State Champ Radio Music News
Page: 102
Trending on Billboard Face value ticket exchange CashorTrade has added two major names to its leadership ranks as the fan-first ticketing platform continues to gain traction across the live music industry. Industry veterans Andrew Dreskin — best known as co-founder and former CEO of Ticketfly and TicketWeb — and Craig Snyder, formerly of Intellitix and […]
Trending on Billboard Shakira and The Weeknd are two of several big names joining the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund’s Advisory Board ahead of next year’s World Cup, it was announced Monday (Oct. 27). The Latin music superstar and Canadian hitmaker will work with fellow board members Ivanka Trump, Hugh Jackman, Gianni Infantino, Hugh Evans […]
From Peso Pluma & Kenia Os on the red carpet to Rauw Alejandro in his Cosa Nuestra era, check out these simple Halloween costume ideas.
10/27/2025
Trending on Billboard
Former Dancing With the Stars pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd didn’t dance around their feelings on the subject of Taylor Swift backup dancer Jan Ravnik being cast as a professional dancer on the show.
On a recent episode of Murgatroyd’s The Penthouse With Peta podcast, she and Chmerkovskiy — who both previously served as resident pros in past seasons of the competition series and have been married since 2017 — questioned Ravnik’s place on the program. After accompanying the pop superstar on her global Eras Tour for nearly two years, the Slovenian-born dancer joined the cast of DWTS as a coach in August.
“Jan has absolutely no business being a pro on Dancing With the Stars,” Chmerkovskiy said frankly. “There’s zero foundation, technique, quality, understanding of the partnership.”
“Bro, I’m getting emotional,” he continued, rejecting Murgatroyd’s claim that Ravnik should be given “grace” as it’s only his first season on the show. “It is absurd. It’s unreal how blind we have to be, and God forbid say what’s obviously there. He had no idea what the foxtrot is supposed to look like. How are you going to expect him to teach it and deliver that message in a format that is completely different?”
Billboard has reached out to DWTS producers for comment.
The podcast comes shortly after Ravnik advanced to the next round of DWTS with his celebrity partner, Jen Affleck of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, following their performance on a Wicked-themed episode of the show featuring guest judge Jon M. Chu. The duo scored 8’s across the board — but Murgatroyd said she thinks Affleck is at a disadvantage with the Eras Tour alum as her partner.
“I feel bad, because she’s not getting taught the basics that she needs to,” said the podcaster. “He’s a Taylor Swift dancer, it’s the obvious reason why he was hired — apart from that, he’s a lovely guy, he looks great, he’s a great dancer.”
Despite Ravnik’s positive qualities, Murgatroyd added: “Hiring a non-ballroom dancer to teach ballroom dancing to a celebrity as a job is outrageous.”
The 34th season of DWTS kicked off in mid-September. In addition to Affleck, Whitney Leavitt — also of Mormon Wives fame — as well as Alix Earle, Robert Irwin, Scott Hoying of Pentatonix, Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony, Jordan Chiles, Hilaria Baldwin and Danielle Fishel were cast as the show’s latest flock of celebrity amateur dancers.
And despite still coming down from the high of Swift’s groundbreaking Eras trek, Ravnik expressed how excited he was to be joining DWTS as a pro following his casting announcement in August. “I traveled all around the world with Eras Tour, and now I’m coming to the ballroom stage for Dancing With the Stars,” he said at the time in video statement on Good Morning America. “Mirrorball never goes out of style, and we are ready to win it.”
See Chmerkovskiy and Murgatroyd’s full discussion about Ravnik on DWTS below.
Trending on Billboard
Freestyle Fellowship rapper P.E.A.C.E. has died. The West Coast hip-hop group confirmed the rapper’s death in a post to Instagram over the weekend.
“Rest well brother P.E.A.C.E You had a great heart and you were authentic,” the post reads. “One of West coast Hiphop royal treasures. You will be surely missed my friend.”
His age and cause of death are unknown.
P.E.A.C.E. (real name: Mtulazaji Davis) was born in Dallas but raised in Los Angeles. He met Myka 9, Aceyalone and Self Jupiter at the Good Life Café in L.A. and formed the pioneering alternative rap group Freestyle Fellowship in the late ’80s.
The group broke through, showcasing an underground conscious side of West Coast rap with its 1991 debut To Whom It May Concern…
They followed up with Innercity Griots in 1993. Delayed due to Self Jupiter’s incarceration, the group released Temptations in 2001 and 2002’s Shockadoom EP. They returned nearly a decade later with The Promise in 2011, which serves as Freestyle Fellowship’s final release.
There were no details revealed surrounding the cause of P.E.A.C.E.’s death. Fans and plenty of peers paid their condolences with heartfelt messages on social media.
“The heavenly cypher just elevated rest in P.E.A.C.E all love,” rapper Saul Williams commented.
