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Musicians have often expressed a desire to make a difference in the world, through both their art and their actions. Now, the world’s biggest music company has assembled a powerful squad of corporate ninjas to help its artists get the job done.
In June 2024, Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge announced the creation of the UMG Global Impact Team to “enact and amplify the company’s vision for positive change through community engagement, environmental sustainability, events and special projects,” the company stated.
Music industry veteran Susan Mazo — who has been with UMG since 2014, is chief impact officer/executive vp and serves as the founding chair of UMG’s All Together Now Foundation and is a co-creator of the Amplifier Award, which recognizes artists committed to positive change — assembled the new team of specialized change agents.
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The members of the Global Impact Team, who happen to be all women, include Mazo; UMG senior vp/head of sustainability Dylan Siegler; Kristin Jones and Arielle Vavasseur, co-founders of Inside Projects, a strategy and marketing agency that specializes in social impact; UMG senior vp/executive director of the Task Force for Meaningful Change Menna Demessie; UMG vp of global impact Markie Ruzzo; and UMG senior director of global impact and communications Sharlotte Ritchie.
“The strategy came from the highest levels of the company,” Mazo says, “working closely with Lucian Grainge and Will Tanous,” UMG’s executive vp/chief administrative officer and a member of the company’s executive management board. Mazo says they sought to form a team who “could help create change and awareness through the power of their networks.”
That team’s work led to the announcement last September of UMG’s 2024 Use Your Voice campaign, which built upon a similar initiative four years earlier and sought to increase voter awareness and participation in the November general election. UMG partnered with leading voter resource organizations including HeadCount, the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, When We All Vote and the Voto Latino Foundation.
Mazo notes that HeadCount has reported that Sabrina Carpenter got more voters engaged in last year’s election than any other artist the organization works with. HeadCount says Carpenter inspired 35,814 voter registrations and got another 263,087 voters to take other actions outside of registration, such as checking their polling location. The team also launched UMG sound practices for events, a guide for integrating sustainability into UMG initiatives.
In January, as wildfires devastated Los Angeles, the Global Impact Team supported UMG’s overall response. UMG partnered with groups and organizations including Support + Feed, Dodgers Foundation, World Central Kitchen and Bruce’s Catering to serve first responders and families in need. UMG merchandising company Bravado donated clothing to affected UMG employees and the fire departments in Pasadena and Santa Monica. The company canceled all of its Grammy weekend activities, donating and repurposing all resources including hotel rooms, catering, trucking and vendor resources to relief efforts. In addition, UMG’s All Together Now U.S. employee matching program had record donations following the announcement of a 150% super match for fire relief organizations. UMG’s efforts regarding wildfire relief are ongoing.
Most recently, the Global Impact Team helped UMG expand its four-year partnership with the nonprofit Music Health Alliance to launch the Music Industry Mental Health Fund. The initiative, announced in February, will provide comprehensive, high-quality outpatient mental health resources for qualified members and workers of the music industry. Mazo calls the expanded partnership “the most natural way to ensure continuous and effective mental health support for anyone working in our industry.”
Are the issues that the Global Impact Team addresses “of particular concern to the current generation of UMG artists? Absolutely,” Mazo says. “And we’re really taking the lead from what our artists are interested in and what our artists are talking to us about.”
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Live Nation, BMI, ASCAP, Nettwerk Music Group, Soundstripe and the Recording Academy rank among the best places in the music business for women to work, according to a first-of-its-kind survey.
The 40-year-old nonprofit organization Women in Music, in partnership with company reviews platform InHerSight, has unveiled its first edition of WIM Best Places To Work, recognizing top companies in several areas, based on industrywide initial survey data. Women in Music, established in 1985, describes its mission as serving “to advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment and recognition.”
“The music industry has long been a cultural force for change, and now more than ever, we have to take the lead in prioritizing diversity in leadership as much as the diversity of the music we represent,” Women in Music president Nicole Barsalona says.
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“Research shows that gender-diverse leadership drives revenue, innovation and talent retention — it’s not just good practice, it’s critical to our success as an industry,” Barsalona says. “Future surveys will include increased diversity metrics to add even more depth to the data, but this is an exciting start.”
The WIM Best Places To Work initiative honors music companies that demonstrate excellence in fostering inclusive workplace culture and ensuring satisfaction across metrics that matter to women, such as salary, leadership opportunities, remote work options and parental leave.
Women in Music notes that the survey is ongoing and accessible through its website to ensure that it’s continually updated to reflect the latest industry standards in workplace excellence.
“Our philosophy has always been that data is central to building better workplaces,” InHerSight co-founder and CEO Ursula Mead says. “So when organizations like Women in Music come to us recognizing the power of data, we’re thrilled to realize their initiative.”
The survey cites research from consulting firm McKinsey that states that companies with strong female representation at the top outperform competitors by nearly 50% in profitability and share performance.
In addition to those previously named, smaller companies and organizations (of two to 51 employees) that ranked high on the survey include the Music Business Association, The Syndicate, Blackstar Agency, the American Association of Independent Music and the Mechanical Licensing Collective.
“I’m thrilled to know that the Music Business Association scored so well in the WIM Best Places To Work survey,” MBA president Portia Sabin says. “Diversity is very important for us in all aspects of what we do, and we’ve worked to diversify our board, our events and our staff. One thing we strive for is to have diversity at all levels of the company, providing a mentorship aspect for younger people who may join us. It’s very true that our diversity makes us stronger as a team and makes this a great place to work.”
The survey collected data on 17 research-backed metrics. The results singled out the top companies in categories including equal opportunities for women and men, women in leadership, salary satisfaction, flexibility, remote work opportunities, maternity and adoptive leave, employee responsiveness and a sense of belonging.
Live Nation, for example, stood out for its maternity and adoptive leave policies, ability to telecommute, remote work opportunities, flexible work hours and equal opportunities for men and women.
The WIM Best Places To Work initiative has been launched at a challenging time for corporate America, says Monika Tashman, a partner at prominent music industry law firm Loeb & Loeb and an advisory board member at Women in Music.
“With diversity, equity and inclusion programs terminated at the federal level and a vow to police the private sector’s DEI initiatives,” she says, “it is vital that we publicize, promote and encourage private sector companies that are committed to constructing a workplace culture and benefits package that is unbiased and crafted to allow all employees to thrive.”
Women in Music is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, unaffiliated with Billboard, founded in 1985 to educate, empower and advance women in the music industry. WIM hosts year-round educational and career development programming in chapter markets around the world, with equity-focused initiatives that include WIM Safe(r) Spaces, the WIM Workplace Initiative, the WIM Mentorship Program and the WIM Executive Internship Program. To become a charitable partner or to make a donation, go to womeninmusic.org.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
As the concert business soars to new heights, five of its most powerful women have been on a tear. As leading agents across five top booking agencies, Jenna Adler, Lucy Dickins, Samantha Kirby Yoh, Cara Lewis and Marsha Vlasic serve as tour architects and chief dealmakers to the stars, shaping the live-music landscape while helping their artist clients build their brands and broaden their businesses beyond music to sustain their careers.
With her client Adele, Dickins helped create a 75,000-capacity Munich venue purpose-built for the superstar’s 10 August 2024 shows (and aptly named Adele Arena). “I don’t think anyone else has ever done that,” Dickins jokes over Zoom. Lewis famously got a shoutout in 1987’s “Paid in Full,” on which Eric B. and Rakim explain, “Cara Lewis is our agent … and together we get paid in full.” The hip-hop touring powerhouse’s wins go back decades — and include moments like Eminem’s first-ever show outside Detroit in 1999.
When we speak, Adler has just returned home from a trip to Dubai with her client Jennifer Lopez and expounds on the new heights that Deftones — “the first band I ever signed” — are currently achieving. Vlasic casually mentions that “Neil” — as in longtime client Neil Young — recently called to discuss his upcoming coastal tour. And Kirby Yoh is keen to chat about LCD Soundsystem’s recent Los Angeles and New York residencies, which encompassed 20 shows and which she booked for the band that she has helped guide through arenas, festival headlining slots and beyond over the years.
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Their rosters are deep, their wins are many, and their reputations as leaders not just in the “female agent space” but the world of agents, period, are renowned. While each works for a different company — Kirby Yoh is a UTA partner and its co-head of global music, Dickins is WME’s global head of contemporary music and touring, Adler is a music touring agent at CAA, Lewis is founder and CEO of Cara Lewis Group, and Vlasic is the co-chair of Independent Artist Group’s music division — there’s a clear kinship among them, with the five women throwing out adjectives like “legendary,” “chic,” “magnificent” and “respected” when referring to one another.
