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It will be nearly nine months before fans can hold space on their calendars to see the anticipated Wicked sequel, Wicked: For Good. But in Las Vegas this week, director Jon M. Chu wowed the crowds of movie exhibitors in town for the annual CinemaCon convention when he gave them a sneak peek at the second part of the big screen adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical.
Stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were, of course, on hand to help out, taking the stage alongside Chu and movie producer Marc Platt at the Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace on Wednesday (April 2), according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We took a shot, and we divided Wicked into two parts,” Platt told the thousands of theater owners about splitting the film in two, with the second part due in theaters on Nov. 21. “Now we have the privilege of doing it all again with Wicked: For Good in November.”
Platt added that in For Good the stars “go deeper to find more depth and more complexity and more profundity in those characters. What’s in store is going to astonish people.” Director Chu also noted that one of the most anticipated moments in the upcoming sequel will definitely include “where the girl from Kansas drops in.”
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THR reported that the first trailer for the follow-up to the nearly $750 million-grossing first part did not disappoint, describing a “rousing response” from the gathered theater bosses to footage including the first look at Dorothy — though her face was not shown — as well as “golden bricks, a wedding and flying monkeys galore.”
“This is between the Wizard and I,” Erivo’s green witch says in the trailer in a nod to the abiding friendship between Grande’s pink witch Glinda and Erivo’s green-skinned Elphaba, with Grande’s Glinda later warning, “Elphaba, they’re coming for you.” The trailer also features Glinda stepping out from her emerald castle and putting on her oversized tiara, a well as Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) racing through the forest with his men on the hunt for Elphaba, as well as a shot of the latter writing “OUR WIZARD LIES” in the sky.
According to Deadline, exhibitors also saw Glinda walking down a wedding aisle toward the Prince and Jeff Goldblum’s wizard at the control boards, ordering Dorothy, the Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow to “bring me the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West!” The final image reportedly featured Elphaba reaching out for her hat as it flies into her hand, with her broom in the other as she exclaims, “I’m off to see the wizard!”
In a nod to the pair’s endless, tear-streaked, hand (and space) holding press tour for the first film, the Associated Press reported that Oscar nominee Grande told the crowd, “we already have our tissues packed,” with Erivo promising “less waterworks this time.”
Ariana Grande is back on top of the ARIA Albums Chart — and in spectacular fashion.
The pop star’s Eternal Sunshine rebounds from No. 79 to No. 1 following the release of a new deluxe version titled Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead. The 78-spot leap marks the biggest jump to No. 1 from within the top 100 since September 2020, when Music From The Home Front soared from No. 83 to the top.
Grande’s original version of Eternal Sunshine spent three weeks at No. 1 in March and April 2024, and this latest return secures her fifth career chart-topper in Australia. She previously hit No. 1 with My Everything (2014), Dangerous Woman (2016), Sweetener (2018), and Thank U, Next (2019).
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Sydney-based singer-songwriter Grentperez celebrates a major career milestone this week, as his debut album Backflips in a Restaurant enters the chart at No. 3. While Grentperez has released four EPs since 2021 and notched three top 40 hits in New Zealand, this marks his first Top 10 debut in his home country.
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Mumford & Sons return with Rushmere, their first new album in nearly seven years and their first without founding member Winston Marshall. The British folk-rock outfit enters at No. 7, adding to a solid run on the ARIA Albums Chart that includes previous peaks with Sigh No More (No. 1 in 2009), Babel (No. 2 in 2012), Wilder Mind (No. 1 in 2015), and Delta (No. 5 in 2018).
Elsewhere, The Darkness land at No. 45 with their eighth studio album, Dreams on Toast. The glam rockers previously charted three albums in the ARIA Top 20, including Permission to Land (No. 17 in 2003), Hot Cakes (No. 15 in 2012), and Pinewood Smile (No. 17 in 2017).
