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A rare, celebratory moment of LGBTQ+ representation in the K-pop scene took place in Los Angeles on Tuesday night during the final stop of JUST B’s JUST ODD World Tour, when member Bain took a moment to speak to the crowd while performing a section of the concert solo.
“Before I start the next song, tonight I want to share something with you guys,” he told the audience at the Vermont Hollywood, pausing for a moment before declaring, “I’m f—ing proud to be part of the LGBT community,” with the announcement drawing massive cheers from concertgoers, according to on-the-ground footage.
“Shout-out to my queen Lady Gaga for showing me that being yourself is beautiful,” Bain continued through the supportive shouting. “To everyone out there who’s part of the LGBTQ+ or still figuring it out, this is for you guys. And also, this is for everyone. You’re seen, you’re loved, and you are born this way.” The 24-year-old then broke out into a remixed performance of Gaga’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit and LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way.” The star later posted those words on his personal Instagram account with footage from the night.
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Bain and his bandmates Geonu, Lim Jimin, Siwoo, DY and Sangwoo launched the U.S. leg of JUST B’s world tour earlier this month after kicking off in Tokyo in March. Over 10 American dates, the group performed singles like “Medusa,” “TICK TOCK” and “Damage,” with each member also performing solo stages in different cities. Bain’s sets paid homage to 2000s pop divas with covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor,” the Pussycat Dolls’ “Buttons” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and “Judas.”
In a final address to the crowd, Bain swam in even more supporting cheers from the audience and his group members.
“L.A., thank you so much,” he shared, per fan footage. “Today, it means a lot to me — I’m so happy that I can be myself,” before one of his bandmates followed up, saying, “We are happy too,” with another confirming with a supportive “Yeah!” Bain closed out by saying, “Until next time: stay bold, stay fierce, and lastly, always, always be your true self,” as his bandmates pushed him to take in the center-stage spotlight.
JUST B debuted on June 30, 2021, under the agency BLUEDOT Entertainment with their first EP, Just Burn, featuring Bang Yongguk of pioneering K-pop boy band B.A.P producing the lead single “Damage.” The sextet has released five EPs and multiple singles to date, including last year’s English pop-punk crossover cut “Daddy’s Girl,” with 2024 proving to be a major year of opportunities for JUST B.
In January 2024, Bain competed in the Korean singing competition Build Up : Vocal Boy Group Survivor, which saw top male vocalists battling for a spot in a new quartet. In September, JUST B formed a supergroup with fellow rising boy band ATBO called The CrewOne to compete on the popular boy-group series Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace alongside other next-gen K-pop acts like CRAVITY, ONEUS and 8TURN. The CrewOne placed fifth in the finale, but not before Bain got to show off his vocal chops once again in a special performance of the “Vocal Aces,” where he sang alongside fellow powerhouses.
But while K-pop acts are increasingly courting global audiences, with JUST B earning 6 million on-demand official streams for their songs in the U.S. and 22.6 million for their songs globally to date, according to Luminate, Bain’s announcement has the chance to accelerate conversations about representation and acceptance in the industry — particularly given South Korean society’s traditionally conservative stance on LGBTQ issues.
The moment marks one of the very few times an active artist in the Korean pop scene has come out, with it being all the more rare to come from a boy band arguably at the peak of its career. While individual Korean artists like Holland and Mrshll have been open about their LGBTQ identities from the start of their careers — with former idols like Magolpy and Jiae of girl group WA$$UP opening up soon after their careers began — Bain’s disclosure on a major world-tour stage marks a new moment for queer visibility in K-pop.
Holland, Jiae and K-pop’s first LGBTQ boy band LIONESSES have spoken about facing discrimination and homophobia working in Korean entertainment due to their sexual identities, with the scene boasting a history of celebrities’ careers derailed for publicly coming out. One of the most notable examples came via actor Hong Seokcheon, who came out in an interview in 2000, just six years into his award-winning career, leading him to be fired from his television gigs and forced out of the entertainment business. Despite Korea’s still-conservative culture and society, Hong managed to return to entertainment in TV, hosting, and, eventually, acting with significant support from the younger generation. Today, Hong regularly appears on top Korean programming and features top artists on his own programs — most recently having Tomorrow X Together’s Yeonjun on his Treasure Box series.