“I hate losing,” Adler says. “But at the same time, I’d rather lose to one of them than to any of my male counterparts.”
Here, the five discuss their long careers, juggling their professions with motherhood and how agencies are changing for artists and female executives alike.
Jenna Adler, whose clients include Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Charli xcx, Shaboozey and Deftones.
Myles Hendrik
In terms of working with well-established touring acts, how do you guide an artist through a long career? How do you manage demand as an artist evolves?
Samantha Kirby Yoh: The No. 1 thing is partnering with an artist. You’ve really got to listen to what their vision is, what their priorities and concerns are. Those change over the years. Cyndi Lauper had a lifelong dream of playing an arena tour. She’d never done arenas and also wanted to do a spectacular presentation in regard to her life’s work. It’s not guiding so much as listening and then putting it together and being in true partnership with the manager and artist.
Jenna Adler: You can’t just be a transactional agent. It’s never going to last that way. You have to be really passionate because at the end of the day, we’re selling.
Cara Lewis: Once an artist’s fan base has solidified, doors open. It is about coming up with different opportunities that align with that artist to further enhance the brand and continue adding to their longevity. That can be as simple as playing larger venues, adding a sponsor or doing a brand partnership that increases awareness and grows the fan base … The ultimate goal is longevity and the ability to reinvent and hold fans’ attention throughout the evolution of a career.
Marsha Vlasic: To be honest with you, it’s not mathematics and it’s not chemistry. It’s pretty much instinct. I’m very confident in telling [artists] what I think they should do. I’m not afraid of them. A lot of people tiptoe around artists. Even certain managers are afraid to talk to their own artists. But once you go through a certain number of years and earn a certain amount of respect, then artists reach out to you and trust you.
Lucy Dickins: It’s about building a strong, authentic relationship. I need to understand an artist’s vision and figure out how to tell that story. From when we’re starting to work together to when they become huge clients, authenticity is, for me, the most important thing because I think people can see through [anything inauthentic].
Lucy Dickins, whose clients include Adele, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, James Blake and Lola Young.
Courtesy of WME
What’s your philosophy on artist development?
Dickins: You’ve got to build a solid foundation that allows them to grow, experiment and evolve, while they’re also grounded and true to what they are. It’s not one size fits all. My thing is always just focusing on empowering them with the tools, knowledge and support they need to make informed decisions and trust their instincts. I’m a gut person, so for me, it’s like, “Go with what you want and just be authentic.”
Vlasic: I worry about taking that leap of faith too quick, too big, and then you’re f–ked. Artist development to me is turning people away, selling out, having a great show … Again, a lot of it is instinct.
Lewis: Throughout my career, I have always been at the forefront of artist development, championing female artists. In the early stages of an artist’s career, you have to know how to capture the urgency, which is all about strategically planning based on artist analytics, packaging and, of course, ticket pricing.
Kirby Yoh: My philosophy is to listen and tell the story of who they are. If there is a deep love in regard to beats, it’s about where we can get them DJ’ing in the warehouse and doing a remix. Every step and play have to be intentional and authentically build on the lore of who they are. And don’t miss steps. You have to do the steps to build your community with you so they feel they’re on the journey with you all the way.
Are festivals still effective in breaking new artists?
Adler: For me, it’s about the long game and not taking festival money so fast, not even looking at festivals until we have a bit of control over where we want to play. I always say we should never play a festival before four o’clock because before four, you’re playing for the vanity of it. Instead, let’s go out and do the hard work and create our own fan base so we can point to a scoreboard and say, “I sold this and that out. This isn’t a favor.” I don’t care about doing all these festivals. There are always exceptions, but my go-to is not worrying about being on a poster in a [small font size] just to say we’re there. Let’s go and sell out a 300-seat club.
Vlasic: I don’t know what else we have to break a new artist. Having an artist’s name on a festival poster is very important. All promoters look at who’s on there, and at least the emerging artists can play to a bigger audience than they would if they went on the club scene and did 300 a night.
Kirby Yoh: I love festivals. It depends on what festival it is. The smaller festivals, like the 20,000-capacity, are doing great. If you look at [San Francisco dance festival] Portola and [festival creator] Danny [Bell’s] exceptional skill set as a curator, it doesn’t even break artists but brings people who only heard of X, Y or Z DJ and then they suddenly hear the artists that inspired that DJ. It takes them on a kind of learning [journey]. [Portola] has done that exceptionally.
Dickins: I think it’s arguable to say if a festival breaks an artist, whereas before it used to be really important. Now a lot of artists on the way up ask if it’s more important to do their own show and build their own brand. If you’re in the opening slot on a stage or up against a load of clashes, what are you really getting out of that? I don’t know. As opposed to doing your own show with your core fan base or attracting people coming to see you build your brand.
But if you’re a bigger artist, they’re still huge milestones because they bring massive exposure and the chance to reach global audiences. And there are smaller festivals, or genre-specific festivals, that are becoming more prominent. Doechii played Camp Flog Gnaw last year; that was a huge moment. The big ones are good for the bigger ones, and the more bespoke, genre-specific ones are becoming more prominent for the smaller artists.
Samantha Kirby Yoh, whose clients include LCD Soundsystem, Björk, Rosalía, FKA twigs and St. Vincent.
Courtesy of UTA
How are you seeing artists handle ticket pricing? In regard to the all-in approach where customers only see the final cost, is it important for fans to know the face value that artists are charging before ticketing fees?
Vlasic: None of my artists want fans to be pissed off because they think they’re charging too much. The thing is, somebody’s going to be miserable about something all the time. That’s my feeling on ticket pricing. With older artists, where it may be their last tours, they don’t want to go out just for the fun of being on the road. The road is no longer something [those artists] are dying to do, but this is their means of income. They don’t want to piss people off, but they want to maximize it.
Lewis: It all depends on artist, market, viability and urgency. Keep prices low, within reason and without compromising [an artist’s] ability to tour and offer an innovative production. Be cognizant of ticketing fees. Know what the competitive acts are charging and make an analysis of the sales and how the scaling is related to the result. Understand that each market has different needs due to the economy and different urgency.
Dickins: International markets tend to be much more cautious [than in the United States]. But ticket fees are a huge thing. At the International Live Music Conference in London, everyone was telling me that there are major concerns around ticket fees and the lack of transparency because fans feel misled when those additional fees are tacked on at checkout.
Kirby Yoh: I think most artists want the experience to be as easy as possible. When you go to buy a ticket for your favorite artist’s show and you’ve got $100 in your pocket, you want the total checkout cost to be $100.
Adler: I am so sensitive to ticket pricing because I look around like, “How can all these people afford all these shows?” Yet every show is selling out, even though the average ticket price is north of $100. I always try to go on the lower side, almost to a fault. I get a lot of pushback because they say I’m leaving money for scalpers to come in. I don’t want that. It’s such a delicate balance.
Cara Lewis, whose clients include Eminem, Travis Scott, Erykah Badu, Khalid and Don Toliver.
Laura Rose
You’re all so well established. How has your job changed over the years?
Adler: The biggest difference I see is that now the artist wants a relationship with their whole team. When I started, none of the agents had direct relationships with their artists. Agents always had to go through a manager. Now artists want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to their agent.
Dickins: When I was first booking tours, there was a load of in-market stuff you never paid much attention to that now you do because the look goes everywhere. Your first look is really important because that can play into stuff later on in a career. It’s way more involved, much more detail-oriented and much more strategic.
Lewis: Social media has changed our lives. It is the key to it all and has changed the way we market and sell everything. Professional networking platforms have given us resources to connect with anyone at any time about anything.
Vlasic: I think the pandemic changed things more than how long I’ve been in the business. Since the pandemic, the whole structure of the business is different in terms of the back-office stuff. I have a beautiful office. I rarely go there. I don’t have a schedule. Maybe I’ve always beat my own drum in terms of being at a company, but the company structure and routine have changed drastically.
Most of you have children. What is it like doing your job as a mother?
Vlasic: I don’t know how I did it. I seriously don’t. I didn’t have family that I could call at any given moment. My husband had his own thing going. I went home almost every night, made sure they had dinner and the homework was done, and then I went out. I don’t know how the girls do it now, but the difference is, if you’re an agent at most companies, you don’t have to be in the office for a certain amount of hours like I did. I remember one time one of my sons was really sick, and I was staying home to get the test results from the doctor … My boss at the time called me and said, “I hope you realize you should be working regular hours,” knowing my son was sick. That wouldn’t happen now.
