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After battling Parkinson’s disease for some time in private, A-ha‘s Morten Harket is now sharing his diagnosis with the public.
By way of a letter written by the band’s biographer, Jan Omdahl, the singer broke the news to fans that he has been receiving treatment for the neurological disorder “in recent years,” undergoing surgeries last June and December to implant symptom-reducing electrodes on both sides of his brain. Harket also said that he’d been having conflicting feelings for quite some time about whether he should go public with his diagnosis.
“Part of me wanted to reveal it,” he told Omdahl. “Like I said, acknowledging the diagnosis wasn’t a problem for me; it’s my need for peace and quiet to work that has been stopping me. I’m trying the best I can to prevent my entire system from going into decline. It’s a difficult balancing act between taking the medication and managing its side effects.”
“It used to bother me to think about my sickness becoming public knowledge,” Harket added. “In the long run, it bothers me more to have to protect something that is strictly a private matter by treating it as a secret.”
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According to the Mayo Clinic, Parkinson’s is a “movement disorder of the nervous system that worsens over time,” often causing tremors and affecting the motor skills of patients. There is no cure for the degenerative disease, but medicines and surgery can help ease symptoms.
For Harket, both treatment paths have “led to a dramatic improvement in his symptoms,” though he still faces regular exhaustion and strain. He also said that his singing abilities have been affected, but it’s not of primary concern for him right now.
“I don’t feel like singing, and for me that’s a sign,” he told Omdahl. “The question is whether I can express myself with my voice. As things stand now, that’s out of the question … I see singing as my responsibility, and at certain moments I think it’s absolutely fantastic that I get to do it. But I’ve got other passions too, I have other things that are just as big a part of me, that are just as necessary and true.”
Even so, the Norwegian singer has been working on new music throughout his journey with Parkinson’s, revealing that he has “great belief” in the material that’s sprung out of this period in his life. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish them for release,” Harket said. “Time will tell if they make it. I really like the idea of just going for it, as a Parkinson’s patient and an artist, with something completely outside the box.”
He also added that — while appreciative of the concern fans will undoubtedly have for him as they learn of the news — he’s already weary from the anticipation of all the messages of sympathy and unsolicited advice headed his way. “Don’t worry about me,” he said when asked what he wants listeners to know at this time. “Find out who you want to be — a process that can be new each and every day. Be good servants of nature, the very basis of our existence, and care for the environment while it is still possible to do so.”
Harket added, “Spend your energy and effort addressing real problems, and know that I am being taken care of.”
Over the past couple of decades, cases of disability and death caused by Parkinson’s have been “rapidly spreading,” according to the World Health Organization. As of 2019, an estimated 8.5 million people had the disease, an ever-growing population that also includes stars such as Michael J. Fox, Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt and Marc Cohn, who have all been open about their diagnoses.
A-ha was one of the defining pop groups of the 1980s, landing three entries on the Billboard Hot 100 in the second half of the decade: “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.,” “Cry Wolf,” and No. 1 hit “Take on Me.” The group is comprised of Harket and friends Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, who formed the group in Oslo in 1982.
Fuerza Regida’s Jesús Ortiz Paz (JOP), Gabito Ballesteros and Lupillo Rivera join the new reality show Pase a la Fama, set to premiere Sunday (June 8) on Telemundo. The three Mexican artists will form part of the music competition series — focused on discovering the next great regional Mexican band — as mentors, where they […]
It’s officially Lil Wayne week. Weezy is set to return with the sixth installment of arguably rap’s most decorated album series with Tha Carter VI arriving on Friday (June 6).
Seven years after C5, Wayne hopes to make more history and add to his decorated legacy. The project’s slated to be another star-studded affair with a range of rumored features from Miley Cyrus, Bono, MGK, Wyclef Jean, Andrea Bocelli and more.
Three decades into a hall-of-fame career, Lil Wayne changed the aesthetic of rappers and the genre’s sound in the 21st century. Take a look at all the “Lil”s in the rap game, the tattoos and dreadlocks, that can be attributed to Weezy’s influence. His intoxicating Auto-Tune-laced rhymes and witty punchlines that seemingly never end ushered in a new archetype of rapper.