While BLUEDOT Entertainment did not reply to Billboard‘s request for comment after Tuesday night’s show, the group’s official Instagram did share Bain’s post with a hashtag #ProudOfBain, proving how these few moments in East Hollywood have the potential to resonate and make change far further than the concert hall.
Brian Littrell‘s love for his son Baylee is clearly larger than life. The Backstreet Boys singer’s 22-year-old son Baylee Littrell auditioned for season 23 of American Idol, debuting on the show last month and surviving all the way to this week, before he was eliminated just shy of the top 14 contestants on Monday night. […]
Vinyl releases from Post Malone, Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams and more were among the top-sellers from Record Store Day (RSD) 2025 in the United States, according to Luminate.
The yearly independent record store celebration was held on April 12 this year and offered an array of unique and limited-edition albums and singles (mostly vinyl pressings) issued for RSD. More than 300 titles were released for RSD 2025 at independent record stores across the U.S.
Post Malone had both the top-selling RSD 2025 album and single. His Post Malone Tribute to Nirvana, pressed on yellow-colored vinyl, was the top-seller among albums. The album was recorded in 2020 during a livestream that raised funds for The World Health Organization in support of COVID-19 relief efforts. Joining Malone for the livestream were Travis Barker (drums), Nick Mack (guitar) and Brian Lee (bass). The RSD 2025 vinyl release is also a charitable affair, as, according to the RSD organization, 100% of net proceeds from the sale of the vinyl will be donated to MusiCares’ Addiction Recovery/Mental Health division.
Tribute to Nirvana also bows at No. 2 on the April 26-dated Top Album Sales chart, where half of the top 10 are RSD 2025 titles. (Bon Iver‘s new studio album SABLE, fABLE — not an RSD 2025 release — debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, scoring the artist his second leader.)
The Nos. 2-5 biggest selling RSD 2025-exclusive albums were: Gracie Abrams’ Live From Radio City Music Hall (double-vinyl set), Rage Against the Machine’s Live On Tour 1993 (double-vinyl set), Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl (double-vinyl set) and Charli xcx’s 2017 mixtape Number 1 Angel (on apple-colored vinyl).
Meanwhile, in terms of the top-selling RSD 2025 singles, Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight,” featuring Malone (on 7-inch vinyl) was the biggest seller. The Nos. 2-5 selling RSD 2025 singles were Charli xcx’s “Guess,” featuring Billie Eilish (on 7-inch vinyl); The Killers and Bruce Springsteen’s three-song “Encore at the Garden” (on 12-inch vinyl); The Cure’s “Alone” (Four Tet Remix) (on 12-inch vinyl) and Eddie Vedder’s “Save It for Later” / “Room at the Top” (on ocean floor-colored 12-inch vinyl).
Malone also served as the RSD 2025 Ambassador, and earlier said in a statement upon his selection: “What an honor, I can’t believe I was chosen to be Record Store Day’s Ambassador for 2025. Record Store Day is so important and I really hope to do my part to keep it alive.” Malone follows such recent RSD Ambassadors as Paramore (2024), Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires (2023), Swift (2022), Fred Armisen (2021), Brandi Carlile (2020) and Pearl Jam (2019).
