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Saturday Night Live is celebrating 50 years of its cultural impact, and Lorne Michaels’ iconic sketch comedy program is hosting a live, three-hour telecast from Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.
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A slew of star-studded talent is set to make appearances during the show, including Sabrina Carpenter, Paul McCartney, Adam Driver, Ayo Edebiri, Bad Bunny, Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Kim Kardashian, Martin Short, Miley Cyrus, Paul Simon, Pedro Pascal, Peyton Manning, Quinta Brunson, Robert De Niro, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and Woody Harrelson, with additional names to be announced.
The special will air on Sunday (Feb. 16) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and simulcast on Peacock.
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The SNL50: The Anniversary Special telecast will broadcast two days after the Jimmy Fallon-hosted live homecoming concert at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, featuring performances by Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Jelly Roll, the Backstreet Boys, Arcade Fire, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Chris Martin, David Byrne, DEVO, Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Mumford & Sons, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robyn, The B-52s and The Roots.
The show will take place at 8 p.m. ET on Feb. 14, as well as stream live on Peacock with fan screening events scheduled for several Regal Cinemas theaters.
Ahead of the 50th anniversary celebrations this week, check out the 15-second teaser for the SNL50: The Anniversary Special below.
Number_i’s “GOD_i” rules this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Feb. 5.
After dropping Jan. 27, the latest single by the three-man group produced by member Yuta Kishi hit No. 1 for downloads, video views, and radio airplay, while coming in at No. 16 for streaming. The track launched with 60,058 downloads, which is second-most for the group following the top first-week figure for “GOAT” (64,321 units). Other songs by the trio have climbed this week due to the new single’s release, with “BON” rising 87-86 and “INZM” 97-91.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Darling” holds at No. 2. Streams for the new single by the three-man band are up to 102% week-over-week, rising a notch to No. 1, and the track also hits No. 5 for downloads, No. 2 for radio, and No. 3 for video. “Lilac” by the hitmakers follows at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100, and while points for the former No. 1 song have been on the decline after peaking on the Jan. 15 chart, the song has coasted along in the top 5 for over 9 months since hitting No. 3 on the chart dated Apr. 24 last year.
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Kenshi Yonezu’s “BOW AND ARROW” debuts at No. 4. The theme song for the anime series Medalist was downloaded 29,132 times to hit No. 2 for the metric, while coming in at No. 7 for streaming, No. 8 for radio, and No. 19 for video.
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Hinatazaka46’s “Sotsugyo shashin dake ga shitteiru” bows at No. 6 with 496,191 CDs sold in its first week (No. 1 for the metric), while BEYOOOOONDS’s “Do-Did-Done” also charts for the first time at No. 7 with 99,460 CDs sold (No. 2 for the metric).
Notable chart moves outside the top 10 include Gen Hoshino’s first new single in a year called “Eureka” hitting No. 11 and Creepy Nuts’ “doppelgänger” jumping 56-23. The brand-new girl group HANA, born from the audition project No No Girls, launches at No. 36 with its pre-debut track “Drop.” The track hit No. 6 for downloads and No. 54 for streaming.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, here (https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan-hot-100/). For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account (https://twitter.com/BillboardJP_ENG).
Amsterdam’s electronic, queer-inclusive Milkshake Festival recently announced that rapper Azealia Banks would be joining the lineup for its 2025 festivities. Now, two days later, the event has cut her from the lineup altogether.
In an announcement posted on Tuesday (Feb. 4), the organization revealed that Banks would be “serving C-NT” at its July 2025 festival. But in the comments of that announcement, a number of fans implored Milkshake to reconsider the choice. One commenter wrote in Dutch that Banks was “an artist who has repeatedly spoken negatively about the LGBTI+ community, and especially about our transgender friends.” Another added in Dutch that as “a festival that claims to stand for a safe and inclusive community,” Milkshake should instead “give the stage to artists where everyone feels safe and welcome.”
In an initial statement posted to its Instagram on Wednesday (Feb. 5), Milkshake told fans “we hear you,” and said that it would “try to create a platform for artists who haven’t always had equal access to popular spaces” at the annual festival. “We strive to pay homage to the roots of club culture, a community that has always been at the forefront in fighting for equality,” the statement read. “We have reached out to the management of Azealia Banks to get a clear statement. Please allow us some time to manage this situation.”
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Commenters continued to call for Banks to be removed as a performer — and on Thursday (Feb. 6), Milkshake confirmed that the “212” rapper would no longer be performing at the festival. “It is clear to us that we made a mistake and that we have overlooked essential information. We sincerely apologize for this,” the statement read. “The safety of our visitors, our team, the artists, and crew will always be our main priority. Furthermore, we will assess our initial social media response for learnings and improvements.”
