater but left in 1993 and returned to Dallas before she graduated. She planned to pursue music full time — but since dreams don’t come true overnight, Badu found herself working a series of odd jobs to support herself while she worked with her cousin Robert “Free” Bradford to record her demo, Country Cousins. The two would perform around Dallas as a duo — she would sing and he would rap. But even with the 19-song project, Badu couldn’t pay a label to take her on. She says she auditioned for everyone — Sony, Priority, Bad Boy, So So Def — but didn’t catch a break until D’Angelo’s then-manager, Kedar Massenburg, saw her perform at South by Southwest and received her demo. He immediately signed her to his fledging imprint, Kedar Entertainment.

“As soon as I heard ‘On & On,’ I knew that I had to get involved,” Massenburg told Billboard in 2017. “The thing that struck me immediately was the beginning, because Erykah had used a beat in the intro that Daddy-O, a member of a group I managed called Stetsasonic, had created: Audio Two’s ‘Top Billin.’ ”

Country Cousins was the foundation of what became Baduizm, and Badu’s debut cemented not only her career but also the neo-soul scene that had been developing. “I think Tony! Toni! Toné! kind of opened the door, D’Angelo took it to the next level in terms of edginess, and Erykah solidified it,” Massenburg said. “That’s what Baduizm did. You’re saying, ‘I don’t need to wear these kinds of clothes or look this kind of way, this is my “-izm.” ’ The only thing that dates it is the term ‘neo-soul’ — maybe that’s the issue. It places it at a time when that term meant a certain thing. Take away the term, and it stands with the best of the artists that are out here today.”

Jai Lennard

You would think, with the impact she has had on R&B and hip-hop, that Badu would have dropped more than five albums over her 28-year career. But nope — just five studio sets, a live album and a mixtape. Granted, they’re all classics and helped either introduce a new sound or popularize a new style of working. Take 2008’s New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), which was recorded mainly on laptops with Apple’s GarageBand software, with Badu emailing sessions and files back and forth with producers. At the time, it was a pretty novel idea to forego the studio for your bedroom — only new, cash-strapped artists were doing that. Badu helped bring the practice to the mainstream — just one of many examples of her being aware of the winds of change before most of her peers.

That same awareness inspired her to launch her label, Control Freq, in 2005. At the time, Badu said it was her attempt at making a “profitable home for artists, with fair contracts that will return ownership of the music to the artists after a period of time.” The first artist signed to the label was Jay Electronica, the father of Badu’s third child. “I didn’t develop him at all. I just wanted to be near his greatness,” Badu says. “He needed to be heard and I had a platform. I wasn’t interested in building an artist from scratch. I was interested in artists who were building their own platforms.”

When it comes to her own music, Badu is less interested in what she puts on wax than in what she puts forth onstage. “I tour eight months out of the year for the past 25 years,” she says emphatically. “That’s what I do. I am a performance artist. I am not a recording artist. I come from the theater. It’s the immediate reaction between you and the audience and the immediate feeling. The point where you become one living, breathing organism with people. That’s what I live for. It’s my therapy. And theirs, too. We’re in it together. And I like the idea that it happens only once.”

Unlike most performance artists, however, Badu doesn’t create her music with the live aspect in mind. Once she decides to perform a song, she begins to re-create it for the stage. “It’s like, ‘OK, now this is one arena. Now, what are you going to do with it in here?’ ” (One of her most popular songs, “Tyrone,” was only ever released as a live rendition, on her 1997 Live album.) The results speak for themselves. Badu — this year’s Women in Music Icon — has emerged as one of the premier performers of her generation.

In 2015, while on an apparent hiatus, Badu released a remix of Drake’s gargantuan smash “Hotline Bling.” Produced by the Dallas-based Zach Witness — who first connected with Badu after she heard a remix he did of her 2000 song “Bag Lady” and reached out to him — “Cel U Lar Device” was posted to SoundCloud without much explanation.

