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Just five months after delivering his Missionary album with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg has announced plans for his Iz It a Crime? album, which will arrive on Thursday (May 15).
The project boasts 21 tracks in total, with features sprinkled across the effort from Pharrell Williams, Sexyy Red, Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Bereal, Jane Handcock, October London and more. The title track also fittingly heavily samples Sade’s “Is It a Crime.”

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“Just some of the things that I do, that I’ve done, that have been speculation, and I just want to ask the question, ‘Is it a crime? Is it a crime for me to do the things that I do,” Snoop told Access Hollywood of the project on Tuesday (May 13). “Is it a crime for me to take care of people, to love people, to be there for people? Is it a crime for me to be me?”

With Snoop back at the helm of Death Row Records, he stopped by The Breakfast Club Wednesday (May 14) to open up about feeling inspired to continue rapping even as an elder statesman in hip-hop.

“I’m an MC and I love to rap and I love to make music, and people love my voice and they love when I make great records,” he said. “When I don’t make great records, people let me know that as well.”

Snoop continued: “I hear all of that and it makes me say to myself, ‘I should treat myself like a musician and not like a rapper.’ If you a musician, you can make music until you die, but when you’re a rapper they try to put a cap on you.”

An accompanying Iz It a Crime? short film is also set to serve as a visual companion to the music project. The flick was previewed during a private screening in NYC on Tuesday night.

Iz It a Crime? is set to be Snoop Dogg’s 21st studio album. He’s been busy in 2025, as Snoop contributed to Death Row’s Altar Call compilation gospel album in April, which is a tribute to the Long Beach legend’s late mother.

Find the Iz It a Crime? cover art and tracklist below.

Billboard’s Producer Spotlight series highlights creatives currently charting on Billboard’s producer rankings. Whether they are new to the industry or have been churning out hit after hit, the intention is to showcase where they are now, and their work that’s having a chart impact.

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Regional Mexican group Fuerza Regida scores a historic week thanks to the arrival of its new album, 111XPANTIA. The project launches at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (dated May 17), behind Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, with 76,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (May 2-8), according to Luminate. It becomes the highest charting Spanish-language album in history by a duo or group, and sets a new mark as the highest charting regional Mexican album ever.

This week also marks the first in the 69-year history of the Billboard 200 in which Spanish-language albums hold the top two spots.

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The forces behind Fuerza Regida’s record-breaking debut include lead singer Jesús Ortiz Paz and producers Moisés López and Meñostyle.

Ortiz Paz, López and Meñostyle rank at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, on Billboard’s Latin Producers chart, thanks to their work on the album. The group places 15 songs on Hot Latin Songs, including all 12 from the non-deluxe version of 111XPANTIA. (The three songs below not on the set are noted with an asterisk.)

Fuerza Regida on the May 17 Hot Latin Songs Chart:

No. 2, “Me Jalo,” with Grupo Frontera*

No. 3, “Por Esos Ojos”

No. 11, “Peliculiando”

No. 14, “Marlboro Rojo”

No. 16, “GodFather”

No. 22, “Aniesdad”

No. 25, “Tu Sancho”

No. 26, “Ayy Weyy”

No. 31, “Caperuza”

No. 32, “Como Capo,” with Clave Especial*

No. 34, “Nocturno”

No. 35, “Chavalitas”

No. 37, “Chaka”

No. 38, “Chufulas”

No. 40, “Coqueta,” with Grupo Frontera*

Ortiz Paz tops the Latin Producers chart thanks to his production on all 15 songs above, along with Clave Especial and Edgardo Nuñez’s “Tu Tu Tu” (No. 13). López ranks at No. 2, thanks to his work on 13 of the songs above (he didn’t produce “Como Capo” and “Coqueta”). Meñostyle follows at No. 3, with production on nine cuts above, including “Por Esos Ojos” “Peculiando” and “Marlboro Rojo.”

Additional collaborators on 111XPANTIA impact Billboard’s Latin Songwriters and Latin Producers charts. Miguel Armenta ranks at No. 7 on Latin Producers (and No. 4 on Latin Songwriters) via his production on six songs above, as well as Los Dareyes de La Sierra and Tito Double P’s “Vita Fer” (No. 33 on Hot Laton Songs); Jorsshh places at No. 3 on Latin Songwriters for co-writing nine Fuerza Regida tracks; and Daniel Gutiérrez places at No. 8 on Latin Songwriters on the strength of seven credits.

Ortiz Paz has helped Fuerza Regida play a key role in helping regional Mexican music cross over to the mainstream. The group became one of the first regional Mexican acts to appear on the Hot 100, when it debuted in 2023 with its Grupo Frontera collaboration, “Bebe Dame.” The band has now charted 13 songs on the Hot 100, part of a growing wave of regional Mexican acts finding mainstream success in the U.S. that includes fellow rising stars Gabito Ballesteros, Ivan Cornejo, Junior H and Peso Pluma.

Billboard launched its songwriters and producers charts in June 2019, including those for individual genres. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on their respective “Hot” or “Top” chart. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).

