Music News

13 Aug 2024

Nick Carter Countersues Dream Singer Melissa Schuman for $2.5 Million

Nick Carter has officially filed a countersuit against his sexual assault accuser, Dream singer Melissa Schuman, asking for $2.5 million in damages.

The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of California on July 26 and obtained by Billboard, denies her claims and alleges that Schuman “publicly acknowledges her dwindling career and thirst for internet relevance,” referring to a 2014 YouTube video of hers titled “I need to Become Important On the Internet.” He also claimed that Schuman and her father recruited other parties to defame him.

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In August 2023, a judge denied an attempt to dismiss the countersuit, determining that Carter presented sufficient evidence for his defamation case to move forward. In a complaint filed a few months earlier, Schuman accused the pop singer of sexually assaulting her in 2003 when she was just 18 years old, while the two were starring in the teen horror movie The Hollow. Schuman alleged that Carter gave her drug-laced alcohol during a party, before taking her away from the group and repeatedly assaulting her despite clear statements that she did not consent.

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Carter was hit with a similar lawsuit from Shannon “Shay” Ruth, a woman who says he raped her on a tour bus when she was 17 years old in 2001. Ruth had asked the judge to dismiss his defamation countersuit under Nevada’s so-called anti-SLAPP law — a statute designed to prevent lawsuits that are filed as retaliation against free speech. However, in March, a Nevada judge ruled that Carter could continue to sue both Ruth and Schuman for defamation over their accusations. Carter’s lawsuit claims the accusations are a “conspiracy” to “to harass, defame and extort” him. 

The rules come following a third sexual assault accusation towards Carter. In a complaint filed on August 28 in Las Vegas court, a Jane Doe accuser identified as “A.R.” claims that Carter sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in 2003, when he was in his early 20s and she was just 15 years old, including several times on a yacht and once on a tour bus. The disturbing incident allegedly left her with sexually-transmitted diseases and other lasting effects.

13 Aug 2024

Chinx’s Murder Suspect Sentenced to 23 Years

Quincy Homere and Jamar Hill gunned Chinx down in May of 2015 as the rapper waited at a red light in Queens.

On Monday (Aug. 12), Homere was sentenced to 23 years in prison in Queens courtroom.

“I’d like to express my condolences to the family and anyone else that was affected with what happened here,” he said in a statement to the court. “I don’t believe there’s words that can express the way I feel about what transpired here.”

Chinx’s widow Janelli Caceres also gave a statement, “I was told I had two minutes to say goodbye, holding his mother’s hand, watching his lifeless body praying and crying for him to wake up,” she told the court. “A mother has to bury her son. At the age of 28 I had became a widow. My children, who were 15, 11 and 4, are now without a dad.”

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Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz issued the statement below:

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“Quincy Homere was sentenced today to 23 years in prison for killing Lionel Pickens Jr., a successful rapper, husband and father who was mercilessly gunned down in 2015. Homere fired numerous rounds into Pickens’ car while he was stopped at a red light in Briarwood and then fled, leaving the young man for dead. Nothing can undo what happened, but I hope today’s sentence brings some solace to Pickens’ loved ones as they continue to grieve.”

Last month, Homere plead guilty for manslaughter. His co-defedant Jamar Hill case is still pending as he’s already incarcerated for an unrelated charge.

According to court documents, Homere and Hill “hunted down Chinx like an animal” due to an argument over a phone on Rikers Island.

13 Aug 2024

Skai Jackson Arrested for Domestic Battery at Universal Studios Hollywood

Skai Jackson was arrested on Friday (Aug. 9) on suspicion of domestic battery after an incident at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

The Disney Channel actress was arrested after security personnel saw her and her boyfriend getting into a physical altercation at the popular theme park, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The 22-year-old star was taken to the West Hollywood Station for booking. Her bail was set for $20,000 and she was released a few hours later.

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“[W]hile inside the Universal Studios Theme Park, a domestic incident occurred involving Skai Jackson,” a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the publication. “Based on the initial investigation, it was determined Ms. Jackson was the primary aggressor and was arrested for misdemeanor Spousal Battery.”

The couple is currently engaged and expecting a child together, according to LA Times.

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13 Aug 2024

Best of Both Worlds: Miley Cyrus Has a Sweet Full-Circle Moment at Disney Legends Ceremony

Who says you can’t go home? On Sunday night, Miley Cyrus revisited her teenage origin story, heading to D23 in Anaheim, California, for the Disney Legends Ceremony.

Cyrus started her run in the title role on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana when she was just 13 years old, and at age 31, she gave a tear-filled speech about what her early Disney days meant to her. She was even introduced by country star Lainey Wilson, who performed the show’s theme song “Best of Both Worlds” with a full band and spoke about her own early days as a Hannah Montana impersonator.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking all about the sweet full-circle moment.

