Magazine Feature

05 Nov 2025

Rosalía: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

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Rosalía offers an exasperated laugh as she sits down, having tried on a variety of equally stunning outfits only to end up in the casual clothes she arrived in: black pants and a camo jacket lined with fur. It’s the same jacket she was spotted wearing at a Parisian cafe in early October, seated alone with a cup of tea while poring over the sheet music of a song from the 1900 Puccini opera Tosca.

The Barcelona-born singer’s candid moment with the canonical tragedy was significant — one of many subtle nods that she was pursuing something outside the typical parameters of modern mainstream music. Rosalía studied musicology in college, and over the last eight years has often meshed a wide variety of genres and influences in her songs. But for someone who rose to global fame on the cutting edge of culture, studying the musical notation of a century-old opera communicated a pointed message.

Weeks later, fans began to understand why. On the evening of Oct. 20, she took to Madrid’s Callao Square with giant projector screens, where a countdown unveiled the release date for her fourth album, Lux (Nov. 7 on Columbia Records), as well as its cover art, which features Rosalía dressed in all white, wearing a nun’s habit and hugging herself under her clothing.

Every move Rosalía has made over the past three years while crafting Lux has been considered, intentional and entirely in her own world. Having risen to fame with the flamenco-inspired pop of her Columbia debut, 2018’s El Mal Querer, she flipped the script with her eclectic, energetic 2022 album, Motomami, which spanned pop, reggaetón, hip-hop, electronic and more and became her first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 33. But Lux is something different.

Read the full Billboard cover story here.

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27 Oct 2025

Rauw Alejandro: Photos From the Cosa Nuestra World Tour

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On a late-spring night, Downtown Miami was a place out of time. Thousands of people gathered dressed to the nines, the women rocking sequined gowns and kitten heels, the men wearing tailored suits and polished dress shoes. Their attire fused Puerto Rican culture and Mafia fantasy and seemed beamed in from decades ago — but the crowd entering Miami’s Kaseya Center on this warm evening wasn’t there for an act of yesteryear, but rather one of the hottest arena artists on the planet.

“It was a whole vibe,” Rauw Alejandro says over Zoom months later, now off the road and back home in Puerto Rico. “It felt like we went back to the past and you can feel that energy. It’s not mandatory, but if you dress up, you’ll have more fun because you’re immersed in the story. You’re literally traveling to that time and age.”

Like many arena and stadium stars today, the 32-year-old reggaetón star encouraged audiences to follow a special dress code for his show. His Cosa Nuestra tour this year channeled the elegance and glamour of a certain 1970s New York, along with the Cosa Nostra that ruled it. For the shows, he constructed an alter ego: Don Raúl, a suave Nuyorican hipster living in the Big Apple.

Rauw Alejandro will appear in conversation during Billboard’s Live Music Summit, held Nov. 3 in Los Angeles. For tickets and more information, click here.

Read Rauw Alejandro’s full Billboard cover story interview, part of the 2025 Touring Issue, here.

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12 Jun 2025

Carín León: Photos From the Billboard Español Cover Shoot

It’s 2 a.m. on a May morning in Aguascalientes, Mexico, long past most people’s bedtimes. But inside the Palenque of Feria de San Marcos — a venue in this central Mexican city — Carín León is entering the third hour of a performance where he has sung nonstop while pacing the small 360-degree stage like a caged lion.

Palenques, found in most Mexican cities and towns, were originally designed and used for cockfighting, and most have been transformed into concert venues that put artists in shockingly close proximity to their fans, with no ring of security around the tiny stage. The palenque circuit is de rigueur for Mexican artists, even a superstar like León — a burly man who tonight looks even bigger thanks to his ever-present high-crown cowboy hat.

Nearly 6,000 fans surround him in arena-style seating, the steep, vertical layout allowing everyone a close view of the man below, flanked by his backing ensemble: a norteño band with electric guitars, a sinaloense brass section, backup singers and keyboards — nearly 30 musicians in all, who wander about, grab drinks, chat and return to the stage throughout the show. León leads the organized chaos, traversing repertoire that, during the course of the evening, goes from corridos and norteño ballads to country and rock’n’roll.