On the ARIA Singles Chart, Alex Warren holds steady at No. 1 for a second week with “Ordinary,” while Chappell Roan climbs to a new high at No. 4 with “Pink Pony Club” — matching the peak of her breakthrough hit “Good Luck, Babe!” from last year.
Grande’s rebound ties into a historical trend: while the 52-week gap between stints at No. 1 is notable, it falls short of the record held by Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, which returned to No. 1 in January 2022 — more than 2,200 weeks after first topping the chart in 1978.
Longtime friends Elton John and Brandi Carlile have teamed up for a new collaborative album, Who Believes in Angels?, which the duo recorded over 20 days starting in October 2023. The set arrived via Interscope Records on Friday (April 4). The pair wrote and created the album with John’s long-time co-writer Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt. Who Believes in Angels? features previously released […]
Miley Cyrus is in the swing of her upcoming Something Beautiful album era, and the superstar unveiled her next single from the project, “End of the World,” on Friday (April 4). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Per Cyrus’ Instagram, the 80s-style track reinforces “the project’s immersive, […]
Ed Sheeran has officially pressed play on his next era, dropping new single “Azizam” Friday (April 4). On the breezy midtempo dance track, the British pop star sings, “And if love’s just a game, come and play/Azizam / Meet me on the floor tonight/ Show me how to move like the water/ In between the […]
Actor David Schwimmer has admitted the theme song to Friends haunted him for years due to its overuse.
Schwimmer, who began his acting career in 1989, rose to widespread fame five years later for his role as Ross Geller in the NBC sitcom Friends. A monumental hit and a cultural phenomenon across its ten-year run, the show’s ubiquity in the pop culture zeitgeist led to its theme song (The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You”) becoming just as recognizable as its lead actors. For Schwimmer though, the omnipresence of the theme left a lasting negative effect on him that continued far beyond the show’s completion in 2004.
Appearing on the Making the Scene podcast with hosts Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Schwimmer admitted that the overuse of the song became a little too much. ”I’ll be really honest, there was a time for quite a while that just hearing the theme song would really…” he explained, letting out a sigh to reflect his exhaustion. “I just had that reaction, I just had heard it so many times.”
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“Anytime you would go on a show, a talk show, or an interview, that would be your intro song. I just didn’t have the greatest response to it,” he said.
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Written by Friends producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman, with songwriter Allee Willis and The Rembrandts’ Danny Wilde and Phil Sōlem, “I’ll Be There for You” was used as the theme song to the show after R.E.M. had rejected the use of their song “Shiny Happy People” as the opener. The track also became a commercial success off the back of its use in the series, reaching No. 17 on the Hot 100 and topping the Adult Contemporary, Radio Songs, and Pop Airplay charts.
Largely in part to the song’s constant presence in pop culture, Schwimmer admits that he didn’t manage to change his attitude toward the song until the last few years, when his daughter Cleo began to discover the series.
“At about age nine, my kid discovered it and started watching it,” he explained. “I’d be making breakfast or whatever, and I’d hear my kid’s laughter. My whole relationship to that song and that show changed again.”
Kesha is standing up for the transgender community.
The superstar sat down with Bob the Drag Queen for Paper this week, where they opened up about messages they want to share with their U.S. fans as the current presidential administration continues to put measures into place to dismantle the rights of trans people.
“I would love to be able to stand in front of my fans and be like, ‘Everything’s fantastic and don’t you worry,’” Bob shared. “But I don’t think that’s real. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes things get worse and they don’t get better. But you have to remember the resilience of queer people, of Black people, of women, of any marginalized person to exist despite it all. To exist no matter what.”
Kesha agreed, adding, “Trans visibility day has me thinking about what a huge support the trans community has been. The queer community has been my community and has always been there for me. That’s where I belong. And beyond that, to any marginalized person, like you were just saying, I want everyone out there to know that they have an ally, someone that is a warrior. I will not lay down, I will not be quiet about basic human rights. And as someone who’s had her freedoms taken away from her and fought like hell to get them back, I’m going to echo that throughout my work until the day that I die.”
