Music News

09 Apr 2024

Fans Send Beyoncé a Message on the Largest Ferris Wheel in Latin America (and Tina Knowles Approves)

Fans in Brazil are going to great lengths to get Beyoncé‘s attention, and they just got the next best outcome. After a group of admirers used a light show projected on the biggest Ferris wheel in Latin America to ask the superstar to come to São Paulo on her next tour, Queen Bey’s mother — Tina Knowles herself — took notice.

On Tuesday (April 9), Ms. Knowles shared a recent video of the Roda Rico observation wheel on Instagram, displaying a colorful tribute to the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer. As the massive structure spins in the clip, giant projections of a crown, a bumble bee, a cowboy hat and horse — similar to those featured on the covers of Renaissance and Cowboy Carter — dance to life on its front-facing side, as does the message, “Vem, Beyoncé!” (“Come, Beyoncé” in Portuguese).

“Brazil has the some of the most amazing fans,” Knowles captioned the video.

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A couple weeks prior, the Roda Rico’s Instagram account shared a similar video of the Bey-themed light show, which was apparently organized by a Brazilian fan account in partnership with São Paulo’s city government.

“THIS AIN’T TEXAS but all I want is for Beyoncé to come and sing right next to me! ?” wrote the user @beyonceaccessbr in a joint post with the Roda Rico. “Come to São Paulo, queen!!”

The gesture comes amid rumors that the 32-time Grammy winner is planning to go on tour in support of her latest album, Cowboy Carter, which recently debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It follows its chart-topping sister album Renaissance, for which Bey embarked on a trek through the United States and Europe in 2023.

See Tina Knowles’ post about the Roda Rico’s Beyoncé tribute below.

09 Apr 2024

Bunnie XO Explains Why She ‘Almost Fainted’ Meeting Billy Bob Thornton at the CMT Awards

Jelly Roll had a big night on the CMT Awards stage on Sunday (April 7), but behind the scenes, Bunnie XO — who is the country star’s wife — got her moment as well. Backstage at the show – where the “Son of a Sinner” singer scored three major wins – the model brushed shoulders with actor-singer Billy Bob Thornton, leaving her totally in awe. 

In a clip Bunnie posted to TikTok one day after the ceremony, the camera follows her as she walks up to the actor and gives him a big hug. “Hi, I’m Jelly’s wife,” she introduces herself, to which Thornton says, “I know. How are you, honey?”  

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“Aw, it’s so nice to meet you,” the Goliath star adds. 

“I almost fainted meeting Billy Bob Thornton because he knew who I was,” Bunnie wrote of the encounter, noting in her caption, “Ok this made me starstruck.” 

That night, Jelly Roll took home video of the year, male video of the year and CMT performance of the year, all for his song “Need a Favor” — after which he closed out the show with a performance of “Halfway to Hell.” Later, Bunnie celebrated her husband’s achievements with an emotional post on Instagram, calling him “the maestro of misfits.”  

“You are not an overnight success story, this has been 20 years in the making,” she added at the time. “Papabear your voice is an instrument of healing & the world is your choir. I LOVE YOU IN THIS LIFETIME & EVERY OTHER ONE IM LUCKY TO BE BY YOUR SIDE IN.” 

As the Dumb Blonde Podcast host revealed in a TikTok a couple days before the CMTs, it’s a miracle she and Jelly even made it to the show at all. After their plane took flight en route to Austin, Texas, it suddenly turned around and made an emergency landing due to a malfunction, according to Bunnie.  

“CMT i swear we’re coming ?,” she captioned the clip. 

Watch Bunnie XO meet Billy Bob Thornton below. 

09 Apr 2024

Rihanna Reflects on A$AP Rocky Grabbing Her Butt at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have a beautiful family of four that could be growing in the years to come. However, none of that may have happened if they hadn’t performed together at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.

RiRi sat down with her former stylist and Interview Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg for a cover feature of the mag that arrived on Tuesday (April 9). During their chat, Rihanna reflected on performing “Cockiness (Love It)” with A$AP Rocky at the VMAs, and recalled him grabbing her butt while on stage.

“He grabbed my a– … So when he grabbed my a– that night, everybody thought I was about to … My team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a f–king mantle,” she said, recalling that her team was nervous she was ready to have him wiped off the face of the earth.

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However, Rihanna wasn’t even angry, and her inner circle realized at that moment she may have had a crush on the rapper.

“But I was like, ‘Ah, nah.’ That’s why everybody was like, ‘Oh my god. She likes him,’” the Fenty mogul added.