Adler: I have 23- and 25-year-old sons, and CAA allowed me to [raise them] with such seamless patience. They were incredibly supportive even before it was a thing. I nursed every day, my kids came in, but that was because [CAA managing director] Rob Light had five kids, and he was a great dad. He understood. All the guys here had kids and understood it was family first. I was really lucky in that way.
Dickins: As a female agent, the sacrifices I have to make with a young family are huge. It’s something I battle on a daily basis. I got back from London two days ago. I go to Australia on Sunday, I come back for one day, then I go to London for two days. When I look at men in my positions, they don’t have the guilt that I have … My husband deserves a f–king award because he has to hold the fort all the time. When my 9-year-old is crying because she doesn’t want me to go away and I have to go because I have to spend time with a client, it’s tough. I think that’s why, in the touring aspect, it’s especially hard for women.
Marsha Vlasic, whose clients include Neil Young, The Strokes, Cage the Elephant, Norah Jones and Elvis Costello.
Kat Stanas
In recent years, it feels like the glass ceiling has been broken in agenting, and your careers are a testament to that. Does that feel true? How could this world be more supportive of women?
Vlasic: When I was starting out, I didn’t know I was any different. I didn’t know people viewed me as “You’re one of the only women.” I just worked hard and was determined. There are times I’ll come off a panel and a young girl will come up and say, “It’s so hard for us as women.” I’m thinking, “What the f–k are you talking about?” There are more women agents, more women managers, more women musicians. Don’t use that as an excuse.
Kirby Yoh: I think it has become more supportive to women, but there’s still a lot more to do. There need to be more opportunities, full stop. But we’re getting there. More people are hiring women. More people are empowering them with tools and skills, and more of us are pulling our sisters with us in a good way, like, “Come to the studio with me. Come to the show.”
Lewis: [Billboard’s] Women in Music [has] been an amazing platform not only honoring the talent but also bringing awareness to the behind-the-scenes executives pushing the industry forward. We need more of this. When you put your heart and soul into all that you do and succeed at it, it should raise you up, not keep you stagnant at a company.
Adler: It used to be that the males would pit us against each other because the women weren’t close to each other and there were very few slots. It’s taken a long time to change the narrative of “She can’t be in leadership because she doesn’t get along with so-and-so.”
I don’t know if I should say this, but I’m going to. Women in Music is such a powerful issue. There are few places to celebrate what we do. On the other hand, I say to myself, “But I should be part of the overall list.” I play with the boys every single day. I appreciate all of it and it means so much to me, but that’s where I am today: I love my female sisterhood, but I can also play with everybody.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
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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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.
In the summer of 2023, Tyla made a massive splash with her Billboard Hot 100 top 10 popiano smash, “Water.” But that turned out to be just a hint of what the South African star was capable of — and in March 2024, she released her acclaimed self-titled debut album, a showcase for her expert fusion of amapiano, Afrobeats, pop and R&B.
That same month, she was forced to cancel her debut Coachella set and first headlining international tour in the wake of a back injury. But no setback could stop Tyla, 23, from shining in the global spotlight. She ditched her aquatic motif for a sand-sculpted Balmain gown for her debut at the Met Gala in New York last May, and this year, she’ll join A-listers like André 3000 and Usher as a member of the Costume Institute Benefit Host Committee as the event honors Black style. In October, she performed her song “Push 2 Start” for the first time at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show; the sweltering reggae-infused track from the deluxe version of Tyla, released just days before, became her second Hot 100 entry.
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Following her historic 2024 Grammy Award win — when “Water” took home the inaugural best African music performance trophy, making her the youngest-ever African artist to win a Grammy — Tyla picked up more hardware at the BET Awards, Billboard Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. And this year’s Women in Music Impact honoree remains determined to spotlight African music and bring her native South African amapiano to the world’s biggest stages while dispelling the notion that she, and all African artists, only make “Afrobeats” music. Case in point: Come April, Tyla will finally play Coachella.
“The fact that what I’ve been doing has impacted people all over the world, especially African artists, is special,” she says.
You’ve been very vocal while winning “Afrobeats” awards. Is it hard to relish those victories when your music is being mislabeled?
It’s still an honor because I do use Afrobeats’ influence in my music. I represent Africa as a whole. Genre is so fluid, so it’s become difficult to categorize it. If people see it as the influence that the artist is using in their music getting its recognition, it’ll help more [with perceptions], rather than being like, “This person is not that.”
Who are the women who’ve been the most influential in your life as an artist?
Tems is a big one. What she’s been able to do has been very inspiring. Britney [Spears], Whitney Houston, Aaliyah.
What performance that you’ve done in the past year have you found most impactful?
The shows I did back home [in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria]. I haven’t really done much there since everything has happened [with “Water” blowing up]. Those were the biggest headlining shows I’ve ever had. It was fun being able to have that much control over the stage, the dancing, the lighting, the song arrangements. It was really cool to create something from scratch and give home a whole show that I’ve never been able to give them.
What else do you have in store for 2025?
New album. I’ve changed a lot in a short amount of time because I was kind of forced to with how fast I had to adapt to everything. I don’t think it’s going to be the same energy [as Tyla] at all, especially with what I’ve started making. It’s different, but also still Tyla.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
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.
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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.
Less than an hour into February’s Grammy Awards telecast, one of the evening’s undeniable peak moments occurred. Doechii — the charismatic, lyrically dexterous Florida rapper who was up for three awards that night — won best rap album, making her just the second solo female rapper (and third overall) to win the honor. “Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic, or you’re too loud,” she declared in a tearful acceptance speech that instantly went viral.
For Billboard’s Woman of the Year, it was the culmination of a stunning rise, propelled by her acclaimed mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. But it was also just a beginning: The 26-year-old Tampa MC hasn’t even dropped her debut album yet.
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Doechii uploaded her first song to SoundCloud when she was just 16 and, in the following years, put out a pair of mixtapes, the latter of which included her first viral hit, 2020’s “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake.” In 2021, she guested on Isaiah Rashad’s “What U Sed,” and in 2022, she became the rapper’s labelmate after signing a joint deal with Capitol Records and Top Dawg Entertainment.
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Her Kodak Black-featuring single, “What It Is (Block Boy)” — released in early 2023, around when she was named Billboard’s Women in Music Rising Star — became her highest-peaking entry on the Billboard Hot 100 at that date, but a fraught period followed; subsequent singles didn’t catch on, and Doechii was, as she later wrote on social media, “battling differences with [her] label and a creative numbness that broke [her].” To ease that tension, she turned to dance music. In March 2024, Doechii joined forces with Miami MC JT and DJ Miss Milan — the latter is now a fixture in her artist universe — to release “Alter Ego,” a vivacious house-rap track that served as a palate cleanser for the fans who hadn’t enjoyed her pop-rap swings from 2023, while also setting the stage for her “Swamp Sessions,” weekly drops of new music that led up to Alligator Bites Never Heal’s late-August release.
The mixtape featured many “Swamp Sessions” tracks, though it wasn’t an instant smash, debuting at No. 117 on the Billboard 200. But for Doechii, that was just a jumping-off point to let her singular vision and meticulous world-building — magnetic live and televised performances anchored by smartly assembled medleys and athletic, Bob Fosse-referencing choreography; proudly Black glam; idiosyncratic music videos nodding equally to ballroom culture, Westerns and telenovelas — blossom.
In the process, Doechii spun gold from one of the most painful periods of her life, and by late 2024, she was inescapable. In September, she featured on Katy Perry’s dance-pop single “I’m His, He’s Mine,” and the following month, she delivered a scene-stealing verse on Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia standout “Balloon.” In December, she mounted a pair of eye-catching performances that kicked her rise into high gear: first, a medley of “Boiled Peanuts” and “Denial Is a River” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that featured her own choreography; and, just two days later, her thrilling NPR Tiny Desk set, which quickly dominated social media thanks to her fastidious storytelling and cohesive arrangements.
As her star has risen, Doechii’s commitment to exalting all parts of her dark-skinned, Black queer self has remained paramount. It’s why her first unaccompanied Hot 100 entry was “Denial Is a River,” in which she confides to her therapist that her boyfriend had been cheating on her with another man — just one example of how refreshingly honest (and unafraid to get messy on wax) an artist she is. The week following the Grammys, Alligator Bites Never Heal soared to No. 14 on the Billboard 200, and in late February, “Denial Is a River” peaked at No. 21 on the Hot 100, while the track “Nissan Altima,” which had been nominated for the best rap performance Grammy, hit No. 73.