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Transgender Day of Visibility started back in 2010 when trans activist Rachel Crandall created the holiday to celebrate “the lives of transgender people” as a whole rather than just the discrimination against the community, according to GLAAD.
Kesha, who is gearing up to release her sixth album, . (Period), revealed that she wants the upcoming project to be a “safe space for people to feel fully embodied and liberated.” She continued, “If you want to find your community and find a safe space for you to fully embody exactly who you are and be celebrated, I invite you to come join us. I would like to start a revolution of love. I want to create a traveling summer of love, a community of love. I want to give all of us a place to come and be ourselves.”
As for the current government, Kesha said, “I have never seen a less embodied group of individuals waving around their chainsaws. It’s terrifying. In the midst of all this chaos, the most political thing we could do is love ourselves and love one another and create a space where we can come together and spread as much love as possible. So that’s my objective for the summer.”
Kesha’s . (Period), arrives via Kesha Records on July 4.
Billboard Women in Music 2025 was packed with unforgettable moments, but one highlight that stood out was JENNIE, Ángela Aguilar, aespa and other stars adorably signing the camera lens during the special night. Keep watching to see your favorites leave their mark and share inspiring advice. Rania Aniftos & Jazzy: Welcome to Women in Music, […]
Kesha is gearing up for her biggest headlining tour to date. The “Yippee-Ki-Yay” singer announced the dates for The T-ts Out tour on Thursday (April 3), which will also feature disco pop act Scissor Sisters joining her on all the dates for the latter’s first North American live run in more than a decade; Slayyyter and U.K. singer Rose Gray will join on select dates.
The Live Nation-produced outing is slated to kick off on July 1 at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City City, UT and play arenas and amphitheaters in the U.S. and Canada through an August 10 gig at MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL on August 10. The run will include Kesha’s first-ever solo headlining gigs at a pair of iconic venues: L.A.’a Kia Forum (July 5) and New York City’s Madison Square Garden (July 23).
“The most political thing we can do right now is love. Love ourselves and love each other,” Kesha said in a statement about the tour that is partnering with the Feeld dating app for the open-minded. “Americans need to have more safe, consensual sex. Our administration is so disembodied and disconnected. I’m going T–S OUT this summer to bring as much safety, fun, acceptance, love, connection, and celebration to this country because we are just as much the fabric of this FREE nation as anyone else. We will not be quiet, and we will fight through joy! I think it’s time to make LOVE, not content. LOVE, not anger. LOVE, not hatred, and love, not war.”
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The singer who is gearing up to release her sixth album, . (Period), on Kesha Records on July 4 — her first independent release since her departure from Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe Records — added, “I’m committed to bringing my newfound freedom to a city near you. A celebration is in order. I have partnered with Feeld, a dating app for open-minded people, in order to bring our sexually liberated selves and give us a place to flirt, meet, connect, and dance. Color-coded options will be available soon, but this summer wear RED if you are single, horny, and down to flirt! Let’s fight chaos with love, so let’s see how much love we can bring to the summer of 2025.”
And, not for nothing, Kesha said she’s looking for a “sugar daddy,” telling fans that they will get “extra animal points” if they bring along a “tall, hot, single friend.”
Sign up now for access to a pre-sale beginning on April 8 at 10 a.m. local here or here, with additional pre-sales slated throughout the week. Remaining tickets will be available in a general on-sale on April 10 at 10 a.m. local. Kesha will celebrate the roll-out of the dates with a Boiler Room set in Miami on Thursday night.
“We are stoked to extend our reunion to the US and Canada this summer alongside Kesha,” said the Scissor Sisters, whose reunited lineup features members Jake Shears, Babydaddy and Del Marquis. “There has always been a bit of anarchy and chaos to both of our live shows – and we can’t wait to bring that ‘anything can happen’ energy across North America again.”
