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As politicians around the world continue to pursue anti-LGBTQ+ agendas, Cynthia Erivo has a simple message for queer people in 2025: Don’t let them win.
In her new Billboard cover story published Monday (June 2), Erivo opens up about her thoughts on the Trump administration’s continued attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. When asked by Billboard Pride editor Stephen Daw how she’s coping with the political chaos, the singer-actress shared that she’s focusing on trying to combat the vitriol with peace and calm.
“I’m trying to be a person you can get positive things from, because that is the only way you can balance this stuff,” she says. “Fear-mongering is very powerful, and the only thing that you can do in order to offset that is to feed it with light and positivity.”
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For her queer and trans fans, Erivo highlights the importance of staying true to yourself, even amid a scary political landscape. “I want to encourage people to not decide to just tuck away and start hiding and not being themselves anymore, because that is exactly what they want,” she says. “The more yourself you are, the more you are in front of people who don’t necessarily understand, the better understanding starts to happen.”
All-star songwriter Justin Tranter agrees, saying that Erivo herself has become a powerful symbol for the LGBTQ+ community since her public coming out in 2022. “Cynthia being Black and queer, and being one of the most famous people alive in this moment while our community is dealing with what we are dealing with, is no mistake,” they tell Billboard. “For someone as talented as her to be a beacon for young Black queer people all over the world … is no accident.”
Over the last few years, Erivo made a name for herself as one of the premiere performers at The Kennedy Center, where she’s performed her own solo concerts while also honoring legends such as Dionne Warwick, Dame Julie Andrews and Earth, Wind & Fire. But earlier in 2025, President Trump announced that he was naming himself as the chairman of the prestigious arts organization, replacing existing board members with his own allies and ceasing any and all drag performances hosted by the Center.
“I don’t know who gains what from that. I hope that it comes back,” Erivo says of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center. “It’s really sad to have to watch this happen to it. The Kennedy Center is supposed to be a space of creativity and art and music for everyone.”
See Erivo on the cover of Billboard and check out photos from her cover shoot below:
Pusha T severed ties with G.O.O.D. Music, where he served as the label’s president and distanced himself from Ye (formerly Kanye West) in late 2022.
King Push and his brother No Malice graced the cover of GQ on Monday (June 2), and Pusha reflected on his falling out with the embattled rapper, who has faced criticism for his repeated hate speech.
“The one thing that I can say about [Ye] is that he knows that every issue that he’s having and crying about online right now, I’ve told him distinctly about those things,” Push said. “He don’t talk to me like he talks to others.”
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Pusha T took things a step further while disrespecting Ye and saying that he doesn’t “think he’s a man” following his myriad controversies over the years.
“His intuition is even more genius-level, right? But that’s why me and him don’t get along, because he sees through my fakeness with him,” he continued. “He knows I don’t think he’s a man. He knows it.”
The Virginia rapper went on: “And that’s why we can’t build with each other no more. That’s why me and him don’t click, because he knows what I really, really think of him. He’s showed me the weakest sides of him, and he knows how I think of weak people.”
Billboard has reached out to Ye’s rep for comment.
Pusha T and No Malice kicked off the Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out rollout on Friday (May 30) with “Ace Trumpets,” which finds Push name-dropping Yeezy.
“Sold ecstasy and disappeared, I am Whodini/ Look at them, him and him, still waitin’ on Yeezy/ I hope you got your squeegees/ At your interviews, I just ki-ki,” he raps.
Ye got wind of Pusha’s bars and expressed that he misses the friendship they once had. “I miss me and Pusha’s friendship,” West wrote of his ex-G.O.O.D. Music president to X.
While Yeezy won’t be appearing on Let God Sort Em Out come the July 11 release date, Push confirmed that Kendrick Lamar is slated to be featured on the album track “Chains & Whips.”
However, Lamar’s assist was at the center of Clipse’s rift with Def Jam, as the Universal Music Group-owned label wanted K. Dot’s verse removed from the project. Push stood firm in keeping the Compton rapper on the album, which led to a split with Def Jam for the duo as well as Pusha’s solo career. LGSEO will now be distributed by Roc Nation.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” he said. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go.”
Billboard has reached out to Def Jam for comment.
