Music News
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Rapper G$ Lil Ronnie and his 5-year-old daughter were killed in a double-shooting on Monday morning (March 3) in Texas. According to local affiliate Fox 4, Lil Ronnie (born Ronnie “Chuckie” Smith) and his daughter, R’Mani, were identified by family members as victims of the shooting at a car wash in Fort Hills. Police say […]
Following the devastating news of Carl Dean‘s death, Billy Ray Cyrus and his ex-wife, Tish Cyrus, are sending love to their longtime friend, Dolly Parton, who is mourning her husband. Parton announced his passing in a statement posted to Instagram on Monday (March 3), and both Billy Ray and Tish were among the countless celebrities […]
“New York, that’s Jamaica outside of Jamaica!” Vybz Kartel told Billboard in his January cover story. And in March, the Big Apple will be able to prove Worl’ Boss correct. On Monday (March 3), Kartel announced his first U.S. live performance in more than 20 years, set to take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, […]
The Big Ass Party will now begin before the official festivities kick off. Post Malone announced on Tuesday (March 4) that he will be hosting 10 free, open-to-the-public Travelin’ Tailgate parties at select dates on his upcoming summer Big Ass Stadium Tour. The events will offer fans with (or without) tickets an “unforgettable day of live music, great food, cold Bud Light, exclusive merch, carnival games, BIG ASS photo opportunities, and tattoos by Posty’s personal tattoo artists from Oxford Circle Tattoos,” according to a release announcing the stadium parking lot events.
In addition, one lucky fan will take home the ultimate door prize: a 2025 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
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The first tailgate event will take place on May 3 before the singer/rapper’s show that night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, followed by similar stops at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX (May 9), as well as darties in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Ridgedale, MO and Denver, with one last daylight blowout on June 21 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
The daytime throw downs (noon-6 p.m.) will feature a DJ, as well as sets from local artists, turning the parking lots into a “full-scale party.”
The tailgates will not take place on all the dates of the upcoming stadium swing featuring support from Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell. The following shows will not feature tailgates: the April 29 kick-off at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT, as well as the May 7 gig at the Alamodome in San Antonio, the May 13 stop at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, a May 20 show at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, the May 22 date at Wrigley Field in Chicago, a May 26 gig at Rogers Centre in Toronto, the May 28 show at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, PA, as well as a May 29 show at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
There will also be no tailgates at gigs at: Gillette Stadium (May 31, Foxborough, MA), Northwest Stadium (June 2, Washington, D.C.), CitiField (June 4, Queens, NY), Camping World Stadium (June 10, Orlando, FL), Albertsons Stadium (June 26, Boise, ID), T-Mobile Park (June 26, Seattle, WA), Providence Park (June 28, Portland, OR) and Oracle Park (July 1, San Francisco, CA).
See the dates and venues for the Travelin’ Tailgate parties below:
Fans still have to wait a few weeks to hear the songs on Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco‘s upcoming joint album, I Said I Love You First, but as of Tuesday (March 4), they at least get to know their titles.
The Only Murders in the Building star casually unveiled the tracklist to the 14-song project. Sharing a photo of her own hand holding up a piece of paper with the titles listed in a Polaroid frame, Gomez wrote, “Leaking some more details…”
“benny & I are so excited to reveal the official tracklist for our album,” she added.
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Arriving March 21, I Said I Love You First features previously released singles “Scared of Loving You” and “Call Me When You Break Up” featuring Gracie Abrams. And, as revealed by the Rare Beauty founder, the rest of the songs are called “I Said I Love You First,” “Younger and Hotter Than Me,” “Ojos Tristes,” “Don’t Wanna Cry,” “Sunset Blvd,” “Cowboy,” “Bluest Flame,” “How Does It Feel to Be Forgotten,” “Do You Wanna Be Perfect,” “You Said You Were Sorry”,” “I Can’t Get Enough” and “Don’t Take It Personally.”
