State Champ Radio Music News
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Trending on Billboard Our Billboard chart experts break down whether Joji’s “Pixelated Kisses,” Tame Impala’s “Dracula,” or Chris Brown and Usher’s recent remix collab on “It Depends (Remix)” can make big moves on the Billboard Hot 100 chart next week. Tetris Kelly Some new bombshells entered the top 10 last week. But who’s next? Can […]
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What happens when two Oscar-winning Wednesday stars join forces? They come up with a hilarious ASMR video perfectly timed to Spooky Season.
On Halloween (Oct. 31), Netflix took to X to share a silly ASMR video clip featuring Lady Gaga and Catherine Zeta-Jones trying their hand at the viral content style. Set in a Wednesday-esque room, complete with moody lighting and adorned with props including dead roses, a gold candelabra, a black violin and faux poison, Gaga and Zeta-Jones sit behind a table and whisper into a microphone, aiming to help viewers relax.
“I think because this is Wednesday, we should say dark words like ‘death,’ ‘coffin,’ ‘cemetery,’” Gaga said while rubbing dead rose petals into the microphone, before Zeta-Jones added “Pugsley,” referring to Wednesday’s brother in the series.
While Gaga earned her Academy Award for best original song for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, Zeta-Jones earned her statuette for best supporting actress thanks to her work in 2002’s Chicago. The “Abracadabra” singer referenced the latter film in the ASMR clip, joking, “Snap! Pop!” after plucking a petal off the rose. Once Zeta-Jones joined in with “Six,” the two stars finished the iconic opening lines of “Cell Block Tango,” a standout number from the six-time Oscar-winning film.
Outside of their Oscars and affinity for musicals, Gaga and Zeta-Jones also bonded over their same-named husbands in the Halloween ASMR clip. After mentioning that her fiancé (and Mayhem co-writer) Michael Polansky was from Minnesota, Zeta-Jones responded, “My Michael’s from Hollywood,” speaking of her husband Michael Douglas. “Your Michael is so sexy,” Gaga quipped, with Zeta-Jones replying, “I’d love to meet your Michael; I’m sure he’s just as sexy as my Michael.” Always one to laud a fellow powerful woman, Gaga said, “He would love to meet you. He may never come back!”
The duo’s Halloween ASMR clip arrives the month after the conclusion of Wednesday season 2. After scoring a surprise viral hit with “Bloody Mary” thanks to the Netflix series’ first season, Gaga appeared in the second season as Rosaline Rotwood, which gave way to “The Dead Dance,” he most recent Billboard Hot 100 entry (No. 40). As Zeta-Jones is prepping upcoming films like Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, in which she’s set to star alongside Charli xcx and Jenna Ortega, Gaga is wrapping up the European leg of her Mayhem Ball Tour.
Watch Lady Gaga and Catherine Zeta-Jones try their hands at ASMR below.
Trending on Billboard Taylor Swift fans are a powerful bunch. And in a situation where millions of Americans risked going hungry with the potential halt of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the group is using that power for good. On Friday (Oct. 31), the Swifties for Hope account on X shared an announcement encouraging […]
Trending on Billboard NLE Choppa, who’s now going by NLE the Great, came out guns blazing on Halloween with his bristling “KO” diss track, and it appears he’s looking to make things spooky for NBA YoungBoy. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Choppa released an accompanying video that’s equally inspired by 2Pac and Michael […]
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A judge has rejected Tory Lanez’s latest attempt to avoid sitting for a deposition in litigation stemming from his alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.
Lanez (Daystar Peterson), who’s serving a 10-year prison sentence for allegedly shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument, is a begrudging witness in her civil defamation lawsuit against gossip blogger Milagro Gramz. The Houston rapper (Megan Pete) claims Lanez is paying Gramz (Milagro Cooper) to spread falsehoods about the incident and the 2022 trial.
