Music News
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April showers bring May flowers, along with a slew of new music releases from Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5 and LISA and more to start off the month right. On the first New Music Friday of May 2025, the British pop star followed up April’s “Azizam” with a nostalgic new single titled “Old Phone.” Both songs […]
Beyoncé had a surprise in store for the Beyhive at her Cowboy Carter Tour on Thursday (May 1). During her second of five nights at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., the superstar added a new medley to the setlist encompassing past hits such as “Crazy in Love,” “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” and […]
Westside Gunn has dropped off a surprise remix of “Egypt” featuring some fiery bars from Doechii. On Friday (May 2), Gunn unleashed the unexpected collaboration on the world, which made sense considering Doechii was technically on the original “Egypt” — or at least, her voice was. In the version of the track that appeared on […]
BigXThaPlug has teamed up with Amazon Music for an acoustic rendition of his song “Holy Ground” featuring Jessie Murph. On Friday (May 2), Amazon Music dropped off the acoustic version of the track, which was originally included on the deluxe edition of BigX’s sophomore effort, Take Care. The acoustic version was released as part of […]
The Black Keys top Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for the eighth time as “The Night Before” lifts a place to No. 1 on the May 10-dated tally. The duo notches its first leader since “Beautiful People (Stay High)” led for two weeks in March 2024. In between its latest No. 1s, the act hit No. […]
Neil Young is ready to roll again, but not if Elon Musk‘s company logo is on the hood. On his new song “Let’s Roll Again” released Friday (May 2), the rock star briefly takes aim at the billionaire’s electric car company amid lyrics imploring auto manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to build […]
At 62, Fito Páez maintains “the curiosity and desire” of the early years and an energy that doesn’t allow him to stop creating. Music above all, but also cinema and literature — passions he has been developing in parallel over the decades. And Novela, his latest album, might finally combine them all.
Created as a rock musical, the 25-song project — which Páez spent nearly 40 years writing and was finally released on March 28 under Sony Music Spain — tells the story of Villa Constitución, a town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, where a strange circus arrives to revolutionize the lives of its inhabitants. Through songs such as “Universidad Prix,” “Cuando el Circo Llega al Pueblo,” “Superextraño” and “El Triunfo del Amor,” its unique characters are introduced: the school’s dean, Rectitud Martirius; the witches Maldivina and Turbialuz; the young lovers Loka (daughter of the circus owner) and Jimmy (singer of a rock band) and more.
“We’re already speaking with many producers to film the movie once the tour finishes next year,” Páez tells In Conversation with Billboard Español in New York. “And I’m also beginning an adaptation [to] perform Novela live in full, where the audience can go and see a show that isn’t a musical — it’s the band playing the album and everything happening at once.”
The release comes the same year as the 40th anniversary of Giros, the second studio album in his expansive discography and the one that truly launched his career, with classics such as “11 y 6,” “Cable a Tierra” and “Yo Vengo a Ofrecer Mi Corazón.”
“It’s similar to a beach, Giros. It’s like having arrived, after wandering so much in the river or the sea, and saying, ‘Ah, I’ve made it here,’” he reflects on what the 1985 set meant to him. “There are many elements there that define many things about the place where I was raised, where I learned music, where I was loved, and where I was shaped. It’s an album I care for deeply, and I think it was a strong first step in the direction of searching for a more personal voice.”
In this new installment of En Conversación, the singer of hits such as “El Amor Después del Amor,” “Tumbas de la Gloria” and “Mariposa Tecknicolor” also discusses current events such as the immigration policies that have led fans to avoid attending concerts in the U.S. out of fear of deportation (“It’s horrifying,” he says. “It reminds me of when, back in ’78, we were chased out of Serú Girán concerts during the military dictatorship, and they threw us in jail”); and the ban on narcocorridos in some states in Mexico (“It’s a cultural expression born from lived experiences … and now it’s the singers’ fault! No, guys, it doesn’t work that way”).
Watch the full interview in the video above.
ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires — the upcoming fourth film in Disney‘s supernatural series — is all about the battle between light and dark, and we see that back-and-forth come to life with the debut of the new original song “The Place to Be” and its music video, premiering exclusively on Billboard.
