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Revered Indian composer, producer, and songwriter A.R. Rahman has announced a 16-date tour of North America for this summer.
Dubbed The Wonderment Tour, the run of shows will be Rahman’s first in North America since 2022. The immersive live concert experience launches in Vancouver on July 18 and sees Rahman performing at arenas throughout the country until the tour’s completion in Boston on Aug. 17. Tickets to the upcoming dates go on sale from 10am ET on Friday, March 28.
Rahman’s career in the music industry began in 1992, and over the ensuing three decades has composed scores for more than 150 films, resulting in record sales of more than 200 million in the process.
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A celebrated figure within the Indian film and music industry, Rahman’s international breakthrough came about thanks to Danny Boyle‘s 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. At the 2009 Academy Awards, Rahman took home the award for best original score, and shared the best original song statue with Gulzar for the song “Jai Ho.” In 2009, a collaboration with American group The Pussycat Dolls saw a version of the song reach No. 15 on the Hot 100.
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Rahman would again collaborate with Boyle on the 2010 film 127 Hours, while that year’s Grammy Awards would also see him take home two trophies for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. Alongside his prolific composing career, Rahman has also released numerous studio albums under his own name, and also expanded his sights further into the world of film as a producer, writer, and director in recent years.
A.R. Rahman – The Wonderment Tour Dates
July 18 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BCJuly 20 – Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, WAJuly 25 – Oakland Arena, Oakland, CAJuly 26 – Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, CAJuly 29 – Smart Financial Centre, Sugar Land, TXJuly 30 – TTCU Theatre, Grand Prairie, TXAug. 2 – Lenovo Center, Raleigh, NCAug. 3 – EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, VAAug. 5 – Gas South Arena, Duluth, GAAug. 7 – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Hollywood, FLAug. 8 – Amalie Arena, Tampa, FLAug. 10 – Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TNAug. 12 – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ONAug. 14 – NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, ILAug. 16 – Prudential Center, Newark, NJAug. 17 – Agganis Arena, Boston, MA
Lizzo is ready for fans to feel some Love in Real Life. The superstar took to Instagram on Wednesday (March 19) to reveal that her upcoming album, Love in Real Life, is officially complete. “ALBUM IS DONE YALL!” she wrote, alongside a photo of herself in the studio, struggling to smile, which she explained in […]
Sir Elton John has been named the 2025 recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize. A wide range of creative talents have won the award over the years. John is only the second to come from the (broadly defined) rock world, following the late Leonard Cohen.
The award was established in 1987 by The Glenn Gould Foundation to honor the legacy of legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, whose 1956 album Bach: Goldberg Variations is considered a classic. Gould died in 1982 at age 50. He received a posthumous lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2013.
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“After spending decades admiring the virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s work, I am awestruck and honored to receive this award,” John said in a statement. John, of course, has won countless lifetime achievement awards, including the Kennedy Center Honors, the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, a Grammy Legend Award, the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and induction into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Glenn Gould Prize is awarded biennially and includes a CDN$100,000 cash award for the Laureate, who also selects an exceptional young artist to receive the CDN$25,000 Glenn Gould Protégé Prize.
“In selecting our Laureate, Elton John, we chose to honor someone who has great artistic accomplishments, but whose life and whose art has been translated into something much greater than just performance or the consumption of music and things they’ve created,” said the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada and this year’s jury chair for the Glenn Gould Prize.
“Elton John has used his enormous talent and his great success to change lives. He’s been courageous in taking on causes, whether AIDS, LGBTQ+ rights, addiction and all sorts of issues that were not popular when he engaged with them and he was prepared to take the wonderful success that his musical talent had given him to make a difference in the world. And from our perspective that represents the highest level of achievement for an artist and celebrates the memory of Glenn Gould in the best way.”
“Elton John embodies the spirit of artistic excellence, innovation, and profound humanity that The Glenn Gould Prize was created to celebrate,” added Brian Levine, CEO, Glenn Gould Foundation. “Glenn Gould’s vision was one of boundless creativity, fearless originality and an unshakable commitment to using music as a force for good in the world. Sir Elton has exemplified these ideals throughout his extraordinary career, not only with his incredible musical catalogue and immense talent but also championing emerging artists across genres and using his global platform to inspire transformational humanistic change. His enduring impact on music and culture makes him a truly perfect recipient of this honor.”