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Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on the Taylor Swift vs. Ye fight for No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Plus, Chappell Roan hits new highs yet again on both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, Charli XCX lands her highest-charting song on the Hot 100 in 10 years with the debut of “Guess” thanks to a new remix with Billie Eilish, and *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” re-enters the Hot 100 after more than 24 years after its revival in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Plus: We discuss Celine Dion calling out Donald Trump for using her Titanic hit “My Heart Will Go On” at a Montana rally, as well as Swift fans finding a silver lining in the cancellation of her three dates scheduled for Vienna, last week due to an alleged planned attack, gathering and bonding throughout the Austrian capital.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

13 Aug 2024

Blake Lively Left Starstruck by Childhood Hero Baby Spice: ‘They’re Gonna Give Me a Restraining Order’

If you wanna be Blake Lively‘s lover, you gotta get with her friends — a group that now includes Posh Spice, whom the It Ends With Us star recently met and was totally starstruck by.

In a sweet clip posted by Emma Bunton’s Heart Radio show Sunday (Aug. 11), Lively is audibly a little breathless when the former Spice Girl walks in the room. “Oh my god! This is so crazy,” the actress says as Bunton laughs. “You have no idea. This is not a bit at all. This is how I genuinely how I feel about you, and my kids are so excited I’m here.”

Another video finds the Gossip Girl alum showing off a childhood photo of herself dressed up as Baby Spice. Present-day Lively still wears the “BABY” necklace she’s had since she was 10, and, in the clip, she asks Bunton to take a selfie wearing it. Posting the photo on Instagram, the singer wrote, “Loved spending time with you today. Have an amazing night tonight lovely lady @blakelively”

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Bunton also asks Lively if she knows Scary and Ginger Spice’s iconic “Wannabe” rap before the pair performs it together, to the Age of Adeline leading lady’s delight. “Do I know it? Of course I know it,” she said. “They’re gonna give me a restraining order when I live here.”

The interview came just a few days after the premiere of It Ends With Us in New York City, which Lively attended with husband Ryan Reynolds. The actor’s Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman also hit the red carpet with the couple.

For the event, Lively paid tribute to another Y2K pop star: Britney Spears, whose iconic pink, blue and green sparkly Versace gown the actress wore on the red carpet.

“Britney, us millennials all have a story of a moment, or of years, that you made us want to shine and inspire awe, with strength and joy and immensely hard work,” Lively wrote on her Instagram Story last week. “Thank you for your example and your contribution to women telling their stories.”

Watch clips of Lively meeting Bunton below.

13 Aug 2024

Sheryl Crow Apologizes to Fans After Missing Zach Bryan Shows in Atlanta

Sheryl Crow is apologizing to her fans after not being at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium over the weekend for a previously announced opening slot on Zach Bryan’s The Quittin’ Time Tour. According to a social media post from Crow, it seems that fans who had anticipated seeing the singer/songwriter open those shows potentially were not properly informed that she had backed out of the opening slot for those concerts.

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On Monday, Crow posted on X (formerly Twitter), “I’m so sorry to those who bought tickets to see me open for Zach Bryan at [Mercedes-Benz Stadium] this weekend and were disappointed that I wasn’t there. Back in March, we had to pull out due to scheduling issues. I assumed Zach and Live Nation would make it known. I’m so sorry.”

Bryan’s The Quittin Time Tour is promoted by AEG Presents, not Live Nation. Crow was among the lineup of openers when The Quittin’ Time Tour was announced in August 2023. For the Aug. 10-11 Atlanta shows, singer-songwriter Levi Turner ended up opening the shows with group Ole 60.

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Meanwhile, Crow opened for P!nk on Aug. 10, during Pink’s show at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Crow is currently on P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour, with Crow and The Script serving as the main support for a string of 17 shows, which will wrap Nov. 23 in Miami. The next tour stop is Aug. 14 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Billboard has reached out to representatives for Crow, Bryan and AEG Presents for comment.

13 Aug 2024

Navy Blue Gets Introspective in New Video for ‘Take Heed’: Watch

Navy Blue, born Sage Elsesser, released a surprise album earlier this month.

Memoirs In Armour comes on the heels of the professional model and skateboarder-turned-rapper being unceremoniously dropped from Def Jam, where he had released the project Ways of Knowing in 2023.

Fans were surprised to see that an underground darling such as himself would even sign to a major label, but Navy told Rolling Stone recently that he was “grateful” for the experience. “And I think naturally as a human, you look back on situations and you go, ‘I wish things could be different,’ but I think that the universe or God or whatever people want to call it — I choose to call it God — it just had a different plan for me and there was just something to learn from this experience.”

He also told the publication his situation at the label inspired him to make and release this tape, telling them, “Memoirs in Armour is in response to the fact that I got dropped from Def Jam kind of in a way that had me frustrated, to say the least.”

“Take Heed” is the intro track and was produced by Budgie, who also handled the bulk of production on Navy’s only Def Jam release. The video, directed by Ryosuke Tanzawa, features Navy opening the curtains as he lets the light in and starts to reflect as he raps, “Another baby born, another stolen life/ To claim the day as yours, to see through open eyes/ He say he know the truth, I know who told him lies.”