The first single from the ZOMBIES 4 original soundtrack showcases Freya Skye as Nova, leader of the Daywalkers, and Malachi Barton as Victor, leader of the Vampires. Skye tries to convince Milo Manheim’s Zed that the “light side” is “The Place to Be,” while Victor lobbies Meg Donnelly’s Addison toward the “night side.”
ZOMBIES 4: DAWN OF THE VAMPIRES
Disney/Matt Klitscher
“The Place to Be” is one of nine new original songs (plus two reprises of earlier songs) on the Walt Disney Records soundtrack, which is now available for pre-order (all pre-orders include an instant download of “Place”). A Music from ZOMBIES green vinyl album will be released on July 11 and is also available for pre-order.
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Below, watch “The Place to Be” music video and find the full track list for the ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires original soundtrack.
• “Legends In The Making” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, Kylee Russell
• “The Place to Be” – Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “Dream Come True (Intro)” – Performed by Freya Skye, Malachi Barton
• “Don’t Mess With Us” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, Kylee Russell, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “Dream Come True” – Performed by Freya Skye, Malachi Barton
• “Kerosene” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, Kylee Russell, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “My Own Way” – Performed by Freya Skye
• “Possible” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, Kylee Russell, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “Someday (Reprise)” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly
• Show the World – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, Kylee Russell, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “Ain’t No Doubt About It (Reprise)” – Performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly
• “Together as One” – Performed by Meg Donnelly, Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner, Mekonnen Knife
• “Score Suite” – Performed by Tom Howe
ZOMBIES 4: DAWN OF THE VAMPIRES
Disney
The soundtracks for the first three ZOMBIES movies all hit the top five on both Billboard‘s Kid Albums and Soundtracks charts, with the original film’s album spending 10 weeks at No. 1 on Kid Albums and the most recent soundtrack spending two weeks atop the chart.
ZOMBIES 4 premieres July 10 on Disney Channel and streams starting July 11 on Disney+.
Beyoncé had the whole family — including the the tens of thousands of Beyhive members at the second show of her Cowboy Carter Tour — congratulate Tina Knowles on her recent accomplishment Thursday night (May 1).
In a sweet moment from the performance at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer is joined on stage by her mom, whose memoir, Matriarch, debuted this week atop the New York Times nonfiction hardcover bestsellers list. Standing with an arm around her mom and joined by her own daughters, 13-year-old Blue Ivy and 7-year-old Rumi, Bey first praises the author for “working so hard on her book.”
“She has the No. 1 book on the New York Times bestsellers,” the 35-time Grammy winner continues proudly as Rumi jumps up and down excitedly, prompting big sister Blue to lovingly shush her. “Everybody, please say, ‘Congratulations, Mama T.’ One, two, three!’”
Trending on Billboard
As the crowd indulges Bey’s request, Tina blows a kiss before exiting the stage with her granddaughters, holding Rumi’s hand.
The day prior, the Destiny’s Child alum had also personally congratulated her mom with a post on Instagram. “The Mama T was that good??” Bey wrote Wednesday (April 30). “You deserve it, I’m so proud!”
Tina’s achievement comes a little over a week after Matriarch hit shelves, giving fans an intimate look into her life raising one of music’s biggest stars as well as the designer’s battle with breast cancer in 2024. In addition to NYT‘s nonfiction hardcover bestsellers, the book is also No. 1 on the publication’s combined print and E-book nonfiction list.
Thursday’s performance marked the second of five shows slated for SoFi, after which Bey will travel around the United States and Europe through the end of July. The Cowboy Carter Tour kicked off three nights prior on April 28, featuring cameos from both Blue and Rumi during “Protector.”
Watch Bey’s Cowboy Carter Tour crowd join her in congratulating Mama T below.
98 Degrees knows what you want. The long-running boy band has made heart-melting ballads its calling card since signing to Motown Records in the late 1990s.
Now, the quartet featuring brothers Nick and Drew Lachey and bandmates Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre are preparing to release their first non-Christmas album in more than a decade, Full Circle (May 9) — and to hear Nick tell it, Taylor Swift kind of had something to do with it.