The tracklist reveal comes just a few days after Gomez teased another one of the songs on the LP with a video on Instagram. Sitting in her car, she listened to a sultry dance track — which seemingly samples Cake’s 1998 Billboard Hot 100-charting hit “Never There” — and mouthed along to herself singing the lyrics, “I’ma call you daddy, ’cause I know you like that/ Go recharge your batteries, come back to me and make your momma proud.”
Gomez and Blanco got engaged in December, two months after which they announced I Said I Love You First on Valentine’s Day. In a recent interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the “Lose You to Love Me” singer described the project as “a little taste of what we are and how we made this together, and how much we loved it and how much we love each other.”
She added, “It just felt like it was meant to be.”
See Gomez’s announcement below.
Before they were one of the world’s most high-profile couples, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce kept things on the down low. And according to Wes Bergmann — who just so happens to live right next door to the tight end in Kansas City — the two stars were dating much longer than anyone realized before they ever made their public debut.
In fact, the Traitors season three contestant tried to tell his friend about the pair’s romance, but she didn’t believe him. While serving as a guest on a recent episode of The Social Game hosted by Michele Fitzgerald and Kellie Nalbandian, Bergmann opened up about being neighbors with Kelce, whom he called “an enigma,” and added, “On one end, he’s like this big tough football player, on the other end, he’s probably going to have like 12 Taylor Swift songs written about him.”
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“On that note, I was, like, the first person to know about any of this stuff,” Bergmann continued, referring to the 14-time Grammy winner and football player’s romance. “I tried to tell [Fitzgerald] a long time ago. ‘They’re together, just so you know.’ She didn’t believe it.”
Swift and Kelce first went public with their romance in September 2023, when the “Karma” singer attended her first of many Kansas City Chiefs games. It was the first time most of the world had any idea the two stars were together, but it wasn’t Bergmann’s. “I beat the validating of her showing up to games and stuff by, like, six months,” the reality competition star boasted on the podcast.
The Eras Tour headliner previously shed light on the timeline of her relationship with Kelce in her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year interview. According to her, they “started hanging out right after” the Grotesquerie star confessed he had a crush on her on his New Heights podcast the prior July.
“By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,” she added at the time. “I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”
A year and several months later, Tayvis is still going strong. Swift recently attended her second Super Bowl in a row to cheer on Kelce and the rest of the Chiefs. However, the 2024 champions lost this year to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Watch Bergmann open up about watching Swift and Kelce’s romance unfold next door below.
For the next few weeks, all Little Monsters can hear on channel 15 is radio Gaga. SiriusXM announced on Tuesday (March 4) that it will launch a channel dedicated to all things Lady Gaga in the lead-up to the release of the singer’s upcoming seventh studio album, Mayhem.
For the first time, Gaga will have her own pop-up channel on the service, Gaga Radio, which will be available to subscribers in their cars on channel 15 through March 17 and on the SiriusXM app through April 2.
“Blending the eclectic energy that first captivated her fans with a bold, fearless artistic vision, MAYHEM explores themes of chaos and transformation, celebrating music’s power to unite, provoke, and heal,” read a statement from SiriusXM. The channel will feature music hand-picked by the Oscar- and Grammy-winning superstar, in addition to behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the new album, songs from the LP as well as classics from some of the acts that have inspired Gaga, from David Bowie, Whitney Houston and Bruce Springsteen to Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, Madonna, Elton John, Queen, Tony Bennett and many more.
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SiriusXM released a few excerpts of Gaga’s stories about the new album and her inspirations, including one in which she admitted to feeling “afraid” to make Mayhem, which drops on Friday (March 7). “Mayhem came to be ultimately because [fiancé] Michael [Polansky] said, ‘You need to make a pop record,’ and he was right. I did, but I did not realize how afraid I was to make this record,” she said.