To kick off Pride Month this year, Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa and several more stars have added their names to an open letter advocating to keep federal funding in place for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention measures.
As unveiled by The Trevor Project on Monday (June 2), the letter comes in direct response to a leaked United States Department of Health and Human Services budget that showed the Donald Trump administration’s plans to eliminate funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+-related services, which actively supports young people in the LGBTQ+ community considering suicide. Despite it providing help to more than 1.2 million estimated callers since its launch in 2022, the proposal would have the crisis line’s funding slashed entirely after going into effect on Oct. 1.
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“We are heartbroken by the proposal to eliminate federal funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services — a move that will have devastating, life-threatening consequences for young people across the country,” reads the message, which was also signed by Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cara Delevingne, Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe and Darren Criss. “As artists, creators, and public figures, our platforms come with responsibility. And today, that responsibility is clear: We must speak out to protect the mental health and lives of LGBTQ+ youth. We will not stay silent.”
Acknowledging that youth suicide in the LGBTQ+ community is a “public health crisis” — with The Trevor Project estimating that more than 1.8 million in the U.S. alone seriously consider suicide every year — the signatories directly called on Congress to “do the right thing” by restoring and protecting funding for 988 in the 2026 budget. The letter ends with a message of support addressed to people most affected by the proposed cuts, as well as an encouragement to sign the nonprofit’s petition to save its program.
“To every LGBTQ+ young person reading this: You are not alone,” it concludes. “We see you. We value you. You have the right to feel safe, supported, and loved exactly as you are. You deserve access to life-saving services that honor your humanity. You may be hurting. You may be scared. You may feel like no one hears you — but we do. We will keep showing up and speaking out. We will not stop fighting for you.”
Among the other musicians who signed are Aly & AJ, Bea Miller, Blondshell, Christina Aguilera, Diplo, Ethel Cain, FLETCHER, GAYLE, Julia Michaels, Kelsea Ballerini, King Princess, MARINA, Orville Peck, Tove Lo and Troye Sivan. More big names are likely to sign in the coming days, as the letter will stay open for new signatories on a rolling basis.
The message comes at a particularly harrowing time for members of the LGBTQ+ community, who have watched as Trump has spent his first few months back in office working to undo protections for gay, trans and nonbinary people. GLAAD documented at least 225 attacks on LGBTQ+ rights within the first 100 days of the twice-impeached POTUS’ second term, including attempts to defund HIV research and cut programs supporting the community.
But as The Trevor Project and its allies put it in their letter, now is the time to “rise together — loudly and determined — for hope, for dignity, and for every LGBTQ+ young person to know that their lives are worthy and that there will always be someone on the other end of the line.”
If you or anyone you know is in crisis, call 988 or visit the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s website for free, confidential emotional support and resources 24/7.
With Pride Month 2025 coming amid dark times for the LGBTQ+ community, pop singer Reneé Rapp wants her fans to know there is still light in the dark — they just have to go looking for it. In a new cover story for Cosmopolitan on Monday (June 2), the “Leave Me Alone” singer shared a […]
Despite weather-related chaos, the annual Philly festival delivered unforgettable performances and cultural moments.
The iMarine Project, a media mix content project by SANYO, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It has recently kicked off a new chapter with “iMarine Project++” (read: “iMarine Project Plus”). Billboard JAPAN spoke with Aya Uchida, voice actress for iMarine, about what progress she feels the project has made over the past decade and her hopes for its future.
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The iMarine Project was launched in 2015, and then in 2020, Sanyo began iMarine Project (New Chapter). Now, in 2025, it is about to enter a new stage of its evolution, iMarine Project++. Looking back, what has your impression been of the past ten years?
The iMarine Project itself is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but I became a part of it with its third release, “Dive to Blue,” which was a full-length animated music video. It emphasized the concept that “iMarine is in your town, too,” which may be why I was chosen as the voice actress.
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From that point on, each year I’ve worked with a different creator, and the videos and aesthetic have kept on changing. The fourth release was an animated music video with characters from Umi Monogatari, who had their own lines, so it felt like the style had changed to one that was showing the world of Umi Monogatari through animation and lyrics.
“Deep Blue Town e Oide yo,” right? That was arranged like a story, starting out with an anime segment, then segueing into the song, and then ending with another anime segment.