The track became the lead single for her mixtape — and most recent project — 2015’s But You Caint Use My Phone (a nod to “Tyrone”), which she recorded in less than two weeks with Witness in his home studio. The tape centered on a theme of cellphone use and addiction, with Badu putting her spin on a few other popular phone-based songs like Usher’s “U Don’t Have To Call” and New Edition’s “Mr. Telephone Man.”

Since then, Badu has popped up here and there. She says she only collaborates with people whose music she really enjoys. Dram featured her on his debut album in 2016. She jumped on a track for Teyana Taylor’s self-titled album in 2020. She lent her vocals to a Jamie xx song that came out in January. And at the 2025 Grammy Awards, she won the best melodic rap performance statue for a collaboration with Rapsody, “3:AM.” “It snuck up on me!” she says. “I remember collaborating with [producer] S1 and Rapsody and we had such a good time promoting the song and I just felt like it was all for her basically. She worked very hard to get to this place.”

Jai Lennard

She still loves rap, although she doesn’t follow it as much as she used to and now experiences a lot of it through her children: Seven, 28; Puma, 21; and Mars, 16. (She says they also have attempted to make music, which is not surprising considering their fathers are all rap legends: André 3000, The D.O.C. and Electronica, respectively.)

“[The thing I like about rap right now] is the same thing I liked about rap when I first met it,” she says. “Rap is the people. Hip-hop is the people. It’s the folks. It’s the tribe. I have the luxury of experiencing having children who I watch grow up and love and encourage very much, and I cannot separate them when I see artists who are that age coming up. That’s how they feel. They are continuing the tradition.”

Badu may say she’s not as tuned in as she used to be, but she’s clearly keeping tabs on what’s hot right now. She’s been hard at work on her first studio album in 15 years, which is being produced solely by The Alchemist, the hip-hop journeyman who has had a resurgence as of late thanks to his work with the Buffalo, N.Y.-based Griselda crew and artists like Larry June. Badu posted a teaser of the project on Instagram to an exuberant response from fans who’ve been damn near begging her to drop something new and show the generations of artists who’ve had her pinned to the center of their mood boards how it’s supposed to be done.

The album has been taking up most of her time; she says she can’t wait until she’s done. And whatever time that isn’t occupied by her family and nonmusical interests — such as her cannabis strain collaboration with brand Cookies called That Badu — goes toward keeping herself in the best mental, emotional and physical shape possible and making sure she’s set for the future. “When I was building my house, I was making sure that I was building ramps for when I was elderly and couldn’t walk by myself,” the now-54-year-old says. “When I do my workouts, I do workouts that are conducive for picking up groceries and grandchildren and things like that.”

That’s not to say she isn’t having fun. Another of her nonmusical hobbies is car collecting. Badu, whose grandmother bought her toy cars instead of dolls when she asked for the latter as gifts, lights up when asked to run down what’s currently in her collection: “I get happy when talking about it.” There’s a baby blue ’67 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors and a chandelier in the back (“Original interior, original white wall tires, original radio”); a 1989 Land Rover Defender; a 1971 Sting Ray Corvette (“Matte black, neon yellow stripe. It looks like the Batmobile”). A collector since she was 21 years old, her first car was a 1965 convertible Super Beetle. “Before I was Erykah Badu the artist, that was my hobby that I loved.” Her uncle Mike, the one who was into funk music, is also into cars and keeps and maintains some of hers; the rest are tucked away in a Dallas garage.

It all sounds surprisingly normal for a music superstar of Badu’s stature, and that’s just what she likes about it. And it’s the same reason why, after all her success, she has remained in South Dallas. “It was very hard for me to be away because this is where I want to be,” she says. “I wanted to come here and build. This is where everybody is. I’m five generations in Dallas. This is my place. It’s my home.”

