Music News
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Lana Del Rey has some bad news to share with her fans, but she added some good news to ease the blow. The superstar took to Instagram on Friday (April 11) to thank fans for their support and her collaborators for their work on her freshly released single, “Henry, Come On.” The country-tinged ballad is […]
To celebrate a special occasion, Sabrina Carpenter just unveiled new vinyls filled with that me espresso. On the one-year anniversary of her smash hit “Espresso” dropping — and subsequently changing the course of her career — the pop star shared a batch of clear single discs pressed with brown coffee-like liquid Friday (April 11). The […]
Cypress Hill is continuing the rollout of their upcoming live album, Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra: Black Sunday Live at the Royal Albert Hall, with the second offering from the recording. “I Ain’t Goin Out Like That (Live at the Royal Albert Hall)” arrived on Friday (April 11), following the previously released live […]
PinkPantheress just tried out the viral dance to her new single “Tonight” with a little help from Doechii — and the British singer-songwriter thinks the Swamp Princess totally outdid her at her own song’s trend.
In a clip posted to Pink’s TikTok Thursday (April 10), the two hitmakers stand side by side while blowing kisses, popping their hips and strutting toward the camera to the lyrics, “You want sex with me? Uh-huh/ Come talk to me, come on/ You want sex with me? Uh-huh/ Come talk to me, come on.”
At the end, the “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” artist smiles as the Florida native laughs and signals with her hands to the cameraperson to cut. “chewed me up so bad i didnt stand a bloody chance,” Pink wrote of her dance partner in her caption.
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And when fans in the comments couldn’t stop pointing out how much she towered over Doechii in the video, Pink added on X, “you guys didn’t know i was a whole 5”9 feet tall?!!!”
Both the dance-pop musician and rapper performed at H&M’s inaugural music festival in Los Angeles Wednesday (April 9), filming their TikTok together backstage. Uncle Waffles, Robyn, Jamie xx and SAILORR also took the stage.
The video comes a week after Pink dropped “Tonight,” which marks her first proper release since May 2024’s “Turn It Up.” The track has been taking off on social media thanks to the dance trend as well as a stylish regency era-inspired music video that earned praise from Charli XCX; “i love the new pinkpanthress video
Ja Rule stopped by The Breakfast Club recently to promote his rye whiskey company Amber & Opal and talked about the passing of his friend and mentor Irv Gotti. And of course, 50 Cent was brought up because he mocked Gotti after his death in a social media post. When asked about it, Rule admitted […]
Dissident Iranian composer Mehdi Rajabian is barred from leaving his country by its Islamic Republic government, but his work continues to gain traction in the West.
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On Sept. 17, André Bellmont, the conductor, composer, orchestrator and professor at the University of the Arts in Zurich, Switzerland, will conduct four of Rajabian’s pieces — “An Epitaph on the Tomb of Companions,” “Whip on a Lifeless Body,” “Murmur of the Naked Nun” and “Coup of Gods” — with the university’s orchestra at the Neumünster Church there. The concert will also include works by Hans Zimmer, Iranian singer and artist Parastoo Ahmadi, Swiss-Armenian multi-instrumentalist Valeri Tolstov’s Authentic Light Orchestra and Swiss-Iranian harpist Asita Hamidi.
“Mehdi is a real artist. A real artist will never compromise his own artistic vision and his believes, even when he has to sacrifice his own existence,” says Bellmont, who begins rehearsing the pieces on April 12. “One of the reasons why Mehdi was arrested in his home country is because he was writing music for a female voice. It seems quite strange that Mehdi’s music now will be performed in a western church. But we have to admit that our concert venue is a very appreciated place for acoustic jazz concerts, too.”
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Rajabian was arrested in 2013, put in solitary confinement for three months, released on bail and arrested again in 2015 for recording an album titled The History of Iran Narrated by Setar (a lute-like instrument used in traditional Persian music).