The full Latin Songwriters and Latin Producers charts, plus those for other genres, can be found on Billboard.com.

The “She Wolf” is on the prowl again. Global superstar Shakira performed to a sold-out crowd at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday (May 13), kicking off the U.S. leg of her successful Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. As the tour slogan suggests, “women don’t cry,” they dominate stadiums! […]

Benson Boone, Taylor Swift and Teddy Swims took top honors at the 2025 BMI Pop Awards, which were held on Tuesday (May 13) at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The private event was hosted by Mike O’Neill, BMI president & CEO; Barbara Cane, vp of worldwide creative; Samantha Cox, vp of creative, NY; and Tracie Verlinde, vp.
Boone was presented with the BMI Champion Award by O’Neill, who praised his “boundless talent and creativity.” Previous recipients include Peso Pluma, SZA, Jonathan McReynolds, Khalid, Mark Ronson, Residente, Sebastian Krys, Keith Urban and Lee Thomas Miller.

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After receiving the award, Boone thanked BMI, his team, family and the songwriters in the room, sharing “This is not my award, this is for everyone who has been a part of working on this project. To the songwriters, producers, to my mother and father… to my label to Warner Chappell, to everyone who has played a part… it takes a huge powerhouse of a team to do what I’m trying to do, and I have a wonderful team.”

Boone also paid tribute to his cowriter and collaborator Jack LaFrantz, sharing, “If you’re a songwriter or producing or have anything to do with the creation process of music, you understand how incredible it is when you find someone you really like to work with and work well with. I would just like to give a special thank you to Mr. Jack LaFrantz. Any of these songs that you hear you would not be hearing them without him. If you’re trying to release songs, find people that you love and make it something that you love. I promise you it is the best thing ever when you find gold in the room.”

Boone then took to the stage for an intimate three-song performance backed by piano. He started off with “Slow it Down,” followed by “Drunk in My Mind” and “Beautiful Things.”

In addition to his BMI Champion honor, Boone received two BMI Pop Awards for “Beautiful Things” and “Slow It Down,” with co-writer LaFrantz. The backflipping singer-songwriter received his first BMI Pop award in 2023 for “GHOST TOWN.”

Swift was named BMI’s Pop Songwriter of the Year, which ups her collection of BMI Awards to a staggering 72 – including the BMI President’s Award in 2009 and the BMI Taylor Swift Award in 2016.

This was the second year in a row Swift has been named Pop Songwriter of the Year. She co-wrote seven of the previous year’s most-performed songs: “Don’t Blame Me,” “Down Bad,” “Fortnight,” “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?.”

BMI’s Pop Song of the Year went to “Lose Control” written and performed by Teddy Swims with BMI co-writers Julian Bunetta, Marco “Infamous” Rodriguez and Mikky Ekko. The smash hit has spent a record-breaking 60 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 1 in March 2024.

Universal Music Publishing Group was named Publisher of the Year for representing 28 of the previous year’s most performed songs, including “Agora Hills” performed by Doja Cat, “Espresso” performed by Sabrina Carpenter and “Houdini” by Eminem.

Throughout the ceremony, the 50 most-performed pop songs of the previous year in the U.S. were also awarded. BMI welcomed 61 first-time Pop Award winners, including J. Cole for “All My Life” by Lil Durk, Jesse Fink; Peter Finn for “Stargazing” performed by Myles Smith; Djo for “End of Beginning”; and Nevin Sastry for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. This also marked the first BMI Pop award for country superstar Morgan Wallen for “I Had Some Help,” co-written with Charlie Handsome and other first-time BMI Pop winners Hoskins, ERNEST and Chandler Paul Walters.

For a full list of the 2024 honorees, visit the BMI site.

Megan Thee Stallion has shut down rumors she’s been banned from the Met Gala over using her phone from inside the venue at this year’s event. People caught up with the Houston Hottie on Tuesday (May 13), and she dispelled any notion of being banned for posting to social media from the Met Gala, as […]

Celine Dion went back to the start on Tuesday (May 13). The singer sent a surprise video to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest expressing her gratitude and love for the singers, organizers and viewers during the first semi-final round.
“Dear Eurovision family and contestants. I’d love nothing more than to be with you in Basel right now. Switzerland will forever hold a special place in my heart. It’s a country that believed in me and gave me the chance to be part of something so extraordinary,” Dion, 57, said in the video that was broadcast on a big screen on the main stage on Tuesday night.

“Winning the Eurovision song contest for Switzerland in 1988 was a life-changing moment for me and I’m so thankful for everyone who supported me,” she continued. “Now, 37 years later, it’s so beautiful and emotional to see Switzerland winning and hosting this incredible event once again. To the people of Switzerland, thank you for your love. This night is yours and I hope you feel as proud as I do.”

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Before she became a global phenomenon, Dion won the Eurovision Contest representing Switzerland in 1988 with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi.” Dion, who had already released more than half a dozen French-language albums at that point, issued her first English-language LP, Unison, two years later, in 1990.

