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Last year, Post Malone released his debut country-inspired project, F-1 Trillion, writing and recording the album in Nashville, and earning hits through country collabs with artists including Morgan Wallen (“I Had Some Help”) and Blake Shelton (“Pour Me a Drink”).
Now, he’s doubling down on his love for Music City, with the upcoming opening of a new entertainment venue in Nashville. Nashville locals and those in town for this week’s CMA Fest spotted signage at a building located 305 Broadway (and the former home of venues WannaB’s Karaoke and Tequila Cowboy) that read “Something BIG Is Coming!,” “We’ll Keep Ya POSTED!” and “Summer 2025.” A name and opening date for the venue has yet to be announced.
Now, TC Restaurant Group — known for its work on on star bars including Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa and Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up — revealed it has entered a partnership with Post Malone for the new venue, which is set to feature three stages, six bars and a dining room.
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“We’ve created a space where everyone can come together and kick some a—,” Post Malone said in a statement. “Nashville has really become a second home for me so I can’t wait to invite y’all over to my house.”
Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion reached No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, while the singer has played country festivals including Stagecoach and Morgan Wallen’s Sand in My Boots over the past 18 months. He’s currently on his Big A— Stadium Tour, featuring Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell.
Adam Hesler, the president and CEO of TC Restaurant Group, added in a statement that Malone’s forthcoming venue “embodies his spirit and brings a new experience to Nashville’s Entertainment District,” while praising the singer’s “talent and ability to transcend multiple genres.”
Beyond the new venue, Posty is also hard at work on another country-infused album, previously telling Billboard he’s been in Nashville writing songs. “[I’ve] made probably 35 songs,” he said at the time. “It’s just a matter of which ones rock, and which ones sock.”
Italian techno producer Deborah de Luca is off the HARD Summer 2025 lineup poster amid a public dispute regarding the font size of her name on the bill.
Late last week, HARD Summer posted a revamped version of the 2025 lineup poster that does not feature de Luca’s name, as the original poster did. In the comments section of the post, when a fan asked where de Luca’s name was, the festival wrote that the producer “informed us she will no longer be playing the festival.” But the Italian techno producer responded to their comment, saying, “That’s not right! You put my name smaller than others. I asked you to change it and you didn’t want to do it. Now you changed it by deleting my name.”
She then made another comment saying that “I’m very sorry, guys! But they put my name smaller than others, it was not dignified for my career. I asked to change it and they told me no. It was not my choice. I’m very sad, but I’m sure it will be a crazy festival and you will have a lot of fun.”
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The spot where de Luca’s name was on the original poster now features electronic foursome Ladies of Leisure. Sean Paul has also fallen off the poster, with the position where his name was in the original poster now occupied by Busta Rhymes. Other lineup additions include Barry Can’t Swim, Fcukers and DJ Gigola, whose names were all blurred out on the original poster for the festival, which happens August 2-3 at Hollywood Park at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The comments section on the revamped poster is a mixed bag of feedback, with many fans lamenting on de Luca’s absence and others being less generous. Representatives for de Luca and HARD Summer did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
As previously reported by Billboard, while such font sizes may seem inconsequential, they are often the subject of intense negotiations between artists, managers and agents and event producers. As such, situations like this one between HARD and de Luca are not unheard of.
Speaking to Billboard in 2015, Governor’s Ball co-founder Jordan Wolowit told Billboard that he once “had a very legitimate act formally pull off the festival the day before our announce, because they hated their billing. My initial reaction was to tell them to piss off — respectfully — but, luckily, good judgment kicked in and I acquiesced to their wishes — which was to be moved three spots up from where they were. It was kind of hilarious, actually. From then on, I have had a line in my offers that clearly states billing is solely at my discretion.”
When Taylor Swift posted a photo of herself leaning back and smiling, her first six studio albums scattered in front of her, on Friday (May 30), the party was on.
Swift’s announcement that she had successfully purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, for an undisclosed sum from investment firm Shamrock Capital, was met with jubilation by her millions of fans. Swift finally had full control of her intellectual property, in a byzantine music industry where such ownership was incredibly difficult to come by, even for the biggest superstars. The importance of such artistic freedom was not lost on Swift, who rightfully treated the occasion as a hard-fought celebration in a letter to fans on Friday. “To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she wrote.
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As even casual pop culture observers likely know by now, Swift spent over a half-decade re-recording her back catalog to combat this previous lack of creative ownership, with Taylor’s Version albums of 2008’s Fearless, 2012’s Red, 2010’s Speak Now and 2014’s 1989 offering faithful re-creations under her domain. Not only did these re-recorded albums prove wildly successful – as fans rallied around the vision and motivation of their favorite artist, and helped 1989 (Taylor’s Version) score an even bigger debut than the original album – they also inspired real industry change, from other artists exploring ways to re-record their own material to label groups reworking standard contracts to prevent them from doing so.