“Before I stepped into music, everyone looked a certain way and everyone did a certain thing. Look at me. Now look at music. They all look like me,” he said in 2020. “I love it.”
At the end of every concert, Lil Wayne expresses gratitude to his fans, saying, “I ain’t s–t without you.” But Weezy wouldn’t but the artist he is without Tha Carter series—a staple in his discography and an artifact of hip-hop history. “Welcome back hip-hop, I saved your life,” he raps on Tha Carter 3’s “Dr. Carter.”
Lil Wayne’s prime heading into C3 circa ‘07-’08 was something you had to see to believe. In a genre with goliaths like Kanye West, Jay-Z and Eminem dominating, Weezy stood tall at 5’5”, in a league of his own. At times, his greatness was impossible to measure through sheer commercial numbers, with the droves of leaks and mixtape files being shared online between fans in a pre-streaming world.
“You scare me, man, every time you spit,” Ye told Wayne on stage at the 2008 BET Awards while referring to Weezy as his “fiercest competition.”
The New Orleans rap deity will take a bow and a well-deserved victory lap on Friday night when he celebrates Tha Carter VI’s arrival with his first headlining solo show at Madison Square Garden. How is that possible?
Billboard sifted through all five installments of Tha Carter and attempted to do the impossible, filing down a list to the 10 best tracks from the acclaimed series. (And a quick honorable mention to “Mirror,” “This is the Carter,” “I Miss My Dawgs,” “Got Money,” “Mona Lisa,” “Fly In” and “Comfortable.”)
“Tha Mobb”
Jamie Foxx is not pulling punches when it comes to his thoughts on the Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ New York sex trafficking and racketeering trial. During a recent appearance at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, the actor/singer lashed out at the disgraced former music mogul who he once honored at Diddy’s 2008 Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony.
“Diddy is fu–in’ crazy, huh?” Foxx said in footage shared by Urban Hollywood. “I don’t know if he is going to jail, but he is a nasty motherf–er. Am I right? Especially for us… white people like, ‘It’s cool,’ but for Black people… that was our hero. All that g–damn baby oil, boy! Why you so nasty, Diddy?” When officers raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami last March prosecutors said they found drugs as well as more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant and baby oil.
The comments from Foxx about the shocking testimony in the Combs trial in reference to the rapper’s marathon “Freak Off” sex parties is relevant because in 2023 rumors circulated that Combs allegedly poisoned Foxx, leading to the actor’s hospitalization for what was later confirmed to be a stroke.
Foxx opened up about the rumors surrounding his mystery illness last month in a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, shooting down the allegations that Diddy tried to have him killed via poisoning. “I’m in f—ing perfect shape. [I saw things like,] ‘Puffy tried to kill me.’ No, Puffy didn’t try to kill me. When they said I was a clone, that made me flip,” Foxx said. “I’m sitting in the hospital bed, like, ‘These b—h-a– motherf—ers are trying to clone me.’”
While a spokesperson for Combs did not reply to Billboard‘s request for a comment on the allegations, his team has repeatedly said the rumor was false and unfounded.
Foxx also addressed the allegations in his What Had Happened Was… Netflix special in December, in which he said, “The internet said Puffy was trying to kill me, that’s what the internet was saying. I know what you thinking, ‘Diddy?’ Hell no, I left them parties early. I was out by 9. ‘Something don’t look right… it looks slippery in here!” The Combs trial is in its fourth week and on Wednesday (June 4) Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Diddy’s ex, prosecution star witness Cassie Ventura, alleged that Diddy dangled her over a 17th-floor apartment balcony in 2016 before shoving her into the balcony’s furniture.
Combs is facing five criminal counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution, charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life; Combs has denied the allegations against him.
In recent weeks, The All-American Rejects have been going viral for performances at small house parties. And now, frontman Tyson Ritter is taking his talents to an even more intimate space: OnlyFans.
As revealed Wednesday (June 4) through an interview with GQ, the rock singer has decided to set up an account on the creator-focused online subscription platform, which has become known for its NSFW content. According to Ritter, he’s more focused on using the website to build a closer, more direct relationship with fans — but they might be able to expect a little bit of the risqué on top of it.
