Music
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Chappell Roan hasn’t endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president, despite the pop star’s longtime advocacy for trans rights and the LGBTQ+ community.
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer-songwriter weighed in on the 2024 election in a profile published by The Guardian on Saturday (Sept. 21).
“I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides,” Roan explained.
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She added, “I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.”
She says she most wants to see a change in trans rights in the U.S. “They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period,” said Roan.
While Roan’s quote to The Guardian resulted in backlash on social media from fans who expect her to publicly endorse Harris over Donald Trump, given Harris’ pro-LGBTQ+ stance, the quote alone can easily be taken out of context. Roan has been clear about her values in words, performance and actions.
On tour, Roan invites local drag artists to be her supporting act, and as The Guardian reports, “For every U.K. tour ticket sold, £1 goes to the LGBTQ+ rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust, and at the merch stand in Manchester there are signed risograph prints selling for £100, with proceeds going towards aid for Palestine.”
Over the summer she declined an invitation from the White House to perform for a Pride event. She actually wanted to show up and protest the Biden administration’s involvement in Israel’s attacks on Gaza instead of being paraded as a performer, she told Rolling Stone. Her publicist, concerned for her client’s safety, talked her out of it: “You f— with the president and the government, your security is not the same, and neither is your family’s.”
At Gov Ball she dedicated her song “My Kink Is Karma” to the administration. “We want liberty, freedom and justice for all,” she said. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
In August Roan urged people to make their voices heard, telling Rolling Stone, “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community. My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee.”
“I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historic time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee,” she added. Harris, meanwhile, has featured the Roan’s music in her campaign, including the song “Femininomenon.”
Stars including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish,
Tens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday (Sept. 20), with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners — a sign language interpreter.
The red-haired woman — with a chunky chain belt and a gem between her eyebrows — snapped her fingers and swayed, then pumped her arms as the beat gathered force.
“It seems like I’m on stage with her, in front of everyone,” the interpreter, Laísa Martins, told the Associated Press afterward. And as Katy Perry belted out her first verse, Martins started signing.
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Rock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It’s one of Latin America’s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day over seven days, and Sunday is its last day.
Inside a container backstage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, with their images appearing above the stage to ensure deaf people across the thronging crowd can follow. Organizers also invite dozens of deaf people and their companions into a VIP area, right by the stage and close enough to speakers to feel the music pulsing through their bodies.
How a 2015 law helped Brazil start championing accessibility
Interpreters have started popping up at festivals and concerts across Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil’s ambitious 2015 inclusion law that sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events while guaranteeing organizers provide means of doing so.
Some interpreters have drawn the spotlight themselves with their flair and flashy dress, gaining thousands of social media followers. Demand for them is surging so much that many start working before even finishing their education, said Lenildo Souza, president of the nationwide federation of sign language interpreters’ associations.
In Brazil, 2.3 million people are partially or completely deaf, according to the national statistics institute. But fewer than two-thirds of those who are completely deaf know how to use Brazilian sign language, and far less among those with some hearing. That’s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only lip-reading, or go deaf later in life, said Souza.
As such, subtitles could be more effective at transmitting lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G sang so quickly at times Friday night that some words were lost on Amorim, who isn’t fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said interpreters convey more than just lyrics of songs, which they study intensively ahead of the show. They dance to the rhythm and pull faces to transmit the music’s energy and emotion — be it euphoria, rage, mystery or sensuality. That pumps up the crowd, deaf and hearing people alike.
“We express the whole idea of the song with our expressions, with our body. We want to express the entire musical context and use literally our entire body,” said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. “Our feet are cut off there [on the screen], but during samba songs, we’re dancing samba. It’s just like that.”
Putting deaf people up front
Rock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, coordenador de pluralidade (diversity coordinator). Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include vibrating platforms or a product similar to the vibrating vests they tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for those with limited vision.
One of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba — his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and pandeiro, a handheld frame drum — and he was always around it growing up. But Martins can hear little from his right ear and nothing from his left, so could never fully connect or participate.