Her message also included a French-language portion in which she said, “Music unites us, not only this evening, not only at the moment. Wonderful. It is our strength, our support and our support in the moments where we need it. I love you all, Europe and the rest of the world, of course. Kisses, I love you.”

Among the acts who made it through during Tuesday’s cut-down round are Norway’s Kyle Alessandro, Albania’s Shkodra Elektronike, Sweden’s KAJ, Iceland’s VÆB, the Netherlands’ Claude, Poland’s Justyna Steczkowska, San Marino’s Gabry Ponte, Estonia’s Tommy Cash, Portugal’s NAPA and Ukraine’s Ziferblat, with Azerbaijan, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia and Slovenia getting eliminated. The next semi-final round will take place on Thursday (May 15) and feature performances from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, with the top 10 advancing to the Grand Final.

According to CNN, after the Dion message aired a number of singers from last year’s contest performed a cover of the diva’s winning song from 1988.

The video from Dion was her latest appearance in the wake of a long lay-off due to the singer’s battle with the rare neurological disorder Stiff-Person Syndrome, which caused her to call off all live dates and resulted in a retreat from the spotlight for nearly two years as she battled the debilitating effects of the disorder. She made her triumphant return to the spotlight last summer when she performed at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.

Check out Dion’s message below.

Rihanna fans who are desperate for new music don’t need to feel blue any longer — the superstar finally has a new song coming out soon, recorded for the Smurfs movie soundtrack.
As revealed Wednesday (May 14) with the release of the film’s new trailer, Ri will drop a track called “Friend of Mine” on Friday (May 16). The teaser also features snippets of the song, which finds the Fenty mogul singing over a dreamy Afrobeats-inspired dance track, “You’re looking like a friend of mine.”

Starring Ri as the voice of Smurfette opposite John Goodman, James Corden, Nick Offerman, Sandra Oh and more, the Smurfs movie is set to hit theaters July 18. In addition to the “Umbrella” singer’s new song, its soundtrack will also feature Tyla as well as a song called “Higher Love” by DJ Khaled, Cardi B and DESI TRILL, which dropped in February.

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The new teaser opens with a shot of Rihanna — aptly wearing a blue jacket and blue beads in her hair — dancing in the studio as she records some of Smurfette’s lines. It then shows a preview of the film’s storyline, with the residents of Smurf Village traveling to the real world to save Papa Smurf (Goodman) after he’s kidnapped by evil wizard Gargamel (J. P. Karliak).

In addition to starring and singing in the film, Ri also served as an executive producer on the latest addition to the Smurfs franchise. While announcing the project back in 2023 at that year’s CinemaCon alongside Paramount and Nickelodeon, the musician — who was pregnant with second son Riot Rose at the time — said, “I get to show up in my PJs in my third trimester … I hope this gives me cool points with my kids one day.”

“Friend of Mine” will mark Ri’s first release since 2022’s “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. She hasn’t dropped an album since 2016’s Anti, which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

The new trailer comes a week after Ri attended the Met Gala with partner A$AP Rocky, who was one of the event’s co-chairs this year. On the red carpet, she showed off her baby bump, revealing that she’s expecting her third child with the rapper.

And though fans have been waiting for a new Rihanna album for nine years at this point, the musician says that her latest pregnancy isn’t going to stop her from working on Anti‘s follow-up. “Noooooo!” she told Entertainment Tonight when asked whether that would be the case on the Met red carpet May 5. “Maybe a couple videos! I can still sing!”

Watch the new Smurfs trailer and listen for snippets of Ri’s new song “Friend of Mine” below.

On “Loosies With Matches,” the ninth track off Millyz’ latest project Blanco 7, the rapper at one point abruptly stops rapping to just speak his mind to his supporters.

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“You gotta have courage just walkin’ out the door in the mornin’, because you know dudes will kill you for this dream you’re trying to maintain,” he says. “That same success you’re chasing after, someone will murder you for it.”

I ask Millyz about those bars because last Saturday, the Cambridge-bred spitter had more eyes on him than ever before: During what became a record-breaking headlining night at MGM Music Hall near Boston’s Fenway Park, Millyz captivated the sold-out crowd alongside Skrilla and Benny The Butcher. With MGM’s 5,000-plus seats all filled, Millyz estimates it might be the most tickets a Boston rapper has ever sold for one show in their home city. The colossal experience obviously put a battery in Millyz back, but he admits the monumental nature of it was at times “spooky,” especially because there are no Boston-area rappers doing it at his level.

“It’s not the easiest to come home sometimes, because of the level of misunderstanding,” Millyz says. “A lot of people are just really out of the loop when it comes to this music thing. It’s not the same level of understanding as people in New York have, because they’ve seen people fly. Out here there’s almost a sense of…” He pauses for a moment, choosing his words carefully: “Like it’s almost this impossible thing that you did, and they kinda wanna deny that.”

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Billboard chats with Millyz about his record-breaking night, his new album and the Celtics rough season below.

How we feelin’ man? The Celtics aren’t doing so great. Jayson Tatum is down with an achilles tear looks like. What are your thoughts on the Celts right now?