Top-Selling Record Store Day 2024 Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores in the U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Post Malone, Post Malone Tribute to Nirvana (yellow-colored vinyl)2. Gracie Abrams, Live From Radio City Music Hall (double vinyl)3. Rage Against the Machine, Live On Tour 1993 (double vinyl)4. Laufey, A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl (double vinyl)5. Charli xcx, Number 1 Angel (apple-colored vinyl)6. Wallows, More (evergreen and white-colored vinyl)7. Talking Heads, Live On Tour (double vinyl)8. Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac (picture disc vinyl)9. Gorillaz, Demon Days Live From the Apollo Theater (red-colored double vinyl)10. The Doors, Strange Days 1967: A Work In Progress (translucent blue-colored vinyl)11. The Replacements, Tim (transparent purple-colored double vinyl)12. Grateful Dead, Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/14/76 (180-gram five vinyl set)13. The Cure, The Head On the Door (picture-disc vinyl)14. The Ramones, Loco Live (blue and red-colored double vinyl)15. Soundtrack, The Virgin Suicides (25th Anniversary Edition) (blue-colored vinyl)16. Queen, De Lane Lea Demos (vinyl)17. Wu-Tang and Mathematics, Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman: Wu-Tang, The Saga Continues Collection (180-gram double vinyl)18. The Rolling Stones, Out of Our Heads (U.S.) (180-gram clear-colored vinyl)19. Elton John, Live at the Rainbow Theatre With Ray Cooper (180-gram vinyl)20. David Bowie, Ready, Set, Go! (Live, Riverside Studios ’03) (180-gram double vinyl)21. Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak (Alternate Version) (vinyl)22. Judas Priest, Live in Atlanta ‘82 (red-colored double vinyl)23. Young Thug, Barter 6 (silver-colored double vinyl)24. Vince Guaraldi, Selections From ‘It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown’ (10-inch easter egg-shaped, colored vinyl)25. Beabadoobee, Live and Acoustic In London (red slushie-colored vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending April 17, 2025
Top-Selling Record Store Day 2025 Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores in U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone, Fortnight (7-inch vinyl)2. Charli xcx featuring Billie Eilish, Guess (7-inch vinyl)3. The Killers & Bruce Springsteen, Encore at the Garden (Badlands / Dustland / Born to Run) (12-inch vinyl)4. The Cure, Alone (Four Tet Remix) (12-inch vinyl)5. Eddie Vedder, Save It for Later / Room at the Top (ocean floor-colored 12-inch vinyl)6. David Gilmour With Romany Gilmour, Between Two Points (Vita Brevis/Between Two Points [Live From the Royal Albert Hall] / Between Two Points [GENTRY Remix] / Between Two Points [GENTRY Remix Edit] / Between Two Points [Album Version]) (clear-colored 12-inch vinyl)7. Waxahatchee, Much Ado About Nothing / Mud / Next to Me (7-inch vinyl)8. Tom Waits, Get Behind the Mule (Spiritual) / Get Behind the Mule (7-inch vinyl)9. Geddy Lee, The Lost Demos (Gone / I Am… You Are) (12-inch vinyl)10. George Harrison, Be Here Now / Beck, Be Here Now (12-inch vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending April 17, 2025
Radio broadcaster Cumulus Media was notified by the Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday (April 23) that its shares will be de-listed from the exchange on May 2, according to a Cumulus regulatory filing. The stock will transition the same day to trading on the over-the-counter (OTC) market and will retain the CMLS ticker. Shares of Cumulus […]
Jimmy Kimmel is now the biggest, the largest. Texas’ very own BigXthaPlug made his late-night TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform his hit songs “The Largest” and “Mmhmm.” But before he hit the stage, the Dallas native gave Jimmy his official “Chaining Day” by gifting the late-night host a custom chain made by […]
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens aren’t exactly the first things one would associate with the creepy and kooky Wednesday Addams, but the trailer for season 2 of Netflix’s Wednesday still features a cover of a famous, happy-go-lucky classic from The Sound of Music.
Fittingly posted on a Wednesday (April 23), the two-minute preview opens with Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday making her way back to Nevermore Academy, a journey that involves the teenager reluctantly relinquishing her many weapons to TSA agents at an airport. Meanwhile, a haunting rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” plays, the tune made slightly creepier than Julie Andrews’ original Broadway and film versions through slowed, eerie vocals and horror movie-esque bells.
The trailer goes on to show Wednesday reuniting with her fellow student and dormmate Enid (Emma Myers) and squaring up with season 1 love interest-turned-villain Tyler (Hunter Doohan). Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán and Fred Armisen also return as their respective members of the Addams Family clan: Morticia, Gomez and Uncle Fester.
