State Champ Radio Music
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The last week of May is coming to a close, and it’s shaped up to be a big one for pop music releases. Miley Cyrus leads the charge with a full album of new music that dropped Friday (May 30), Something Beautiful, featuring the singles “End of the World” and “More to Lose.” The high-energy […]
Carlos Santana, a living legend in global music, hardly needs an introduction. With nearly eight decades under his belt, his influence continues to ripple across generations of artists and fans alike.
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Now, his artistry intertwines with Grupo Frontera in “Me Retiro,” a Tex-Mex rock collaboration that celebrates resilience and emotional rebirth, with Santana stepping in as both a musical sage and spiritual guide.
The song, produced and co-written by Edgar Barrera, tells the story of someone trying to move past the pain of a broken relationship while grappling with an overwhelming sense of emptiness. Musically, “Me Retiro” blends Santana’s unmistakable electric guitar melodies — dizzying and immersive — with Grupo Frontera’s signature tejano acoustic style, where, instead of the accordion, Santana’s guitar takes center stage. The “Black Magic Woman” artist uses his electrifying rock riffs to elevate the track to a more dynamic level, while Frontera’s Texan instrumentation grounds it in the cultural and emotional roots of norteño.
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In a Zoom interview with Billboard Español, Santana reflects on the essence of the song and his connection to its message. “It’s about someone who doesn’t see themselves as a victim,” he said. “There are so many songs I didn’t like growing up, about people getting drunk and crying, like, ‘Oh, they left me, they’re gone.; That music is so depressing, and I don’t think that way — I’m a lion. If my woman leaves, let her go, I’ll find another queen with even more light. I have very strong faith, and I relate to Frontera’s lyrics because they’re basically saying, ‘I don’t give a damn.’
“I came into this world to transcend,” the musician concludes. “I’m a gardener, and my water is for all the flowers.”
Barrera was the bridge between the iconic guitarist and the Texan-Mexican group. For the producer and songwriter, this project marked a pivotal moment in his career. “It was a very special moment for me to be able to work with Santana because the first song I ever learned how to play on the guitar was ‘Samba Pa Ti’ and I played it in a talent show when I was 10 years old,” shares Barrera. “He is one of the main reasons I fell in love with music and he’s always been one of my idols so this was truly a full circle moment in my career and I’m honored that he agreed to collaborate with me.”
The creative process was just as meaningful for Grupo Frontera, whose members are still reflecting on the unforgettable opportunity to work with a musical legend. “It’s always a surreal moment when you get to collaborate with people you’ve looked up to your whole life,” said the band via email. “Edgar Barrera told us that Santana wanted to make a song together and we were shocked. Being in the same room as him, watching him work, we were speechless. We learned a lot from the experience.”
For Santana, the project felt authentic and aligned with his own musical style, creating a natural connection with Grupo Frontera. “They have so much energy and joy and I really relate to that,” Santana says. “If you break down where their music comes from, it’s African music. It’s blended with northern Texas and Mexican influences, but its foundation — just like Selena’s cumbia — is rooted in African music, and that’s something I can express very naturally.”
Despite his recent health challenges, 77-year-old Santana says he’s ready to keep sharing his magic with the world. “Thank God, I’m better than ever. I’m ready to go on tour and bring this strength and hope to people,” he says.
For him and his unmistakable guitar, the mission has always been clear: to inspire others with a “pinch of light.”
Listen to “Me Retiro” by Carlos Santana and Grupo Frontera below.
Officials with Forest Hills Stadium in New York have successfully saved their 2025 concert season from cancellation and announced a slate of programming at the stadium that begins with a concert on Saturday night (May 31) from British band Bloc Party.. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news NYPD […]
Bianca Oblivion had earned a degree in public health from Yale, a masters degree in epidemiology from UCLA and another masters in medical anthropology from Boston University, but what she really wanted to do was DJ.
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Growing up in a music loving family, the Los Angeles native immersed herself in city’s the sprawling music scenes as an adolescent and teen, while also taking dance classes in myriad styles. The love of music was just in her, and it went with her to Yale, where she was the music director for the school’s radio station and also hosted her own show.
Back in LA after graduating from Yale, she got another radio show on KXLU, then one night a friend asked if she wanted to spin at a nightclub in the city’s Culver City neighborhood. While she’d never played for a live crowd, she gathered her records, put some songs on an iPod and played the gig.
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“That was it,” she says. “After that I was like, ‘I need to do this more.’”
Her academic pursuits also continued in tandem, and at school in Boston, she immersed herself in the city’s club scene to the extent that by 2014, she’d been nominated for a DJ of the year award by a local paper. “I very much had these parallel paths and sides of me that that I was somehow balancing,” she says.
