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CMA Fest 2025 kicked off on Thursday night (June 5) with more than 300 performers bringing their best performances across seven daytime stages and three nighttime stages in downtown Nashville. As the sun began to set, festival attendees — who had already spent hours immersed in music earlier in the day — made their way […]
Jelly Roll is a man who wears his big heart on his sleeve. The country superstar took time out on Thursday night (June 5) to thank tour mate Post Malone for taking him out on this summer’s Big Ass stadium tour. Following the pair’s Wednesday night show at New York’s Citi Field, Jelly posted a […]
It’s not every day that a roomful of music industry executives keeps quiet during a party.
But Billboard’s annual Country Power Players Party celebrating the leaders in the genre, hosted June 4 at Category 10 in Downtown Nashville at Category 10, yielded respectful silence as a series of emotional moments highlighted the importance of health initiatives in the business.
Music Health Alliance founder Tatum Allsep challenged the industry to help financially in meeting the increasing mental health needs of the creative community as she accepted the Impact award from Brothers Osborne. Billboard country chart manager Jim Asker announced plans to step down from his position on Aug. 15, citing health issues, as Christian artist Lauren Daigle presented him with a farewell commemorative Billboard cover. And Little Big Town applied precision harmony to the poignant “Rich Man” as the band picked up the inaugural Ben Vaughn Song Champion award from songwriter Liz Rose (“Girl Crush,” “You Belong With Me”). The Song Champion hardware is named for the former Warner Music Nashville president/CEO, who died in January at only 49.
Vaughn “has left an indelible mark on our hearts,” LBT’s Karen Fairchild said, acknowledging his daughter, who attended the event. “I don’t feel at all worthy to talk about your dad, other than to just say that we miss him, and I know you do, and we’re here for you. You have a community of people here that will stand by you forever. All you do is just reach out and you tell us what you need, because that’s what your dad always did for us.”
Following a welcome by Melinda Newman, Billboard‘s executive editor of West Coast and Nashville, rising country artist Reyna Roberts hosted the Power Players Party, which included a surprise appearance by Garth Brooks, who handed the prestigious country executive of the year trophy to AEG/Goldenvoice executive vp Stacy Vee, recognizing her contributions to the high-profile Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif.
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Brooks portrayed Vee as an underdog in a male-dominated industry.
“In this business, like so many businesses, a female needs to work 1000 times harder than a male to get a tenth as much as the male gets,” Brooks said. “That’s just how it always has been. The blessing on that – I think that’s what makes Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton. I think that’s what – and I was firsthand watching this – makes Reba McEntire, Reba McEntire. You can’t outwork her, right? I’m married to one of the greatest singers of any format (Trisha Yearwood). I watch her every day work 1000 times harder than me to get a 10th as much as they give me. So with that, I think that kind of describes Stacy.”
BigXThaPlug scored the Innovator award, presented by Shaboozey just weeks after topping the Hot Country Songs chart dated April 19 with “All The Way,” a rap-and-country hybrid featuring guest Bailey Zimmerman from his forthcoming collaborations project.
“X is someone who didn’t just break the mold,” Shaboozey enthused. “He melted it down and made it his own.”
Ella Langley snagged the trailblazer award, presented by Lainey Wilson, while Riley Green – who collaborated on Langley’s “you look like you love me” – was handed the groundbreaker award by Ronnie Dunn, one-half of the duo Brooks & Dunn.
“Any wisdom that has been passed along to me from the women in the business, I’ve tried to share it with Ella, and Ella seems like she’s all ears,” Wilson told the crowd. “She wants to listen. She wants to know more and do more and be more, and that’s what makes her just a superstar. I’m proud of Ella, not just for being the trailblazing artist that she is, but for the heart that she’s got to go with it.”
Asker announced his intention to pass the torch on the influential Billboard country chart position while recounting challenges he’s faced as a stage IV non-Hodgkins cancer survivor.
“They didn’t think I’d make it through the first two weeks in the hospital,” Asker recalled.
He beat those odds and subsequently ran 15 26.2-mile marathons, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He expects to continue teaching writing classes at Columbia State Community College in Tennessee, and to study for another degree.