“I think it’s the most Mexican thing possible in music, a palenque. I always say you have to see your artist play in a palenque to understand it,” León tells me a few hours before the show. He has been playing them for years throughout the country, like most regional Mexican artists do. They’re places of revelry and drink, a rite of passage, and the place to test new sounds.

Read the full Billboard Español cover story here.

09 Jun 2025

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

“Am I the first person to feel strange calling you ‘weird’?” John Mayer — bespectacled, grinning goofily, very much nerding out — is sitting across from “Weird Al” Yankovic, interviewing the Hawaiian shirt-clad parody music king, who is sitting across from him for his SiriusXM show, How’s Life With John Mayer.

“You can call me Al, like Paul Simon says,” Yankovic says with smile, before adding that the most normal thing about him is, probably, his pancreas.

It’s a funny quip, but also an understatement. Let’s just get this out of the way: “Weird Al” Yankovic is, beneath his accordion-playing, polka-loving surface, exceedingly normal. He likes long evening walks to get his steps in. He enjoys seeing movies and trying out new restaurants with his wife and daughter, who just graduated college. He grumbles good-naturedly about the ongoing renovation of his home in the Hollywood Hills. (“It’s going to look almost exactly the same as it did before, except it cost a fortune!”) The 65-year-old artist’s one attempt at rock star behavior, back in his early-’80s heyday, was comically un-vain: On a touring rider, he requested, in the spirit of Van Halen’s famed ban on brown M&M’S, “one really horrible Hawaiian shirt for every show I did.” (On that run, he did 200, and a collection that now extends to a storage unit somewhere in greater L.A. began.)

Still, if not precisely weird, Yankovic is truly singular. His catalog can be divided into two types of songs: intricately crafted, meticulously arranged, hilarious yet never mean-spirited parodies of hits by acts ranging from Michael Jackson to Coolio to Nirvana to Lady Gaga, and original pastiches, for which he deep dives into artists’ catalogs to create songs that, with eerie accuracy, mimic the sounds and idiosyncrasies of those genre-spanning artists.

Read Billboard’s full “Weird Al” Yankovic cover story here.

02 Jun 2025

Cynthia Erivo: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

There was a time when Cynthia Erivo could glide around town on her Razor scooter in peace. “Don’t laugh!” she quips as she reminisces about those halcyon days while sitting in a cozy loft above a cavernous Los Angeles studio. “I’ve been doing it for years!”

Whether maneuvering New York’s busy streets or transporting her from her L.A. home to a nearby studio to record voice-over work, Erivo’s reliable kick scooter was once her preferred mode of transit. But even a decade ago, she was warned that her hobby wasn’t sustainable with the life she was building. “[Director] John Doyle said to me, ‘Cynthia, you’re not going to be able to do that for very long,’ ” she recalls. “And I was like, ‘But why? I’m good! It’s fine!’ ”

His prediction ultimately came true. In the years since making her 2015 Broadway debut in Doyle’s production of The Color Purple, Erivo has transformed from buzzy theater ingenue to certified, capital “S” star by practically every metric. At just 38, the multihyphenate is already nearly an EGOT (she’s only missing her Oscar, despite three nominations); has starred in prestige TV series like The Outsider, Genius and Poker Face; paid tribute to musical legends at the Kennedy Center; and, most recently, scooped up that third Oscar nom with Wicked, the highest-grossing musical adaptation in film history. Along the way, Erivo hasn’t lost sight of what matters to her, using the star power she has accrued for good.

When she publicly came out as queer in 2022, she cited the importance of helping “some young Black queer actress somewhere” feel less alone in the industry. At the top of 2025, she took home GLAAD’s prestigious Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her continuing commitment to promoting visibility for the LGBTQ+ community. And in June, she’ll bring her talents to the massive WorldPride celebrations in Washington, D.C., making sure that everyone hears her voice — including politicians aiming to strip her community’s rights.