“To be so fresh in her career, Doechii has incredible vision and focus,” Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. says. “She’s a true student of hip-hop and it shows based on how she’s being embraced in the culture. The future is wide open for her.”
Now, even as Alligator Bites Never Heal continues to find new fans, Doechii is already scoring hits outside of it. Her collaboration with Blackpink superstar Jennie, “ExtraL,” debuted on the Hot 100 in March, and her latest release, “Anxiety,” is also having a major impact. Originally a 2019 direct-to-YouTube track, “Anxiety” was sampled by New York drill rapper Sleepy Hallow last year, and after a February Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-inspired TikTok trend, audiences begged for a new solo version by the Swamp Princess, who quickly obliged in early March. (The track debuted at No. 13 on the Hot 100 — her highest-peaking hit on the chart yet — and Doechii recently added it to Alligator Bites Never Heal.)
She did so as she descended on Paris Fashion Week, where her spectacularly theatrical looks made her the event’s undisputed victor — just ask Anna Wintour or Thom Browne — and affirmed she’s more central to the pop culture conversation than ever. Case in point: An offhand quip she made on Hot Ones about straight men being one of her dating red flags set social media ablaze for a week straight.
Around the same time, Doechii made a surprise live appearance that proved why she’ll always rise above that noise: At a Miami festival, Lauryn Hill invited her onstage to duet on “Doo Wop (That Thing),” then yielded the stage for Doechii to perform her own “Catfish.” Rapping and singing alongside her “hero,” the raw talent that makes Doechii an especially bright light in an ever-precarious industry was on full display — a reminder that, as she said at the Grammys, she’s a true “testimony” to the merits of following a vision and trusting that the world will eventually catch up to you.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Erykah Badu remembers her last moments of normalcy. The generational talent who changed the course of R&B and hip-hop with her home-cooked neo-soul has never truly been “normal,” of course. But before Badu was the futuristic stylist we know her to be, she was just a young woman from Dallas. One who traveled to New York during the paralyzing North American blizzard of 1996 to finish a debut album she hoped would be good enough to allow her to make another one. “That’s how I met New York. Like, ‘Oh, you cold!’ ” she says in the much more agreeable climate of her hometown. “I was like, ‘OK, if this is what I got to do — then this is what I got to do.’ ”
Despite the frigid weather, the then-25-year-old Badu found a warm and welcoming community in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. In 1992, Entertainment Weekly correctly noted the area was the “red-hot center of a national black arts renaissance.” Chris Rock called it home, as did Gil Scott-Heron. Digable Planets copped a spot and recorded its second album, Blowout Comb, as a love letter to the hood. Badu moved into a cozy apartment above Mo’s Bar & Lounge, right around the way from one of her favorite spots, Brooklyn Moon Café. Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule — the studio behind Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and Jungle Fever — was close by. “[I was] right in the center of Blackness,” she remembers. “Dreads, headwraps and people who looked like me who I didn’t know existed. I felt like I belonged there. I met people who felt the way I felt, and that’s when I knew I wasn’t alone in my journey or quest to find out, ‘Who am I?’ ”
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To answer that question, Badu would need to enlist her own spirit guides both within and outside of the music industry. One of the most memorable was a woman named Queen Afua, who became a mentor of sorts for young Badu. In addition to helping Badu with her holistic journey, Afua “became my family away from Dallas. She communicated with me like a mother.” But to keep her profile as low as possible, Badu didn’t tell Afua why she was in the Big Apple: “I didn’t tell anyone in New York anything. I just wanted to live.” And so, she lived. When she wasn’t kicking it in Fort Greene, Badu was taking classes at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater taught by dance legend Joan Peters. She took a Kemetic language course, because why not? “A lot of things were happening, and they all became a part of who I am,” Badu says. “You know, as Erica in America.”
Badu constantly told herself to be as “regular as possible,” because she knew the album she was trudging to Battery Studios in Midtown Manhattan to work on with a group of musicians who would go on to become legends in their own right — people like James Poyser and Questlove from Philadelphia’s The Roots — was going “to take this motherf–ker by storm.”
Jai Lennard
The album, Baduizm, did just that. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and ruled the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Buoyed by the meditative smash hit “On & On,” Baduizm helped usher in what became known as neo-soul: a type of R&B that built on the traditions and stylings of the past while breathing new life and energy into the genre. While most neo-soul tracks sampled or interpolated older soul songs, “On & On,” with its rolling bass and booming drums, was wholly original. It felt like a completely fresh idea (and Badu was full of them) but also something familiar and comfortable — the delicate balance most artists work their entire lives trying to strike.
“[I’d] never seen someone just full of a bunch of ideas,” Questlove recounted in a 2024 interview with Poyser. “She had a lot of choruses ready. She was the first person I met that instantly had a clever chorus ready in the stash.” For the album’s third single, “Other Side of the Game,” the Roots drummer recalled that Badu came in with the idea to rework the famous chorus to Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys Reply.” Even more impressive, he remembered, was that the version of the song that made it onto the album was essentially the first take that was committed to tape: “I thought, ‘Oh, this girl is going to make it.’ ”
Dressed in an oversize sweatshirt and sweatpants with a warm-looking knitted cap, today Badu comes across every bit as enchanting as she’s made out to be. Sitting in the back room of South Dallas’ Furndware Studios, she speaks with a calm directness that you would expect from a shaman or elementary school teacher. Every question elicits a thoughtful pause and an even more thoughtful answer. When I ask Badu about making versus performing music, for example, she goes into a deep rumination about the focus needed to create great music. “I want to focus, I want to be in the moment of the foreplay. Creating the music. The tragedy. The love. The experience of the whole thing,” she says before exhaling. “Then I go somewhere else after this is done. This is a movie and the studio audience is cracking up and crying and s–t… I hope that answers that question.”
Badu makes you feel as if you’re the most important person in the world when she’s speaking to you. It’s a skill many successful people have, but few can also make you feel like the luckiest — as if she’s letting you, and only you, in on a cosmic secret. That may owe in part to the spiritual tangents she sometimes goes on when answering questions. Or it may simply be the attentiveness she offers in conversation. She says she has learned that the way to become successful — and to maintain that success — is to be healthy, present and aware, and to never stop learning.
Born Erica Abi White in Dallas, Badu didn’t always aspire to “make it.” She simply wanted to create art like most of her family had done. She grew up with her grandmother, mother and uncles, in what she describes as “a house of music lovers and collectors.” There was music in every room — literally. “There were records from wall to wall, a radio in the bathroom that was on the local FM soul station,” she recalls. Everyone was allowed to have their own corner to express their musical tastes. “My uncles would be in the back listening to funk. They were into Bootsy [Collins] and George Duke and Stanley Clarke. My mother was more into the sirens — the Chaka Khans, the Phoebe Snows, the Deniece Williamses, The Emotions. My uncle, who’s a rebel, was into Prince and Pink Floyd and Three Dog Night,” she says. “I had a variety to pull from.”
Erykah Badu photographed on February 7, 2025 at Mars Hill Farm in Ferris, Texas.
Jai Lennard
Badu immersed herself in everything artistic Dallas had to offer a young person. When she was in elementary school, she began taking classes at the Dallas Theater Center, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, where she would sing and dance and perform in plays. Badu and her younger sister, Koko, also frequented The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, where her mother and godmother volunteered. TBAAL’s founder, Curtis King, recalls seeing the “it thing” in Badu from an early age.
Badu went to Louisiana’s Grambling State University to study theater but left in 1993 and returned to Dallas before she graduated. She planned to pursue music full time — but since dreams don’t come true overnight, Badu found herself working a series of odd jobs to support herself while she worked with her cousin Robert “Free” Bradford to record her demo, Country Cousins. The two would perform around Dallas as a duo — she would sing and he would rap. But even with the 19-song project, Badu couldn’t pay a label to take her on. She says she auditioned for everyone — Sony, Priority, Bad Boy, So So Def — but didn’t catch a break until D’Angelo’s then-manager, Kedar Massenburg, saw her perform at South by Southwest and received her demo. He immediately signed her to his fledging imprint, Kedar Entertainment.
