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The Backstreet Boys have extended their upcoming summer residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere. On Wednesday (May 7) the veteran man band added a final three shows to the Into the Millennium run, revealing that their final shows of 2025 will take place on August 22, 23 and 24.

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With that trifecta — which will also be the group’s final shows of 2025 — the total number of Sphere gigs has run up to 21. The Live Nation-produced shows from AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter will be the first by a pop act in the futuristic venue that has to date hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company, the Eagles and EDM act Anyma; country star Kenny Chesney will set up shop from May 22-June 21.

Tickets for the newly added dates will go on sale first through the Backstreet Boys Fan Club presale that kicks off on Monday (May 12) at 12 p.m. PT, followed by an artist presale on Tuesday (May 13) beginning at 10 a.m. PT; fans can sign up for the artist presale here through Sunday (May 11) at 10 p.m. PT. A general onsale will kick off on May 16 at 10 a.m. PT here.

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The group will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their landmark Grammy-nominated Millennium album on July 11 with the release of Millennium 2.0. The revamped album will feature 25 tracks, including all 12 remastered originals, as well as live recordings, demos and b-sides.

Speaking to Billboard earlier this year, Carter promised the shows will provide fans with a “sensory overload” experience as they perform the 1999 album, along with some greatest hits and their new single, “Hey.” McLean also suggested that attendees pack “something all white” for the shows.

Check out the full list of BSB Sphere dates below.

July 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27

August 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24

Fitz and the Tantrums have returned: the pop-rock group have announced that their sixth studio album, Man on the Moon, will be released on July 25 through Atlantic Records, and unveiled the title track of the upcoming full-length on Wednesday (May 7).

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The follow-up to 2022’s Let Yourself Free was a product of feeling less beholden to straining for hits in the studio, says band leader Michael Fitzpatrick. “I think after our first radio hit with ‘Out Of My League,’ there was this insane amount of pressure to keep delivering hits,” he says of the band’s breakthrough 2013 single. “Then we had an even bigger hit with ‘HandClap,’ and there was even more expectation and pressure.

“But today?!” Fitzpatrick continues. “No one knows what a hit is anymore, the landscape is totally different, and that was actually incredibly liberating for us during the making of this record. We said ‘screw it,’ and just did what we wanted 1000% of the time. Zero compromise and all feeling. The air finally came back into the room and writing songs felt joyful and easy again.”

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That process began with the title track, which will serve as the new album’s lead single. While the band released album track “Ruin the Night” in March, “Man on the Moon” represents a jolt of energy for the group, and a return to the soul-pop sound that has defined some of their most well-loved hits.

“‘Man On The Moon’ came about organically in the early days of the writing process for the album,” says Fitzpatrick. “The feelings and ideas that I wanted to write about just kept pointing us back in the Motown/soul direction. Honestly, it kinda felt like coming home.”

After touring extensively behind Let Yourself Free, Fitz and the Tantrums will kick off a summer headlining run on July 24 in San Diego on the eve of the album release. The 31-city North American tour will feature Aloe Blacc and Neal Francis as special guests on select dates, while Ax and the Hatchetman, SNACKTIME and Gable Price and Friends will serve as openers.

Check out the track list to Fitz and the Tantrums’ Man on the Moon and watch the video for the title track below:

“The Good The Bad The Ugly”

“Man On The Moon”

“Withdrawals”

“Oh Maria”

“Ruin The Night”

“Where I Go”

“Young Days”

“Perfume”

“Umbrella”

“Queen of Hearts”

“Waste My Time”

“OK OK OK”

“Motion”

“One Day”

Fiona Apple spent two years as a “court watcher,” taking notes and observing thousands of bond hearings. Those countless hours have inspired the singer’s first new song in five years, “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” an intense, percussion-heavy broadside against the U.S.’s cash-bail system.
In a statement at the top of the video for the song that dropped on Tuesday (May 6), Apple wrote, “I saw so many people get caged away simply because they could not afford bail. Before they even got a trial… while still presumed innocent.” As her unaccompanied voice swells up, she sings, “They wouldn’t let her/ They wouldn’t let her/ They wouldn’t let her, wouldn’t let her go home,” and the words “Jail didn’t just hurt them. It hurt their families. It hurt all of our communities” scroll across the screen along with a montage of women impacted by a system that keeps people in jail if they can’t afford to post bail.

Apple said the personal images were shared with her by women who have been trapped in pretrial detention, jailed despite the court system’s presumption of innocence because they could not post bond. Over a second montage, hand drums and a flute bubble up as Apple sings, “They wouldn’t let her go home/ And now there’s no more home.” The singer said in an accompanying statement that for the past five years she’s been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout while witnessing “the stories of women who fought for and won their freedom with the tireless and loving support of the leadership.”