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A couple of weeks ago, Navy released the lead single “Low Threshold” produced by Child Actor, with the video also being directed by Tanzawa. You can check that out below.

And always remember: Navy Blue is the truest.

13 Aug 2024

Selena Gomez Joined by Melissa McCarthy & Eva Longoria in ‘Only Murders’ Season 4 Trailer

Mabel, Charles and Oliver are headed to Hollywood — and they’re bringing the homicide with them.

The trailer for season 4 of Only Murders in the Building dropped Tuesday (Aug. 13), previewing another big adventure for Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short as their characters head to Los Angeles to make a movie about their eventful times as murder-mystery podcasters, only to find that grisly business is still afoot in the City of Angels.

The trailer opens with the golden trio heading to L.A. and meeting the famous actors who will be playing them in the fictional biopic: Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy and Zach Galifianakis, who portray themselves in Only Murders. The three stars proceed to do character studies of Mabel, Charles and Oliver, respectively, before Galifianakis is murdered and the gang determines Charles was the killer’s intended target.

“Are we attached to ‘Mabel’?” Longoria asks Gomez of her character’s name, to which the Rare Beauty founder deadpans in character: “I’d say so.”

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With the help of their doppelgängers, they try to solve the Hangover star’s murder and encounter Meryl Streep’s character Loretta Durkin, whom she reprises from season 3, as well as new additions Molly Shannon, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Kind. Plus, Melissa McCarthy makes her debut on the show as Charles’ sister who lives in Long Island, is obsessed with creepy dolls and seems to really, really like the sound of Oliver’s voice on his podcast.

The new season is set to premiere Aug. 27 on Hulu, just over a year after the third installment dropped on the streaming platform. Last year’s batch of episodes recently earned Only Murders a nod for outstanding comedy series at the upcoming 2024 Emmys, while Gomez, Short and Martin all scored nominations in the lead actress/actor in a comedy series categories.

Watch the trailer for season 4 of Only Murders in the Building above.

13 Aug 2024

Lawyer for Suspect in Taylor Swift Vienna Threat Says Allegations Are Exaggerated

The lawyer for the main suspect in the alleged threat to attack the since-canceled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, Austria, claims that the way authorities presented the case is exaggerated.

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“He had neither the means nor the possibility and the explosives to carry this out,” Defense lawyer Werner Tomanek said, per Associated Press. He added that “the alleged attack plans were pure fantasies.”

Tomanek said that his client had admitted “in principle to Islamist tendencies” because “he found it cool.”

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Associated Press previously reported that the main suspect in the case, a 19-year-old male, confessed that he planned to “kill as many people as possible” outside Ernst Happel Stadium, where Swift was scheduled to perform from August 8 to 10.

In a statement on Wednesday (Aug. 7), Barracuda Music, the concert promoters for the Austrian shows said, “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety. All tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.”

The person identified as the main plotter reportedly quit his job and “conspicuously changed his appearance and adapted to IS [Islamic State] propaganda,” despite his North Macedonian roots. Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, Austria’s head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, said the suspect wanted to use knives or homemade explosives to attack Swifties outside the stadium at the event, which was expected to draw more than 195,000 fans.

Authorities also said that I.S. and al-Qaida materials were found at the home of a second, 17-year-old Austrian suspect, who was reportedly recently hired by a company that provides services at the venue. Both suspects are currently in custody.

Swift is currently set to perform at London’s Wembley Stadium over five sold-out nights from August 15 to 20.

13 Aug 2024

Here’s How Lady Gaga Hinted at a Rumored Bruno Mars Collab in New Teaser Video

In the words of Lady Gaga herself: “That’s gossip, what you on/ Money don’t talk, rip that song.”

On Tuesday (Aug. 13), Gaga shared a video to her social media teasing new music. Sitting at a white Roland piano, Gaga plucked out a few chords before smiling into the camera and stopping the recording. While that may not seem like much to go on, fans noticed that Gaga specifically showed the camera the t-shirt she was wearing, which had Bruno Mars‘ face on it.

The singer’s new post comes just after rumors surfaced online that a potential collaboration between Gaga and Mars was coming soon. According to a post from Hits Daily Double‘s “Rumor Mill,” the song is allegedly titled “Die With a Smile” and is potentially set to be released “sometime this month.”

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When Gaga commented with a series of emojis on Mars’ Instagram post from his tour stops in Mexico City on Monday, fans immediately began replying with speculation about the rumored collab. “SO IS IT REAL???” one eager fan wrote in reply to her comment, while another simply demanded, “DROP THE SONG.”

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It wouldn’t be the first time Gaga has teased new music in recent weeks — following her headline-making performance at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Gaga took to the streets to play fans new songs from her forthcoming seventh studio album. Appearing from a limousine’s sunroof outside her hotel in Paris, Gaga opened her laptop and played two short snippets from the fan-dubbed “LG7” for a crowd of eager listeners.

Billboard has reached out to Gaga’s representatives for comment. Check out her video below.