Rihanna would go on to star in the Virgil Abloh-directed video for Rocky’s “Fashion Killa” hit in 2013. But wasn’t until late 2019 that the two musicians would reconnect with an eye toward building a future together as a couple.

“We saw fashion the same. We saw creative the same,” she explained. “We ended up in the same circles a lot. And past that, when we grew up, we ended up supporting each other’s brands and products and creative all the time. I would wear his shit, he would show up to my launches.”

Rihanna continued: “We’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve seen him in relationships. He’s seen me in relationships. We’ve seen each other outside of relationships. We knew what we’re capable of, and the trouble that we could bring to each other’s lives. We can make or break each other’s hearts. And so, we started dating with a lot of caution.”

Their relationship got turned up several notches with the quarantines brought along by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rihanna gave birth to their first child, RZA, in May 2022, and the little boy’s baby brother, Riot Rose Mayers, was born in August.

See Rihanna’s Interview cover below:

09 Apr 2024

Keith LeBlanc, Session Drummer For Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, NIN Dies at 69

Keith LeBlanc, the multi-talented drummer/producer who helped shape the sound of early hip-hop with his playing on albums by the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash has died at 69. LeBlanc’s death was confirmed in a statement from his label, On-U Sound, as well as LeBlanc’s wife, Fran LeBlanc, who told Variety that her husband died on April 4 due to an undisclosed illness.

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“All of us at On-U Sound are heartbroken to share the news that the great Keith LeBlanc has passed away,” read a statement from the label.

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Over the course of a four-decade career that began with his gig working along bassist Doug Wimbish and guitarist Skip “Little Axe” McDonald as part of the house band for rap pioneers the Sugarhill Gang in the early 1980s, LeBlanc played with and performed on records that spanned electronica, rock and pop.

LeBlanc’s work can be heard on such landmark Sugar Hill records as “Apache” and “8th Wonder,” as well as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “It’s Nasty” and the 1982 album The Message. In a nod to his versatility, LeBlanc spent the 1980s and 1990s playing sessions with a wide variety of acts, from Ministry to R.E.M., Seal and Annie Lennox, as well as adding his production and engineering expertise to Nine Inc Nails’ landmark 1989 industrial rock classic debut, Pretty Hate Machine.

Born in Bristol, CT in 1954, LeBlanc also had a robust solo career, drumming on tracks for English producer Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound productions. He snagged an unexpected underground solo hit in 1983 with “No Sell Out,” which sampled the voice of late Nation of figurehead Malcolm X over bouncy synths and drum machine beats and is considered one of the first songs to use samples in a commercial release.

He also performed in the rotating lineup of Sherwood’s industrial hip-hop band Tackhead in the late 1980s and early 1990s alongside Wimbish and McDonald after Sherwood was impressed with LeBlanc’s musicianship, inviting the trio to join him in London for experimental sessions.

“Once ensconced in the studio, they continued their sample-based explorations, with the producer as a fourth member manning the mixing desk. This is something they would also replicate in their live set-up, with Adrian dubbing and processing the musicians in real time as they played on stage,” On U’s memorial read. “Cutting records simultaneously as Fats Comet (for the more dancefloor-oriented material) and Tackhead (for their more aggressive political tracks), they also became the second incarnation of The Maffia, the uncompromising backing band of Mark Stewart [the Pop Group]. The members were additionally involved in solo projects, session assignments, and appearances in other mysterious guises on the On-U roster, such as Barmy Army and Strange Parcels.”

In a statement, Sherwood said, “Keith was a major, major talent ..incredible drummer, producer and musician.. Along with Doug, Skip and also dearly missed Mark Stewart we enjoyed some of the most creative times together that shaped my musical life. Thank you Brother Keith..Love Forever. Heart and Soul.”

LeBlanc also released six solo albums during that period, including his 1986 album Major Malfunction, which was inspired by the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Throughout his musical adventures, LeBlanc folded in hip-hop, spoken word, film/TV samples and a mix of live drumming and programmed beats, releasing material through his Blanc Records label, which also offered fans budget-priced collections of “sample packs” featuring beats and effects.

Among his other notable recordings is an appearance on “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s 1985 anti-apartheid all-star single “Sun City,” as well as collaborations with McDonald’s blues-leaning group Little Axe and writing/producing for Living Colour, Peter Gabriel and The Cure and drumming on songs by James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Stone Roses and Sinead O’Connor, among many others.

Check out some of LeBlanc’s music below.