I’m pretty devastated, you know? I’m also somebody who — I was able to witness a championship, man. I caught the confetti. Nipsey Hussle’s got a line where he says, “Even if it’s only temporary, at least we had the s—t.” I don’t think that it’s all over, but it’s definitely a sad day to see Tatum go out with a non-contact injury.

What were your thoughts when you saw it happen?

It was bad to be going down 3-1 to the Knicks regardless. So it just put everything in perspective on how much that didn’t even matter, compared to Tatum getting injured. I think it would be amazing if we could just beat the Knicks without Tatum. I don’t think we can win a championship without him. Hopefully, we could, you never know, but it would be cool to beat the Knicks in a couple more games just to stress out the fanbase.

How are you feeling about the reception to Blanco 7 so far?

I feel great about it, it’s something I wanna stay on and sink my teeth into. Projects come and go so fast nowadays. I’m fully intending to do it the way that they used to back in the day, when they would drop the album and then push singles off the album. That’s my goal with this. I wanna see if I could replicate that formula.

Take me a bit more through the Blanco mindset versus the Katrina’s Son or Holy Water mindset. When did you know you were making a Blanco record?

I kinda gotta build the foundation first, it’s like building a house. So I gotta have 3-4 foundational records, and I think one was “I Understand” with NoCap, “Dope Sellers” with East and a few others and that’s when I knew I gotta go full throttle with this thing.

You just came off a historic show in your hometown. Before the show even happened, when did you decide you wanted to pursue MGM Fenway as a possible venue? Was it nerve-racking?

I went back and forth on whether I should do House of Blues again or the MGM. The number [of seats] they told me for the MGM was so fundamentally shocking when I first heard it compared to House of Blues. House of Blues is like 2,500 and then MGM is 5,700. It’s a big jump. The MGM is spooky because just the floor holds the whole capacity for the House of Blues. So that was a little scary for me, but I just had to commit to it after a certain point.

I study Boston history as far as Boston rap, and there’s never been a Boston rapper that’s sold more than 2,600 in the Boston area, so I knew as far as we passed that 2,600 mark I knew we were in uncharted territory. It was very Hail Mary-ish, and the way ticket sales are going these days, people are buying closer to the actual show now because of how the economy is, so that wasn’t the most comforting feeling.

You’re hands down the most popular rapper to emerge out of Cambridge and Boston in years. What do you think it is about the Cambridge and Boston rap scene? Why do you think it’s so hard for rappers to break out into the mainstream from those cities?

I actually think there’s not enough examples. When you’re in these other cities, there are people that blew up, that you can point to and it’s tangible, it’s there, it’s like, “Look at this guy down the street he blew up.” Even if you’re a pessimist, you could still see the examples of people that took it to another level. When it comes to Boston, because there’s no example for 30 something years, people start to think it can only be one person. That there’s gotta be the one savior. Other cities don’t look at it like that. They have more of a casual mindset towards artists blowing up compared to here. We just have nothing to look at. I had to really go to New York and look at rappers that were already lit.

Is that what inspired your move to New York early on in your career?

Nah, for sure. Then you get around the circles and you realize there’s kind of a formula to this thing.

How does it feel knowing you might be that example for Boston?

I just hope people can see it and reverse engineer what I did as much as possible, but I do try to bring people around to see it. I try to show them this s—t in all its glory. Anything I’m doing when I know I’m doing it on a grand scale, and I’m not even a mainstream artist, but I am somebody who’s made this my profession. So I try to bring people around just so they can witness and have a point of reference now.

That’s important because like you said those superstar examples haven’t been around. I imagine certain people may have less tact when approaching you though.

Yeah, for real. People don’t really know how to deal with artists and it kinda becomes mythical. I’m somebody who talks to anybody, I have a lot of relationships. If you’re from Massachusetts, it’s not too hard to know somebody who actually knows me, but that word of mouth could go either way. But on the other spectrum of it, it’s super love!… So its polarizing.

When you were backstage, what was it like to feel all that energy at MGM?

I didn’t know it was packed out like that. I was just hoping the floor was packed, but I was [dealing] with that hometown s—t. You start getting all those calls about people not gettin’ in, “My girl’s family can’t get in,” little s—t like that. So I was going through those annoying things all the way up until showtime, but once I walked out I was like, “Oh, we did it,” You know?

What song really set the fans off?

A lot of my catalog went well, but of course “Risk Takers” went crazy. It was cool to see songs like “Swim” and “High Beams” and some of my singing songs go crazy. There was a lot of girls up front, so the ratio keeps getting better at my shows. I strive to have it to have it [70 percent] girls one day, and I’m seeing that shift, so it’s a beautiful thing.

When did you learn it was a record-breaking show?

I knew just optically just seeing it, cause like I said I studied this Boston rap s—t. There’s three rappers that sold out the House of Blues. Joyner [Lucas] has done bigger numbers in the 508, but just as far as a kid from the 617 born in a Boston hospital and raised in this area it’s the biggest in the actual city. It feels dope.

What’s next for you? Where does Millyz go from here?

Just more goals that seem hard to accomplish and scratching them off the list.