Right. In the fifth release, we went with a more stylish, adult diva style. I feel like at that point the anime elements were completely gone, and the project had become more of a song-centered project.
Then 2020 saw the start of iMarine Project (New Chapter), whose concept was a “2.8-dimensional” idol.
This is where the story suddenly started getting much deeper. We were taking on a new challenge—expressing a story, a world, a scene, all through music.
There’s an online novel, and the Crystal Palace setting was reproduced in VRChat. It’s gone beyond just being a “media mix” to become a work that fuses all kinds of elements of all kinds of dimensions. The iMarine Project++ is the culmination of all that’s been done by the cast and directors to expand this one work.
Over the last five years, the project has fleshed out and defined the world and its aesthetics based on the story. This five year period has been a series of experiments, right?
The project is a media mix that combines not only physical spaces but also digital spaces, so every challenge has been a new one. This was also all being done while VTuber culture was growing, and it was so much fun being on the cutting-edge of the changing times.
As a performer, has the fusion of the digital and physical worlds made the project a difficult one?
Yes, a bit. As a voice actress, I’ve done a lot of work in the physical world, and I’m confident in that area, but when it comes to the digital world, I’m still feeling things out as I go along. For example, popular VTubers have their own defined characters, but they also speak really freely. [Laughs]
In the case of iMarine, the character is defined in a novel, so if I say the wrong thing, it could break that in-world feel. Like, if I wanted to say “I had some ramen today,” before I could even open my mouth, I’d start thinking “Wait, ramen might not exist in that world.” There’s a part of me that’s always operating with that actor’s mindset. [Laughs]
So because of the detailed setting, you’re in a different position than VTubers, who can act without thinking that deeply.
Yes, but lately, the way I’ve been thinking about it has started to change a little. There are things that Saeki has said as Ichika at VR events that just naturally became part of her character. For example, she said “I’m a big eater.” [Laughs] This thing she’d said became part of her virtual character, and when I realized that, I came to feel like I could speak more freely. The world and the aesthetic of the iMarine Project story is well-defined, but, surprisingly, the details about the characters themselves are a little vague. I think going forward, we’re going to be fleshing out the world of iMarine Project++ along with the members of the recently announced fan club, Musical Armored Division of Freedom.
In the new song, “M.A.D.,” which was recently debuted on-stage, you’ve taken on a new genre: hip-hop.
Idols have been performing some really cool hip-hop recently. I’m a big listener in my own personal life, so I was really happy that iMarine would finally take on the genre.
I think the presence of iMarine Project’s works goes beyond the bounds of anime and videos, so I’ve had this intense desire to perform using a really cool voice on a song that I felt really confident in.
So you feel like the quality of the music needs to be elevated beyond so-called “character songs” to better music-as-music. And also that the meanings of the songs are growing deeper as the story progresses.
This time, the music is going in a whole different direction. It’s darker, with more of a street vibe. It has this sense of a strong spirit that’s unbowed by everyday hard existence. Like a light in the middle of despair. I like that really down-to-earth feel in music.
In a strange way, even though the project is set in this digital world, the feeling of humanity really comes across. There’s this rebellious spirit in the face of daily struggles. It’s more human than human.
Exactly. The setting of the story is that iMarine and Ichika are both AIs, and the other members were originally humans, but they became AIs.
So I’m not human, but for precisely that reason, when I sing, it feels like in some way I’m almost being my natural self, the way I am now. I can express the passion in my heart. I love it, and in fact that may be the part that feels the most rewarding.
Everyone on the cast was overflowing with praise for a dance performance by one of the characters in the music video. I’m guessing that part made a big impression on you, too?
You’re talking about Isana’s breakdancing, aren’t you. [Laughs] I’ve done motion capture for characters on two songs before, and it really opened my eyes to how impressive and how hard motion capture is. That breakdancing was performed by using motion capture on an actual dancer. The level of technical skill needed to capture that kind of frenetic movement was just amazing! [Laughs]
There’s also the crowd of people wearing hoods. I liked how the concept of “we’re not alone” was highlighted through the whole video. Until now, we’ve been having people look at the world we created, but going forward, we’re going to make it so that people can get immersed from the perspective of the Musical Armored Division of Freedom.