“I don’t think anybody would have expected the All-American Rejects to make a ripple in the water ever again,” began Ritter of his band, which dominated the pop-rock landscape in the 2000s before fading from the mainstream in the 2010s. “So the excitement behind this whole thing is like, ‘Where else can we be disruptive?’”
“We’ve always been a band who’s got a tongue bursting through the cheek when it comes to our music,” he continued. “So why not, you know, do a little peen bursting through a zipper?”
The musician remained vague about what his subscribers are in for, divulging only that they “can expect full-frontal rock n’ roll with all access.” Adding that he doesn’t plan on making fans pay very much to access his content — “If anything, maybe you’ll pay 69 cents, just because we’re little cheeky cats,” he quipped — Ritter said that bandmates Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor are totally supportive of his new venture.
At press time, Ritter’s OnlyFans account did not appear to have launched yet.
The band’s latest “disruptive” move comes as the All-American Rejects have been experiencing a renaissance online thanks to their string of viral house-party performances. According to Ritter, the streak (of smaller shows, not the other kind) began about a month prior to the interview, when the band somewhat spontaneously accepted an offer to perform at a college rager near the University of Southern California. One of their recent performances at a house party near the University of Missouri was shut down by police — but not before the responding officers stopped to listen to a few more songs, per CNN.
Ritter is far from the only star to have joined OnlyFans, with several other musicians having turned to the platform as an additional source of income — or as a way of engaging more personally with listeners — over the years. Cardi B, Rico Nasty and The-Dream have all created accounts on the platform, while Lily Allen joined the platform last year to sell pictures of her feet.
“I think most people don’t realize that OnlyFans was a product of the pandemic that started as a Patreon for artists,” Ritter added to GQ of the site. “And then it was infiltrated by a genre that made it become a bit of a trope. It’s a platform that is offering an experience where the artist can set the price, and it’s artists-to-fans. There’s no middleman.”
Xavi and Manuel Turizo unite for their first No. 1 together as “En Privado” advances from No. 3 to lead Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart (dated June 7). The song leads with 8.7 million audience impressions, up 27%, earned in the United States during the May 23-29 tracking week, according to Luminate.
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Xavi secures his second No. 1 on the overall Latin Airplay chart as “En Privado” climbs to the penthouse. The Mexican artist first conquered the chart in 2024, when his track “La Diabla” reached No. 1 in just its third week. Meanwhile, the collaboration also propels Turizo back to the summit for a ninth total time. He most recently led the list with “Copa Vacía,” with Shakira, in 2023.
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“En Privado,” released Feb. 5 on Interscope/ICLG, receives strong radio support by three Univision stations, led by KVVF-FM (San Jose), KQMR-FM (Phoenix) and KDXX-FM (Dallas).
Beyond its Latin Airplay coronation, “En Privado” also lands at No. 1 on Tropical Airplay, marking Xavi’s first chart-topper and Turizo’s fourth.
Meanwhile, Natti Natasha’s “Desde Hoy” spends a fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 2 on Latin Airplay (8.3 million in audience, up 11%). The last song to spend at least four weeks at No. 2, without ever going to No. 1, was in July 2017, when Shakira’s “Me Enamoré” spent its fifth and final nonconsecutive week at No. 2.
However, the most recent song to spend at least four weeks at No. 2 — only to later to go on to No. 1 — was Shakira’s “Soltera,” which spent seven nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2 before it climbed to No. 1, for one week, on the Jan. 4, 2025-dated chart.
Luis Figueroa Breaks into the Top 10 on Tropical Airplay
Elsewhere on Tropical Airplay, Luis Figueroa secures a spot in the top 10 with “Más Que Un Beso” as the song jumps 12-10 with 3 million audience impressions (up 22%).
As “Más Que Un Beso” ascends, Figueroa surpasses Marc Anthony to claim ownership of the third-most top 10s in the 2020s, with a total of 11. He trails only Prince Royce, who leads with 14 top 10s this decade, and Romeo Santos, who holds 12.
The song, the first single from Figueroa’s new album GRIS, also debuts at No. 47 on the Latin Airplay chart, where Figueroa earns his 10th career entry.