“As soon as I heard ‘On & On,’ I knew that I had to get involved,” Massenburg told Billboard in 2017. “The thing that struck me immediately was the beginning, because Erykah had used a beat in the intro that Daddy-O, a member of a group I managed called Stetsasonic, had created: Audio Two’s ‘Top Billin.’ ”
Country Cousins was the foundation of what became Baduizm, and Badu’s debut cemented not only her career but also the neo-soul scene that had been developing. “I think Tony! Toni! Toné! kind of opened the door, D’Angelo took it to the next level in terms of edginess, and Erykah solidified it,” Massenburg said. “That’s what Baduizm did. You’re saying, ‘I don’t need to wear these kinds of clothes or look this kind of way, this is my “-izm.” ’ The only thing that dates it is the term ‘neo-soul’ — maybe that’s the issue. It places it at a time when that term meant a certain thing. Take away the term, and it stands with the best of the artists that are out here today.”
Jai Lennard
You would think, with the impact she has had on R&B and hip-hop, that Badu would have dropped more than five albums over her 28-year career. But nope — just five studio sets, a live album and a mixtape. Granted, they’re all classics and helped either introduce a new sound or popularize a new style of working. Take 2008’s New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), which was recorded mainly on laptops with Apple’s GarageBand software, with Badu emailing sessions and files back and forth with producers. At the time, it was a pretty novel idea to forego the studio for your bedroom — only new, cash-strapped artists were doing that. Badu helped bring the practice to the mainstream — just one of many examples of her being aware of the winds of change before most of her peers.
That same awareness inspired her to launch her label, Control Freq, in 2005. At the time, Badu said it was her attempt at making a “profitable home for artists, with fair contracts that will return ownership of the music to the artists after a period of time.” The first artist signed to the label was Jay Electronica, the father of Badu’s third child. “I didn’t develop him at all. I just wanted to be near his greatness,” Badu says. “He needed to be heard and I had a platform. I wasn’t interested in building an artist from scratch. I was interested in artists who were building their own platforms.”
When it comes to her own music, Badu is less interested in what she puts on wax than in what she puts forth onstage. “I tour eight months out of the year for the past 25 years,” she says emphatically. “That’s what I do. I am a performance artist. I am not a recording artist. I come from the theater. It’s the immediate reaction between you and the audience and the immediate feeling. The point where you become one living, breathing organism with people. That’s what I live for. It’s my therapy. And theirs, too. We’re in it together. And I like the idea that it happens only once.”
Unlike most performance artists, however, Badu doesn’t create her music with the live aspect in mind. Once she decides to perform a song, she begins to re-create it for the stage. “It’s like, ‘OK, now this is one arena. Now, what are you going to do with it in here?’ ” (One of her most popular songs, “Tyrone,” was only ever released as a live rendition, on her 1997 Live album.) The results speak for themselves. Badu — this year’s Women in Music Icon — has emerged as one of the premier performers of her generation.
In 2015, while on an apparent hiatus, Badu released a remix of Drake’s gargantuan smash “Hotline Bling.” Produced by the Dallas-based Zach Witness — who first connected with Badu after she heard a remix he did of her 2000 song “Bag Lady” and reached out to him — “Cel U Lar Device” was posted to SoundCloud without much explanation.
The track became the lead single for her mixtape — and most recent project — 2015’s But You Caint Use My Phone (a nod to “Tyrone”), which she recorded in less than two weeks with Witness in his home studio. The tape centered on a theme of cellphone use and addiction, with Badu putting her spin on a few other popular phone-based songs like Usher’s “U Don’t Have To Call” and New Edition’s “Mr. Telephone Man.”
Since then, Badu has popped up here and there. She says she only collaborates with people whose music she really enjoys. Dram featured her on his debut album in 2016. She jumped on a track for Teyana Taylor’s self-titled album in 2020. She lent her vocals to a Jamie xx song that came out in January. And at the 2025 Grammy Awards, she won the best melodic rap performance statue for a collaboration with Rapsody, “3:AM.” “It snuck up on me!” she says. “I remember collaborating with [producer] S1 and Rapsody and we had such a good time promoting the song and I just felt like it was all for her basically. She worked very hard to get to this place.”
Jai Lennard
She still loves rap, although she doesn’t follow it as much as she used to and now experiences a lot of it through her children: Seven, 28; Puma, 21; and Mars, 16. (She says they also have attempted to make music, which is not surprising considering their fathers are all rap legends: André 3000, The D.O.C. and Electronica, respectively.)
“[The thing I like about rap right now] is the same thing I liked about rap when I first met it,” she says. “Rap is the people. Hip-hop is the people. It’s the folks. It’s the tribe. I have the luxury of experiencing having children who I watch grow up and love and encourage very much, and I cannot separate them when I see artists who are that age coming up. That’s how they feel. They are continuing the tradition.”
Badu may say she’s not as tuned in as she used to be, but she’s clearly keeping tabs on what’s hot right now. She’s been hard at work on her first studio album in 15 years, which is being produced solely by The Alchemist, the hip-hop journeyman who has had a resurgence as of late thanks to his work with the Buffalo, N.Y.-based Griselda crew and artists like Larry June. Badu posted a teaser of the project on Instagram to an exuberant response from fans who’ve been damn near begging her to drop something new and show the generations of artists who’ve had her pinned to the center of their mood boards how it’s supposed to be done.
The album has been taking up most of her time; she says she can’t wait until she’s done. And whatever time that isn’t occupied by her family and nonmusical interests — such as her cannabis strain collaboration with brand Cookies called That Badu — goes toward keeping herself in the best mental, emotional and physical shape possible and making sure she’s set for the future. “When I was building my house, I was making sure that I was building ramps for when I was elderly and couldn’t walk by myself,” the now-54-year-old says. “When I do my workouts, I do workouts that are conducive for picking up groceries and grandchildren and things like that.”
That’s not to say she isn’t having fun. Another of her nonmusical hobbies is car collecting. Badu, whose grandmother bought her toy cars instead of dolls when she asked for the latter as gifts, lights up when asked to run down what’s currently in her collection: “I get happy when talking about it.” There’s a baby blue ’67 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors and a chandelier in the back (“Original interior, original white wall tires, original radio”); a 1989 Land Rover Defender; a 1971 Sting Ray Corvette (“Matte black, neon yellow stripe. It looks like the Batmobile”). A collector since she was 21 years old, her first car was a 1965 convertible Super Beetle. “Before I was Erykah Badu the artist, that was my hobby that I loved.” Her uncle Mike, the one who was into funk music, is also into cars and keeps and maintains some of hers; the rest are tucked away in a Dallas garage.
It all sounds surprisingly normal for a music superstar of Badu’s stature, and that’s just what she likes about it. And it’s the same reason why, after all her success, she has remained in South Dallas. “It was very hard for me to be away because this is where I want to be,” she says. “I wanted to come here and build. This is where everybody is. I’m five generations in Dallas. This is my place. It’s my home.”
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
On the evening of July 23, 2024, the last night of her global tour and her fourth sold-out date at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, a visibly emotional Karol G told the crowd of 55,000: “I’m going to say that truly, tonight will be the most amazing of my life.”
It was, at the very least, a grand finale to the highest-grossing tour ever by a Latin female artist, grossing $313.3 million across 56 concerts, according to Billboard Boxscore. Karol G’s Madrid shows were also record-setting, selling 220,000 tickets and making her the first artist to sell out four shows at the stadium, which finished renovations earlier in 2024.
The fact that a Latin American artist could move so many tickets in a major European city underscores Spain’s growing importance as not just a bridge for Latin music between the Americas and Europe but also a place for music in Spanish — the new global pop — to grow.
In 2023, Spanish promoters and venues reported gross ticket sales of nearly 579 million euros ($604.5 million) to Spain’s Association of Music Promoters, an extraordinary 26.5% increase from revenue of 459 million euros ($479 million) in 2022. While Karol G, Luis Miguel and Taylor Swift brought stadium headlining tours to the country, according to its ministry of culture, Spanish talent is also robustly represented at the stadium level with recent shows from Manuel Carrasco and Dellafuente.
Numbers from the country’s ministry of culture, compiled by the legal and business management firm Sympathy for the Lawyer, show that 40.5% of concertgoers in 2024 attended shows of Spanish pop/rock, followed by 11.1% who went to see canción de autor (similar to singer-songwriter performances).
Meanwhile, beyond the live scene, Spain’s music consumption has grown exponentially.
According to year-end numbers reported by Promusicae, Spain’s music industry trade group, there were 98.5 billion audio streams across all platforms in 2024, compared with 87 billion the previous year. More than 1,180 artists notched over 10 million streams and 70 had more than 100 million streams.