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“Nothing is what it seems in season 2,” creator Miles Millar told Netflix’s Tudum of the show’s second chapter. “Wednesday goes into this season thinking she knows Nevermore. It’s the first time she’s returned to a school willingly. But as soon as she gets back, nothing happens that she’s expecting. She thinks she’s going to be in control, that she knows where all the bodies are buried, and she doesn’t.”
One highly anticipated cast member who wasn’t featured in the trailer, however, is Lady Gaga. Though she is set to make her debut on the show this season, the 14-time Grammy winner was nowhere to be found in the sneak peek, meaning Little Monsters will have to wait a little longer to get a look at her top-secret character.
“She’s great in the show, and I don’t think she’s what people expect her to be,” Ortega teased of Gaga’s role in March, later adding on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “She is so sweet, so humble, just a normal person, and it’s beautiful and amazing … It’s intimidating when someone is so talented but cool at the same time.”
The first batch of Wednesday season 2 episodes arrives Aug. 6, followed by Part 2 Sept. 3. Watch the trailer above.
Feeling inspired by Travis Scott‘s guest appearance at WrestleMania, Killer Mike was compelled to step into the booth and drop a fiery freestyle over La Flame and Playboi Carti’s “FE!N” beat. “I woke up with ‘Mania on my Mind. This beat is so cold I had to kill it,” The Atlanta rapper wrote to X […]
Seth MacFarlane’s ninth studio album, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, will feature 12 never-before-heard arrangements created for Frank Sinatra by his legendary collaborators Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Don Costa. The album is set for release June 6 via Verve Records / Republic Records.
MacFarlane has long been a Sinatra fan. Two of the Family Guy creator’s earlier albums, Holiday for Swing and No One Ever Tells You, featured Sinatra’s bassist Chuck Berghofer as well as a 65-piece orchestra. In 2015, MacFarlane performed on the primetime tribute Sinatra 100 — An All-Star GRAMMY Concert.
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MacFarlane, 51, was born in October 1973, the very month Sinatra released Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back, his “comeback album” following a brief retirement (which he wisely reconsidered). Sinatra continued recording through 1994. He died in 1998 at age 82.
These arrangements remained in the private collection of the Sinatra family for many years. In collaboration with the Sinatra family and estate, MacFarlane acquired the entire Sinatra music archive in 2018, and has brought these 12 arrangements to life with a 70-piece orchestra, conducted by British conductor John Wilson, and produced by MacFarlane’s longtime musical collaborator Joel McNeely. Every song on the album was recorded live with this ensemble at George Lucas’ famed Skywalker Sound Studios in Marin County, Calif.
The album’s first single, Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” features Riddle’s original conceptual arrangement from 1958.
MacFarlane received Grammy nominations for best traditional pop vocal album for his first three non-holiday studio albums — Music Is Better Than Words (2012), No One Ever Tells You (2016) and In Full Swing (2018).
If this new album is also nominated when the nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards are announced later this year, it will become the ninth tribute album to Sinatra to be cited in that category, following Tony Bennett’s Perfectly Frank (1993), Barry Manilow’s Manilow Sings Sinatra (1999), Keely Smith’s Keely Sings Sinatra (2002), Michael Feinstein’s The Sinatra Project (2009) – and two albums each by Bob Dylan (Shadows in the Night, 2016, and Fallen Angels, 2017) and Willie Nelson (My Way, 2019 and That’s Life, 2022).
Bennett’s Perfectly Frank and Nelson’s My Way both won in that category. Sinatra himself won in the category in 1995 for Duets II, which was his final new studio album.
MacFarlane is set to bring Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements to the stage with a live performance at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall on Feb. 17, 2026.
MacFarlane has received five Grammy nominations in all – the other two are for best comedy album and best song written for visual media – and an Oscar nomination for best original song for “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Ted. Other career highlights include hosting the Oscars in 2013, performing with legendary composer John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl, and recording a duet with Barbra Streisand for her Billboard 200-topping album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.