Billboard’s Dance Moves roundup serves as a guide to the biggest movers and shakers across Billboard’s many dance charts — new No. 1s, new top 10s, first-timers and more.

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This week, on charts dated May 17, HUGEL, Flume, RÜFÜS DU SOL and others achieve new feats. Check out key movers below.

HUGEL, David Guetta, Kehlani & Daecolm

HUGEL, David Guetta, Kehlani and Daecolm make a splashy entrance on the latest Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart with their new collaboration, “Think of Me.” Released May 2 via Virgin/Capitol/ICLG, the track debuts at No. 10 with 1 million official U.S. streams earned in its first week, according to Luminate, making it the highest debut on the chart.

The song is a notable entry for all four acts:

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HUGEL: The French DJ earns his seventh entry on the chart, and second top 10 after “I Adore You,” with Topic and Arash featuring Daecolm, in January (No. 8 peak).

David Guetta: The superstar DJ adds his record-extending 96th entry on the chart (dating to its January 2013 start), and record-tying 27th top 10, matching Kygo for the most in the chart’s history.

Kehlani: She collects her third entry and second top 10, following her feature on Calvin Harris’ “Faking It,” also featuring Lil Yachty (No. 6, 2018).

Daecolm: The singer-songwriter posts his second entry, following his feature on “I Adore You.”

Flume, JPEGMAFIA & Ravyn Lenae

Flume, JPEGMAFIA and Ravyn Lenae’s new collaboration, “Is It Real,” debuts at No. 17 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, powered almost entirely by its first-week streams (792,000). The song appears on Flume and JPEGMAFIA’s new four-track EP, We Live in a Society.

The track is Flume’s 33rd on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, and first since 2023’s “Chalk 1.3.3. (2017 Export wav),” with Jim-E Stack (No. 44 peak). The new entry also earns JPEGMAFIA and Lenae their first appearances on the chart.

RÜFÜS DU SOL

The Australian trio returns to Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with “In the Moment,” new at No. 21 thanks to a 10% boost in U.S. streams (to 662,000). Released on the act’s album Inhale / Exhale in October, the track is now receiving a new wave of momentum following the arrival of Inhale / Exhale Remixed on May 2. The new set includes the same tracklist as the original but with new mixes of the songs. The “In the Moment” update features Swiss electronic duo Adriatique. (Per Billboard chart rules, all versions of the song are combined into one listing and billed toward the version receiving the most activity.) Inhale / Exhale debuted and peaked at No. 3 on Top Dance Albums in October.

Lady Gaga, Marshmello, Kane Brown, David Guetta, Sia

Looking at the tops of Billboard’s dance rankings, these artists and titles continue their leads:

Hot Dance/Electronic Songs: Marshmello and Kane Brown’s “Miles On It” has now spent a full year at No. 1. It rules for a 52nd week on the strength of 8.4 million radio audience impressions and 5.8 million streams. Only two songs have spent more time in the lead: Marshmello and Bastille’s “Happier” (69 weeks) and David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” (55).

Hot Dance/Pop Songs, Top Dance Albums: Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” spends a 12th week at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Pop Songs, while parent album MAYHEM rules Top Dance Albums for a ninth week.

Dance/Mix Show Airplay: Guetta and Sia’s “Beautiful People” leads for a third week, thanks to a 3% gain in plays among 24/7 dance reporters and pop stations’ mix show hours.

On a Friday night in late February, Tems was having dinner with the owners of San Diego FC, celebrating her new position as a partner in the MLS club. The next day, a video went viral of the 29-year-old Nigerian musician, known for her enviable levels of cool, briefly losing it while watching the club’s first-ever home game, bitterly throwing her arms down when her team missed a free kick and repeatedly yelling, “What the f–k was that?” while clapping her hands to punctuate her every word. Then, on Sunday, she headed to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, strutting the red carpet in a feathered gown at the Vanity Fair after-party and striking poses with the likes of H.E.R., Victoria Monét and Normani at Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s annual Gold Party. By Tuesday, Tems was overseas at Paris Fashion Week, serving classic elegance while sitting front row at the Courrèges and Dior shows.

Those prime seats offered her a rare opportunity: to be off her feet and catch her breath before hopping on a jet to her next high-profile affair. Because while Tems’ music has become known as the ideal soundtrack for unwinding and vibing out, she never really has time to do either.

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“Every day is something different, which is ­actually very exciting for me,” Tems insists during an early April afternoon in her home base of London, looking laid-back in a chic “groutfit” (monochromatic gray): oversize zip-up hoodie, tank maxi dress and black leather peep toe heels, her hair slicked back in a bun with laid edges. “I’m always like, ‘Hmm, I wonder how today is going to go. I wonder what’s going to happen.’ ” But even amid her whirlwind schedule, she manages to maintain some grounding daily rituals: “In the mornings, I always do my self-care. I pray and declare that everything is going to be good and whatever comes my way, I’ll be fine.”

Tems will headline THE STAGE at SXSW London on June 5 in an exclusive concert presented by Billboard at London’s iconic music venue Troxy.

