Billboard Family

On Tuesday (May 13), Billboard and Sensical, Cricket Media’s streaming service, announced a first-of-its-kind, music-focused partnership for kids and families. This dynamic offering is designed to provide a safe and engaging space for both young listeners and their families to listen, watch and learn together while enjoying top hits and the most exciting artists of today.
This collaboration will include the launch of free ad-supported streaming channels dedicated to nonstop family-friendly music programming. Offering a blend of curated playlists and artist-driven content, this partnership will provide a trusted space where the youngest fans can connect with the biggest pop stars in age-appropriate environments.

“At Billboard, we believe in the universal power of music to inspire, connect, and shape generations. Partnering with Sensical on a music streaming destination for kids allows us to extend this vision by creating a safe, dynamic space for families to explore music together,” said Mike Van, CEO of Billboard. “This initiative highlights our commitment to innovation and inclusivity, ensuring young listeners have access to content that sparks their creativity while encouraging meaningful shared experiences.”

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Building on the success of the Billboard Family editorial platform, the initiative provides a dedicated space for families seeking the best in music and entertainment. The hub serves as a go-to resource for parents and kids, featuring content designed to engage and entertain the whole family. Sensical will now help power Billboard Family with custom lists and expert guides on Billboard’s platforms to help kids create and experience music in a safe way. In addition, an always-on music hub on Sensical streaming apps will offer themed playlists, exclusive Billboard Family content, and integration into a scrolling vertical video feature on the Sensical mobile app. Sensical will use its proprietary content evaluation standard, incubated within Common Sense Networks, to curate the music initiative as it has been similarly utilized to evaluate content on YouTube and TikTok KidsMode.

“This partnership is a game-changer for kids and families who love music. By combining Billboard’s legendary music authority with Sensical’s gold standard expertise in safe, high-quality content, we’re building an entirely new ecosystem for music discovery,” said Thomas Middelhoff, Cricket Board Member and former CEO Bertelsmann, AG. “Collaboration between Billboard and Sensical will deliver a new generation of kids with a fun, safe, and brand-friendly way to engage with music,” said Eric Berger, CEO of Cricket Media. “It meets families where they are today while sparking a lifelong relationship with young fans who will drive the entertainment economy of tomorrow.”

Beyoncé had the whole family — including the the tens of thousands of Beyhive members at the second show of her Cowboy Carter Tour — congratulate Tina Knowles on her recent accomplishment Thursday night (May 1).
In a sweet moment from the performance at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer is joined on stage by her mom, whose memoir, Matriarch, debuted this week atop the New York Times nonfiction hardcover bestsellers list. Standing with an arm around her mom and joined by her own daughters, 13-year-old Blue Ivy and 7-year-old Rumi, Bey first praises the author for “working so hard on her book.”

“She has the No. 1 book on the New York Times bestsellers,” the 35-time Grammy winner continues proudly as Rumi jumps up and down excitedly, prompting big sister Blue to lovingly shush her. “Everybody, please say, ‘Congratulations, Mama T.’ One, two, three!’”

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As the crowd indulges Bey’s request, Tina blows a kiss before exiting the stage with her granddaughters, holding Rumi’s hand.

The day prior, the Destiny’s Child alum had also personally congratulated her mom with a post on Instagram. “The Mama T was that good??” Bey wrote Wednesday (April 30). “You deserve it, I’m so proud!”

Tina’s achievement comes a little over a week after Matriarch hit shelves, giving fans an intimate look into her life raising one of music’s biggest stars as well as the designer’s battle with breast cancer in 2024. In addition to NYT‘s nonfiction hardcover bestsellers, the book is also No. 1 on the publication’s combined print and E-book nonfiction list.

Thursday’s performance marked the second of five shows slated for SoFi, after which Bey will travel around the United States and Europe through the end of July. The Cowboy Carter Tour kicked off three nights prior on April 28, featuring cameos from both Blue and Rumi during “Protector.”

Watch Bey’s Cowboy Carter Tour crowd join her in congratulating Mama T below.

As adults, famous sisters Beyoncé and Solange are close — but they might owe their bond to a pivotal decision mom Tina Knowles made when they were children.
While speaking to CNN News Central Friday (April 25) just a couple days after the release of her memoir, Matriarch, the businesswoman explained that she sent her daughters to therapy back when they were kids because she grew “terrified when Beyoncé turned around 10” that a divide was forming between the two sisters. As the “Texas Hold ‘Em” artist kicked off her musical journey at the time while in the singing group Girl’s Tyme, Knowles says Solange struggled to feel included.

“The kids would say to Solange every day, ‘Be quiet, Solange,’ because she would try to choreograph and, you know, she wanted to be involved,” Knowles recalled. “And then I started noticing that Beyoncé would allow them to talk to her like that, or she would say, ‘OK, Mom, can you get Solange out of here?’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, this is her house, and you’ve got to be nice to her.’”

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“Finally I realized that they weren’t listening, and I saw a wall between them coming,” the designer continued. “And so I got them in therapy.”

The whole family has come a long way since those days. Since Knowles welcomed her eldest daughter with ex-husband Mathew Knowles in 1981, followed by Solange five years later, both girls have carved out massively successful, Grammy-winning music careers while staying “super tight” thanks to their time in counseling, according to their mom.

“Back then it was really taboo,” Knowles continued Friday of the decision to put her girls in therapy. “Even my husband, he was like, ‘I just don’t know if they’re too young for you to do that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not asking. I’m going to find somebody.’”

“I found this wonderful child therapist,” she added. “And it’s funny, because he told Beyoncé all the things I had told her, but she listened from him, even though she hated therapy. She hated going. Solange loved therapy. She loved talking and, you know, expressing herself. And the outcome was great.”

Parenting two of music’s biggest stars is a major topic in Matriarch, which hit shelves Tuesday (April 22). In the book, Knowles also opens up about her recent breast cancer journey, which led to her undergoing surgery to remove a tumor late last year.

Of her daughters’ reactions to the diagnosis, the Cécred cofounder wrote that Bey “took it well, staying positive … I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision,” while Solange simply said with determination, “We are going to take care of this.”