But after ultimately earning a trifecta of prestigious degrees, “my job search was not really panning out,” she says. “I wasn’t finding anything I was interested in or seeing how I was going to make these degrees work.”
Again back in L.A., she took a job as a substitute teacher, finding the flexibility of the gig made it possible to play shows. Making it all work, however, required some juggling. When she DJ’d for Princess Nokia at Coachella 2018, she graded papers in her backstage trailer before the show.
The same hustle that’s required to achieve so much in academia has also defined Oblivion’s musical career, which is reaching new levels following the pandemic as she’s focused more and more on her own productions and booked gigs around the world. She signed with the European agency Three Feet High in 2018 and released her first single in February of 2020, with the intention of doing a substantial European club run that summer.
This was, of course, weeks before nightclubs around the world shut down during the pandemic.
But instead of quitting, Oblivion used the global downtime to hone in on making music, without having to care whether or not it was getting played out. “It’s daunting,” she says of learning to produce. “It was not easy, especially while seeing a lot of my friends around me and peers in the scene just flying with that. It was like ‘What am I going to do? How am I even gonna add to this?’”
But with time and tenacity, she carved out a sharp and clubby signature sound that melds techno, bass, drum & bass and a host of other genre. She also developed an email list, organizing her career-related data in precise spreadsheets. (“That is where the training in school and data management came in very handy,” she says.) When the world reopened, she was well positioned.
“Since the pandemic my career has really accelerated,” she says. “I’ve gotten to play in venues and festivals I hadn’t even thought I would.”
Bianca Oblivion
Courtesy of Bianca Oblivion
These gigs include the U.K.’s famous Glastonbury, where she’ll play for the third time next month, a pair of Boiler Room sets, one a b2b with her good friend and fellow DJ Jubilee, and many other events across the U.S., Europe, Brazil and beyond. When speaking to Billboard over Zoom, Oblivion is just about to play a set in London, where she spends a lot of her time and finds inspiration in the cultural and musical diversity.
The next day, she’s playing 6,000 miles away in San Diego, and the day after she’ll do a set at Lightning in a Bottle near Bakersfield, Calif. Her summer schedule includes Shambhala, Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights, Toronto’s Sojourn Festival and Belgium’s Rampage Open Air.
Oblivion is very aware that her rookie status is one of gradually getting in front of more and more people over the years, rather than the rocket ship of virality. She’s cool with that.
“Sometimes people win the DJ lottery,” she says. “They get a viral moment, or they know the right somebody, or there’s something that pushes them a bit further and accelerates them. I’m not one of those people.”
But “I’m not complaining,” she continues. “I’m built for this in terms of where I came from and my work ethic, getting into more than one Ivy League school. I just set my mind to something and I’m relentless, not in a business shark way where I’m going to stomp on everyone in my path. More like, ‘What can I personally do to make sure I cover every single thing I can to get to that point?”
The grinding has obviously paid off. While it was only a few years ago that she was figuring out how to make music, Oblivion’s releases are ever tighter, fiercer and more stylish. Her latest release, February’s Net Work EP, features four inventive and frequently hard-hitting productions that feature collaborators including Lunice, Machinedrum and Sam Binga. Her forthcoming single is a baile funk track with British dancehall duo RDX, with it’s release date yet to be announced.
“In every industry, there’s going to be people who are going to jump the line or jump ahead, and that’s just what it is,” she says. “The only way to mentally deal, I think, is just to ask myself what I’m contributing. Why am I doing this? Is it because I want to get the best gigs or make the most money? No. I’m doing this because I live music This is my life. This is what I’ve been connected to since I was a child. So I’m going to make music and do stuff that’s going to fulfill me and add to the world that I love.”
The pursuit is also now paying off in ways that even this extremely educated artist didn’t imagine.
“People have come up to me at shows, especially young women, and they tell me they look up to me and like my music. I didn’t have that kind of role model as I was coming up as a DJ, at least not in the same way, so I’m just honored that people are even seeing me as a role model.
“Maybe I’m not that hot new DJ that’s touring everywhere,” she continues. “But obviously if my music is making a difference, and if just by existing in these spaces I can be someone that people look up to and see ‘okay, I can do this too,’ then that means something.”
On Friday (May 30), Taylor Swift both announced that she has finally acquired the masters to her first six albums and gave an update on the long-awaited Reputation re-record — but fans suspect that, to top it all off, she also subtly teased her 12th album.
