Music
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The more you watch of Lana Del Rey supposedly going country, the more apparent how ridiculous any talk of her pivoting to any genre really is.
For 15 years now, LDR has essentially been a genre unto herself: a unique and borderline-illogical blending of obviously classic influences with some game-changingly modern sensibilities, one that mostly befuddled critics and radio and the charts early on, even as she was inarguably becoming one of the most important pop stars of her generation. She’s been wildly influential without ever being less than unmistakable; no matter what sonic, thematic or characteristic elements other artists may borrow from her, none of them would ever risk being taken for Lana herself. This is all to say: no matter what style of music she’s making, Lana Del Rey has one genre and that’s “Lana Del Rey.”
But of course, Lana did lean into The Stagecoach of It All while making her debut performance at the Indio, Calif. country festival on Friday (Apr. 25). Singing in a white dress in front of a set of an idyllic-looking rural house at dusk, she looked like she walked on stage straight from an old Loretta Lynn album cover. Early on, she brought out George Birge — himself a Saturday performer at the festival — to duet on his current hit “Cowboy Songs,” an extremely country radio-friendly song Del Rey says she can’t get enough of. (You can certainly imagine a Lanafied version of the chorus, though it was strange to hear her singing on such a zippy and muscular hook in 2025.) And of course, she invoked two all-time genre classics during the show by covering Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” (“You can’t do this set without it”), and then closing the proceedings with a family singalong to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” a recent entry into the LDR cover canon.
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But the new songs? Country-ish in their tempo and in some of their thematic content (and occasional lyrics about “all these country singers”), perhaps, but not in any way that feels at a remove from what she’s done her whole career: Lana has long centered the emotional abandon and cinematic sway of country in her songs. You could hear that even in some of the crowd-elating classics Lana performed in the midst of her Grand Ole Opry moment — tweak a couple lyrics and add some banjo and “Ride” is basically a The Chicks single; turn down the sex and turn up the sarcasm and “Video Games” could’ve been penned by Kacey Musgraves. Nothing about the stately balladry and gender-role explorations of songs like set-opening duo “Husband of Mine” and “Henry, Come On” felt without precedent in her catalog; she could have introduced them as deep cuts from Blue Banisters or Chemtrails Over the Country Club and many of her fans probably would’ve bought it.
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If there was a pronounced difference with Del Rey in Country Mode on Friday night, it was that she seemed… maybe more polite and unassuming than we’re used to her being? Watching her express her very sincere-seeming gratitude at being invited to Stagecoach, and about the size and passion of her Friday night crowd, it was very easy to forget that she was once a highly divisive figure in popular music, one prone to controversy in both her lyrics and public statements. There was no trace of any of that in the smiling, hostly, happy-to-be-here performer who took the stage on Friday night.
Well, almost none. If you missed a little of the unpredictability and ostentatiousness that characterized early-years Lana Del Rey– and still informed highlights from her work up until this decade — then you probably loved “57.5,” a shuffling new song referring to her number (in millions) of monthly listeners on Spotify, which also includes a bridge which begins with LDR proclaiming “I kissed Morgan Wallen” and going onto advise listeners against going ATVing with him. It takes a lot of “yes, really” to explain, but it was still probably the best of the new songs that she debuted: some real country s–t, but more importantly, pure Lana through and through, in a way no other artist or genre could ever totally capture.
Ella Langley received her first Academy of Country Music Award, for new female artist of the year, on Friday afternoon (April 25). While onstage for her set at Rock the Country in Knoxville, Tennessee, Langley received the news via a congratulatory video from Miranda Lambert, the winningest artist in ACM history.
It was hardly a surprise because Langley was the most-nominated artist for the upcoming 60th ACM Awards, with eight nods. None of the other nominees for new female artist of the year – Kassi Ashton, Ashley Cooke, Dasha and Jessie Murph – had more than that one nomination.
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“I’m here to tell you how proud I am of you for being the top nominated artist for the Academy of Country Music Awards this year,” Lambert said in the video. “You are my friend, first and foremost, a fellow dog rescue advocate, you are a co-writer, you are my soul sister in country music and a partner in crime. We are gonna celebrate so big in Dallas, Texas! They ain’t even ready!”
Lambert won in that same category in 2007 – one year after Carrie Underwood took the prize, and one year before Taylor Swift did. (A pretty good run, there.)
This was the second nomination in the new female artist of the year category for both Ashton and Cooke, which means they cannot be nominated in the category again. Dasha and Murph can be, due to the generous policy at both the ACM and CMA Awards whereby new artists can be nominated twice in the category.
Langley, 25, is also nominated for female artist of the year and in four categories for “you look like you love me,” her breakthrough hit featuring Riley Green. The sexy duet is nominated for single of the year, song of the year, music event of the year and visual media of the year. Langley is nominated as both artist and songwriter in the song of the year category and as both artist and director in visual media of the year.
