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Florida musician T-Pain has well and truly put his hometown on the map, and now the city of Tallahassee have returned the favor.
In a ceremony held on Sunday (Nov. 10), Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey awarded T-Pain (whose stage name is derived from the phrase “Tallahassee Pain”) with both the Keys to the City, and cemented the musician’s status as one of the city favorite’s songs with a street dedication.
As part of the ceremony, Pasco Street – a portion of road which the Tallahassee Democrat notes he walked as a child from Nims Middle School to the Walker Ford Community Center – has officially been renamed T-Pain Lane.
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“Today, I had the incredible honor of presenting @TPain with the Key to the City in recognition of his contributions to music and his ongoing commitment to this community,” Dailey wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “As a hometown hero, T-Pain has inspired countless fans and artists worldwide, and we’re proud to call him one of our own.
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“To further celebrate his legacy, we named ‘T-Pain Lane’ in his honor. Thank you, T-Pain for making us #TallahasseeProud!”
Hours after the ceremony, T-Pain also took part in a performance at the Adderley Amphitheater for the Tallahassee bicentennial celebration, where he showcased tracks from his decades-long career.
“Everything that went on today was just a dream come true,” T-Pain told the gathered crowd.
Recently, T-Pain was also announced as one of the many performers set to appear at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on Thursday, Nov. 28.
Appearing as part of the event’s 98th anniversary, the parade will also feature the likes of Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Chlöe and The War and Treaty as those performing this year, with the lineup also featuring Bishop Briggs, Kylie Cantrall, Dan + Shay, Dasha, Coco Jones, Walker Hayes, Ariana Madix, Joey McIntyre, Idina Menzel, Natti Natasha, Rachel Platten, Lea Salonga, The Temptations, Alex Warren, Sebastián Yatra, Charli D’Amelio and Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia.
After two decades spent as one of the most acclaimed music festivals in North America, the Pitchfork Music Festival will not be returning to Chicago in 2025, organizers have revealed.
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The news was shared on both the festival’s website and social media accounts, explaining that, “as the music festival landscape continues to evolve rapidly, we have made the difficult decision not to host Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago in 2025″.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the statement continued. “For 19 years, Pitchfork Music Festival has been a celebration of music, art, and community—a space where memories were made, voices were amplified, and the shared love of music brought us all together. The Festival, while aligned with the taste of the Pitchfork editorial team, has always been a collaborative effort, taking on a life of its own as a vital pillar of the Chicago arts scene.
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“We are deeply grateful to the City of Chicago for being our Festival’s home for nearly two decades, to the artists who graced our stages with unforgettable performances, and to the fans who brought unmatched energy year after year. Thank you to At Pluto and the rest of the hardworking Festival team whose dedication and creativity were the backbone of every event, and to the broader community whose spirit and support made the Festival a truly unique experience. And thank you to Mike Reed for founding the Festival and for your inspiring vision.”
“Pitchfork will continue to produce events in 2025 and beyond,” they concluded. “We look forward to continuing to create spaces where music, culture, and community intersect in uplifting ways—and we hope to see you there.”
The Pitchfork Music Festival has its origins in 2005’s Intonation Music Festival, which saw local promoters Skyline Chicago recruit Pitchfork Media to curate their inaugural event at Chicago’s Union Park. Though Intonation would return in 2006, Pitchfork Media split to create their own event under the Pitchfork Music Festival name.
Over the years, the festival has featured a raft of celebrated headliners, including Animal Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Slint, Björk, Wilco, A Tribe Called Quest, the Isley Brothers, and more. Though their 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned in earnest in 2021, with this year’s event taking place in July and featuring Jamie xx, Alanis Morissette, and Black Pumas as headliners.
The festival also expanded outside of its Union Park home, holding international events in Paris between 2011 and 2022; in London from 2021 to 2023; Berlin in 2020 and 2022; and a lone event in Mexico City this year.
The news of Pitchfork Music Festival’s demise arrives months after Condé Nast announced in January that staff layoffs would take place as the website was absorbed by another Condé title, men’s magazine GQ.
Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it is somewhat tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs forever.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked whether his feelings toward his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” — now that Combs is facing trial for numerous allegations of sexual abuse, racketeering and more.
“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what went on [with Diddy]. But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”
The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 the year it came out, and it remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans and 112, featuring an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at No. 1.
Diddy was arrested Sept. 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery, after which he was immediately taken into custody and denied bail multiple times as he awaits trial on May 5, 2025. The most recent update in his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “unwarranted” request that a gag order be issued against his alleged victims and their lawyers on the grounds that they were making “inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press.”
“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”
Meanwhile, Sting has been touring once again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a setup not unlike his three-person lineup with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — and the “We’ll Be Together” singer is aware of the irony. “I never left the Police,” he said while speaking to the Times. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record — as the others had done — and enjoyed it more than I did being in a band.
“And here I am again,” he continued of his return to form. “My whole modus is surprise. I don’t want people to be entirely confident about what I’m going to do next. That’s the essence of music for me. And no one expected a trio at this point.”