09 Apr 2024

Olivia Rodrigo Explains Why She Thinks Gwen Stefani Is the ‘Prime Example’ of a ‘True Artist’

It’s no secret that the pop-punk influences laced into Olivia Rodrigo‘s Sour and Guts albums can be directly traced back to artists such as Gwen Stefani — she even has No Doubt‘s “Just a Girl” on her pre-show playlist, which blares over the venue speakers before each of her Guts World Tour concerts. 

Now, the 21-year-old pop star is opening up about her love for the “Hollaback Girl” singer, telling Nylon for Stefani’s cover story published Tuesday (April 9), “Gwen’s ability to evolve and explore different styles of music, songwriting and aesthetic while still remaining true to herself is incredibly inspiring.”  

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“To me, she’s a prime example of an artist who defies stereotypes and preconceived boundaries and just makes stuff that she thinks is cool,” Rodrigo continued. “If that’s not a true artist, I don’t know what is.” 

The new interview comes just days ahead of No Doubt’s highly anticipated reunion at this year’s Coachella, which kicks off Friday (April 12). According to the “Drivers License” artist, she first discovered the band when she was 15, pressing play on its 2000 album Return of Saturn nearly two decades after it was first released (and subsequently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200). 

“Gwen sang about being a woman moving about this world in detail that I had never before heard put to music,” Rodrigo recalled of the experience. “She unapologetically sings about things ranging from wanting to make out with someone to fantasizing about having a husband and kids. There’s so much heart in every word she says, and every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know.” 

The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum will be on the road for the next four months, most recently playing her third of four scheduled Guts shows at Madison Square Garden. Following her final New York City performance on Tuesday, she’ll head overseas for a European leg beginning April 30 in Dublin. 

Stefani’s most recent releases have come in collaboration with her husband, former The Voice co-coach Blake Shelton. The pair released a cover of The Judds’ “Love Is Alive” in 2023, followed by a duet titled “Purple Irises” earlier this year. 

“When you’re in love and have truly aligned values, nobody can get to us,” the GXVE Beauty founder told Nylon of the country crooner. “You can say whatever you want to say about our relationship — I mean, a week ago we were getting divorced again or something. It’s just lies. The truth is the truth, and we know what that is. And so that [negativity] would never penetrate just by me being vulnerable and sharing a song that I didn’t write for anybody else but myself and Blake.” 

09 Apr 2024

Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Collaborators Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy & More Score First Hot 100 Hits

While Beyoncé makes history on Billboard’s latest charts with her new album, Cowboy Carter, many of the set’s featured guests score their first Billboard Hot 100 appearances.

Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey, Linda Martell, Willie Jones and Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter all earn their first entries on the chart dated April 13 thanks to their credited billings on the album.

Adell, Spencer, Kennedy and Roberts all debut via their team-up on Beyoncé’s cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbiird.” The song debuts at No. 27 with 14 million U.S. official streams and 7,000 downloads sold in its first week, according to Luminate. It also opens at No. 6 on Hot Country Songs.

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The update is also just the second, and top-charting, version of the song to hit the Hot 100, after the Glee cast’s version spent a week at No. 37 in 2011. (The Beatles’ original, from 1968, was never released as a single and therefore wasn’t eligible to chart at the time.)

Not only does “Blackbiird” earn the four up-and-coming singer-songwriters their first Hot 100 visits, but it’s also their first overall appearances on Billboard’s charts.

Adell, from Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Star Valley, Wyo., released her debut LP Buckle Bunny in July 2023 via Columbia Records. The set’s standout track “Love You a Little Bit” has garnered 27.2 million on-demand official U.S. streams to date. In an interview with Billboard at the CMT Music Awards (April 8), Adell said of singing alongside Beyoncé, “It’s been a grind and just to have someone of that caliber reach down and lift [me] up, it’s really, really special and I’m just very honored.”

Spencer, from Baltimore, released her debut album, My Stupid Life, in January via Elektra Records. She initially broke through with her EPs Compassion in 2020 and If I Ever Get There: A Day at Blackbird Studio in 2022.

Kennedy, an Alabama native, has released more than a dozen songs on streaming services since 2020, including the five-track Tiera in 2021 on Big Machine Label Group. The set includes a collaboration with three-time Hot 100-charting artist Breland.

Roberts hails from Alabama and California, and released her debut studio project, Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1, in 2023 on ReynaRed Records/EMPIRE. She has been releasing songs since 2019.

