State Champ Radio Music News
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There are lucky fans, like the ones who managed to get tickets to see Beyoncé for her ongoing Cowboy Carter tour, and then there are really lucky fans, such as the couple who got Queen Bey to do a gender-reveal for their first born child. In the middle Wednesday night’s (May 28) rain-soaked stop of […]
As one of the biggest pop stars in the world, ROSÉ can’t exactly walk around in public without being recognized — not without a little creativity, at least.
In a Dazed cover story published Thursday (May 29), the BLACKPINK star opened up about a time she disguised herself as an old lady, just so she could walk around for a little while without fans knowing it was her. The getup was elaborate, with ROSÉ hiring a professional team to deck her out with prosthetic wrinkles and a gray wig.
“It was really, really intense,” she told the publication, noting that the fear of being caught in the costume ultimately outweighed the freedom it brought her. “I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.”
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Even so, the K-pop star says that experiencing life as a regular person, even if only for a little bit, still calls to her. “What does freedom look like to me?” she mused in the interview. “Freedom means being anonymous.”
ROSÉ also said that she misses “not having to be terrified of small things” and “not having to be the annoying person in the room full of my friends who is paranoid about something, when I want to be very nonchalant and chill, but I have to be careful about everything.”
“Even if I’m not doing anything wrong, I have to think, ‘What if this makes people think that I’m doing something wrong?’” she continued, adding that her fame means she’s always grappling with the “fear of being misunderstood.”
The New Zealand native’s thoughts on celebrity and anonymity come at a time when she’s more famous than ever. In addition to being one-fourth of what is arguably the biggest girl group in the world, ROSÉ also recently elevated her superstar status by dropping her debut solo album, Rosie, in December. The LP featured smash hit “APT.” featuring Bruno Mars, which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200.
She’s now gearing up to regroup with LISA, JENNIE and JISOO as BLACKPINK plans to reunite this summer, embarking on a world tour that kicks off in July. ROSÉ didn’t say much about the upcoming comeback, but she did tell Dazed, “Each of us has gone out and been inspired and learned so much about ourselves, and now we’re coming back to each other with good energy.”
As for her own ambitions, the “Number One Girl” singer opened up about wanting to win a Grammy someday. “That would be incredible,” she said. “But I think if it means more to my community, it’d be special. That’s the first thing that I want, and whatever awards or celebration comes after it, that would feel extra rewarding.”
Coldplay was back on the road in April, extending the group’s reach to Hong Kong and Goyang, South Korea (14 miles from Seoul). According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the British band is No. 1 on the monthly Top Tours chart, with $67.4 million in the bank and 502,000 tickets sold.
Coldplay has been one of the most dominant acts on the Boxscore charts since the 2022 kickoff of the Music of the Spheres World Tour, reigning over seven Top Tours charts. The band’s touring calendar has become an accurate predictor of chart results: Its last batch of shows was in January, which matches its sixth monthly victory. Before that, Coldplay had dates in November, aligning with its fifth monthly win. Coldplay has only one show scheduled in May, but a busier calendar throughout the summer immediately makes the band prohibitive competition for the top spot over the next several months.
With its April triumph, Chris Martin & Co. tie Bad Bunny and Elton John for the most months at No. 1 (seven). Trans-Siberian Orchestra follows with five (December of every year since the chart premiered).
Beyoncé and P!nk have each led four times. The latter did it twice on the Beautiful Trauma World Tour in 2019 and twice more with dates from Summer Carnival and Trustfall Tour in 2023-24. Beyoncé dominated the summer of 2023 with the Renaissance World Tour and played the first show on Cowboy Carter Tour on April 28, squeaking onto the month’s list with one date.
Coldplay’s April boils down to four shows at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium and six at Goyang Stadium in South Korea. The first set of dates grossed $32.9 million and sold 184,000 tickets. The second set moved $34.4 million from 318,000 tickets. That’s enough to secure the top two positions on the Top Boxscores chart.
The grosses of Coldplay’s two stops are close, separated by just 4%. But the longer stay in Goyang sold 73% more tickets, which means that the ticket price in Hong Kong had to be much higher. At Kai Tak Stadium, Coldplay averaged $179 per seat, while the Korean shows paced $108.22.
Added to Coldplay’s January run in the United Arab Emirates and India, the 2025 Asian leg wrapped with $124 million and 1.1 million tickets. Combined with the 2023-24 leg in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and more, Asia accounts for $253.4 million on the Music of the Spheres World Tour. Worldwide, the trek has brought in $1.3 billion and sold 11.4 million tickets, extending its lead as the bestselling tour in history.