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Lanez’s lawyers claim deposition testimony could hurt the Canadian rapper’s ongoing appeal of his criminal shooting conviction. But Judge Lisette M. Reid says in a Thursday (Oct. 30) order that it’s “unclear” how that’s possible.
“The focus of Mr. Peterson’s deposition is his relationship with defendant Cooper, not with plaintiff,” writes the judge. “Thus, the court does not see how testimony regarding Mr. Peterson’s communications and relationship with defendant would serve to prejudice his criminal appeal.”
Judge Reid says Lanez must be deposed, and he can assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination “on a question-by-question basis, the propriety of which will be decided by the undersigned who will be supervising the deposition.”
Reps for Megan and Lanez did not return requests for comment on Friday (Oct. 31).
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Megan’s attorneys have been attempting to depose Lanez for months. Lanez’s first deposition was held at the jail in April, but he was so uncooperative that the questioning had to be stopped after just 44 minutes.
Lanez was held in contempt for this behavior and ordered to sit for a second deposition, this time under a judge’s supervision. He showed up to the courthouse on Sept. 15 with a new lawyer, Crystal Morgan, who this time asserted that Lanez wouldn’t answer any questions at all due to concerns about the appeal.
A third attempt at Lanez’s deposition will be held “at a date agreed upon by all parties,” wrote Judge Reid, who says she may order Lanez to repay Megan’s lawyers for the time they’ve expended on the back and forth.
The deposition battle comes as a Nov. 17 trial date is fast approaching in Megan’s lawsuit against Gramz. The rapper says Gramz has been posting lies about Lanez’s shooting trial, including false information that the gun in question went “missing,” to undermine the guilty verdict and ruin her reputation. Gramz denies any wrongdoing and says all of her social media activity is First Amendment-protected free speech.
Lanez hasn’t been the only difficult witness in the case. Two of his close allies — legal advocate Ceasar McDowell and blogger DJ Akademiks — have also been accused of derailing their depositions with disruptive behavior.
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Coco Jones and Paris Hilton may have drawn inspiration from iconic music videos and Broadway musicals for their costumes this year, but Halloween weekend 2025 is also about new music.
Florence + The Machine returned with its first new album in three years, the aptly titled Everybody Scream, which features production from Aaron Dessner and Mark Bowen. Offset also shared his surprise new spooky season-themed Haunted by Fame project, while Mass Appeal unveiled its highly anticipated posthumous Big L album.
Hailing from Harlem, the late rapper, who was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in 1999, released only one album during his lifetime, but his impact and influence still live on in hip-hop today. A part of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It… album series, Big L’s Harlem’s Finest: Return of the King features unreleased remastered tracks and rare freestyles, including collaborations with Jay-Z, Nas and Joe Budden.
This year, Halloweekend also brought a new OutKast re-release. The ATL rap duo shared a 25th anniversary edition of their classic Stankonia album, complete with previously unreleased tracks and new remixes. The world of hip-hop also spun out new projects from Westside Gunn (Heels Have Eyes 3), Armani White (There’s A Ghost In My House), Kodak Black (Just Getting Started), Saba (Coffee!) and Icewear Vezzo (Purple Passion).
New singles also arrived from Brent Faiyaz (“Have To”), Tyler, The Creator (“Mother”), Omarion (“For War”), Rosalía (“Berghain”), Russell Dickerson and Jonas Brothers (“Happen to Me”), and Lee Brice (“Killed the Man”). In addition to Taylor Swift‘s new “Alone In My Tower” version of “The Fate of Ophelia,” we also got new Halloweekend singles from Jai’Len Josey, Lola Brooke, Lil Baby, The Chainsmokers, and Jessie J.
London indie pop singer Cat Burns also released her How to Be Human LP, and Pentatonix shared their latest holiday album, Christmas in the City, which features collaborations with Jojo and Frank Sinatra.