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Still, the news that Swift had bought back her masters was met with some consternation about the future of the Taylor’s Version albums: Swift wrote that her 2006 self-titled debut was fully re-recorded, while Reputation (Taylor’s Version) was not. “Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” she wrote of her 2017 full-length.
So will the long-sought-after Reputation (Taylor’s Version) ever get completed? Will Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) receive a release date in the near future? What’s the point of a re-recorded album, now that Swift owns all of the original albums? And what do we do, moving forward, with the four Taylor’s Version albums that did get released?
We don’t know the answers yet, but we know how much the Taylor’s Version albums have already given us – including “All Too Well (10-Minute Version),” an irreplaceable linchpin recording in her catalog.
We’ll see if and when this project gets completed, how the Taylor’s Version re-recordings will age, and what versions of her hits and deep cuts fans will gravitate toward in the future. But just because the battle is now over, it’d be shortsighted to declare all for naught. The four Taylor’s Version albums presented her back catalog to a new generation – helping first to prime fans for the globe-conquering, catalog-revisiting Eras tour, and then to help cement her career year while the trek was underway.
Plus, fans received over two dozen unheard “From the Vault” songs — castoffs from the original albums that Swift reworked to include on her Taylor’s Version releases. These previously unheard goodies across the bonus cuts on the four re-recordings ranged from collaborations with Maren Morris and Fall Out Boy, to a late-breaking radio hit in the effervescent Red (Taylor’s Version) dance-pop track “Message in a Bottle,” to another Hot 100 chart-topper in the wistful “Is It Over Now?,” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
Which brings us to the greatest “From the Vault” song, and the one that stands as the greatest musical legacy of the entire re-recording project. When Red was released in 2012, the five-and-a-half minute “All Too Well” was positioned on the track list as an extended songwriting showcase in between shorter, more radio-friendly pop singles like “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “22.” While those hits helped Swift transition to pop superstardom with 1989 two years later, the power of “All Too Well” as a richly detailed examination of a failed relationship endured, becoming a fan favorite in the years following Red.
The song, and its cult status, also marked an important inflection point for Swift as a storyteller. A year before Red (Taylor’s Version) arrived in 2021, Swift pivoted away from top 40 on Folklore and Evermore, using an indie-folk aesthetic to explore different characters and narratives with the same care as one of her fiercely embraced album cuts.
A 10-minute version of “All Too Well” had long been teased, and the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) proved to be the perfect occasion for its unveiling. Any Swift purist could have been reasonably worried about the decision to nearly double the length of one of her best-loved songs. Yet the supersized version of “All Too Well” was not overstuffed — instead, “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” towers above the original. Expanding the song’s world of stray thoughts and heartbreak totems while expertly navigating the story’s twists and turns, Swift turned a for-the-fans album cut into an authoritative epic.
With 10 minutes to work with, Swift lets each new detail of “All Too Well” simmer without building to a boil. The profane keychain that gets tossed her way, her subject’s refusal to “say it’s love,” the inquisitive actress, the charming chats with her father, the heartbroken 21st birthday — each new line is woven into the tapestry of a reflection that already exists, and Swift delivers them with varying degrees of frustration and regret.
Most of Swift’s songs wouldn’t improve if pushed to the 10-minute mark, but the structure of “All Too Well” — verses stacked upon one another, chorus lyrics shapeshifting to reflect her curdling emotion — allows for the bulked-up format. By the time the song starts to fade out with the refrain “Sacred prayer, I was there, I was there,” the passage of time is made explicit, as Swift’s recollections are stored in a time capsule that needed to be made a little bit bigger. Sure, there are new Easter eggs for fans to pore over and peruse – but nothing about “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” feels forced, and that’s why it provoked such a strong reaction upon its release.
All Too Well: The Short Film, written and directed by Swift, was released along with the 10-minute version, and she performed the song in full on Saturday Night Live the day after its release. With so much pre-release hype and release-weekend promotion, “All Too Well” shot to the top of daily streaming charts immediately – and one week later, the song sat atop the Hot 100, the first Taylor’s Version track to come anywhere close to the chart’s peak. The flashpoint of excitement around its release demonstrated Swift’s still-rising commercial power, about a year before she made it unignorable with the record-setting success of 2022’s Midnights.
It also clued in countless casual listeners to one of her best songs. “All Too Well” isn’t just a fluky chart hit; the song now stands as a defining work for Swift, and an encapsulation of her legacy as a modern songwriter. In the future, critics, writers and historians will need a song to represent Swift’s cultural impact, and that song may very well be “All Too Well” – which simply wouldn’t have been the case without the Taylor’s Version moment.
That impact was on full display during the Eras Tour, where “All Too Well” was performed in its 10-minute incarnation as the final song in the Red portion of the show. Each night, stadiums full of Swifties sang along to its fourth, fifth and sixth verses, and bellowed “F—k the patriarchy!” with uninhibited glee.