“you look like you love me” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, No. 7 on Hot Country Songs and No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Langley co-wrote all of the songs on her debut album, hungover, which reached No. 11 on Top Country Albums and No. 49 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Zach Top was presented with the award for new male artist of the year on Thursday. The ACM has yet to present the award for new duo or group of the year. The nominees are Restless Road, The Red Clay Strays and Treaty Oak Revival.
Langley will be celebrated for her win at the 60th ACM Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire. The show will stream live for a global audience on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch on Thursday, May 8, at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. A limited number of tickets are available for purchase on SeatGeek.
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
Comedians Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and Jo Koy are playing SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on March 21, 2026, officials with the stadium announced earlier this week.
Titled One Night Only, the show is produced by comedy promoter Icon Concerts and is anticipating a paid attendance of up to 55,000 fans.
“We’ve been wanting to do this show for a number of years but it wasn’t until recently that we’ve been able to make everyone’s schedule work,” explains Mike Bernal, vp of Icon Concerts. “Gabriel [Iglesias] is an L.A. hometown hero and Jo is nearby in Seattle and has a huge following in Southern California and sold thousands of tickets in the market.”
Bernal says initial presales have been strong, noting “they are selling evenly across all price points, which is what we like to see.” Ticket prices start at between $69 to $113 for the 500 section, $138 to $170 for the midlevel 300 section and $326 for floor seats.
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One Night Only will mark a rare feat in the live comedy business; in the last decade, only a handful of comedians have headlined stadiums, including, most recently, Iglesias, who headlined Dodger Stadium in 2022. In 2015, Kevin Hart performed before an audience of more than 53,000 fans in Philadelphia, and last year, comedian Nate Bargatze became one of the first comedians to sell more than 1 million tickets in a single year, earning $82 million from an impressive 148 shows.
Comedy is a bigger business than ever in the live space. The top 10 comedy tours generated a combined $397.3 million from 4.3 million fans last year, according to Billboard Boxscore. That’s up 52% from 2023, when the top 10 generated $260 million from 2.9 million fans.
Iglesias came in at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Comedy Tours chart for 2024, grossing $42.8 million with 603,000 tickets sold from 124 shows. Koy ranked No. 10 on the chart, grossing $26 million from 83 shows in front of 368,000 fans.
“Since day one, I wanted to bring comedy to the stadium,” explains Adolfo Romero, vp of programming and booking for SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, which is home to a number of smaller venues, including a new Belgian spiegeltent built for CineVita, the cinema live experience first announced in December.
“We’re at a 750-person capacity in the spiegeltent,” Romero said. The complex also includes the 6,000-capacity YouTube Theater, which has played host to a number of comedy events, including the 2024 Black Comedy Festival.
“We want to make sure that when people go out to see comedy, it’s not just the Laugh Factory or in Hollywood,” says Romero, adding that he hopes One Night Only “showcases the stadium in a different way,” noting SoFi’s carefully designed sightlines and visual technology designed to enhance the live experience.
“Sound is really important to them, and we have the five levels of LED screen as well at the stadium [that] they can also use as part of the show,” Romero said. “Their production team is working with our team to ensure that the sound and the sidelines for fans coming in are going to be the best for comedy.”
Tickets for the show are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com.
Ye (formerly Kanye West) had four children with Kim Kardashian while they were married, but this week, he said he wishes he had kids with another celebrity instead.
While ranting on Digital Nas’ Twitch stream earlier this week, West said that in an alternate universe, he wishes he had children with Paris Hilton instead of Kardashian. Once upon a time, in the mid-2000s, Kardashian served as Hilton’s personal assistant before becoming a reality superstar in her own right.
“Kim was Paris Hilton’s assistant,” he said. “I should’ve had babies with Paris Hilton over Kim Kardashian. Could you imagine if I had kids with Paris Hilton? How many hotels I’d have now. Think about that — the Hilton. I think y’all staying at the Hilton right now. The Edition Hotels is a Hilton.”
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Ye went on to compare Kardashian learning from Hilton to the relationship he had with the late Virgil Abloh. “Paris Hilton had the vision, and that’s what happened,” he added. “Kim was like the Virgil [Abloh]. Kim was like Paris Hilton’s Virgil.”
West also brought up how Arnold Schwarzenegger cheated on his wife, Maria Shriver, and had a kid with his nanny, Mildred Baena, when his partner was out of town in the 1990s.
“If you’re like Arnold Schwarzenegger and you have a kid with a nanny, the nanny’s only power is to take your kids,” Ye continued. “So Kim’s only power is to take my kids. I had a baby with a f—ing assistant, bro.”
West and Kardashian began dating in the early 2010s and tied the knot in May 2014. They have four kids together: 11-year-old North, 9-year-old Saint, 7-year-old Chicago and 5-year-old Psalm. The former couple finalized their divorce in November 2022 after filing in early 2021.
Ye, who is currently in Spain, began dating Bianca Censori in late 2022 and got married shortly after.
As for Hilton, who is the great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, she married businessman Carter Reum in 2021, and the couple has two children together.
West has been under fire for his antisemitic rants and targeting peers like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole and more in recent months. He’s been teasing a new album, which will be titled Cuck or WW3, and is written entirely by rapper Dave Blunts.