There’s a lot of new music to squeeze into your Halloween playlists, but Billboard still wants to know which new release you can’t take off repeat. Tell us by casting your vote in the poll below.
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Music Artists Coalition (MAC), a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for music creators, has responded to Universal Music Group’s new AI deal with Udio, asking questions about how artists will be compensated. “We’re cautiously optimistic but insistent on details,” said Jordan Bromley, leader at Manatt Entertainment and board member of MAC, in a press release put out by MAC on Friday (Oct. 31).
The UMG-Udio deal, which was announced Wednesday night (Oct. 29), is multifaceted. First, it involves a “compensatory” legal settlement for UMG, which sued Udio last summer, along with the other major music companies, for copyright infringement of their sound recordings during Udio’s training process. (Sony and Warner’s lawsuit against Udio is ongoing.)
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It also provides go-forward licensing agreements for UMG’s recorded music and publishing assets, which is said to open up a new revenue stream for the company and its signees who decide to opt in. Those artists and songwriters who participate will be compensated for both the training process of the AI model and for its outputs, according to a source close to the deal.
As part of the agreement, Udio plans to pivot its offerings significantly. In 2026, the company will launch a new platform “powered by new cutting-edge generative AI technology that will be trained on authorized and licensed music. The new subscription service will transform the user engagement experience, creating a licensed and protected environment to customize, stream and share music responsibly, on the Udio platform.” This will include new tools that let fans remix, mashup and create songs in the style of participating UMG artists. It will also allow fans to use UMG artist voice models.
Opting into the Udio deal is not a one-size-fits-all approach. According to a recent interview with Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez about the deal, the company “[has] built and invested an absolutely enormous amount into controls. Controls over how artists’ songs can be used, how their styles can be used, really granular controls…One of the things that you’ll see is we’re going to launch with a set of features that has a spectrum of freedom that the artist can control.”
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One area that Sanchez and UMG’s announcement about the deal did not provide clarity on was how exactly participating artists will be compensated. This is why MAC put out a press release on Friday (Oct. 31) asking exactly what is going on — and noting the organization is only “cautiously optimistic” about the agreement.
As Irving Azoff, top artist manager, entrepreneur, board member and founder of MAC, put it in the announcement: “Every technological advance offers opportunity, but we have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music — artists and songwriters. We’ve seen this before — everyone talks about ‘partnership,’ but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps. Artists must have creative control, fair compensation and clarity about deals being done based on their catalogs.”
The press release goes on to say that while MAC appreciates that the deal is “opt-in” and with “granular control,” the organization still has questions, which are quoted below:
“Meaningful consent: How do artists actually control what uses they authorize? What happens when multiple songwriters or performers on a single song disagree about participation?”
“Revenue splits: What percentage of revenue goes to artists versus the label versus the AI company when their music is used to train models or generate new works?”
“Data and deal transparency: Was settlement money paid? How will that be distributed to artists? Will artists’ pay-outs for a new revenue stream just be applied to old unrecouped balances? Will artists see exactly how their work is being used within the AI system and have ongoing visibility into its use?”
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“Artist opt-in sounds promising, but participation without fair compensation isn’t partnership; it’s just permission,” said Ron Gubitz, MAC’s executive director, in the press release. “Artists create the work that makes these AI systems possible. They deserve both control over how their work is used and appropriate compensation for its value generation. It’s the three C’s: consent, compensation, and clarity.”
“The music industry is at a crossroads,” Gubitz added. “The decisions being made right now will shape how music gets created, distributed, and monetized for decades to come. That’s exactly why MAC exists — to ensure artists have a seat at the table when those decisions are made.”
Bromley added: “True partnership requires appropriate oversight and remuneration for all involved parties. The industry needs to get this right — for artists, for fans, and for the future of music itself.”
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To open its career on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, The Pretty Reckless rattled off four No. 1s in a row. Nearly a decade later, the Taylor Momsen-led band has done it again.
