State Champ Radio Music
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On a warm, breezy evening in Kyoto, Japan’s biggest music stars walked a red carpet, performed their most popular hits and thanked their fans as they took the stage to receive ruby-hued awards.The dazzling ceremony, which was televised across Japan May 21-22 and livestreamed on YouTube, felt in many ways similar to the Grammy Awards.
But remarkably, even though Japan is the world’s second-biggest music market, the inaugural Music Awards Japan (MAJ) marked the country’s first major national music awards show.
“We’re honored to have received an award, but I also believe this could become a goal for young people in Japan who are just starting out in music,” said Ayase, producer and member of Japanese duo YOASOBI, after winning the top global hit from Japan award. “I hope that through events like this, people both in Japan and abroad will come to appreciate the greatness of Japanese music even more.”
The glitzy new gala is core to Japan’s mission to turbocharge its export of music to the world. For years, its music industry was able to increase revenue by marketing to fans within its borders thanks to the country’s enormous appetite for physical products like CDs and vinyl, which still account for 62.5% of its overall recorded-music revenue, according to IFPI. But those days have come to an end: Japan’s population has been shrinking for the past 14 years — and has been slow to adopt streaming. The country’s recorded-music revenue fell 2.6% in 2024, even as global recorded-music revenue has grown for the last 10 years, according to IFPI. So, to woo a global audience, Japan’s major music trade groups representing labels, concert promoters, publishers, producers and other enterprises united to form the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA) and organized the show, inviting guests from 15 countries to attend.
Nominees for most of the awards were selected based on chart data provided by Billboard Japan, and winners were determined by a two-stage voting process involving over 5,000 industry professionals.
Hip-hop sensation Creepy Nuts took home nine awards including song of the year for its viral hit “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” Singer-songwriter-pianist Fujii Kaze earned album of the year with his Love All Serve All project. Pop-rock band Mrs. GREEN APPLE racked up a multitude of honors including artist of the year. Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande won awards for the impact of their hits in Japan, though they weren’t present to accept in person. MAJ executive committee chairman Tatsuya Nomura says that CEIPA plans to host the next show in June 2026 at a bigger venue in Tokyo so fans and more international artists can attend.
One sign of this year’s success: Streams of songs that won top honors have jumped an average of 31% in Japan, with 21 out of the 27 songs that received top honors gaining streams compared with the previous week, according to Luminate.
This story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
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Hip-Hop fans are rejoicing now that the Clipse have reunited and will be returning with a new album in July, Let God Sort Em Out, but interestingly enough the reunion didn’t come without some repercussions as the two-man group was dropped from Def Jam Records after refusing to remove a Kendrick Lamar verse from their project.
Now, we’re learning that not only did Def Jam release Pusha T and Malice from their label, but the two had to cough up seven figures to get their walking papers.
In a new interview with Billboard, the group’s manager, Steven Victor, talked about Def Jam’s demands to have Kendrick Lamar change his verse or have it removed entirely in order for the Clipse album to see the light of day. When that didn’t sit well with the artists who refused to do either, Victor tried to come up with creative ways to release the album that wouldn’t “implicate” Def Jam as being a part of the record. When that didn’t work he revealed that the only way The Clipse would be able to recoup their artistic freedom from Def Jam Records was if they came out of pocket and paid the label a Galactus- sized grip for their walking papers.
Per Billboard:
I went to them and I said, “Let us put the song out somewhere else since you guys have an issue with it. You guys won’t have to stand behind whatever complications come from it. We’ll put the song out somewhere else, and we’ll license it back to you guys when the album comes out.” Their response was, “How about you just find somewhere else to put out Clipse? Just pay something to us and put it out somewhere else.”
So they said, “Find another deal, and let’s figure out a business.” They didn’t drop us. They were like, “Pay us this money” — which was an exorbitant amount of money, a s—t ton of money — “and we’ll let you out the deal.” That’s what happened. We paid them the money, an insane amount of money. It wasn’t, like, $200,000. It was a lot of money for an artist to come up with. They bought themselves out of the deal.
Ultimately, The Clipse became free agents and Victor put in a call to Jay-Z to see if he’d be interested in an opportunity to have The Clipse as part of Roc Nation. And if we know anything about Jay-Z it’s that the man is all about opportunities and paper.
He hit me back right away, like,“You just made my day. Let’s figure it out. What do we need to get it done?” I went back to Pusha, and said, “Listen, Jay’s gonna give us a very artist-friendly deal, we get to own the masters, and they’ll put the marketing power of Roc Nation behind it. You guys are friends. It’s a great outcome.” We worked out the deal in less than 24 hours.