That report of growth aligns with figures from global music industry trade association IFPI. In its Engaging With Music report, IFPI stated that Spanish music consumers averaged 22.1 hours per week of listening, compared with the global average of 20.7.
Spain’s receptiveness to music of all genres and provenance is evident in its five top-selling albums of 2024. According to Promusicae, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the bestseller, followed by Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito at No. 2, Spanish artists Quevedo’s Donde Quiero Estar at No. 3 and Saiko’s Sakura at No. 4 and Bad Bunny’s 2022 album, Un Verano Sin Ti, at No. 5.
Quevedo at the 2024 Latin Grammy Awards in Miami.
Jason Koerner/Getty Images
No wonder labels are increasingly turning to Spain to develop pan-regional artists. Examples include the success of Colombian artist Camilo after the pandemic; Venezuela’s Joaquina, who won best new artist at the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards and whose first tours were in Spain; and Colombian stadium pop-rock band Morat, which is signed to Universal Music Spain.
And although Spanish-born artists have a tougher time crossing over into the U.S. and Latin American markets than vice versa, a new generation of acts that includes Quevedo, Rels B, Bad Gyal, Aitana, Arde Bogotá and Rosalía is showing that reaching fans in the Americas may be more feasible than ever.
Fifteen months after the Latin Grammys were held in Spain in November 2023 — the show’s first foray outside the United States — Billboard will host a reception for Spain’s industry leaders on March 18 and recently spoke with some of those executives to ask what’s next for the dynamic market.
‘A Flow Of Cultures In Two Directions’
Given its crucial location as an entryway into Europe and its cultural significance as the birthplace of Spanish, “Spain is a place of fusion between Anglo and Hispanic cultures. It’s a flow of talent and culture in two directions,” says Vicent Argudo, head of music for Prisa Media. “Spain imports Latin styles into the old continent and adapts them to pop. It’s a place for mainstream experimentation.” While Spain for years seemed impenetrable for Latin American genres like reggaetón and regional Mexican, an influx of immigrants, coupled with increasing global acceptance of the Spanish language, has turned Spain into a market that imports and reinvents genres. “Spain gives Latin sounds a pop vision that makes them more accessible to the world,” Argudo says.
A Breeding Ground For International Talent
For José María Barbat, president of Sony Music Iberian Peninsula, Spain is a nonstop talent generator, from Julio Iglesias in the ’80s to Rosalía or C. Tangana today.
“In this context, we’re certain the next big Spanish star is around the corner,” Barbat says. “We continue to see artists with the skills necessary to jump to an international stage, showing there’s not only talent but also an industry ecosystem ready to channel all that creativity.” Proof of that is Arde Bogotá, a Spanish rock band garnering success in an urban world. “It speaks to the importance of keeping an eye out not just for popular genres,” he says, “but for talent coming out of niche genres.”
Artist To Watch: “I’m particularly excited about Lia Kali, a very well-rounded and very young artist we just signed,” Barbat says. “She has a mind-blowing voice and the ability to cross over in a big way into other Latin markets.”
Rosalía at the 2024 Met Gala in New York.
Mike Coppola/MG24/Getty Images
The Power Of A Cutting-Edge Stadium
The Spanish music industry is experiencing a golden era, a prime example of which, says Live Nation Spain president Pino Sagliocco, is the newly renovated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the sold-out shows it has hosted from Spanish artists Hombres G and Alejandro Sanz, as well as Swift and Colombia’s Karol G. “Those tours highlight unprecedented growth in Spain’s music history, breaking records in the years after the pandemic,” Sagliocco says. “The global industry now recognizes the country’s leadership and enormous potential as a key platform for the growth of Latin music in Europe.” While concerts at Bernabéu were suspended last September due to noise ordinance issues, its string of sold-out shows by artists both local and international highlighted the enormous, previously untapped potential of a state-of-the-art stadium in the nation’s touristy capital. “The global industry now recognizes the country’s leadership and enormous potential as a key platform for the growth of Latin music in Europe,” Sagliocco says.
Spanish As The ‘New Normal’
For José Luis Sevillano, CEO of AIE — Spain’s collecting society for performers, with over 35,000 members in Spain alone and representing the rights of over 800,000 performers globally — music in Spanish is on the brink of “becoming a magnificent new normal.” Not only does music in Spanish now top global charts, “but at the same time it’s placed new value on the diversity and plurality of our culture in the entire world,” he says. AIE’s most recently reported numbers registered a 29% growth in rights collection last year compared with 2023, and AIE’s study on consumption habits in Spain also found that Spanish-language music was more listened to than English-language music on streaming platforms. Plus, after 30 years of work, Spain adopted new legislation providing better compensation and working conditions for artists and musicians. “This will eventually lead to a more just and balanced music ecosystem,” Sevillano says, “which is basic in allowing creators to develop their talent to its full potential.”
Challenge For 2025: “Finding a responsible, respectful and balanced development of [artificial intelligence] for artists,” Sevillano says.
A Streaming Boom
Streaming dominates Spanish music consumption, accounting for nearly 90% of the market, according to Promusicae. Meanwhile, Spanish artists have become major streaming draws worldwide. In 2023, Spanish acts generated royalties of more than 123 million euros ($128.5 million) on Spotify, which is almost four times the royalties they generated on the platform in 2017, according to Spotify’s head of music for Southern and Eastern Europe, Melanie Parejo. That growth “is reflected in local consumption but also in the capacity to generate global business,” Parejo says, noting that over 50% of all royalties generated by Spanish artists on Spotify in 2023 came from listeners outside of Spain. In 2024, Rels B was the Spanish artist most listened to outside of Spain.
Rels B attended Milan Fashion Week in 2024.
Pietro S. D’Aprano/Getty Images
An ‘Explosion’ Of Talent
What was once an insular market is now having an international impact. “The Spanish music industry has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade, becoming a market with great global projection with artists like Rosalía, C. Tangana, Quevedo and an explosion of indie proposals like La La Love You,” says Carlos Galán, host of industry podcast Simpatía por la Industria. “Stylistic barriers have been broken, and even the chasm that existed between alternative and mainstream has grown smaller.”
Challenge For 2025: The fact that “every day there’s a new festival” is huge, Galán says. “But truly, it’s a bubble I’m afraid to see burst. All have identical lineups, little innovation and no one is betting on emerging talent.”
Sponsors Serious About Music
Few brand initiatives surrounding music are as complex and developed as Banco Santander’s Santander SMusic. The bank offers a 360 media platform that includes editorial content and live performances, in addition to its branded events, concerts and partnerships with labels and artists. “In a year we’ve executed over 235 presales and sold 600,000 tickets, becoming a point of reference for music in Spain and creating a complete ecosystem of exclusive content,” says Felipe Martín Martín, Santander España’s director of media, sponsorships and events. Santander’s SMusic has partnerships with festivals including Mad Cool, Sonorama and Rockland, as well as with companies like Universal, Sony and Los 40. But Martín Martín is especially excited about the growth of music tourism in Spain, “maximizing that No. 1 spot Spain has held in the global ranking of tourism to music festivals since 2022.”
An International Gateway
Spain’s geography offers easy access from both the United States and Latin America and to the rest of Europe. “It has the potential [to be a] port of entry for Latin artists to other European markets, particularly the U.K., France, Italy and Germany, who all provide strategic opportunities in the live market,” says Narcis Rebollo, president/CEO of Universal’s Global Talent Service, which manages and books over 100 artists including Aitana, Pablo Alborán, David Bisbal, Lola Índigo and Joaquina. The potential is already being realized in Spain, where ticket sales jumped more than 26% from 2022 to 2023 and more than 250% in the last decade, according to Spain’s Association of Music Promoters.
Growing Trend: “Brand investment in music has grown more than 100%,” Rebollo says, “with music being used as a new driver for brands to position their products.”
Aitana performed at the 2024 Morrina Festival at Port of A Coruna in A Coruna, Spain.
Cristina Andina/Redferns
A Good Partner
Spain’s impressive market stats, including its sizable listening and streaming growth per capita, make it a source of local talent and a priority for imported talent. “We’re listening to more than 260 million songs per day,” Warner Music Iberia president Guillermo González Arévalo says. “Coming to Spain to promote their new albums has had a great return on investment and recognition for artists like Dua Lipa, Myke Towers, Coldplay, Charli xcx and Linkin Park, who have charted high on our charts paving the way for their next tours.” In 2024, Towers was the most listened to artist on Spotify in Spain.