Read Cynthia Erivo’s full Billboard cover story here.

29 May 2025

Chris Stapleton: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

We had all met up for dinner in Santa Fe a couple of years ago. It was Chris, Morgane, me, my wife Kathryn and several band and crew members very close to Clan Stapleton. It was a humbling night in that no matter the status of our perceived successes, we all seemed to resort to naked-in-a-dream, childish reactions when the stress mounted. But in sticking with said dinner, it turned out full of a nectar that ended the night in everyone’s favor.

The owner and maître d’ of this Mexican restaurant came in on his day off, a little tipsy, I think, sporting a rhinestone-studded cowboy hat, and he welcomed us with grand sweeping gestures, overenunciating as he introduced each course with a rolling monologue. After his many waiters (one assigned to each of us) served us with aristocratic flair, he instructed us, with great drama, to, basically, pick up our spoons.

“Break the outer coating!” We did. “Now spoon up a small portion of every color on your dish. Every color!” We did as we were told. “And on the count of three put it in your mouth.” He was whispering at this point. We were getting scared. “One!” I looked up at Chris across the table from me, and his mouth, behind his beard and mustache, was neither grinning nor frowning, but something twisted in between. “Two!” We all had our spoons at exactly the same height, most shaking. After a long pause… “Three! In!”

Like Willy Wonka, the owner knew ­precisely what was happening — delectable, divine, an otherworldly Disney ride in our mouths — as it happened. “You will next be getting a slight chile burn in the back half of the inside of your cheeks riiiiight now!” He was spot on. This was sorcery, Mexican f–king magic.

Read the full Billboard cover story about Chris Stapleton here.

20 May 2025

J-Hope: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

Best known as a dancer, rapper and singer-songwriter in BTS, j-hope has long stood out, with a magnetic stage presence and captivating dance moves that helped propel the group to global stardom. Now — as ARMY around the world anticipate the group’s remaining members completing South Korea’s mandatory military service and BTS reuniting in June, with group activities on hold until 2026 — the charismatic 31-year-old is distinguishing himself further, carving out a bold solo identity that showcases a versatility and creative range that extend far beyond his BTS persona.

Following his 2022 debut solo album, Jack in the Box, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and his 2024 Hope on the Street, Vol. 1 EP that rose to No. 5 on the chart, j-hope has already released collaborations this year with stars including Miguel, Don Toliver and Pharrell Williams. And with his Hope on the Stage World Tour, which kicked off Feb. 28 in Seoul, j-hope is reaching new heights: His show at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium made him the first South Korean male solo artist to headline a U.S. stadium. (His bandmate Jin will hit the road this summer.) The tour — which will wrap June 1 after visiting 15 markets across North America and Asia, including a May 31 show in Osaka, Japan, that will be broadcast live to cinemas around the world — has mirrored his own artistic growth as he prepares for the next stage of his solo journey with his upcoming album. J-hope sat down with Billboard Korea in Los Angeles for an exclusive chat about his music, touring and inspirations.

Read the full j-hope Billboard cover story here.

14 May 2025

Tems: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

On a Friday night in late February, Tems was having dinner with the owners of San Diego FC, celebrating her new position as a partner in the MLS club. The next day, a video went viral of the 29-year-old Nigerian musician, known for her enviable levels of cool, briefly losing it while watching the club’s first-ever home game, bitterly throwing her arms down when her team missed a free kick and repeatedly yelling, “What the f–k was that?” while clapping her hands to punctuate her every word. Then, on Sunday, she headed to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, strutting the red carpet in a feathered gown at the Vanity Fair after-party and striking poses with the likes of H.E.R., Victoria Monét and Normani at Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s annual Gold Party. By Tuesday, Tems was overseas at Paris Fashion Week, serving classic elegance while sitting front row at the Courrèges and Dior shows.