Billboard has reached out to Banks’ reps for comment.
While the festival was praised by some commenters for its decision, others continued to criticize the organization for enlisting Banks in the first place and for their various responses. One commenter summed up their feelings on the matter in Dutch: “Maybe it’s time to take a hard look at the exploitation of the queer and trans community and make Milkshake a fairer festival as a whole,” they wrote.
Banks — who has become well-known in recent years for her inflammatory rants on social media — does indeed have a track record of making homophobic and transphobic comments online. Back in 2015, Banks compared the LGBTQ+ community to “the gay white KKK’s” and was filmed hurling homophobic slurs at a flight attendant. In 2020 and 2021, she made a series of transphobic comments about trans women, specifically when it came to gender-affirming healthcare and surgeries.
On Tuesday (Feb. 4), though, Banks appeared to backpedal some of those comments when she called out Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her transphobic comments. “I love you down sis, but [trans women] are not a threat to your femininity,” she wrote on her X account. “You are really too rich and legendary to keep spewing the same stuff over and over and over.”
Read both of Milkshake Festival’s full statements regarding Azealia Banks below:
Charli XCX might have taken over 2024 with her Brat era, but something new might be on the horizon for the pop star as she works on her new album. The breakthrough album’s co-writer and co-producer Finn Keane told Grammy.com that the 32-year-old star has “a desire” to “do the complete opposite thing again, which […]
Detroit’s Movement Festival has added a crew of heavyhitters to the lineup for its 2025 event. Belgian techno titan Charlotte de Witte has been added as a headliner, with hard techno star Sara Landry, rapper A$AP Ferg, Underground Resistance co-founder Mike Banks, rapper and DJ Zack Fox, Dutch producer Mau P, Nina Kraviz, HAAi, Boys Noize, The Blessed Madonna, Goldie b2b Photek and many others also joining the bill.
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These artists join the previously announced phase one lineup that included John Summit, Carl Cox, Jamie xx, Anfisa Letyago, Carl Cox, Chase & Status, Ela Minua, DJ Minx, Sammy Virji and more.
“Movement is a techno institution in Detroit so for me, it’s like reuniting with an old friend,” Cox says in a statement. “I’m going to make up for the years I’ve missed with a show that’s going to send Detroit to another dimension!”
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The festival will happen at its longtime home in Detroit’s Hart Plaza May 24-26. Tickets are on sale now.
Movement is produced by the Detroit-based Paxahau, which took over the festival in 2006. The event is known for focusing on the city’s homegrown techno genre along with house music, and has long championed rising stars, especially local ones, from each genre.
“One of the great things about [Paxahau’s] culture is we aren’t goal focused, but direction focused,” Paxahau Founder Jason Huvaere told Billboard in 2023. “It’s always been about the trajectory, the journey, the emotion. It’s never been about, ‘I need to get this thing done,’ or ‘I need to get this thing acquired.’ For the future, I just want to preserve that.”
See the complete Movement 2025 lineup below.
Movement 2025 lineup
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Sonos, the audio technology company known for its elegant, compact speakers, has laid off approximately 200 people, the company announced on Wednesday (Feb. 5).
The restructuring follows the layoffs of 100 employees — about 6% of Sonos’ workforce at the time — in August 2024 after a disastrous rollout of a new smartphone app forced the company to lower sales projections and delay product launches. In the wake of the problems, CEO Patrick Spence resigned in January and was replaced by interim CEO Tom Conrad, Pandora’s chief technology officer during the groundbreaking internet radio service’s early years.
In a letter to employees posted on the Sonos website, Conrad explained that the company needed to reshape its organizational structure to become more efficient. “One thing I’ve observed first hand is that we’ve become mired in too many layers that have made collaboration and decision-making harder than it needs to be,” Conrad wrote. “So across the company today we are reorganizing into flatter, smaller, and more focused teams.
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“Most significantly, we are reorganizing our Product organization into functional groups for Hardware, Software, Design, Quality and Operations, and away from dedicated business units devoted to individual product categories,” he continued. “With this simpler organization in place, cross-functional project teams will come together to improve our core experience and deliver new products. Being smaller and more focused will require us to do a much better job of prioritizing our work — lately we’ve let too many projects run under a cloud of half-commitment. We’re going to fix this too.”