To date, Kesha has released the singles “Joyride,” “Delusional” and the new country-leaning “Yippee-Ki-Yay,” featuring T-Pain from the upcoming album.
Check out the dates for Kesha’s 2025 North American T–s Out tour below:
July 1 – West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre ^
July 3 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre ^
July 5 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum ^
July 6 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre ^
July 8 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion * ^
July 10 – The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion ^
July 12 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre ^
July 13 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre ^
July 15 – Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park – Ascend Amphitheater ^
July 16 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center ^
July 18 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center ^
July 19 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre #
July 21 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage #
July 23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
July 24 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center #
July 26 – Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake #
July 28 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center #
July 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavillion at The Mann #
July 31 – Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater #
August 2 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater #
August 3 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek #
August 5 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion #
August 7 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre #
August 9 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre #
August 10 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre #
^ w/ Slayyyter
# w/ Rose Gray
Jon Batiste will receive the inaugural Ray Charles “Architect of Sound” Award at the annual Grammy Hall of Fame Gala, which is set for May 16 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. The award is to be presented annually at this event, which is presented jointly by the Grammy Museum and the Recording Academy.
The “Architect of Sound” Award recognizes an artist whose impact on music echoes Charles’ pioneering spirit. A 17-time Grammy winner, Charles is widely-regarded one of the most influential artists of all time. He was in the inaugural class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recipients in 1986 and also received the Kennedy Center Honors that year. He received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and has 10 recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for portraying Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray. The film remains one of the top 10 top-grossing musical biopics.
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“Ray Charles is a beacon for me, a blueprint,” Batiste said in a statement. “He is a singular example of musical genius, artistic freedom and craft of the highest level that will continue to inspire humanity for generations and stand the test of time. I am honored to receive this award. It is vitally important to me to carry on our cultural legacy of true artistic greatness and lead the way for generations to come.”
Michael Sticka, Grammy Museum president/CEO, said, “Ray Charles was a trailblazing artist whose influence knows no bounds, and Jon Batiste is a true reflection of that legacy. Beyond his immense talent, Jon has been a dedicated partner in advancing the Grammy Museum’s mission to make music education more accessible. Honoring him with the inaugural Ray Charles ‘Architect of Sound’ Award is not just fitting — it’s a celebration of two artists who have shaped the sound of generations.”
Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation, added, “Ray Charles was always pushing music forward — blending genres, breaking barriers, and inspiring generations. He would be deeply honored to have his name attached to an award that celebrates artists who share his fearless creativity and dedication to their craft. Jon Batiste embodies that spirit.”
Batiste has won seven Grammys, including album of the year for We Are, and an Oscar for best original score for Soul (in tandem with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). His latest album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), is the first in his solo piano series, reimagining classical works through a fresh lens.
Batiste will take the stage for two performances at the Gala, which will also feature musical moments from a lineup of artists to be announced soon. The event will additionally honor this year’s label honoree, Republic Records.
The show will be produced by former Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich, alongside Ron Basile, Lindsay Saunders Carl and Lynne Sheridan, with musical direction by Cheche Alara, a Grammy- and Latin Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and conductor. CBS News journalist Anthony Mason returns as host.
The Gala will celebrate the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings, which include iconic recordings such as JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman, Santana’s Supernatural, and recordings from Big Star, Clara Ward, Eddie Floyd, Emmylou Harris, Fela Kuti & Afrika 70, Geeshie Wiley, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Linda Martell, and Luther Vandross.
The Grammy Hall of Fame was established by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees in 1973. The inducted recordings are selected annually by a committee, with final ratification by the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. With 13 new titles, the Grammy Hall of Fame currently totals 1,165 inducted recordings. Eligible recipients will receive an official certificate from the Recording Academy.
Tickets for the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala are on sale now. For more information, visit the Grammy Museum website.