Bad Bunny takes viewers on a heartfelt and surreal journey in a music video released Friday (April 25) for “BOKeTE,” a melancholic track from his Billboard 200 chart-topping album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. With a blend of cinematic nostalgia and haunting vulnerability, the Puerto Rican superstar’s video digs deep into the pangs of heartbreak, using […]
Doechii is clearly a fan of You. The rap star approved of Penn Badgley’s “Anxiety”-inspired dance when he hit The Jennifer Hudson Show this week, offering up an affirmative Instagram comment on his “spirit tunnel” appearance. On Wednesday (April 25), Badgley hit Doechii‘s signature “Anxiety” dance on his way down the backstage J-Hud spirit tunnel. […]
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Source: “Whenever” / Megan Thee Stallion
Hot Girl Summer is upon us, Megan Thee Stallion, the Queen of the Hotties, is back with a new single, “Whenever,” which also has a tantalizing visual accompanying it, and yes, her knees and twerking are still top-tier.
Megan Thee Stallion is back with some new music for the Hotties after rocking the Coachella 2025, letting us know that she is once again looking to take over the summer once again.
In her latest single, Megan Thee Stallion shows off her lyrical prowess while effortlessly floating over the Bankroll Got It produced track. In the visual directed by Zac Dov Wiesel, Thee Stallion rocks her signature cowboy hat while rocking a denim bikini before crashing her car into a doctor’s office reception area.
In other scenes, she poses on furniture in the office, including inside a fish tank, on a reception desk, a clock, and on a chessboard.
The chessboard scene is a standout moment for obvious reasons, as she straddles a chess piece while wearing nothing but lingerie and twerking.
“Whenever” will live on her next album, Act: III, which the Houston Hip-Hop star confirmed is “in the works” during a recent TikTok Live.
Megan Thee Stallion Talks About Her Upcoming Album’s Features
As for who will be on the album, Thee Stallion set down some ground rules for the artists she potentially wants on the project.
“I’m really just trying to figure out who do I want to do features with at this point in life,” she said. “I only want to do features with people that … one, I haven’t done a feature with yet, and two, that I listen to on my own time — people that I actually, you know, f— with.”
We’re going to have to wait and see who will be on Act: III, but until then, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.
Ed Sheeran has accomplished more than most people could ever dream of, from selling out stadiums to winning Grammys and earning four No. 1 albums over the course of his career. But recently, he achieved something that even he probably thought he’d never do: make a best-dressed list. On Friday (April 25), the pop star […]
Young Thug is officially back. Today, he dropped a new song and video, “Money on Money,” featuring one of his favorite collaborators in fellow Atlanta native Future. The two superstars channeled Watch the Throne‘s classic “Otis” music video where Jay-Z and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) dismantled a very expensive car and welded it […]
Young Thug was behind bars for the duration of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle last year, but was kept in the loop thanks to his girlfriend Mariah The Scientist.
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Thugger was asked about the K. Dot and Drizzy battle dominating conversation in hip-hop last year during his interview with GQ on Friday (April 25), as well as how he was name-dropped by Lamar during his “Not Like Us” diss.
“Yeah, [Kendrick] just spoke on people’s name in Atlanta. I don’t know what that was about,” he said before making his allegiance to Drake known. “I’m a Drake fan.”
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Kendrick attacked Drake’s ties to Atlanta in the third verse of “Not Like Us” by naming artists he’s worked with extensively in the past. “21 gave you false street cred/ Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/ Quavo said you can be from Northside,” he raps.
While he didn’t address Kendrick directly, Thug hopped on X when he was in jail last year and called for Drake, Metro Boomin and Future to stop feuding. “@Drake @1future @MetroBoomin we all bruddas. Music aint the same without us collabin,” he wrote.
Speaking to Billboard in 2024, Mariah The Scientist explained that she kept Thug up to date on cultural events like the Drake and Kendrick battle when she would talk to him while he was locked up.
“I tell him everything. I might tell him too much,” she said. “I play him the [diss] songs over the phone and shit. He’s a lover of music in general. He fucks with everybody. I don’t think he would ever be able to – let me not speak for him.”
She continued: “He love music though. He thinks it’s interesting, for sure. We were listening to some of the songs. Not all of them, because now I’ve gotten lost. In the beginning, I was like, ‘Hey, there’s a tizzy going on.’ I played him some of it. I feel like those two people are both great rappers. With all of the rappers with the guy and the girl rappers, granted it’s cool for the craft, and to be able to keep up with that — because let me not lie and say there’s no competitive energy in the music industry. Because there is.”
In the past, Thug and Drake have joined forces on a plethora of hits including “Way 2 Sexy,” “Ice Melts,” “Sacrifices,” “It’s Up,” “Solid,” “Oh U Went” and more.
After regaining his freedom in October, Thugger is getting back to music in his own right as he delivered his first single of 2025 on Friday while teaming up with Future for “Money on Money.” Look for Thug’s UY SCUTI album to arrive in May.
Watch the full interview with Young Thug below.