Music Health Alliance, meanwhile, has made assisting cancer patients and other members of the music community its non-profit mission. In the 12 years since its inception, the organization has reportedly benefited more than 32,000 people and saved the industry more than $145 million in health care costs. That’s particularly noteworthy; the majority of music-industry workers are independently contracted and historically face greater difficulty accessing insurance than corporate-employed staff.
T.J. Osborne hailed Allsep as “Nashville’s very own Mother Teresa.” Allsep, in turn, sought to motivate the movers and shakers in the room to step up their game in an increasingly difficult emotional period.
“In the last few months, MHA has seen a 250% increase in requests for mental health support,” she noted. “Y’all, that’s not a statistic. That’s a screaming flare. It is a fucking S.O.S. call, and we have got to do better.”
“We’ve got to have a plan for the long haul,” she continued, noting the MHA’s new mental health initiative in partnership with Universal Music Group. We know that music heals, but even the healers need healing. So here’s the ask to every label, to every publisher, to every platform, to every artist, everybody who makes a living in this industry: please don’t just admire the mission and the impact. Feel it. Fuel it. Fund it. We so desperately need you to stand with us, to nurture the noise, and then we can truly heal the music.”
On Wednesday night (June 4), Billboard’s annual Country Power Players event, presented by Bud Light and held at Luke Combs‘s Category 10 venue in downtown Nashville, honored several of country music’s top artists and executives.
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The Country Power Players event also served as a call to action to aid those in the music community–whether artist, songwriter, musician, touring member, executive or other creative—who are struggling with mental health.
Country duo Brothers Osborne honored Music Health Alliance founder Tatum Allsep with the impact award, for her vision and leadership in launching and spearheading the organization with the mission of providing access to healthcare and mental health resources in order to help music professionals connect with medical and financial solutions.
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In presenting Allsep with the impact award, Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne said, “Music Health Alliance’s services are available for free to anyone who has made a living in the music industry for three or more years and services are available to their spouses, partners and children as well. Most recently, MHA once again partnered with our label’s parent, Universal Music Group, in launching the music industry’s mental health fund. The fund provides a wide range of mental health services including personalized recommendations for mental health counselors and psychiatrists, including grants to help offset the costs to anyone in the music industry. That is huge by the way. We all could use that.”
Brothers Osborne also announced they were making a $10,000 donation to Music Health Alliance to help aid the organization’s work, in honor of Allsep, whom TJ called “Nashville’s own Mother Teresa.”
In taking the stage, Allsep thanked Brothers Osborne, saying, “Thank you for commitment to the music mind and thanks for being my friends since day one.”
Allsep recalled having the idea to launch Music Health Alliance 15 years ago, to help those in the music community to get the resources they need. “It is an honor to stand here with the people who shape the sound of our culture, and for the impact of this little engine that could, MHA, to be recognized is so meaningful. To all of you who have walked with us over the years… you’ve kept this mission alive and enabled us to grow from one person on the coffee shop tour in Nashville, to a team of 15 who’ve served 32,000 music people and helped save over $145 million. That’s not monopoly money, y’all. That’s real money.”
Allsep also thanked those on the Music Health Alliance team, saying, “You put boxing gloves on every day and you get in that ring, and you hear the impossible stories, you fight the broken systems, you wrestle and cut the red tape and still you approach every single music person who calls so openly, with open arms and [with] the most powerful medicine that exists on this planet and that’s hope. You are the reason that our mission has an impact.”
She thanked UMG, Brothers Osborne, Dierks Bentley, Marcus King, Sully Erna from Godsmack and others who have stepped up with funding and support, which has helped the organization provide more than 8,000 therapy sessions to help those in need.
“The music mind is filled with so much uninvited noise,” Allsep said. “It’s the noise of pressure, of income instability, of isolation. It is costing our industry big time. Look around. Everybody knows somebody that this has affected. It is costing us creatively, humanly, corporately.”
Allsep noted that in the last few months, Music Health Alliance has seen a 250% increase in requests for mental health support. “That’s not a statistic–that’s a screaming flare. It is an SOS call and we have got to do better,” Allsep said.