This project is right on the bleeding edge, but it’s amazing how the end results always come out great. I’ve got to keep working hard to keep up so I don’t fall behind.
—This interview by Mio Komachi first appeared on Billboard Japan
Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music are in talks with Udio and Suno to license their music to the artificial intelligence startups, Billboard has confirmed, in deals that could help settle blockbuster lawsuits over AI music.
A year after the labels filed billion-dollar copyright cases against Udio and Suno, all three majors are discussing deals in which they would collect fees and receive equity in return for allowing the startups to use music to train their AI models, according to sources with knowledge of the talks. Bloomberg first reported the news on Sunday (June 1).
If reached, such deals would help settle the litigation and establish an influential precedent for how AI companies pay artists and music companies going forward, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the talks freely.
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Such an agreement would mark an abrupt end to a dispute that each side has framed as an existential clash over the future of music. The labels say the startups have stolen music on an “unimaginable scale” to build their models and are “trampling the rights of copyright owners”; Suno and Udio argue back that the music giants are abusing intellectual property to crush upstart competition from firms they see as a “threat to their market share.”
Settlement talks are a common and continuous feature of almost any litigation and do not necessarily indicate that any kind of deal is imminent. It’s unclear how advanced such negotiations are, or what exactly each side would be getting. And striking an actual deal will require sorting out many complex and novel issues relating to brand-new technologies and business models.
Reps for all three majors declined to comment. Suno and Udio did not immediately return requests for comment. A rep for the RIAA, which helped coordinate the lawsuits, declined to comment.
If Suno and Udio do grant equity to the majors in an eventual settlement, it will call to mind the deals struck by Spotify in the late 2000s, in which the upstart technology company gave the music industry a partial ownership stake in return for business-critical content. Those deals turned out to be massively lucrative for the labels and helped Spotify grow into a streaming behemoth.
The cases against Udio and Suno are two of many lawsuits filed against AI firms by book authors, visual artists, newspaper publishers and other creative industries, who have argued AI companies are violating copyrights on a massive scale by using copyrighted works to train their models. AI firms argue that it’s legal fair use, transforming all those old works into “outputs” that are entirely new.
That trillion-dollar question remains unanswered in the courts, where many of the lawsuits, including those against Suno and Udio, are still in the earliest stages. But last month, the U.S. Copyright Office came out against the AI firms, releasing a report that said training was likely not fair use.
“Making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries,” the office wrote in the report.
Even with the legal landscape unsettled, some content companies have struck deals with AI firms. Just last week, the New York Times — which is actively litigating one of the copyright cases — struck a deal to license its editorial content to Amazon for AI training. Last fall, Microsoft signed a deal with HarperCollins to use the book publisher’s nonfiction works for AI model training.
Music companies have not struck any such sweeping deals, and instead have preferred more limited partnerships with tech companies for “ethical” AI tools. UMG signed a deal last summer with SoundLabs for an AI-powered voice tool for artists and another one in November with an AI music company called KLAY. Sony made an early-stage investment in March in a licensed AI platform called Vermillio.
After her massive breakthrough as Elphaba in 2024’s Wicked, Cynthia Erivo is giving fans a taste of what’s to come in the film’s final chapter this fall. In her Billboard cover story published Monday (June 2), Erivo teases what fans can expect from her green-skinned heroine in Wicked: For Good, the much-anticipated second part of […]
Whether she likes it or not, Megyn Kelly is a part of Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter Tour — but that’s not stopping the political commentator from slamming the superstar for including footage of her in the trek’s visuals.
In a recent clip from The Megyn Kelly Show titled “Beyonce Tries Playing Victim,” Kelly said it had recently come to her attention that “Beyoncé, who’s on some world tour right now reinventing herself as a country star, is running videotape during the show of yours truly.”
“Here is another one of the most privileged, beloved women in the world — and richest, based on her own fortune, never mind the man she’s married to,” the TV personality continued, referring to billionaire Roc Nation founder Jay-Z. “But [she] still has to look for the one sliver where she could play the victim and be aggrieved because big bad Megyn Kelly said something completely milquetoast about her entry into country music.”
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Billboard has reached out to Bey’s rep for comment.