That affirmative mindset has served her well. In 2020, Wizkid featured Tems on his summer anthem “Essence,” which hit the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 (partly due to a Justin Bieber remix); earned Tems her first Grammy Award nomination, for best global music performance; and played a pivotal role in ushering in the rise of Afrobeats in the United States. Five years later, the singer-songwriter-producer has become a ­global sensation in her own right, as well as a secret weapon for Western superstars. She collaborated with Drake on “Fountains” from his 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy, and the two appeared together the following year on Future’s Hot 100 No. 1 “Wait for U,” which samples Tems’ 2020 track “Higher,” from her debut EP, For Broken Ears, and earned Tems her first Grammy, for best melodic rap performance. That same year, she scored a feature on Beyoncé’s Renaissance and co-wrote Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack; the song earned Golden Globe, Oscar and Grammy nods.

And since “Essence,” Tems’ distinguished solo releases have helped her remain at the forefront of African music. As “Wait for U” propelled “Higher,” For Broken Ears yielded another sleeper hit in 2022, “Free Mind,” which became her first solo Hot 100 entry (peaking at No. 46) and a radio fixture, spending 22 weeks at No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and nine weeks atop Adult R&B Airplay. For Broken Ears has earned 853.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate — and “Free Mind” accounts for 434 million of them.

Her A-list assists and limited but impactful solo output built expectations for Tems’ first full-length, Born in the Wild, an 18-track opus that secured three Grammy nominations, including for best global music album, and peaked at No. 56 on the Billboard 200 following its release in June 2024 through RCA Records and Sony U.K. imprint Since ’93.

“Tems is such an important voice for our times, bringing the experience of her life and music to a global audience,” RCA chairman/CEO Peter Edge says. “It is so special that RCA has been able to partner with her on her journey.”

Ferragamo dress, Justine Clenquet earrings, Mi Manera ring.

Zoe McConnell

Tems didn’t have much faith in her chances at the Grammys, and she’d thus planned a swift exit. “I was convincing myself it’s probably not me anyway. I was like, ‘Let me just sit at the back. If they don’t call me, I’ll just quickly leave,’ ” she says. So when the album’s jovial hit single “Love Me JeJe” won best African music performance during the awards show’s premiere ceremony, she “had to run to the stage,” she recalls. But she says her real “prize” that evening was witnessing the joy of her plus-one, her mother, who later spotted a certain celebrity. “She saw Will Smith and she was like, ‘Will Smith, wow!’ ” Tems says, bursting into laughter. “He was sitting at a table and was like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you!’ He was talking to her. Just giving her that experience was amazing.”

She has given her mom plenty more reasons to be proud this year, with an awe-inspiring series of firsts: Not only is Tems the first Nigerian artist to win two Grammys, but she’s also the first African-born woman to be involved in MLS ownership and the first African female artist to hit 1 billion Spotify streams for a song, with “Wait for U.” Tems can hardly keep up with them all. When I ask her where she was when she found out about her recent Spotify accomplishment, she pauses before ­hesitantly admitting with a laugh, “It’s very possible that I’m just learning of this.” But she’s not taking any of her historic feats for granted: “It feels good to be able to do this on this scale. My life is a dream.”

She uses the same word in “Burning,” Born in the Wild’s other Grammy-nominated track, when describing the surreal trajectory of achieving and acclimating to her newfound fame. The extra eyeballs scrutinizing her made her feel especially “uncomfortable” in the beginning, she says, but they also proved how the tides have turned for African artists. Nigerian singer-songwriter Seyi Sodimu — who sings the 1997 Afro-soul classic “Love Me JeJe,” featuring Shaffy Bello, that Tems interpolated in her Grammy-winning song of the same name — said in a 2004 interview that he pitched the original record to multiple U.S. labels, only to be told it “was hard to market me because I look ‘American’ but I sound ‘African.’ ” Wale Davies, one of Tems’ managers who is also one-half of the Nigerian rap duo Show Dem Camp, says “it wasn’t cool to be African” back then.

But now, artists like Tems are rewriting that narrative while still honoring those who preceded them. Tems thanked Sodimu on X for clearing her song’s sample: “I’m glad that it’s getting its flowers today”; she also posted photos of them on the set of her self-directed “Love Me JeJe” music video, which features the two singing the bridge together.

“The responsibility an artist like Tems has is that you’re going to be the portal through which people see Africa,” Davies says. “We have to show them that you can operate at a global level.” As she declared when accepting the Breakthrough award at Billboard Women in Music in 2024: “I’m standing with a continent behind me.”

Despite growing up in the “hustle and bustle” of Lagos, the artist born Témìládè Openiyi prefers peace and quiet. Today, she calls her sacred silent time her “energy-saving mode.”

Tems didn’t speak until she was 3 years old and found music to be a more effective means of expression. As a kid, she fell in love with the sentimental balladry and powerhouse pipes of Céline Dion, Mariah Carey and the members of Destiny’s Child and says she aspired to create music with that same level of “soul and realness.” But she felt insecure about her deep natural voice and opted for a more delicate falsetto. The music teacher at her secondary school, Mr. Sosan, encouraged her raw, unfiltered talent and offered his music room as a safe space. But as she honed her craft, her mother had other plans: She wanted Tems to attend college.