The company’s woes are evident in its financial statements. In fiscal year 2024 (ended Sept. 30, 2024), Sonos’ revenue dropped 8.3% from the prior year and came in 13.4% below fiscal 2022’s revenue. Over that time span, a $67.4 million net profit turned into a $38.1 million net loss despite Sonos reaching a high of 3.08 products per household, up from 3.05 in fiscal 2023, and being in 16.3 million homes. In addition to music-focused speakers, Sonos also sells “soundbar” speakers for TVs and in May 2024 launched a luxury headphone, Sonos Ace.
With news of the layoffs hitting after markets closed on Wednesday, Sonos shares fell 2.2%, to $13.95, in after-hours trading. The stock is well below its 52-week high of $19.76 set in March 2024 but has reclaimed some losses after falling to a low of $10.23 in August. Sonos hit an all-time high of $44.72 on April 14, 2021.
It’s been nearly five years since fans of The Allman Brothers Band converged on New York City, March 10, 2020, to watch surviving members of the Southern Rock outfit join longtime supporters of the band for The Brothers, a one-night tribute to the legacy of the Jacksonville, Fla., Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
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The Brothers will finally make their long-awaited return April 15-16 at Madison Square Garden, venue executives announced Thursday (Feb. 6). The Brothers will include founding member and drummer Jaimoe, guitar legend and Govt’ Mule founder Warren Haynes, guitarist Derek Trucks, longtime Allman Brothers and Dead and Co. collaborator Oteil Burbridge and drummer Marc Quiñones. They will be joined by Joe Russo on drums, keyboardist Reese Wynans, drummer Isaac Eady and special guest Chuck Leavell on piano at this spring’s shows.
Pre-sale tickets for The Brothers at Madison Square Garden, produced by Live Nation, will be available starting Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 10 a.m. ET. Fans need to register in advance to buy tickets on The Brothers’ website; there will be a limit of eight tickets per show. The public onsale is set for Friday, Feb. 14, at 10 a.m. ET.
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“The chance to play at The Garden with my friends again – FAR OUT man!” shares Jaimoe in a statement. “I’ll see you in April!!”
The Brothers will bring a whole new show to this year’s run, diving into the acclaimed Allman Brothers Band repertoire, delivering hits and rarities from their decades-long career, while also showcasing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees’ continued influence and legacy, more than 10 years after their official final bow.
The impetus for The Brothers return in 2025 was solidified at the SOULSHINE hurricane benefit at Madison Square Garden in November, when Haynes and Trucks delivered a mesmerizing performance of the Allman’s classic “Whipping Post.” After being on stage at the event, the duo realized they needed to play this music again in the world’s most famous arena with their brothers Jaimoe, Oteil and Marc.
Five years ago, Doechii was vulnerable with followers in a YouTube video about getting fired from her job. Now, that same video is resurfacing online and giving fans new inspiration after the 26-year-old hip-hop star won her first Grammy last weekend.
In the 80-second video posted Jan. 12, 2020, Doechii snacks on chips while giving viewers a blunt life update. “So, I got fired today,” she says. “I don’t give a f–k, to be honest.”
“Tomorrow, I’m just going to go to a whole bunch of studios and ask if they have any internships open,” she continues. “I’m just going to go in and ask. Who gives a f–k? I have nothing to lose. I have no place, I have no job, I have no children.”
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Later that year, Doechii would release her EP Oh the Places You’ll Go. In 2022, she signed with Top Dawg Entertainment and Capitol Records, two years after which she’d drop her critically acclaimed project Alligator Bites Never Heal — aka the album that has now made her the third woman to win best rap album at the Grammys, where she tearfully accepted the 2025 prize Sunday (Feb. 2).
“I know there is some Black girl out there [watching] and I want to tell you that you can do it,” she said during her speech as the audience at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena roared with applause. “Anything is possible. Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes onto you … you are exactly who you need to be to where you are, and I am a testimony [to that].”
Now that the Florida native is a Grammy winner, fans online are looking back at where she was half a decade ago and finding inspiration in her trajectory. “doechii’s story really is a testament to why you HAVE to believe in yourself and chase tf out of your dreams,” one person wrote on X, resharing a screenshot of Doechii’s “I got fired” video. “it is always worth the risk to bet on yourself.”
“unironically everyone should be clinging onto this for motivation,” another fan wrote, while a third person shared their takeaway, “you really got to bet on yourself no matter what.”
Watch Doechii’s resurfaced video below.
Azealia Banks has become more known for her public beefs than her music in recent years, and now, she’s starting a new one with author J.K. Rowling
The rapper — who has herself issued a number of anti-trans rants online — took aim at the bestselling Harry Potter author and noted anti-trans advocate in a pair of posts to her X account on Feb. 4. Responding to a fan asking why Banks’ body looked a certain way, the “212” rapper called out the way people discuss women’s bodies in conjunction with the ongoing issue of “transvestigation” online.