If you were a fan of Pavement in the 1990s then it probably won’t surprise you that when time came to make a biopic of the quintessential indie slacker rock band director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) took a hard turn away from the typical hagiographic, soft-focus treatment.
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In fact, unless you were a fan of the “Cut Your Hair” band back then, chances are Perry’s film, Pavements, will mostly just confuse you. Hell, even the band members aren’t totally sure how it all works. “We were informed via email things we needed to know, but for most of the process we didn’t know what was going on, because we didn’t have to,” multi-instrumentalist Bob Nastanovich tells Billboard about of the film in select theaters now and opening wide on Friday (June 6).
Addressing the project’s oddball format, which is part mockumentary, part documentary and includes footage from the fake Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical, as well as a movie-within-a-movie via the fake biopic Range Life: A Pavement Story, Nastanovich says, “if we wanted to have known more we would have. Our general attitude was: ‘lets see what happens.’”
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Stranger Things star Joe Keery takes on the role of singer Stephen Malkmus (but also plays himself), while the band’s members play themselves alongside a passel of young actors who also take on their personas. In a three-way call from Cincinnati — where bassist Mark Ibold was born and spent many of his summers — and Kentucky — where former Louisville native Nastanovich was visiting a friend — the two men describe their feelings about the film and get pumped about a gig throwing out the first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game on Wednesday (June 4).
Nastanovich, 57, says he was thrilled to meet “delightful” actor Fred Hechinger, adding as far as he’s concerned the 25-year-old White Lotus star is “spitting image of me and an extremely good-looking young man.” That said, after Ibold, 62, ran into Escape Room star Logan Miller, 33, at the restaurant where the bassist works, he went to visit the New York set of the film to see what was up. Describing entering a room where various actors were playing Pavement, Ibold says he thought, “‘whoa, this is really tripped out,’” even though he couldn’t tell who was playing whom.
“[Director] Alex explained the concept to me and he interviewed us before he started to get an idea of what he wanted to do, but even when you see the film it can be somewhat confusing what is real and what isn’t… the concept is pretty wild and he presented it to the band in a way that he said would be very different from other rock documentaries,” says Ibold of the movie’s unusual take in the wake of more straight-ahead recent biopics of Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Elton John and Bob Dylan. He describes going to the Taipei Film Festival last year and having to explain what was going on to the perplexed audience during a post-screening Q&A after they seemed confused by the entertainingly disjointed nature of Perry’s approach.
While Ibold jokes that his takeaway was that “we’re all more handsome than we really are,” Nastanovich says that he honestly saw some things he didn’t know about before, including shots of Malkmus’ original lyric drafts and real memorabilia sent in by band archivist Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, which appear in the movie’s fake museum.
In addition to the film, the band recorded their first new song in 25 years, a cover of Jim Pepper’s 1969 track “Witchitai-To,” which is on the sprawling, 41-track Pavements soundtrack. The song came together during rehearsals for one of the band’s 2022 reunion shows and it’s the first fresh recording from the group since their 1999 Major Leagues EP.
Speaking of the major leagues, Ibold is excited to be back in Cincinnati, where he was born and spent many summers attending Reds baseball games with his family during the team’s late 1970s heyday. “My brother almost got hit by a car while getting Pete Rose’s autograph a block from where I am,” he says of the late, disgraced Cincinnati legend and all-time MLB hits leader who recently saw his lifetime ban end earlier this year when he was posthumously reinstated and made eligible for the Hall of Fame.
In fact, when he takes the mound on Wednesday at Great American Ballpark, Ibold says he plans to wear a jersey with Rose’s No. 14 on it when he tosses to catcher Nastanovich, for whom he made a custom “Nast” jersey honoring late Reds first baseman Dan Driessen’s No. 22, despite Nastanovich being a lifelong fan of longtime Red rivals the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“We’re extremely excited about it,” says Nastanovich, who says the team reached out to the baseball-loving band to see who would be interested in the honor, a query he and Ibold immediately raised their hands for. He says he’s seen video of Ibold practicing and predicted that his bandmate’s arc is so “sweet” that he might not even need a glove at all.