Naturally, Def Jam got a cut of the new Clipse deal as the record industry is shady, but in the end, we’ll be getting a new Clipse album and a Kendrick Lamar-featured cut in “Whips & Chains,” which freaked out Def Jam execs to the point where they were willing to shelf an entire album if they didn’t get them to remove a verse from arguably the biggest rap star in the game today.
Should be interesting.
What do y’all think about The Clipse having to buy their independence from Def Jam Records? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Like David Lee Roth’s drum riser leaps or Pete Townshend’s windmill guitar arm swing, Benson Boone‘s backflips are seemingly going to be part of his stage show until his ortho, or insurance company, say otherwise. So it was no surprise that Boone’s acrobatic signature came up not once, but twice on The Tonight Show on Wednesday (June 4).
First, in the cold open, host Jimmy Fallon met Boone backstage and bragged that he can also pull off Benson’s signature trick. “You know, I can actually do a back flip too,” Fallon said. “Yeah, I just kind of jump and turn around all the way in the air. Just kind of always had a knack for it, if that makes sense. Flippity Floppities is what I call them.”
Boone appreciated the gesture, but warned Fallon that he doesn’t have to flip out to impress him, adding that he wouldn’t want the host to hurt himself. Fallon laughed it off and promised it was “very easy” for him, as the camera cut to a stunt double hurling himself backwards into a table covered with snacks and crashing out after zero rotations.
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Later in the show, Boone said “there’s no guaranteed flips” when Fallon asked if the iconic move would be part of Boone’s upcoming arena tour. When Fallon wondered if Boone practices and plans out his flips, the singer sighed and said he didn’t, since he’s been doing the trick his whole life. “I’ve been doing them forever,” he said. “Like, if you knew me growing up and you saw a video of me now and you hadn’t seen anything else — if you went to preschool with me and then you just had not heard the name Benson Boone since them — and then you see a video of me doing a backflip, you’d probably be like, ‘He’s still doing this?’”
So, of course, at Fallon’s request, he stepped up onto the host’s desk and pulled off a perfect one to the studio audience’s delight.
The 22-year-old also singer sat on the couch and played a game where he gave one-word reactions to some of high highest highlights from his breakthrough last year. For instance: the Grammys (“whooo!” with crotch grab and a “wow, that’s tight”), Coachella (“crowd”), MTV VMAs (“it was very sparkly”), Eras tour (“whoa!”), Lollapalooza (“I still don’t think I can spell it”) and the American Music Awards (“… moonbeam ice cream…”).
He then joked about trying to gin up some buzz on the internet for “Mystical Magical,” the first single his upcoming sophomore album, American Heart (June 20) by attempting to make the confounding “moonbeam ice cream” lyric a meme. “Nobody knows [what it means], I don’t know,” he said of his hope to spark some interest in the album by teasing the intriguing phrase. “So it went downhill quick. People started doing ‘what is ‘moonbeam ice cream?’… I hate Benson Boone!’” he said, admitting that even with the hate it kind of worked out for him.
Boone returned later in the show to perform the American Heart single “Momma Song” accompanied by a string quartet, crooning the moving ballad on a sundown-colored stage with zero flips. He will play CMAC in Canadaigua, NY on Thursday night (June 5) and New York City’s Governor Ball on Friday (June 6).
Watch Boone on the Tonight Show below.
Miley Cyrus says she knew she was going to win her first Grammy last year for “Flowers” when she saw another “MC” in the crowd. “The reason that I never got a Grammy before was because it was never my compass. It was not my North Star,” the singer told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night’s (June 4) show.
That’s why she was so genuinely surprised when she did win, even though she almost didn’t make it because she got stuck in traffic in the rain on the way to the broadcast. “Once I saw Mariah Carey I knew I was going to win,” she said. “Because I had this whole idea in my mind of, like, the butterfly and that metamorphosis. And she is the butterfly. Her [1997] album Butterfly has been such a North Star for me. And so when I saw her I kind of knew I was going to win because that was… it was an M.C. to M.C. I knew I had to get it.”
The singer once again described how her new Something Beautiful album was almost a very different kind of project until her old pal Harrison Ford stepped in with some sage advice when they met up at the Disney Legends Awards ceremony last summer. He asked her what she was up to, so naturally Cyrus pulled out a PDF with her grand plan for Something Beautiful, which at that point included her dream tour of “magical places” for a project then called Somewhere Beautiful that would have had her playing shows in the forest or in front of the pyramids.
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“And he looked at it and goes, ‘Looks expensive… not sure if it’s worth it,’” she said, adding that she took the note to her management, who 100% agreed.