Looking Forward: Warner is also expanding activity in its recently opened music hub in Madrid. “Each day more music is written, and there are more collaborations created with Latin artists,” González Arévalo says.
A Flexible Market In Constant Evolution
Spain’s music market is known today for its strong festival culture and its affinity for music in Spanish, regardless of origin — and it has been receptive to new trends of late. In November 2023, the popular reality music competition Operación Triunfo relaunched on Amazon Prime Video. “It highlighted the extraordinary capacity of the format to adapt to new digital consumption trends, bringing in traditional viewers and new generations,” head of Amazon Music Spain Claire Imoucha says of the show, which will return in September. Christmas music also got a boost in new formats, with artists like David Bisbal, Niña Pastori, and Camilo and Evaluna (who had an Amazon Music Original song in November) reimagining traditional repertoire and “consolidating Christmas as a key consumption period.”
What Comes Next: “Spanish music is living an extraordinary moment, with genres like rock and flamenco displaying their capacity for evolution and renovation,” Imoucha says. “Artists like Arde Bogotá and Carolina Durante are leaders in a new rock scene, and artists like Israel Fernandez, María José Llergo and Ángeles Toledano are bringing a contemporary twist to historic genres.”
Antonio Garcia (left) and Pepe Esteban of Arde Bogotá onstage at the Coca Cola Music Experience Festival in Madrid in 2024.
Juan Naharro Gimenez/Redferns
A Consolidated Value Chain
“Our music industry is a very professionalized industry in every sector of its value chain,” Promusicae president Antonio Guisasola says. “In addition, we have great artistic talent that is mixing genres and renovating the different roots genres of the many cultures that coexist in Spain.” A sign of maturity of the market was the launch of its Spanish Academy of Music, “where all music professionals in the country get together to honor the work we did in the year,” Guisasola says, and the first Academy of Music Awards took place last June.
Beyond Major Cities
The growth of Spain’s music scene has translated to consumption outside major cities, says Alfonso Santiago, CEO of concert promoter Last Tour, which also puts together the annual BIME conferences in Bilbao, Spain, and Bogotá, Colombia. “There’s a wide spectrum of cities beyond the big capitals that have good venues and audiences that respond favorably,” he says. That openness is particularly evident and growing among younger generations. “Traditionally, adult fans have been more close-minded,” he says. “I’m excited to see a young audience open to discovering new things.”
A Rich Culture
Spain’s location has helped foster its rich musical output. “We have a confluence of music from Latin America, Northern Africa, local folklore and, of course, our great contribution to the world’s art, flamenco,” Sony Music Spain GM Blanca Salcedo says. Sony’s new 5020 Studios have become a perfect place to mine that cultural landscape. The studios, which opened a year ago, “are hugely valuable for this purpose,” Salcedo says. “It’s a unique space that combines the best technology, design and services to foster our artists’ creativity.”
A Festival Destination; Many Collaborations
In addition to its massive stadium concerts, Spain hosts nearly 900 music festivals a year, according to the latest Oh, Holy Festivals report. “Spain has established itself as a key market for tours and festivals, positioning itself as a global tourism destination for music,” says Jorge Iglesias, founder and CEO of concert promoter Iglesias Entertainment. In addition, a series of very successful cross-cultural collaborations — including Quevedo and Bizarrap’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52,” which topped Billboard’s Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts in 2022 — has renewed interest in the country as a talent incubator.
A Prominent Indie Scene
The diversity of genres in Spain “is richer than ever,” says Believe Spain GM Maite Díez, adding, “The local independent scene has gained great prominence.” Case in point: Indie artist Iñigo Quintero, whose hit “Si No Estás” made history as the first track by a solo Spanish artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify’s global chart. On Spotify, nearly 60% of all royalties generated by Spanish artists come from indie labels or artists, Díez says. By extension, there has been “an explosion of new talent that has gone from the digital ecosystem to massive success,” including Daniela Blasco, a finalist at the Benidorm Fest song contest.
A Mature Industry
Beyond streaming strength, “Spain’s music industry is mature in all its subsectors,” says Soco Collado, president of Spain’s music federation Es Música, which represents and promotes the industry’s collective interests. “We have huge established artists, a young scene creating spectacular things and the companies working at every level are very solid and are investing,” she says. The sustained growth of streaming stands out for Collado, and she’s particularly excited about a new generation of very young female artists who are “super committed and creating musical marvels,” including flamenco artists María José Llergo, Angeles Toledano and La Tania.
New Opportunities
Universal Music Spain co-managing director Alicia Arauzo was struck by the recent success of David Bisbal’s Todo Es Posible en Navidad, which topped Promusicae’s albums chart in December. “It feels like we tapped a local vein with Christmas music, opening up an eternal opportunity [for the music],” she says. The proliferation of stadium concerts has also been a breakthrough for Spain, she says, along with “the growing strength of female talent, both local and international.”
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
At the first official Academy of Country Music Awards show in 1966 — held in Los Angeles and hosted by Bonanza actor Lorne Greene — Buck Owens took home top male vocalist, Bonnie Guitar won top female vocalist, and a young upstart named Merle Haggard snagged new male vocalist.
Two years prior, artist Tommy Wiggins, songwriter Eddie Miller and Red Barrel Niteclub owners (and married couple) Mickey and Chris Christensen had formed the ACM, then called the Country and Western Music Academy, to represent country music in the Western states, counterbalancing the Nashville-based Country Music Association, which launched in 1958.
Since then, the ACM has celebrated and advocated for the growth of country music, both domestically and abroad. In 2022, it moved its headquarters to Nashville, and the academy now boasts a membership of over 5,000 globally.
Trending on Billboard
On May 8, the ACM will host the 60th edition of its awards show at Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas. ACM CEO Damon Whiteside says the ceremony — which became the first major awards show to exclusively stream live for a global audience on Amazon Prime in 2022 — will celebrate the year’s top artists while also honoring past winners and award-show milestones. Those landmarks include Marty Robbins taking home the first artist of the decade award in 1969, Loretta Lynn becoming the first woman to win entertainer of the year in 1976, Garth Brooks snagging six awards in one night in 1991 (a feat since replicated by Faith Hill and Chris Stapleton) and Miranda Lambert leading all winners with 37 career trophies.
Loretta Lynn onstage in 1973.
Courtesy of ACM
During the Frisco festivities, the academy will also highlight the important work of Lifting Lives, the ACM’s philanthropic partner that provides financial, disaster, mental and other aid to the country music community.
“We’re looking at developing a show that’s going to feel current because we obviously need to honor the current nominees,” Whiteside says, “but there’s also a real desire for us to showcase the legacy of the show because it’s always charted its own course. We want to showcase what differentiates us.
“It’s a little bit of a past/present/future approach,” Whiteside adds. “It’s going to be a really iconic night and a great way to look back and look forward and celebrate where we are right now as an industry.”
From left: Jordan Davis, ACM CEO Whiteside and Carly Pearce at the ACM Honors in 2024.
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for ACM
You moved the ACM’s headquarters to Nashville from Los Angeles in December 2022. How do you differentiate yourself from the Country Music Association, and how have you upheld the original mandate of representing Western states?
We really grappled with whether we should make the move when I came into the job [in 2020]. That was definitely one of my first orders of business, coming in, that the board asked me to do some research on. Over a few months, I looked at the pros and cons [of the Nashville move], what it meant from a historical perspective, a strategic perspective and a financial perspective in moving all of our operations and our staff and knowing we probably would lose staff by moving.
COVID then hit within that process, and we were out of the office for about two years. During that time, it became more and more apparent that it made sense to be in Nashville because probably over 90% of our constituents are in the Nashville market, from our board of directors to all of our industry members and artists.
What about the organization’s original mission?
When we started back in the ’60s, there was no support for artists on the West Coast — they were shunned, basically, by Nashville, and there was no one looking out for them or for their interests. Also, there wasn’t really a bridge between the studios and television and country music. That’s really why we were formed in the first place, to create that bridge. But over time there’s been less need to be in that role because, thankfully, country is ubiquitous now. It just made sense for us to move here strategically.
From left: June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Marie Osmond and Robert Duvall in 1991 when Cash received the ACM Pioneer Award.
Courtesy of ACM
How did you decide where in town to relocate?