Here’s the complete track list to Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements:
“Give Me the Simple Life”
“I Never Felt This Way Before”
“Lush Life”
“Flying Down to Rio”
“How Did She Look?”
“Who’s In Your Arms Tonight?”
“A Wonderful Day Like Today”
“When Joanna Loved Me”
“Arrivederci, Roma”
“Hurry Home”
“Ain’tcha Ever Comin’ Back”
“Shadows”
Come June, Addison Rae fans will have one big reason to put their headphones on: Addison, the TikToker-turned-singer’s debut studio album, is officially on its way. As announced Wednesday (April 23), Rae will release her first LP on June 6, following a run of singles in 2024 and the first few months of 2025 that […]
Lana Topham‘s obsessive quest for the perfect Pink Floyd at Pompeii film cut began in 1994, when guitarist David Gilmour requested unedited footage from the concert shot in 1971. If found, says Topham, the band’s restoration director, these rushes could have been used for a more evocative edit of Pink Floyd‘s only major concert film, which documented the band in happier, more experimental days, long before they turned into feuding rock megastars. But, she recalls: “Despite my extensive search, I was unable to locate the rushes. I found every laboratory that existed in Britain and France and every storage facility.”
Then came a breakthrough. In 2020, working with film technician Marie-Louise Fieldman, Topham discovered a trove of film cans labeled “Pompeii” at a London storage facility, where they had been relocated over the years from Gilmour’s own warehouse. These were not the film rushes, or unedited raw footage, which could have provided alternate camera angles and unseen footage. But they were almost as good: The original, 35-millimeter “first-cut negatives,” as Topham calls them, which provide “the ultimate source of quality,” allowing for more sophisticated color-grading and film restoration. “Restoring from a negative is a whole different ballgame from a print,” she says. “These prints that are out there, back in the day, were used for running in cinema and used over and over again. Once you find one, it’s not ideal.”
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Those negatives became source material for Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, which opens a worldwide IMAX run on Thursday (April 24). A remixed Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII album is also due May 2, marking the first time a full-length live album will document the concert.
Shot at the Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy, in 1971 and first released in 1972, Pink Floyd at Pompeii captures the band looking impossibly young, performing a full concert to a small group of spectators consisting of camerapeople, roadies and “a few local kids that had talked their way in,” according to Mark Blake’s 2008 book Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. Drummer Nick Mason‘s massive gong matches the drama of the ancient-ruin surroundings, complete with gargoyles and other sculptures, as the band emphasizes material from 1971’s Meddle, including “Echoes” and “One of These Days.” In subsequent versions of the film, filmmakers added performance material from London’s Abbey Road Studios and a Paris soundstage.
“It is a crucial film, because it’s the closest you’ve got to a Pink Floyd concert film during the ’70s,” Blake says. “They did film The Wall, but that was never released, and it’s floating around the Internet, and it’s not very good. It’s like Led Zeppelin — you’ve got The Song Remains the Same. It’s the only thing available to the public.”
The band has reissued the film numerous times, including a director’s cut DVD in 2003. And while the version shown at select IMAX theatres contains no revelatory content — “People have already seen it,” Blake says — it’s startlingly vibrant, the Italian sky impossibly blue, the multicolored butterflies on Mason’s T-shirts poised to float into real life. (The new version is also a boon for Sony Music, which purchased some of Pink Floyd’s recorded-music assets last October for $400 million and now owns the rights to the film; the new release will also likely improve the band’s streaming numbers and social-media views.)
The recently discovered negatives allowed for this kind of coloring, with help from colorist Andy Lee. “The problem with working from a print is there are limitations of what you can do, restoration-wise,” Topham says, describing Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII as having “a three-dimensional feeling” that brings to life even trivial details such as “the logo on the speakers and the red tape on Nick’s drumkit.”
“The technology now has enabled us to get the full, glorious detail of the film. You can literally see the fingerprints on David Gilmour’s Strat,” Blake adds. “It’s a cliche, but it kind of puts you right there in the amphitheatre with them.”