State Champ Radio Music News
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Trending on Billboard The surviving members of KISS paid tribute to their late bandmate Ace Frehley during the opening performance of their three-day KISS Kruise: Landlocked in Vegas on Friday (Nov. 14). Before launching into the “unmasked” set, Paul Stanley shared heartfelt words about the late Spaceman, who died at age 74 in October. “Obviously, […]
Todd Snider, a singer whose thoughtfully freewheeling tunes and cosmic-stoner songwriting made him a beloved figure in American roots music, has died. He was 59.
His record label said Saturday (Nov. 15) in a statement posted to his social media accounts that Snider died Friday.
“Where do we find the words for the one who always had the right words, who knew how to distill everything down to its essence with words and song while delivering the most devastating, hilarious, and impactful turn of phrases?” the statement read. “Always creating rhyme and meter that immediately felt like an old friend or a favorite blanket. Someone who could almost always find the humor in this crazy ride on Planet Earth.”
Snider’s family and friends had said in a Friday statement that he had been diagnosed with pneumonia at a hospital in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and that his situation had since grown more complicated and he was transferred elsewhere. The diagnosis came on the heels of the cancellation of a tour after Snider had been the victim of a violent assault in the Salt Lake City area, according to a Nov. 3 statement from his management team.
But Salt Lake City police later arrested Snider himself when he at first refused to leave a hospital and later returned and threatened staffers, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The scrapped tour was in support of his most recent album, High, Lonesome and Then Some, which released in October. Snider combined elements of folk, rock and country in a three-decade career. In reviews of his recent albums, The Associated Press called him a “singer-songwriter with the persona of a fried folkie” and a “stoner troubadour and cosmic comic.”
He modeled himself on — and at times met and was mentored by — artists like Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark and John Prine. His songs were recorded by artists including Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Tom Jones. And he co-wrote a song with Loretta Lynn that appeared on her 2016 album, Full Circle.
“He relayed so much tenderness and sensitivity through his songs, and showed many of us how to look at the world through a different lens,” the Saturday statement from his label read. “He got up every morning and started writing, always working towards finding his place among the songwriting giants that sat on his record shelves, those same giants who let him into their lives and took him under their wings, who he studied relentlessly.”
Snider would do his best-known and most acclaimed work for Prine’s independent label Oh Boy in the early 2000s. It included the albums New Connection, Near Truths and Hotel Rooms and East Nashville Skyline, a 2004 collection that’s considered by many to be his best.
Those albums yielded his best known songs, “I Can’t Complain,” “Beer Run” and “Alright Guy.”
Snider was born and raised in Oregon before settling and making his musical chops in San Marcos, Texas. He eventually made his way to Nashville, and was dubbed by some the unofficial “mayor of East Nashville,” assuming the title from a friend memorialized thusly in his “Train Song.” In 2021, Snider said a tornado that ripped through the neighborhood home to a vibrant arts scene severely damaged his house.
Snider had an early fan in Jimmy Buffett, who signed the young artist to his record label, Margaritaville, which released his first two albums, 1994’s Songs for the Daily Planet and 1996’s Step Right Up.
Trending on Billboard Pop girlies Hilary Duff, Meghan Trainor and Katy Perry have been busy in the studio and made a return. Hilary Duff dropped “Mature” and is going on tour, Meghan Trainor dropped her new single “STILL DON’T CARE,” and Katy Perry surprise-dropped “bandaids.” Watch as we go through all their new releases, their […]
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Edgar Barrera, composer and 24-time Latin Grammy winner, says that finding the next hit is a rush of adrenaline. He recently sent Carín León a song that he’s incredibly excited about.
Edgar Barrera: I think it’s the result of a whole year of a lot of work. A few days ago, we were talking about that, about how I keep a calendar where I schedule all my sessions and log the songs I write every day. On my way here, I was looking at the calendar. Everything in it, it’s just packed. I’d turn the page and see the whole month, and every single day there would be one song, two songs, sometimes even three songs created in a single day.
I think it’s something people don’t often see. They don’t see the effort and work that happens behind the scenes. So, when these nominations come out, when I receive ten nominations, it’s because I’m in the studio all day, almost every day, writing one, two, or even three songs daily, just like I’m telling you. Every week, every month, I collaborate with different artists like Peso Pluma, Frontera, Carín León, just last week, I was working with Carín León. It’s this crazy pace. I was with Carín for three days, and in that short time, we recorded seven songs. It’s a result of relentless effort, I think.
Seven songs in how much time?
In just three days. Actually, there were nine songs. Two of them were pre-written, and together we created seven more during those days.
Incredible. Honestly, the process of creating songs seems so fascinating to me—the way you guys handle it. But obviously, when you first started teaching and sharing your songs, how many songs did you already have?
When I began sharing my songs? Well, I’ve always written music. I’ve been making music since I was around fourteen or fifteen years old, just writing and writing. It’s something I’ve been passionate about for a long time.