The announcement of The Glenn Gould Prize Laureate was made during a public event at Kings Place in London. The event featured a Q&A session with the jury and performances by South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza and 17-year-old Canadian piano prodigy Ryan Wang.
Living candidates of any nationality are eligible for The Glenn Gould Prize, with nominations coming from the public. Disciplines include but are not limited to musical creation or performance, theater, dance, choreography, writing, design, film, television, radio and broadcasting, visual art, multimedia, writing, technology/innovation, architecture and design.
The prize will be presented to John during a special gala celebration to be held in Toronto this fall.
Here’s a complete list of recipients of the Glenn Gould Prize:
1987: R. Murray Shafer
1990: Yehudi Menuhin
1993: Oscar Peterson
1996: Tōru Takemitsu
1999: Yo-Yo Ma
2002: Pierre Boulez
2005: André Previn
2008: José Antonio Abreu
2011: Leonard Cohen
2013: Robert Lepage
2015: Philip Glass
2018: Jessye Norman
2020: Alanis Obomsawin
2022: Gustavo Dudamel
2025: Sir Elton John
03/20/2025
Here’s how Billboard ranks Gaga’s latest chart-topping LP within her stacked catalog.
03/20/2025
Lady Gaga has built one of the most impressive histories on Billboard’s charts, achieving seven No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and six No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, among other honors.
Her fiancé, Michael Polansky, has largely stayed out of the spotlight. The Harvard-educated businessman is the founder or co-founder of several tech companies, including Avos Capital Management, Hawktail and Outer Biosciences. He’s also a board member for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Gaga’s makeup company, Haus Labs.
As of Billboard’s latest charts (dated March 22), he can now add another item to his résumé: Billboard-charting songwriter.
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Polansky is credited as a co-writer on seven songs on Gaga’s new album, MAYHEM, which debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Of those seven cuts, four are on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart. Here’s a recap:
Rank, Title (co-writers in addition to Polansky):
No. 4, “Vanish Into You” (Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Cirkut)
No. 5, “Disease” (Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Cirkut)
No. 9, “LoveDrug” (Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Cirkut)
No. 13, “Don’t Call Tonight” (Lady Gaga, Andrew Watt, Cirkut)
Thanks to those four charting hits, Polanksy debuts at No. 6 on the Dance/Pop Songwriters survey, marking his first appearance on a Billboard chart.
Gaga places at No. 3 on Dance/Pop Songwriters, while Cirkut and Watt tie at No. 1.
Polansky is also credited as a co-writer on MAYHEM tracks “How Bad Do U Want Me,” “The Beast” and “Blade of Grass.” Of those, “How Bad Do U Want Me” debuts at No. 69 on the Hot 100, “Disease” peaked at No. 27 on the Hot 100 in November, while “Vanish Into You” and “LoveDrug” debut on the latest list at Nos. 61 and 95, respectively.
Gaga has been vocal in recent interviews about Polansky’s role in creating MAYHEM, saying he encouraged her to return to her dance-pop roots. “Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record. He was like, ‘Babe. I love you. You need to make pop music’,” she shared in a September interview with Vogue.
Polansky added, “Like anyone would do for the person they love, I encouraged her to lean in to the joy of it. On the Chromatica tour, I saw a fire in her; I wanted to help her keep that alive all the time and just start making music that made her happy.”
Gaga and Polansky met in 2019 and got engaged in 2024. In a March 7 interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, she said the pair include each other in their work. “He includes me in his business, as well. He’s really creative, he plays guitar — he’s like a beautiful musician. We have a really creative relationship.”
Ariana Grande‘s deluxe Eternal Sunshine album may promise that brighter days are ahead, but a new teaser for the superstar’s accompanying short film is, on the contrary, distinctly dark and moody. In a black-and-white Casablanca-esque clip posted Thursday (March 20), a fuzzy string lullaby plays over the sound of seconds ticking by on a stopwatch, […]
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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Join us at Billboard Women in Music 2025 — get your tickets here.