In a letter posted to her website, the pop star revealed that she finally has control over her entire body of work after purchasing back her masters from Shamrock Capital (for somewhere around $360 million, sources tell Billboard). The sale comes six years after Scooter Braun acquired her catalog from Scott Borchetta in 2019, after which the music manager sold his ownership of Swift’s music to Shamrock in late 2020.
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“I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow,” Swift wrote in her message, emphasizing how meaningful the acquisition is to her. “A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news.”
But what caught fans’ eye was what the 14-time Grammy winner wrote next. “All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through.”
The statement may seem innocuous — and for all Swifties know, it is — but it’s hard not to focus in on the fact that she included no less than 12 “i”s when writing out the word “thiiiiiiiiiiiis.” Swift has released 11 albums over the course of her career, the last of which, The Tortured Poets Department, arrived in April 2023 and spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That would make her next LP her 12th, a fact that has fans thinking she just teased the upcoming project with her note.
“THE LETTER HAS 12 I’s TS12 IS COMING SOON TOO OMG IM SO HAPPY FOR TAYLOR,” one fan wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the letter.
“IT’S A TS12 SUMMER!!!” another fan posted, while a third Swiftie shared a screenshot of the letter and wrote, “I feel like ts12 just got so much closer.”
The 12-count “i” situation is just the latest suspected clue fans have picked up on ahead of the “Fortnight” singer’s predicted 12th album. Much fanfare was also made when Swift attended the 2025 Grammys wearing earrings with exactly 12 red jewels apiece, and in March, she used a sequence of 12 “D”s when praising Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s I Said I Love You First album on Instagram.
“I LOVE THIS ALBUM SO MUCH OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD,” Swift wrote on her Story at the time.
Sharing screenshots of the earrings, the Gomez-Blanco post and the letter about her masters, one Swiftie wrote Friday, “SUDDENLY LIFE IS WORTH LIVING TS12 TRUTHERS RISE.”
But while fans may be excited about the prospect of Swift’s 12th album coming soon, it’s just one of many things they are celebrating. Social media has seen an outpouring of Swifties rejoicing over the musician finally owning her life’s work, something she wrote in her letter is her “greatest dream come true.”
The purchase comes after six years of publicly feuding with Borchetta and Braun over the way the original sale was handled, as well as the re-releases of four of her first six albums: Fearless, Speak Now, Red and 1989. In her letter, Swift emphasized how thankful she was to fans for sticking with her every step of the way.
“You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared,” she wrote. “Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here. Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.”
Most people don’t have to worry about hiding a growing baby bump while modeling in a seductive lingerie shoot. But then again, Rihanna is not most people.
The superstar took to social media on Friday (May 30) to share a look at the creative ways she kept her pregnancy a secret while shooting Savage X Fenty’s latest campaign.
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“It’s me playing ‘hide the baby bump’ whole shoot!” the megastar captioned the carousel showing off her menagerie of clever poses before adding, “Boutta be a cheeky summer” with a pair of sun and peach emojis.
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In one snap, RiRi poses with her stomach flat against a wall made up of vibrant, blue pool tiles; in several others, she stands with her back to the camera altogether, offering a series of tantalizing smizes from over her shoulder. Still, the mom of two couldn’t avoid taking pictures from the front for the entire shoot, so when the time came, she opted to lean back in a plastic chair, wisely covering her stomach with her right arm while slinging the opposite leg across her right knee.
Naturally, the mogul also used the post to plug the gorgeous lingerie she was sporting in the photo shoot, adding, “New mosaic floral lace @savagexfenty just dropped!”
Many members of the Navy were quick to hype up their queen in the comments section, with one writing, “And the body stay bodying, even if it’s growing another body” while another declared, “My phone is overheating now.” Others couldn’t help but joke about the singer’s elusive ninth album, commenting, “R9 is winning the hide and seek though.”
Earlier this month, Rihanna announced her third pregnancy with partner A$AP Rocky on the carpet of the 2025 Met Gala, where she put her sweet baby bump on display in a custom tailored ensemble by Marc Jacobs. Since then, she’s also released “Friend of Mine,” her first single in three years, off the Smurfs soundtrack.
Check out Rihanna’s cheeky, pregnancy-hiding photo shoot here.
Morgan Wallen‘s “I’m the Problem” tops Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart for a seventh consecutive week, leading the June 7-dated survey with 29.8 million audience impressions May 23-29, according to Luminate.
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The title track and third No. 1 from Wallen’s new album — which launched atop the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums (dated May 31) with 2025’s biggest week by equivalent album units (493,000 in the United States) — is the third of his 17 Country Airplay leaders to rule for seven weeks or more, following “You Proof” (10 weeks, 2022-23) and “Last Night” (eight weeks, 2023).