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

The Latin Recording Academy has announced several major updates to its eligibility guidelines on Wednesday (March 19) for the 26th annual Latin Grammy Awards.
Among the updates is the addition of a new field for visual media and the introduction of two new categories: best music for visual media and best roots song — singles or tracks only, with the latter falling under the traditional field.

These changes aim to reflect the Latin Academy’s “commitment to evolve with the ever-changing musical landscape, and to best serve its membership body of music creators and professionals,” as noted in the press release. These updates take effect immediately for the awards scheduled for November.

The category of music for visual media will recognize “original music created to accompany and enrich the storyline of movies, television series, video games and other visual media.” To qualify for this category, a project must either incorporate Latin rhythms that are recognized as eligible genres for the annual Latin Grammy Awards, or be composed by an individual of Ibero-American heritage.

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Meanwhile, the best roots song award will be given to the songwriters of “new, unpublished recordings, both vocal and instrumental, that reflect the traditions and roots of various communities, cultures, or social groups, especially those of Hispanic American origin, whether in Spanish, Portuguese or in indigenous languages or dialects,” notes the release. It will highlight works in genres like tango, folk, flamenco, and other traditional subgenres.

Other amendments include category renaming. In the pop field, “best pop vocal album” will now be called “best contemporary pop album”; in the children’s field, “best Latin children’s album” is being renamed to “best children’s album”; and in the urban field, “best urban fusion/performance” will be named “best urban/urban fusion performance.” The later category will now require 60% urban elements for eligibility, rather than 51%. “Remixes are eligible only if the original version of the song was released within the same eligibility year,” states the official announcement regarding the urban field.

Additionally, the songwriter of the year category reduced its minimum song threshold from six to four, while producer of the year will now undergo screening “by a specialized committee in addition to the membership screening and voting process.”

For more information, visit LatinGRAMMY.com.

National Geographic announced on Tuesday (March 18) the launch of its National Geographic 33, a list honoring 33 individuals whose “imaginative ideas and unstoppable drive are making the world a better place.”

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Billboard can exclusively share the digital covers for two of this year’s honorees, Selena Gomez and Björk.

Gomez is highlighted as the “superstar supporting mental health on a global scale,” thanks not only to her public vulnerability, but also to her Rare Impact Fund, a nonprofit that works alongside her cosmetics brand Rare Beauty to support youth mental health organizations around the world. “I love what I do more than anything, but to have a purpose behind a cosmetics brand is very important….This has definitely been my pride and joy,” she told National Geographic of her nonprofit. “I just wanted to help in any way I can.” 

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She explained to the publication that her mental health was “really intense for a while,” which led her to take “time for myself.” The “Sunset Blvd” singer added, “It’s not easy. But luckily, I’m in a much healthier mindset, and I just try not to pay attention to any noise.”

Gomez noted that she’s “always been quite honest with people that I wasn’t doing OK, and I think by me being vulnerable, it opened up a window for so many people to come up to me and talk to me about their journey.”

She added, “I had been doing this for so long that I started to feel a little vain, and I didn’t think that I deserved all the compliments and the attention—it was just a lot. I wanted other people to feel like I wasn’t some unattainable thing that no one could really relate to.”

Selena Gomez

National Geographic

Björk is celebrated by National Geographic as the “otherworldly musician offering a lesson in environmental pragmatism,” within her home country of Iceland and beyond, on a global scale. “Every time I do something in Iceland, I always reach out to the environmental groups. We meet in my living room for coffee,” she explained to the publication.

She added, “Every other year I try to pick one thing that I will fight quite hard for. But I try to pick some- thing where it’s actually possible to overturn. It’s big enough that it can matter but small enough that you can make a change.”

Recently, she’s been fighting against open pen fish farming in Iceland, and even donated profits from her 2023 Rosalia collaboration, “Oral,” to the cause. “Sometimes it’s been difficult to bridge a gap between Gen Z vegans and, like, farmers who kill sheep every autumn to eat. But on this fish-farming project, everyone is united,” she said, noting that litigation is a “marathon,” but she’s “hoping that we will win the cases, and we can put them online for other countries to use.”