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.
As two short blonde hitmakers, Dolly Parton and Sabrina Carpenter have a lot in common. But they also have some key differences, and according to the country legend, there were a couple things the pair had to agree on before she signed on to do the 25-year-old pop star’s “Please Please Please” remix earlier this year.
In an interview with Knox News published March 18, Parton had nothing but praise for Carpenter — even if the “Espresso” singer does “talk a little bad now and then.”
“I told her, I said, ‘Now, I don’t cuss,’” continued the “9 to 5” singer. “‘I don’t make fun of Jesus. I don’t talk bad about God, and I don’t say dirty words on camera, but known to if I get mad enough.’”
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Those ground rules led the Girl Meets World alum to scrap the famous “motherf–ker” bomb from the chorus of “Please Please Please” for her version with Parton, with the pair instead singing the much cleaner line, “I beg you, don’t embarrass me like the others.”
When Carpenter first announced in February that she and Parton would be teaming up, the former wrote on Instagram, “and yes that does say featuring Miss Dolly Parton…. 💋💋💋she wouldn’t want me to swear but holy s–t!!!!!”
“She was so sweet,” Parton added of Carpenter in the interview before praising two of her other recent collaborators. “And Beyoncé’s great, and Miley [Cyrus], you know I love her. So, I’m just having fun with all of it.”
The Dollywood founder made a cameo on the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer’s Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter, which also featured Bey’s updated version of Parton’s “Jolene.” Parton and the “Flowers” artist have worked together a number of times, with the godmother-goddaughter duo recently releasing a duet version of Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” for the country icon’s 2023 Rockstar album.
As for which modern star she wants to work with next, Parton said, “Whoever calls me that I like … I’ll I say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that!’”
Her conversation with Knox News marks one of the Tennessee native’s first interviews since the death of her husband, Carl Dean, who passed away a few weeks prior at the age of 82. At the time, Parton wrote in a statement, “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”
During the interview, Parton shared an update on how she’s faring since the loss. “I’m doing better than I thought I would,” she said. “I’ve been with him 60 years. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll keep him always close.”
“I’m at peace that he’s at peace,” she added. “But that don’t keep me from missing and loving him.”
As 1995 began, Madonna was still an A-plus-list superstar and one of the most famous people in the world — but she was no longer at the absolute center of pop music. A half decade of increasingly controversial (though often brilliant) albums, singles, videos, movies and appearances had left the public divided and unsure about the Queen of Pop’s standing, while the dance-pop she’d conquered the world with in the ’80s had fallen out of fashion in a top 40 landscape dominated by alt-rock, hip-hop and R&B. But ’95 saw her reclaim her radio supremacy, while still taking huge artistic chances and pivoting to a more mature cross-platform star persona — though hardly all at the same time.
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In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Keith Caulfield, Billboard‘s Managing Director of Charts & Data Operations (and co-host of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, and longtime M disciple) to express ourselves and not repress ourselves about Madonna’s incredibly fascinating 1995. We pick up mid-Bedtime Stories rollout with Madonna, as she improbably scores the biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit of her entire storied career, and we make it through her LP’s experimental final two singles (and their rather notable music videos), through getting cast in the film role of a lifetime, through the ’95 Video Music Awards, and finally end with her Something to Remember era, while she preps the world for a year of Oscar campaigning.
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In the meantime, we brace the most important questions about La M as she reached the midpoint of her 1990s: Which super-cool-and-acclaimed European act made for better Madonna collaborators, Björk or Massive Attack? Why does nobody remember that “Take a Bow” was her longest-running No. 1? Should “Human Nature” have been a bigger hit? Was Evita worth shutting down her mid-’90s touring plans for? Did she really deserve a Razzie for her Four Rooms appearance? And of course: How did she fare in her infamous interview showdown with Courtney Love following the ’95 VMAs?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from Madonna’s 1995, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights. (Madonna would want you to!)
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
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.
Join us at Billboard Women in Music 2025 — get your tickets here.
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.