Last year, he went to his first-ever concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band — even before its single whose official video features people signing. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in São Paulo. And last week he traveled from São Paulo to party with his parents at Rock in Rio.
He was most hyped to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and waited to enter the special section by the stage. Iza started playing, just off to his left, but he faced the opposite direction, watching her on the screen with an interpreter in its corner. He danced and signed along with the interpreter, often in synchrony.
“I can follow the interpreter and I’m very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,” Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. “For deaf people, it’s very important. We can’t be outside this here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, together with everyone participating in everything. I’m very happy.”
Rock in Rio’s camera scanning the crowd found Martins vibing and locked in. For a few seconds, he was up on the big screen for everyone to see, smiling wide with his head thrown back and shaking both hands in the air — the sign for applause.
Why did Usher delete his entire X (formerly Twitter) feed? Well, apparently he didn’t — even though the topic was a trending conversation on the social media platform on Sunday (Sept. 22). “Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it!” Usher wrote on X at 6:13 p.m. ET on Sunday, after commentary and theories […]
Katy Perry‘s 143 has topped this week’s new music poll that features artists in various genres of music.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Sept. 20) on Billboard, choosing the pop superstar’s sixth album as their favorite new music release of the past week.
143 brought in nearly 59% of the vote on the poll, securing a notable edge ahead of new releases from Gwen Stefani (“Somebody Else’s”), Bad Bunny (“Una Velita”), Keith Urban (High), Bon Iver (“S P E Y S I D E”), Future (Mixtape Pluto), and others.
143, which is code for “I love you,” marks Perry’s first album since 2020’s Smile, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The project features previously released singles “Woman’s World” and “Lifetimes,” as well as Doechii and 21 Savage collaborations on “I’m His He’s Mine” and “Gimme Gimme,” respectively. Other song titles include “Crush,” “Nirvana,” “All the Love,” “Truth” and “Wonder,” among others.
“I set out to create a bold, exuberant, celebratory dance-pop album with the symbolic 143 numerical expression of love as a throughline message,” Perry previously shared in a statement about the project. On TikTok, she added, “143 is honestly a dance party. All fandoms, invited. And it’s high energy, lots of love, mostly lots of love and BPM, summer, sexy. And it’s for y’all.”
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This is Perry’s second week in a row to top Billboard‘s new music poll. Last week, the star’s “I’m His, He’s Mine” collab with Doechii brought in 30% of the vote.
Trailing behind Perry on this week’s poll is Stefani’s “Somebody Else’s,” which brought in nearly 27% of the vote. The new single, which nods back to No Doubt’s brand of new wave and radio-ready pop, will be featured on the singer’s fifth album, Bouquet, set for release on Nov. 15.
See the final results of this week’s poll below. Check out Billboard‘s Friday Music Guide to catch up with more must-hear releases from this week.
Travis Scott’s 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Sept. 28), vaulting 106-1 after its vinyl editions — exclusively sold by the artist’s webstore — shipped to customers. The set earned 156,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Sept. 19 (up 1,295%), according to Luminate.
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Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 150,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week; it’s No. 1 on Top Album Sales). Vinyl sales comprise 149,000 of that sales figure — Scott’s largest week on vinyl ever. It’s also the biggest week on vinyl for a rap album, as well as the sixth-largest week on vinyl across all genres, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.
Days Before Rodeo marks Scott’s fourth No. 1, all earned consecutively. He previously topped the list with Utopia (2023), Astroworld (2018) and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight (2016).
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Days Before Rodeo was initially a free release in 2014. On Aug. 23, it was commercially released for the first time and officially made its wide streaming debut. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 7 with 361,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 29, largely from the strength of album sales (331,000 — mostly from digital download album sales). The album then fell to No. 30 in its second week, and then to No. 106, before jumping to No. 1 in its fourth week of release.