Shaboozey lands his first two Hot 100 entries: “Spaghettii” with Beyoncé and Martell, and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” with Beyoncé. The tracks debut at Nos. 31 and 61, respectively. Shaboozey has been releasing hip-hop-inspired country/Americana-focused songs for a decade and has dropped two full-lengths in that span: Lady Wrangler in 2018 and Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die in 2022. In 2019, he scored a placement on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack with “Start a Riot” with Duckwrth.

While Martell is a first-timer on the Hot 100, she’s one of the most commercially successful Black female country stars in history. The country pioneer, 82, became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1970, and charted three singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1969-70: “Color Him Father” (No. 22 peak), her cover of Duane Dee’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (No. 33) and “Bad Case of the Blues” (No. 58).

When “Color Him Father” peaked at No. 22, it marked the highest charting song by a Black woman in the chart’s history at the time. She has released one full-length project: Color Me Country, which peaked at No. 40 on the Top Country Albums chart in 1970. In a review of the set, Billboard praised, “She has a terrific style and a true feeling for a country lyric.”

Willie Jones, from Shreveport, La., debuts for the first time with his Beyoncé team-up “Just For Fun.” He has released two studio albums: Right Now in 2021 and Something to Dance To in June 2023, the latter on Sony Music. He also competed on The X Factor in 2012 and appeared on the Netflix reality show Chasing Cameron in 2016.

Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter also debuts on the Hot 100 for the first time thanks to “Protector” with Beyoncé. At six years old, she passes her older sister, Blue Ivy Carter, to become the youngest charting female artist in Hot 100 history.

As previously reported, Cowboy Carter debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States March 29-April 4 – the biggest one-week total of 2024. She becomes the first Black woman ever to lead Top Country Albums in the chart’s 60-year archives.

09 Apr 2024

‘Billboard Hot 100 Challenge’ Mobile Game Will Let Fans ‘Predict the Hits’

On Tuesday (April 9), Billboard announced the launch of the Billboard Hot 100 Challenge: Predict the Hits app.

The first-of-its-kind mobile game lets fans “predict the hits” by applying fantasy-sports-style gameplay to the music business. To play, participants will listen to a new song each day — Monday through Friday — and guess the ultimate peak position each song will attain before the end of the contest on July 16, 2024.

Points will be awarded based on the accuracy of each participant’s respective predictions. Once the season concludes, the winner will receive a grand prize of $25,000 cash; the second-place winner will receive VIP access for two to a 2024 or 2025 Billboard event or conference; and the third-place winner will receive two concert tickets to a show in their area.

“For more than six decades, the Billboard Hot 100 has been the music industry’s top chart for measuring hits,” says Billboard EVP of Charts Silvio Pietroluongo. “We are thrilled to create a new and unique interactive experience for passionate fans. The Hot 100 Challenge provides fans an entirely new way to engage with the Billboard charts and their love of new music. We’re redefining how fans engage with chart-topping hits and ushering in a new music discovery and enjoyment era.”

Players may also answer daily trivia questions for fun, to flex their knowledge of the artists and songs that have defined the Hot 100 since it launched in 1958.

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Contestants must be over 18 and reside in the United States. Download the Billboard Hot 100 Challenge: Predict the Hits app from the app store now.

The app will be promoted on Billboard’s physical and digital media and various partner platforms. Plans for the app include in-app brand activations and sponsorships. 

09 Apr 2024

Vampire Weekend Celebrate Eclipse With Austin Gig Featuring Cameos From Phoenix, Chromeo Singers

Like many of us, Vampire Weekend turned Monday’s total eclipse into a party. Except in their case they invited about 5,000 friends along for a special afternoon show at the Moody Amphitheatre in Austin, TX for a livestreamed concert that featured the live debut of a handful of songs from the group’s new Only God Was Above Us album and cameos from special guests.

The gig — which took place on singer Ezra Koenig’s 40th birthday in front of a backdrop with an image of the phases of the eclipse — found the band opening with the album’s first track, “Ice Cream Piano,” followed by the live debuts of new songs “Classical,” “Connect,” “Gen-X Cops,” “Capricorn,” “Diane Young” and “Hope.”

The guys took a 10-minute break about an hour into the show to give fans time to experience the eclipse as the skies turned dark over the Lone Star capitol, then stormed back with a back half that included some guests. The first cameo featured Phoenix singer Thomas Mars for a cover of the French group’s “Tonight” from 2022’s Alpha Zulu — which the two singers had never performed live before — followed by a duet with Chromeo singer Dave 1 on that band’s 2004 single “Needy Girl.” Taking advantage of a rare opportunity, singer Koenig asked the two native French speakers to regale the audience with a bit of “French banter,” which included Mars wishing Koenig a happy born day and the two men leading the crowd in a round of “Happy Birthday” in French.