“I think the dolls are fab and do not need to shade them or change myself because my femininity is not threatened by them,” she wrote. “All of the insane anti-trans paranoid people like @jk_rowling feel their femininity is threatened for whatever reason and try to mask that insecurity with ‘science’ like anyone is stupid and doesn’t already know these things.”
In a follow-up, Banks directly addressed Rowling who began following her after her initial tweet. “No shade @jk_rowling thanks for the follow and I love you down sis, but [trans women] are not a threat to your femininity,” she wrote. “You are really too rich and legendary to keep spewing the same stuff over and over and over.”
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Continuing, Banks claimed that her own brother identifies as trans, and shared her experiences watching someone struggle with their gender identity. “I have witnessed first hand the type of misery, pain, ostracism, suicide attempts, unnecessary and unwarranted abuse my mother doled out to my brother, the discomfort with his body — it’s not a mental illness it’s a spiritual thing,” she shared. “One would assume that you of all people who have written books about magic and esoteric things would be able to comprehend and understand how states of consciousness vary in a human being. It’s been YEARS sis.”
Closing out her comments, Banks called out Rowling’s views one final time, writing, “I really do think it’s a front for some weird inferiority thing that’s truly just in your mind. I Say this with lots of love and respect.”
The latest tweets represent something of a switch for Banks, who has been criticized multiple times over the past years for her own transphobic comments, in which she’s claimed that transgender women are not real women and spread misinformation about gender-affirming care.
Rowling, meanwhile, has been a vocal critic of transgender issues for years, regularly spreading inaccurate information regarding gender-affirming care, trans women using women’s restrooms and trans youth participating in women’s sports and much more.
Record Store Day U.K. has shared the official list of releases for its 2025 event.
In its 18th year, hundreds of albums, EPs and mixtapes are being pressed onto new special Record Store Day U.K. editions, including releases from the likes of Taylor Swift, Oasis and Charli XCX, on a variety of formats — including 7″ vinyl, 10″, 12″, CD, cassette and picture disc. The event will take place on April 12.
Swift will issue an exclusive 7″ white vinyl of her Post Malone collaboration “Fortnight,” which is the first time that the “Fortnight [BLOND:ISH Remix]” will appear on vinyl.
Oasis’ greatest hits compilation Time Flies: 1994-2009 is back on wax for the first time since 2010, a timely return ahead of the group’s Live ’25 reunion tour. Charli XCX has two limited editions in this year’s list, including a 7″ version of “Guess,” her team-up with Billie Eilish, and a reissue of her 2017 mixtape Number 1 Angel on silver vinyl.
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Fred Again.. will also release special piano versions of his three-part Actual Life LP series, while there’ll be reissues for The Cure, A Tribe Called Quest, Davie Bowie, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert and more. See the full list on RSD’s website.
More than 270 independent record shops across the U.K. – as well as thousands more globally – will prepare to welcome this new wave of releases. There’ll also be a series of in-store parties, events and live performances to mark the event. To see which record stores are involved in RSD U.K. 2025, visit the RSD website for the full list of retailers.
Record Store Day U.K. 2025’s upcoming edition coincides with 18 years of growth in vinyl sales despite the ongoing dominance of streaming services. Based on Official Charts Company data, the BPI reported in December that U.K. sales of albums on physical formats increased year-on-year for the first time since 1994 in 2024, by 1.4%.
The first official Record Store Day event took place in April 2008, with the aim of bringing attention to the importance of independent record shop culture. The event has since evolved into a global celebration, while each year, artists perform in-store sets in honor of the occasion.
On Tuesday (Feb. 4), North Shields singer-songwriter Sam Fender was announced as the official ambassador of Record Store Day U.K. 2025. He follows the likes of Kate Bush, The 1975, Noel Gallagher and Elton John in taking on the role.
“It’s a complete honor to be asked to be the Ambassador for Record Store Day 2025,” Fender said in a statement. “The importance of indie stores cannot be understated. Without them, we lose physical spaces for music fans to discover both their favorite new artists and to forge friendships with like-minded people.”
He added: “Thanks so much to all the independent stores around the world who support us. Let’s all make sure we support them too.”
Fender will put out a six-track EP to mark the occasion, titled Me and the Dog. The 12-inch release is set to include two new songs titled “I’m Always on Stage” and “Empty Spaces,” alongside a mixture of other previously unreleased tracks and live renditions.