State Champ Radio Music
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Shakira‘s show scheduled for Thursday night (May 29) at Boston’s Fenway Park was canceled just hours before it started “due to unforeseen circumstances,” the stadium announced on social media. Jason Aldean and Brooks & Dunn’s concert set for Friday night at the ballpark has also been called off. “The Shakira and Jason Aldean and Brooks […]
Weirdness reigned once again at Lightning in a Bottle 2025.While the event — which marked its 22nd edition this past weekend, May 21-25 — has alternately been called a transformational festival, a wook gathering and a symposium of psychedelic culture, what’s definitely true is that despite its growth and demographic shifts over the years, the SoCal indie fest still manages to feel not just authentic but a reflection of a fairly specific culture, no small feat in the age of corporate mega-festivals.
In this case, that culture is one interested in art, pleasantly goofy outfits, myriad vibration raising activities and loads of electronic music. (It’s also one that will be recognized by fans of jam bands and attendees of spiritually adjacent festivals like Burning Man and Michigan’s Electric Forest.)
As such, this year’s LiB schedule was populated with activities such as “transformative grief rituals for conscious living and dying” and “high vibe breakfast: tacos for energy & longevity.” There was bingo, there was many varieties of yoga, there was a bar selling exclusively pickle juice, there was a roller skating rink and a drum circle for the kids.
Amid the high heat of the weekend, many attendees could be seen floating on various whimsical inflatables in Lake Webb, located at the center of the site in the Buena Vista Recreation Area 25 miles outside of Bakersfield. Here, tens of thousands of attendees erected their tents and rolled up in their RVs for the event, which is produced by the Do Lab.
Of course, more than any other element, there was music. The 2025 lineup was a mighty one featuring headliners like LiB regular Four Tet, returning star Jamie xx and John Summit, who embraced his self-proclaimed wook side with a Sunday night set on the mainstage and then played a surprise (but not too surprising) b2b with friend and fellow headliner Subtronics.
A flurry of other big and rising stars played across LiB’s six-plus stages, tents and art cars, with the music going until the early hours of the morning. A Saturday night party from L.A.’s legendary A Club Called Rhonda Party series even featured a set by Parris Goebel, who recent work includes creating the choreography for Lady Gaga’s brilliant Coachella 2025 performance and who lit up the Crossroads tent with her high energy show.
And while there were all the typical lights and lasers, arguably the biggest light show of the weekend happened on Saturday night, when a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returning from the International Space Station created a golden streak of light across the sky.
See photos from Lightning in a Bottle 2025 below.
Latto doesn’t think fans should take her lyrics about body count that seriously.
The Atlanta rapper recently made an appearance on Complex’s 360 With Speedy Morman, where she was asked about the debate she spurred online about how many sexual partners a woman has, between her past lyrics and an appearance on TheTylilShow Live.
“Be a boss. Don’t let everybody put their hand in that cookie jar, period,” she said in reference to having too many sexual partners. “It’s literally not that deep. I’m pushing, like, ‘Be a boss. Don’t let everybody have access to you.’” She then added that her view on body count also applies to men. “I think men should be like that too. Y’all just be slangin’ that mother—-er around.”
Speedy then asked why she felt proud about having a low body count, after she claimed that she never said having multiple partners were a bad thing.
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“It’s not necessarily like a number that I’m proud of,” Latto responded. “It’s more so, everybody ain’t touched this, everybody ain’t had their hands on this mother—-er, you feel me?”
The “body count” drama started when Latto and her younger sister Brooklyn were making a social video to promote her single “Somebody” and Latto asked Tylil if he cared how many partners his girlfriend has had. “Do you care how many bodies your girl got?” she asked before the popular streamer replied with, “Nah, hell no, that don’t got nothing to do with me” and asked why she always mentions body count in her raps and if she thinks fans believe her. “I don’t give a f— if they believe me; my n—a believe me,” she fired back.
Latto has mentioned body count on songs like “Sunday Service” and “Somebody,” where she raps, respectively, “Anyway, body count so low, I might say I’m a virgin” and “I don’t care about your bodies.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Latto was asked about her net worth reportedly being $5 million, and while she claimed that specific number is off, she also said having money isn’t as fun as some might think.
“It’s kinda boring,” she said after being asked what it feels like to be able to buy whatever she wants. “For me? I was a millionaire at 21, so you grow up fast already being in the industry at a young age, and then you get a lot of money at a young age too. I think I get the most fun spoiling everybody around me now. I spend more money on other people than I do myself. I be so stingy with my money for myself.”
You can watch the full interview below.