Coldplay picks back up on May 31 in Stanford, Calif., kicking off a 17-show run in the U.S. and Canada. Finally, there are 12 dates scheduled in the U.K., closing out the three-and-a-half-year tour with 10 shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. By closing night, the trek will be approaching $1.5 billion and 13 million tickets sold.
From one of the biggest tours of all time nearing its close to the opening shows of one of 2025’s hottest tickets, Kendrick Lamar and SZA are No. 2 on April’s tally. The first four shows of the Grand National Tour brought in $43.2 million and sold 180,000 tickets.
Lamar and SZA premiered their co-headline trek on April 19 at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium, before hitting Houston, Dallas and Atlanta. These are the first stadium shows for each artist, having previously conquered arenas in 2022 (Lamar’s The Steppers Tour) and 2023 (SZA’s SOS Tour).
Already, the Grand National Tour is the biggest tour of either artist’s career, and they are only 10 shows deep. Including six reported shows in May, which will count toward next month’s charts, the trek has earned $115.7 million and sold 508,000 tickets through the May 17 show at Seattle’s Lumen Field.
Thirteen shows remain on the pair’s schedule in North America, before traveling to Europe for 16 dates. Before its close on Aug. 9 in Stockholm, the Grand National Tour will be one of the biggest co-headline treks in history.
April was not just the stadium launchpad for Lamar and SZA. In the closing days of the month, Lady Gaga played her first two ticketed shows of the year at Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros (April 26-27), hitting No. 6 on Top Boxscores and No. 10 on Top Tours. Beyoncé opened Cowboy Carter Tour in Los Angeles (April 28), reaching Nos. 14 and 15, respectively. And Post Malone unleashed the Big Ass Stadium Tour with assistance from Jelly Roll in Salt Lake City (April 29).
Beyoncé, Gaga and SZA help to make April a banner month for women on tour. They are three of 10 women on the Top Tours chart, up from seven in March, six in February, and just one in January. Still less than half, the 33% representation in April represents the most women on a Top Tours chart in its 58 editions, surpassing nine, or 30%, in December 2019 and January 2022.
In between SZA and Gaga, Shakira is No. 7 after leading the list in February and March. The first Latin American leg of her 2025 tour ended mid-month, handicapping her potential rank. Elsewhere, Charli xcx and Olivia Rodrigo carry over tours that began in 2024. Kelsea Ballerini, Mary J. Blige and Kylie Minogue wrapped up spring runs, while Katy Perry began The Lifetimes Tour with five shows in Mexico.
05/29/2025
The multi-genre smash rules Billboard’s 100-position Top Hot Country Songs of the 21st Century retrospective. Below, find a breakdown of the 2000-24 top 10.
05/29/2025
Guns N’ Roses busted out the live debut of an old favorite during their Tuesday (May 27) show in Abu Dhabi, seemingly pay tribute to late New York Dolls singer David Johansen two months after the pioneering punk icon died at 75 following a long battle with cancer. Explore See latest videos, charts and news […]
Linkin Park’s 2024 album From Zero returns to a bevy of Billboard’s album charts (dated May 31) following its deluxe reissue with additional tracks on May 16. The set reenters Top Album Sales (at No. 5), Top Hard Rock Albums (No. 4), Vinyl Albums (No. 8), Top Alternative Albums (No. 9), Top Rock Albums (No. 15), Top Rock & Alternative Albums (No. 17), Indie Store Album Sales (No. 17) and the Billboard 200 (No. 71).
From Zero debuted at No. 1 on all of the above charts last November, save for the Billboard 200 and Top Album Sales, where it arrived at No. 2.
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The album was bolstered with three new studio recordings (“Up From the Bottom,” “Unshatter” and “Let You Fade”) on its digital and streaming editions, while physical formats (two double-CD sets and two double-vinyls) also added in five live tracks. The same week From Zero’s deluxe impacted the album charts, one of the new songs added to the project, “Up From the Bottom,” hit No. 1 on both the Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay charts.
In the tracking week ending May 22, From Zero earned 14,000 equivalent album units (up 173%), with traditional album sales comprising 7,500 of that sum (up 531%). The latter figure pushes the album’s reentry on Top Album Sales at No. 5.
Elsewhere in the top 10 of the all-genre Top Album Sales chart, five albums debut in the region from Morgan Wallen, Jin, BOYNEXTDOOR, Sleep Theory and MEOVV.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.