“I’m so serious when I say that MHA is equipped with the tools and the knowledge and the partners to help every artist, every songwriter, every crew member, everybody in our industry have access to the mental health that they deserve, but not just in a crisis. We’ve got a have a plan for the long haul. We know music heals. But even the healers need healing. To every label, every publisher, every platform, every artist, everybody who makes a living in this industry. Don’t just admire the mission and impact. Feel it. Fuel it. Fund it.”
She added, “We so desperately need you to stand with us, to nurture the noise. And then, we can truly heal the music.”
Others honored during the evening were Riley Green (honored with the groundbreaker award), Ella Langley (rising star award), BigXThaPlug (innovator award), Little Big Town (the inaugural Ben Vaughn song champion award) and Goldenvoice/AEG’s Stacy Vee (executive of the year).
Billboard continues highlighting the music of more artists this week, as Billboard Country Live launches on June 5, with two days of performances from a range of artists including Jake Worthington, Reyna Roberts, Max McNown, Graham Barham, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Baldridge, Alexandra Kay and Cooper Alan.
“Many Nashville publishers sold their firms, then cried swampfulls of crocodile tears all the way to the bank when they suddenly became multimillionaires.” That’s a 1988 hot take on country’s corporate makeover from Gerry Wood, a former Billboard Nashville bureau chief and editor in chief who passed away on May 3 at the age of 87.
Wood had worked in radio and PR before Billboard, and he was a character and the staff knew it. A 1988 retail convention photo identifies him as “Gerry Wood (back to camera — for a change).” From 1975 to 1991 — minus 1983 to 1986, when he worked elsewhere — Wood burned up the pages of Billboard with comprehensive reporting and crisp writing about country’s mainstream moment and how it changed Nashville.
Taking Root
“Country music has been spreading like kudzu,” Wood wrote in the Oct. 16, 1977, Billboard. “That’s the Southern vine that grows so fast it is rumored to be the cause of missing cows and pigs on Southern farms. Spawned in this fertile, blood-red soil of the South, this music has vined into the cities and countries where today’s frenetic, polluted environment grasps for something fresh, yet traditional. Often, that something turns out to be country music.”
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Head Games
This “was the year the music business stopped believing its own hype that it was a recession-proof industry,” Wood wrote in the Oct. 13, 1979, issue. Country seemed to fare better than other genres, though. “When CBS Records corporately cut some 300 heads, only one of those heads dropped in Nashville.” Some of that safety came from commercial crossover potential. “Lord knows,” Wood wrote, “if it keeps up, we’ll be seeing Gene Watson wearing KISS makeup with a flaming guitar.”
The Year Country Broke
“We’ve got to find some new words,” Wood wrote in the Oct. 18, 1980, issue, as Kenny Rogers and Urban Cowboy spurred a stampede toward Nashville. “All of the adjectives and adverbs have been used in past years. Best year. Exploding. Record-setting.” Not only had country “gone California and Texas and Tennessee,” Wood wrote, “it has gone Ohio and Canada and New York.”
Alphabet Soup
“Once upon a time Nashville was as easy as ABC. Now it’s as complex as SBK, BMG, TNN, CMT, WCI, and PolySomething.” So wrote Wood in the Oct. 15, 1988, issue. “The sleepy Southern village that gave America music from its soul in the ’50s and ’60s became the darling of corporate overtures in the ’70s and succumbed to the almighty dollar in the ’80s.” Even as Music City changed, Wood’s wit didn’t. “Too old to play musical chairs, Nashville has lately taken to playing musical managers,” he wrote in the same issue. “Artists have been dropping managers at the drop of a chart bullet.”
Next Big Thing
In the June 30, 1990, issue, Wood wrote a column “predicting the Roy Rogers of the ’90s.” His bets were prescient: Clint Black, Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. One prediction, “country rap,” was decades ahead of the curve. But his crystal ball had one crack: “Willie Nelson’s Cowboy Channel will get off to a slow start, just like Willie did, but end up a winner, just like Willie did,” he wrote of Nelson’s planned cable network. It never even launched.
This story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Last year, Post Malone released his debut country-inspired project, F-1 Trillion, writing and recording the album in Nashville, and earning hits through country collabs with artists including Morgan Wallen (“I Had Some Help”) and Blake Shelton (“Pour Me a Drink”).