After his 2015 conviction, he says he was moved to Evin prison in Tehran — where, in 2016, he began a 40-day hunger strike that led to his release on parole in 2017. (He says that his three-year prison sentence, which was suspended, could be enforced at any time.) Rajabian was arrested again in 2020 but not imprisoned, because of his album Middle Eastern, which was released, but was part of a larger performance art project that involved dance, painting and a book that were not realized. The charges levied against him then were that he was “encouraging prostitution,” he says — because female vocalists, who are banned in Iran, sang on the album.
The long-term effects of Rajabian’s imprisonment and hunger strike took a toll on his health. “My body and soul have been damaged,” he told Billboard in 2021 after the release of his symphony, Coup of Gods, which was engineered by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. “I lost 15 kilograms of weight [33 pounds] and 40% of my vision and my joints swelled because of the hunger strike,” he explains. “I couldn’t even play an instrument on my album. I could only compose and arrange. I did it just to say that no power can stop the freedom of music.”
Rajabian tells Billboard this is the first time his music has been performed live. “I have never been able to have a concert in my life,” he says. “I will have to watch it remotely, but I am happy that the Islamic Republic cannot cancel the concert like the many concerts it cancels in Iran.
“André listened to my pieces and called me to say that he was planning to perform them,” he adds. “We spent about a year sending the scores back and forth to edit them.”
Bellmont says “there’s a big technical challenge in performing Mehdi’s music live,” explaining that “you need a modern recording session approach as applied in Peter Gabriel‘s New Blood Orchestra concert tour or in Snarky Puppy‘s studio performance with the Metropole Orkest. To figure this out with a tiny budget is quite tricky and gave me some headache during the last one-and-half years, but it gave me also the motivation and the kick to move forward and to realize this project.”
As a result of Rajabian’s several months of work with Bellmont, the university presented the Iranian composer with a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) which means further studies. Rajabian calls this “an important event” in his life because, “the Islamic Republic has banned me from studying.”
Recording Academy Chair of the Board of Trustees Tammy Hurt congratulates (L-R) Kali De Jesus, Kaitlin McGaw, Tommy Soulati Shepherd, Maya Fleming, Tommy Shepherd III of the Alphabet Rockers with the Best Children‚Music Album award for The Movement in the press room during the 65th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles.
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Rajabian is also moving outside his orchestral and New Age music comfort zone to work with the Oakland, Calif.-based BIPOC hip-hop family music group, Alphabet Rockers. Co-Leaders Tommy Soulati Shepherd & Kaitlin McGaw say Rajabian is helping with production on a song-in-progress called “Shades” that is intended for a “global” project by the Rockers, who won a Best Children’s Music Album Grammy in 2023 for The Movement.
“We strive to show solidarity with and amplification of those most marginally punished by the culture wars,” McGaw says. “We want to create communities that are rooted in belonging. That’s human rights at its core.”
“So, if we can give a musical home to Mehdi that is larger than four walls and larger than the nation, that’s a gift to everyone,” Shepherd adds.
“I had already listened to their music and followed their activities in the field of children’s awareness. The power of their singing attracted me a lot, it was full of technique and emotion,” Rajabian says. “I would like to do this new experience. I think something good will happen — an exciting album and different from the previous styles that I have experienced.”
Canadian singer-songwriter Bells Larsen is cancelling his forthcoming U.S. tour after the Trump administration made it impossible for him to travel in the country as a trans man.
In a lengthy post to his Instagram on Friday (April 11), Larsen revealed that, according to an email from the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), he would not be able to apply for a travel visa to the United States since his Canadian passport designates his gender rather than his biological sex.
“To put it super plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the States,” Larsen wrote. “I hesitate to include a ‘right now’ or an ‘anymore’ at the end of my previous sentence, because — in this sociopolitical climate — I truly don’t know which phrasing holds more truth.”
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Billboard has reached out to the AFM for comment.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS) announced at the beginning of April that they had updated their policy at the outset of April to only recognize biological sex on immigration forms, in accordance with the Trump administration’s executive order requiring travel documents (including passports and visas) to designate a person’s sex as assigned at birth.