“I tried to miss all the deadlines, [but] she enrolled me to school in South Africa last minute,” she recalls. While studying economics at IIE MSA in Johannesburg, Tems taught herself to produce and engineer her own music through YouTube tutorials. When she returned home upon graduation, she started a digital marketing job — but her real postgrad goals didn’t involve sitting behind a desk.

“It just got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore… Spiritually, I was aware that this is not my path. It felt like life or death, like this can make or break your destiny and you need to make a decision right now,” Tems says. “And I chose to take that leap.”

Alexandre Vauthier coat.

Zoe McConnell

Tems figured once she was able to hand her mother her degree, “everyone should just leave me to be and let me do my music.” And her mom, whom Tems was caring for after she had broken her leg, gave her an extra push to pursue her true passion. “We were going through a lot at the time, and we needed that job. And she said, ‘I think you should go and chase your dreams and try this music thing. You can do it and I believe in you. Don’t worry about me. I’m here for you,’ ” she remembers with tears in her eyes. Tems quit in January 2018, and that July, she independently released her debut single, “Mr ­Rebel,” a buoyant, reflective track about standing firmly in her purpose.

“Immediately, I felt like, ‘I don’t know who this person is, but this person is singing for their life,’ ” Davies recalls of the first time he heard “Mr Rebel” soon after its release. It became an underground hit despite deviating from the feel-good, dance-driven Afrobeats popular at the time, which producers in Nigeria had always told Tems she needed to make if she ever hoped to succeed. But in the mid-2010s, the alternative alté movement was gaining popularity in the country, empowering a new generation of creatives to express themselves freely in their sound and style. “No one sounded like her. No one thought emotional, truthful, honest, no-filter music would work in Nigeria,” Davies says. And when Tems released “Try Me” in 2019, he continues, “everything changed. That song went crazy because so many people were like, ‘Ah, finally, a woman who can share our frustrations and say how we really feel.’ ”

“Try Me” and its gripping music video caught the attention of label executives from around the world, including Sarah Lorentzen, then an executive assistant at RCA (where she’s now an A&R executive) who was dedicated to “[supporting] music from back home” in Nigeria. She flew to London in October 2019 to meet Tems, who was slated to perform at Show Dem Camp’s Palmwine Festival (visa issues ultimately prevented Tems from appearing). Two months later, Lorentzen flew to Lagos for Tems’ In the Garden concert. “I just jumped in and started helping her build the stage, breaking palm leaves and sticking them in the stage,” she recalls. “We bonded throughout the night, and that was the start of a yearlong journey before she actually signed with RCA.”

Tems’ managers, Davies and Muyiwa Awoniyi, cite Lorentzen’s Nigerian heritage as a key factor in their decision to sign with RCA, as well as fellow Nigerian executive Tunji Balogun, then-executive vp of A&R at RCA (now Def Jam chairman/CEO), and his crucial work with the label’s Afrobeats and R&B acts. Before Lorentzen and Balogun signed Tems in 2021, they got her to hop on the Afrobeats remix of Khalid and Disclosure’s dance-pop track “Know Your Worth” alongside Davido, who had signed to RCA in 2016. Wizkid, who joined the label in 2017, invited Tems through Awoniyi to a recording session for his 2020 album, Made in Lagos. “[Awoniyi] called me and was like, ‘We’re at Wiz’s place, we just recorded two bangers.’ And one of them ended up being ‘Essence,’ ” Davies says.

The same weekend Tems and Wiz shot the “Essence” music video, she recorded “Me & U” with GuiltyBeatz during their first session together, in Ghana. Within a few weeks, they’d also made “Crazy Tings” and three other tracks that would appear on her first major-label EP, If Orange Was a Place. Music frequently flows out of Tems, who has recorded 7,000 voice memos worth of freestyled song ideas on her iPhone. (“I’ve saved every voice note I’ve ever had since 2016,” she adds.) But even as “Essence” blew up globally, Tems was already focused on what was ahead. “I’m so obsessed with the songs that I’ve not shared that I’m not even thinking about the outside world,” she says. “I’m more concerned with the creation of the art than the acknowledgment.”

Ferragamo dress, Christian Louboutin shoes, Justine Clenquet earrings, Mi Manera ring.

Zoe McConnell

Lorentzen believes Tems’ humble approach helps her make quality music that naturally resonates with fans. “When it comes from a pure place like that, a place without any specific intention to blow [Nigerian slang meaning “to be successful”] or for it to be a hit, it allows you to enter a different kind of flow state as an artist and really deliver what’s genuine and authentic and unique to you,” she says.

