State Champ Radio Music
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Trending on Billboard Iron Maiden have announced the dates for the North American leg of their Run For Your Lives World Tour, and they’re bringing Megadeth and Anthrax along for the ride. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Starting on Aug. 29, 2026, Iron Maiden will kick off their North American leg at Toronto’s […]
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Rawayana transformed the M2 Miami club into a massive after-party for the 2025 Latin Music Week Billboard En Vivo on Wednesday night (Oct. 22).
Joined on stage by about 70 people — including friends, music industry figures, models and influencers — the Venezuelan trip-pop band created a celebratory atmosphere with a dazzling production that featured a stimulating display of lights, colorful visuals, confetti and smoke columns, delivering a one-of-a-kind experience.
Both the special guests on stage and the audience vibed to the rhythm of the 14-song setlist, which opened with “Dame Un Break” and continued with hits like “Feriado,” “Hora Loca,” and Rawayana’s latest single, “La Noche Que No Había Uber.” One of the standout moments was the appearance of Puerto Rican singer Rafa Pabön, who joined Rawayana’s vocalist Beto Montenegro to perform their hit collaboration “Miel.”
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The Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning band closed the set on a high note with their mega-hit “Veneka,” a burst of adrenaline that had all their fans jumping to the beat.
Rawayana’s performance was preceded by a set from Venezuelan singer Corina Smith, followed by fellow Venezuelan DJ Mr. Pauer. The newly formed boy band Santos Bravos, which was scheduled to perform live for the first time after winning this week Hybe Latin America’s reality show of the same name, was unable to perform due to logistical issues that caused delays to the arrivals of three of its members. The quintet will instead make its red carpet debut at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, which will air live tonight (Oct. 23) on Telemundo.
With over 30 years of history, Billboard Latin Music Week is the largest gathering of Latin artists and music industry executives worldwide. This year’s lineup also included Aitana, Anuel AA, Bebeshito, Carlos Vives, Carín León, Danny Ocean, DJ Khaled, Emilia Mernes, Ivy Queen, Gloria Estefan, Grupo 5, Kapo, Laura Pausini, Luck Ra, Netón Vega, Olga Tañón, Óscar Maydon, Ozuna, Pablo Alborán, Suzette Quintanilla, Tokischa, Xavi, Yailin La Más Viral, and more.
Watch a clip of Rawayana’s Billboard En Vivo performance below.
Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.billboardlivemusicsummit.com/2025/home-launch
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Dion DiMucci considers his new album, The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher, to be “like a concert” experience.
“I thought I would just let it run like a concert,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and proud son of the Bronx tells Billboard via Zoom, sporting a New York Yankees baseball cap shortly after the team was eliminated from the playoffs. “That was my vision; if I had to do a set with a band, I’m gonna do these 16 songs, in this order. It’s the perfect concert.”
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher — Dion’s fourth album released within the last five years with Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive (KTBA) Records label — is not simply a compilation, however. As Dion notes, “some of (the songs) are new, some of them are redos that I felt I could do better versions of.” Based on his January book of the same name, it includes six fresh recordings — some of older favorites such as Tom Waits’ “Serenade” and his own “Abraham, Martin and John,” for which Dion recently released a video — along with previously released collaborations with Bonamassa, Eric Clapton (who wrote a foreword in the liner notes), Mark Knopfler and Sonny Landreth, plus signature Billboard Hot 100 hits “Runaround Sue” (No. 1), “The Wanderer” and “Ruby Baby” (both No. 2).
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Dion penned the brand-new songs — “New York Minute,” released in January, and “Mother and Son,” inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà — with good friend Mike Aquilina, an author who specializes in Catholic Church history and has been writing with Dion since Tank Full of Blues in 2012; he co-wrote Dion’s 2023 book, Dion: The Wanderer Talks Truth (Stories, Humor & Music). Dion also salutes his late Little Kings bandmate Scott Kempner, also of the Dictators and Del-Lords, via new recordings of “New York Is My Home” and “In a Heartbeat of Time,” which Kempner co-wrote; the former, from the 2016 album of the same name, is a version of the track before Paul Simon added his guest vocal to the recording.