We did not even consider Music Row as a place to move — it just didn’t feel authentic for us. Nor did we want to encroach on traditional Music Row. Wedgewood Houston offered us an opportunity to be in an emerging area of town that’s still very convenient, and there’s a lot of music companies opening here. Our positioning is that we are the renegade organization, so we should be somewhere a little more gritty and edgy. That’s ultimately why we landed where we landed.
The ACM Awards’ previous slogan was “Country Music’s Party of the Year.” How have you moved away from that?
That was our tagline and position for many, many years. Especially being in Las Vegas [where the ACMs were held annually from 2003 to 2019, except for 2015], it made a lot of sense. During COVID, when we [presented] our first show in Nashville in September 2020, we did it at three venues [Grand Ole Opry House, Ryman Auditorium and The Bluebird Cafe], and we named that night “A Special Night of Heart and Hits.” That really changed the tone and the vibe of the show.
We carried that over the following year. And then when we went back to Vegas [at Allegiant Stadium in 2022], we sort of brought back the party of the year, but with being on a new platform with Amazon, they had a lot of feelings about how we could reposition ourselves.
And then, moving back to Texas in 2023 following the [awards’] 50th anniversary being there [in 2015], the feeling was we just have other sorts of stories to tell around what the show is beyond being a party. “Party” sells it a little short.
Toby Keith played “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” at the 2002 ACM Awards, in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Courtesy of ACM
What comes after the 60th anniversary?
For 2026, we may do a major pivot again and define what’s the future of the academy. This year is a very special year, but next year is going to be kind of turning the page. It’ll be a fresh new year. We don’t know yet where we’ll be. We don’t know what [outlet] we’re going to be on. Everything’s a new day in 2026, so it’s going to be the evolution of the ACM Awards, but we’re excited about that because it’s a blank slate.
The show is co-owned by Dick Clark Productions. [DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.] What is the key to your working relationship?
The relationship started in 1979, which is pretty incredible to think about. Dick Clark hosted many times and then came on as executive producer in ’79, and shortly after that his son [R.A. “RAC” Clark] got involved. He was with us for all those decades as well, and now we have Raj Kapoor [as showrunner]. It’s been a really great partnership. Both sides bring so much to the table.
We consider ourselves the country music experts, and we’re the ones running the award side of it, making sure our members and industry are engaged. We lean in for a lot of the talent asks and make sure our brand and the industry are being represented properly. Dick Clark Productions provides all the production resources and really puts the show together from a television/streaming perspective. We both have an equal seat at the table.
Garth Brooks swept the ACM Awards in 1991.
Courtesy of ACM
In 2022, you became the first major awards show to move to a streaming platform when you debuted on Prime Video. What did you learn from that first year?
That’s probably one of my top moments in my five years. The first year going into it, none of us had any idea what we were doing in terms of what the impact would be on the show. How do you suddenly produce a live show with no commercial breaks? Typically, you’re using those breaks to make set changes.
But what we found was it actually improved the process of booking the show, planning the show and the show experience itself. Because it was such a quick two hours, top to bottom, it forced everyone to be even more on their toes in terms of the show’s pace and, because of it being jam-packed with music, it felt like a true music concert. I think what we’ve carried forward is keeping the show really tight. There’s no time to get bored because you’re constantly moving.
The challenge of streaming is that they do not report viewership. The music industry wants to know how many people are watching. I don’t know the numbers. [But] if you’re feeling the bump, then does it matter how many people are watching?
We do have a sense that we’re on par with where we’ve traditionally been with the show, if not more than that. Plus, we’re global. We’re in over 230 countries and territories, live and on demand. Now we’re getting a much larger international reach.
How much does the show’s status as a global event influence picking a host? It was Dolly Parton for two years — once with Garth Brooks — and now it’s Reba McEntire, who hosted or co-hosted 12 times between 2002 and 2019.
Dolly Parton’s a global superstar. In any market around the world, if you saw your Prime Video home screen with Dolly, you’re probably going to be interested. Reba is very similar. She’s a legend as well. This is her 18th time hosting [or co-hosting]. The other part is both of them are multigenerational. They’re relevant now. The multigeneration piece is big because it brings in all audiences.
Reba came to us prior to last year and really wanted to be part of the 60th-anniversary legacy of this show because she feels very connected to it, and she’s had a huge impact on what this show is. That’s when we signed her to a two-year deal to [host in 2024 and 2025].
Taylor Swift at the ACM All-Star Jam in 2009.
Courtesy of ACM
We are seeing more labels in New York and Los Angeles sign country acts, while artists including Post Malone, Beyoncé and Ringo Starr are incorporating elements of country into their music. How does the ACM embrace that, in terms of the awards show and the organization?
We haven’t addressed it yet. We have had a lot of conversations with our board about it, and everyone is in agreement that we need to figure it out. But we need to do it in the right way and not make a rush move, because we want to make sure we’re protecting the integrity of the vote and that the members spend a majority of their time in country music versus a one-off project.
Long term, we’ll likely figure out a way to allow those “coastal labels” in as long as they meet the criteria that those individuals spend a majority of their time in country music. We will find a way to incorporate them into our membership and then [they will] be able to vote.
What is something from the past 60 years that you consider sacred and don’t ever want to change about the awards show?
Our DNA of this show has always been — and always will be — that we’re a little out of the box. We’re a little left of center. In the ’60s, we had all the television celebrities hosting and we’ve really held on to that. We’ve always had a lot of film and TV talent involved in the show, so that carries through.
We’ve held on to the fact that we really maximize the out-of-genre opportunities by having out-of-genre artists collaborating. Our DNA is that we take risks. We’re progressive. We’ve [leaned] very forward in diversity the past several years especially, and we’ll continue to do that. While the artists change over the years, our identity and the DNA of the show has remained consistent. We want the show to be fun and the fans to have a great time and let loose.
The Chicks on the shoot for their video for the 1999 ACM Awards.
Courtesy of ACM
ACM Winners’ Favorite Award Show Moments
Artists and executives look back on the Academy of Country Music’s brightest nights.
Bill Anderson, two-time ACM Award winner: “The academy first began recognizing songwriters in 2007 with the advent of their Poet’s Award, and they gave me their very first one. It’s always cool to be the first at anything, and when you look at the names of some who have followed it makes it even more special: Merle Haggard, Don Schlitz, Cindy Walker, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and more. I had come to Nashville 50 years earlier with dreams of being a songwriter. Nothing could be more special than having those dreams come true… and the ACM Poet’s Award to confirm it.”
Miranda Lambert, 37-time ACM Award winner: “It’s an honor to get any award and be recognized by my peers, but getting the album of the year award is always extra special. [Lambert won the honor five times between 2008 and 2017.] Country music is about storytelling, and knowing that people took the time to listen to an album top to bottom — and love it — means a lot to me.”
Shane McAnally, two-time ACM songwriter of the year winner: “It feels very special that the ACM honors songwriters with their own category. We are usually the ones behind the scenes, but it’s always a privilege to be recognized amongst your peers. Nashville was built on great songwriting, and this community is so special. Being named ACM songwriter of the year [in 2014 and 2019] will always be a highlight of my career.”
Jo Dee Messina, ACM Award winner: “I cherish my win of the [top new female vocalist] of the year award [in 1999]. It was a moment I got to share with my mother, who was present to witness the payoff of a lifetime of support and dedication to my dreams. The ACMs’ production crew is one of a kind. They are a family that has always gone above and beyond to be sure I was taken care of with performances, presentations, nominations and anything I needed to be a part of the televised programs.”
Tigirlily Gold, ACM Award winner: “Our favorite memory is when we got to perform our song ‘I Tried a Ring On’ after winning our very first ACM Award, for new duo/group of the year, in 2024. Jelly Roll gave us a pep talk right before we went out to play, and our musical heroes Little Big Town introduced us. We will never forget that truly surreal moment! The ACMs have a magical way of making dreams come true for artists like us.”
Shania Twain, four-time ACM Award winner: “My favorite moments are always meeting people backstage, other artists that I don’t get to meet. At the beginning of my career, I lived in Nashville and I was seeing more of the country music industry around just in general. But my career has taken me so internationally that I rarely run into country artists. The ACMs are one of the only places that happens.”
Carrie Underwood, 16-time ACM Award winner: “I’m extremely honored to be the first woman to have won ACM entertainer of the year twice and the only female ever to win that award three times [in 2009, 2010 and 2020]. We had some fun celebrating those! We don’t do what we do for praise or trophies, but it means a lot to be recognized for your hard work, and none of it would be possible without all the loyal fans.”
Additional reporting by Jessica Nicholson.
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.