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Amyl and The Sniffers turned a last-minute cancellation into an unforgettable night for Melbourne’s live-music community on Friday, after their free all-ages show at Federation Square was shut down minutes before they were due to take the stage.
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The Aussie rockers, who had been set for a triumphant hometown performance, redirected their entire AU$5,000 performance fee to seven local venues — a gesture that quickly grew into a AU$35,000 bar tab shared across some of the city’s most beloved rooms.
According to ABC Australia, the gig was halted after multiple breaches of the security barrier raised concerns about crowd safety. The Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation said the decision “wasn’t made lightly,” citing risks to the audience, staff, and the band. Fans watching the livestream were stunned as the plug was pulled just eight minutes before showtime.
Rather than let the night end there, frontwoman Amy Taylor posted a video explaining the cancellation before announcing the band would give the money back to local venues that helped launch their career.
“Have a drink on us,” Taylor said in the video posted to social media over the weekend, which has since clocked more than 1 million views. “Just have some fun tonight.”
Tabs were immediately placed at local haunts The Tote, The Curtin, The Old Bar, Labour in Vain, Hell’s Kitchen, Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, and Cherry Bar, where fans flocked from across the city after the news spread on social media. Several venues reported packed rooms, lines down the street, and tabs running dry within hours.
The moment arrives during one of the biggest years of the band’s career. Their 2024 album Cartoon Darkness debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart and later landed in the U.K. top 10. It also collected major honors at the 2025 AIR Awards, including Independent Album of the Year and Best Independent Punk Album or EP. The band is up for multiple ARIA Awards this year — including Album of the Year and Best Group — marking a new peak in their national profile.
Their international momentum has accelerated, too. Amyl and The Sniffers earned a Grammy nomination earlier in 2025 and are nominated at the Brit Awards for International Group of the Year. They also joined AC/DC for a run of Australian stadium dates in November, cementing a milestone for a band that cut its teeth in the same small rooms they helped support on Friday night.
Friday’s bar-tab blowout underscored the deep roots Amyl and The Sniffers maintain in Melbourne’s grassroots scene, even as their profile accelerates worldwide. For many fans who raced between venues to claim a drink, the night became an instant chapter in the city’s music mythology — a chaotic, communal celebration born from a disappointment that could have easily overshadowed a landmark homecoming.
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C.J. Wallace, son of The Notorious B.I.G., has countersued for defamation after a Florida music producer and publicist accused him of participating in a sexual assault with Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Jonathan Hay filed a lawsuit this summer claiming that while working on a remix project with the Biggie estate in 2020, Wallace and an associate brought him to a house where Combs forced him to perform oral sex. The case also alleged multiple other instances of sexual misconduct by Combs, who’s faced a barrage of civil assault lawsuits since being criminally charged last year.
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Wallace is now hitting back at Hay with a countersuit in which he calls the allegations a “calculated smear campaign.” The federal court complaint, filed Wednesday (Nov. 12), alleges Hay fabricated these claims because he was upset about their remix project falling through.
The countersuit alleges the estate decided to shelve the project — a house remix of Biggie’s 1994 album Ready to Die, called Ready to Dance — after the first single (a remix of “Big Poppa”) flopped in August 2020. Wallace says Hay was “irate” at this decision and later came up with a phony story about the alleged Combs assault.
“The statements constitute defamation,” writes Wallace’s attorney, Jeremiah Reynolds of Eisner LLP. “As a direct and proximate result, Wallace has suffered general and special damages, including loss of professional opportunities, humiliation and mental anguish.”
Wallace’s defamation claims don’t actually target Hay’s sexual assault lawsuit, since legal filings are broadly shielded from slander liability under a principle known as the litigation privilege. Instead, Wallace’s case focuses on an October YouTube video in which Hay repeated and described his claims in detail.
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While Hay’s assault lawsuit was filed anonymously, he revealed his identity in this video, titled “Jonathan Hay Details EXACTLY What Happen When Diddy A$$AULTED Him, Forced to S*CK D*CK & VlOLATED!”
Hay declined to comment on the countersuit when reached by Billboard on Friday (Nov. 14), but noted that he’s filed a police report in addition to the pending civil lawsuit against Combs and Wallace.
Combs’ reps did not immediately return a request for comment on the matter. The disgraced rap mogul is serving a prison sentence for arranging drug-fueled sex marathons between his girlfriends and male escorts, though he was acquitted of more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges at a blockbuster trial this summer.
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Megan Moroney cracks the top 10 of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for a third time, as “6 Months Later” rises 11-10 on the ranking dated Nov. 22, up 6% to 18.3 million in audience Nov. 7-13, according to Luminate.
The track, which Moroney co-wrote with Rob Hatch, David Mescon and Ben Williams, brings the Georgian back to the Country Airplay top 10 just shy of, well, six months later, after her “Am I Okay?” hit No. 2 in June. She first reached tier with her debut entry, “Tennessee Orange” (No. 4, June 2023).