Dilated Peoples member Rakaa added: “This is heavy. RIP P.E.A.C.E. You will always be remembered and celebrated as one of the best to ever touch a mic, an architect of style(s), and a creative force of nature. Thank you for the inspiration, motivation, and laughter, my brother. Love. Strength and guidance to your family, friends, and @freestylefellowship.”
Myka 9 paid tribute to his Fellowship group member. “P.E.A.C.E. is the illest emcee from the most infamous Freestyle Fellowship,” he wrote. “There will never be another. Peace P.E.A.C.E., rest in power & paradise.”
P.E.A.C.E. released a pair of solo albums in the early 2000s with Southern Fry’d Chicken (2000) and Megabite (2004).
He notched collaborations over the years, ranging from Diplo to Abstract Rude and Orko, and he made an appearance in Ava Duvernay’s This Is the Life documentary about Good Life Café.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Trending on Billboard It’s always the season for hunting for awe-worthy gifts your friends and family will be talking about for […]
Trending on Billboard When it comes to pop stars with instantly recognizable looks, Britney Spears should always be in the conversation. Based on her first costume for this year’s Halloween festivities, it looks like Paris Hilton agrees. On Monday (Oct. 27), several days before the actual Halloween holiday, Hilton shared pictures of her Britney-inspired costume […]
Trending on Billboard
HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” from Netflix’s record-breaking animated movie KPop Demon Hunters, returns to No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, leading the lists for a 13th week each. In July, the song became the first No. 1 on each survey for the act, whose music is voiced by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI.
The Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
“Golden” leads the Global 200 with 123.4 million streams (down 6% week-over-week) and 14,000 sold (down 11%) worldwide in the week ending Oct. 23.
Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” drops to No. 2 on the Global 200 after spending its first two weeks on the chart at No. 1. It’s joined in the top 10 by three more cuts from her new album, The Life of a Showgirl: “Opalite,” which holds at No. 3 after hitting No. 2, “Elizabeth Taylor” (4-6; No. 3 peak) and “Father Figure” (5-7; No. 4 peak).
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” rises 6-4, after 10 weeks atop the Global 200 beginning in May, and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” jumps 13-5, after reaching No. 4.
“Golden” tops Global Excl. U.S. with 95.1 million streams (down 5%) and 8,000 sold (down 7%) beyond the U.S.
As on the Global 200, “The Fate of Ophelia” falls to No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. after logging its first two weeks at No. 1. “Opalite” keeps at its No. 3 high and “Elizabeth Taylor” descends 5-10, after reaching No. 4.
Kenshi Yonezu’s “Iris Out” is steady at No. 4 on Global Excl. U.S., after hitting No. 2, and “Ordinary” ascends 6-5, after eight weeks at No. 1 starting in May.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Nov. 1, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Oct. 28. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Cardi B has called out the less fortunate who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, and who thought that the former mogul being in office would improve their economic state.
The Grammy-winning rapper hopped on Instagram Live over the weekend, where she bluntly stated, “Donald Trump was never for y’all poor motherf—kers.”
She continued to say that Trump’s alleged disdain for the poor applies to all ethnicities. “Donald Trump was never for the poor people. For the white poors, for the Black poors, for the Spanish poors, for the Asians, for the Indians. He don’t give a f—k about none of y’all motherf—s,” Cardi said. “To him, even millionaires are poor.”
Cardi’s rant was seemingly inspired by the USDA’s announcement that checks for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps for 40 million Americans, will not go out on Nov. 1. The news came after Dept. of Agriculture memo surfaced Oct. 24, indicating that the Trump administration will not use about $5 billion in contingency funds to help the program as the government shutdown continues, according to the Associated Press.
“Now, Donald Trump was blaming the immigrants for America’s downfall,” she said. “Like, I do understand if a country wants to enforce more strict immigration laws. I understand that. However, he was using that as an excuse for the issues that we have in this country, in this economy.”
The 33-year-old went on: “Now, how many f—king immigrants has he deported? He has deported so many people. So, now the immigrants are deported, who are we blaming for the fact that we are practically going into a recession? We don’t even have food stamps.”
Cardi B originally wasn’t going to vote in the 2024 election, as she didn’t agree with Democrats’ “funding wars,” but she ended up throwing her support behind Kamala Harris. Cardi gave the former VP her endorsement with a public appearance at a Milwaukee rally ahead of the election.
“You really wanted better for ALL of us!” the rapper wrote in a post-election letter to Harris following the loss to Trump. “This may not mean much but I am so proud of you! No one has ever made me change my mind and you did! I never thought I would see the day that a woman of color would be running for the President of the United States, but you have shown me, shown my daughters and women across the country that anything is possible.”
Trending on Billboard Billboard senior music correspondent Katie Bain is bringing her just-released book Desert Dreams: The Music, Style, and Allure of Coachella to a Billboard Book Club livestream today (Oct. 27). [talkshoplive modus=”rqqZwi_OmY-7″ data-auto-play=’1′] In the new book — which arrived last week, on Oct. 21 — Bain explores the history and influence of Coachella, […]