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“For I Am Death,” The Pretty Reckless’ first new music since its 2021 album Death by Rock and Roll, climbs to No. 1 on the ranking dated Nov. 8. It’s the band’s eighth leader and fourth straight, a streak that dates to 2020, when “Death by Rock and Roll” led for three weeks, followed by reigns for “And So It Went” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now” in 2021.
In 2013, The Pretty Reckless made its maiden appearance on the tally with “Heaven Knows,” a song that ended up reigning for four weeks beginning in March 2014. That kicked off a streak of four consecutive No. 1s, with “Heaven Knows” followed by “Messed Up World” (2014), “Follow Me Down” (2015) and “Take Me Down” (2016).
In fact, 80% of the band’s charted titles have reached No. 1, while 90% have been in the top two. Easy math there, as The Pretty Reckless has charted 10 entries on Mainstream Rock Airplay; its non-No. 1s are the No. 2-peaking “Oh My God” and the band’s only song to peak outside the top two, “Back to the River,” a No. 12 hit, both in 2017.
With eight No. 1s, The Pretty Reckless solely boasts the most by a woman-fronted group (or, for that matter, women soloists) in the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart’s 44-year history. Previously, the band was tied with Halestorm, which notched its seventh in 2024. (Of note: Linkin Park, currently co-led by Emily Armstrong, has 13 No. 1s, but only three since she joined.)
Concurrently, “For I Am Death” ranks at No. 7 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.2 million in audience in the week ending Oct. 30, up 12%, according to Luminate. That’s a new weekly high in impressions for the song, although its chart-position best so far remains No. 5, achieved on the Nov. 1 tally. It’s The Pretty Reckless’ top-performing song on the survey, surpassing a pair of No. 6 peaks via “Death by Rock and Roll” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now.”
On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated Nov. 1, reflecting data Oct. 17-23), “For I Am Death” debuted at No. 23. In addition to its radio airplay, the tune drew 240,000 official U.S. streams.
Although The Pretty Reckless hasn’t yet announced a proper follow-up to 2021’s Death by Rock and Roll, Oct. 31 brings the release of a new holiday EP, Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas, with Momsen reprising her vocal on “Where Are You Christmas?” from the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which she portrayed Cindy Lou Who. The Mariah Carey co-write has become a perennial holiday hit for Faith Hill since 2000.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 8 will update Tuesday, Nov. 4, on Billboard.com.
Simply the best new dance tracks of the week.
10/31/2025
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Megan Thee Stallion and Jennifer Hudson said they often get mistaken for each other, and that once Hudson’s security even tried to protect the Texas rapper instead of her.
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Meg stopped by The Jennifer Hudson Show for the episode airing Friday (Oct. 31) to talk about her new single, “Lover Girl,” and at one point revealed she’s often mistaken for the talk-show host. It turns out, Hudson could also relate, and admitted Meg’s fans sometimes mistake her for the rapper too.
“Remember that time we was in Italy for the Dolce thing?” Meg asked. “Jennifer’s security kept snatchin’ me up! They was like, ‘C’mon, we gotta move, we gotta move.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not with you! It’s not me, I’m not her, I promise! But I’ll go with you if you really want me to.’ Your security kept snatchin’ me up, and I was like, ‘Where is my security?’ … Jennifer’s security wanted me to be her real bad that day.”
Hudson replied, “It’s really bizarre cause we were at the Super Bowl. I was leaving the event, guys, and they was like, ‘Megan!’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?’”
Hudson clarified that she’s flattered to be mistaken for the Houston rapper.
Meg’s appearance comes after Queen Latifah stopped by the talk show to praise the rapper earlier this week, calling her the future of hip-hop.
“She’s so cool, she’s so fun, she’s so very talented and strong in her spot,” she told her The Secret Life of Bees co-star about Meg. “I love that energy carrying hip-hop into the future, of course.”
Check out a clip of Meg’s interview with Jennifer Hudson below.