“When I get down into it, I really love that blues thing,” Dion, 86, explains. “That John Lee Hooker thing, just that groan. I love expressing myself with those three chords, even two chords; it doesn’t have to be very fancy. I just love the thing grooving. The beauty of rock ‘n’ roll is repetition, the beauty of repetition and the groan and the groove and the communication of the words. It’s very simple.”
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher album is an outgrowth of the book project, Dion’s third. Co-authored with Adam Jablin and sub-titled Conversations on Life, Recovery, Faith and Music, it’s a loose collection of stories and concepts, housing high-minded concepts, anecdotes and lists of favorite books and performers.
“The book was events in my life that I’m reflecting on, all these little stories I have, and it comes with a life lesson,” says Dion, whose first memoir, The Wanderer: Dion’s Story, was published in 1988. “So then Bonamassa and (KTBA) co-founder Roy Weisman said, ‘Let’s get an album, something compatible with the book.’ At the time I was doing the audiobook, and I just had a ball doing that ’cause you could have songs (play) in the stories, just coloring or complementing. (The album) developed out of that.”
One of the most striking inclusions is “Abraham, Martin and John,” an elegy written by Dick Holler about the legacies of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy during 1968. Dion’s recording reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year and was certified gold. It went on to be covered by a number of other performers, including Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher re-recording of it is a more intimate treatment with just Dion, a guitar and strings along with atmospheric backing vocals arranged and performed by Robert Florczak. “I wanted it in the set,” Dion explains, referring to the album’s setlist concept. “If I do a set, then ‘Abraham, Martin, and John’ has to be there, so I did it for that reason. And when I gave it to Roy Weisman he said it really struck a chord in him; he said, ‘Dion, this song is 57 years old. There are people who never heard it. I would like to release it as a single.’ And we had David Niles do the video, which is my favorite video I’ve ever done. Now, I tell ya, it seems almost timely for this song, ’cause it’s troubled times. But I didn’t even think of that when we were putting it together. It was never meant to be a political song…. It’s about a state of love and it plays so much into that speech Bobby Kennedy gave back then; he was saying love conquers all if we could understand rather than be understood, or if we could love rather than be loved, all that high-minded stuff. You can’t have cable news thinking like that, because then there’d be no shows.”
He’s also pleased that The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher gives him a chance to revisit guitarist collaborations, which appeared on previous albums.
“I did ‘Cryin’ Shame’ with Sonny Landreth,” Dion says, “and that guy, man, kills me every time. He’s ridiculous. It’s just thrilling. ‘Dancing Girl’ with Mark Knopfler, I love his sound; he just hurls me into a higher reality, another dimension, and it’s just all in his hands. And ‘If You Wanna Rock and Roll’ I did with Eric Clapton. I was totally surprised when I called him to play on his; he wrote me emails telling me how he grew up with my music, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ We became friends and he did this and it was so great; I called him and said, ‘Eric, you sound like you’re 19 on this song.’ He said, ‘I stood up. I wanted to do a good job in the studio.’”
In the meantime, Dion is looking at a proposed documentary that he says might involve a couple of performances back in New York, and he’s keeping tabs on The Wanderer jukebox stage musical, which debuted during 2022 and is now working on further financing to take it to Broadway.
As for another album, Dion says, “I’m always working on something. Like I said, I do like the blues thing; it’s in my head that it grooves and it has a mantra to it. I like that. But when I get my guitar and get in there, whether it’s a Phil Spector or Michael Omartian production, or Wayne Hood or myself, it’s all Dion music. When I did gospel music, it’s all Dion music. If it’s just me and the guitar, without the window trimmings, it’s just Dion music. So whatever I do, that’s what it’ll be — Dion music.”
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Janet Jackson has been delivering some of the slickest dance moves in the world for more than four decades — and she’s not slowing down anytime soon.
On Tuesday (Oct. 21), the Grammy-winning music icon received the Icon of the Year Award at The Gala of the Stars, an annual benefit supporting Dancers Against Cancer. Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Liza Minnelli — a longtime friend of the Jackson family — presented the award in person, honoring the “What Have You Done for Me Lately” singer’s influence on music, dance and culture. This marked Minnelli’s first public appearance since the 2022 Academy Awards, where she presented best picture to Coda alongside Lady Gaga.