The pair talked about running into each other at the SNL 50 special earlier this year, with Cyrus, 32, admitting that she was a “little bit nervous” before the show “because everyone that I’ve ever looked up to or watched on TV or loved was there.” Cyrus performed a stunning cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” with Tonight Show house band the Roots and Brittany Howard on the show and she said Fallon looked “crazy” before his breathless opening musical bit.
“You got a little out of breath,” she teased him. “We’re working on that… I’m getting you snatched for the summer.”
Part of that work included Miley teaching Jimmy how to dance in stacked heels after he praised her for a video in which she rehearsed the choreo for her song “Easy Lover” in what he said were the highest heels he’s ever seen. “If I were rehearsing this show… I’m in sweatpants,” he said, as Miley warned, “Not once I get you that summer body.”
Admitting he needs help to get that beach ready, Miley busted out a little treat she brought for the host: a pair of black chunky boots with four-inch heels. “Stage one: a chunky booty,” she said as she presented the shoes. “Which by the way, is your new drag name. Here you go, Miss Booty.”
Fallon was game, so he slipped on the boots and came out from behind the desk to learn the steps to the “Easy Lover” dance, teetering on the heels and getting a lesson on why you need to rehearse in the shoes you’re going to perform in.
The companion Something Beautiful film will be in theaters for one night only on June 12.
Watch Cyrus on The Tonight Show below.
Banda Los Recoditos collect their ninth No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “Una Peda Menos” shoots from No. 5 for its first week atop the list, dated June 7. “We’re truly very happy with this No. 1 hit,” Rafa González, lead vocalist, tells Billboard. “We are very proud and satisfied because we’ve been working hard, and for us this is the result of everything we do.”
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“Una Peda Menos” takes over the tally with the Greatest Gainer honors — awarded weekly to the song with the largest gain in audience — with 7.1 million audience impressions logged during the May 23-29 tracking week, according to Luminate. The single enjoyed a 34% growth in impressions compared to the week prior.
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The song, released Feb. 21, marks Banda Los Recoditos’ ninth No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart. It also serves as their first hit under the newly reintroduced Fono label, previously known as Fonovisa-Disa. Here’s a recap of Banda Los Recoditos’ collection of No. 1s on Regional Mexican Airplay dating back to 2010:
Title, Peak, Weeks at No. 1“Ando Bien Pedo,” Feb. 13, 2010, 12“Mi Último Deseo,” Dec. 28, 2013, one“Hasta Que Salga El Sol,” Nov. 1, 2014, one“Tiempo,” April 14, 2018, five“Perfecta,” July 13, 2019, three“Me Siento A Todo Dar,” April 23, 2022, one“Fuerte No Soy,” Oct. 15, 2022, one“Vas A Querer Volver,” Jan. 6, 2024, one“Una Peda Menos,” June 7, 2025, one
As “Una Peda” rises, it trades places with Luis Angel “El Flaco”’s “Vuelve a Mi,” which falls 1-5 after a 23% decline in audience impressions, to 5.2 million.
“We want to thank the audience, our fans, and our family because they’ve always supported us, and that’s what motivates us to continue bringing you, our music. God bless you!”
Elsewhere, “Una Peda” rises 12-4 on the overall Latin Airplay chart, for a new peak, after one week at No. 9 in May.
On Thursday (June 5), Avex Music Group announced it has signed Justin Bieber’s longtime backing band and collaborators, We The Band. We The Band includes Harv (bass), Tay James (DJ), Julian Michael (guitar), Devin “Stixx” Taylor (drums) and O’Neil Palmer (keys). Tay James has worked as Bieber’s longtime A&R and DJ since 2009; Harv joined […]
The Jeff Buckley documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, will be released in theaters on August 8. The Amy Berg-directed feature about the mesmerizing musician who tragically died at 30 when he accidentally drowned in Memphis’ Wolf River in 1997 will be released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures and then premiere on HBO and stream on HBO Max this winter as part of Bill Simmons’ Music Box series, according to Deadline.
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“Told through never-before-seen footage from Buckley’s archives and intimate accounts from his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, Jeff’s former bandmates, including Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred, and luminaries like Ben Harper and Aimee Mann, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley illuminates one of modern music’s most influential and enigmatic figures,” reads a release about the film.
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“His only studio album, Grace, was released to astounding reviews and challenged conventional ideas of genre and gender. His intimate and influential cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ further catapulted him to fame,” it continues. “Still, under pressure to produce his second album, he retreated to Memphis to escape the spotlight and the ever-growing glare of the public eye. In a tragic accident, Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis in 1997, leaving behind an unfinished second album and a legion of devastated family, friends and fans.”