In a now-viral episode of the BFFs Podcast LaPaglia made a series of claims, including accusing Bryan of “emotional abuse” during their relationship and claiming she was offered $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about their relationship, which she said she refused. “The last year of my life has been like the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” LaPaglia said. “I’m still scared right now because I’m scared of him. My brain’s rewired, and I’m scared to make him mad.”
“There was always another excuse as to why he was treating me so poorly and why I’m crying myself to sleep every night, why he’s screaming at me,” she said. “And then you wake up, it’s the apology, it’s the ‘I’m going to be better, I need you in my life.’”
Among her claims, LaPaglia described an alleged incident on her birthday, where Bryan reportedly yelled at her her friends after she had gone to bed. “I look outside and I have my aunt trying to control Zach — there’s a recording of all of this that can never be out — basically Zach stood up at the fire and he just starts screaming at my friends.”
“He stood up at the fire and just starts screaming at my friends, ‘You’re not going to be anything, you’re a f—ing loser.’ Just the most horrible s—,” she said. “It was just crazy, completely out of nowhere … When Zach gets in that zone, there’s no containing it.”
In another instance, LaPaglia claimed Bryan had smashed her phone, saying to her co-hosts, “Look at my phone, it’s smashed from him, he’s always smashed my phone,” adding that he would “whip it at a wall.”
Watch the full episode here. Following the episode’s release, Billboard reached out to Zach Bryan’s representatives for comment but did not receive a response.
The Cure make a striking return to Billboard’s album charts (dated Nov. 16) with the arrival of Songs of a Lost World. It’s the band’s first No. 1 on the 33-year-old Top Album Sales chart and the act’s highest-charting effort on the Billboard 200 (No. 4) since 1992. It also bows at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales.
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Songs of a Lost World is the group’s first album of new material since 2008. The new album is the act’s third top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200, following its self-titled effort (No. 7 in July 2004) and Wish (No. 2 in May 1992).
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Equivalent album units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. Nov. 16, 2024-dated charts will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Songs of a Lost World bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned (the act’s best week by units) in the United States in the week ending Nov. 7, according to Luminate. Of that sum, album sales comprise 53,000 (The Cure’s biggest sales week since 2004, when its self-titled album launched with 91,000), SEA units comprise 4,000 (equaling 5.02 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
The new album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across five vinyl variants (which sold a combined 23,000 copies; the band’s best week on vinyl since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991), a standard CD, a CD/blu-ray audio package, two cassettes, a standard digital download and a deluxe digital download with five bonus live tracks (exclusive to the band’s webstore).
The set’s “A Fragile Thing” rises 25-22 on Alternative Airplay (a new peak and its highest charting song since 2004) and 12-10 on Adult Alternative Airplay (The Cure’s first top 10, and third charting hit, since the list began in 1996).
Ariana Grande really, really wanted to play Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked.
How much? “If it hadn’t happened, I might have ended up in an insane asylum,” she joked during a panel Sunday (Nov. 10) in Hollywood following a screening of the film, which opens in theaters Nov. 22. Grande, who is credited as Ariana Grande-Butera in the film, prepared for months for her audition.
“Vocally, it’s very different for me than what I usually sing, so I started training every single day with my vocal coach for two-and-a-half, three months before my first audition, and my acting coach. I just wanted to be prepared to use any tool needed whatever was asked, I wanted to be able to drop in and do it and really become her,” Grande said. “I gave my everything to it and paused everything else.”
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If she had not gotten the role, Grande noted she knew that, because of director Jon M. Chu and producer Marc Platt, the part “was in the most loving hands, so I just kind of worked as hard as I could and let the rest fall into place. I do think, though, if it hadn’t happened, I might have ended up in an insane asylum, so there’s that.”
Chu admitted that Grande had “a giant wall to climb over” simply because of her fame as “Ariana Grande.” He also questioned, “Does she really know what it takes to carry a movie? Does she know what it takes to be inside a character? And she came in, and I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I was like, ‘She’s not talking like Ariana Grande. She’s not singing like Ariana Grande.’ By the way, I was outside in the parking lot, and she drove past like 14 times in 20 minutes.”
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“I didn’t know you had seen me or heard me,” Grande broke in. “You were like, ‘Who’s blasting [Wicked song] “One Short Day?”’”
Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who stars as the Wicked Witch Elphaba, first met at Erivo’s house and shared snacks, including berries. “We just giggled and I felt an immediate safety,” Grande says. “And then we kind of made a pact to really take care of each other.”
“To be really honest with each other,” Erivo continued. “To make space for each other.”
Grande says she was extremely nervous. “I almost sh-t in my pants. But she’s just the warmest human being. We were just so open immediately with each other. I think that that promise that we made to each other and how we kept it and how it strengthened along the way is one of the things that we’re proudest of.”
Jimmy Fallon’s first festive album, ‘Holiday Seasoning,’ debuts at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart and at No. 1 on the Comedy Albums chart (both dated Nov. 16). It’s the entertainer’s first album release since 2012. The star-studded set launches with nearly 13,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week […]
11/11/2024
The K-pop group proves why they’ve graduated to stadiums on the RIGHT HERE U.S. tour.