Between the British Museum Ball, reuniting with niece Paris Jackson at Paris Fashion Week, and gearing up for her final three live shows of the year, it’s been a busy few weeks for Ms. Jackson. Nonetheless, she carved out the time to accept an honor from a community to which she has greatly contributed over the course of her storied career.
“I love dance. I’ve always loved dance, and I remember, since I was five or six years old, always dancing with my brothers around the house. They were my first teachers and choreographers,” she reflected during her speech, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I want to thank all of you guys for sharing your creativity, but not just that, for your friendship through all these years. Thank you so much. I want to thank my family for their entire support and love and for always encouraging me. I also want to sincerely thank everyone who’s been there for me throughout this entire journey, and I want to thank God for giving me life, allowing me to have a career and to continue to do what I love and still enjoy.”
To close out her speech, Jackson also made it clear that she will always keep dancing, saying “In a few — more than a few — months, maybe six or seven months, I’m going to be 60 years old. I have to tell you, I have no plans to stop dancing!”
She also reflected on the honor in an X post on Thursday (Oct. 23). “I never take moments like this for granted. Your mission is profoundly important, and thank you for giving our community a meaningful way to give back,” she wrote in part alongside photos of herself at the event, including a clip of her speech as well as a snapshot of herself with Minnelli. She also addressed the star, writing, “Dear Liza, receiving this award from an icon & friend like you means more than I can say. You have been an inspiration to me and to the world, and I am deeply touched. I love you.”
Marking her second icon award of 2025 — she received an equivalent honor at May’s Jennifer Lopez-hosted American Music Awards — Jackson has spent the year tearing through a 22-show run at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas for her latest concert residency. On Dec. 29, she will play her final show of the year at Yaamava’ Theater in Highland, Calif. Earlier this year, Jackson hit No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 with Cardi B’s “Principal,” making her just the third woman in Billboard history to reach that chart for a fifth consecutive calendar decade with new material.
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On June 28, Mexican-American country singer MŌRIAH and artist Ana Bárbara turned a room filled with apprehension into a powerful moment of unity, prior to a boxing matchup between American boxer Jake Paul and Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. in Anaheim, California.
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“The tension in the room was palpable,” MŌRIAH recalls, as the matchup came amidst heightened political strife. MŌRIAH and Bárbara met in Bárbara’s green room and felt “an instant connection and an immediate understanding of what we had the opportunity to do in that moment.” Bárbara took the stage first to perform the Mexican anthem.
“Almost every person in the arena sang every word,” MŌRIAH remembers, who then followed Bárbara onstage, to perform the American national anthem accompanied by a guitarist fusing the song with mariachi sounds. By the song’s end, Bárbara had joined MŌRIAH as they held hands and sang the final line together.
“It felt like the room just exploded with people applauding and screaming,” MŌRIAH says. “For that brief moment, it was like, ‘This is what it looks like if we set those differences aside and we band together, we own both parts of who we are.’ That unity was so powerful, that we were like, ‘This is the beginning of something.’”
On her two new EPs, MŌRIAH also celebrates her full heritage and family. She will release the six-song English-language version, Nice Life, on Friday (Oct. 24) on F2 Entertainment, followed by its Spanish-language counterpart, Buena Vida, on Oct. 31.
The cover art for MŌRIAH’s EP ‘Nice Life’
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She and acclaimed producer Paul Mabury (Lauren Daigle, MercyMe) began working on the songs nearly three years ago, shortly after Mabury attended MŌRIAH’s 30th birthday celebration—a joint party also honoring her grandmother, who was battling health challenges at the time.
“I brought in mariachis, and my friends learned a traditional dance,” MŌRIAH recalls. “The next time we were in the studio, my producer showed me a photo from that night and said, ‘This is beautiful. This is what we need to write about.’”
MŌRIAH was no stranger to releasing music, but those songs would mark a turning point in her artistry. She was raised in California, in a home where mariachi music was played at family gatherings and quinceañeras were celebrated. Summers were spent with family in El Paso, Texas. In 2014, her CCM album Brave reached No. 9 of Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart. She also released the 2022 EP Curtain Call.
Her producer’s encouragement dovetailed with the music and journal entries MŌRIAH had been quietly creating backstage while touring churches across the country.