Those prime seats offered her a rare opportunity: to be off her feet and catch her breath before hopping on a jet to her next high-profile affair. Because while Tems’ music has become known as the ideal soundtrack for unwinding and vibing out, she never really has time to do either.

“Every day is something different, which is ­actually very exciting for me,” Tems insists during an early April afternoon in her home base of London, looking laid-back in a chic “groutfit” (monochromatic gray): oversize zip-up hoodie, tank maxi dress and black leather peep toe heels, her hair slicked back in a bun with laid edges. “I’m always like, ‘Hmm, I wonder how today is going to go. I wonder what’s going to happen.’ ” But even amid her whirlwind schedule, she manages to maintain some grounding daily rituals: “In the mornings, I always do my self-care. I pray and declare that everything is going to be good and whatever comes my way, I’ll be fine.”

Tems will headline THE STAGE at SXSW London on June 5 in an exclusive concert presented by Billboard at London’s iconic music venue Troxy. Read Tems’ full Billboard cover story here.

17 Apr 2025

Gracie Abrams: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

At the beginning of the year, Gracie Abrams found herself in a rare bind. For one of the first times in her life, she says, “I felt like I had nothing to say.”

The 25-year-old musician had scheduled a week to spend at Long Pond Studio working on new music with her longtime collaborator, Aaron Dessner, when she realized that she was at a loss for inspiration — a frustrating position for Abrams, who isn’t just one of Gen Z’s most prolific songwriters, but has also been writing songs since she was a kid. “I was actually quite aggravated with myself that I had booked that time,” she says now, months later. “I went into it being like, ‘Oh, I’m going to waste Aaron’s time.’ I felt a little bit disconnected from myself.”

It’s understandable why Abrams might have felt at loose ends. After releasing her second album, the Dessner-produced The Secret of Us, last June, she went from the cusp of main-pop-girl status to bona fide stardom and has careened ever since on a career-affirming thrill ride that refuses to slow down. The witty, self-effacing album full of catchy acoustic anthems and searing appraisals of romantic disappointments debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and Abrams’ momentum only snowballed that fall when its deluxe version produced her first top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit, “That’s So True,” a snarky post-breakup kiss-off that became inescapable on TikTok. She has also been traveling basically nonstop for years, piggybacking a catalytic stint opening for Taylor Swift — her childhood hero — on The Eras Tour with her own sold-out fall run of U.S. theaters; she’ll play North American arenas this summer, including two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Read the full Billboard cover story here.

24 Mar 2025

Muni Long: Photos From the Billboard Shoot

In 2019, Priscilla Renea’s solo career was stalled. She had released an album in 2009, and when it didn’t chart, she had turned to songwriting. Her second album, released in 2018, also failed to make much of an impact. So, Renea decided, a rebrand was in order.

For her new moniker, “I picked Melrose at first. That was terrible, a very short phase,” the 36-year-old recalls with a laugh. “Then I quickly settled on [the word] ‘money’ and went through a few last names like Money Jones, Money Smith. But when I heard the 2 Chainz lyric ‘hair long, money long’ [from 2012’s “I’m Different”], I was like, ‘Whoa. That’s it.’ ”

Two years later, the artist now known as Muni Long hit the jackpot. Her seductive smash “Hrs and Hrs,” initially featured on her 2021 EP, Public Displays of Affection, went viral on TikTok and became the then-indie artist’s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. In February 2022, it peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and helped her land a contract with Def Jam Recordings (through her own imprint, then called Supergiant, now rechristened Muni Long Inc.). In September 2022, the hit appeared on her debut set, Public Displays of Affection: The Album, and won the artist her first Grammy Award, for best R&B performance, at the 2023 ceremony. At the 2025 awards, she won the same Grammy trophy for “Made for Me (Live at BET)” — and declared onstage during her acceptance speech, “Please stop calling me Priscilla… It’s Muni Long now!”

Read the full Muni Long story here. Join us at Billboard Women in Music 2025 — get your tickets here.