The vinyl sales pushing Scott to No. 1 began generating pre-orders via his official webstore before the album was released on Aug. 23 via streamers, as a digital download and on CD. It was available in two vinyl variants (a standard edition and a deluxe edition in expanded packaging), as well as two boxed sets (one containing a hoodie and the standard vinyl and one with a T-shirt and the deluxe vinyl), and in two Fan Pack offers (one with a hoodie and the standard vinyl and one with a T-shirt and the deluxe vinyl).
A wide retail release beyond Scott’s webstore for any physical formats of the album has not been announced.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. 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. The new Sept. 28, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Sept. 24. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of the 156,000 equivalent album units earned by Days Before Rodeo in the latest tracking week, album sales comprise 150,000 (up 4,608%), SEA units comprise 6,000 (down 25%, equaling 7.94 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (down 30%).
Days Before Rodeo is the second album of 2024 to reach No. 1 without having debuted atop the chart. Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits re-entered the chart dated Feb. 17 at No. 1, following his death; the album had previously debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2008. Before Keith and Scott, the last album to be No. 1 without having debuted at No. 1 was the Encanto soundtrack, which debuted at No. 197 on the Dec. 11, 2021-dated chart, and then rose to No. 1 on the Jan. 15, 2022 list, spending nine nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
Days Before Rodeo additionally has the largest jump to No. 1 since the April 30, 2022 chart; when Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost returned to the top, flying 120-1 after its vinyl release.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet slips to No. 2 on the latest Billboard 200 (108,000 equivalent album units; down 8%) after spending its first three weeks atop the chart. It remains at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart for a fourth week.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a non-mover at No. 3 (64,000 equivalent album units; up 13%); Post Malone’s former No. 1 F-1 Trillion dips 2-4 (60,000; down 16%); Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time falls 4-5 (52,000; up less than 1%); and Taylor Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department descends 5-6 (51,000; down less than 1%).
Eminem’s chart-topping The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) returns to the top 10, surging 42-7, following its deluxe reissue and CD release. The album was reissued via digital download services and streamers on Sept. 13 with bonus tracks, while on the same day its original standard album was issued in two CD variants. In the tracking week ending Sept. 19, The Death of Slim Shady earned 48,000 equivalent album units (up 180%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 24,000 (up 3,328%), SEA units comprise 23,000 (up 43%; equaling 31.64 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 210%).
Rounding out the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 are Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (6-8 with 44,000 equivalent album units; down 5%), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (8-9 with 38,000; up 2%) and Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene (7-10 with nearly 38,000; down 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Lizzo isn’t letting hurtful comments get in the way of her fitness journey.
On Friday (Sept. 20), the 36-year-old “Truth Hurts” singer respond to allegations on social media that she’s been using the popular weight loss drug ozempic after sharing videos of her weight loss transformation.
“When you finally get Ozempic allegations after 5 months of weight training and calorie deficit,” the pop-rap star captioned a video on Instagram of herself sighing into the camera.
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Lizzo’s carousel also included a screenshot of a rude follower commenting on one of her posts. “Did she use Ozempic or did she snort coke,” the person wrote, prompting the star to respond, “whyyyy do u follow me?”
Days earlier, the four-time Grammy winner shared clips on social media of herself hard at work in the gym. The videos feature the artist sharing before-and-after shots of her weight loss while donning her shapewear brand Yitty. One of the clips is soundtracked by Nicki Minaj saying, “The fact that you would even discuss my looks is insane. I’m a bad b—-, always been a bad b—-.”” Lizzo captioned the Sept. 19 post, “FINE BOTH WAYS,” alongside exhaling face emojis.
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Lizzo has also recently shared an update about new music. “JUST A LIL ALBUM UPDATE 4 MY REAL LIZZBIANS: I’m making the BEST music of my life— this album (like all my other albums) is a BODY OF TWERK,” she wrote on Instagram alongside photos of herself in the recording studio. “I want you to listen to the WHOLE THING/IN ORDER with a glass of ur favorite wet stuff and ur heart open. This is more than music to me… this is my soul poured out and bared to the world.”