11/11/2024
Young Thug‘s father, Jeffrey Williams, Sr., has been very vocal during his son’s legal battle and he doesn’t plan on stopping.
During a recent appearance on his Nothing But the Truth Podcast with Big Jeff, Williams, Sr. expressed concern with rappers wanting to be around his son all of a sudden. “We got all these rappers and everybody trying to find Young Thug,” he said. “They wanna talk to Young Thug, they wanna this, that and the other. Where your a– been for 29 months? Why y’all ass ain’t been out there protesting for his constitutional rights being violated? Y’all are the ones considered to be the influencers. Ain’t influencing sh—t.”
He added, “Now, you want to talk to him, you want to goddamn put out these monkey-ass videos, all this for your personal gain. It’s just for your personal gain, your personal hype, trying to make yourself relevant. Where have y’all been for 29 months? You could’ve been relevant, you could’ve been being seen fighting with him, fight with these guys. ‘Cause some of these guys are from y’all side of the town too. Some of these guys are probably related to some of y’all too. So, where y’all been? Where have y’all Atlanta artists been? Up until now? You could’ve been fightin’ for him. I don’t see why you deserve no brownie points for that sh—t.”
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Big Jeff then continued by saying if those same rappers had been in trouble, his son would’ve shown support without the need to be seen. “Let’s make it make sense ’cause I guarantee you this,” he began. “If the shoe was on the other foot he’d have been fighting for you, he would have been fighting for you, hands down. Without trying to make a prop for his name so he could get some clout.”
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He then set his sights on one of Thugger’s music industry mentors in T.I. who recently posted a video of him and Thug in the studio, saying that he approached the Atlanta legend about hosting an event at his Trap City Cafe.
“I went to T.I. over a year or so ago, when he opened up his restaurant and asked him to do an event on behalf of YSL,” Williams, Sr. revealed. “And I was told, ‘Let me get with my people and see if I can do that, But yet and still, I see you right there beside Young Thug. That’s when he needed the help, that’s when he needed your support. Let’s be real with this shit, make it make sense. So, you know, what side y’all playin’? Because I don’t get it.”
You can watch the full episode here.
Regional Mexican music star Julión Álvarez announced on Monday (Nov. 11) the first date of his long-awaited return to the United States, which will take place next year on April 19 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
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The concert and the rest of the tour — which will be titled 4218 Tour USA 2025 and whose dates will be announced at a later date — will be presented by CMN (Cardenas Marketing Network), the promoter behind Luis Miguel’s historic tour, and Copar Music, Julión Álvarez’s management and booking company.
“We are putting together the tour right now, because there are two possibilities: to do some stadiums or several arenas,” said Ricardo Álvarez, CEO of Copar Music and Julión’s brother, in an exclusive interview with Billboard Español. “For the moment, this is the only date we have for sure; next week we will announce the complete tour.”
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After receiving several proposals for a tour, Ricardo Alvarez said they decided on CMN because “the commercial agreements they presented to us were the best option.”
The 4218 Tour USA 2025 comes eight years after a legal process that began on Aug. 10, 2017, when the U.S. Treasury Department singled out Julio Álvarez for alleged money laundering and links to drug trafficking. This caused the closure of his social media accounts, the veto on platforms and the rejection of U.S. companies to work with the Chiapas-born singer, and kept him away from the stages in this country.
In May 2022, the charges were dropped and Julión Álvarez announced in a press conference: “In 2013, I wanted to diversify and I partnered with a real estate company to build houses. I did not know that these people were being followed by the U.S. government and for that reason I was linked to them. Fortunately everything has been cleared up and now we will begin the process to reestablish the social networks, to be able to upload our music to platforms and give the fans what they have been asking for almost five years.”
During that time, the 41 year old singer toured Mexico with his show, recording sold-out shows and earning the nickname “El Rey de la Taquilla” (The Box Office King). On the music side, he never stopped recording; first he did it in collaborations and later launched his production De Hoy En Adelante Que Te Vaya Bien, via Fonovisa Records, winner of the Latin Grammy 2023 in the best banda music album category.
For the 25th anniversary of the Latin Grammys, he is nominated for the second time in the same category, now with his album Presente (also released under Fonovisa Records). A few weeks ago, he finalized the work visa process for him and his entire team.
“I learned in all aspects,” he added at the press conference in 2022. “Personally today I am more patient and calm. We can say that there is a Julión before and another one after what happened. Now I have the strength and wisdom to have a healthy financial life and I know how to manage what I have. I have gone through many tests, many investigations and much discrimination. Today I can say with my head held high that we are victorious and stronger.”
A few days ago, Julión Álvarez took to social media to hint at a potential tour announcement, and on Sunday (Nov. 10) he posted a video in which he showed his passport and a suitcase with the text “Los tiempos de Dios son perfectos” (God’s timing is perfect), setting off alarms among his followers and the press.
The pre-sale of tickets for the concert in Los Angeles will take place on Nov. 14, and the following day, the general sale will begin through ticketmaster.com. Below, check out the official announcement of their comeback.