Audra McDonald has responded to Patti LuPone‘s recent disses. Shortly after LuPone said that her fellow Broadway legend was “not a friend,” citing a past “rift” between them, McDonald told Gayle King for CBS Sunday Morning, “If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is.” “That’s something that you’d have to ask […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: Taylor Swift’s most controversial album gets a bump in anticipation of an announcement that never materialized, Young Jeezy and Akon’s classic teamup gets an unlikely meme boost and an odd cover of a Sly Stone classic drives listeners back to the original.
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Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ for Surprises Precedes Her on Streaming
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If you were watching the American Music Awards on Monday night (May 26), chances are pretty good you had your eyes peeled and ears open for a certain revelation from a certain pop superstar. Swifties had flooded the internet in recent weeks with predictions of a Taylor Swift Memorial Day Miracle – an appearance at the awards, most likely accompanied by an announcement of a new release, perhaps the long-awaited Reputation (Taylor’s Version) re-recording.
Unfortunately for the Swifties, the AMAs came and went without any appearances, announcements or drops from their fav. But hope clearly sprang eternal in the days leading up to the awards, at least on streaming: The 15 tracks on Reputation racked up a combined 11.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams across the first four days of this tracking week (May 23-26), ahead of the awards – a 14% gain from the equivalent period the prior, according to Luminate. And that bump was of course highest on Memorial Day, as the album racked up 2.4 million total streams on that day alone, a 29% gain from the prior Monday.
Jeezy and Akon’s 20-Year-Old Hit Scores Thanks to a ‘Holy Airball’
“Soul Survivor” was the breakout crossover hit 20 years ago for the rapper then known as Young Jeezy, as the Akon-assisted banger lifted to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped establish his Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 as one of the year’s biggest rap albums. Two decades later, the street anthem is once again delighting music fans, though through a relatively unlikely conduit: a TikTok meme about dating gaffes.
Tiktoker Hadley (@localyerbafein) stroke viral paydirt last week (May 21) when she shared a video that captured the story of a guy – presumably one she was seeing, or at least considering seeing – responding to her interest in law with a question about her watching the TV show Suits. The video ends with footage of Hadley serving as a courtroom attorney, with the caption “holy fckin airball” – all, of course, set to “Soul Survivor.” The clip quickly spread through the app, racking up 10 million views and 1.8 million likes, and inspiring a number of other users to share their own he-shoots, he-doesn’t-score stories, with Akon and Jeezy again serving as the soundtrack.
Consequently, the track exploded on streaming towards the end of last week. For the tracking week ending May 22, “Soul Survivor” amassed over 3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate – fully doubling its stream count from the prior week – and it should be headed for an even bigger tally this week, as TikTok keeps putting up one “holy fckin airball” after another.
‘Everyday’ Memeable: Sly & the Family Stone Classic Lifted by Revival of Unlikely Cover
In 2017, two greats of popular music – pop icon Cher and rap legend Future – teamed up for an unlikely collab cover of Sly & The Family’s soul-pop classic “Everyday People.” Their rendition was featured in a Gap commercial that showcased the star pair meeting up on a staircase on an otherwise-blank set to discuss how Cher can’t get the 1969 Hot 100-topper out of her head, leading to her crooning the song over a trappy beat. Meanwhile, Future attempts to fill in with harmonies and ad libs – in a mixture that, unsurprisingly, feels slightly less than organic.
The awkward commercial has recently begun to recirculate around the internet, resulting in pairs of TikTokers recreating the visual in endearing clips gently poking at the stilted chemistry of the original. The Cher & Future “Everyday People” is not currently available in full on DSPs, but of course the Family Stone original is there for the streaming – and folks have been evidently charmed enough by the improbable cover to revisit (or check out) the original. According to Luminate, over the first four days of this tracking week (May 23-26), “Everyday People” is up to 309,000 official on-demand U.S. streams from 256,000 over the same period in the prior week, a gain of 21%.
Rhapsody in Blue Shirt: Sam Gellaitry Single Rises Thanks to Viral Dance Proxy
In this week’s example of never knowing where a breakout hit might come from in 2025, we have Scottish dance producer Sam Gellaitry. His song “Assumptions,” from the 2021 EP IV, has begun to percolate on streaming over the past month, thanks to the Russian dancer Руслан Айдаев, now known to the internet as Blue Shirt Guy – who has been a meme of some degree for years already for his full-bodied dance moves, shot from behind.