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“I hope that this song and these shared images will help to show what is at stake when someone is touched by a system that won’t let them go,” Apple wrote. The accompanying track produced by Zealous and Special Operation Studios is a tribal-beat homage to mothers who “took on extra shifts/ Still couldn’t pay the bail/ No danger, no flight risk/ But she will stay in jail,” she sings over images of smiling mothers dancing with and hugging their children.

“She was not convicted of anything/ Won’t you let her go home/ Won’t you let her go home,” Apple sings. “At home she’s got two kids/ And grandma needs her care/ Who’ll pack the lunch and give meds/ If she’s in jail not there?” The track also illuminates the cascading effects of mother’s jailed without bail, including falling behind on rent and kids missing school to see their grandma in the hospital after a fall, triggering teachers calling child protective services to report their absence and authorities then taking the children into custody.

“Can’t afford a new phone card, because nobody’s home/ Shame and isolation, economic deprivation/ And there’s no more home” Apple sings. By the fifth verse, Apple’s measured tone turns red as she recounts, “Preliminary hearing’s short, only witness is the cop/ He doesn’t even show up in court and all the charges get dropped/ What the f–k’s the point of all the f–king hell he put her through?/ Took her whole world away and set her up to start ’round two.”

Apple has set up an accompanying “Let Her Go Home” website where fans can find a local bail fund to contribute to on which she notes that “on any given day, 190,600 women and girls are incarcerated in the United States. Over 60,000 women are detained pretrial, presumed innocent, caged in U.S. jails simply because they cannot afford to pay bail. Their average yearly income is just $11,000. Over 66% are mother with minor children.”

The site also features images of some of the women Apple observed with their names and home cities as well as some descriptions, such as: “genuine, generous & creative genius,” “resilient, visionary & determined” and “assertive, authentic & unapologetic.” Apple has long advocated for court watching, including narrating and writing the score for a PSA for the National Courtwatch Network in 2023.

“Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)” is Apple’s fist new original song since the release of her fifth album, 2020’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters.

Watch Fiona Apple’s video for “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)” below.

Two decades since it took over the global charts, Shakira and Wyclef Jean have reunited up for a special anniversary performance of “Hips Don’t Lie” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Appearing on the Tuesday (May 6) episode with guests […]

Lady Gaga reportedly played to 2.5 million fans during her concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday night. It’s a hard-to-fathom crowd size, considering we’ve never seen anything like it for a concert in the United States. When it comes to free U.S. shows, some estimates put Garth Brooks’ 1997 concert […]

Another year, another Met Gala, another Katy Perry deepfake.
For a second year in a row, an AI-generated photo falsely depicting the pop star as walking the event’s red carpet made the rounds on social media, tricking fans into thinking she was actually there — something Perry reacted to on Instagram.

Sharing a few of the faux images of herself seemingly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City — complete with a sleek black dress that doesn’t actually exist, but nevertheless coincides with this year’s Met theme of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” thanks to the power of artificial intelligence — Perry wrote, “Couldn’t make it to the MET, I’m on The Lifetimes Tour (see you in Houston tomorrow IRL).”

“P.s. this year I was actually with my mom so she’s safe from the bots,” she added. “but I’m praying for the rest of y’all.”

The post comes one year after the same exact thing happened on the day of the 2024 Met Gala, when a fake photo of Perry — who, like this year, was not in attendance at last year’s event — similarly went viral online. That year’s AI-generated snap showed the “Firework” singer in a voluminous ballgown decked out with flowers, matching the 2024 theme of “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” — but again, the dress, much like Perry’s attendance at the past two Met Galas, was not real.

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That didn’t stop the former American Idol judge’s mom from falling for it last year. At the time, Perry shared a screenshot of a text from her mom that said, “Didn’t know you went to the Met … what a gorgeous gown,” to which the singer had replied, “Mom, the A.I. got you too, beware.”

Though Perry was not at the Met this year, countless other stars — from Rihanna to three-fourths of BLACKPINK, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter and more — were. Co-chaired by A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Colman Domingo, this year’s theme paid tribute to “the role of sartorial style in forming Black identities, focusing on the emergence, significance and proliferation of the Black dandy,” according to Vogue.

As Perry mentioned, she’s currently on the road in support of her 2024 album, 143. The Lifetimes Tour kicked off April 23 in Mexico City; she’s now gearing up for a U.S. leg starting Wednesday in Houston.