Now that Swift’s Taylor’s Version project has entered a new phase of existence, those sing-alongs are worth considering as part of its legacy. “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” wasn’t just a commercial ploy, or catnip for the critics. It’s now an anthem for all of us.
It’s no secret that Cardi B and Offset‘s relationship has been fraught for a long time, with the latter allegedly cheating on the former multiple times throughout their marriage. And now that they’re separated, the “WAP” rapper is opening up about the effects the Migos star’s rumored infidelity had on her while they were together.
In clips from an X Spaces shared by TMZ Tuesday (June 3), Cardi said that she’s the happiest she’s been “in a very, very long time” while reflecting on a time not so long ago that left her feeling the opposite. “Last year, I really felt like I was going crazy,” she said, referring to the final months of her relationship with Offset — during which she was pregnant with their third baby — before she filed for divorce in late July.
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“It’s more than the cheating,” the Bronx native claimed. “It’s the constant lies, the gaslighting — it was really messing up my with my head … I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. My baby came out five pounds. A healthy baby. My baby came out five pounds, because I couldn’t eat, I was so depressed.”
Cardi went on to reveal that her management and label team eventually saw the toll it was taking on her and decided to find her a therapist. “I did therapy, and I tried, and I fell back in love again,” she added, most likely referencing her rumored new boyfriend Stefon Diggs.
The rapper welcomed her third child with ‘Set — a daughter named Blossom — in September, just a little more than a month after she filed to legally separate from her now-estranged husband for the second time. The former couple is currently in the midst of contentious divorce proceedings, with Cardi recently slamming the “Stir Fry” rapper for seeking spousal support.
“You such a f–king p—y a– n—a,” said Cardi, who also shares daughter Kulture and son Wave with Offset, during a May X Spaces. “Word to my mother, I want you to die, but I want you to die f–king slow. When you die, I want you to die slow in the bed. And when you die, n—a, you gotta think of me.”
As Cardi shared in her latest chat with fans, however, she’s in a much better place now. A couple weeks after snuggling courtside with Diggs at a New York Knicks game, the hip-hop star leveled with fans about how cautiously she’s approached dating again and slammed claims that she’s only “popping out” with someone new to make her ex jealous.
She also reaffirmed just how important it was for her own sanity to break things off with Offset last year. “If I was still there, I was going to end up going to jail,” she told fans. “‘Cause I was going to end up killing them, seriously, with my own bare hands.”
Justin Bieber is speaking his mind once again, sharing a cryptic post on Instagram slamming people who tell others what they “should or shouldn’t have.”
In white text typed over a purple gradient Tuesday (June 3), the pop star began by writing that “telling other humans they deserve something is like raising someone else’s kids.”
“Who are you to tell someone what someone should or shouldn’t have,” he continued. “The audacity. That’s not your place.”
The “Peaches” singer added, “God decides what we deserve.”
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Billboard has reached out to his reps for comment.
Bieber did not specify to whom he was referring in the post, but it does come at a particularly prosperous time for his family. A few days prior to his message, skincare mogul Hailey Bieber — whom the pop star married in 2018 — announced that she’d sold her Rhode company to e.l.f. Beauty for a reported $1 billion, something the musician celebrated by proudly sharing the news on his Instagram.
Before that, the model — with whom Justin welcomed son Jack Blues in August — appeared on the cover of Vogue. In the accompanying profile, the “Baby” vocalist said, “I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life, but the smartest thing I’ve ever done was marry Hailey.”
The Grammy winner’s post is just the latest cryptic statement he’s made on Instagram in recent months. In February, he made headlines for posting about how it was “time to grow up” on his Story, after which he penned musings in March about feeling like he was “drowning” in “hate” and struggling with feeling “unworthy.”
In April, Justin called out paparazzi in Los Angeles, sharing a video of cameramen following him out to his car, writing, “This has to stop.”
“IM CURRENTLY ASKING [GOD] TO HELP ME WITH PATIENCE BECAUSE It CAN BE REALLY HARD TO NOT RIP THESE F–KIN GUYS HEADS OFF,” he also wrote at the time. “Today I’m forgiving myself for my own selfishness, AND forgiving THOSE WHO SEEK TO USE AND ABUSE ME SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CAPITaLIze off of me, Or Their jealousy makes them want to make me feel small like how they feel.”
See Justin’s latest post below.
Three months after the announcement that deadmau5 sold his catalog to Create Music Group for $55 million, the producer has commented on the deal. “It was time to just let it go,” the producer born Joel Zimmerman said in a June 2 cover story alongside Rezz for Billboard Canada. “I’m not so attached to [my […]
Antoine Massey is one of the two remaining inmates still on the run since allegedly breaking out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16, and he may be looking for help from the president, as well as three rappers who have been entangled in the criminal justice system.