Wallen now claims the year’s longest No. 1 run on Country Airplay, surpassing the six-week command for Jelly Roll’s “Liar” in February-March. Wallen’s latest leader and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (seven weeks, August-September 2024) share the longest reigns since Nate Smith’s “World on Fire” dominated for 10 frames beginning in December 2023, tying “You Proof” as the longest-leading titles since the chart began in January 1990.
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Meanwhile, Wallen’s latest single being promoted to country radio, “Just in Case,” lifts 13-11 on Country Airplay (16.1 million, up 9%).
Smith’s Latest Top 10 ‘Break’-Through
Nate Smith’s “Fix What You Didn’t Break” rises two spots to No. 9 on Country Airplay (17.1 million, up 6%). Smith co-authored the song with Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips and Lindsay Rimes, the lattermost of whom also produced it. It’s from Smith’s album California Gold, which arrived at its No. 12 high on Top Country Albums last October.
Smith earns his fourth Country Airplay top 10. It follows “Bulletproof,” which hit No. 3 last August. The Paradise, Calif., native’s first of four entries, “Whiskey on You,” notched two weeks at No. 1 in February 2023, followed by “World on Fire.”
Oz-some Debut for ‘Laredo’
Lainey Wilson’s newest single, “Somewhere Over Laredo,” debuts on Country Airplay at No. 21 with 7.6 million impressions in its first week of release, aided by hourly spins on participating iHeartMedia stations upon its arrival May 23.
Notably, the song borrows from the melody of “Over the Rainbow,” which was written for the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. The credited writers of “Somewhere Over Laredo” are Andy Albert, Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson, with Harold Arlen and Edgar Yipsel Harburg – the co-authors of “Over the Rainbow” – also receiving credit.
Among other charted covers of the beloved ballad, Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’Ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart for 370 weeks, among an overall 802-week active run.
All charts dated June 7 will update Tuesday, June 3.
What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez listen to when she’s fighting for change or passing legislation on Capitol Hill? A lot of Bad Bunny, as it turns out.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone published Friday (May 30), the politician opened up about policy, the Donald Trump administration and, of course, her favorite tunes. “I have had the Bad Bunny album on repeat,” she told the publication, referencing 2025’s four-week Billboard 200 chart-topper Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.
“As a Puerto Rican, the album is very cathartic, and it’s very political,” AOC continued. “It speaks to a lot of what’s happening to us and our people right now.”
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The New York native added that she loves how the rapper is “bringing salsa back.” “Rauw Alejandro is doing that, too,” she noted. “I’m a big salsa person. It’s such a nice outlet. I like it because the lyricism is so dramatic. Everyone’s breaking up, everyone’s got the love of their life. It’s so funny.”
AOC’s praise of the “Titi Me Pregunto” artist comes as he’s gearing up to tour the globe in support of his new album, traveling around Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe. He’s also been breaking numerous sales records while he’s at it, from becoming the first Latin act to ever sell out a stadium concert in Australia to selling all-time high amounts of tickets in France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden for a Latin artist.
Other than his upcoming residency in Puerto Rico, however, Bunny is notably skipping the United States on his tour. When asked for her thoughts, Ocasio-Cortez told RS, “We just don’t have figures like that anymore.”
“I think about the Civil Rights Movement, and I think about people like Harry Belafonte and all of these artists who really did risk everything, risk their careers and their popularity in order to support and take part in people’s movements, and to use their art … it’s more rare now, or at least it feels that way,” she continued. “I wasn’t around then. The pressures of the industry are to be as broad as possible. When you have someone who does something gutsy like that, first of all, people come through for it, and it’s super compelling.”
To the representative’s point about Bunny being political, the three-time Grammy winner is also active in politics outside of his music. In the 2024 U.S. election, he supported Kamala Harris’ campaign for president, boosting her messaging about what was at stake for Puerto Rican voters.
Several other Latin stars — including Luis Fonsi, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin — also expressed support for Harris, though others backed Trump. In September, AOC dissed Nicky Jam and Anuel AA for endorsing the twice-impeached POTUS during a congressional hearing.
“I suppose that puts you and Nicky Jam and Anuel in the same boat,” she told Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the far-right Center for Immigration Studies, after he claimed not to remember Trump saying he wanted to “sell” Puerto Rico.
Cardi B torched Offset after learning that her estranged husband filed for spousal support in their divorce proceedings. She hopped on X Spaces on Friday (May 30) and exploded on her ex for his spousal support request. The Grammy-winning rapper called Set a “f—-ing b—h” during her emotionally charged rant.