Wallen’s I’m the Problem launches at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with a career-best 133,000 sold, marking his fourth top 10-charting effort (all have reached the top three). Jin’s Echo enters at No. 2 with 35,000 sold, garnering the singer his second effort to reach the top three. BOYNEXTDOOR’s 4th EP: No Genre starts at a career-high No. 3 with nearly 14,000 sold; it’s the fourth top 10 for the act.
Sleep Token’s Even in Arcadia falls 1-4 in its second week on the chart (nearly 8,000; down 90%), while the aforementioned From Zero reenters the list at No. 5.
Kali Uchis’ Sincerely. retreats 2-6 in its second week (just over 7,000; down 81%), Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping GNX climbs 8-7 (7,000; up 6%) and P1Harmony’s DUH! dips 3-6 in its second week (nearly 7,000; down 69%).
Rounding out the latest top 10 is Sleep Theory’s first full-length set Afterglow, which scores the band its first top 10 (and chart entry) with its No. 9 debut (6,500) and MEOVV, who sees their debut EP My Eyes Open VVIDE start at No. 10 (6,000).
Ozzy Osbourne is going to make it to the stage for Black Sabbath’s final show no matter what it takes. As the metal icon gears up for his first full concert since 2018, he sat down with Billy Morrison on the latest episode of their SiriusXM “Ozzy Speaks” show to break down what he’s doing to gear up for the July 5 Back to the Beginning show in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
“I haven’t done any physical work for the last seven, six and a half, seven years,” Ozzy said, promising that “by hook or by crook, I’m gonna make it [to the stage at Villa Park],” where Black Sabbath’s final gig will find them joined by an all-star roster that will also include Metallica, Mastodon, Anthrax, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Slayer and a supergroup featuring members of Guns N’ Roses, the Smashing Pumpkins, Limp Bizkit, Judas Priest, Rage Against the Machine and many more.
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“I’ve got this trainer guy who helps people get back to normal,” he said of the intense training he’s undergoing following a rough several years that included spinal surgery and a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. “It’s hard going, but he’s convinced that he can pull it off for me. I’m giving it everything I’ve got.”
Ozzy, 76, said he’s definitely waking up and stressing about the show at times, but he knows that getting worked up is not what will get him through his first show with Sabbath bandmates guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward in more than 20 years. “Sometimes [I stress], but what I do, if I start obsessing all the time, I’ll be insane by Friday, you know?” he said. “So, I’m just taking it one day at a time and when I do it one day at a time. You know, when we were talking about this [obsessive-compulsive disorder], whatever. I have that badly. All I can say is I’m giving 120%. If my God wants me to do the show, I’ll do it.”
Speaking to the Guardian recently, Ozzy said “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up,” a hedge that was in keeping with comments from Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, who said it will take need “modern miracles” for the rocker to perform one of his legendary high-energy shows given his health struggles.
Though he hasn’t played a full show since Dec. 31, 2018 — two months before revealing his Parkinson’s diagnosis — Ozzy has set a reasonable bar for the July show, saying in February that he isn’t “planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath,” but rather “little bits and pieces” with the group. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable,” he promised.
Listen to Ozzy talk about his training for the show below.
Lorde has never been afraid of catharsis. The singer, literally, strips it down in the new video for her entrancing single “Man of the Year,” offering an unadorned version of herself as revealing as the song’s lyrics. In the striking visual directed by Grant Singer that dropped on Thursday morning (May 29), the 28-year-old vocalist is caught in close up, before the camera pans out to show her sitting on a stool in an empty loft while wearing jeans and a white T-shirt.
“Glidin’ through on my bike, glidin’ through/ Like new from my recent ego death/ Sirens sing overnight, violent, sweet music/ You met me at a really strange time in my life/ Take my knife and I cut the cord,” she sings in a loud whisper over a gently plucked bass guitar. As she describes becoming “someone else,” someone she says is “more like myself,” Lorde strips off her shirt and covers her breasts with electrical tape in the prelude to a thrashing dance routine on a pile of sand spread out in a corner of the loft.
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The song co-produced by Lorde and Jim-E Stack — her main collaborator on the upcoming Virgin album due out on June 27 — builds from the alluring, subtle bass accompaniment to a noisy rumble as burbling keyboards and distant drums bubble up alongside cello from Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes.