The “About Damn Time” hitmaker has been giving fans a look into her fitness routine in recent weeks. In an Aug. 25 post revealing that she’s “taking a gap year,” the star shared fitness footage from Bali, where she’s seen jumping rope on a balcony.
Just before summertime, the star gave an update on her mental health, a topic she’s been candid about over the past year amid harassment allegations and public scrutiny. (In August 2023, three former tour dancers filed a lawsuit against her, alleging sexual misconduct and hostile work conditions. Lizzo claimed the accusations to be false and deemed them “sensationalized stories”; the lawsuit was put on hold in March pending appeals.)
“I’m the happiest I’ve been in 10 months,” she wrote on Instagram in May. “The strange thing about depression is you don’t know you’re in it until you’re out of it. I’m definitely not all the way as carefree as I used to be. But the dark cloud that followed me every day is finally clearing up. My smile reaches my eyes again and that’s a win.”
See Lizzo’s post about her weight loss on Instagram below.
Doja Cat is clearing up any confusion about her relationship status with Joseph Quinn.
On Saturday (Sept. 21), the 28-year-old “Paint the Town Red” rapper flashed a ring on her left hand while performing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, leaving many fans wondering if she got engaged to the Stranger Things actor.
“no, im not engaged its a David Yurman ring with no rocks in it,” Doja wrote and quickly deleted on X (formerly Twitter) early Sunday morning, according to screenshots from Page Six.
Engagement rumors began swirling online shortly after images of the “Angora Hills” performance surfaced. “Rub it in their face, put a rock on her hand,” she sang while holding out her hand and showing the ring.
“omg doja cat & joseph quinn got engaged,” one fan wrote on X. Another questioned, “JOSEPH QUINN AND DOJA CAT ARE ENGAGED?????” A third confused onlooker added, “i don’t know what to think i don’t think she’s engaged it’s been a month.”
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Doja and Quinn, 30, seemingly went public with their romance after stepping out in London holding hands in August. The public’s first sighting of the apparent couple came Aug. 17, when the rapper and A Quiet Place: Day One star took a romantic stroll through the city with their fingers locked. The following day, a video surfaced of them again walking through London.
The outings arrived two years after the “Say So” hittmaker first professed feelings for the actor in a private message sent to his Stranger Things co-star Noah Schnapp, who then got on Doja’s bad side by posting screenshots to social media. “Noah can u tell Joseph to hmu.” she’d written in the messages. “Wait no. Does he have a gf?”
Shortly after Schnapp posted the DMs, Doja called him out on Instagram Live for being “so unbelievably, like, socially unaware and wack.” “That’s like borderline snake sh–,” she added at the time. “That’s like weasel sh–.” The child star then apologized to the Grammy winner behind the scenes, and both moved on.
Perry Farrell is taking a step back from music to “heal” following his violent outburst during a Jane’s Addiction concert.
On Saturday (Sept. 21), the 65-year-old singer’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, shared an update on her husband following his onstage altercation with guitarist Dave Navarro during the rock band’s concert in Boston on Sept. 13.
“As you know, Perry is the gentlest of souls. We are equally astonished at Perry’s physical outburst as you are – but you must know that Perry must had been pushed to his absolute limit.. to that end we apologize,” Etty Lau wrote on Instagram. “We are taking a bit of time to ourselves, to reflect and to heal. Perry already has appointments with a otolaryngologist and a neurologist. If you know and love Perry well, you know there’s no need for me to address the other false narratives. Our souls know.”
A day after the onstage meltdown, Etty Lau attempted to provide context and background on what precipitated the incident.
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“Clearly there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members.. the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit,” she wrote on Instagram. “Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night, he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row, started complaining up to Perry cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
Following the shocking incident, Navarro and Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery issued a joint statement apologizing to fans for the disturbing scene that led to the cancellation of the reunited lineup’s first tour in 14 years as well as the announcement of an indefinite hiatus.
“Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour,” the trio wrote on Instagram.
Farrell also apologized to his bandmates in a statement first shared with Billboard.