Kelly’s remarks come more than a month after the Destiny’s Child alum kicked off her world tour in support of Billboard 200-topping album Cowboy Carter, which found Bey exploring her love for country music across 27 tracks, including collaborations with icons such as Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. At a certain point in each show, a blurred-out clip of the former Fox News anchor blasting Bey for “sticking her big toe” into country music during an appearance on Australia’s Sky News plays on venue screens.
The moment in the show is representative of how many people were critical of the 35-time Grammy winner for experimenting with country music once Cowboy Carter dropped in March 2024. Many parts of the industry were unwelcoming — the album earned zero nominations at the CMA Awards and country radio did not embrace any tracks — but Bey would become the first Black woman to ever reach No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Cowboy Carter also took home both album of the year and best country album at the 2025 Grammys.
But despite Bey’s success since the last time she spoke on the subject, Kelly doubled down on her early criticism of Cowboy Carter. “She and her marketing people were treating that entry [into country music] like the second coming, like it’s Jesus incarnate,” she added on on The Megyn Kelly Show. “‘All hail Queen Bey, she’s here to rescue country music,’ which was a perfectly thriving industry long before Beyoncé showed up.”
Following stints in Los Angeles, Chicago and the New York City area throughout the month of May, Bey is now gearing up to bring her Cowboy Carter trek to London for a string of shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium kicking off June 5. Her five-night stay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., grossed $55.7 million with 217,000 sold, marking the biggest single-venue engagement reported to Billboard Boxscore in 2025 so far.
Kelly’s complaint about the Sky News footage isn’t the first instance of someone taking issue with the Cowboy Carter Tour visuals, however. In May, attorneys for Sphere Entertainment Co. CEO James Dolan sent Bey a cease-and-desist for using imagery of the Las Vegas Sphere in a video interlude, after which the musician cheekily superimposed the city’s Allegiant Stadium over the first venue in the visual.
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” remains the biggest song in the world, as it notches a fifth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and a third week atop Billboard Global Excl. U.S.
As previously reported, the song takes over at No. 1 on the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100.
Meanwhile, sombr scores his first Global 200 top 10 with “Back to Friends” (up 17-9) and MOLIY, Silent Addy, Skillibeng and Shenseea’s “Shake It to the Max (Fly)” surges to the top tier on Global Excl. U.S. (16-10), likewise becoming the first top 10 on the tally for each act.
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The Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
“Ordinary” leads the Global 200 with 70.1 million streams (up 1% week-over-week) and 13,000 sold (up 17%) worldwide May 23-29. Further sparking its profile, Warren performed the song on the American Music Awards, broadcast on CBS, May 26.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” holds at No. 2 on the Global 200, after 18 weeks at No. 1 starting last September (second only to the 19 weeks at No. 1 for Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” since the chart began); ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” repeats at No. 3, after 12 weeks at No. 1 starting in November; Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” keeps at No. 4, following three weeks at No. 1 last August; and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” lifts 6-5 after seven weeks on top starting in February 2024.
sombr’s “Back to Friends” hits the Global 200’s top 10, bounding 17-9 with 37.7 million streams (up 13%) worldwide. The singer-songwriter (real name Shane Boose) is charting his first two Global 200 entries in the top 20 simultaneously – “Undressed” jumps 19-13, likewise hitting a new high, with both tracks having benefitted from exposure on TikTok.
“Ordinary” rules Global Excl. U.S. with 50.9 million streams (up 1%) and 5,000 sold (up 6%) outside the U.S.
“Die With a Smile” is steady at No. 2 after 17 weeks atop Global Excl. U.S. starting last September. Only “APT.,” which holds at No. 3, has led longer: 19 weeks, beginning in November. “Birds of a Feather” ascends 5-4, following three weeks at No. 1 last August, and JIN’s “Don’t Say You Love Me” dips to No. 5 a week after it debuted at No. 4.
Plus, MOLIY, Silent Addy, Skillibeng and Shenseea’s “Shake It to the Max (Fly)” swoops into the Global Excl. U.S. top 10, bounding 16-10 with 31.2 million streams (up 21%) and 1,000 sold (up 29%) outside the U.S. The track leads the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for a fourth week.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated June 7, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, June 3. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