Now, he’s doubling down on his love for Music City, with the upcoming opening of a new entertainment venue in Nashville. Nashville locals and those in town for this week’s CMA Fest spotted signage at a building located 305 Broadway (and the former home of venues WannaB’s Karaoke and Tequila Cowboy) that read “Something BIG Is Coming!,” “We’ll Keep Ya POSTED!” and “Summer 2025.” A name and opening date for the venue has yet to be announced.
Now, TC Restaurant Group — known for its work on on star bars including Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa and Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up — revealed it has entered a partnership with Post Malone for the new venue, which is set to feature three stages, six bars and a dining room.
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“We’ve created a space where everyone can come together and kick some a—,” Post Malone said in a statement. “Nashville has really become a second home for me so I can’t wait to invite y’all over to my house.”
Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion reached No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, while the singer has played country festivals including Stagecoach and Morgan Wallen’s Sand in My Boots over the past 18 months. He’s currently on his Big A— Stadium Tour, featuring Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell.
Adam Hesler, the president and CEO of TC Restaurant Group, added in a statement that Malone’s forthcoming venue “embodies his spirit and brings a new experience to Nashville’s Entertainment District,” while praising the singer’s “talent and ability to transcend multiple genres.”
Beyond the new venue, Posty is also hard at work on another country-infused album, previously telling Billboard he’s been in Nashville writing songs. “[I’ve] made probably 35 songs,” he said at the time. “It’s just a matter of which ones rock, and which ones sock.”
Jessie Murph is inviting you to enter a bold new world on her upcoming sophomore album, Sex Hysteria. The 20-year-old singer announced on Tuesday (June 3) that her follow-up to last year’s debut LP, That Ain’t No Man That’s the Devil, is due out on July 18.
And from the sounds of things, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. According to a release, Sex Hysteria is “a bold departure” from her first collection that “dives headfirst into uncharted territory — opening up about themes of sexuality, generational trauma and self-discovery with a vulnerability and honesty that marks a new chapter in her artistic evolution.”
Following the trap country pre-release single “Blue Strips” and the seductive ballad “Gucci Mane,” the 15-track LP will get another preview on Friday (June 6) with the release of the next single, “Touch Me Like a Gangster,” which Murph debuted at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Show in Miami over the weekend. The album cover is a nod to 1960s femme fatales, with Murph sporting a teased-up beehive hairdo, with a 24-second promo video continuing the throwback look and attitude.
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“Hey baby. Now I know we ain’t been talkin’ for too long, but there are some things I feel like you just don’t know about me,” she says in the clip, while blowing out a plume of cigarette smoke and staring right down the lens as she asks, “you wanna know a secret?”
At press time the full track list for the album had not yet been released, but the announcement promised that fans are in for the “most thematically cohesive work to date” from the singer, one that peels back “the layers of her story like never before as she transforms personal pain into cathartic, powerful music.” The new songs are said to find Murph reckoning with her past, interrogating inherited trauma and exploring “the emotional complexities of growing up in environments where feelings are buried deep. From confronting family wounds to reclaiming her body and desires, she pushes back against the shame and stigma that often silence women who dare to be loud, sexual, or emotionally honest. Sex Hysteria is both a provocation and a reclamation.”
Murph is gearing up to launch her Worldwide Hysteria Tour on July 27 at the Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix, AZ, criss-crossing North America all summer before jumping to Europe in October and Australia/New Zealand in November.
Watch the Sex Hysteria album trailer below.
Ashley McBryde and Cody Johnson are set to bring viewers deep into the music propelling the 52nd annual CMA Fest as hosts of the upcoming television special CMA Fest Presented by SoFi. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The three-hour special will air June 26 starting at 8 […]
CMA Fest will officially launch June 5-8 in Downtown Nashville, with tens of thousands of fans expected to participate in nightly stadium concerts, plus hundreds of daytime performances at smaller venues.
They’re also afforded the opportunity to collect autographs at Fan Fair X in the Music City Center.
On top of the official activities, a host of CMA Fest-adjunct events will take place beginning June 2. The following is a rundown of many of those events. (Advance confirmation may be required.)