In his post, Larsen admits that he was already feeling trepidatious about touring the U.S. amidst an onslaught of anti-trans initiatives being pursued by the current administration, especially when it came to the administration’s treatment of trans people crossing the border. “If random people are getting randomly questioned/stopped/detained at borders, how can I — as someone wanting to make money abroad by exhibiting my lived experience as a trans person — expect to pass go and get out of jail free?” he asked. “My plan was to tour with harm reduction in mind.”
Larsen said that after speaking with two separate immigration lawyers and the AFM, he decided that there was “no way to move forward” with his scheduled tour, despite his eagerness to see his U.S. fans. “This new policy has crushed my dreams,” he wrote. “I’m cradling a very broken heart and the realization that I don’t know if or when I will be able to tour in the States again.”
The singer-songwriter was set to bring his forthcoming new album Blurring Time stateside this June, with dates in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles throughout the month. The new LP deals extensively with Larsen’s experience transitioning while using vocal recordings from both before and after his transition (his “high” and “low” voices, as he calls them in a statement) to create harmonies between his former and current self. The latest single from that album, “Might,” was released on Wednesday (April 9).
“I was hoping that the album would help me break into the US music market and connect with cool, likeminded American musicians,” he wrote. “More than anything, thought, I just really wanted to perform my album for queer and trans people in the US who saw their stories reflected in my own.”
Bells Larsen’s new album Blurring Time drops on April 25 via Royal Mountain Records. Read his full statement on his cancelled U.S. tour below:
With Coachella weekend one upon us, today’s top music stars are dropping new hits to enjoy as fans head out to the desert or enjoy the spring weekend at home. To kick things off, Lana Del Rey dropped “Henry, Come On,” a new song in advance of upcoming album The Right Person Will Stay. When announcing The […]
This week in dance music: PinkPantheress shared the tracklist for her upcoming mixtape, we caught up with DJ Koze about his new album Music Can Hear Us, John Summit, Skrillex and more made moves on the dance charts, we spoke with Sherelle about her debut album With a Vengeance, Poolside shared their set from CRSSD spring 2025, Create Music Group acquired venerable indie electronic imprint !K7, IMS announced that it will honor dance world power agent Maria May with its Legends Awards at the event later this month in Ibiza and we chatted with Spanish psytrance star Indira Paganotto ahead of her Coachella debut this weekend.
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And in addition to all that, of course, these are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Charlotte de Witte, “The Realm”
Techno fans have been waiting a long time for this moment, with genre titan Charlotte de Witte this week releasing the first single from her forthcoming album — the first LP from her 15-plus year career. “The Realm” is just that, a windy, sleekly tough track that functions as a sort of space to move through, and in. “The lyrics capture the essence of what I believe music can do,” the Belgian producer says. “Techno, and by extension clubbing, has always been about more than just dancing for me. It’s about connection, transcendence and exploration. It’s a way of accessing something unseen, something powerful. There’s a tension and release in the structure that mirrors the feeling of letting go, of stepping into something bigger than yourself.”
De Witte’s eponymous 11-track LP is coming November 7 through her own Kntxt label. Ahead of that, she’s touring heavily across Europe, the U.S. and Asia this spring and summer.
Bob Moses, “Time of Your Life“
Bob Moses return with their first new music in three (!) years via “Time of Your Life,” a song the duo wrote in a few hours at their L.A. studio. In a joint statement they say “the song is about the devil on your shoulder. The one whispering to you to indulge in the moment and worry about everything else later. That impulsiveness can feel intoxicating. We felt that feeling in the moment, embraced it, and wrote the song from that perspective: throwing caution to the wind and having the time of your life.” While the theme seems to be fresh for them, the song itself is the classic plodding, sleek and sexy synthwave the pair have long been known for. Bob Moses will play the Do Lab stage tonight (April 11) at Coachella.