Dating to her first week in the Country Airplay top 10 in May 2023, Moroney ties Ella Langley for the second-most top 10s among women. Only Lainey Wilson has more in that span, with five. Six other women have notched one each in that stretch: Priscilla Block (“You, Me & Whiskey,” with Justin Moore); Ashley Cooke (“Your Place”); Dasha (“Austin”); Jessie Murph (“High Road,” with Koe Wetzel); Carly Pearce (“We Don’t Fight Anymore,” with Chris Stapleton); and Carrie Underwood (“I’m Gonna Love You,” with Cody Johnson).
Meanwhile, Moroney’s “Beautiful Things” picks up traction further down the latest list, climbing 39-37 (3.2 million, up 15%). Both “6 Months Later” and “Beautiful Things” will appear on Cloud 9, her third studio album, due Feb. 20.
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Cody Johnson & The Rockin’ CJB arrive at No. 57 on Country Airplay with a cover of The Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier” (1.2 million). The song, written and first recorded by Bruce Robison, has been part of Johnson’s live set for several years; he initially recorded it during a 2020 livestream before it became a frequent crowd request, prompting a new studio version released Nov. 7, just ahead of Veterans Day (Nov. 11).
The Chicks’ version of the song topped Country Airplay for a week in March 2003, becoming their sixth and most recent leader (a run halted soon after when, as since dissected in-depth, the group’s Natalie Maines spoke out against then-U.S. president George W. Bush).
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La Mar Taylor has been named the first-ever Billboard Canada 40 Under 40 Visionary Award honouree. It’s a recognition of the work he’s done over more than a decade with The Weeknd, and the impact he’s had on Toronto’s creative community.
This summer, Taylor stood inside a packed Rogers Centre watching The Weeknd’s sixth sold-out hometown show. For him, it felt like a full-circle moment. He and Abel Tesfaye met as teenagers in Scarborough, dropped out of school together and built their careers from scratch. Taylor shot the cover of House of Balloons, helped shape the early XO era and has been behind the creative direction of The Weeknd’s albums, videos, tours and even the Super Bowl halftime show.
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The After Hours Til Dawn Tour, now the biggest R&B tour in history, is the latest chapter in that run. Taylor says the aim is always to push ideas further than the last project.
Outside of XO, he co-founded HXOUSE, a Toronto incubator offering space, mentorship and community for young creatives. He’s vocal about the challenges facing Canadian talent but believes persistence and strong ideas can still break through.
Taylor will receive the Visionary Award at the Billboard Canada 40 Under 40 event at the W Toronto on November 20.
Read the full interview here. — Richard Trapunski
Cameron Whitcomb’s Country Hit ‘Options’ Rises on Billboard Canadian Hot 100
Cameron Whitcomb is hitting a new peak.
After nine weeks on the chart, the Canadian country singer’s track “Options” rises 69-64 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, dated Nov. 15.
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“Options” is an energetic folk anthem from Whitcomb. It describes his sobriety journey, and finds Whitcomb reflecting on the various paths he could take.
“I won’t but I could / pull that bottle off that shelf / it helps me cope knowing I could be that version of myself,” he sings, supported by powerful backing vocals that lift him up along the way.
The B.C.-native is having a major year. Whitcomb first broke out as a contestant on American Idol in 2022, and has since landed four straight singles on the Canadian Hot 100 — all before his debut full-length album, The Hard Way. It’s an impressive track record for a young artist at this stage.Read more on the chart feat here. — Heather Taylor-Singh
Live Nation Report Finds Canadians Prefer Live Music as Favourite Form of Entertainment
When it comes to entertainment, Canadians prefer live music.
In a new report by Live Nation, titled Living for Live, they found that nearly four in 10 people (37%) would choose live music as their preferred form of entertainment, ranking higher than both sports and movies.
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Based on a survey of 40,000 people across 15 countries, the report captures a shift in how people spend their time, express their identities and connect with others through live music experiences.
The report noted that fans in Canada build their livelihoods around live music — 83% said a concert is one of their most memorable life moments, while 72% claimed to plan their calendars early to catch a certain artist’s show.
Live music is a major part of the Canadian music industry. Earlier this year, the Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) revealed that live music contributes billions to the Canadian economy — $10.92 billion in 2023 — to be exact.
However, it’s not just consumers who are reaping the benefits. Two years ago, live music in Canada produced $3.73 billion in tax dollars and generated more than 101,640 jobs, contributing $5.84 billion in labour income.
Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh
Trending on Billboard Monica has declared that Chris Brown is the greatest entertainer left on earth. In a conversation on Instagram shared Thursday (Nov. 13), Monica said she had to hop on to shout out Breezy and thank her supporters for coming out to a recent The Boy Is Mine tour stop in Charlotte, North […]
Trending on Billboard Wicked fans just got their first glimpse at what Cynthia Erivo‘s take on fan-favorite Elphaba number “No Good Deed” will sound like — but not in the way they might have expected. On Friday (Nov. 14), the Tony winner appeared in a video with Misty Copeland for a “reimagined” take on the […]