June 2
• Darius & Friends ShowRyman AuditoriumDarius Rucker’s annual concert featuring a surprise guest list.
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• Ty Herndon’s Concert for Love & AcceptanceCategory 10The 10th and final edition includes Dasha, Sam Williams, Brooke Eden, David Archuleta, Shelly Fairchild, and Lindsay Ell.
June 3
• Craig Campbell’s Celebrity Cornhole Challenge6th & PeabodyFeaturing Jerrod Niemann and Gary LeVox.
• Whiskey Jam Takeover by River HouseWhiskey RowPerformers: Austin Snell, Ryan Charles, The Kentucky Gentlemen.
June 4
• CAA Whiskey Jam TakeoverWhiskey RowFeaturing Warren Zeiders, 49 Winchester, Colby Cooper, and Carter Faith.
• Turn It Up! Texas Daytime PerformancesCategory 10Featuring Smithfield, Jenna Paulette, and Jack Blocker.
June 5
• Warner Music Nashville’s Heatwave HouseBarstoolPerformers: Gabby Barrett, Ingrid Andress, Ian Munsick, Hudson Westbrook.
• FEMcountry Showcase by Leslie FramCity WineryFeaturing Brittney Spencer, Lucie Silvas, Abbey Cone, and more.
• Billboard Country Live (June 5–6)Category 10Featuring Drew Baldridge, Max McNown, Reyna Roberts.
• Big Machine Pop-Up (June 5–7)Bell Bottoms UpArtists include Greylan James, Caroline Jones, Brett Young, and Midland.
• Spotify House at Ole Red (June 5–7)Featuring Carly Pearce, Riley Green, Nate Smith, and others.
• BMI Block Party (June 5–7)Outdoor stage at Ryman AuditoriumPerformers: Kelsey Hart, Noah Rinker, Grace Tyler, Tyler Braden.
• Sounds Like Nashville by MCA (June 5–8)Skydeck on BroadwayFeaturing Tucker Wetmore, Vincent Mason, Crowe Boys, Caylee Hammack, Bryce Leatherwood, Sons of Habit.
June 6
• ASCAP Showcase6th & PeabodyFeaturing Jordan Fletcher, Maddie Lenhart, Beck and Call.
It’s no coincidence that the two songs tied for most weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 toe the line between country and rap. Lil Nas X set the record with his Billy Ray Cyrus-featuring “Old Town Road” in 2019, and late last year, Shaboozey tied the record when “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hit the same 19-week mark.
“Country and rap might come from different worlds, but they thrive on the same foundation — raw storytelling and authenticity,” UnitedMasters director of A&R Aaron Hunter says.
Hybrids of country and hip-hop have a long history in popular music, dating back to the 1980s including hits like Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Square Dance Rap,” Kool Moe Dee’s “Wild Wild West” and Shawn Brown’s “Rappin’ Duke” (which The Notorious B.I.G. sampled in “Juicy” a decade later).
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This year has brought an even bigger boom of successful crossovers between the genres. Post Malone’s Big Ass Stadium Tour with Jelly Roll — two artists with roots in hip-hop now making country music — has so far featured special guests including Eminem and Quavo. Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug teamed with Bailey Zimmerman for “All the Way,” a top five hit on the Hot 100, while ERNEST and Snoop Dogg released their country collaboration, “Gettin’ Gone.”
On the festival front, the country-heavy Stagecoach was more rap-inclusive in 2025, with Nelly and T-Pain playing to major audiences. Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen’s Sand in My Boots Festival had Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz and Three 6 Mafia onstage.
“Both genres share the same theme of heartbreak, life stories and struggle, whether it’s rural life or urban hustle, and that grit creates a natural connection,” Hunter says. He also points to the rising use of trap drums and 808s in country and rap, which has “blurred lines, making collaborations feel less forced and more like a shared language.”
BigXthaPlug will follow the success of “All the Way” with a country-trap project this summer that will include guest appearances from Jelly Roll, Post Malone and Shaboozey. Even though the Dallas native never listened to country music growing up, he has felt a warm welcome from the Nashville community. “My fan base is the country world’s fan base,” he says. “They was messing with me, [but] now it’s a full acceptance.”
This story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of Billboard.