Recent viral videos have paired the clip with Gellaitry’s throbbing electro-pop instrumental, resulting in it going nuts on TikTok all over again – with many of the app’s finest donning their best blue shirts and filming themselves shaking it from behind. Consequently, the four-year-old “Assumpstions” has risen to the top of Gellaitry’s Spotify page, and is now racking up over 2.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams a week, up 142% from three weeks earlier, according to Luminate.
In some aspects of life, being delusional isn’t typically looked at as a positive quality. But Tyler, the Creator believes delusion is a must for artists and creatives across the board.
Tyler participated in a “Tyler Talk” panel for Converse in London while on tour earlier this week, which saw him harp on the importance of having delusion when creating, and how artists need a solid team around them to align with their vision.
“To make stuff, you gotta be delusional,” he said around the 26-minute mark. “And when you’re delusional, you need people around you that trust you. Because what the f–k they gon’ trust? You say some normal stuff like, ‘The sky is blue.’ Yeah, you don’t need people to trust you to say that. I’m delusional, but I knew what I wanted to do since I was five years old.”
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Tyler later recalled a girl asking him about what career he would’ve pursued if he didn’t do music, but there was never another option for the Grammy-winning artist.
“My imagination doesn’t even go that far because this is the only thing I was supposed to do,” he explained. “Like, I was legit the 12-year-old delusional kid like, ‘So I’mma get a Grammy.’ and n—-s was like, ‘Shut up, Charizard just beat Pikachu.’ So, just be delusional.”
Tyler is gearing up to reunite with Converse to launch the 1908 Program. The California native put a modern spin on the Naut-1 and the Coach Jogger silhouettes, while still maintaining authenticity to the Converse legacy.
Fans around the globe can shop the archival collection on Converse’s website come June 20, while Los Angeles natives will be able to attend the 1908 Pop-Up shop on June 12 to get a first look at Tyler’s vision.
Tyler is still trekking across the globe as part of his 2025 Chromakopia: The World Tour, which will land in Glasgow for a pair of shows this weekend.
Watch the full Tyler Talk below:
The Jonas Brothers went back to their roots for every part of their forthcoming new album Greetings From Your Hometown, including its cover art. As unveiled on the band’s Instagram Thursday (May 29), the LP’s front features a cozy photo of Kevin, Nick and Joe clinking wine glasses while dining at a restaurant. On the […]
John Mellencamp is not happy with his home state after some Hoosiers booed a few famous New York Knicks fans — including Timothée Chalamet and Ben Stiller, who were sitting courtside — at Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
In a strongly worded post on X Thursday (May 29), the singer-songwriter — who attended the match two days prior to support the Indiana Pacers with his girlfriend, producer Kristin Kehrberg — wrote that he was “embarrassed when somebody, under whose direction I don’t know, called out some of the people who had made the trip from New York to support their team.”
“The audience booed these people,” he continued. “I’d say that was not Hoosier Hospitality. One could only say it’s poor, poor sportsmanship. I was not proud to be a Hoosier, and I’ve lived here my entire life.”
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Though Mellencamp didn’t mention Pat McAfee by name, the rocker was likely referring to the moment at Game 4 when the sports commentator rallied the crowd at Gainsbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis by saying over the speakers, “We got some big wigs from the big city in the building: Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here. Let’s send these sons of b—-es back to New York!”
The Night at the Museum actor would later call the moment “weird” on X, adding, “We were happy to be there and cheer our team and other than that Indy fans were awesome.”
McAfee later explained on the platform, “They asked me to do that in the fourth quarter and I wasn’t gonna say no,” after which Stiller extended an olive branch by replying, “Come to game 5 Pat!!”
But Mellencamp isn’t letting what happened slide. “On behalf of most Hoosiers, I would like to apologize for our poor behavior,” he concluded in his note. “I’m sure the Pacers had nothing to do with this smackdown.”
Game 4 would ultimately end with the Pacers defeating the Knicks 130-121, putting the Indiana team at a 3-1 series lead. The next game will take place Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, aka the New York City hoopers’ home turf.
Chris Stapleton is known for his unmistakable, thousand-watt voice and singing searing songs such as “You Should Probably Leave” and “White Horse,” but it turns out the guy with the burly vocals is also pretty sentimental.
During an interview with actor Josh Brolin as part of Billboard‘s 2025 Country Power Players cover story, Stapleton took Brolin into the space where he keeps a massive collection of guitars. While Stapleton does show some impressive axes such as a guitar that once belonged to Waylon Jennings (a gift to Stapleton from his wife and fellow musician, Morgane), he pulls out another guitar in his collection to show to Brolin — one he considers irreplaceable.