“I think I thought I didn’t have it in me, or the kind of music I started making earlier in my career was something that I’ve left behind, but you know, even in picking so much of the musicians and the songs for my SiriusXM radio channel, I realized that all of that stuff is still in me and it will never not be because those artists have like grown roots in my body,” Gaga added. “That music made me who I am, and that was part of Mayhem was like the fear going into it of, ‘I don’t want to do this, but I’m gonna do it,’ and then going in and all of those artists, all of their music and all of the things that I am, are very much alive.”
“Lady Gaga is a true innovator and trailblazer whose versatility and influence has shaped pop music as we know it today and the music industry as a whole,” said SiriusXM president and chief content officer Scott Greenstein in the statement. “We are thrilled to give Gaga’s dedicated fanbase a closer look into the making of her long-awaited seventh album MAYHEM as well as the music and experiences that have defined her as an artist.”
Check out some other clips of Gaga’s behind-the-scenes commentary below.
LISA still doesn’t know how she made it into BLACKPINK after her audition — for which she sang an iconic Rihanna hit — didn’t go quite as planned.
In a video interview with Wall Street Journal Magazine published Tuesday (March 4), the K-pop star reflected on her fateful try-out for the quartet that would make her famous. “I sang Rihanna’s song,” she said, singing a little bit of 2008 Billboard Hot 100-topper “Take a Bow” to herself before remembering which track it was.
“I was so nervous, I sang like … the lyrics were all over the place,” LISA added, smiling. “It was not right.”
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As for how she managed to make it into the YG Entertainment group alongside bandmates ROSÉ, JISOO and JENNIE despite goofing her audition, the Thai rapper said that she’s still unsure how she landed the gig. “I don’t know,” she told the publication, laughing. “I think maybe I was so unique, or I did something wrong, so they were like, ‘Oh, I remember this girl! She sang wrong lyrics.’”
Don’t let her messing up the lyrics fool you, though. LISA is a diehard fan of the Fenty mogul, telling WSJ Mag that Ri is her biggest inspiration — specifically for “her swag, her style, her music, her stage performance.” And her favorite Ri performance? “Bitch Better Have My Money” at the 2015 iHeartRadio Awards, the star revealed. “She came out of the helicopter, like, so cool.”
LISA’s interview with the publication — for which she’s also this month’s cover star — comes just a few days after the Feb. 28 release of her debut solo album, Alter Ego. The project was led by singles “Rockstar,” “New Woman” featuring Rosalía, “Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)” and “Born Again” with Doja Cat and RAYE, with whom the White Lotus star recently performed a medley of James Bond songs at the 2025 Oscars.
Later this year, LISA will reunite with the rest of BLACKPINK for a global tour, the ladies’ first trek since the 2022-23 Born Pink World Tour supporting their Billboard 200 No. 1 album of the same name. In her WSJ Magazine cover story, the “Money” artist reflected further on the years of work all four of the groupmates put in as YG trainees before they ever assembled as a foursome, with LISA revealing that — after about three and a half years of training with no end in sight — she almost lost hope of ever debuting as an artist.
“When you don’t see the future, your future is black, it’s blank, you’re not able to visualize it,” she told the publication. “It’s like you’ve lost your energy a bit.”
Watch LISA talk about her BLACKPINK audition below:
Tate McRae has a massive week on Billboard’s charts (dated March 8) thanks to the arrival of her new album, So Close to What.
Released Feb. 21 on RCA Records, the set soars in as her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 177,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (Feb. 21-27), according to Luminate.
McRae concurrently lands 11 songs from the album on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Sports Car” and “Revolving Door” in the top 40. Here’s a recap (all of which are debuts except where noted):
Rank, Title:
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No. 16, “Sports Car” (up from No. 57; new high)
No. 22, “Revolving Door”
No. 43, “I Know Love,” feat. The Kid LAROI
No. 44, “Dear God”
No. 53, “Purple Lace Bra”
No. 54, “Miss Possessive”
No. 64, “BloodOnMyHands,” feat. Flo Milli
No. 74, “Signs”
No. 76, “2 Hands” (re-entry; peaked at No. 41 in November)
No. 90, “Like I Do”
No. 99, “Greenlight”
The lead single from the album, “It’s OK I’m OK,” hit No. 20 on the Hot 100 in September and has since wrapped its run on the chart.