“Cus now I’ma crash out and I don’t give a f–k. You a b—h. N—a, you a f—ing b—h,” she began. Cardi B called out the reasoning behind Offset’s spousal support request, as he told The Breakfast Club it was over Cardi “asking for everything” and not letting him see their kids, which she denies.
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“You such a f–king p—y a– n—a,” she continued. “Word to my mother, I want you to die, but I want you to die f–king slow. When you die, I want you to die slow in the bed. And when you die, n—a, you gotta think of me.”
Cardi explained that she amended her divorce filing, asking for “no child support” because she “wants to be done with this marriage.”
“[Offset] is allowed to see my kids. He stood up my kids three times. He has seen Blossom only like five times,” she said of their four-month-old. “And I’ve been trying to save your face … Stop playing.”
She went on to claim that the last time Offset saw their kids was in March at his son Kody’s birthday. (He shares the 7-year-old with ex Oriel Jamie. Cardi detailed that the Migos rapper took issue with having to see their kids in a hotel room since she’s not allowing him to pull up to their New Jersey house.
Billboard has reached out to Offset’s reps for comment.
Earlier this month, Offset updated Cardi’s divorce petition in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court with a request for an unspecified amount of alimony.
After more than six years of marriage, Cardi filed for divorce from Offset in August for a second time, seeking primary custody of their 6-year-old daughter Kulture, 3-year-old son Wave and baby girl Blossom. In February, Offset responded to the divorce, seeking joint custody of the children.
It appears Cardi B has moved on, as the “WAP” rapper was spotted courtside at a New York Knicks playoff game earlier in May with NFL star Stefon Diggs.
Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness World Tour consumed Terminal 5 in New York on Wednesday (May 28). I say “consumed” because to enter Terminal 5 on the following night was to enter into a world dominated by nothing less than rabid, unchecked Cench fandom. I admittedly got there late, and heard Central Cee walk out on stage to a clamor of drums and screams while I meandered through security. When the walls shook with the rapper’s arrival, a young girl screamed for her friend to “hurry the f—k up” through the line, as if they had anything to do with the pace of security.
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“If I miss GBP I’ll f—king kill you!” she exclaimed in all seriousness before ultimately bailing on her friend and barreling toward the stage.
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This esurient energy was everywhere from the moment I got inside. Sweaty young supporters hurled themselves into mosh pits while shoving their friends and bulldozing their way toward the stage . A few die-hards carried vinyls, signs and handfuls of pens in the hopes of catching Central Cee’s fleeting attention. The U.K. spitter briefly indulged one fan early on in his set, signing his cap after it was hurled at him on stage, but the moment was ruined when dozens of others soared through the sky immediately after.
What struck me most amidst the ongoing chaos was Central Cee’s steadiness. There were some colorful visuals, but otherwise, it was just him on stage, rapping through “Ten,” “St. Patricks,” “Top Freestyle” “Gata” and more with the precision of a vet, but with the stage presence of a newly minted underground self-starter.
He couldn’t possibly be unaware of how beloved he is. The whole front row hollered every single word to “Truth in the Lies,” and three teen boys standing in front of me nearly tumbled off the balcony when he performed “Sprinter.” During his performance of “Gen Z Luv,” he FaceTimed a young girl in the crowd (a gimmick he’s used many times on tour so far), but the girl in question confidently spit every syllable in the song so confidently it felt staged.
Even if it was partially staged, the commitment was commendable. No special guests arrived (Cench had brought out A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie the previous night at Brooklyn Paramount), there was no backup dancers or any other fluff to add spectacle. The only “surprise” was when Cench busted out his seminal “On the Radar” freestyle, which he didn’t even need to rap because his fans drowned out the bars themselves. Prior to that, he played a few moments from Ice Spice’s “Did It First,” which garnered a surprisingly muted response.
The energy admittedly dipped during slower moments. “Limitless” didn’t pop off the way it should have, and Cench sat down for a performance of 2023’s “Cold Shoulder” that only some truly faithful Day One’s knew the words to. Regardless, the love was there, and the supporters came roaring back to life for a few more hits, most notably “Band4Band,” which the three teen boys in front of me knew, videoing each other singing with their phones. The trio had been clamoring for Central Cee’s attention all night, screaming at him during every lull. As Cench wandered around the stage, rapping “Band4Band,” the U.K. rap star finally looked up and gave a wave, causing the kids to dap each other up and almost seize in excitement.
“That was legendary,” one of them said as everyone stumbled out the venue. It was just Central Cee being himself, and for the sold-out crowd at Terminal 5, that was more than enough to satiate them.