“I would sing songs that had been written for me, then go backstage and write about my family,” she says. “It’s funny to me now how I kept those two worlds so separate.”
Last year, she released the breezy and dreamy “Hasta Mañana,” a song recorded at Texas’ famed Sonic Ranch studio.
“That song was an exciting peek into where we could go,” MŌRIAH says. The EPs build upon that song, fully celebrating themes of family, love and emotional struggle, wrapping it in sounds intersecting modern country and Latin music. The title track delves into finding happiness and contentment in simplicity, while “Sombrero” lends itself to a Western-flaired romance.
On “Supermujeres,” which serves as a centerpiece on MŌRIAH’s new project, she teamed again with Bárbara. Bárbara sang her own version of the Spanish lyrics, but also backed MŌRIAH on the chorus, singing the harmony line in English.
“She was like, ‘I’m making this the Mexican version,’” MŌRIAH says. “We tracked together in the studio, and I never asked her to sing the English chorus because it’s a lot to ask someone to do that and sing in their second language. But a week later, she heard the demo and was like, ‘When you’re singing the chorus in English, it sounds lonely. I want to support your voice in English, too.’ She worked so hard and her articulation was so beautiful.”
The artwork for the EPs features images in tin nichos, Mexican folk art shadow boxes used to honor loved ones. The Spanish-language EP features a tin nicho with a photo of MŌRIAH wearing a sombrero de charros, while the English-language version features a similar photo, but with the sombrero placed on a table in front of MŌRIAH.
“I wanted to have the sombrero in the image, because that’s what I’m honoring, the culture,” she says. “I’m honoring where I come from, so the cover of the Spanish EP is with the sombrero on and then for the English one I have the sombrero on the table, because I’m honoring the fact that my family learned English, a whole new language.”
The cover art for MŌRIAH’s EP ‘Buena Vida’
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So far, the year has brimmed with new milestones. MŌRIAH was named to CMT’s Next Women of Country class of 2025. Last month, she made her Grand Ole Opry debut, which followed her debut at CMA Fest in June, where she performed the national anthem and featured mariachi dancers onstage with her.
“My dad played bass onstage with me, which was such a special moment,” she recalls of performing at CMA Fest. “I think sometimes you can’t be what you can’t see, so just to be able to show up onstage and represent something that feels different gives people a sense of celebration.”
MŌRIAH, who is working with Nashville industry vet Fletcher Foster, now finds herself connected with a lineage of artists weaving together Latin and country sounds, from Freddy Fender, Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Rodriguez to newer artists including Angie K, Frank Ray and Sammy Arriaga. Meanwhile, Carin Leon made his Grand Ole Opry debut earlier this year, and Grupo Frontera is set to play the Opry in November.
“I’ve been looking for a female Latin country artist for years since the CMA Research study came out and just have found the right one for me. MŌRIAH has it all,” Foster tells Billboard in a statement. “Beyond a ‘triple threat’ the talent from songwriter to performing, acting, to speaking [MŌRIAH recently took part in a TedX talk in Nashville] is at another level. I’m looking forward to her bringing these two worlds together not just creatively but culturally.”
“I think that most people who are shaping culture don’t look at themselves as shaping culture—they’re just doing the work that’s in front of them and working hard. It’s not until you look back a bit and realize all that time invested, it did something that was bigger than me,” MŌRIAH says.
She will play her first show in Mexico later this month and is planning a full-length album for 2026, accompanied by more live shows. The multi-faceted creator is also an actress, film and music producer, who has acted in films and television shows including The Chosen, Reagan and Because of Gracia, and co-produced the 2024 film Unsung Hero, which chronicles the journey of her husband Joel Smallbone (of For King & Country)’s family from Australia to America. She’s already working on more upcoming film projects.
As she’s approaching the work’s long hours and creative output, she’s aware of the legacy building inherent in her rise.
“It’s what feels like pressure, but I count it a privilege to carry that pressure. It’s only two generations back that my grandparents were working in tomato fields and in factories,” she says. “They paved the way. They’ve sacrificed so much for me to be able to be able to work this hard and to be able to point back to their story and their narrative. It’s beautiful how in a family, one generation’s ceiling becomes the next generation’s floor and it just keeps building. That’s what I’m hoping to do with this music, too, is create a new threshold for the next generation to springboard off of.”