“This is the guitar that I bought when I moved to town, when I moved to Nashville,” Stapleton said, removing a well-used, scratched up acoustic guitar from its case.
“If I had to walk out of here with one thing, it would be this,” Stapleton said. “All the other stuff, I would be sad about a lot of it, but whatever I’ve done, whatever I’ve made, has pretty much been built on this thing. I would say 90% of the things I’ve written in my life has been on this guitar.”
That’s quite the statement, considering that not only has Stapleton written hits recorded by himself, but also hits recorded by artists including Josh Turner, Kenny Chesney and George Strait.
“It’s not precious in a collector way to anybody because it was in a flood at some point,” Stapleton said. “There’s mud inside it, somebody used it as a canoe paddle, there’s a million crack repairs. Yeah, if I were to walk out of here with one thing, if you want to know what’s the most important thing, it’s probably this.”
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Stapleton discusses the importance of family, the origins of his friendship with Brolin, and the actor even discovers how Stapleton likes his Hattie B’s Hot Chicken order.
Watch the full video interview between Stapleton and Brolin above.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated June 7, we look at the chances of Morgan Wallen and Tate McRae’s star-powered duet to continue its reign on the chart.
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Morgan Wallen feat. Tate McRae, “What I Want” (Mercury/Big Loud/Republic): The combined star power of country superpower Morgan Wallen and rising pop phenom Tate McRae helped boost “What I Want” to being not just the highest-ranking of Wallen’s record-breaking 37 tracks on the Hot 100 last week, but the No. 1 song period – Wallen’s fourth and McRae’s first. The debut came on the back of 31.2 million official streams, according to Luminate, allowing it to bow atop the Streaming Songs chart and making up for its relative lack of radio presence as a new song.
That streaming presence should still be very pronounced in its second week, as the song continues to reign on the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart and the Apple Music real-time chart. And the song is already starting to make a radio impact: After debuting at Nos. 32 and 38 on Adult Pop Airplay and Pop Airplay, respectively, on this week’s charts (dated May 31), it’s pushing toward the top 25 on both. (On Country Airplay, it debuted at No. 55 this week but looks likely to fall off next week – granted it’s being promoted so far only to pop and adult formats.)
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If the song can hold for a second week, it will become the first multi-week Hot 100 No. 1 from I’m the Problem, pulling past the one-week No. 1 “Love Somebody,” which topped the chart last November. (It would still have another 14 weeks to go to tie the longest-reigning single from prior album One Thing at a Time, the 16-week No. 1 “Last Night” in 2023.)
Alex Warren, “Ordinary” (Atlantic): If not for Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem album debut, we might be talking about Alex Warren celebrating his first Hot 100 No. 1 single this week. After multiple frames of being at stuck at No. 2 behind Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” “Ordinary” finally moves ahead of that 13-week No. 1 – but still only ranks at No. 4 on this week’s chart, after falling behind three tracks from I’m the Problem.
Nevertheless, “Ordinary” should remain a strong contender for the top spot. It still ranks towards the top of the major streaming charts, and after reaching the Radio Songs top 10 this week, the song is now aiming for the top five; it’s up 16% in audience May 23-26 over the previous building week. It’s also challenging for No. 1 next week on Adult Pop Airplay, and could come for the crown on Pop Airplay not long after.
Meanwhile, Warren has a new song out in the Jelly Roll collab “Bloodline,” which should also be headed for a strong Hot 100 debut. But as shown with the success of recent artists like Teddy Swims and Benson Boone, having simultaneous follow-up hits can be more helpful than harmful to the original hits these days, so “Bloodline” doing well might boost “Ordinary” in its pursuit of the top spot.
Morgan Wallen, “Just in Case” and “I’m the Problem” (Mercury/Big Loud/Republic): Morgan Wallen will still be seeing an awful lot of himself in the rearview mirror, as his solo songs that rank at No. 2 and 3 on the Hot 100 this week — “Just in Case” and “I’m the Problem,” respectively – should remain big factors on the chart next week as well. Though the two songs rank behind “What I Want” on DSPs, they still have the head start on radio: “Just in Case” continues climbing Country Airplay, though it could be still outside the top 10 next week, after rising to a new No. 13 high this week. Meanwhile, “I’m the Problem” has ruled Country Airplay for six weeks already, and could be on pace for a seventh week at No. 1.
If one of these other I’m the Problem tracks is able to pass “What I Want” on next week’s Hot 100, Wallen would replace himself on top for the first time in his career – becoming the first artist to do so since… Kendrick Lamar just a couple months ago, after a Super Bowl-rebounded “Not Like Us” gave way to “Luther” and its months-long reign.