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The set also included some of the band’s most beloved songs as well, including “Unbelievers,” “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” “Harmony Hall,” “Oxford Comma” and “A-Punk,” ending with a nearly 15-minute jam on “Cocaine Cowboys” that folded in bits of their 2019 tune “Married in a Gold Rush,” as well as Larry Gatlin’s “All the Gold in California,” Gram Parsons’ “Sin City” and the Grateful Dead’s “Cumberland Blues.”

The full show streamed on the Veeps platform.

09 Apr 2024

The Roots Plot 2024 Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life Tour With Arrested Development, Digable Planets

The Roots are hitting the road this summer with some special friends. The Tonight Show house band will take a break from playing celebrities onto stage and doing bits with host Jimmy Fallon to play a run of dates from May through September with kindred spirit hip-hop experimentalists Digable Planets and Arrested Development.

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After announcing an initial slate of dates for the Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life outing last week with the message “This is for the ones that really fell in LOVE with this,” the band has filled the roster out with a more robust run. The mostly weekend shows will commence on May 11 with a gig at the Mountain Winery Concert Series in Saratoga, CA and a spot on the Wonderfront Festival in San Diego on May 12 before setting up shop in Philadelphia for this year’s edition of their Roots Picnic festival.

This year’s June 1-2 Picnic will feature André 3000 and his bag of magical flutes, Jill Scott, Lil Wayne, Gunna, Victoria Monét, Method Man, Nas, Redman and Sexyy Red, and others performing in The Mann in Fairmount Park.

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A quick pop-in at the Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024 festival in Baltimore on June 23 will be followed by a June 29 gig at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and then a pair of dates in July in Denver and Seattle, before a hop over the Atlantic for a couple of dates in England and Germany before a return to U.S. shores in August for shows in Houston and Irving, Texas, Highland Park, IL, Sterling Heights, MI, Atlanta, Vienna, VA and a Sept. 1 show at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston.

In keeping with their job supporting Fallon since 2009 — on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and then, beginning in 2014 on The Tonight Show — the majority of this summer’s dates will be weekend gigs that will allow the group to be in their spots in Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center in New York for their nightly gig.

Check out the dates for the Roots’ Hip-Hop Is the Love of My Life 2024 tour below.

May 11 – Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery Concert Series

May 12 – San Diego, CA @ Wonderfront Festival

June 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic 2024

June 23 – Baltimore, MD @ Reggae Rise Up Maryland 2024

June 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl *^

July 20 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

July 21 – Seattle, WA @ Woodland Park Zoo

August 1 – Tower Of London, UK @ Crystal Palace Bowl

August 2 – Margate, UK @ Dreamland

August 5 – Berlin, DE @ Uber Eats Music Hall

August 16 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall *^

August 17 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory *^

August 24 – Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival *^

August 25 – Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill *^

August 29 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park *^

August 31 – Vienna, VA @ Filene Center at Wolf Trap *^

Sept. 1 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *^’July 20 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom

* = w/ Arrested Development
^ = w/ Digable Planets

08 Apr 2024

Teddy Swims, Lauren Spencer Smith & Paul Russell to Perform on ‘American Idol’

American Idol is down to its top 24, and next week’s episode will feature a star-studded list of performers.

Teddy Swims, Lauren Spencer Smith and Paul Russell are all set to take the stage on the three-hour April 14 episode of the singing competition series, where the top 20 will be revealed.

Swims is fresh off a Hot 100 chart-topper with his viral hit “Lose Control,” off his 2023 album, I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 1). “It’s only 1 o’clock, but it’s 5 somewhere, ain’t it?,” Teddy Swims marveled to Billboard after “Lose Control” crowned the tally. “I called my beautiful mother [and] said, ‘We did it.’ I couldn’t be more grateful. I feel so protected. I feel like God’s favorite kid right now.”

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Spencer Smith, an Idol alum, revealed back in February that she’s working on the long-awaited follow-up to her debut album, Mirror. Russell recently released “Eat Pray Love” to follow-up his 2023 hit “Lil Boo Thang.”

American Idol airs Sunday (April 14) at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, before it will be available to stream the next day on Hulu. Not subscribed? Hulu’s most popular plan is currently $7.99 per month after a free trial for seven days.

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