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“She [Swift] was definitely an inspiration to us, and probably to a lot of musicians out there who felt like they just didn’t have ownership of their own creativity, of their own career to an extent,” says Nick, 51, in a recent group Zoom call with his bandmates about their decision to include six “98°’s Version” updates of their biggest hits on the album. The move follows Swift’s decision in 2021 to begin issuing “Taylor’s Version” remakes of (to date) four of her most iconic albums following the sale of the masters of her first six albums to former Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun.
Trending on Billboard
“We were certainly inspired by her to do it, to great success and acclaim [and] we felt it was the right time in our career to make that move and take some ownership back over the songs that have paved the way for our success over the years,” says Lachey of the band, which had a hand in writing a number of the songs on their initial four-album run from 1997-2000. Admittedly, like Swift’s re-records, the fresh 98 takes don’t sound radically different, and Timmons, also 51, says that was the point.
“We decided we wanted to keep them true to their original form that people fell in love with,” he says of the spruced-up recordings of their Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hits “I Do (Cherish You)” (No. 13), “Invisible Man” (No. 12), “Because of You” (No. 3), “The Hardest Thing” (No. 5) and “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)” (No. 2).
“Over the past 20-plus years we’ve developed vocally in different ways, but we wanted to keep the songs with the integrity of the originals, because that’s what people fell in love with,” says Timmons, admitting that sometimes fans will give them feedback if the group messes around with the arrangements or melodies of its top hits. “We wanted them to sound almost exactly like the originals.” He also stresses that there was “no dispute” with former label group Universal Records that led to the decision, but rather a desire to have more control over how and where their most cherished songs appear.
“Some of the things that started irritating me was if I wanted to use my own music, our own music on a video post, Universal striking my own post for copyright infringement… it’s our own songs!” Timmons says. Like with the Swift remakes, Nick Lachey says he thinks it would be “great” if these new takes become the standard versions for their fans.
In addition to the revamps, the album features the first new non-holiday songs from the guys since their 2013 2.0 album. Again knowing their lovestruck lane and happy to hang out in it, they say the five ballads are 100% fan service. The album kicks off with the mid-tempo bubbler, and recently released single, “Stranger Things (Have Happened).” The bouncy pop tune was inspired by Netflix blockbuster Stranger Things and, like that show, it employs vintage synths alongside the quartet’s signature interwoven vocal melodies.
The classically keening 98 ballad, “Got U,” was co-written by Nick along with Soulshock & Karlin (Usher, Whitney Houston) with Alex Cantrall (JoJo) and produced By Anders Bagge (Madonna, Jennifer Lopez), while “Same Mistake” and “Tremble” are heartbreaking tales of regret over the one(s) that got away.
One of the most intriguing fresh cuts is “Mona Lisa,” which plumbs the mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci’s smiling painting in a super 98 Degrees way. “A portrait of a fairytale/ So we cover canvas like/ The colors mask the pain/ We only ever let them see/ The picture that we paint,” they sing before the uplifting chorus, “Is Mona Lisa smiling, or is there pain in her eyes/ Is it just an illusion?/ What is she hiding behind?/ Was she trying to put on a show?/ Not let Leonardo know/ That in between the cracks of the brush strokes/ Lies the truth only Mona Lisa knows.”
That song also features additional vocals from Filipino vocalist Janine Teñoso in what Timmons says is a nod the one of two territories where the band first broke nearly 30 years ago; the other one is Canada. “We didn’t break in the U.S. right away… and we wanted to get back into the Philippines because we knew we were going to tour there,” he says of the band’s upcoming first shows in the country that has been a stalwart supporter for decades.
The album also spotlights another team-up with a Filipina singer, Katrina Velarde, on a Taglish version of “I Do (Cherish You),” which should get the crowds on their feet when the guys perform in Manila on May 30 and 31. “They love love songs there [in the Philippines], it’s a very passionate, romantic culture and when we’ve been there we also noticed everyone can sing, really well! Like even the valet at the hotel!” Timmons says.
Listen to some of the new mixes and a preview of “Stranger Things (Have Happened) ” below.