A number attempts at making a film about Buckley have fizzled out to date, including one backed by Brad Pitt. In January at the doc’s premiere at the Sundance film festival, Buckley’s mother, Guibert, said the actor first floated the idea of a movie about the singer in 2000 after befriending her, but she eventually soured on his pitch. “We’re going to dye your hair, put brown contact lenses on those baby blues, and you’re going to open your mouth and Jeff’s voice is going to come out?” Guibert said she asked Pitt.
That idea never took off, but when Oscar-nominated Deliver Us From Evil director Berg pitched Guibert granted her access to Buckley’s archive and the movie moved forward with Pitt as an executive producer.
“I’ve spent practically my entire career trying to make this film, which takes a very intimate look at one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time,” Berg, who also directed the 2015 Janis Joplin doc Janis: Little Girl Blue, said in a statement. “I’m so excited Magnolia and HBO have come on board to share this film with the world and give old fans and new audiences a chance to experience Jeff from this unique vantage point. I couldn’t imagine a better team to roll this into the world!”
Buckley was the son of Guibert and late folk musician Tim Buckley and after gaining notice as a session musician and captivating performer in Manhattan’s East Village he signed to Columbia in 1994 and released his debut LP, Grace. It initially got mixed reviews and only reached No. 149 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but the album is now considered a classic, one that Buckley would never follow up.
Though he never completed a second album, Guibert helped compile some of her son’s demos for 1998’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which reached No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and received a Grammy nomination for best male rock vocal performance for the single “Everybody Here Wants You.”
Joe Jonas scores his first solo top 10-charting effort on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart as his second solo album, Music for People Who Believe in Love, debuts at No. 3 on the chart dated June 7. The set sold 17,000 copies in the United States in the week ending May 29, according to Luminate. Of that sum, vinyl purchases comprise 4,000 – a personal best sales week for Jonas as a soloist on vinyl.
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Jonas has issued one solo studio album previously, 2011’s Fastlife, which debuted and peaked at No. 15 on Top Album Sales. Jonas is also a member of Jonas Brothers, and that trio has logged seven top 10s on Top Album Sales (including four No. 1s). DNCE also counts Joe as a member, and that group has reached Top Album Sales once, with its self-titled project, reaching No. 14 in 2016.
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Elsewhere in the top 10 of the Top Album Sales chart, Playboi Carti, BAEKHYUN and Stereolab all shake-up the region with moves reentries and debuts.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.
Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem holds at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart for a second week (28,000; down 79% from its debut of 133,000). Playboi Carti’s MUSIC reenters the list at No. 2 with nearly 18,000 (up from a negligible sum the week previous) following the fulfillment of deluxe boxed sets, exclusively sold via his webstore, to customers during the tracking week. BAKHYUN’s Essence of Reverie debuts at No. 4 with nearly 10,500. Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping GNX rises two spots to No. 5 with 8,000 (up 16%).
Rounding out the rest of the top 10: Jin’s Echo falls 2-6 in its second week (just over 6,000; down 82%), BOYNEXTDOOR’s 4th EP: No Genre dips 3-7 in its second week (6,000; down 57%), Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet rises 11-8 (nearly 6,000; up 2%), Stereolab’s Instant Holograms on Metal Film debuts at No. 9 (almost 6,000) and Sleep Token’s former leader Even in Arcadia falls 4-10 (5,500; down 29%).
On Wednesday night (June 4), Billboard’s annual Country Power Players event, presented by Bud Light and held at Luke Combs‘s Category 10 venue in downtown Nashville, honored several of country music’s top artists and executives.
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The Country Power Players event also served as a call to action to aid those in the music community–whether artist, songwriter, musician, touring member, executive or other creative—who are struggling with mental health.
Country duo Brothers Osborne honored Music Health Alliance founder Tatum Allsep with the impact award, for her vision and leadership in launching and spearheading the organization with the mission of providing access to healthcare and mental health resources in order to help music professionals connect with medical and financial solutions.
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In presenting Allsep with the impact award, Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne said, “Music Health Alliance’s services are available for free to anyone who has made a living in the music industry for three or more years and services are available to their spouses, partners and children as well. Most recently, MHA once again partnered with our label’s parent, Universal Music Group, in launching the music industry’s mental health fund. The fund provides a wide range of mental health services including personalized recommendations for mental health counselors and psychiatrists, including grants to help offset the costs to anyone in the music industry. That is huge by the way. We all could use that.”
Brothers Osborne also announced they were making a $10,000 donation to Music Health Alliance to help aid the organization’s work, in honor of Allsep, whom TJ called “Nashville’s own Mother Teresa.”