It helps that lightning also tends to strike right before she hits the booth. After a “lit night out” in London with her friends Dunsin Wright and Yvonne Onyanta, Tems took them back to the studio, where her producers Spax and GuiltyBeatz were making the beat for “Love Me JeJe.” Guilty says he and Spax initially didn’t have Sodimu’s hit in mind. “She walks in the studio and literally started singing, ‘Love me jeje, love me tender.’ We were like, ‘Yep, get on the mic and record this now,’ ” he recalls, adding that “Love Me JeJe” was the “easiest song” to make on Born in the Wild, taking under an hour to finish.

Kayla Jackson, then Tems’ project manager at RCA (and now marketing consultant), proposed debuting it during her set at the 2024 Coachella festival, where fans at the Mojave Tent instantly picked up on the nostalgic call-and-response track. For Guilty, the crowd’s reaction “reconfirmed what I believe — and that is whatever feeling you have while making music in the studio is going to translate to people.”

“Do you know this song?”

Tems is surveying the front row of New York’s Radio City Music Hall, searching for a lucky someone to serenade with a freestyle based off their name, as she did during every stop of the 2024 Born in the Wild world tour. Her security guard lifts a 9-year-old girl, coincidentally named Africa, onto the stage as “Found,” the Brent Faiyaz-featuring track from If Orange Was a Place, starts playing. Tems asks her a couple of times if she knows this song before she shyly nods her head and proceeds to surprise the singer — and 6,000 concertgoers — by not missing a single lyric.

“Everybody erupted,” Joe Harris, her agent at CAA, remembers from that night. “In that moment, I realized this woman has not only been able to touch people her age and older, but the youth of the world has fallen in love with her voice and her tone.”

And her team has made sure her voice can travel to as many corners of the planet as possible, especially on her native continent. When Tems originally announced her 31-date international tour last May, she had two unspecified African stops scheduled. Awoniyi says it’s difficult to find the right venues that will “match the standard” of the kind of show she wants to deliver, and Harris adds, “It takes a bit of groundwork to try to pull those shows ­together because of the infrastructure and politically whatever’s going on in each one of those different countries.” In January, after receiving backlash online for promoting her show in Kigali, Rwanda, that was scheduled for March, Tems canceled it due to the country’s ongoing conflict with the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I never ever intend to be insensitive to real-world issues, and I sincerely apologize if this came across that way,” she wrote on X.

But aside from occasional roadblocks, she has also secured major opportunities in Africa. In March, Tems became the first artist to perform at The Dome, the new, 10,500-capacity venue in Johannesburg that Live Nation launched with Stadium Management South Africa and Gearhouse South Africa earlier this year. “We’re always looking to create epic moments,” Awoniyi says. “Live Nation let us know about the venue that they were building. Our agents spoke to them, and because we are very moments-focused, for her to be the first artist to perform there is cool.” Her team is carefully planning on rescheduling her show in Rwanda while adding new stops in Kenya, Ghana and, of course, Nigeria.

Bringing the fruits of her success back home remains fundamental to Tems’ mission. Pave Investments — an African private investment firm that backs platforms creating opportunities to develop and support African talent globally, such as Tems’ company, The Leading Vibe — reached out to her camp with the opportunity to join the San Diego FC ownership group. “I grew up around my uncles and brother watching matches, and because they’re so loud, I’m forced to pay attention. I always wondered about being able to be in the business of it because it’s a man’s world,” Tems says. In her role, she’ll work closely with the Right To Dream Academy, a youth association football academy that started in Ghana and has since expanded with branches in Egypt, Denmark and the United States. “That’s something that piqued my interest, being able to build other Africans up, build other children up and give them more opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen,” Tems says.

Marc Jacobs jacket and shoes, Calzedonia tights, Jacquemus earrings.

Zoe McConnell

Her historic entrance into the sports realm aligns with the ethos of The Leading Vibe, which she established in 2020 and where she serves as a director. Named for a lyric from “Mr Rebel” — “I’m the crown, I’m the vibe, I’m the leading vibe” — it allows her to “[lead] by example” and make a “difference in the world” by holding and managing her assets (she fully owns her masters for For Broken Ears and co-owns the masters for If Orange Was a Place and Born in the Wild) while serving as an incubator for investment, philanthropy and new business ventures. Through The Leading Vibe, she’s working on an initiative to support young African female artists, songwriters and producers.

“The way her brand is constructed is not limiting. You can see her at a football match today, you can see her at Formula 1 tomorrow,” Awoniyi says. In February, Aston Martin reported that 15,000 people watched her perform “Higher” at the unveiling of its new car design for the 2025 F1 season at London’s O2 Arena. She’s yet to headline her own show at the famed venue, but Awoniyi says they “haven’t been trying to rush” her growth as an artist to ensure the longevity of her career.

Tems says she’s currently making music “that I’m really excited about that sounds nothing like Born in the Wild,” and that after contributing to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, she wants to hear more of her music in film — maybe even in the form of an original score — and possibly get in front of the camera. But while her universe may be continually expanding, Tems still wants her impact on the world to be fulfilling.

“My 20s, they’ve been eventful. I’ve gotten used to the uncertainty,” says Tems, who turns 30 in June. “I hope it stays that way. I hope it doesn’t slow down.”

This story appears in the May 17, 2025, issue of Billboard.