Röyksopp, True Electric
The latest album from Norway’s finest Röyksopp collects 19 studio versions of music from the duo’s 2023 True Electric tour in 2023, with an emphasis on the club-oriented elements of a catalog that goes back almost 25 years. True Electric also features a previously unreleased track, the oversized and deliciously cacophonous “The R.” Out on their own Dog Triumph label, the project also includes the previously released and very essential update to their 2014 Robyn collab “Do It Again,” among other favorites.
Walker & Royce, “Death By Love”
Walker & Royce have been longtime torch bearers for underground West Coast tech house, with their latest being one of their coolest contributions to date. Out on Insomniac Records, “Death By Love” is a textural multi-movement heater with a heft and style that makes it feel longer than its two minutes and 50 seconds. The L.A. duo will surely play it out a lot out on a spring and summer tour that includes dates at EDC Las Vegas, Movement, Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights, HARD Summer and Outside Lands.
Haai, “Shapeshift”
The latest from Haai slowly pulses to life, with a long burn intro built with the Australian producer’s own vocals and a repeated note that sounds like the sonar on a submarine. But oh, how it takes off. Lyrics from Kam-bu take the song into its second movement, with the London rapper stating “still don’t got love for cages, feel like we haven’t spoke in age” as the beat builds and the production takes a darker, clubbier turn and then takes off into sub-bass hyperspace around the 3:06 mark. Haii herself says the track is about the “duality of being both the person you are onstage and the person you are at home, in the normal world,” a theme that will play out when she plays Coachella twice this weekend, once on the Quasar stage and once in the Yuma Tent.
Ester Dean is responding after Keri Hilson expressed regret over her Dean-co-written “Turnin Me On (Remix)” aimed at Beyoncé.
The songwriter hopped on Instagram Thursday to clear the air after Hilson said during an interview with The Breakfast Club that the decision to shade Queen Bey on “Turnin’ Me On” negatively impacted her career. “It’s a regret,” Hilson said at the time, denying that she wrote the song and pointing to Dean’s pen instead.
Dean noted that her post is an “open letter” to Hilson and other creatives. “Back in July 2008, I started working with [producer] Polow Da Don in Atlanta,” she began. “Later, I moved to Los Angeles to write for Polow’s artist over at Interscope. I wasn’t famous. I wasn’t chasing clout. I was in the studio – day and night – writing 3 to 4 songs a day. No friends. No family. Just work.”
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She went on to rewrite some of the lyrics off the “Turnin’ Me On (Remix)”: “Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best/ You can dance, she can sing/ But she need to move it to the …,” which many believed to be in reference to Beyoncé’s 2006 hit “Irreplaceable.”
Those lyrics, Dean admitted in her open letter, were “tacky,” but not forced. “No. That was me. I wasn’t in the room with Keri writing this together,” she continued. “I didn’t know her personally. She was already a star. I was just a writer trying to earn my place. I did my job and left. Keri came in another time and wrote her own verse – her pen, her voice.”
Dean went on to clarify, “I didn’t work with Beyoncé until years later when I signed to Roc Nation as a writer. There was no ‘plot’ no ‘beef squad’. No secret industry mission. Just writers writing.”
She added: “Keri was already massive. She didn’t need saving. She was out here making history. Why Speak Now? Keri was speaking on big platforms I didn’t have access to – and it was her story to tell, not mine. I stayed writing. No hate. No shade. Just truth.”
Dean concluded her letter by noting that what Hilson went through was unfortunate. “She’s a great artist, a beautiful spirit, and she deserves grace,” the songwriter wrote. “She took her lessons. I’ll take mine.”
In Hilson’s aforementioned interview with The Breakfast Club, she said part of the blame belonged to Polow.
“I tried to fight him on it and I began writing my own,” the singer said. “The mistake that I made was not continuing to fight. But I was in tears, I was crying, I was adamant that I did not want to do that.”
Dean had previously come forward and issued her own apology on Wednesday (April 9) after Hilson’s interview, claiming the verse was “childish.” She wrote in what appears to be a now-deleted post: “I see how it hurt people, especially women, and I take full accountability.”
Check out Dean’s full response shared April 10 below.