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A video that appears to feature Massey surfaced on social media on Monday (June 2), in which the man pleads with Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Donald Trump for assistance in his legal situation.
“Who I was in the past is not who I am today,” a man appearing to be Massey begins in the video. “So I’m asking, please for help. [NBA] YoungBoy, Meek Mill … People that been through the system that know it’s corrupt. Lil Wayne, Donald Trump, please, I’m asking for help … When I get back in custody, I’m asking y’all please to come and help me.”
He continued: “I’m letting y’all know I’m not a raper, man. I’m not none of that. None of that. I’m a good person. I am a father that want to be in my children’s life … I want to let the younger you know that going down the route of trying to be a street person is not the route.”
Neither the rappers nor Trump have responded to Massey’s video, which the Louisiana State Police has been made aware of.
According to Baton Rouge ABC affiliate WBRZ, Massey was arrested in March on charges of domestic abuse battery and vehicle theft, and that he was also wanted for suspicion of rape and kidnapping in St. Tammany Parrish. At the time of his escape, he had not entered a plea yet.
“If the individual depicted in the video is indeed Antoine Massey, we strongly urge him to come forward and turn himself in to the proper authorities,” said Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson in a statement. “Cooperating with law enforcement is in his best interest and may help avoid additional charges. It is important that justice is served appropriately and that due process is followed.”
This isn’t Massey’s first reported escape either. According to local CBS affiliate 4WWL, Massey and five others broke out of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center in 2007. He also escaped from Morehouse Detention Center in 2019.
Orleans Justice Center maintenance worker Sterling Williams was reportedly arrested on felony charges for facilitating the May prison break. CBS affiliate KFVS12 in Cape Girardeau, Mo., reports that Williams claimed that Massey threatened to stab him if he didn’t take part in helping the escape. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office also said the inmates’ jail break may have been helped by “defective locks,” the outlet reported.
Of the 10 fugitives, Massey and Derrick Groves are the final two inmates remaining at large. There’s a $50,000 reward being offered for information leading to their apprehension.
Billboard has reached out to the Orleans Police Department and the White House for comment.
The next music director of the Los Angeles Opera will be Armenian-Venezuelan Domingo Hindoyan, the institution announced May 30 in a statement.
Hindoyan, currently serving as chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, will step into the role on July 1 next year, succeeding James Conlon, who will become the opera’s first-ever music director laureate after leading L.A. Opera for two decades.
“I am deeply honored to join L.A. Opera as its next music sirector,” said Hindoyan in the press release. “From the first rehearsal, I felt a strong connection to the extraordinary musicians, staff and spirit of this company. It is a privilege to follow Maestro James Conlon, whose legacy has shaped L.A. Opera into what it is today — a dynamic and ambitious institution.”
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Hindoyan made his debut with L.A. Opera conducting Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in November. “I first encountered Domingo Hindoyan at the Berlin State Opera in 2016 and was immediately struck by the fluidity of his technique and the clarity and command of his musical ideas,” noted Christopher Koelsch, L.A. Opera’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Since then, I’ve watched with admiration as his career has flourished across many of Europe’s great opera houses.”
Koelsch continued, “Our search process was both thorough and inclusive, engaging board members, civic leaders and representatives from our orchestra. We considered dozens of exceptional candidates from around the world — but Domingo emerged as the clear choice. In our conversations and through his artistry, it became evident that he brings not only exceptional musical and symphonic fluency, but also a disarming warmth and charisma that draws others into his creative orbit.”
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Conlon, who has served as music director since 2006, shouted out Hindoyan’s appointment and remarked that the two will work closely to ensure a smooth transition. “Domingo is an artist of exceptional depth and imagination, and I know the company will welcome him warmly,” said Conlon in a statement. “I’m confident this new partnership will be both successful and fruitful. We will be working together closely at the beginning, and I am confident that we will assure a smooth transition.”
Born in Caracas, Hindoyan has conducted at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. He previously served as principal guest conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, has conducted operatic productions at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Dresden Semperoper, Teatro Real in Madrid and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Hindoyan has also released several albums, including this year’s Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence & Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathetique,’ 2024’s Venezuela! Music From the Americas and 2023’s Verismo, all with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sabrina Carpenter topped a lot of people’s song of the summer lists with “Espresso” in 2024, and now, she’s gunning to do it for the second year in a row. After a day of teasing that she had a new project in the works, the pop star has announced that she has a new song […]
Alex Warren is doing more than alright on charts with hit single “Ordinary,” and soon, he’ll be adding a new album to the mix. On Tuesday (June 3), the singer-songwriter announced that the second chapter of his 2024 LP, You’ll Be Alright, Kid, will arrive July 18, featuring 10 new tracks. On Instagram, he shared […]