Björk

National Geographic

Also included on the National Geographic 33 are entertainers including Arlo Parks, Don Cheadle, Edward Norton, Jason Momoa, Michelle Yeoh, Yara Shahidi and many more. The list is inspired by the 33 explorers, scientists and scholars who founded National Geographic in 1888.

“With the National Geographic 33, we’re honoring a diverse group of changemakers, from all over the world and different walks of life, who aren’t just recognizing the urgent challenges of our time, they are taking action to address them,” said Nathan Lump, SVP and editor-in-chief of National Geographic, in a press statement. “They all share a deep commitment to shaping a better future, and in shining a light on them and their contributions, we hope to elevate their work and showcase to a wide audience the positive impact they’re making.”

The National Geographic 33 will be included in the April issue of National Geographic. See the full list here.

British rock royalty Queen, American jazz great Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan are the 2025 recipients of the Polar Music Prize. The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, May 27, at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm and is set to broadcast live in Sweden on TV4 at 8 p.m. CET.
The three surviving members of Queen – Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon – said in a joint statement: “We are highly and deeply honoured to be given the Polar Music Prize this year. It’s incredible, thank you so much.”

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Hancock, 84, said: “The Polar Music Prize is a prestigious honour, and I am both thrilled and humbled to be a recipient. The Laureates who have come before me have left an indelible mark on humanity through their profound examples of inspiration and dedication.”

Hannigan, 53, said: “I am deeply moved and humbled to receive this year’s Polar Music Prize. Thank you so much for including me among this incredible and inspiring group of Laureates.” 

Hancock has worked closely with previous Polar Music Prize Laureates Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter. Hannigan has worked with previous Laureates Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Formed in 1970, Queen are one of the most successful bands ever to have emerged from the U.K. Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biopic about the band, is the top-grossing music biopic in film history. The film received four Oscars, including best actor for Rami Malek as lead singer Freddie Mercury (who died in 1991).

Queen was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Queen, shockingly, never won a competitive Grammy, and received just four nominations. But the band received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2018.

In 1987, Hancock became the first Black composer to win an Oscar for best original score for Round Midnight. (Prince had previously won best original song score for Purple Rain.) Hancock has received 14 Grammy Awards, across R&B, jazz and pop categories. His highest-profile Grammy was album of the year in 2008 for River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to Mitchell. Hancock received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2016.

At the inaugural MTV Video Awards in 1984, Hancock won five awards, more than any other artist, all for the video for his instrumental hit “Rockit.” He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.

Having started her career as a soprano, Hannigan turned her hand to conducting at age 40 at the Châtelet in Paris. Now, she balances both pursuits. Hannigan is principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and associate artist with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, she will take the helm of Iceland Symphony Orchestra as their chief conductor and artistic director.

Hannigan won a Grammy in 2018: best classical solo vocal album for Crazy Girl Crazy.

Previous Polar Music Prize Laureates include Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Chuck Berry, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kronos Quartet, Elton John, Metallica, Iggy Pop, Ravi Shankar, Renée Fleming, Miriam Makeba, Sofia Gubaidulina and Angélique Kidjo.

The Polar Music Prize is presented at a ceremony in Stockholm in the presence of the Swedish royal family. Each Laureate will receive a cash award of one million Swedish Krona (approx. £74,082 GBP and $93,897 USD).

The Polar Music Prize awards committee is an independent, 11-member board who select the Laureates. It receives nominations from the public as well as from the International Music Council, a nongovernmental organization founded by UNESCO which promotes geographical and musical diversity.

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, a legend in the history of Swedish popular music. Anderson was the manager, publisher and lyricist for ABBA, and played a key role in the quartet’s enormous global success. The prize was named after Anderson’s record label, Polar Music.