With nine debuts, McRae has now charted 21 total songs on the Hot 100 in her career. Of those, seven have reached the top 40 and one hit the top 10: “Greedy” climbed to No. 3 in January 2024.
McRae also places five songs from So Close to What on Billboard’s recently launched Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart. “Revolving Door” debuts at No. 1, becoming her second leader after “It’s OK I’m OK” became the list’s inaugural No. 1 in January. She additionally charts with “Miss Possessive” (No. 3), “It’s OK I’m OK” (No. 4), “BloodOnMyHands” (No. 5) and “No I’m Not in Love” (No. 7).
McRae also vaults from No. 38 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, becoming the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time. She joins Taylor Swift and SZA as the only women to lead the Artist 100 in 2025. In January 2021, McRae spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, thanks to the success of her breakthrough single, “You Broke Me First,” which reached No. 17 on the Hot 100.
The Artist 100 measures artists’ activity across key metrics of music consumption: album sales, track sales, radio airplay and streaming. Using a methodology comprising those metrics, the chart provides a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity. The Hot Dance Pop/Songs chart ranks the most popular current dance/pop titles, separate from Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, which focuses on producers and DJs.
The only thing scarier than performing a song by one of the coaches on The Voice to their faces is showing up for your Blind Audition round with an acoustic guitar and a tricky Taylor Swift song in your quiver. That didn’t stop 24-year-old Atlanta native Tori Templet from taking a runner on Swift’s 2019 ballad “Lover” on Monday night’s (March 3) show, where she earned quick chair-turns from Adam Levine and Michael Bublé and high praise from fellow judges Kelsea Ballerini and John Legend.
“I really like her tone,” Bublé said of Templet’s airy vocals as Ballerini swayed her head and Legend exhaled “whoo!” during the performance. It took less than a minute for Levine to punch his button, shortly followed by Bublé, who said “I gotta see her,” thumping his hands in rhythm as Ballerini responded “cool” to the singer’s final “my, my, my… lover” run.
Avowed Swiftie Ballerini gave Templet major props for making one of Taylor’s songs her own. “I feel like is one of the hardest feats,” she said. “And you have such a unique voice. I listened to that song differently and your voice made me do that. I will be your fan on this show.” Bublé praised Tori’s “beautiful… breathy…. sweet” voice, describing it as full of “dulcet, gorgeous tones. I just dig you,” the Great American Songbook interpreter said, adding that, selfishly, he’d like to hear he sing some jazz tunes by Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan.
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Legend also praised Templet’s unique tone, noticing that it almost has a whistle-like undertone to the full top note, getting super nerdy about the technical nature of her singing. “I was mesmerized by it. I thought it was super cool,” Legend said.
Levine went last, professing to be “blown away” by what he heard without seeing Templet, and then being even more intrigued when he saw her playing guitar as well. “I was like, ‘oh, great. Amazing, awesome. I play guitar too, it’s gonna be great.” Levine said. “The purity and simplicity in what you do is something that I think is really lacking.” He compared he voice to that of late Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, Sunday’s vocalist Harriet Wheeler and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval.
Excited that the Gen Z’er got his old school 1980s/90s references, Levine enthused, “that’s a lane that we get to have that gets to be ours.” It wasn’t all Christmas lights in January and giggling at dirty jokes, though, as Levine also pointed at a bum hight note that he said can easily be fixed, assuming she picked him.
Spoiler alert, after one more desperate plea from Bublé, Tori went with Team Adam.
Watch Templet’s performance below.