In taking the stage, Allsep thanked Brothers Osborne, saying, “Thank you for commitment to the music mind and thanks for being my friends since day one.”
Allsep recalled having the idea to launch Music Health Alliance 15 years ago, to help those in the music community to get the resources they need. “It is an honor to stand here with the people who shape the sound of our culture, and for the impact of this little engine that could, MHA, to be recognized is so meaningful. To all of you who have walked with us over the years… you’ve kept this mission alive and enabled us to grow from one person on the coffee shop tour in Nashville, to a team of 15 who’ve served 32,000 music people and helped save over $145 million. That’s not monopoly money, y’all. That’s real money.”
Allsep also thanked those on the Music Health Alliance team, saying, “You put boxing gloves on every day and you get in that ring, and you hear the impossible stories, you fight the broken systems, you wrestle and cut the red tape and still you approach every single music person who calls so openly, with open arms and [with] the most powerful medicine that exists on this planet and that’s hope. You are the reason that our mission has an impact.”
She thanked UMG, Brothers Osborne, Dierks Bentley, Marcus King, Sully Erna from Godsmack and others who have stepped up with funding and support, which has helped the organization provide more than 8,000 therapy sessions to help those in need.
“The music mind is filled with so much uninvited noise,” Allsep said. “It’s the noise of pressure, of income instability, of isolation. It is costing our industry big time. Look around. Everybody knows somebody that this has affected. It is costing us creatively, humanly, corporately.”
Allsep noted that in the last few months, Music Health Alliance has seen a 250% increase in requests for mental health support. “That’s not a statistic–that’s a screaming flare. It is an SOS call and we have got to do better,” Allsep said.
“I’m so serious when I say that MHA is equipped with the tools and the knowledge and the partners to help every artist, every songwriter, every crew member, everybody in our industry have access to the mental health that they deserve, but not just in a crisis. We’ve got a have a plan for the long haul. We know music heals. But even the healers need healing. To every label, every publisher, every platform, every artist, everybody who makes a living in this industry. Don’t just admire the mission and impact. Feel it. Fuel it. Fund it.”
She added, “We so desperately need you to stand with us, to nurture the noise. And then, we can truly heal the music.”
Others honored during the evening were Riley Green (honored with the groundbreaker award), Ella Langley (rising star award), BigXThaPlug (innovator award), Little Big Town (the inaugural Ben Vaughn song champion award) and Goldenvoice/AEG’s Stacy Vee (executive of the year).
Billboard continues highlighting the music of more artists this week, as Billboard Country Live launches on June 5, with two days of performances from a range of artists including Jake Worthington, Reyna Roberts, Max McNown, Graham Barham, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Baldridge, Alexandra Kay and Cooper Alan.
Though Billy Joel might be sidelined with health issues currently, directors of the new documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, have shared a positive message from the singer.
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Joel, who recently canceled all live performances due to a health issue affecting his ability to perform, had initially planned to be in attendance at the Tribeca Festival for the premiere of the new documentary about his life.
In his absence though, director Susan Lacy shared a message to the audience, with Variety noting Lacy told those in attendance that, “He will be back.”
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“Billy wishes he were here tonight, and he asked us to convey his greetings to you all,” Lacy added (via Deadline). “He said ‘getting old sucks, but it’s still preferable to getting cremated.’”
Lacy was in attendance with producer Jessica Levin at New York City’s Beacon Theatre on Wednesday (June 4) for the premiere of the first part of the two-part documentary. Alongside attendees such as Tom Hanks and Whoopi Goldberg, Tribeca Festival co-founder Robert De Niro echoed the impact Joel has had upon the city.
“Billy may be considered the poet laureate of New York,” De Niro claimed. “You feel the essence of our city in his lyrics.”
The Billy Joel: And So It Goes documentary – which will air on HBO over the summer – aims to provide “an expansive portrait of the life and music of Billy Joel,” while focusing on the love, loss, and personal struggles that have informed his creative process.
Last month, Joel announced the cancellation of his forthcoming performances due to his recent diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus – a condition that occurs when cerebrospinal fluid builds up inside the skull, pressing on the brain.
In a social media post, a statement claimed that Joel’s condition has been “exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance.”
It continued; “Under his doctor’s instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period. Billy is thankful for the excellent care he is receiving and is fully committed to prioritizing his health”
On Tuesday (June 3), radio host Howard Stern told his listeners that he recently had dinner with Joel, who offered a message to be shared with the general public. “He said, ‘Yeah, you can tell people: I’m not dying,’” Stern said. “He wants people to know that. He’s just got to deal with some medical stuff.”