“This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show,” Farrell said. “Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
In fan video of the moment, an agitated Farrell is seen lunging at Navarro and throwing a shoulder into his bandmate, then punching the shocked-looking guitarist in the chest before the men are separated and Farrell is dragged off stage.
See Etty Lau Farrell’s post on Instagram below.
One early autumn day, nearly four decades ago, at a stadium concert in the heartland of America, Willie Nelson made a pledge to help embattled family farmers who grow the nation’s food.
On Saturday (Sept. 21), Nelson and friends renewed that promise as the annual Farm Aid festival — the longest-running concert for a cause — drew some 21,000 fans to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, for a day of celebration, activism and song.
Nelson was joined by his fellow Farm Aid board members — Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price — on a bill with Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Southern Avenue, Cassandra Lewis, Jesse Welles and others.
The first Farm Aid concert — inspired by an impromptu call for support for America’s farmers from Bob Dylan during the Live Aid mega benefit in 1985 — was, improbably, staged weeks later that same year, on Sept. 22 in Champaign, Illinois.
Since then, Farm Aid has raised nearly $80 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture, while also building connections in the battles against climate change and social injustice.
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul gave welcoming remarks before two indigenous acts — the ensemble known as Kontiwennenhá:W, from the Akwesasne community of northern New York, and the Wisdom Indian Dancers, who have performed at every Farm Aid since 1990 — began the joyous hours of music.
This was the third time Farm Aid has been staged in New York State, following a 2007 event at Randall’s Island in New York City, and a previous 2013 festival in Saratoga (during which surprise guest Pete Seeger gave his last major performance). Between 2017 and 2022, New York State lost 3,000 of 33,000 farms, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, as farms across the nation suffer from rising production and labor costs, consolidation and climate change.
Here are the 12 best takeaways from the 39th annual Farm Aid.
Activists Show Up Early and Dig Deep
Moms in Music recently saluted the empowering and inspirational balancing act that comes with the dual demands of motherhood and career at its second annual brunch. This year’s quintet of honorees included Grammy winners Melanie Fiona (the Essence Award) and Makeba Riddick-Woods (Visionary Award), Freebandz COO Dr. Stephanie Jester (Leading Lady Award), MBK Entertainment president Jeanine McLean (Breaking Ground Award) and wardrobe stylist-author Tameka Foster Raymond (Perseverance Award).
Moms in Music founder Brittney King Brock, who hosted the event on Sept. 13 at The Buckhead Club in Atlanta, noted, “We are honored to recognize these extraordinary women who have not only excelled in their careers, but have also served as examples for the future generation of moms navigating the complexities of the music industry. Their stories reflect the perseverance, creativity and heart that define our community.”
“Success isn’t just measured by what you achieve, but by how you give back and uplift others along the way,” said honoree Jester, who is also the business manager and mother of Grammy-winning hip-hop star Future. “As a mother, I’ve learned that true fulfillment comes from nurturing the next generation and empowering other women to rise, thrive, and find their own purpose and passion. That’s the legacy I’m most proud of.”
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While accepting her award, singer-songwriter Fiona commented, “I’ve been blessed to receive many awards in my career, but this one means the most to me — being honored as a mom. There’s nothing more rewarding than this role, and it’s one of the greatest achievements of my life.”
Fellow singer-songwriter Riddick-Woods said of her own balancing act, “Songwriting isn’t only about creating hits — it’s about telling stories that resonate with people’s hearts. I’ve learned the importance of balancing creativity with nurturing, and how powerful it is to lead by example for the next generation. Being a mom has deepened my purpose, and I’m committed to using my voice to inspire and empower women, both in music and in life.”
Moms in Music welcomed more than 125 attendees to its brunch, sponsored by Amazon Music with Billboard as a media partner. On behalf of Amazon Music, the division’s head of culture amplification, Ida Kay, said of supporting inclusive spaces within the industry, “We believe in the power of amplifying diverse voices, and the Moms in Music Brunch reflects that commitment. It’s inspiring to see how these honorees continue to push boundaries and create meaningful art while balancing the demands of motherhood.”