The gig also comes naturally to Ibold because his great great uncle started the iconic Ibold Cigars company in Cincinnati in the late 1800s. “When we came in from the airport to go to my grandparent’s house we’d see all these Ibold ads on warehouse walls and old brick buildings,” he says of the stogie maker that used to occupy a 13,000-square-foot, five-story building downtown, where it pumped out more than one million cigars a month in the 1940s.
50 Cent promised to let Donald Trump know what Diddy has said about him in the past, and he followed up on exactly that when posting a pair of clips on Monday (June 2) featuring Combs condemning the president.
“See Trump don’t like s–t like this buddy, you run your mouth to much,” 50 wrote in one caption.
The first video finds Sean Combs in conversation with Charlamagne Tha God, talking about a potential race war if the now twice-impeached president were in office. “If Trump gets elected, I really do believe in my heart there’ll be a race war,” Diddy said in the clip.
Another video shows Diddy condemning Trump on REVOLT, saying: “White men like Trump need to be banished.”
Fans hopped into the comments, chiming in about 50 looking to kill any chance of a pardon for Diddy by Trump, who recently pardoned YoungBoy Never Broke Again.
“We will have BREAKING NEWS….from the White House to address by noon tomorrow…I am sure you just took that man’s last hope for sure,” one fan wrote.
The G-Unit mogul has been relentless in his trolling of Combs, as 50 even posted an edited image of himself rocking a “Free Diddy” shirt on social media.
Combs remains on trial in New York for federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. During Tuesday’s 15th day of testimony, a hotel worker alleged Diddy paid them $100,000 to make sure the video of Combs assaulting Cassie never got out, per ABC News.
Last week, Trump was asked about a potential Diddy pardon during an Oval Office briefing and said he’d consider it, but would have to take a look at the case.
“I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Trump said. “He used to really like me a lot. I think when I ran for politics, that relationship busted up. … I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me, it wouldn’t have any impact on me.”
Travis Kelce is interested in joining the DJ scene — and he knows exactly who he’d open for if he does. On the latest episode of New Heights posted Wednesday (June 4), he conversed with this week’s guest, Shaquille O’Neal, about wanting to get behind the turntables, with both athletes agreeing that the tight end would be the perfect “hype man” at Taylor Swift‘s concerts.
The topic first came up shortly after Travis and his brother/cohost, retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, introduced the basketball icon. Praising Shaq for his DJing skills, the Grotesquerie star asked him to “teach me your ways.”
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“Bro, I got you,” replied O’Neal, who performs under the moniker DJ Diesel. “You know what [would be] crazy? You opening up with your girlfriend. Bro, you’d be a f–king star. Ten minutes hyping up the crowd, oh my God.”
Travis then laughed with excitement at the prospect. “Come on, you know I’m a hype man,” he said as Jason cackled. “You know I’m a hype man. Get it rocking in there. Have the Swifties bouncing off the walls before T gets out there.”
With the “Fortnight” singer’s global Eras Tour ending last December, the Kansas City Chiefs star will have to wait until the next time she hits the road to put his own DJ skills to the test. He did, however, get a taste of what it’s like to perform alongside Swift before her last tour wrapped, making a surprise onstage cameo during one of her Wembley Stadium shows in June last year.
As far as being Swift’s “hype man” goes, Travis has plenty of experience in that department. The NFL star often publicly praises his famous girlfriend, from celebrating the release of her Billboard 200-topping The Tortured Poets Department album in April 2024 to commending her athleticism on the Eras Tour.
The latest episode of New Heights was also no exception. Following their chat about his DJ ambitions with O’Neal, Travis later celebrated the 14-time Grammy winner’s recent headline-making purchase of the master recordings to her first six albums, finally securing ownership of her back catalog after years of fighting to do so. After Shaq played Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” on his phone, the football player cheered, “Shout-out to Tay Tay!”
“Just got that song back, too,” he added with a big smile. “Just bought all her music back. So it’s finally hers.”
Watch Travis and Shaq’s conversation on New Heights above.
Damian Lazarus is bringing his longstanding Day Zero party to Brazil in 2026. The event will happen Jan. 3 in São Miguel dos Milagres, Brazil, located on the country’s northern coast in the state of Alagoas. Details regarding the lineup will be announced in the coming months. Bookings will presumably fuse the rich musical heritage […]