Lorde fans have been laughing ’til their ribs got soft for the last 12 years, and now they’re laughing all the way to the Billboard Hot 100.
“Ribs,” the long-beloved track from Lorde’s 2013 debut album Pure Heroine, debuts at No. 99 on the Hot 100 dated May 10, largely driven by 5 million official U.S. streams for the tracking week ending May 2 — a 51% gain over the previous week, according to Luminate.

Previously, the moody quasi-dance song — which was never released or promoted as an official single — had peaked at No. 26 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated Oct. 26, 2013, following the album’s release, but it had never before appeared on the Hot 100. (“Ribs” also re-enters at a new peak of No. 16 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs this week.)

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The song rides a new wave of streaming momentum following Lorde’s planned pop-up appearance at New York’s Washington Square Park on April 23, designed to promote her new song “What Was That” (which also debuts on the Hot 100 this week, at No. 36). The appearance was canceled and the crowd dispersed by police mandate before Lorde showed up, but the fans assembled still managed to have a singalong moment to “Ribs” first, which drew a ton of attention on social media. (Lorde did later show up to Washington Square to play the new song, with scenes from her appearance making it into the song’s official music video, released just a couple days later.)

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Despite never being a major chart hit previously, “Ribs” has long stood as one of Lorde’s both most acclaimed and best-streamed tracks. In 2017, Billboard‘s editorial staff named the song the 12th-best deep cut by a pop star this century, and in 2023, we also ranked it as the 17th-best pop song to never hit the Hot 100 (though we’ll probably have to replace it on the latter list now). In 2020, the nostalgic song achieved TikTok virality due in large part to millennials feeling wistful while stuck at home during the pandemic, and in the weeks before the recent bump, the song was still regularly pulling official on-demand U.S. stream counts in the low two millions, according to Luminate — weekly numbers superior to even “Royals,” Lorde’s seven-week Hot 100 No. 1 smash from the same album.

Lorde’s upcoming album Virgin is due to arrive June 27th on Republic/Universal New Zealand. “What Was That” marks her first top 40 hit on the Hot 100 since Melodrama single “Green Light” hit No. 19 in 2017.

Lorde attended her first Met Gala in four years Monday (May 5), but she wasn’t just there for fun. According to the pop star, she also used the event to tease something coming in the future, revealing that the look she wore on the red carpet is an “Easter egg” that also happens to express […]

Please recognize she’s trying! Shortly before arriving at the Met Gala in New York City on Monday (May 5), Rihanna revealed that she’s pregnant with her third child with partner A$AP Rocky. So not surprisingly, in addition to discussing what she was wearing for fashion’s biggest night, there were questions about whether growing her family would mean delaying her already long-awaited ninth studio album.
When asked about that on the blue carpet, Ri — who was in a custom Marc Jacobs — had a very confident answer. “Noooooo!” she insisted about the upcoming album’s arrival to Entertainment Tonight before admitting some things might come a little later. “Maybe a couple videos! I can still sing!”

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The “Umbrella” singer — who shares sons RZA, nearly 3, and Riot Rose, 1, with Rocky — also joked earlier on to reporters as she was walking the carpet at the star-studded event that she “brought the kid!” Though she was dressed to the nines and in high heels, she told ET that she was feeling good that night. “‘m shockingly feeling OK and not too overwhelmed at the moment,” she shared before admitting that perhaps her third pregnancy did have her feeling a little bit overwhelmed in the beginning. “At first, it was kinda like, ‘Ahhhhhhhh,’ and ‘I’m tired,’” the nine-time Grammy winner said. “But then I’m excited.”

As for the “Tailor Swif” rapper, he was excited to let the world in on the couple’s happy news. “We were tired of holding that, and it was time to show the people what we was cooking up,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m glad everybody’s happy for us, because we’re definitely happy.”

And hopefully soon, Ri’s Navy will also be happy with the eventual arrival of R9. The “Disturbia” singer last released an album nearly a decade ago when she dropped Anti in February 2016. As for the delayed set? Ri shared in her March Harper’s Bazaar cover story that contrary to what she called “way off” rumors, the album would not be reggae.

“There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited,” the star explained. “After a while, I looked at it, and I was like, this much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears. It has to count. It has to matter. I have to show them the worth in the wait. I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more.”

Watch Ri talk about R9 and her pregnancy with ET above.

The voice cast for the upcoming 3D animated film based on Sir Paul McCartney‘s 2005 children’s book High in the Clouds will be lead by Celine Dion, Himesh Patel (Yesterday) and Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso). According to Variety, the film adaptation will also feature the voices of Idris Elba, Lionel Richie, McCartney’s former Beatles bandmate […]