Trending on Billboard Finesse2Tymes has spoken out about his Monday (Oct. 20) arrest on drug charges, and said the situation has caused him to experience a lot of growth. The Memphis rapper was released from the Harrison County Jail in Texas on Tuesday (Oct. 21), according to local Fox affiliate Fox13, and hopped on Instagram […]
Trending on Billboard The World Series heads north of the border for the first time in 32 years, and the MLB has tapped Pharrell Williams alongside the Voices of Fire choir and the Jonas Brothers to perform at the first two games of the Fall Classic. Before the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers […]
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Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan headlined an “Icon Q&A” panel on Wednesday (Oct. 22) at Billboard Latin Music Week 2025 in Miami, where they reminisced about their beginnings in the industry, reflected on some of their major achievements and shared their views on topics such as the conservative backlash to Bad Bunny’s selection for the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show and the strict immigration policies of the Trump administration.
Presented by BMI, the panel was moderated by Jesús González, vice president, creative, Latin, at the music rights organization, who introduced the power couple as the artists who achieved “truly the first Latin crossover” and “the pillars that this industry has been built upon” after revolutionizing pop music in the ’80s with their Miami Sound Machine.
“I have worked on three Super Bowl Halftime Shows, three Olympic games and produced for six U.S. presidents with 48 events at the White House,” said the No. 1 Latin music producer, noting that he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican. “But … we need to have opportunities. For example, Bad Bunny, who has incredible success and was already part of the Super Bowl with Shakira and Jennifer [Lopez in 2020], has been the subject of major news coverage. I’m very happy with what he has done for Puerto Rico, for his country [with his recent residency at the Coliseo]. And we must have opportunities in different languages. It’s a normal thing.”
“The most important thing for me is that people see the value of Latinos who came here to contribute, to work, and the gratitude we have for being in the best country in the world,” he added, as a Cuban immigrant who truly achieved the American Dream. “I don’t want a child to think they don’t have opportunities in this great country.”
Meanwhile, Gloria expressed her concern over the current government’s aggressive deportation campaign and the loss of respect for other people’s opinions. “We’re human beings, and we’re kind of split down the middle on probably everything that exists. But one thing that’s always inspired me about this country that I deeply love and respect is the fact that there’s always been respectful discourse, and after every debate, people shook hands. And it scares me to see that changing,” the legendary singer-songwriter said.
Have you played Billboard’s Latin Music Week Crossword?Play now!
“And the freedoms we share must be defended, mi gente. There is no reason to be cruel to people. Yes, we absolutely need our border to have a legal process. But there’s no need to take someone that has put years of work into this country, that has sacrificed … They are not criminals!” she continued, receiving a roaring applause from the audience at The Fillmore Miami Beach. “It scares me to see what we’re seeing. It scares me. And I will always speak up because freedom must be defended.”
This year, Gloria Estefan is celebrating five decades in music and four decades of “Conga,” the megahit by Miami Sound Machine that launched her to stardom. Meanwhile, Emilio Estefan just topped the list of the Top Producers of the 21st century on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart, with 14 No. 1 hits between 2000 and 2024 as a producer for artists including Carlos Vives, Paulina Rubio and, of course, Gloria Estefan.
With over 30 years of history, Latin Music Week is the largest and most important gathering of Latin artists and industry executives worldwide. The event coincides with the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards, which will air on Thursday (Oct. 23) on Telemundo and Peacock, and where Bad Bunny will be honored as the Latin Artist of the 21st Century.
Trending on Billboard 50 Cent is looking to go from “In Da Club” to the wedding reception. The G-Unit sat down with ExtraTV on Wednesday (Oct. 22), during which 50 relayed he’d gladly accept an invite to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. “I would make my way over there,” 50 said when asked if […]
Trending on Billboard Chappell Roan is walking the walk. After advocating for the LGBTQ+ community throughout her career, the pop star has announced a fund called the Midwest Princess Project supporting vulnerable trans youth. The news came in the form of an Instagram post on Thursday (Oct. 23), with Roan writing, “I am so excited […]