“Who’s gon’ love me like this?/ Oh-oh, oh, who could give me lightness?/ Way he flow down through me/ Love me like this/ Now I’m broken open/ Let’s hear it for the man of the year,” she sings on the chorus of second song released so far from the LP. “Man of the Year” follows April’s “What Was That,” which debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. In an Instagram post previewing the second single last week, Lorde wrote that it was an “offering from really deep inside me,” calling it the “song I’m proudest of on Virgin.”
In a recent Rolling Stone cover story, Lorde discussed writing “Man of the Year” after stopping her birth control for the first time since she was a teenager and realizing that her gender felt more fluid than she’d previously realized. Just before writing the song, she said she taped her own chest with duct tape — as in the video — in an effort to reach a vision of herself “that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment,” she told RS.
“I felt like stopping taking my birth control, I had cut some sort of cord between myself and this regulated femininity,” she added. “It sounds crazy, but I felt that all of a sudden, I was off the map of femininity. And I totally believed that that allowed things to open up.” The unadorned “Man of the Year” look was previewed at this year’s Met Gala, where Lorde wore a strapless, slate-colored strip of fabric across her chest that she told Vogue was an “Easter egg” that “really represents where I’m at gender-wise. I feel like a man and a woman kind of vibe.”
In addition to the song and video, Lorde also revealed the track list for her anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Solar Power. Among the songs on the album are: “Hammer,” “Shapeshifter,” “Favourite Daughter,” “Current Affairs,” “Clearblue,” “GRWM,” “Broken Glass,” “If She Could See Me Now” and “David.”
Lorce will launch the Ultrasound world tour on September 17 at the Moody Center in Austin, TX on an outing that will feature special guests Blood Orange, The Japanese House, Nilüfer Yanya, Chanel Beads, Empress Of, co-producer Jim-E Stack and Oklou on select dates.
Watch the “Man of the Year” video and check out the Virgin tracklist reveal below.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony made an unexpected return to late-night television this week, appearing on Netflix’s Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney for a surprise performance of their 1996 hit “Tha Crossroads.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The group’s appearance came months after Mulaney revealed on-air that he had […]
CISAC, the international trade organization for copyright collecting societies, has a new Chair, with APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston elected into the role.
Announced on Thursday (May 29), Ormston is only the second Australian to hold the title in CISAC’s 99-year history, with his APRA AMCOS predecessor Brett Cottle having previously served in the role from 2006 until 2010.
Ormston brings more than two decades of experience in the fields of music rights management, policy and advocacy to his new appointment. Since 2018, he’s served as the CEO of Australia and New Zealand’s music rights management organization APRA AMCOS, which represents more than 124,000 songwriters, composers and publishers.
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“Being elected Chair of the CISAC Board at such a pivotal moment for creators worldwide is an honour,” Ormston said in a statement. “As the creative economy enters a new era shaped by AI and global digitalisation, the opportunity to secure a fair and thriving future for creators has never been greater.
“Creators are central to the cultural, social and economic fabric of every nation. Each country has a responsibility to nurture its own cultural voices by ensuring a strong copyright framework and enabling creators to share in the value generated by innovations such as Generative AI.”
Ormston’s noted focus on ensuring a fairer future for creatives in the current AI-focused climate comes just over a year after he was named as one of the 20 leaders from the creative industries and academia invited to join the Steering Committee of the Attorney-General’s Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Reference Group (CAIRG).
APRA AMCOS have themselves been noted voices in the Generative AI debate, releasing their AI and Music report in August 2024 which focused on the benefits and concerns facing creators in Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, CISAC performed their own global study in December which re-iterated international calls for credit, consent and fair remuneration for songwriters and composers.
As newly-elected Chair of CISAC, Ormston takes over from Marcelo Castello Branco, the CEO of Brazil’s UBC, who has occupied the role for six years. Ormston is joined by Jennifer Brown, CEO of Canada’s SOCAN, who has been re-elected for a second term as Vice-Chair, and VG Bild-Kunst director general Urban Pappi, who has been elected as Vice-Chair for the first time.
Founded in France in 1926, CISAC has been presided over by Swedish singer, songwriter, and ABBA co-founder Björn Ulvaeus since 2020, taking over from French composer Jean Michel Jarre after he had spent a seven-year stint in the top job.
“CISAC’s global network is uniquely positioned to amplify the voice of these creators to decision-makers across the world,” Ormston added. “I look forward to working with the new Board and the entire CISAC community to champion creators’ rights, further develop our services, and empower societies and their members to lead in this rapidly changing global market.”
